Super Squirrel

I recently got my Delta Fox back (oh, what a beautiful and accurate little rifle!) with the back half of the stock missing. My question is this: would it be classified as a pistol if I just tidied up what's left of the stock and whacked some tape around it? It's factory rated at 5fpe, which would have it classified as an extremely long, offticket pistol! Or did I just answer my own question?

My first springer was a .22 Stingray, back in 2005 (still got it but needs a new barrel since someone flipped it!). Before it got the pretzel treatment, I was putting pellets through the same hole at 10m inside a week of getting it. Within six weeks I was putting 1/4" groups and capping 410 cartridges at 50m, and cracking lids off coke bottles at 100m. All with Bulldog lead. My current springer is an Air Arms Mistrale in .22 with an AGS 6x40 compact mildot. I use RWS Super H Point exclusively through that, and am putting pellet on pellet at 50m. When my AGS PCR1 isn't tanked I use that for hunting.

oh lovely, I think I'd rather see external signs of disease before I contaminate my knife...

hmmm... in .22 it's got to be the BSA Interceptor at 15.3gr for me, down any rifle you give me (tho I have found ONE rifle that just don't like them - my match-configured S2, which would only shoot RWS Hobby with any kind of consistency), for large bunnies/hares I tend to move up to the 16.5/21gr Logun Penetrators. In .177, I'm torn... I don't like rabbitting with .177 because my .177 gear is just too zippy. Logun Penetrator 9.0gr is OK though it does tend to overpenetrate on headshots even with those through my Stingray. I tend to stick to birds with the .177 and for that I go with light and fast: Crosman CO2 jacketed. If Piledrivers weren't so damned expensive I'd go with those in .177 if I had to take a .177 rabbitting, if only to get the feel as if I were actually shooting a .22 and seeing similar reactions at the impact end...

I recently came into possession of an AA Mistral AL in .22. Beautiful piece of kit, it's up there with my Brum Stingrays for quality and accuracy.

it's an OK target rifle with all stock gear, personally I'd respring it with an Ox trimmed to the correct length to 11.5fpe, bore out the port to 3mm then it'll be fine even for medium range rabbitting. As to scopes, an AGS 4x40 basic would do the trick nicely, as anything more substantial would shake apart. Watch the barrel though, chinese equipment destined for the European market has a tendency to wilt.

I'll take the factory wood if that's all that's going but I prefer something a little more weatherproof - and please, no plastics. Also after windage-adjustable rearsight and foresight blade for same.

mine were both secondhand, factory sprung in Birmingham and older than time. They still have their original springs and (notwithstanding the slight(!) flip bend in the .22 which I'm still looking for a new barrel for - and a new stock) are pretty much pellet-on-pellet at upwards of 45 yards. I'll happily shoot hare at 80 yards with my Stingers. The .177 has a full length barrel and makes pretty much anything I throw down it crack on its way out. Even my custom silencer makes absolutely no difference to it.

one of my club members has an Ultra. Very nice rifle. And yes I agree, the shot rate is abysmal (as is the filling method) and that pellet tray is a hoot - especially when you're trying to load around a scope...

from personal experience: My springers are usually on iron sights; my Stingray .177 is good out to 75-90m. my Hawke 4x40 scope was good for ballistic shots ranging for coke bottle lids at 120m with the .22 Stinger in a tunnel range, when I get a new barrel for that it'll be getting the Weaver RDS on it. My Delta Fox, while not a range hunter, is good for ratting and target shooting: pellet on pellet at 20m with a fixed 6x40 compact mildot. My S200: good to 60m with a 6-24x44 IR. I'd like to use my 3-12 on it but that doesn't have IR, and I prefer lower power scopes for taking the shot - higher powers I use for scoping and the image tends to jump at higher mag... saying that, I used to have the 3-12 on the S200 and never took a shot over 4 mag. I also very rarely missed. My Nightstalker: fantastic ratter, open sights. That thing never misses. generally I've found that the higher mag used the more likely the shot is to miss the mark, particularly when the flat trajectory for most non-FAC airguns is way less than 40m. Depends on the ammo shape and weight used and the height of the centreline of the scope above the centreline of the barrel as well.

natural cover for me. Saves all that carrying and all that noise while you're banging tent pegs into the ground, trimming zipties to tree trunks and unpacking foil-wrapped sandwiches...

AA S200. Mine's good for over a hundred shots at 40 yards, I'm pellet on pellet at that range as well. custom silencer and a tin of BSA Interceptor in .22 and rabbits ain't got a chance.

I'm a bunny basher, and with the terrain I have to cover (hawthorns), hanging camo is a problem. So, I go in olive green fedora, British DPM overall, and black leather gloves. If I know I'm gonna be diving through hawthorns, I take the thick leather jacket as well cos it's the only thing I own that seems to be immune to two inch long spikes... For pigeons etc (and anything else that sees in colour) I use available vegetation to break up the outline and to hide my face. Local mud is good as well since it doesn't attract flies like DPM makeup tends to do...

Looking for rabbit/hare stalking on large stretch of partly wooded land, possibly South Coast, Anglia, or Scottish Borders area for upwards of a dozen member shooters of non-FAC airgun club based in Nottingham. Open to negotiations.

yes, it's a HW95k, the difference is the hatching on the stock - the HW95 Standard has no hatching and is made from a (cheaper) different wood.