I posted a good bit of bigbore air rifle information under the thread titled "THANK YOU Dale53" in the Cast Boolits section, and thought it would be a good idea to make a post here to bring more awareness to these unique arms. From the looks of things, most of the people posting here are completely unaware that these rifles exist.
First off, I hunt with my .456 caliber air rifle exclusively. I do a bit of target practice, but I always consider target practice to be load development, and/or preparation for my next hunt. I usually practice with the boolit I intend on hunting with.
These rifles are a boolit casters dream, seeing as there is no need to purchase powder, primers, shells or reloading equipment. All you need is a HillPump (I'll explain), your beloved BOOLITS cast from about BHN10 or softer alloy, and the air surrounding you to propel it.
You can load your favorite boolit into the rifle the second it is cool, step out onto the back 40, and let er' rip. No need to spend time, or money on reloading supplies/equipment.
My own rifle shoots roundball@870fps, and 240grainers@700fps. There are other .45 air rifles out there that are A LOT more powerful than my own. My next air rifle will throw a .45 caliber 260grainer at around 900fps (sound familiar?hehe), and 500grainers at about 671fps.
The most powerful air rifle I have shot personally, threw a 500grain slug at 735fps. There are a select few air rifles that are a good bit more powerful than that!
The first large animal I killed with my bigbore air rifle was an exotic ram. The soul purpose of shooting this ram was to see with my own eyes what this rifle was capable of, and gauge what type of game I could take with it from the results (shades of Strasbourg). I used a 255grain PRS250 slug with a .32 meplat, at approx. 650fps-or-so fps (never chronied this slug). Distance was only about 15 yards.
That is the exit wound shown on the shoulder. After gutting the ram, it was brought to a professional game processor. He said the ram looked as though it had been shot with a 30-06, and was literally flabbergasted over the fact that it was shot with an air rifle.
After gaining confidence in my rifle's abilities, I gathered three other bigbore airgun hunters to join me to hunt the feral/wild boar native to Oklahoma. We all used .45caliber air rifles, mine being the least powerful of the bunch. One guy brought a .45 air rifle that (other than the stock and airtube) he had built himself.
We each dropped our hogs where they stood, with one well-placed shot to the brain. This father, and his son were fortunate enough to get their hogs on the same night shooting 205 grain SWC's that appeared to be the Lyman 452460 design. Sows weighing 100, and 143lbs respectively.
My buddy Jim shot his 100lb boar behind the ear, and out the front of the head with a DD-PRS 390 (nominal weight 390grains) going about 770fps, again cast in soft lead by Springfield Slim.
I shot my 80-or-so pound boar with a 226grain Lyman 45266 kindly provided by LeftoverDJ. It was likely going around 700+fps (haven't chronied that design).
The rifle can be charged with 2500-3200psi of air in one of two ways: the easy way is a scuba tank with a specialized yoke and air fittings. The not-as-easy way (still not to tough) is with a HillPump. I get 4-6 full power shots out of my rifle with one charge of air. 4-5 shots of 240grainers all shoot between 693, and 699fps out of my rifle. I don't care who you are, that is a very low deviance in FPS.
It usually cost a few bucks to fill your scuba tank at the scuba shop, but once you buy a HillPump you have a lifetime of free propellant (sounds nice, doesn't it?).
These rifles are extremely accurate. Here are two groups I shot after a days hunt, using the EPP/UG design cast in about BHN9 alloy (again, Springfield Slim). They are the only groups I shot that day, so these results are typical. 35, and 50 yards off of the steady stix, while sitting on the ground in the field. .6, and .9 inch center to center.
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Originally Posted by DanOH
