suggestions for an air rifle to shoot squirrels in the yard?

easy_money

easy_money

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What do you guys like in a pellet gun?

I've got a crossman 760 pumpmaster that shoots bb's or pellets,(I kinda wonder if I hit a squirrel with it, if the shot would even kill the squirrel?) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif but I'd like to get a pellet gun that shoots a little better and has more power. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I'd also like to target shoot it in the basement sometimes for fun. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

What guns and brands have you guys liked?
 
Really depends on how much you want to spend. In a nutshell,(no pun intended) the air guns are spring operated, pumps, or PCP (pre-charged pneumatic). Most common calibers, .177 or .22. For shooting squirrels I'd go with the .22. There is no comparison between the Crosman and a high quality pellet gun. I have some that cost more than firearms, but I can enjoy them year round and they cost little to shoot, so well worth the money, to me at least
 
I have a 177 cal Crossman pump up pellet pistol. The design has been around for 70 or 80 years.

Drops Squirrels in their tracks, you can get a shoulder stock for it, and mount a scope too.

I have the pistol, the shoulder stock and a red dot sight, and I have about $70 in it.

.
 
I believe the Air Gun you have will kill a squirrell. It's been 35 years ago so my memory is a bit foggy but I think I had the sameone back then and my brother and I used to shoot Ground Squirrels with them with in reason.

I have an RWS 34 now and it shoots pretty good. I had to put a Leupould Scope on it because it ate the other scopes like Candy. Even now I have to re adjust my scope every 50 rounds or so.

The 34 you can adjust the pull weight on the Trigger. I have adjusted mine down to 2 1/2# like my Varmint Rifles.
 
I have a Gamo .177 that will kill drop tree rats DRT with a head shot. its 1000fps +-. Any good air gun around 1000fps will do the job. If you get a scope for it get one for a airgun because of the reverse shock on the barrel break models. Ammo is more important, look for predator polymag pellets, they have a balistic tip on them.
 
The gun you have now would kill them.I had a crossman 760 for a while and I killed several rabbits with it.I shot pellets out of it most of the time and only went for head shots on bigger critters.
But if you want a springer pellet gun I'd go with an RWS,Beeman or Gamo.The RWS pellet guns are alot more expensive but they are probably better quality too.I did have an RWS model 36 but I wore it out.The gun I have now is a Beeman and its a pretty good gun I guess.Its not even close to as good of a gun as my RWS was though.I dont know if I'd target practice in the house with these types of pellet guns though.You'd make holes in your target and your wall probably. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I killed squirrels with the 760 (when I managed to accidently hit them) accuracy is horrid. what size yard? a regular size city yard? I would say benjamin 397 if noise is an issue then the Gamo whisper deluxe. Both my Benjamin and Gamo like the crossman pointed pellets from walmart. 177 is plenty for squirrel.

t/c223encore.
 
I have a 760 that I have scoped and sighted in from the back deck to the bird feeder.With 10 pumps it works everytime on the tree rats.
 
Thanks guys,

That's great information about the guns and the scopes and ammo info is very helpful as well. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

Now you've got me all excited. These guns sound way better than what I am used to. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

A gun like that will make it easier to get my kids into shooting as well. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Thanks
 
PLZ DO NOT GET A BEEMAN...They are junk. The 2 me and my buddy have pattern at about 12" at 30yds.

If you got the green....http://talonairgun.com/forum/index.php

Some cool stuff.

GJ
 
I've had an RWS model 36 for quite a few years (14-15?). It has probably 500 rounds on the gun in that time. However, in those 500 rounds I have taken a crow at about 40 yards and a couple of feral felines in my back yard. It's a typical .177 caliber and my gun really likes the Crossman Premier domed pellets. Had to go through a number of pellet types before I found one that would make me happy accuracy wise.

Air rifles are dictated by your willingness to spend money. If I were going to get serious, I would look at a .20 or .22 caliber pre charged pneumatic (PCP). They don't eat scopes like the springers and some of them are downright scary.

Don't get too caught up in the adverised speeds some of these guns claim. That speed is typically with a very light pellet. I think I read on airgun central where they had tested a lot of airguns with different pellets. Mine was advertised as a 1000 fps rifle, but with my particular pellet airgun central got about 860 fps.
 
Got a ground squirrel yesterday at 70 yrads with my Gamo Whisper deluxe. Got it on the 2nd shot off a fence post, dont know where the first shot went.

t/c223encore.
 
Got a frond squirrel yesterday at 70 yrads with my Gamo Whisper deluxe. Got it on the 2nd shot off a fence post, dont know where the first shot went.

t/c223encore.
 
Grizz here.
I have a RWS model 48 in 22 cal that I use for backyard safaris /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif At the time I bought it, it was my understanding
that it was the most powerfull 22 cal air rifle for the money 900 FPS. I have a Burris 3 to 9 power air rifle scope mounted on it. I shoot Beeman crow magnum 22 cal, 18.2 grain hollow point pellets. I use this on crows and other urban vermin. I want to keep the freaking ground squirrels
out of my yard. My best shot to date, I had a fat crow in a eucalyptus tree on the river bed trail behind my house. I got out the Leica range finder and ranged this crow at 76 yards at about a 30 degree angle. So I held about a foot high and droped it clean! RWS now has I think it's called the model 350 that is more powerfull, 1050 FPS in 22 cal.
Grizz
 
the only one i've been around is a airforce something but its way more accurate then i ever thought a pellet gun could be, its 22 cal, i think its a talon, at 40 yards it will stay at an inch. couple weeks ago 3 of us took two of the airforces and a mag light and in 2 nights we shot and killed over 700 pigeons. i did figure out that there not the most comfortable gun when you are shooting that much, we got these as a package so the scope says airforce on it, doesnt seem like a bad scope for a pellet gun, ryan
 
How big is your yard? What range are you shooting? A multipump pneumatic would be fine if your yard is 20 yards, but 50 yards is reaching for the cheaper stuff. 1377, Remington airmaster/2100 or Daisy 22SG if you are new to bigger stuff. The springers will be harder to shoot accurately because of the spring action. Also, you didn't mention how much you wanted to spend. there is a big world in airguns and they are getting bigger and more powerful. the biggest can take just about anything in NA that didn't escape from the African area of the zoo
 
If I wanted an relatively inexpensive "backyard" gun that I still considered to be of high quality, I would get a Steroid Benjamin pumper in .22, straight from Mac1. Might want to ask about a mod to keep things quiet. It should be around long enough to shoot sqwerls in the backyard for at least a couple of generations with the proper maintenance.

One of these days I'll get one for myself. I'm busy scrounging for bigbore stuff at the moment.
 
how can you quiet down a benjamin pumper I love mine its over 50 years old and still killing crows and everything else on the back yard safari
 


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