What is the best air rifle for rabbit shooting?

[norfolkgoose]

Def a hw100 ive made this mistake of selling my one to finance a r10 .,177 Big mistake wish I still had my hw 100 fsb great gun just did not like the side cocking... but a realy accurate and Reliable rifle !!

[Cymru-Dave]

Think I'm going to go for the hw100 carbine in .177

That's is exactly what you should do, I'd try both the sporter stock and the thumbhole, I really find the thumbhole comfortable, many don't though.

[Benji02]

That's is exactly what you should do, I'd try both the sporter stock and the thumbhole, I really find the thumbhole comfortable, many don't though.

Defiantly agree with you on that one, I have had a feel of the hw100 the long length as that's was the only version that dealer had in but this week I'm going to my second local dealer to see if they have any in just to get a feel of the gun and see what he thinks, I defiantly think .177 will be better for me at the min as my range guessing is awful and with a flatter trajectory gives me more chance with bagging some nice juicy rabbits thankyou everyone for the help and replys I'm very grateful and think this forum and website is brilliant!

[retromlc]

good choice,I have an "S" but I think the thumbhole is more comfortable on reflection

[Ttfjlc]

I could not agree more,,still gutted I sold mine to buy the wolverine b even though I,m very very happy with the wolv

 

atb Evo

Oh Evo, you keep telling yourself your very very happy with the wolverine but you know it can't help with filling the void left by the huntsman

[evo]

Oh Evo, you keep telling yourself your very very happy with the wolverine but you know it can't help with filling the void left by the huntsman

I know,,i,m gonna have to buy a new one at the midland,,

 

wolverine is spot on now but have to be honest I don't think it will ever have a place in my heart like my faithful Huntsman did, had some great days and nights out with it and it really was accurate as hell

 

atb Evo

[kent]

After doing some research I am thinking of getting a .177 as I'm not that good at range guessing and haven't got the money to splash out on a range finder just yet, I think if I get a .177 get some more experience in the field as the trajectory is more forgiving and see how it goes, do yous think that's this is a good idea?

 

 

Well I have never taken a ragefinder into the field with an airgun, its not shooting stuff a few hundred yards off like you might with a centre fire rifle and drop and wind measured in feet its a case of a longer shot perhaps needing up to an inch of hold over. Really and honestly your ability to cleanly kill vermin with an air rifle or any other rifle should not be measured by your ability to cluster five shots on paper but to place the first and only shot on target. In practice its very hard to achieve these required standards beyond 30-35 yards with a 12 ft lb airgun, its not competition and even then its about 40mm discs (twice as big as the target you get for your single shot). So you only need to know how far is too far and shouldn't be messing round with rangefinders which don't read out wind anyhow. Your too far might be 20 yards, it might be 40 - this you have yet to find out,

Calibre then becomes somewhat academic as correctly set up we are talking 35 yards with .22 or 40 yards with .177 of easily useable trajectory. FT and HFT scores don't exaggerate the facts on what are bigger kill zones , that don't take fright and run off or move unexpectedly as your releasing the trigger sear!.

 

Good luck in your search I suspect a good few years into this you will find there is more and also less too this airgunning lark than it at first appears

[secretagentmole]

I should say buy the one you like most from any of the top British makers and you will do ok. Although I have hunted with .177 and .20 also I actually prefer .22 cal. when it comes to vermin. In short if five yards trajectory advantage makes a difference your shooting too far out anyhow, in pcp there is also a shot count to consider between cals. Don't forget all the bottle/ charging bits and a decent scope and mounts in your budget.

 

Really? Top British makers? Theoben, went belly up, so simple to strip the likelihood is everyman and his dog have been in the mechanism beforehand, probably leading to something that either shoots like a sack of spanners, sounds like a sack of spanners or groups like a shotgun because it has been put back together wrong. Don't buy unless you are willing to spend another couple of hundred quid sorting out other peoples misdeeds! I know, I own a Rapid!

 

BSA. Some good guns in the stable such as the Super 10. But even with these the build quality was beginning to slip. R10s have had a whole host of problems, Ultras, the MMC versions have a nasty habit of breaking the probe release switch or the probe, Scorpions (SE) can have damned awful grouping that needs a trip to the factory to sort out (personal experience). Buy if you like, but factor in the problems and allow for either an XTX tune or a Bowkett blueprint (makes the gun what it should have been, not what it was built like).

 

Air Arms. Not as bad as the other two, but one of the most popular models is as British as a Skoda (the S200 is built in the same country too). Known problems inculde indexing and magazine faults, as well as poor finish.

 

Daystate. Acknowledged to be like a Rolls Royce (even down to charging a ruddy fortune for a different colour finish and a tartish name). Problems include a mechanism that eats pellets if you have not got them loaded into the magazine properly and they fall backwards following the probe when reloading (happened on my Mark 3 before I had it leading to a stiff bolt). Epensive to service unless like me you happen to have a local accredited service agent who will do for under 80 quid including spares what Daystate want three hundred notes to do! They are also expensive to buy secondhand.

 

Webley. They ahve not made a gun in Britain for over a decade. Most of their guns are made by Hatsan in Turkey, so save your cash and by a Hatsan instead. Most of their PCP rifles were made by other makers either Hatsan, FX or Evanix (note the lack of British names).

 

 

 

The HW100 is not without it's problems (ie getting more powerful over time as grease thickens), but by and large generally are built like and weight the same as a tank (got one of those too).

 

The best rifle is one you can achieve a grouping that is under 10p in size at whatever range your gun is best suited to zero at (I have mine set to 25 metres for .22 and 30 metres for .177). Find a gun you like the fit and feel of then find an accurate one!

Edited June 22, 2014 by secretagentmole

[kent]

 

Really? Top British makers? Theoben, went belly up, so simple to strip the likelihood is everyman and his dog have been in the mechanism beforehand, probably leading to something that either shoots like a sack of spanners, sounds like a sack of spanners or groups like a shotgun because it has been put back together wrong. Don't buy unless you are willing to spend another couple of hundred quid sorting out other peoples misdeeds! I know, I own a Rapid!

 

BSA. Some good guns in the stable such as the Super 10. But even with these the build quality was beginning to slip. R10s have had a whole host of problems, Ultras, the MMC versions have a nasty habit of breaking the probe release switch or the probe, Scorpions (SE) can have damned awful grouping that needs a trip to the factory to sort out (personal experience). Buy if you like, but factor in the problems and allow for either an XTX tune or a Bowkett blueprint (makes the gun what it should have been, not what it was built like).

 

Air Arms. Not as bad as the other two, but one of the most popular models is as British as a Skoda (the S200 is built in the same country too). Known problems inculde indexing and magazine faults, as well as poor finish.

 

Daystate. Acknowledged to be like a Rolls Royce (even down to charging a ruddy fortune for a different colour finish and a tartish name). Problems include a mechanism that eats pellets if you have not got them loaded into the magazine properly and they fall backwards following the probe when reloading (happened on my Mark 3 before I had it leading to a stiff bolt). Epensive to service unless like me you happen to have a local accredited service agent who will do for under 80 quid including spares what Daystate want three hundred notes to do! They are also expensive to buy secondhand.

 

Webley. They ahve not made a gun in Britain for over a decade. Most of their guns are made by Hatsan in Turkey, so save your cash and by a Hatsan instead. Most of their PCP rifles were made by other makers either Hatsan, FX or Evanix (note the lack of British names).

 

 

 

The HW100 is not without it's problems (ie getting more powerful over time as grease thickens), but by and large generally are built like and weight the same as a tank (got one of those too).

 

The best rifle is one you can achieve a grouping that is under 10p in size at whatever range your gun is best suited to zero at (I have mine set to 25 metres for .22 and 30 metres for .177). Find a gun you like the fit and feel of then find an accurate one!

 

Yet the fact remains that the British trade lead the rest, globalisation ensures few products made in any scale remain truly British. I bet if you looked in depth into things you might find the same about German guns. Not knocking the HW mind you and a totally except that Webley is just a marketing name hence I used "manufacturer" Even Gaystate is owned by an Italian group I think? BSA is Gamo? Its all so complicated is Land Rover British or not ? Theoben no longer trades and actually made very good guns at one stage and you cant honestly blame manufacturers after the gun fiddlers have been all over the product

[Catweazle]

On the subject of British airguns, I have a Phoenix Mk2 and it's superb, mine is actually more accurate than my Rapid Mk2. I know a lot of it is made in the UK as I've been to the factory and seen the machinery, but the barrels are sourced from BSA or Walther and the woodwork from Italy.

 

Worth a look if you want something a bit more unusual.

 

http://www.gunmart.net/gun_review/phoenix_mark2_carbine

[Benji02]

Well I have never taken a ragefinder into the field with an airgun, its not shooting stuff a few hundred yards off like you might with a centre fire rifle and drop and wind measured in feet its a case of a longer shot perhaps needing up to an inch of hold over. Really and honestly your ability to cleanly kill vermin with an air rifle or any other rifle should not be measured by your ability to cluster five shots on paper but to place the first and only shot on target. In practice its very hard to achieve these required standards beyond 30-35 yards with a 12 ft lb airgun, its not competition and even then its about 40mm discs (twice as big as the target you get for your single shot). So you only need to know how far is too far and shouldn't be messing round with rangefinders which don't read out wind anyhow. Your too far might be 20 yards, it might be 40 - this you have yet to find out,

Calibre then becomes somewhat academic as correctly set up we are talking 35 yards with .22 or 40 yards with .177 of easily useable trajectory. FT and HFT scores don't exaggerate the facts on what are bigger kill zones , that don't take fright and run off or move unexpectedly as your releasing the trigger sear!.

 

Good luck in your search I suspect a good few years into this you will find there is more and also less too this airgunning lark than it at first appears

 

 

Indeed I have a lot to learn but iv got to start somewhere and I'm sure the more I do it the more I get used to accurately guessing ranges, and maybe one day (many years from now) I'll be giving the advice to some newby like me

[Dekers]

 

 

Well I have never taken a ragefinder into the field with an airgun, its not shooting stuff a few hundred yards off like you might with a centre fire rifle and drop and wind measured in feet its a case of a longer shot perhaps needing up to an inch of hold over. Really and honestly your ability to cleanly kill vermin with an air rifle or any other rifle should not be measured by your ability to cluster five shots on paper but to place the first and only shot on target. In practice its very hard to achieve these required standards beyond 30-35 yards with a 12 ft lb airgun, its not competition and even then its about 40mm discs (twice as big as the target you get for your single shot). So you only need to know how far is too far and shouldn't be messing round with rangefinders which don't read out wind anyhow. Your too far might be 20 yards, it might be 40 - this you have yet to find out,

Calibre then becomes somewhat academic as correctly set up we are talking 35 yards with .22 or 40 yards with .177 of easily useable trajectory. FT and HFT scores don't exaggerate the facts on what are bigger kill zones , that don't take fright and run off or move unexpectedly as your releasing the trigger sear!.

 

Good luck in your search I suspect a good few years into this you will find there is more and also less too this airgunning lark than it at first appears

 

Grouping 5 shots or more on paper is a measure of the shooter/gun/ammo ability, If you can't do that how on earth do you expect to move on and deliver a one off shot in the right place every time?!

[kent]

 

Grouping 5 shots or more on paper is a measure of the shooter/gun/ammo ability, If you can't do that how on earth do you expect to move on and deliver a one off shot in the right place every time?!

 

I do not agree past the point that it proves gun potential and ammo potential. In a very short period of time you can train a person to do tidy groups from very stable stances and rests, the placing of the first shot "calling the shot" is a far harder skill to train and takes much practice to learn. Most field shooters spend too great an amount of their practice time shooting from the same favoured stance under favourable conditions taking their own sweet time to walk in their corrections by hold or dial in. Once they achieve this they see it as ability which boosts their confidence a good thing in shooting normally but not in the case in question

[kent]

Indeed I have a lot to learn but iv got to start somewhere and I'm sure the more I do it the more I get used to accurately guessing ranges, and maybe one day (many years from now) I'll be giving the advice to some newby like me

 

You can learn to shoot an air rifle really well in 12mnths, it just depends on how much good practice you put in. I have a friend who started up after becoming bored with his fishing in his 50s and he was winning comps in as little time as that. I seem to remember one of the top FT lads of the last 10-15 years (cant remember the name) gave up bikes and started on guns and did similar making the top shot in about a year. He was reputed to practice to serious levels talking thousands of rounds a week, that the nice thing about airguns its cheap to shoot a lot

[Dekers]

 

I do not agree past the point that it proves gun potential and ammo potential. In a very short period of time you can train a person to do tidy groups from very stable stances and rests, the placing of the first shot "calling the shot" is a far harder skill to train and takes much practice to learn. Most field shooters spend too great an amount of their practice time shooting from the same favoured stance under favourable conditions taking their own sweet time to walk in their corrections by hold or dial in. Once they achieve this they see it as ability which boosts their confidence a good thing in shooting normally but not in the case in question

 

:lol:

 

Fine, it shows no ability on the shooter whatsoever and it totally irrelevant to field gun craft! :lol:

 

It is basic staring stuff, if you can't do that there is little or no chance of delivering that important one off shot in the field.

[Dekers]

 

You can learn to shoot an air rifle really well in 12mnths, it just depends on how much good practice you put in. I have a friend who started up after becoming bored with his fishing in his 50s and he was winning comps in as little time as that. I seem to remember one of the top FT lads of the last 10-15 years (cant remember the name) gave up bikes and started on guns and did similar making the top shot in about a year. He was reputed to practice to serious levels talking thousands of rounds a week, that the nice thing about airguns its cheap to shoot a lot

 

So, he developed on targets at set distances hey, a completely useless and irrelevant pastime according to you which has no bearing on field work and #38 In a very short period of time you can train a person to do tidy groups from very stable stances and rests.

 

Edited June 23, 2014 by Dekers

[Catweazle]

Come on chaps, don't be plonkers, a new shooter is looking for advice, he doesn't need to see all your egos.

 

Buy a quality rifle as advised by many sensible people, practice a lot, join a club if you can. When you are competent, and can hit a £1 coin sized target at the ranges you will hunt at, then get out there and shoot some rabbits.

 

It's not brain surgery. Rifle + practice = humane hunting.

 

Enjoy the hunt once you are competent, resist the urge to take shots past your comfort zone ( we've all done it and felt sick when a wounded rabbit has legged it back to the warren - you wont enjoy it ). Trust me, taking that marginal shot towards the end of the shoot because you don't want to go home empty handed is not worth it - you'll regret it.

 

Have patience. Relax. Take two rabbits home with a clear conscience and you'll feel better than taking three but watching a couple run off.

 

Choose your shots carefully, enjoy your sport.

[evo]

Benji02,

 

take your time in choosing your rifle, but for the money you have to spend then I would get a Daystate Huntsman Classic in ,177, you wont need to ever buy another rifle,

 

they are quality, very accurate and with the change you have left you can even get a bottle to fill it,

 

there are many other rifles out there that you could choose including the HW100 but this gun is heavy and can sometimes be a pain to hump round all day but they are a cracking accurate rifle also,

 

Practice on targets out in the field mate and at different distances and in different wind conditions and also at different wind angles and you will very soon become very competent with your rifle,

 

take no notice of anyone that says don't practice on targets because even after 40yrs of using air rifles I STILL practice at least one day a week to keep me and my rifle in tune with each other,

 

good luck with whatever you choose to buy but keep this in mind " PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT"

 

best of luck

 

Evo

[Benji02]

I will see which one feels better but when I first started going shooting with my mate I was lugging around a hw97k witch isn't light and the reviews iv seen of the he are pretty spot on

[turbo33]

Come on chaps, don't be plonkers, a new shooter is looking for advice, he doesn't need to see all your egos.

 

Buy a quality rifle as advised by many sensible people, practice a lot, join a club if you can. When you are competent, and can hit a £1 coin sized target at the ranges you will hunt at, then get out there and shoot some rabbits.

 

It's not brain surgery. Rifle + practice = humane hunting.

 

Enjoy the hunt once you are competent, resist the urge to take shots past your comfort zone ( we've all done it and felt sick when a wounded rabbit has legged it back to the warren - you wont enjoy it ). Trust me, taking that marginal shot towards the end of the shoot because you don't want to go home empty handed is not worth it - you'll regret it.

 

Have patience. Relax. Take two rabbits home with a clear conscience and you'll feel better than taking three but watching a couple run off.

 

Choose your shots carefully, enjoy your sport.

 

Now that's a sound post

[kent]

So, he developed on targets at set distances hey, a completely useless and irrelevant pastime according to you which has no bearing on field work and #38 In a very short period of time you can train a person to do tidy groups from very stable stances and rests.

 

Yep, trouble is it turns to rat poop in the field when you don't have that perfect stance or know exactly were your gun will produce that bug hole of a group. This is why it is of LIMITED use to shoot groups.

Lets put it this way;

Get a friend to put some empty end on 12 ga cases end on in an open field, measuring each and unknown to you, some out of range. Now shoot just one shot at each the one you miss is your limit, use the most favoured stance initially

Do it again and again working towards off hand standing, you will then realise your limits rather clearly. A few sessions down at the FT club shooting reduced targets can also put things in perspective as long as you are not familiar with all the ranges.

Try it again in tricky conditions as nobody can repeat their standards in all weather

 

Groups are of limited use NOT NO USE AT ALL and are often over quoted as to their actual use for assessment of live quarry shooting and people often remember only their best anyhow

[srspower]

I tend to agree with Kent. The range is a good way to zero and learn range drop and map mil dots etc but in terms of practise it doesn't really prepare you for hunting where you have to judge range and windage, stalk and use various shooting positions and rests.

[kent]

I tend to agree with Kent. The range is a good way to zero and learn range drop and map mil dots etc but in terms of practise it doesn't really prepare you for hunting where you have to judge range and windage, stalk and use various shooting positions and rests.

That wasn't entirely what I meant and I feel mapping mildots and air rifles is not as clever as it seems at first, my own view is keep things real simple and that certainly include the reticule. In a FT G.P event you get one shot at each target 40mm 8-55 yards, you must ***** the range and wind visually or through use of the scope and take your shot. Position / stance is almost always seated but there are always a kneeler or off hand shot or two to put you off your stride.

This is fairly good practice other than the fact that the 40mm dis is twice as big or greater than you kill zone on live quarry and even the most unfit wont be out of puff walking the course. HFT ranges are reduced? and you take any stance as long as you have contact with the post? And no adjusting the scope for rangefinding or zero.

 

Firing multiple shots at the same target from the same favourite stance however that's largely a waste of time after the first

 

Funny even world champ FT shots cant make continuous clears to 55 yards with 40mm kill zones in FT, yet there are dozens of hunters who recon they can shoot better than that on every forum.

[dadioles]

There is hunting and there is hunting....

 

I am not very young and not very fit. I am out shooting every week but ALL of my shooting (mostly rabbits) is sniper style and I have all the time in the world to settle down, range find, line up the shot and head shoot the quarry.

 

I practice on paper targets and have charted the trajectory. Wind is not a major issue for me as I do not shoot in a gale. I am very accurate. If I cannot shoot a group of 5 within a 1" circle, that is not good enough for live quarry.

 

We all have different shooting environments, ability and techniques. I could not hold a gun steady enough to shoot from the shoulder with sufficient accuracy to humanely head shoot a rabbit at more than about 20 yards. I can, however, do that every time with my hmr off a bipod at 120 yards.

 

Catweazle #42 was spot on.

[kent]

Its surprises many how a little gust of wind can deflect an airgun pellet even at usual ranges, Hmr 120 yards 5mph - 1 1/2- 2" ?