Tim_D Posted August 3, 2006 Report Share Posted August 3, 2006 Hi guys, Do any of you out there have any .25 FAC Air Rifle recommendations - I have this down as a second gun on my FAC so I can shoot pigeons. I will look out for one secondhand over the next 6 months. I don't think there's much choice as it seems to be an unpopular calibre but I've seen someone with one at about 30ft / lbs and it knocks holes in rabbits at 75 yards... Thanks for your help, Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coupe312 Posted August 3, 2006 Report Share Posted August 3, 2006 Hi guys, Do any of you out there have any .25 FAC Air Rifle recommendations - I have this down as a second gun on my FAC so I can shoot pigeons. I will look out for one secondhand over the next 6 months. I don't think there's much choice as it seems to be an unpopular calibre but I've seen someone with one at about 30ft / lbs and it knocks holes in rabbits at 75 yards... Thanks for your help, Tim i shot an dhad a few .25 and i would say although it is a good call even a FAC it does drop rapidly. the theoben are the best out there as a cheap option try the eliminator cause most people want pcp they go for very little. myself i'd go for a .22... i swap back to a .22 FAC rapid mark2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeboy Posted August 3, 2006 Report Share Posted August 3, 2006 Hi Tim, I wish you luck with finding what you are looking for. I'm not sure if any one still makes 25 cal air rifles, BSA used to so you should at least be able to find one second hand. As you said 25 cal is very unpopular this is because the big heavy slow pellet has a very curved trajectory and is very difficult to shoot accurately over any distance unless you know the range to the target excactly. people who I've known in the past that owned 25 cal rifles used them for close up stuff like rats, then the big pellet works a treat. To shoot rabbits at 75 yds would mean having a 75 yd zero or a range finder. You would be far more sensible to reduce the range by 15/20 yds or you will wound more than you will kill cleanly unless you are a top shot. Leeboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_nick Posted August 3, 2006 Report Share Posted August 3, 2006 get a variation and get a f.a.c .22, it will save you a lot of bother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim_D Posted August 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2006 OK thanks for the advice. I will look into this in a bit more detail before deciding. As I said earlier, my mate was knocking holes in Rabbits and with the larger pellet it was causing quite a lot of damage. I hear your points about curved trajectory, I will investigate the sort of drop we're talking about and compare it to what I'm used to now (I use a Mil Dot to overcome with my current .22 air rifle for target shooting) So far, I have found only Theoben as producing air rifles in .25 - in particular, the Eliminator that was mentioned by coupe382 here seems worth looking at. I wanted to get a spring rifle anyway as I don't have pump or cyliner for compressed air. Cheers guys. Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pin Posted August 4, 2006 Report Share Posted August 4, 2006 .25 is worse ballistic drop, and thats a hell of a range to be taking a rabbit at imvho. Out to 55-60 yards they will hit a lot harder and would be extremely useful.. If you are looking at that range regularly you would be better off with a moderated .22 rim or if you can deal with the crack a .17HMR. Incidentally I saw someone take a rabbit at what must have been a full 120 yards with a .17HMR yesterday, quite a crack from it but hell it made a complete mess of the rabbit. I watched the shot through the binocs and it jumped and ran, Stealth's dog found it a good 20 yards from where it was hit and by the damage that was done I can't see how the hell it managed to move at all, it was MULLERED Must have been pure adrennaline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evilv Posted August 4, 2006 Report Share Posted August 4, 2006 .25 is worse ballistic drop, and thats a hell of a range to be taking a rabbit at imvho. Out to 55-60 yards they will hit a lot harder and would be extremely useful.. If you are looking at that range regularly you would be better off with a moderated .22 rim or if you can deal with the crack a .17HMR. Incidentally I saw someone take a rabbit at what must have been a full 120 yards with a .17HMR yesterday, quite a crack from it but hell it made a complete mess of the rabbit. I watched the shot through the binocs and it jumped and ran, Stealth's dog found it a good 20 yards from where it was hit and by the damage that was done I can't see how the hell it managed to move at all, it was MULLERED Must have been pure adrennaline. The biggest problem I think any airgunner faces in field shooting is the curvy trajectory. This is enough of a problem with .22. The gun may put pellet upon pellet at the target range, but when a surprise rabbit presents itself along a hedge, in a wood, or in the corner of a field, the key issue isn't hitting hard, it's calculating the hold over/under, so you are certain you'll hit in the skull, and not its ear, or worse still its lower jaw. Hitting hard enough isn't the problem, it is hitting it hard in the exact right place that is, and the curvier the trajectory, the harder the problem. I'm going for a .22 FAC airgun at about 25ft pounds with 14 grain pellets and a .22 rimfire to get away from gunnery calculations that wouldn't be out of place for the average mortar. I toyed with the idea of .17vmax and .17HMR, but decided that with the number of rabbits I need to cull, the ballistic crack might reduce my opportunities for follow up shots. My advice to Tim_d would be to go for a .22 or even a .177. A rabbit with a hole in its brain never gets up again. That's a fact. I shot nine in a row that just fell over and twitched yesterday. That's because I knew the ground and the exact distance from my prone firing position to the warren they were playing outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pin Posted August 4, 2006 Report Share Posted August 4, 2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim_D Posted August 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2006 .25 is worse ballistic drop, and thats a hell of a range to be taking a rabbit at imvho. Out to 55-60 yards they will hit a lot harder and would be extremely useful.. If you are looking at that range regularly you would be better off with a moderated .22 rim or if you can deal with the crack a .17HMR. Incidentally I saw someone take a rabbit at what must have been a full 120 yards with a .17HMR yesterday, quite a crack from it but hell it made a complete mess of the rabbit. I watched the shot through the binocs and it jumped and ran, Stealth's dog found it a good 20 yards from where it was hit and by the damage that was done I can't see how the hell it managed to move at all, it was MULLERED Must have been pure adrennaline. The biggest problem I think any airgunner faces in field shooting is the curvy trajectory. This is enough of a problem with .22. The gun may put pellet upon pellet at the target range, but when a surprise rabbit presents itself along a hedge, in a wood, or in the corner of a field, the key issue isn't hitting hard, it's calculating the hold over/under, so you are certain you'll hit in the skull, and not its ear, or worse still its lower jaw. Hitting hard enough isn't the problem, it is hitting it hard in the exact right place that is, and the curvier the trajectory, the harder the problem. I'm going for a .22 FAC airgun at about 25ft pounds with 14 grain pellets and a .22 rimfire to get away from gunnery calculations that wouldn't be out of place for the average mortar. I toyed with the idea of .17vmax and .17HMR, but decided that with the number of rabbits I need to cull, the ballistic crack might reduce my opportunities for follow up shots. My advice to Tim_d would be to go for a .22 or even a .177. A rabbit with a hole in its brain never gets up again. That's a fact. I shot nine in a row that just fell over and twitched yesterday. That's because I knew the ground and the exact distance from my prone firing position to the warren they were playing outside. Absolutely well said. I've shot with airguns all my life and know what range I can hit accurately so leave many rabbits / pigeons well alone. Now I have an FAC, I'm going for .22 Rimmy subsonic moderated simply because of the horses in the fields I shoot which go nuts with a bang, otherwise I would have gone for the .17HMR but my second choice (.25 FAC airgun) is because I'm still an airgunner at heart too ;-) The way I tend to operate is I know where I want to shoot (I can see pockets of the little ******* in the fields from here now grrr), I go and sit next to some undergrowth very still and wait for them to come out again (typically 30- 60 yards range) - usually only takes 10 - 15 minutes, then I shoot a couple of them. I'm not into shooting 50 rabbits in a night - just one or two AND I eat what I shoot (part shares with the dog) so it's sustainable for me to go back to the fields every week without killing the lot! Anyway - the point of all this? I usually know the range I shoot at and take great pride in not pulling the trigger fairly often when I'm unsure of the distance or think it's too far to kill but yes it's damn tempting. Anyone read 'The Road Less Travelled' ?? bit of a tangent here but he goes on about delaying gratification and this is a perfect example. I want to pull that damn trigger but waiting for the perfect shot gives me such a buzz when I do and it's successful. Nuff said anyway I'm rambling a bit here... Cheers for the great advice anyway, well appreciated. Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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