Two Letters Re: Pellet Rifle Hunting
Mr. Rawles,
I wanted to add the following comments to D.M.’s post about argues. I completely agree with the findings D.M. had on air-gunning. I am a big fan of air-gunning and Crossman rifles are on my short list of quality, easy to use guns that won’t cost an arm and a leg. May I recommend a few more airguns worth considering. My personal favorites are the Chinese made QB-57, and the Crossman 1377C.
The QB57 is a bull-pup side lever springer with a break down design available as a .177 or .22. The gun can easily fit into a backpack and breaking it down and putting it back together does not affect accuracy. It is a real sweet shooter and it built with lots of metal and wood–more like a farm implement than a toy. The QB57 is very quiet, the sound of the .22 cal pellet hitting its mark makes more noise than the gun.
The 1377C is a multi-pump pellet pistol in .177 cal. There is a real community behind this gun and there are tons of aftermarket modifications available. It’s like the M-4 of airguns. Instead of ordering aftermarket parts, I ordered parts directly from Crossman for the discontinued 2289 Backpacker carbine model. For $50 in parts I turned this pistol into a .22 cal carbine with a 15″ barrel. Neither of these guns look like firearms, which I find to be a huge plus when shooting in an urban/suburban area. A standard Monte Carlo stocked rifle is recognizable as a real firearm by almost anyone. You have to be uncomfortably close to recognize that someone is handling an airgun instead of a real firearm. If a LEO sees you shouldering a rifle of any type, they are going to take notice.
I am a fan of .22 pellets. They are more expensive than .177s, but you can get 600 rounds of .22 Crossman Premiers for $23 plus shipping. With low muzzle velocity you send quite a hurting to your prey. .177 is a fine choice also, but they are a bit harder to handle with my sausage fingers and they take more velocity (more pumps) to do the same damage as a .22. .177 BBs are great, but I wouldn’t want to plink with them. BB’s are copper coated steel and they have a nasty habit of ricocheting. You can also break you teeth on steel shot. Eating lead isn’t so great either, but even at low velocities .177s and .22s pass through most game.
Good web sites to check out and learn more:
Pyramydair.com – Arguably the best airgun dealer on the net – great reviews to include video reviews.
Airgundepot.com – I’ve never bought anything from them, but they have great video reviews of unique guns.
Airgunweb.com – Great reviews, vendor neutral since this guy does not sell anything. Prost! -D. Yankee
James Wesley;
That was a great article. I had a pellet gun as a kid and shot thousands of rounds through it as well.
If you don’t have a pellet rifle, but want to plink or hunt with hardly any noise, I recommend getting a box or two of .22 CB Longs, or CB Shorts. These both have a muzzle velocity of 710 fps (CCI brand), and are much quieter than a standard .22 Short (1,089 fps) as they are sub-sonic and you don’t get the super-sonic bullet crack. I have an old long barrel .22 that was my dad’s, and they are very quiet when used in this gun. I also have a ‘Chipmunk’ .22 – single shot, shorter barreled bolt action ‘youth gun’ and they are quieter in it than standard speed bullets, but not nearly so quiet as in the old long barreled gun (25 in barrel).
They have a 29 grain bullet, and so pack several times the energy of a BB at comparable velocities.
This isn’t to take anything away from BB and pellet guns. I think they are great, but if you don’t have one, and just need a little less noise, try the CB caps. I think they have their place too. Thanks, – Rune in Utah