Thread: Taking up airgun hunting

I live fairly close (cycling distance) to a few sizeable farms and I'd like to offer my services to them as a pest controller. Trouble is, I've zero experience of hunting - but I do have a lovely Weihrauch HW57 and the ability to shoot straight with it (no scope, yet).

Before I go out, make a tit of myself and enrage the farmers, what sort of things should I be looking to do?

SFW

Wah aside, first tip would be, dont go hunting with an air rifle, you cannot be sure of a kill, and as such you would just be injuring whatever you shoot, so therefore, controlling nothing.

I dont think there is an air rifle capable of taking a Rabbit for example, cleanly, with a guaranteed kill when hit.
Pidgeons, maybe, if you hit them right, but honestly, a .22 rimfire or better, is the only none large bore weapon capable of doing the old pest control job.

Plus, farmers tend to have shotguns anyway, so a pointless task.

1. BASC insurance
2.Find a local shoot and go see the gaekeeper, offering to join the beating team. This may lead to an introduction to a famer or an offer from the keeper to shoot the rats etc around his pens.
3.Visit the farmers dressed smartly and be patient when they are rude; you probably will always come at the wrong time as they are always busy!
4.See if there are any air rifle shooting clubs (avoid 'Field Target' clubs as they are all to a man d*cks)

Good luck

Originally Posted by Gren

Wah aside, first tip would be, dont go hunting with an air rifle, you cannot be sure of a kill, and as such you would just be injuring whatever you shoot, so therefore, controlling nothing.

I dont think there is an air rifle capable of taking a Rabbit for example, cleanly, with a guaranteed kill when hit.
Pidgeons, maybe, if you hit them right, but honestly, a .22 rimfire or better, is the only none large bore weapon capable of doing the old pest control job.

Plus, farmers tend to have shotguns anyway, so a pointless task.

Congratulations- 3 paragraphs without a single accurate piece of information contained within them! More rabbits are killed with an airrifle than any other method. Damn I think you've just wah'd me!

Originally Posted by Gren

Wah aside, first tip would be, dont go hunting with an air rifle, you cannot be sure of a kill, and as such you would just be injuring whatever you shoot, so therefore, controlling nothing.

I dont think there is an air rifle capable of taking a Rabbit for example, cleanly, with a guaranteed kill when hit.
Pidgeons, maybe, if you hit them right, but honestly, a .22 rimfire or better, is the only none large bore weapon capable of doing the old pest control job.

Plus, farmers tend to have shotguns anyway, so a pointless task.

You're talking shiite

Originally Posted by Gren

Wah aside, first tip would be, dont go hunting with an air rifle, you cannot be sure of a kill, and as such you would just be injuring whatever you shoot, so therefore, controlling nothing.

.

Barret is the way forward

Originally Posted by Taffnp

Originally Posted by Gren

Wah aside, first tip would be, dont go hunting with an air rifle, you cannot be sure of a kill, and as such you would just be injuring whatever you shoot, so therefore, controlling nothing.

.

Barret is the way forward

I'll see your Barret and raise you a JP233 :D

Originally Posted by PrinceAlbert

Originally Posted by Gren

Wah aside, first tip would be, dont go hunting with an air rifle, you cannot be sure of a kill, and as such you would just be injuring whatever you shoot, so therefore, controlling nothing.

I dont think there is an air rifle capable of taking a Rabbit for example, cleanly, with a guaranteed kill when hit.
Pidgeons, maybe, if you hit them right, but honestly, a .22 rimfire or better, is the only none large bore weapon capable of doing the old pest control job.

Plus, farmers tend to have shotguns anyway, so a pointless task.

You're talking shiite

He is inded, but sadly with the introduction of NAMBLA, he may be closer to the truth than he realises.

The effective range of any half-decent air rifle is 50 yards - that's enough to give you a head-shot on Mr Bunny on all but windy days using something like a pre-charged Weihrauch, Air Arms, BSA, Falcon (my favourite) and others.

12ft/lb of energy is the legal power limit, and most good air rifles will come in at around 11.6ft/lb (they err on the side of caution) - which is still sufficient for a killing blow of between 4 and 6ft/lb at 50 yards, depending on the ballistic coeffiency.

Pellets to use? I'd suggest something like the Air Arms Diabolo Hunter or Field, Accupel, Daystate, or JSB Exact. Make sure your pellet is of the domed variety - best profile for downrange retention of energy.

I would suggest that you zero your rifle at a mean range, like 30 yards, and make sure you fire at every range from 10 yards to 60 to find out what the hold-over and under is for each range either side of 30 yards in 5 yard increments - write it down if needed.

Hope this helps.

Edited to add: For those of you who want to further evaluate the performance of pellets, air rifles at varying energies, I'd recommend you download 'Chairgun' which is an air rifle ballistics program - with some VERY useful features.

try this site,,, http://www.airgunforum.co.uk/forums/...ht=airgun+laws

I used to shoot on a local farmers fields, he was more than happy for someone to take care of the local stoggy (woodpigeon) population, a task my brother and myself carried out with relish. Bunnys were also dispatched with my trusty victor air rifle which was rated at 11ft/lb's. Find your local farmer, have a chat and see how you go, as long as you follow the country code, and more importantly the law then you should have no problems.


Word of warning though, be very aware of your surroundings and more importantly other hunters, a cammed up stoggy sniper in a hedgeline could easily be mistaken for a nice juicy pheasant .

NAMBLA?

I googled it and found:

North American Man-Boy Love Association

What the feck do they have to do with airgun hunting in the UK other than some field target shooters are probably members...

Back on topic as a general rule of thumb don't hunt rabbits until you can fire 5 pellet groupings no more than 30mm in size at 35 yards. Once you can you are confident that you will get a clean headshot almost everytime. The best place to aim on a rabbit is a point behind the eye in line with the ear above. Your HW57 probably won't be up to hunting at distances greater than 35 yards. IIRC it's just a basic spring type rifle and therefore harder for the average bod to shoot accurately beyond that with. However a 3-9x40 scope shouldn't cost too much and will make all the difference.

This is a good site to pick up quality second hand airguns and equipment: http://www.airgunbbs.com/forums/

Good Luck!

Originally Posted by JonnoJonno

More rabbits are killed with an airrifle than any other method.

On what planet does that happen? Not round these parts. I don't know anyone round here who uses a air rifle. They are taken with: .22 or .17 rifles, ferrets, shotguns.

As has been said earlier, in order use an air rifle on rabbits one need to be a good shot and although an air rifle can kill with ahead shot at 50 yards the ballistics of an air rifle are against one getting a clean kill at that distance.

I know large numbers of people have bought .17s and they are the D's B for rabbits. Flat ballistics and a clean kill every time, even with a body shot.

Originally Posted by Beerhunter

Originally Posted by JonnoJonno

More rabbits are killed with an airrifle than any other method.

On what planet does that happen? Not round these parts. I don't know anyone round here who uses a air rifle. They are taken with: .22 or .17 rifles, ferrets, shotguns.

As has been said earlier, in order use an air rifle on rabbits one need to be a good shot and although an air rifle can kill with ahead shot at 50 yards the ballistics of an air rifle are against one getting a clean kill at that distance.

I know lots of people who have bought .17s and they are the D's B for rabbits. Flat ballistics and a clean kill every time, even with a body shot.

Originally Posted by Beerhunter

Originally Posted by JonnoJonno

More rabbits are killed with an airrifle than any other method.

On what planet does that happen? Not round these parts. I don't know anyone round here who uses a air rifle. They are taken with: .22 or .17 rifles, ferrets, shotguns.

As has been said earlier, in order use an air rifle on rabbits one need to be a good shot and although an air rifle can kill with ahead shot at 50 yards the ballistics of an air rifle are against one getting a clean kill at that distance.

I know large numbers of people have bought .17s and they are the D's B for rabbits. Flat ballistics and a clean kill every time, even with a body shot.

If you can't kill a rabbit with an air rifle then you're a shiite shot. Simple.

I used to kill rabbits with my old spring powered, before I got the BSA superten. I've never, and I mean never, winged a rabbit. Rabit will fall when hit, backflips and all.