Muzzle velocity of air rifles/pistol?

[andym79]

What are the fastest muzzle velocities of air rifles and pistol that you tend to get in the states?

How much do they cost?

Do you tend to get calibres other than .177 and .22 e.g. .20 and .25?

Over hear there is a strict limit of 6 ft/lbs (~ 500fps) for pistols and 12 ft/lbs (~ 800 fps) for rifle, not much guts, it sucks!

 

[redneck]

No real regulation on the power of an airgun over here, to my knowledge. Some areas have laws treating them as firearms, in which case it doesn't matter how powerful they are. Other areas don't have any real regulation on them, beyond where you can shoot them.
The most common thing is spring piston rifles rated at 1000 ft/sec. Can't remember the energy on that, a .177 would be around 16ft/lbs IIRC. There are much more powerful airguns available, but they aren't common place due to the high cost and the availability of firearms.
Wouldn't make much sense for me to spend over a $1000 on an air rifle, if the only criteria is that its powerful. You can get a .22 rifle, for as little as $100 that will outperform just about any air rifle you could find (in terms of power).
Now there are lots of other reasons to have an airgun, and I definitely understand the draw to them and why people spend the money for the good ones.

 

[RyanM]

http://www.quackenbushairguns.com

.50 caliber air rifle that shoots muzzleloader roundballs at ~800 fps first shot. Over 250 ft-lbs. And a .308 that shoots 115 gr conicals at ~850 fps, for over 200 ft-lbs.

 

[GunGoBoom]

Yes, we can get .20 and .25, but they're far less common than .177 and .22. Aside from the big-bore / custom pneumatics like quackenbush, etc., the most powerful 'standard' airguns come from Germany (Weihrauch, RWS/Diana, Beeman) and ironically, the UK (Webley, FX, etc.). Many many .177 springers and pneumatics are adverstised to be 900, 950, 1000, right in that range, so not much more than the limit on power by law there. A few are more powerful, advertised at 1,100, etc. My RWS 350, which is advertised at 1200 or 1250, is probably, near as I can tell, the most powerful .177 mass produced springer out there. I use extremely heavy pellets in it (Eun Jin 16 grs), to keep the velocities well under the speed of sound (around 1,050 -1,100 fps; I forget the exact figure of the SOS). Anything which goes from supersonic to subsonic before hitting the target impairs your accuracy, being the reason. I did in fact once chrono some lighter pellets in the RWS/Diana 350 in the upper 1,200s and even lower 1,300s, but I suspect that these are erroneous readings from my chrony, given the fact that it's more or less a POS chrony (Shooting Chrony), and that I've never heard of a manufacturer "under-advertising" their velocities. Plus I don't think I had enough light over the chrony. It appears that the Beeman Dual Magnum and Crow Magnum have the RWSs beat in power in .22 springers. The American-made Air Force Condor is advertised as "easily achieving 1250 fps" with .22 cal pellets, which probably makes it the most powerful mass-produced .22, but it's a pneumatic, not a springer.

http://www.pyramidair.com/cgi-bin/show.pl?cmd_rifles=show_guns_manufacturer&Manufacturer=AirForce

As far as pistols, single stroke pneumatics, reservoir pneumatics, and CO2s are almost always in the 350 - 410 fps range. The Webley Hurricane is a little more at around 500 fps in .177. The RWS/Diana P5 will get 550, but I don't consider it an actual pistol because its so huge, it's more like a carbine without a buttstock. The Hurricane is probably the most powerful pistol-sized mass-produced air handgun:

http://www.pyramidair.com/cgi-bin/model.pl?model_id=7

http://www.pyramidair.com/cgi-bin/model.pl?model_id=482 (discontinued item, it says there, so get one if'n you're gonna get one).

So I don't think that the law there causes you to lose ANYTHING in air handguns, but just a smidge in rifles. Still, at 800 fps in .177, that will very easily kill birds up to crow sized, and with a good headshot, will easily kill rabbits & squirrels. A crow would probably fly a ways before dying however.