Air rifle power vs. .22 rimfire?

[Black Beard]

Agree with the last post. BB caps and CB caps are pretty weedy on the powder burner scale.

Unfortunately, for all their technical brilliance, high power big bore airguns are a solution looking for a problem. A .22LR is cheaper to shoot and performs almost as well. A early 20th century rook rifle does everything better (120grn 8mm bullet, 750-1300fps depending on how I load it).

.22LR is still going to have more energy at 200yards than a air rifle. My book says it will drop from 135ftlb to 85 over the first 100 yards so I'd guess on 50ftlb at 200 (play with chairgun and you would get a better result)


BB

[riku]

Agree with the last post. BB caps and CB caps are pretty weedy on the powder burner scale.

Unfortunately, for all their technical brilliance, high power big bore airguns are a solution looking for a problem. A .22LR is cheaper to shoot and performs almost as well. A early 20th century rook rifle does everything better (120grn 8mm bullet, 750-1300fps depending on how I load it).

.22LR is still going to have more energy at 200yards than a air rifle. My book says it will drop from 135ftlb to 85 over the first 100 yards so I'd guess on 50ftlb at 200 (play with chairgun and you would get a better result)


BB

I would have to disagree. You can have an air gun that is silent and has more retained energy and less wind drift than a .22lr in long ranges. You just need to skip the pellets and look for a bullet shooting airguns in .224, .243, .25 or .257 calibers. Larger calibers will of course do even more so but making them quiet is a bit of a challenge. If you cast your own bullets costs are way less than centerfire and mostly even less than a .22lr.

[Bjacobs571]

I would have to disagree. You can have an air gun that is silent and has more retained energy and less wind drift than a .22lr in long ranges. You just need to skip the pellets and look for a bullet shooting airguns in .224, .243, .25 or .257 calibers. Larger calibers will of course do even more so but making them quiet is a bit of a challenge. If you cast your own bullets costs are way less than centerfire and mostly even less than a .22lr.

If I put a silencer on a rf with subsonic ammo I also get a "silent" rifle. Most 100ftlbs air rifles only give 5 or six shots on a full cylinder so unless you carry a large air cylinder that's your lot for hunting. I could carry 50 rounds of .22 and not know I had them. 100 to 150 rounds are quite easy to carry in your pockets.
No one would actually hunt with .22short unless it was at very close range so the fact a FAC rife can achieve the same energy is illrevelent. In my opinion the high power (100ftlbs) air rifle is an answer to a question no one asked. It's an exercise in we did it because we could not because we should

[lensman57]

Reading the responses to the OP's question I get the idea that somehow the reason why airguns even @ sub 12 ft.lbs are such popular pest control tools particulary in the UK has been lost.
I am not going to go into argumentative posting but IMHO and as it stands a 30ft.lbs .22 air rifle is all the air rilfe that you need given UKs legal quarry and the average shooting ground.
For anything else a powder burner with enough energy to kill the animal " humanely " should be used . Lets face it a 17 HMR whose bullet weights less than a heavy .22 pelllet leaves the muzzle @ over 2500 ft/s and around 225 ft.lbs of energy. At 100 yards ( where even the FAC air rifles die ) it is still travelling at over 1800 ft/s and over 100 ft.lbs of energy. Use the right tool for the right job. I really see no point in having a 100 ft.lbs air rifle. I'd rather use a .22 LR which is just as quiet as a sub 12, multitudes cheaper to buy and maintain than a high power air rifle and much more effective down range.

A.G

[Barryg]

If I put a silencer on a rf with subsonic ammo I also get a "silent" rifle. Most 100ftlbs air rifles only give 5 or six shots on a full cylinder so unless you carry a large air cylinder that's your lot for hunting. I could carry 50 rounds of .22 and not know I had them. 100 to 150 rounds are quite easy to carry in your pockets.
No one would actually hunt with .22short unless it was at very close range so the fact a FAC rife can achieve the same energy is illrevelent. In my opinion the high power (100ftlbs) air rifle is an answer to a question no one asked. It's an exercise in we did it because we could not because we should

I have often wondered what's the point of high powered PCPs and have asked this question to shooters in the US and the main answer
that they give is that they have laws as well as us, especially in the town's.
I can see the appeal of a Powerful springer shooting at about the same power as a cap rf because it's so self contained cheap and easy to plink and have fun with but why bother with FAC high power PCP in this country.

[greenwayjames]

I would have to disagree. You can have an air gun that is silent and has more retained energy and less wind drift than a .22lr in long ranges. You just need to skip the pellets and look for a bullet shooting airguns in .224, .243, .25 or .257 calibers. Larger calibers will of course do even more so but making them quiet is a bit of a challenge. If you cast your own bullets costs are way less than centerfire and mostly even less than a .22lr.

What you dont mention is that for long range shooting competitions most shooters rifles are hooked on to diving bottles and fed through regulators into the gun. Its hardly a test of the rifle and not really practical for a days sporting shooting over the fields

[riku]

What you dont mention is that for long range shooting competitions most shooters rifles are hooked on to diving bottles and fed through regulators into the gun. Its hardly a test of the rifle and not really practical for a days sporting shooting over the fields

In airgun bench rest shooting tethering is the norm, it would not be practical to fill up after each group - although some people do that. For hunting (at least where I live) 5 shots is enough and 10 shots plenty, I've never emptied a magazine of my 10/22 while shooting game. There are compact bullet shooting airguns with decent shotcount out there, American Air Arms being one good example.

[Bjacobs571]

In the USA in most states, an air gun doesn't count as a firearm no matter how powerful they are. So I suppose there is some use for them there.

[pablowatercolor]

Why are you comparing an airgun straining at the top of its possible performance with a real gun at the bottom?

[riku]

I have often wondered what's the point of high powered PCPs and have asked this question to shooters in the US and the main answer
that they give is that they have laws as well as us, especially in the town's.
I can see the appeal of a Powerful springer shooting at about the same power as a cap rf because it's so self contained cheap and easy to plink and have fun with but why bother with FAC high power PCP in this country.

You could just as well ask what's the point in bow hunting.

[pothunter]

You could just as well ask what's the point in bow hunting.

So what is the point of bow hunting?

[pablowatercolor]

So what is the point of bow hunting?

It takes far more skill.

[Barryg]

You could just as well ask what's the point in bow hunting.

It's banned in the UK
Back on topic, remember power without powder by mike wade

[Shed tuner]

Reading the responses to the OP's question I get the idea that somehow the reason why airguns even @ sub 12 ft.lbs are such popular pest control tools particulary in the UK has been lost.
I am not going to go into argumentative posting but IMHO and as it stands a 30ft.lbs .22 air rifle is all the air rilfe that you need given UKs legal quarry and the average shooting ground.
For anything else a powder burner with enough energy to kill the animal " humanely " should be used.
A.G

Having used a range of FAC (from 20 to 65 FP) and 12 FP airguns, and various rimfires (.22LR, WMR, and .17 HMR) , I have to say I completely agree with this.

One you get more than around 30 FP air starts to make much less sense. In fact I generally ran about 25-30Fp as the optimum balance of trajectory, effective range, and silence. The whole point of air is that it isn't too powerful, dangerous, or noisy.

[RichardH]

Performance wise, a 16gn jsb from a 32ftlb rapid would walk all over a .22short imho with better accuracy and trajectory.
Neil

Not sure thats actually the case?

The standard velocity .22 short launches a 29 grain bullet at 1,045 fps with 70 ft. lbs. of energy from a 22" rifle barrel