Idiot Alert!

[George1990]

Best bet is to use it to learn about gun safety etc. and mounting and zero scopes, then if you still enjoy it fork out for a half decent rifle, or you will just get more and more annoyed at missing everything

[col s10]

Hi all,

 

I'm really sorry if this sort of stuff is child's play to you guys but actually this is why I'm here. I have loads of questions about air rifles and want to be responsible with my air rifle.

As I mentioned before I picked it up second hand. I have absolutely no idea what make, power, or anything else about it. It has no markings.

 

All I know is that it takes a .22 pellet and is cranked using the barrel. It came with a Crossman 4x15 scope (broken).

I know all this is very little to go by but what sort of power can I expect from this relatively generic rifle? I'm imagining it'll be less than 11 ft lb as otherwise the guy I got it from would've needed a FAC (is that right).

 

We have Grey Squirrel, Magpie, Pigeons and Foxes a plenty in my back garden and I want to do the right thing by dispatching them humanely and in line with the law. I suspect this rifle may not be ideal for foxes though.

 

Thanks in advance for any comments.

idiot alert.hes from essex

[aaron airgunner]

sorry dan, but cheap chinese guns really are'nt suitable for hunitng as they are not accurate and underpower, if you really want to get a proper hunting rifle then your looking at £200 pounds more than you paid for that one. but if you like shooting tin cans they are perfect. the longest i would use one of those rifles on live quarry would be 15 yrds, and it would still be hard to get a clean kill with them. you have to think about whats best for the quarry and at the end of the day, if you cant get all your shots in a 1" circle at 15yrds then you are risking wounding your quarry and its terrible thing to have to see a rabbit/woody/squirrel limp/fly/crawl off to die slowly and painfully.

[fullbore]

And I thought you were talking about Bleeeeeeeeeeeh

[Colster]

As it's Friday and I'm not sober I'm going to solve the .22 vs .177 debate once and for all (this shouldn't evoke any sort of violent reaction, should it?)

 

.22 for rabbits

.177 for pigeons

 

 

There...that's that sorted now on to the important stuff, who fancies a pint, I'm buying?

 

 

Welcome to the forum m8, I'd agree it looks like an SMK B2 and no I wouldn't try killing anything with it but if it gets you into the wonderful world of airgunning then it has truly served it's purpose and hopefully you do enjoy it enough to purchase something fit for hunting.

[LeeinVA]

A little something I put together

 

http://www.iceni-marksmen.co.uk/buyers-guide.php

 

 

Informative sight hoss, very nice, however you do not include the venerable .25? My calibre of choice

[smiiithy]

I picked up a .22 rifle more than ample for hunting rabbits, squirrels, magpies and pigeons for under £200 within a few days of joining Pigeon Watch. That included a decent scope and padded Realtree gun slip too.

 

Keep an eye out for bargains on Gun Sales and be sure to read some reviews of any ones that you like the look of.

Edited September 12, 2009 by smiiithy

[amateur]

What's the maximum range in your garden?

 

Set up a target at that range (with a good backstop or a "catcher" target holder, so that you are not firing any pellets off your property) and see what your and the gun's accuracy is like.

 

If you are consistently hitting 1" or better groupings at your maximum range, then you should be ok to take head shots at pigeons and squirrels - assuming that you have a good backstop.

 

If you can't consistently group within the maximum garden range, then you should look at a better rifle.

 

In all of this I'm assuming that your garden is less than 30yards/metres long.

 

You wouldn't want to be shooting more than 30yards/metres when you first start anyway.

 

There's a constant rubbishing of chinese guns on here - admittedly with some justification.

However if you are only needing it to work consistently at short ranges and you can demonstrate that it does, why not get some use out of it before you spend out more cash.

 

I've had good results with my SMK (but better ones with the Logun)

[Andy 01]

Informative sight hoss, very nice, however you do not include the venerable .25? My calibre of choice

 

Its a target club !!

Never seen anybody attempt to take a 55 yard targer with a .25, it was just aimed at what people will need to know when buying a gun for target work. :yp:

[Power ranger]

A bit late as only just loged on, but as soon as i started reading i thought, bet its an SMK,,,, and low and behold the picture confirms this ! SMK are great for a bit of plinking in the garden and dont let anyone tell you any different. For the price you can have hours of fun shooting tin cans with some suprising good grouping on paper targets. As for power on this model you would be lucky to be getting anywhere near 10 ft lb,,,,but everyones power mad, yet you really only need 3 ft lb to smash a rat skull in ! Get the rifle chrono tested as mentioned, it only costs a pound at most good shops and that will awnser your question of power. If you are going to shoot any legal quarry get BASA air rifle insurance for peace of mind (20 quid for year). Happy shooting. :yp:

[Colster]

You can get a reasonable 3-9x40 scope for around £40 or spend a bit more, either way it can go on another gun if you move on to something else later.

[amateur]

Yup, get a cheapish scope and fit it to your SMK.

 

Practice on targets at the maximum range of your garden

 

If you are getting good groupings, go for the pigeons, if not, get another gun and swap the scope over - easy!

[MM]

A bit late as only just loged on, but as soon as i started reading i thought, bet its an SMK,,,, and low and behold the picture confirms this ! SMK are great for a bit of plinking in the garden and dont let anyone tell you any different. For the price you can have hours of fun shooting tin cans with some suprising good grouping on paper targets. As for power on this model you would be lucky to be getting anywhere near 10 ft lb,,,,but everyones power mad, yet you really only need 3 ft lb to smash a rat skull in ! Get the rifle chrono tested as mentioned, it only costs a pound at most good shops and that will awnser your question of power. If you are going to shoot any legal quarry get BASA air rifle insurance for peace of mind (20 quid for year). Happy shooting.

 

 

are these rats made of kevlar?

[Power ranger]

Try J S Ramsbottom (JSR) for cheap scopes. Good quality for the money !

[mr salt]

just shoot tin cans.

if you get good ,spend more money on something that puts out 11ish ft lb(hunting power )

its a great sport.but have enough gun.

or its cruel.

dont go for the foxes,at all.

Unless you have a horse and a pack of dogs and a red jacket. (joke)

 

cheers scott

[Vulcha]

£200 for a gun thats good for hunting? I didn't realise that inflation had caused such a rocket in price. A mate of mine bought a BSA supersport with a scope, brand new for £140. Or try the for sale part of the forums. Usually theres plenty kicking round.

[johnbaz]

With these B2's, you can get some that are good and some that are bad (and some that are reeeaaaaallllly bad )

 

about fifteen years ago i had one that i took to a swap shop (to swap for a nice set of bin's), the old fella took the gun in his backyard to try it out....

 

he came back in chuntering and swearing under his breath, he'd fired it at the fall pipe (from the guttering) of his outside kharzi and it shattered, he thought it was cast iron but it was modern plastic :lol:

 

the gun i had was nice and powerful but when i removed the action from the stock, there were actual file marks there :lol:

 

i bought a chinese lion last week at the bootsale very cheaply, it was shooting high and right, a few seconds later it was exploding apples that i pulled off my apple tree

 

 

obviously not on a par with daystate, airarms or weihrauch but for a bit of fun in the back garden, just the thing

 

 

 

john

[townsend819]

would prob just bounce of the fox or injure it and it will just run . and then possibly get in trouble with the law for animal cruelty i would take some shots at some wood at 30 yards and see if it is penetrating it , CHRONO means taking it to the gun shop where he will test the power of the gun with a device but i bet its under 10ft lb

 

 

DONT shoot at wood, the fiberous cosistency acts as a trampoline in some case and you are asking for a ricochet. = lost eyes broken windows or equivalent. Also get it serviced by a gunsmith to check if it is safe, you dont know what has been done to that gun or the history of it, so get it checked out. check out the accuracy of the gun by shooting at a piece of paper with an aiming mark on it, shoot at it about 5 times from a rest, like a picnic bench to take out human error and measure the two furthest away holes from the middle of each then post your results on here along with the distance of the target so somebody can tell you if it is worth carrying on with that gun because if you bought it for £20 pounds I wont hold much hope on the quality of it, as above about getting thye gun chronoed, this means basically testing the velocity of the pellet fired from the gun, then you use that velocity in the equation pellet velocity squared times pellet wieght, divided by 450240. Then round that number to 1 decimal place to get your muzzle energy and if it is between 9.5 - 12 ft/lbs it is adequate for hunting, anything above 12, check your calculations, and if this happens again, i.e. it is over 12ft/lbs take it strait to your local gunsmith to take down the power, they will know what you mean, this is because you are in possession of an illegal gun as it is over the legal limit of 12ft/lbs.

 

HTH,

 

Will,

 

P.S, Welcome to the world of shooting, the best sport there is!!!