Echo.....echo.....

[Drew P]

Hey all, man I got a rat problem which has drained my wallet now. Long story short, but I suddenly needed to shoot stuff in my yard, which is in the city. So I got out the old daisy but it wasn’t cutting it. I knew my buddy had a few nice “bb guns” so he loaned me one. Well, things have evolved since I was a kid! And now, I’m finding myself waiting for a huben k1 to arrive I’m the mail! I’m quite excited about this and it’s a whole new arena that I knew existed but was putting off, because I knew it was a whole new swimming pool with a lot of learning associated. Well I’m taking the crash course now! So of course I cane here to see what was going on and was a little surprised to see so little action. These guns have a huge list of advantages as y’all know, and they are deadly to 250 yards with 3” groups at that range?! That’s INSANE! Then throw in the whisper quiet and recoil free operation and man, just too cool!
So for anyone unaware the huben k1 is in a very small group of semi auto PCP rifles and they come in 22 and 25 cal. Bull pup, titanium tank and barrel, and good trigger (I’m told). I’m wondering why people here aren’t more interested in casting for them? I’m immediately thinking about casting my own lead free pellets. Anyone here casting for these things?

[Neverhome]

I cast for my 22 and 25 Condor barrels. Only lead though.
Be advised, air gun barrels aren’t the same diameter as powder burner barrels. Also, twist rate is a limiting factor in both. I have multiple Noe molds for both. I had good HUNTING accuracy with a 55 grain 25 acp bullet from a Noe mold. Over 100 fpe easily. BUT with cast my guns were never close to as accurate as with pellets.
My 25 Taipan Veteran long never sees anything but pellets. The pointed bolt probe isn’t ideal for seating a cast bullet.

That’s the other bad thing about cast in MOST air guns. It is VERY hard to chamber even the softest bullet in most factory barrels. I can’t emphasize this enough. If you want a steady diet of cast you need a short bearing surface and a long throat. Most bolt probes are not up to the task of forcing a cast bullet into the rifling.

Stuff to think about

[MT Chambers]

don't want to rain on any parades but don't know if the chinese gun has the vel. for slugs or if the barrel is capable, my casting pellets with noe molds did not equal h&n or jsb. One cast slug I make is working out at 1000fps + in a powerful pcp, but for me my #1 choice for first gun is an hw springer. No tank, far less expense.

[clodhopper]

Hitting things in the 250 yard range with air guns will require knowing the distance and having a pretty good idea of your trajectory. Sure, good groups can be shot but just a little wind will make 3" groups at 250 yards pretty rare.

There are some nice air gun molds being sold, but casting lead free bullets is going to make your expected groups a bit larger when you give up near 30% of bullet density. Assuming your lead free alloy is going to be mostly tin.

When you spend in the range of what a Huben cost a nice trigger should be standard. I looked at them but was not happy with the non-detachable mag.

Sure happy with my EDgun Matador.

[Drew P]

Huh what I’d read is they prefer “slugs”. But noe has hollow base wasp waist pellet molds too. If I have to buy pellets that’s fine too. I’m just happy they make lead free pellets.

[Drew P]

Hitting things in the 250 yard range with air guns will require knowing the distance and having a pretty good idea of your trajectory. Sure, good groups can be shot but just a little wind will make 3" groups at 250 yards pretty rare.

There are some nice air gun molds being sold, but casting lead free bullets is going to make your expected groups a bit larger when you give up near 30% of bullet density. Assuming your lead free alloy is going to be mostly tin.

When you spend in the range of what a Huben cost a nice trigger should be standard. I looked at them but was not happy with the non-detachable mag.

Sure happy with my EDgun Matador.

Oh ya I’m sure it’s not every day or even ever for me but the fact that they can even approach that is pretty wild. I’ll be mounting a range finding scope on it and I’ll create a custom turret for elevation so that should work pretty well.
Also I brewed up some lead free alloy today, mostly bismuth, some tin and a dash of antimony. Came up 11.3 bhn. The bismuth doesn’t seem to give up much density to lead, it’s delightfully dense stuff.

[FLINTNFIRE]

I guess I am wondering why lead free? And I know in Wa. state they have determined air rifles are firearms and I am not allowed to fire mine in city limits . Rats with a pellet gun , been there done that a long time ago with the old pump up pellet guns .

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Pity your in the city, I get rats with a 12ga loaded with hard sorgham seed in a commercial piggery

[GhostHawk]

I cast for my Hatsan's, a 95 and a 135. I use a .22 cal round ball buckshot mold from Sharpshooter. They are a touch larger than most .22 pellets. Need to be tapped into place. But then they shoot nice one ragged hole groups.

PCP's, sorry trying to stay away from the dark side. Once you go down THAT rabbit hole you can't come back out again.

My all time favorite of them all is still my Sheridan Blue Streak. Quiet, you decide how much power you need and for what distance.
But I have killed thousands of critters with only 2 or 3 pumps. You don't "Always" need more power.

[clodhopper]

The Sheridan's are fine rifles.

I recently bought two from an estate, shot them a little bit. But the darkside pulled me back in.

Sold one, and gave the other to my brother.

The EDgun, 25 cal, 60 shots per 250 bar fill, 25 grain pellets at 935 fps.

[Drew P]

I guess I am wondering why lead free? And I know in Wa. state they have determined air rifles are firearms and I am not allowed to fire mine in city limits . Rats with a pellet gun , been there done that a long time ago with the old pump up pellet guns .

I have chickens and I’m concerned about them ingesting lead.

[Drew P]

Can someone explain this “dark side”? Lol I wasn’t expecting so much negativity toward this idea. They shoot like a dream, are always ready, don’t recoil, I dunno, I’m struggling to see what’s not to like.

[Neverhome]

It'll make more sense if you visit the airgun specific sites like gatewaytoairguns. There are others as well.
It's just a funny way to refer to pcp airgunning. That's how other sites refer to it as well.
There's no negativity about it.
Maybe it originally got that moniker precisely because of the items you mention. It's instant power on tap. You can watch the pellet impact because of the zero recoil. It really is like CHEATING. Hence the dark side moniker.

I still on occasion shoot my break barrels just for kicks but when I really want to reach out and print a tiny group at distance or brain shoot a pest at 50 yards I'm not pulling out my break barrels.

It's not a negative.

Regarding shooting cast in PCPs, myself and many other shooters rarely get as accurate results as with quality pellets. Some shooters do and god bless them for it! I use my cast ones just for hunting and in that they do superbly. But when I want to shoot the tiniest group possible within the effective range of MY guns I reach for pellets.

[MT Chambers]

The darkside is what has come to be known as PCP guns, which are addicting even with all the money you are spending on bottles, compressors, etc....once you have spent all the money there is no turning back and an inexpensive springer (not a cheap one) will not be on your mind. Either way, good luck, airguns are addicting no matter what.

[BigAlofPa.]

My son dispatched a rat in the yard yesterday with my crosman pump up pellet pistol. He wanted to use a 22 spread shot. I said no not in town. Air guns can be a lot of fun too.

[Drew P]

Yes they open up a whole new deep subject of learning. I kinda knew that before now but was putting it off because I just didn’t want to dive into it but once I had a semi legit “need” for a pest control rifle then it was off to the races! I’m not exactly sure the reasons why cast is less accurate than swaged pellets, but I’m going to start into that whole subject at some point and it seems there are options for swaging (corbin) that Are reasonable for a home loader to do. Benefit of tiny bullets (I’m still having a hard time calling the, slugs lol) is that they don’t take huge leverage to swage. I’m really hoping the huben has a good trigger. I can’t tell if the reports about it are that it’s actually quite good or if it’s just not the BEST when comparing to what I’m assuming are excellent+ triggers that benchrest pellet shooters have become accustomed to. For me, a trigger like that is great but I’m used to all sorts of triggers that rage from fair to abhorrent.

[Drew P]

Pity your in the city, I get rats with a 12ga loaded with hard sorgham seed in a commercial piggery
]

Yeah, I don’t want to do it that way, but doesn’t the seed actually end up feeding them and making the problem worse? Or is sorghum seed inedible? Why not sand or something non edible?