suburban shooter

DC 177 are you using .177 in your Ultra ?

HA HA Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Harikrishna !!

i WOULD BE FAR MORE CONCERNED ABOUT WHO IS SHOOTING YOUR WINDOWS IN THAN BOTHERING ABOUT SOME BLOKE THAT IS SHOOTING AWAY FROM YOUR HOUSE Spend lots of time watching everyone else as he is not the culprit . By all means have a chat as one shooter to the next about backstops, callibres, air weapons shotguns etc but your primary concern has to be with other neighbours. Have you upset any of them in the past! What was the police advice after you had your window shot out the first time? Are you happy that they are supporting you well enough? You seem to have faith in community bobbies but what are they doing? Most peoples' experience is that they are lazy and a waste of time and money. The volunteer ones are keen though and want to make a difference; they should be paid. I used to help the serious organised crime police people in Manchester they call it something else now. One morning the head of it was late and apologised because he had had no sleep as a bunch of teenagers had kept him up all night with their antics. He had called 999 and they had said that antisocial activity was not a priority for them at that time he was really annoyed! Very different on the other side of the counter I said and he didn't get the irony of him saying that it was unacceptable for people to put up with this lack of response from the police!!! He was brilliant at his job and i wish there were more people like him. So get some cctv cameras and nail whoever it is that is letting shooters down please. Make use of the neighbours that you do have a good relationship with to be your eyes and ears when you are at work.

Davelid get a quiet rifle and save the pollution . My neighbours know I shoot but have never heared a shot ; they think that it is really amusing because they expect to hear a bang and when I tell them how many squirrels / magpies that I have shot they think that I am pulling their leg.

How come flat hamster on this rifle and bendy one on the camo stocked one ?

Hi Oldypigeonpopper, did you demonstrate your sticks to me at Catton weekend and recommend my first deer rifle to be .243 ? If so,how is the Landy ? If not always wise words from thee.

Are you playing golf on your holiday ? If so I hope that you are wearing Bill Murray's golf attire! Google it it will make you laugh.

I made a mistake when listing which .177 hollowpoint pellets work well. I said Crossman Terminator but I meant Crossman Destroyer they make a hole in a squirrel's hide like a pastry cutter. I used them because I met a game keeper up in the North Pennines that said he had stopped using them the kill rabbits because he was fed up of having to swill the back of his pickup out as the blood from an evening rabbit shooting was really deep and was ruining his sales value of the bunnies. Hope that the anecdote has made up for the error!

Ah Longbower you beat me to it. I was going to ask you what you use in your Scorpion as I remembered that you were very impressed with it. Do I also remember that you moved onto the Scorpion from an Ultra and if so what differences do you find with the longer match quality barrel from the Ultra and any other things of note as I am considering both. Can you tell me if the safety be applied even if there is no pellet up the spout please ? Kind regards ss

Elevated position gives excellent field of view Squirrels very rarely look up No better backstop than a lawn Targeted feeding/ sitting point for squirrels constant and therefore consistent and exact point of aim Nice comfy sitting position - rock steady platform for rifle on rice filled bag on window frame; cheating if you want to be sporting but I want to be sure. Pellet never ever leaves my land Not overlooked by anyone Neighbours' supportive so no problem whilst they were having BBQ last weekend as they have remarked in the past can't even hear whether a shot has been fired or not What are the obvious reasons ? I also open the window first so the pellets don't go through the glass

Try wider pellets such as JSB Exact as they come in differing sizes and will fill your mag holes to negate the rattle.They may well improve your groupings and velocity of pellets ,BSA seem to have slightly larger bored barrels and wider pellets will fit tighter

DC177 there are lots of bedroom windows in suburbia do you not have them where you live ? Or are you after an answer to a question that you have not asked ?

W 570 you are saying what I am thinking , had none in my garden for over a year and then killed 10 over the bank holiday weekend and one the week before. And an extra one today, large male on an oak tree that sucks them in at this time of year 676 g biggest of the year in my normal area by far ! normally less than 550 g. 4 years ago that would be average weight for a male in Autumn; so he must have come some distance to feed on the oak. 1265

Hillsborough was a disaster was not caused by large numbers of people standing in a stadium, large numbers of football fans stand every week in much larger numbers in stadiums all over the world.The whole changing stadiums to all seater stadiums in the UK was part of the myth,lies miss-information. The Dunblane thing was blamed on the shooting community but the local shooting clubs barred the individual from joining their clubs and wrote to the chief of police to ask for him to be banned from owning firearms. Yet he was granted them and even practiced at the police ranges, the reason for this is the reason for the 100 year cover up . Police blaming the general public for their own faults.

I spoken to several shooters over time ( not from this site) that think that a head shot, is a head shot, is a head shot. Many people don't know that the aim of a head shot is to take out the Cerebellum. You can still live ok with quite a bit of your brain removed but you can't afford to have your cerebellum damaged at all. this is why stoats and weasels kill massive rabbits with a single nip to the back of the head. I have shot magpies through the head and they have hopped about in thick bushes until found and dispatched by hand and squirrels will lie down bleeding to death if you don,t hit the vital bit of the brain. So I only aim for the heart on birds now and also squirrels for the majority of shots. However, I have killed 9 this weekend out of my bedroom window at a zeroed 30 m fixed point all were head shots but in the field prefer heart/ lung shots. No animal lives after being shot through both lungs or and it's heart ! So accuracy is key but shot placement is vital.

I am a big fan of the Crossman / Webley Accupell and their Powapell pellets in 177 they are 7.9 grain and go fast. JSB Exact Diablo 8.44 grain also really good ;these come in different diameters to suit different bore sizes. BSA barrels tend to suit wider pellets so the JSB 4.52 or 4.53 may sort your current grouping problem. However I would take great note of Ultrastu as he has incredible knowledge of all things Ultra and more besides. Best two hollowpoints that I have used were the Bisley Pest Control 8.8 grain and Crossman Terminator 7.9 grain. Hope this helps.

I have been using tuna tins ( the short flattish type like a big tin of airgun pellets ) drilled some drainage holes in the bottom, screwed them to a fence post or tree and filled will peanut butter they really work and take seconds to make.

Just got another 1260

two more last night really quite late 19.30 and then 19.39 both females 513 g and 534 g no activity this morning at all That makes it 1259

18 since my post on the 17 th my hazel tree is dragging them in and the beech trees in the gardens that I shoot in are a real magnet for them at the moment ! That makes it 1194

DC177 That is really interesting I also thought that damaged pellets were a no go !! To keep the experiment consistent can you please replicate it over 35 yds with the same rifle whenever you have some damaged pellets ? I am considering damaging some on purpose to take part !! Air Arm Fields are JSBs with a softer alloy ( so I am reliably informed ) so it might be worth changing to the JSB Exacts to sort the issue.

Salter Little Samson fishing scales 1.5 kg or 4 lb depending which side you look at; either hang them from their teeth or stick them in a carrier bag and loop the handles over the hook. I think that if you are getting them under 550g then you are winning. I think that they get to 610 -620g by year two, 900g plus monsters in virgin territory. I'm assessing suburban greys supplementary feeding by humans through the winter and lean late Spring gets them bigger than their country cousins. They also live in much higher population densities than in the countryside. If using .177 in the garden or limit to up to 25 m then Bisley Pest Control is a brilliant pellet for head shots 8.8 grains and hits at least as hard as a .22 but is going faster. 20 m on chest shots. Not to be confused with the Crow Magnum that the Americans love so much which is a heavier pellet and doesn't work as well in our reduced power sub 12 lb rifles. Speed kills!!

I have been using .22 since my sooper dooper .177 was stolen and i am getting used to the calibre now. Have killed 22 squirrels but don't have confidence with it beyond 35 yds. .22 hits harder but .177 kills better . Ballistic coefficient has a significant bearing on getting the pellet to the target but sectional density has more importance for what actually happens at the business end of the deal. I am always learning and trying to achieve the optimum pellet/rifle pairing. I am also open to anyone's opinions and experience. I am not getting any squirrels heavier than 550 g at the moment and the H and N sniper Light sat 14 grains are very effective out of the Gamo Phox /BSA XL has anyone got a better pellet for this rifle ? I got 3 today ; one through the elbow joint and then through the chest, one through the upper arm and then through the chest and one just in the engine room . Recovered all via scalpel and there was no deformation of pellet at all. I thought that a 14 grain .22 pellet would be soft and easily deformed through bone but in practice this is not the case.

I killed my first grey with my car at 30 miles an hour that is 44 feet per second not very fast in terms or air rifle pellets but there are 15, 432 grains in a kilo and my car was approx 500 kilos; the squirrel tried to evade the car but the steering wheel allowed the car to hit the moving target. The squirrel impact did not slow the projectile down, there was no penetration but it was an instant kill. Bought a Webley Stingray springer in .22 used milbro Caledonian 15.6 g pellets, inaccurate, changed to Accupell 14.3 g became much more accurate killed 79 in 6 months missed plenty. Bought .177 pcp used JSB Exact 8.44 g very accurate and better at killing squirrels than the .22 Accupell. Then tried Crossman Destroyer 7.9 g does what it says on the tin up to 35 yds. H and N recommend 7.9 g for sub 12 lb air rifles so tried Crossman/ Webley Accupell 7.9 g were better than the JSBs. Then tried Crossman/Webley Powapell again 7.9 g but semi pointed shape (completely different shape to that shown on their tins) better longer ranges better in the wind and better at killing unless squirrels were small. I predominantly shoot heart rather than head. If you miss the heart you penetrate both of the lungs and secondary projectiles from smashed ribs cause even more trauma. I killed over 8oo with the '177 until it was stolen last month. I am now using .22 Gamo Phox it chronoed Accupells 14.3 g at 572 ft per second and was accurate to 10 mm groups (edge to edge) at 25 yds but H and N Sniper Lights 14 g chronoed at 580 ft per second and grouped edge to edge within a 5 pence piece. Great for head shots, great up to 25 yds for heart/lung but not beyond. I will try the Powapell but think that I will return to .177 next rifle. I believe that speed and penetration of the animal are the key to killing; dumping energy less so. .22 flat heads knock them off the tree but only break ribs.

I didn't mean to sound like I was having a go at the Gamo which is really a BSA ultra xl in disguise. I am just not used to the different loopy trajectory of the .22