large bore PCP air rifles for hunting

[draftsmann]

Welcome to the forum. I'm afraid there might not be too much informed comment on big bore airguns here as this is a British forum and the minimum legal muzzle energy for shooting deer is way above even the most powerful exotic Barnes or Quackenbush; furthermore bowhunting of any kind, including crossbow, is banned in Britain.

Needless to say that will not prevent us gaining some vicarious enjoyment from reading about other shooters' use of high powered / big bore airguns in other countries.

Adrian

[PrestonLadInUSA]

since I read Gary Barnes' wild-boar-hunt story but as I recall, it took two shots from his 500+fpe airgun to drop 120-130lb-er and others have done similar. But these were gut-shots.

About a year ago, I dropped a 260lb wild boar with my 9mm Career/90grn round-nose bullet and it dropped INSTANTLY. This is a combo that produces 130fpe when set to full power but in this case I had it set two notches down from maximum (variable power gun) as that was where I got the best groups and I ONLY go for head shots (I didn't Chrony it at this setting so I don't know the actual ME).

It was a perfect shot, right behind the ear. As it was a very hot day, we whisked the thing off to the local meat processing place and had them remove the head right away to see what damage had been done. As the pellet/bullet had passed straight through the head, I dont know how it turned out but it had certainly made a mess of the pig's spine...it was just a mush.

I was one of nine hunters that actually shot a wild boar during this weekend hunt and I was the only one with the 'overgrown BB gun' whereas the other guys had conventional stuff (center-fires, bows) but everyone agreed that mine was the cleanest kill of all.....because of the headshot.

My buddy got the shot on the DV camera and it's pretty cool to watch as you can actually see the pellet in flight before it disappears in to the boar's noggin. I have the movie uploaded to my 'Xdrive' on the net so anyone interested in downloading it can email me at michaelcraigwebster@hotmail.com and I will email back with a download link.

Oh I forgot to mention that I am typing this during a quick tea-break from deer hunting with my Sam-Yang Big-Bore 909, .45 (saw it mentioned above). I was planning to use my newly arrived .25 Daystate Air Ranger (GC laminate stock) but I have grouping 'issues' so I don't yet trust it for the intended head-shot.


Cheers!

Craig W.

[gumbob]

Firstly, welcome to the board.

I came across a US site some time ago which showed some air rifles that produced in excess of 600 fpe and were .50 calibre.

Dont know how accurate these things were but I'm sure with that power and pellet size/weight a well placed head shot from a sensible range would be capable of dropping both dear and turkey. I'll do a search and see if I can find the web site and post a link.

Happy shooting....Ian