Need a sub 600f/s squirrel deterrent

[DougGuy]

I have plenty of squirrels and the cheapo pumpmaster 760 is not quite enough power for them. It works if you get a head shot and only then. I'd also not want to spend a bunch of $$ on a solution. What choices would I have?

I have seen some pretty nice pistols on this forum that would work, some are tweaked with aftermarket parts, not opposed to this route just need something accurate and not taking forever to reload.

[Zymurgy50]

A spring piston rifle, and a small rag saturated with 5wt. oil. Cock the rifle, load pellet, and then wipe the base of the pellet/breech with the rag. The combination of the oil and the extreme compression of the air by the spring piston creates a "diesel combustion" behind the pellet, doubling penetration power of the rifle.

A # 10 or 11 percussion cap behind a .177 pellet will also work, but cost and avaliablity can be a problem.

[Blanket]

sheridan blue streak, found an RWS air rifle in a couple of pieces from a diesel fan. He had been bragging on how hard it shot earlier that morning at the range, a drop of 3 in 1 in the skirt

[HollowPoint]

Not to be a smart-A$$ but, you might consider a wrist-rocket shooting ball bearings, marbles or the small pinch-closed fishing sinkers.

Back in my elementary school days, my wrist-rocket accounted for countless ground squirrels, cotton tails and birds. The expensive ones are only about thirteen bucks. You can cast your own ammo or just shoot small rocks out of them. At short range they're every bit as accurate as some of the 600 fps air rifles available once you get the hang of shooting them.

At 600 fps, a BB or a pellet still delivers less kinetic energy to a squirrel out to 25 yards than a well placed 50-60 grain projectile out of a wrist rocket; even at slightly slower velocity.

I have to admit, it's nice to have a cool looking air rifle though.

HollowPoint

[DougGuy]

I started the thread off thinking that our local ordnance that allows 600f/s covered BB and Pellet rifles as well as air soft, but it only applies to air soft, making any metal projectile illegal so might as well go and get a 1,000 - 1200f/s gun and get er done. I looked online and found a couple of Ruger models with a break barrel and rifling, what about those? Other than the weight?

[yoter]

RWS 34 pellet rifle in 22 cal. Excellent trigger pull and accurate. The "budget" air rifles will work if you can get used to heavy and long trigger pulls. Magnum velocity rifles recoil more and can be hold sensitive in that your must maintain a consistent or "artillery" hold on the rifle.

[HARRYMPOPE]

Ruger Airhawks go on closeout for uder $100 quite often.They are .177 and are a pretty close copy of the RWS 34 and have pretty nice triggers.

[tjones]

Try www.gamousa.com .....you can't go wrong. tj

[grizzlyadams]

i will second one of the ruger airhawk models, or better yet. visit flying dragon airrifles and take a look at the b25. it is the same gun as the ruger, and mike goes over them before he sends them out. a 25 in .22 caliber would end your problem in short order, hits much harder than the 177 even though 177 is faster, and it makes it easy to stay quiet as it is subsonic even with light 22 pellets.

[DougGuy]

I checked out MM and Flying Dragon, pretty cool stuff. I found what I think might work the best for me, the XS46U underlever. It's priced right, seems to be quite accurate, and subsonic, 770f/s with .22 caliber pellets. His tuning doesn't seem too expensive either.

http://flyingdragonairrifles.org/XISICO_XS46U.html

Now I need to find somebody that wants to trade one for a nice dobro!

[tacklebury]

I like my Crosman 1322. 460 FPS and good knock down power for varmints. Add the optional stock and it's a mighty fine carbine also. Cost is very reasonable. I had a 1377 when a kid also which was great. The .22 has a bit more knock down for close to house use and less tendency to ricochet.

http://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Crosma...tol_Black/2657

Also 1377

http://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Crosman_1377C_PC77/198

stock

http://www.pyramydair.com/s/a/Crosma...an_Pistols/198

[DougGuy]

I checked out MM and Flying Dragon, pretty cool stuff. I found what I think might work the best for me, the XS46U underlever. It's priced right, seems to be quite accurate, and subsonic, 770f/s with .22 caliber pellets. His tuning doesn't seem too expensive either.

http://flyingdragonairrifles.org/XISICO_XS46U.html

Ordered one of these fully tuned from Mike this am, I will have it next week. Also ordered about 8 different kinds of .22 cal pellet samples so I can see what it likes. Probably go to walmart and get some Crossmans to break it in with then start shooting the samples for group and let it tell me which ones to get!

[Bullshop Junior]

You wont be disappointed with that choice. I had a pump up Benjamin 22 air rifle as a kid that I wore out... Twice. Not sure what ever happened to it after I broke the pump lever off, but that gun killed a lot of little critters.

[HARRYMPOPE]

Ordered one of these fully tuned from Mike this am, I will have it next week. Also ordered about 8 different kinds of .22 cal pellet samples so I can see what it likes. Probably go to walmart and get some Crossmans to break it in with then start shooting the samples for group and let it tell me which ones to get!

good choice,keep us posted.The .22 14.3 Crosmans from Walmart shoot good or me in all of my 22 airguns.

[DougGuy]

The .22 14.3 Crosmans from Walmart shoot good or me in all of my 22 airguns.

I'm going to get a tin of those to break it in with. Not sure if I want the HP premier or not. The scope I had been using was a cheapo Walmart Bushnell 4x32, the parallax in it was half the problem with the 760 I have it on so I didn't want to bring any gremlins along for the new gun so I rethought things a bit and came up with a TrueGlo 2x42 red dot sight, and a leapers dovetail to picatinny rail mount that has dual stop pins and barrel droop compensation built into it already.

Dang I have optics coming, ammo coming, new gun coming, now I'm ANTSY!

[Bullshop Junior]

In my experiance the most accurate will be a heavy round nose.

[DougGuy]

Sheesh wth is the reason behind this I wonder?

Wallyworld..

14.3gr Crosman Premier domed = $13.50/500ct tin.

14.3gr Crosman Premier hollow point = $8.15/500ct tin..

[grizzlyadams]

you need not worry about the hollowpoint on the crosman. it is a dimple and they really dont perform any different than the domes. good choice on the underlever. most i have shot are ridiculously accurate. i have the browning version of the same gun and it is a tackdriver.

[John Boy]

Need a sub 600f/s squirrel deterrent

Ever consider a slingshot?

[DougGuy]

Waiting on the big brown truck to bring my new rifle, had to resort to some busy work to get ready for when it gets here.

I took some ideas from the airgun forum and photos on the web, and I came up with a low budget plan for a pellet trap using shredded rubber mulch. I have about $10 in it so far. Bag of rubber mulch was $3 at Home Depot because it had holes in the bag, the most expensive part was the 2'x2'x3/4" foamular sheet that I put on the front, I chose this for noise suppression when the pellet strikes the target. Hopefully it will hold the rubber in and not be too loud when the pellet hits it.

12"x16"box built from scrap pieces of mdf and plywood with corners and furring strips built from scrap pieces of oak and salt treated 2x2 cut on a diagonal:



Rubber mulch from Home Depot:







Finished box weighs 24.4lbs, aluminum duct tape holds it together. When it get enough holes in the foam board, I can just switch it out and tape a new one in place:



I made it 2 targets wide so there is less walking involved, more shooting!