What is the best air rifle ?

[Peter C]

I need to buy an air rifle for controlling sparrows. What is the BEST air rifle out there ? I am especially interested in accuracy. Any advice welcome. Thank you

[KathyF]

Peter - check this thread out....lots of good input

http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewt ... =air+rifle

[j arnett]

hi peter
i have a grossman 22 call. with a scope on it and it is very good . three pumps and its good for 75 feet, i use it in the city suburbs and very little noise. i don't think it makes any different what kind you use , but use the lead pellets with the point only. you can get them at walmart and they dont coust that much. get on the internet and look at the repeating sparow trap and they do wprk with just a slice of white bread, put some in the trap and a couple on the landing and watch.

[Guest]

I shot air rifles in competition years ago, and I've stayed with the hobby for over 17 years now. I'll try to boil it down to keep what I know tolerable in length, but probably won't be successful.

For anyone interested in the hobby, my first recommendation is always the Beeman R9. It is the best self contained, accurate, powerful, easy to shoot spring air rifle I know. However, it is powerful enough to kill a rabbit at 50 yards (if you're good enough to put a shot in the vitals) so it will probably shoot holes right through your bird house if you miss a sparrow. In fact, it will probably put a good dent in your house even if you hit the bird, as I have shot squirrels behind the head with mine and the pellet has gone through the neck, through the full length of the body, into the rear thigh on the opposite side and exited the skin to keep on going.

As an alternative, the R7 is a little less powerful. I chose the R9 because I want to be able to make longer shots and still have knock down power, but if you're not shooting over 30 yards, the R7 will be more gun than you ever need. It is every bit as accurate as the R9, is lighter, a bit cheaper and is much easier to cock, which makes it more fun as a plinker.

You can scope these guns with whatever optics you want, as long as it's ok to mount on a spring piston gun. (Springers have a unique double recoil that can damage normal optics) You can spend anywhere from 40 dollars up to more than a thousand on a scope. As long as its mounted right, the cheap ones will make you just as accurate as an expensive one will.

There are those that will tell you a spring piston gun like the ones I mentioned are difficult to shoot. If you practice with it, you'll overcome that fast. I can nail a quarter with my R9 at 75 yards. These guns will always be far more accurate than the people shooting them.

On the inexpensive flip side; I have sent hundreds of sparrows and starlings to their graves at backyard distances with a cheap, single pump pneumatic with iron sights. You can grab these type of guns all day long for 30-40 dollars at Walmart and try them out. If they don't suit you, you can take them back and try another one. I don't recommend multipump pneumatics because you spend so much time getting them ready to shoot every time you pump them up for a shot. It gets old fast. A single pump will usually throw a pellet at around 450 feet per second, which puts enough energy on small bird like the sparrow and the starling to kill it easily. If you're a good shot, these guns are plenty accurate. I could bust M&Ms with my single shot using peep sights at ten yards all day long.

I'd stress avoiding .20 and .22 calliber air rifles if you go for the more expensive option. You get less pellets for the same price as .177 pellets, and you generally won't be able to find those pellets in any retail outlet near you, which leaves you buying pellets online. As far as which pellets to use, the Crossman Premier Lites hold their accuracy at distance very well, and have a high ballistic coefficient, so they retain more energy at distance, which translates into more killing power on the target. If you can't find those, any domed pellet will do. Avoid the pointed ones. They aren't as accurate, and it's energy transferred to the target that kills a bird, not a point on a pellet. The lead is so soft in pellets anyway that they deform when the hit something, so a point doesn't really make any sense.

Making one recommendation about THE best pellet gun is difficult. You need to look at what matters to you. A cheap single pump plastic rifle will get the job done as well as a 600 dollar rig will if all you're wanting to do is kill a bird here and there in your backyard. It's pretty much the same as cars. A 20 year old Honda Civic will get you to work through cross town traffic just the same as a brand new Corvette. You just have to weigh options, features and costs.

[Sandy - NC]

Very well said. I agree with everything, even though finding one of the cheaper guns that is consistently accurate can be much more challenging than shooting a springer, but they can be found. I definitely agree that the Beeman R-7 is all most Purple Martin landlords will ever need.

[Guest]

You need to check the laws before buying a air rifle as most towns ban their use in the city limits. You'll need to stick with .177 as said, english sparrows are a tiny target and the .177 is more precise. One rifle that I have that I feel is perfect for what your needs are is a Beeman/HW 50s. Its bigger than the R7 and smaller than the R9. Yet it has the more solid lockup wedge of the R9. Go to straightshooters.com and google James Kitchings airgun forum. Lots of info there and some good deals on the James Kitchings used ads. A lower cost version of the R7 is the HW30s. HW makes them in Germany and Beeman is just the importer. You'll need a scope to hit a EHS and about any lower cost air rifle rated scope should work for you. 450 bucks should get you a total outfit with lots of pellets to practice with. One of the best things about fine quality air rifles is they hold their value very well and if you decide to sell it down the road you'll be able to get about 80% of your investment back rather easily. The wal-mart rifles are pretty much of a total lose on the re-sale aspect. What it means is that for roughly the same money you can shoot a very fine german air rifle over a chinese one once you take into account the re-sale value of the good quality rifle. Good luck

[Sandy - NC]

Another very well said. The Beeman/HW guns do hold their value as long as they are taken care of and can definitely be resold easily.

[Guest]

Peter, I have a Beeman R-7 because it was recommended on the forum and I can tell you with my scope it is one shot and no Sparrow! I also got a Starling from 75 yards away at my previous home in the country. Now my Martin Trio is much closer and it is great! I use the 177 pellet.

[RandallRash]

I eliminated a couple of sparrows this morning with my Beeman R7. One of them was behind the guardrail on a Trio Castle, but I could see his head and thats all it took. I've only had this gun for 2 weeks but I knew I could make that shot. My Labrador Retriever is much happier this season. She gets to do her thing.

[CraigMo.]

I use my RWS Model 850 Air Rifle Combo and it is a good gun. I am not to smart on guns, but once you sight it in you hit anything you shoot at. I can hit sparrows easily from my house to my setups which is about 30 yards or so. I got a starling this afternoon with it.

[j arnett]

hi all
never to old to learn about guns, if i ever have to replace my grossman now i know where to go , but its like me getting years on it.
thanks every one joe

[Doug Martin - PA]

I am using a Remington .177 that I bought at Wal-Mart for about 100 bucks. I added a scope. It is very accurate.

I am 4 out of 5 so far this spring. One starling 3 sparrows.

The Beeman R7 sounds awful good however.

[bk]

what pellets do you use? It sounds like you found some that make th R7 happy. I'm using beeman "silver bears"s this year and so far, I'm batting 1000.

Bill

[RandallRash]

I am also using the Beeman Silver Bear's that came with my R7. I haven't opened up the Diablo Exacts that I ordered.

[Sandy - NC]

Randall, just wait until you try those Exacts in your R-7. If they are the 8.4 grain ones, they will probably put the Silver Bears to shame. Domed shaped pellets have better flight characteristics and make a bigger wound channel with less chance of pass through. Mine loves them and that is all I feed her.

[bk]

I'll get some of those diablo exacts on order.

Regards,

Bill

[Guest]

Just a follow up to confirm my earlier suspicions; my R9 will shoot clean through my bird house.

Cutting the doors on my old house to make room for excluder panels, I took one of the scraps I cut away and wedged it between the post and a 2X4 of my six foot privacy fence. This gave me some free space behind the aluminum, as if it were the actual front of the house with an empty room behind it, as opposed to placing it flat against some wood. I put a shot on it at 25 yards. On examination, the pellet blasted through the aluminum AND clear through the wood behind it. (Not the 2X4, one of the vertical slats nailed to it.)

Keep in mind, my house is old and probably cheaply made. I don't know how much stronger current, high dollar houses are, but I'll assume to keep the weight down they aren't much more fortified. The R9 is probably too much gun to use if you're shooting at a martin house. (Mine chronographs at 940 feet per second.)

I guess I'm going to get some much heavier duty sheet metal to add to the front of my house so I don't go putting holes through it.

[RC Moser]

I place my houses sideways so I don't have to shoot them directly. I rarely hit my houses. unless the sparrow at the front inside of the porch. I usually wait till he moves to the outside of the porch so my pellet won't punch a hole in the above roof or upper porch platform.

I like a air gun that travels around 650 to 800 FPS. when it gets to my house (65 feet) it has slowed down some around 550 or 600 FPS or less. unless it a direct hit square on it usually don't punch holes just angles off creating a dent.

I am always aware of where my pellet will go if I happen to miss also the slower FPS rifles really start to slow down at about 75 yards (less than 200 FPS) and at 100 yards are probably less than 50 FPS. The high powered rifles will go right through the starling or sparrow unless you hit a big bone and right through you house even killing any bird that maybe inside. They start to slow down some but at 75 yards can still pentrate a coke can. Mine just puts a small dent in it.

The .22 cal air rifles are totally different than the .177 cal. They pack more of a punch at a slower speed and slow down quicker as the pellet travels further.

[Jeff Robinson]

Hey RC - I'm with you on house positioning, and I'm fortunate enough that the backdrop to Bedrock (my Martin colony site) is a wide open field, and I'm shooting more or less downhill. I also positioned "most" of my houses or gourds at a sideways angle, where I can pop most of the S&S with a direct shot from my .22 when they're on the porch.

Still waiting on my PMs and hoping somebody's keeping them warm while they're enroute in this nasty weather. BTW, we have a little in common....You have me by a few years, but I'm also retired Air Force (2006) and love to constantly improve my site. Difference....I prefer Mizzou!

[ChrisM]

Mine retired ANG! He would be interested in this site to help me ward of the starlings. Interesting, though I don't know much about guns.