What's w/ Air Rifle Developement lately?

[Sutcliffe]

I just got ahold of an air rifle brochure and they are advertising 9MM air rifles that hurl 150 grain bullets at velocities in the 700-800 fps range.
Would these be spring powered or some kind of compressed gas? It seems like we may have legimate big game hunting air rifles.

[jtv3062]

Lewis and Clark had big bore air rifles during a little outing they were doing.

[Vacaville]

I just got ahold of an air rifle brochure and they are advertising 9MM air rifles that hurl 150 grain bullets at velocities in the 700-800 fps range.
Would these be spring powered or some kind of compressed gas? It seems like we may have legimate big game hunting air rifles.

I'd really like to know what company is making these. Please tell us. That's real power.

As far as I know there have been no significant advances in air rifle design for a long, long time. As JTV3062 posted above, Lewis and Clark carried a powerful big-bore on their expedition.

[triplestack3]

I just got ahold of an air rifle brochure and they are advertising 9MM air rifles that hurl 150 grain bullets at velocities in the 700-800 fps range.
Would these be spring powered or some kind of compressed gas? It seems like we may have legimate big game hunting air rifles.

It's compressed air. The nastiest air rifle I have ever see was a .68 cal monster (this was over a decade ago). Not sure of fps on that thing, but it was pretty darn impressive for an air rifle.

[Merc1138]

High pressure compressed air tanks using handpumps or compressors to fill the tank to 3000 PSI. They're commonly referred to as PCP, or Pre-Charged Pneumatics. Crosman makes a few under the Benjamin name, Anshutz, Sam Yang, Beeman, Umarex, and a bunch of others. They come in calibers from .177, .22, .357, and as high as .68(maybe even bigger, never heard of bigger though) usually capable of hurling their projectiles anywhere from 600-900 fps. The larger calibers only manage a couple of shots per tank sometimes before the velocity drops way off, but a .50cal 250gr. pellet moving at 650fps is no joke.

Pyramydair.com sells a number of them, there are other resellers as well.

Lewis and Clark had a 20 shot repeater .46 cal Girandoni air rifle, you can search google for the name and get all sorts of info. High pressure pre-charged air rifles in larger calibers really aren't anything new.

Just keep in mind that a lot of counties and cities may have ordinances about discharging firearms that specifically include air rifles.

[AJAX22]

I know a guy who is presently working on a prototype .45 cal pneumatic machine gun.... its a NASTY little toy and he has a valve assembly for it thats just amazing

[Kiba]

Big bore, high energy air rifles? Sure.

http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/

His .458 runs about 500 ft/lbs muzzle energy.

[DNA]

Gary Barnes makes some high speed big bore PCPs as well.

http://www.glbarnes.com/

Dan

[acaligunner]

I am more of a traditional Air Gunner, so when I went back and checked into todays air guns, I saw a lot of new developments into the Air gun field.

I don't dislike the newer wave of Big Game airgunning, but I'll just stick to what ever I can take with a .25 cal air gun.

I think the benjamin 25 cal Marauder is pretty cool. Here's a hunting video, to show what you can do with a modern Air gun.

* HUNTING/TAKING OF GAME * for the sensitive people out there.




I normally AG hunt with a springer, but I'm looking into these pcp Air rifles. They do seem to offer a softer shooting, easier all around set up.

Good luck

acaligunner

[Sutcliffe]

What about velocity?

What kind of drop off do you get and shouldn't that play hell with consistant accuracy.

[Merc1138]

What kind of drop off do you get and shouldn't that play hell with consistant accuracy.

Velocity would depend entirely on which air rifle you're talking about. Some are going to shoot faster in different calibers with different weight projectiles and more consistent than others. The problem is that I guess a reloader could make these adjustments using powder in a firearm, but with the air rifle it's a matter of the air supply and valve assembly that is the air rifle itself.

[Kiba]

What kind of drop off do you get and shouldn't that play hell with consistant accuracy.

An air gun is no different than a rifle in that regards; gather your dope and then apply that dope once you know the range to the target. If the rifle is accurate it's your job to compensate for elevation & windage at distance.

Pellets have a rather extreme amount and drop and windage because of their relatively slow velocity and poor BC-- this makes your job much more difficult when it comes to accurate ranging and wind reading. For example, with my air rifle (.22 Edgun Matador) you are looking at 3.6 mils / 13 inches of elevation and 3.0 mils / 10.8 inches of windage in a 10mph crosswind at 100 yards from a 50Y zero. An extreme amount of drop and windage for sure but it's repeatable-- so you can hit targets at longer distances as long as the range is known and you can call the wind. I've taken nearly 100 ground squirrels this summer alone from 80-136 yards; very challenging and lots of fun. With an accurate range and a good wind call first shot hits aren't terribly difficult but because of the relatively slow pellet speed (900fps) and long dwell time in the barrel your technique and follow through is critical.

I wouldn't mind having a big bore air rifle but I don't really have a practical use for one. It would be a neat toy to take out from time to time.

[SocomM4]

The Lewis and Clark rifle was badass. Took something like 1500 pumps to fill the air tank , then it would shoot a 40something caliber ball through a rifled barrel and go strait through a 1 inch board at 100 yards .plus of fired 40 times before there was measurable loss in muzzle velocity . That's some amazing ****, a repeating air rifle with big bore hit, hundreds of years ago.

[Merc1138]

An air gun is no different than a rifle in that regards; gather your dope and then apply that dope once you know the range to the target. If the rifle is accurate it's your job to compensate for elevation & windage at distance.

Pellets have a rather extreme amount and drop and windage because of their relatively slow velocity and poor BC-- this makes your job much more difficult when it comes to accurate ranging and wind reading. For example, with my air rifle (.22 Edgun Matador) you are looking at 3.6 mils / 13 inches of elevation and 3.0 mils / 10.8 inches of windage in a 10mph crosswind at 100 yards from a 50Y zero. An extreme amount of drop and windage for sure but it's repeatable-- so you can hit targets at longer distances as long as the range is known and you can call the wind. I've taken nearly 100 ground squirrels this summer alone from 80-136 yards; very challenging and lots of fun. With an accurate range and a good wind call first shot hits aren't terribly difficult but because of the relatively slow pellet speed (900fps) and long dwell time in the barrel your technique and follow through is critical.

I wouldn't mind having a big bore air rifle but I don't really have a practical use for one. It would be a neat toy to take out from time to time.

Well that depends entirely on what the "pellet" is, in the case of the bejamin rogue(the $1500 PCP .357 air rifle) it actually uses .357 bullets. Surely there are .357 bullets that reloaders have been using can have a higher BC than a 17 gr. .177 cal pellet.

[Kiba]

Well that depends entirely on what the "pellet" is, in the case of the bejamin rogue(the $1500 PCP .357 air rifle) it actually uses .357 bullets. Surely there are .357 bullets that reloaders have been using can have a higher BC than a 17 gr. .177 cal pellet.

True, but run the numbers....

I can't seem to find the published BC for the 145gr .357 ballistic tip nosler air rifle bullets but it's probably around a .17 BC based on .357 handgun bullets of similar weight & shape.

The Rogue is limited to 250ft/lbs based on specs; with a 145gr bullet that's 880fps. Plugging in the .17BC with a 880fps muzzle velocity and a 50Y zero equals the following trajectory:

75Y: -3.5 in drop, 1.4 in windage
100Y: -10.1 in drop, 2.5 in windage
125Y: -20.1 in drop, 3.9 in windage
150Y: -33.4 in drop, 5.6 in windage
200Y: -70.8 in drop, 10.0 in windage

As you can see a good range measurement and good dope is still very critical for "long range" hits even with a big bore air rifle; the relatively slow muzzle velocity and BC still results in a very parabolic trajectory. The heavier "pellets" do a *lot* better in the wind than the typical 10-30gr pellets of smaller air rifles but they still drop like a rock at distance.

What's impressive is at 200Y the bullet is still carrying about 183 ft/lbs energy... not something I'd want to stand in front of.