Best air rifle for target practice and varmint control

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Check out the new springless break barrel pellet guns. They use a gas piston system instead if a spring. They are alot more quiet and easier to cock and load. I have an old gamo hunter 177 and have killed racoons and woodchucks with eye shots. Its a really accurate pelletgun.
 
Beeman Sportsman RS2 Series high velocity .22 air rifle I bought mine at Walmart for $99.00 Comes with a .177 & a 22 cal barrel. I use the 22 barrel & have killed hundreds of squirrels out to 40 yards with it.

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I have an RWS 34N (Nickel plated) Air Rifle with a 3 x 9 variable Air Rifle Scope mounted in .177 cal, and have taken out many, many squirrels with it. Not sure how tough a chicken is but squirrels are pretty tough to kill with an air rifle.

Good point on checking on your local laws...

Assuming you can kill varmints that are ruining your property... I'd go with a side cocking or break barrel RWS or Beeman. .177 will be flattest shooting, but .20 or .22 will hit harder.

Best ammo...GAMO RAPTOR PELLETS! I've seen one of these kill a small hog with a head shot...unbelievable.

You probably don't need the scope for chickens but its a nice to have. You will need an AIR GUN scope...not one made for a conventional rimfire or centerfire rifle. AirGuns have different recoil impulse and will wreak a conventional scope.

As usual, you get what you pay for...

Have fun!
 
Killing a squirrel is child's play compared to a chicken.

Like I said in post #9, you either have to shoot them in their tiny tiny brain, or break their neck to kill them on the spot.

Any sort of body shot from any .177/.22 air rifle and they will run off injured.

rc
 
I have a Diawa .177 cal break barrel that I picked up used at a gun show. I'm putting a scope on it, but while I am waiting for the rings, I have been shooting pests out my back door with open sights. It easily dispatches rabbits that are invading my wife's flower gardens and starlings that infest my bird feeders. The scope on break barrels can be tricky since the gun will not close exactly as it opened. If I had it to do over, I would opt for a different model. I'll see how it does after I mount the scope.
 
The darn thing is, a good peep sight is (been a long time since I bought one) like $75 and that's hard to justify in most folk's brains when putting it on a $100 rifle.. however, I think they are well worth it and I've used many a fair scope on a springer
 
I'll rent you the boxer dogs for a week or two. They'll take care of your chicken problem. Drool and jowl slop included for no extra charge. :D
 
Don't underestimate the toughness of chickens. I had a neighbor that had two roosters with spurs who were continually harassing visitors to my house. I had repeatedly asked the neighbor to keep the roosters out of my yard. When one of my friends 4 year old daughter ended up with a big bloody scratch on her leg, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I shot one of the roosters with a field point arrow and pinned it to the ground. It flopped for a few seconds and laid motionless so I figured it was dead. I left it there as a message to the neighbor. About two hours later I had the police at my door asking me if I knew anything about the rooster running around with the arrow stuck through it. :banghead: The neighbor then killed it cleanly with a machete.
 
This is what I have been trying to tell everybody since this thread started two days ago.

You won't kill a domestic or feral chicken with an air rifle unless you shoot it in it's tiny little brain, or break it's little neck clean in two!

rc
 
dober83 said:
About two hours later I had the police at my door asking me if I knew anything about the rooster running around with the arrow stuck through it.
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Sorry that happened to you, but the image of that chicken running around like that is damn funny. It reminds me of a headless quail still flying in the cab of a pick up truck I saw when I was young.
 
A decent spring or nitro piston gun, with a decent scope will do dime size groups at 10 yards all day long. If you have the patience to wait till one sits still long enough, head shots will be plenty easy enough.


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Pellet gun has a hard time with Chickens, and other Chicken sized birds. I wouldn't try it, based on experience, and for all the afore mentioned reasons regarding humane kill. (Grew up on 400 acre farm... shot at a lot of critters, including chickens. Just makes em' mad). It's the feathers; might as well be a pellet proof vest. You'd have to be sure you're a crack shot!
 
dime size groups at 10 yards all day long
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MarkA knows of which he speaks!
I keep trying to tell everybody a chickens brain isn't even close to as big as a dime!!!

If you can hit a 1/8" dot at 10 yards every time, we might be getting close to hitting a chickens brain at 10 yards and reliably killing it with a .177 air rifle every shot.

rc
 
I doubt when you were young you had an honest 1000fps rifle, shooting modern polymer tipped pellets. Just like their poweder burning cousins, pellet rifles and ammo have come a long way in the last few decades.
 
Chicken's aren't a whole heckuva lot different than Pheasants. I've had well shot Pheasants survive a 12ga blast in mid air and outrun my dog.

Listen to the guys telling you not to use an air gun. You certainly wouldn't bring an air gun to a pheasant hunt. Those durn things aren't gonna sit there and let you pick them off in the head.

I doubt when you were young you had an honest 1000fps rifle
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Baloney. 1000FPS is and has always been 1000FPS. But it doesn't matter, you aren't killing it.
 
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I don't know about you, but when we were kid noone had a 1000fps rifle. I don't know if they even existed back then. And if they did we sure couldn't afford one. Please tell me what you were shooting 20-30 years ago when you were you that was an honest 1000+fps gun. I'd like to hear it.
 
I doubt when you were young you had an honest 1000fps rifle
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No, I didn't.
I said in post #9 is was using a .22 rifle.

Specifically, a Model 06 Winchester with .22 Long Rifle ammo at 1,200fps or so.

Today, I have two $400+ Beeman spring piston air-rifles in .177 and .22.

And I would not shoot a chicken with either one of them and expect to reliably kill it at most any range.

I would expect it to run off wounded through the neighborhood wounded & bleeding..

rc
 
My post was actually directed at MarkA. We raised chickes too. It would take a live demonstration to convince me that a close range, well aimed headshot whouldn't take down a chicken. And Btw, when I woke up this morning, I sure didn't see myself typing that line.
 
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