dr_nick

Went out with the new toy last night, 6 rabbits on my small permission. This gizmo makes stalking a breeze, I just crept up to exactly 30 meters (Previously I reckon I would have gone 5 - 10 meters closer). Bunnies didnt bat an eye lid. Now for me, the confidence boost from knowing exactly when I was in range and seeing every rabbit back flip into the air from perfect head shots was well worth the £99. I know its not for everyone, but if like me you hate missing a shot, or worse still seeing something limp off then it might be worth a look.

Its not the gun I need practice with, its just the range! The tables are a good start in learning where your pellet is going though. .177 12ftlbs has a 2 cm variation to 30meters but a 5cm variation to 40 (when zeroed to 30m). Thats a lot of guess work, .22 is even worse, with HMR its redundant. Still its a good bit of equipment and cheap too ( The software being free)

In Weymouth, it costs £2 to fill a 300 bar 3 liter bottle which has filled my Stealth from empty once, and my s410 10 times so far and its still going strong! Oh and my bottle cost less than my pump AND IT TAKES 5 SECONDS TO DO THE WORK OF 10 MINUTES WITH THE PUMP!

RWS hollow points, work like a dream, verry accurate and will certainly take a Rat down wih a head or heart shot, cheap too. .22 is best though.

I dont know about you but I find that I can guess ranges up to 30 meters but after that I have a real problem getting the range right. With air guns & rimfire .22LR knowing the right range is essential. So i found out that B.A.R. have a special offer of a Hawk 300 laser range finder @ £100 down from £169. Bargain methinks, so I send off my hard earned brass margets and wait to see if its worth the dosh. Well, The answer is yes. Its accurate, gives a clear picture and takes the reading in a split second. A lot of the old guys have said you dont need one, but when coupled with the excellent "AirGun Version 7.5" prog that works out you balistics for any pellet you use and knowing that your the exact range of your quarry, it is as close to perfect as you can get. It makes life a lot easier when you know that your quarry is within a safe range and how much to hold off by. This by definition makes for a quicker and more humane kill. Oh and there is the bonus of learning just how far out you are when estimating a certain distance.

I saw a **** load of rabbits in a load of fields near my other permission coming home today, thought I would pop in and ask if they were a problem, walked out 10 minutes later with 2 new permissions over 4 fields including a nursery. And to top it off the rabbits are every where and wouldn't even move as I drove my diesel van right buy them. When I say loads, I mean loads, three ran past as I was talking to the guy. Happy days. Oh, and I think they might allow me to apply for the HMR on the land. As for how I went about asking, I was very up front and just said that I was driving past, saw the rabbits and asked if they were a problem. When they replied yes, I just said that I shot for the guy up the road, that I used an air rifle, that I belonged to the rifle club and had insurance through being a member of BASC. They practically bit my hand off, along with asking if I wouldn't mind shooting the magpies! I hope that helps.

Mine likes Blazer, 1-2 inch groups at 100yrds or better. They are not sub sonic and not hollow point so not for hunting but at £17.50 per brick you cannot beat them or target shooting.

You can buy working ones for between £250 - £500 depending on condition. As a deact? Try looking in the back of Gun Mart.

Never store your pistol in the same gun slip that you brought it home dirty in. Found out the hard way that the residual crud that is wiped onto the inside of the slip will attack the stainless steel when you put the clean gun back into it. Unless you like brown guns or are adicted to polishing.

Thats the info I needed. Thanks for everyones input, £7.50 per 50 compares badly to the £1.70 I pay for LR (I was told it was around double the cost). Along with everyone elses comments it kind of sounds like a waste of a lot on my ticket,

The law says you can only have hollow points if you have good reason, Target shooting is not now a valid reason, hence needing a shoot. So For the moment I can only buy non hollowpoint ammo,

Ok exact wording on my cert is for a .22 rifle! The others have been for .22 rim fire. The ammo I am allowed to buy is .22 rim fire. There is no mention any where of LR. The reason for the no hollow point is just so I can shoot it at the range untill I get a suitable shoot, then I can apply for hollow point loads. So I take it that I "can" have one, the question is should I get one? and how much is the ammo? The last fly in the ointment might be the velocity of the round, what speeds are generally quoted? From what I have seen, 1800 ft per second seems the norm. Is this correct? (about the limit for the range).

I have a slot for a .22 on my cert, and 1200 rounds of rimfire ammo that I can hold. I also have a .22 target and a cz rimfire already. The question I have is, can I purchase a WMR rifle, would I wan to (eventually I will be hunting with the guns I have, including the odd fox). finally can you get (this is important) non hollowpoint WMR rounds and if so whats the cost? Lots of questions, I also heard they do a 10 22 ruger in WMR now too.

Yes and I am a little excited, a bit more fun than the .22 rim fire. 12kg is a lot, though its hard to get around here, it means a fairly long round trip. Even so thats 24 containers, (I thought they were 1kg not 1lb. )

I had a mistake on my certificate, .32 black powder pistol (no idea where .32 came from) so I sent it in to get it increased to .44. I fully expected to have to wait a month or so. It came back 3 days later with an appology! Now I just have to wait on my black powder license which might get knocked back ( I asked to store 12kg which I have been told is rather a lot )

Thanks for all the advice. I have been busy so I have not had a chance to post since. Lots to think about. s410 or the extra seem like the best idea from what everyone has been saying. Its a shame but I am the only guy at the club interested in air guns! So there is not a lot of opportunity to get experience of other guns. I am going to Bisley next month, maybe with a wad of cash.

I have the CZ already, and its lots of fun, I do love my air guns though. I have thought about the s410 extra, but its the lack of a silencer that puts me off. I Will probably go with a s410 FAC, unless anyone is going to reccomend the Hornet.

I did look into spending silly money, not for me really. I want fair accuracy out to 50 - 55 yrds, at least 28ftlbs and quiet, no louder than my silenced s410. Price upto 600 for ther gun though less would be better. I am thinking 410 fac (little low on power) or a BSA Hornet which I have read good things about and is regulated (bonus). So go on what should I go for, (it will be .22 nach)

I found the s400 awkward to load, scope got in the way. Not a big deal but the s410 is far easier.

I have been saying for a long time that .177 is ace for bunnies at 12ftlb.

£680 worth of ammo?

Erm deffinately DO NOT DO THIS, this is a sealed lead acid battery and it could explode. 9v is 3v per cell, well over the gassing voltage of a led acid cell and will produce hydrogen which is colorless, odourless and highly flammable. Because this is sealed it will, if left like this long enough, eventually vent and you don't want that (basically this pack is full of nasty acid). It puts out less than 300ma and you would have to monitor it, but thats all the cheap chargers for recharging all batteries do. All trickle chargers apply a constant voltage with very low amps. A 12volt carger puts out around 15 - 16V. But given, DO NOT DO THIS, this is a sealed lead acid battery and it could explode buy a proper charger.

Out of interest, what price range is .177hmr ammo? I will put one down on my next variation (going to keep going till I get my open ticket ) but I have no idea about cost of ammo, the gun is cheap enough.

Ok here is the cheap way, go to wilko's. Buy one of their cheap power supplies, £2.99 ish, set it to 9 - 12 volts (9 better but slower) and connect it to the battery. All chargers do is supply a higher voltage than the battery makes (so the electicity flows into the battery (and this is in very simple terms)). You will have to manually disconect the battery after 8 hours or so and make up your own connectors for charging (maplins do really nice crocodile leads. Else if you want a proper charger and its a 6volt lead acid battery go with the motorbike trickle charger, such as this one http://www.mandp.co.uk/productInfo.aspx?catRef=558541

Most of the big land has had its shooting rights sold off. Still there are quite a few large small holdings around the area.