Anyone know much about air rifles?

[Kiba]

Budget is important.

If you want to stick with some sort of nitro piston then look into the Benjamin or Crosman Nitro Piston models on the low end of the price range or a Theoben gas ram on the high end of the scale. Any of the nitro pistons are more forgiving and easier to shoot accurately than a springer (due to the nature of recoil of the spring whipping that "torques" the rifle in your hands; the gas rams don't have this issue.) The nice thing about springers or gas rams is you don't need any support equipment to keep them shooting-- you just need the rifle and pellets.

.20 or .22 would be my caliber choice for a "hunting & target" use springer or gas ram rifle. The only issue is that the gas rams & springers don't have sufficient power to launch the higher weight, higher ballistic coefficient .22 pellets at decent velocities so they have an extremely "rainbow" trajectory at longer ranges. The .20 is a good mix of the harder hitting power of the .22 pellets and they can achieve higher velocities in a power-limited gas ram or springer than the heavier .22 pellets so they have a flatter trajectory. Unfortunately .20 rifles and pellets are slightly more difficult to find and there are fewer to pick from than .177 or .22.

Beyond the springers and gas rams are precharged pneumatics-- that's an entirely different world. You'll need support equipment to charge the rifle; one way is a hand pump, another way SCUBA or SCBA tanks & fill adapters. You can also get compressors to either fill the rifle direct or fill your SCUBA/SCBA tanks. Precharged rifles have much higher power but the price range is wide; on the lower end you can get something like a Talon or a Marauder for $300-400 and on the high end you can get offerings from guys like Theoben, FX, or Daystate for $2000+. That doesn't include the support equipment to fill them which starts at about for $300 for a Hill or FX hand pump on the low end and goes up from there. It's a big initial investment but precharged rifles can achieve power levels that springers or gas rams can't.

Personally, in the last couple of years I've gone from an old pump crosman to an RWS 56, then to a Talon SS with a lot of mods, then to a Daystate Air Ranger .22 50 ft/lb, then an Edgun in .22, and now an Edgun in .25. I'm now considering picking up an FX Boss in .30 to keep the .25 Edgun company. I've found that the air rifles are fun and addictive-- even better, they've allowed me to go ground squirrel hunting on many properties where the owners didn't want me using anything powder burning (even a .22 shooting subsonics.) I shoot a lot of targets in the backyard with the air rifles for practice and do quite a bit of critter control with them (my .25 Edgun is up over 500 ground squirrels since receiving it in April.)

I'd suggest doing some reading or maybe joining and posting here...

http://www.network54.com/Forum/79537/

Lots of helpful air rifle guys on that forum.

[russ69]

Since you don't know his intended purpose, why are you steering him towards a .177" already?

I personally have no use for a .177 unless I were to take up field target matches, and those pellet guns are too expensive for my hobbies.

Mainly because it's the caliber to have if you only have one gun. Plenty of pellet selection for small game or any other use. There is a reason the field target guys use the 177, it's easier to make a good shot with one. I have both field target and Olympic quality guns. My Walther FT packs quite a wallop.

[ewarmour]

http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/BenjaminPCP.htm

PCP. Super quite, super accurate. Kinda spendy because you'll need a pump or a shoe box compressor and connector. And you will need an optic.

So freaking awesome.

[Kiba]

Mainly because it's the caliber to have if you only have one gun. Plenty of pellet selection for small game or any other use. There is a reason the field target guys use the 177, it's easier to make a good shot with one. I have both field target and Olympic quality guns. My Walther FT packs quite a wallop.

While true, let's not forget that .177 is an ideal choice for FT because of the rules and the way the game is structured; with the smallest kill zone being 0.25" in diameter that doesn't leave much room for error with a .22 or larger! Also, with some classes having relatively low muzzle energy limits the rules and math are biased towards the flatter shooting smaller & lighter .177 pellets.

For multi-use (target & hunting) I'd choose a .20, .22, or a .25 over a .177 especially if the rifle sees a lot of hunting use as long as the rifle has enough power to send the pellets at a reasonable velocity (about 880fps.). After receiving my .25 Edgun I sold the .22 because the .25 put substantially more energy on target for hunting situations with the trajectories being almost identical between the .22 and .25.

If you're talking about a lower powered rifle then the .177 is the best option as you can achieve decent velocity & trajectory because the rifle can't send the heavier/larger diameter pellets at a reasonable energy/velocity. However, some of the larger springers and gas rams are quite capable of sending the heavier .20 or .22 pellets in the 825-900 fps "sweet spot" velocity range and will be a good hunting & target combination.

Back somewhat on subject... let's say the OP orders a Benjamin Nitro Piston all weather which is rated at 23 ft-lbs muzzle energy. At 23 ft-lbs that would mean it will shoot .22 cal 14.35gr JSB's at 850 fps which would provide a good trajectory and still be within the accurate velocity range that the JSB pellets like. 23 ft-lbs will hit critters pretty hard! This rifle & pellet combo would be a good choice IMO for a a reasonable price (about $225.)

If he orders the Nitro Piston XL which is rated at 30 ft-lbs, that means he can shoot the JSB 18.1 gr .22 pellets at 864 fps; this is also good velocity and 864fps is within the accuracy velocity range of that pellet. This would run about $300 and also be a very good combination with harder hitting power for hunting use. However, the 47 lb cocking effort of the XL might be a little much for repetitive target practice.

On the other hand, if he were to order a rifle with say 14 ft/lb muzzle energy then .177 would be my choice. 14 ft/lbs will get a JSB 8.44gr pellet to 865 fps or a 7.87gr JSB to 895 fps. Anything heavier and the velocity starts to dip so low the trajectory really suffers. Even the next step heavier, a 10.34gr JSB, will leave the muzzle with a velocity of 780fps. That's not too bad but the trajectory certainly suffers compared to the two lighter pellets.

One thing for the OP to keep in mind is that pellets typically achieve the best accuracy somewhere between 820-900 fps, with JSB pellets really liking about 850-890 FPS for best long range accuracy. Don't get hung up on manufacturers that advertise extremely high velocity numbers with super-light pellets (like Gamo advertising 1200fps with some of their super-light PBA pellets); you'll have a more predictable trajectory, more downrange power, and better accuracy from a rifle that shoots a heavier pellet somewhere around the 825-900fps range. Look at the muzzle energy for a particular rifle and do the math to see what weight pellet will put it somewhere in the 825-900fps range; buy some pellets in that weight range and try them and the rifle will probably shoot very well.

I should mention that the Benjamin Nitro Pistons have somewhat spotty quality and accuracy as do most air rifles at that price point. Some shoot great out of the box while others have consistency issues. Even the Marauders (precharged) have a spotty track record; they're on the lower priced end of the PCP world and some shoot great out of the box and others don't. If the OP wants to stick with some sort of internal powerplant rifle like a nitro piston but doesn't want to spend the $800+ it takes to get a Theoben gas ram I'd say roll the dice on a Nitro Piston for $225 or $300 from a place like Airguns of Arizona. AOA test fires all their rifles before shipping so you have a much smaller chance of receiving a "problem" rifle than if you buy from a place that just pulls from a warehouse and slaps a label on the box.

[m98]

From the DFG hunting regs for upland game:
311 (f) Air rifles powered by compressed air or gas
and used with any caliber of pellet, except that wild turkey may only be taken with a pellet that is at least 0.177 caliber;

.177 is fine for turkeys in CA.

Yep, I believe dfg just recently changed it to 177, bcuz back then 177's airguns were deemed too weak.

[russ69]

The OP must have checked out....we'll never know. He probably bought a $69 gun from Walmart (not that there is anything wrong with that).

[Mikeb]

check out Quackenbush... yeah I know it's not what you want...yet.

[BlackViper]

Sorry guys for the radio silence - just read through the replies and most have been very helpful. Let me add some detail...

I don't care at all about competition shooting - the purpose of the gun is to hunt small game as quietly and effectively as possible.

My understanding of at least the .22 was for its efficacy with bigger (small) game, like groundhogs or what not. I don't want more than one of these types of rifles, so looking for best all-around single-rifle solution.

For practicality sake, it would seem self-contained air system would be best, not c02 powered.

Budget is open ended, but I'm not looking for a high end competition rig, nor do I buy anything from Walmart.

[weezil_boi]

all i know about air rifles is you cant find an inexpensive one thats made in the USA! I bought my daughter a red ryder for her first (bb) gun and just cant find one that is made here.