In case of a crisis get an air gun today.

[rollotomaz1]

I see the government trying to put a ban on all air weapons in the future, if you want one get one today, buy it second hand and privately and don't give your real name unless they know you of course, don't from a shop because they are now asking for name and address when you buy a new one.

If anything every goes wrong with society or you have hard times ahead, an air gun will help you bring in a good supply of free meat, and buy thousands of pellets and stash them in different places, one is no good without the other :D.

[hunter77]

I see the government trying to put a ban on all air weapons in the future, if you want one get one today, buy it second hand and privately and don't give your real name unless they know you of course, don't from a shop because they are now asking for name and address when you buy a new one.

If anything every goes wrong with society or you have hard times ahead, an air gun will help you bring in a good supply of free meat, and buy thousands of pellets and stash them in different places, one is no good without the other :D.

also buy a gun with a gas ram, not a spring or a pcp, it lasts about 10 times longer than a spring and doesnt weaken much with use:)

[rollotomaz1]

also buy a gun with a gas ram, not a spring or a pcp, it lasts about 10 times longer than a spring and doesnt weaken much with use:)

I have two, HW90K and a Theoben Evolution K, I prefer them to the Rimfire, sounds like you know your guns then, what you got there ?

[stickwhistler]

also buy a gun with a gas ram, not a spring or a pcp, it lasts about 10 times longer than a spring and doesnt weaken much with use:)

I have a Webley Vulcan that was bought in 1982.
It has shot many thousands of pellets.
It was 11.8 ft/lbs when new, it is now 10.6 ft/lbs,
which is plenty for getting food.
A spring powered rifle that still shoots well after 27 years!

I tested it recently using a Combro cb-626 chronoscope,
which has been certified as being accurate to 0.01 ft/lbs.

I bought an Air Arms S410,
which came at 9.8 ft/lbs from the manufacturer ( :mad: )
but I adjusted it to 11.6 ft/lbs via the adjusting screw,
again using the Combro chronograph in which you enter
the pellet weight ( I used grain weight), so there is little
room for error IF you do it properly i.e. follow the instructions.

My experience of a gas ram was not a good one.
It never got over 10 ft/lbs, no matter what we did to it,
e.g. polishing, new seals, etc, and eventually settled at 8.6ft/lbs
after 1,500 consecutive shots.

The main advantage of the non-spring rifles is no recoil,
and you can be ready to fire without detriment for hours,
whereas the spring powered rifles do not like to be cocked
for too long because it makes the spring weaker.
The noise from a spring rifle seems louder when shooting,
mainly from the spring movement, which is close to your ear,
and transmitted via the stock to your skull.

The precharged rifles e.g. S410, Loguns, HW etc
seem much quieter when 'silenced' than the spring guns,
however, the spring powered rifles are much more self contained
i.e. no seals or valves to get dirty or leak, and no need of
a pump to charge them with - which is an additional cost.

The difference between the precharged rifle and a spring rifle
is the difference between a black & white tv, and a colour tv.
If there are say 6 rabbits grazing, you can get 1 or maybe 2
with a spring rifle before the others scatter.
With a precharge 'silenced' rifle, you can take them all!

If you can't afford a precharge, there is nothing wrong
with a spring powered rifle at all. My advice would be to
to test it in the shop before you leave with it,
and get the shop keeper to fit it with the best spring
available - as I said above, I have a spring rifle that is
27 years old, has shot many thousands of pellets,
and fed our family with many rabbits and pigeons,
and it still works well today.

The only other thing to say is regarding ammo'.
Unfortunately the quality control of cheaper pellets,
is - well - cheap!

I use accupell, which are in the higher price bracket,
but, the quality is undoubtedly high, and you can
swap from one pellet type e.g. wad cutter - round - points
and know that accuracy is still good because the grain weight
is the same for all the pellets,
e.g. 14.17 to 14.20 variance in 3 tins of 500 pellets.
I know - I'm sad - I weighed the pellets to see using a
proper trading standards checked set of electronic scales.
The grain weight stated was 14.3, but to be safe,
I set the chrono' at 14.2 when testing muzzle energy,
just in case mr plod decided to interfere!

[rollotomaz1]

I have one of the very first theoben sciroco which is still going strong, the only part I have had to replace was the piston seal, if you are using the theoben plug and play insert where you replace the spring these are very variable, your much better off with the full blow dummy piston setup, which are always spot on, I have taken many apart and the theoben is the master system.

I have a 1983 Hw 35 Venom which has also never been touched, she has the longer export barrel and is a great gun, and one thing to watch out for is fitting a .177 spring to a .22 because in some case versus pellets it will put her over the limit.

The modern run of the mill spring air rifles are very poorly made, your Vulcan which I have also owned is much better than the newer Wenbey's.

You have been wise to make sure you have set those rifles using chrony, when I first did the calculations for weight versus FPS, I never took into account the Ft lbs on a heavier pellet, so when I put a lighter pellet in it was slightly over the L L.

One of the most sucessful rifle is have owned was the HW 90 .177 using Bizz Mags, a really good gun.

I'm not a fan of PCP's as you loose the freedom of just locking and loading without a back up.

My very first airgun was a BSA sporter, we could strike matches when we were kids at 35 yards with open sights, really good fun, cant even see them today, the old eyes are starting to wander a bit.

Springers are hellish noisey, and the PCP are almost silent, if I were to buy a PCP it would have to be the HW 100 or the Daystate, some of the older unregulated ones can vary in cylinder pressures, so your best getting one that is over 200 bar for the better system ;).

[tracker]

I have a question .

I never thought much on air rifles before mainly because of their size but now I am considering it .

How can you carry on about with out getting arrested in the UK even if you are just hunting etc ?

Its always got me stumped .

:cool:

[rollotomaz1]

I have a question .

I never thought much on air rifles before mainly because of their size but now I am considering it .

How can you carry on about with out getting arrested in the UK even if you are just hunting etc ?

Its always got me stumped .

:cool:

You do not need a licence for an air weapon, that you probably know already, if you are in a city setting all you need is a letter from the land ownere or club you are travelling from-to and they cannot take it off you as long as its slipped/covered,

We regulary use the bus when we are on an all dayer, you can also fit the gun slip inside a fishing tackle holder with a couple of fishing rods and your fine, at least here in the dales anyway, no one ever asks.

If your going to get a first time gun you might as well go for a good one, I would recommend German made for their quality and HW 90 is a tad on the heavy side but the one I would go for, sturdy quiet and no boing when it goes off,;)

For the price of a dozen pellets you can bag a weeks meat in an afternoon, the rabbits here are everywhere, 100's of the blighters and plenty of stray semi wild pheasants and wood pigeons, all really good eating if your hungry,

Our butchers won't take shotgun bodies any more, single shot only, a shotgun makes such a mess, pops the difestive tract which spoils the meat.

[tracker]

Thankyou very much for that info , also has added extra trading qualities when shooting game too then .

thankyou for the heads up on that one , a need to know thing for the future .

:)

[stickwhistler]

I'm not a fan of PCP's as you loose the freedom of just locking and loading without a back up.



I don't understand what you mean - sorry!

My S410 has a 10 shot magazine via bolt action
i.e. lift the bolt, pull it back, push it forward, lock back down.
The rifle has a shot capacity of 90 shots worth of air, so it will shoot
9 magazines worth of pellets, which is way more than needed
when hunting.

I confess that I never let it get below 50 bars (210 max) before
recharging it via a 3 stage pump, which is good exercise and takes about 5 minutes to complete,
and 10 minutes to recover!:D Seriously, it isn't difficult,
and has worked out much cheaper long term than paying at the gunshop
to recharge via their cylinder, and stops me annoying
the 'boys' by nicking their air from their diving equipment
(although they nicked my pump for the weekend a week or so back).

I concur about getting a good gun.
You will never be satisfied with a poor performing weapon! ;)

The Daystate is currently the dogs danglies,
but is also one of the most expensive.
My Air Arms S410 was £500, and the pump £140(ish),
so 'the comlete system' was £640 + scope (3-9x40).
It's a bit like buying a car, they all do the same thing,
it's the little differences that seem to choose us,
rather than us choosing them.

Have a look on line for airgun forums,
or pop off to somewhere with air rifle magazines,
and swot up on what is available, reliability,
features, .177 -v- .22, multishot magazines -v- single, etc.

Horses for courses (and wallets!).

[rollotomaz1]

I don't understand what you mean - sorry!



With a breaker you don't need a back up,

I used to have one of those Scan Bullpups years ago, what an awfull peice of rubbish it was, we swapped it for a Titan/falcon carbine, wish I still had that one now actually, it used to fit neatly inside my barbour, minus silencer.

Although I prefer breakers, I did have had a try of a HW 100 last week and I must say what a vast improvement over the old PCP, very tempted indeed, the balls not out yet, you never know, wil have to see what the santa brings me, heh.

Where we are in Swaledale those 9 magazines wouldn't last you long at all, we have a 500 acre plot all with walls and tiny meadows and half wooded, where they cannot see you comming, a bit hilly but good on a cool day keeps you warm, we have another place same size but we need rimfire for that place, longer shots, but still 100's of bunnies around even after mixie, too many in some places at times.

What is your limit for range with the 410, pellet etc for longer ranges ?

[stickwhistler]

What is your limit for range with the 410, pellet etc for longer ranges ?



To be truthful - I've no idea.

I have taken things at 50 yards, using the mil dot scope for range finding,
and pacing out afterwards, but usually limit my shooting to 30 yards,
because I 'know' I can't miss (you know what I mean) at that range.

When I was tweaking the 410, I opened the adjusting screw,
and it put a 14.2 grain pellet through a 1/16th inch mild steel sheet
pellet catcher at 40 yards. The chrono read 15.8 ft/lbs, so being a good
boy, I turned it down to just below 12 to stay legal, and also to avoid
stressing the seals etc too much.

I shoot in mixed species (ash, oak, alder, hazel etc) woodland, and some fields,
and the scrub in between the wood and open fields.
There are hedges, but no dry stone walls as in your area.
The open mountain areas are populated by red & amber list birds,
the streams have sea trout, and are visited by a healthy otter population.

There is some organised pheasant & grouse shooting locally,
and pheasants easily got - even in my garden.
Flocks of grazing pigeon e.g. 3 dozen or more, are common.
Bunnies are easily got by waiting quietly, and are often in groups.

In about 3/4 hour, I can easily get several bunnies,
and say 6 pigeons within 1/4 mile of my home.
I don't remember ever using more than 30 pellets (except at home when plinking) in one session
and that was when we were culling a big pigeon flock, and my personal take home catch was 19 pigeons (+ 4 bunnies).

[kanz]

I always thought the gas powered rifles where alot weaker than the spring ones, is this the case ?

[hunter77]

I have two, HW90K and a Theoben Evolution K, I prefer them to the Rimfire, sounds like you know your guns then, what you got there ?

daystate mk3, rapid 7,hw97k, hw90k and a berretta 303:)

[hunter77]

I always thought the gas powered rifles where alot weaker than the spring ones, is this the case ?

no its not, a pcp is just as powerfull , recoiless and can be tuned up , just like adding a larger main spring to a spring gun:)

[rollotomaz1]

no its not, a pcp is just as powerfull , recoiless and can be tuned up , just like adding a larger main spring to a spring gun:)

That's right, The HW 90 and theoben's have one advantage over any other in that you can adjust the power in a minute or so and let all the air out in again in seconds if you leave the screw loose, if you needed to if you know what I mean, leave the screw finger tight.

I have had quite a few gass rams in bits before and have to say its the easiest system I have ever worked on, reliability has always been fool proofe, with a single O-ring between the chambers and a single shreader valve at the other, so simple but effective and very safe to dissasemble, no danger of the coiled spring whacking the unexpected on the knuckles.