Bussta Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 I am a keen game shooter and own several shotguns and have recently been down to my shooting land to do some vermin shooting,. I managed to bag a bunny with my 12 bore, but as you can guess the rest of the blighters scarpered as soon as I fired. I have an air rifle at home - .22 old BSA meteor I think - one of the crank ones, but I'm not sure if this will do the job at a decent distance and will be powerfull enough. I have heard of gas powered rifles, but don't really have a clue about them and how they work - e.g do you need to keep buying the cannisters? Can anyone let me know what type of rifle I should get to shoot bunnies at a good distance and typical price range for such a gun? - also would a silencer help to muffle the sound so not to alert the rabbits? much appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crowstopper Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 BSA meteor is a great little gun although I think it is limited to 8ft lbs, I would recommend if you are only going to shoot a few bunnies, not to spend a great deal on a airgun, I have had a BSA meteor and it did me well but lacked the stopping power, If I were you I would go for a BSA lighting, this is a single shot break barrel gun with a moderator on it (which is great to sneak up on the bunnies). The cost of this gun is around £150 to £170 which is cheap if you look at some of the gas rifles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisherman Mike Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 Bussta. Your old meteor probably wont be up to the task. You have three choices either a spring gun, a pre-charged pneumatic.(PCP) or a co2 powered gun using capsules of pre-compressed CO2 either in .22 calibre would dispatch a bunny with a head shot at about 35m. However they work best at night when a decent bag can be accumulated at reasonably short range when lamping, without scaring the resident population too much. Even with a silenced weapon during the day bunny will be gone when you arrive on the scene and it takes a lot of patience to get a clear head shot during the day. You need to purchase either a pump or a air cylinder to fill the PCP, and the muzzle energy of either a springer or PCP is limited to 12ftlb, above which a firearms certificate is required. I would suggest a decent springer would be the BSA Lightning with scope and silencer would set you back about £220 where as a good value PCP like the BSA Hornet would be including pump about £480. The Co2 guns are limited in their availability and the only one I have experience of is the Crossman Rabbit stopper pro which excluding scope is about £280. The optimum range of each to kill cleanly with a head shot would be 30 -35 m although I have shot and killed occasionally out to 40m. My advice would be to get a Lightning, especially if it only for occasional use. Try www.uttings.com mail order specialists. Hope this helps, FM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webber Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 FM Could you or anyone else please advise. FAC air rifles obviously require an FAC, but do these weapons need to be used on land which has been approved by the police? webber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisherman Mike Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 Webber, According to my Local Constabulary Firearms Officer air rifles over the 12ftlb limit Ie. Requiring FAC. are treated similarly to small calibre rifles and as such require the permission of the landowner over which land the firearm is being used. Obviously restrictions apply in respect of the effective range of the firearm being less than that of the boundaries of the land from the point of discharge of the firearm. When I obtained by FAC air rifle the constabulary wanted to know where it was going to be used. I am afraid I cannot give you a definative answer. FM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webber Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 FM I suppose that once my FAC is renewed and I request an open cert I wont have a problem. I have written permission for all the land over which I shoot, but wondered if the land checking requirements were the same with FAC PCPs as they are with say a .22 rimfire. regards webber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ears Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 If the land is large enough, ask the land owner if he will let you apply for a FAC then you could use .22 rim and siencer with subsonic ammo, then you will be in with a chance. Failing that I have a friend who uses a FAC air rifle at 33ftlb and he really does get good results and also a little safer as the pellets dont travel so far if you miss and drop off quicker. He re fills it from a divers air bottle that he gets filled from a dive shop every now and then. The 22 rim is a cheaper option if the ground is safe. Then if you dont get lucky 12 ftlb .22 is the answer but about 30 yards is ya lot. I have done quite well in the past using a 12ftlb .22 air rifle with silencer with Eley Wasp pellets. Parker Hale used to make a single stroke pneumatic ( cant spell it ) rifle called a Dragon Mk2, had a side lever didnt need a pump or a bottle, contained is own cylinder under the barrel only disadvantage was it weighed about 9lb but acurate. I dont know of anyone else that made a single stroker but there may be others around, ask Uttings like matie said they will know. Happy hunting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratcatcherreed Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 a cheap rabbit gun is the crosman rabbit stopped at £150 quite good but i think the crosman ratcatcher may be capable of killin rabbits at close distance with 8ftlb power Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aled_cky Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 a BSA Supersport costs around £135. this is a great standard gun. got one and its served me well.. if you arnt sure about your Meteor's killing range. get a new spring. about £20 for a .22.. with 12ft/lb power you will be knocking rabbits out at 40yards with the right pellets. for rabbits NEVER use pointed pellets.. these will just go right through your quarry and will make it do die later when it has gone back into its hole. i have always used this moto... -Pointed pellets for pointed feathers. -Rounded pellets for rounded heads(this is any animal not bird ) Aled Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Aled, if you can get an old meteor to do 12ft/lb just by sticking a £20 spring in it then your motto should be abracadabra not round heads and pointy pellets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aled_cky Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 well he should get a Supersport then or some other good standard rifle. my 2 very old .177's are having new springs in them soon.. 1's almost 20years. Aled Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallinson Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 Hi I've done allot of rabbit shooting with air rifles before i got my S/G I've used all differen't types and makes of air rifles. The last gun i bought was a Air Arms tx200 which was co2 powered, the plus sides to this is that on ocasions when i missed the rabbit, there was no noise of the shot. The rabbit would just sit there and look about in amazment, untill the next shot was fired. The bottle i used was a divers oxygen tank which cost 3quid to fill up with co2. The only bad side was the gun would run out of co2, even though i used to fill it up before i went shooting. You can get your sights spot on aswell as there is no re-coil. I then bought a lamp that simply pushes onto your scope and there is a flick switch near your trigger finger. The battery curently controls my flapper and peckers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharp_shooter Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 AA tx200 in CO2?? I have one but that is a springer, never heard of it in CO2 form Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
here iam Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 Hello chap do not bother with co2 rabbit stopper the only way you will kill a rabbit is by clubing it over the head with the butt they are not powerful enough unless you have them tuned up to 12ftlbs. I my selve use tx200 springer hc very accurate up to 35 yards well built on the heavy side if i was honest but well up to the job about £245 brand new if you shop around. Ok lad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byhsu Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Mallinson: I have the TX200HC .22 and is not CO2 powered, it is spring powered. The HW95K is an excellent airgun for rabbits. it is light yet powerful, also consider the supersport. These two rifles are adequate for rabbit hunting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M ROBSON Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 I do a little bit of Lamping for Rabbits at this time of year and find my Falcon Raptor pcp is well up for the job, its one of the lightweight models so if you have to walk and shoot its easy to carry and hold steady for the shot. I shot 10 with it one night last week, the furthest being 35-40 yards but as mentioned above an accurate head shot is needed. An air rifle won't match a .22rf but its certainly more fun getting closer to your quarry. Mark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallinson Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Mallinson: I have the TX200HC .22 and is not CO2 powered, it is spring powered. Had it specially made for me took 2 months, bloody excellent gun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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