Mr. Rawles,
In his article [Alternatives to Firearms for Defense and Hunting in a Survival Situation], Bill H. missed something very important in his segment on air rifles, the modern large bore pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) rifle. I have a Quackenbush .308 caliber. It shoots standard .308 diameter cast lead bullets into one hole at 25 yards and does about 800 to 900 feet per second. It is my first choice for killing stray/feral dogs. Filling the reservoir with a hand pump is a tiresome job and plinking with the gun is not fun due to the work it requires. However you cannot beat it for accuracy, low cost shooting or sustainability. There is no part of the gun except the barrel that cannot easily be made in my home machine shop, so who cares if it has parts that aren’t common. Any machinist worthy of the name can make any part on the gun or pump that could conceivably break or wear out.
I do hope to get a spring piston rifle soon for practice and training my children to shoot, but it will never replace my PCP air rifle. Modern big bore PCP rifles are adequate for hunting deer and other large game and more than sufficient for killing varmints. With my .308 PCP I get complete penetration on [feral] dogs. What more could I ask?
– Andrew B.
Jim,
It can be prudent to not quite break the 1,100 fps barrier, as the resulting sonic ‘crack’ would sound like shooting a .22 anyhow. That would definitely draw attention in an urban environment. – Sid, near Niagara Falls
JWR Replies: Thanks for mentioning that. The speed of sound is nearly 1,118 fps at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. (OBTW, the oft-quoted “at standard barometric pressure, at sea level” phrase is better expressed “at X degrees air temperature”, since air pressure and the density of air are proportional at a given air temperature.)