Squirrel Medicine- Air Rifle Recommendations?

[BigRedBowtie]

My dad has somewhat of a small, furry-thing problem. They are beginning to cause some trouble, and they need to be taken care of.

Live traps are A) Too much work, B) Not enough fun and C) Not gun-related

There's an old daisy pumper laying around the closet that my little brother (17) was able to topple a juvenile woodchuck out of a tree at about 10 feet. (Little bugger just sat there and watched him pump it) But most of the meduim-distance squirrel and woodchuck shots have been misses or merely stingers. I want to get them a decent single-shot air rifle that has some velocity, accuracy, and won't break the bank. I think a set of iron sights would probably be the way to go, too. We might have a couple of potential gunowners on our hands here- lets start them out right! What do you recommend?

 

[Cueball]

I've had excellent results with my RWS Model 34 air rifle. There have been many squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, possums, and raccoons met their maker as a result of that weapon. It's 1,000 fps which packs plenty of punch and a reasonably good range. Most of my kills have been in the 30-50yd range.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[HankB]

RWS Model 48 in .177. Using light RWS "Hobby" pellets gives me an honest (chronographed!) 1100+ ft/sec, but the heavier pellets are just a tad slower - and more accurate. RWS "Superdome" pellets shoot best in my rifle, and will easily give quarter-sized groups at 40 yards . . . beyond that, groups open up faster than the range increases. Plenty of power for tree rats as far as you can hit them, and it's accounted for more than a few cottontails . . . and a couple of armadillos (inside 20 yards) as well. Though the armadillos ran off a ways before expiring.

 

[El Tejon]

Many of the furry-tailed foe have fallen to my Beeman C1 and FWB 127. Death from beyond!

 

[BigRedBowtie]

This is great- you guys get just as excited about things that go *pop* as you do about things that go BOOM! Keep 'em coming!

What about the CZs?

 

[roo_ster]

Beeman, RWS, Finwerk-something-or-other are all good piston airguns.

If you want to spend less money, a Benjamin is a good pump airgun.

 

[rockstar.esq]

I have a crossman that came with a cheap scope. Although the trigger is a bit heavy, I can manage it quite well out to 25yds. Two rabid squirrels have been laid to rest without alerting the neighbors with a lot of shots. Generally one good head shot shuts them down. FYI, you might need to gauge how long a follow up shot might take as once they're hit, they can cover a lot of ground and your neighbor might not subscribe to "fair chase"!

 

[MilsurpShooter]

I saw it in Shotgun news once there is a .22 round out that fires at something like 300 FPS. Would probably be good for squirrels, more weight then a BB or pellet

 

[PaladinX13]

I find the Aquila .22 SUPER Colibri 20gr No Powder rounds to be extremely quiet... but too inaccurate for anything but really close up shots.

CCI .22 LR CB, 29-Grain CB Bullet, 710 fps, are my tool of choice... they hit accurately and with more authority than any of my airguns with slightly more noise- but the sound is a deep pitched "pow" versus the sharper "crack" of my air rifles.

I've got a Mac-1 Steroided Benjamin 392, stock Sheridan CB9A, a Talon SS PCP in .22, some springers and bulk filled CO2 Crossman and chinese rifles. I'd still pick a bolt action .22 LR for squirrels.

 

[El Tejon]

FWB is not merely a fine air rifle, it is Cherman, thus it is tH3 d34dly!

 

[BigRedBowtie]

Being that they live on the business-end of the driving range for the city's public golf course... (INCOMING!!!) I think anything propellant-burning should be avoided... although one particular 'chuckie fell to a 230g hardball... I couldn't resist.

 

[Texian Pistolero]

Some years ago, I duct taped a cheap .22 scope to a Benjamin pump up air pellet pistol, and after I got it zeroed, I was shooting wasps off the ceiling.

I think you want to go for head shots, both for humane reasons, and you don't want a squirrel to get away, die in a hard to reach place, and stink up the place.

 

[Commissar Gribb]

I suggest 7.62 x 54R



*splat!*

 

[bmoney13]

if you have .22 the aguila super colibri work real well. I have killed many squirrels with it and even got a duck with a headshot (after many attempts). I shot the duck cause about 50 of them crapped on our lake lot and I had to scoop up all the crap (1/2 a 5gallon bucket).

 

[slopemeno]

I have a Beeman C-1, a Hurricane, a BSA Meteor, and a Daisey 717. If I was to drop some money right now on a new air rifle, I would look at the Webley Tomahawk or Longbow. Nice airguns, low lifetime maintenance, reasonable price, decent accuracy. No fill stations, no pumping. My Beeman/Webley C-1 has been an amazing shooter over the years.
Is anyone still importing the Meteor? I thought I had heard it had been discontinued. Thats a sweet light, fast little air rifle.

 

[Seven High]

Take a look at the Gamo Shadow 1000 at Walmart. Very accurate and reasonably priced.

 

[JohnKSa]

Air rifle hunting is far more about accuracy and shot selection than it is about power. Most any airgun that will break the 400fps barrier will reliably kill a squirrel at modest ranges if the shots are picked carefully and the pellets are placed well.

BTW, while squirrels are often considered vermin it's worth noting that they are legally game animals in many areas. It may not be legal to shoot them during certain times of the year, and when it is, it may not be legal to use an airgun on them.

 

[DBR]

If moderate noise is not a problem, I recommend 22lr Quikshok ammo in a reasonably accurate 22 rifle. A hit anywhere from the head to the root of the tail is a quick kill. The entrance wound is invisible and the exit wound turns the far side of the squirrel into red mist. This is a fragmenting round at about 1500fps so if you hit anything it will not over shoot.

I have a serious problem with red squirrels that gnaw into the house and chew on things like wires. I have taken out more than 300 of them in the past 5 years using this round. It works every time.

 

[GunGoBoom]

Cheap but good: Crosman RM377, Quest 800, or Quest 1000 (Mendoza factory Crosmans).

A little more: Diana/RWS 24, 34, 36, 40

A little more: Beeman R1 (cat's meow)

But those are just a few examples - there are many many fine ones like Webley, Weirauch (sp?), Air Force - I'd suggest spending time browsing here:

www.pyramidair.com for shopping

and here

http://www.straightshooters.com/ for info

stay away from the junk which has the names of Daisy and Winchester slapped on them, IMO. Beeman and Remington sure have some junky guns bearing their names too it seems - but I'm not really an expert. The *real* Beemans from Germany are universally good. Gamos seem like a decent value but not great IMO.

My workhorse mid-powered rifle for house/yard pests is the Crosman RM377 in .177 ($55 brand new on sale), with Lynx rimfire rings and a Bushnell Banner 4-12x40mm AO. Advertised at 825 fps, it is deadly accurate with cheapie Beeman 'coated' wadcutters found at Walmart/Academy. A city squirrel who stopped for a nap in my maple tree ended up in my belly after a head shot from the Crosman.

The Super Colibris out of a .22 are very quiet, and @ 20 gr doing 500 fps, they have more than enough power for even big(ger) stuff like rabbits and crows easily. BUT, 3 potential problems. One is minor - you need a single shot or other gun that you can load one at a time since they typically don't cycle in a repeater. Second, if you live in the city, the .22 would be much more frowned up if 'caught' by an LEO, even with Colibris - otherwise, it would be 'just a BB gun, man.' Third, alas, the SuperColibris have enough of a QC issue that although most hit accurate to your sight in point, there are gonna be some inconsistent ones that produce fliers - enough to miss a starling sized target at 15 yards - not acceptable.

P.S. You *can* substitute duct tape for the Lynx rings if you like, but then there'd be no guarantees.

 

[Sharps Shooter]

When his wife (my daughter) isn't watching, my son-in-law takes out the little pests with a Benjamin .22 caliber pistol. My daughter doesn't approve of it though. Funny - she's a hunter herself and took a couple of deer before she ever got out of high school. But she sure has a soft spot for those darn tree rats. At any rate, I think any halfway decent air rifle or pistol should work fine. I'm probably going to get a Benjamin/Sheridan .20 caliber "Blue Streak" one of these days. My old Benjamin .22 caliber rifle is about worn out. But it's nearly 30 years old and we've killed countless garden pests with it - everything from golphers to magpies. We've even killed a couple of small rabbits for the frying pan with it.

 

[redneck2]

I wouldn't know from personal experience...

but I've "heard" that an RWS .177 @ 1,100 fps will whack a tree rat DRT. With head shots, they just tumble over and fall out (so I've heard)

Works equally as well for chip-rats, crows, grackles, and other assorted vermin. If one were to live with close neighbors (which I do), this would probably work (so I've heard)

Some squirrels are (or were) known to eat $5 worth of bird food a day. $5 a day x 7 days a week times 4 weeks a month=$140 a month

ain't no squirrel worth $140 a month. Heck, I don't spend that on my wife

 

[roo_ster]

GGB:

I bought a Beeman R1 while in high school. "Cat's Meow" is right on target.

I would second (third, fourth?) the notion of head shots. A shot in the thoracic cavity will do the job, but head shots are DRT and avoid wounded squirrels from reaching the neighbor's rear deck and expiring in a conspicuous manner.

 

[mainmech48]

Two options that've worked well for me, one El Cheapo and one fairly expensive.

Chinese .177 that I bought for about $35 several years ago from
Compasseco. Side-cocker, spring-air, SKS-like sights, launches standard 'Diablo' pellet at just over 800 f/s with rather amazing accuracy (considering the coarse sights and extremely low cost). With head shots, I've taken cottontails outta the veggie patch out to about 15 yds. Body hits, even when right in the classic 'heart/lung behind-the-front-leg-1/3-of-the-way-up' area aren't as sure, often requiring a coup de grace. Fox and grey squirrels aren't nearly as large, but are tenacious little buggers. Pretty much the same requirements for placement and range, and more likely to escape if a body hit isn't spot-on.

RWS M48 .22 bought from Cabela's ten or eleven years ago for $239. RWS 2-7X scope and mount. Pushes a pellet about twice the mass at around 830 f/s. Superb accuracy and enough oomph to drop either right in their tracks out to 30 yds or so with either head or shoulder hits.

I've had a bit of experience with the M48 in .177, too. The added velocity makes precise placement at airgun ranges a bit easier, especially at the far edges of the performance envelope, but make almost as much noise as a HV .22RF short doing it. This caused some PR problems with neighbors, and was largely responsible for trying the .22 version. IMO, the added mass and larger hole more than make up for the approx. 300 f/s on the terminal end, even if it takes a good deal more practice at various ranges to keep your placement skills sharp.

Don't know much about the Colibris in this context, as local laws make discharging any firearm inside the city limits illegal and fraught with all sorts of unpleasant and expensive consequences.

FWIW, I'd recommend a spring-air over a pneumatic (pump-up) as being the more all-around practical choice. It's been my experience that you'll seldom have time to do those ten pumps before the animal gets away should your first shot be less than perfect. A modern spring-air will generally give you equal or higher, and more consistent, velocities in either of the two most common calibers and do it for the same money or somewhat less initial cost.

 

[308win]

I have an old Crossman .22 pump air rifle w/open sights. I have killed fox and grey squirrels w/ one shot with head shots at 25-30 feet using lead pellets (they were dead when they hit the deck). I pump it until it is generating quite a bit of resistance but don't have any idea of fps.

 

[BigRedBowtie]

Good stuff, folks- I'll get after some of these suggestions and check in with what works!!