Women's air rifle...?

CharDub

CharDub

Member
Rating - 100%
4   0   0
Hi everyone, new to this forum...my question is: it there a quality airgun, which is powerful enough for squirrels, and country pests, which has a shorter stock for gals? I am thinking about getting a good air rifle, but do not want a 'kids-size' gun power-wise, just more of a kid size air rifle with solid fps power....does any make or model come to mind? Thank you.
 
How much $ do you want to trow at this?

Pretty much any PAL rated airgun with a wooden stock could easily be shorten to the desired LOP

Or you get something with adjustable LOP
maxresdefault.jpg



PY-5388_Raw-Micro-Hunter-Rifle_1673644654.jpg
 
Last edited:
Have you looked at the Diana/Ruger Airhawk/Blackhawk ? The Ruger is a Chinese clone of the Diana (which may not be easily found). The Blackhawk is in synthetic stock so much lighter than the wood stock Airhawk. They come in PAL an Non-PAL versions, but the non-PAL likely not enuf power to kill squirrels or rats. Birds are more 'fragile'.
While the PCP rifles would be great, you'd be looking at near $1K with a decent rifle and Compressor to re-charge. Even the Diana will run ca $2-300 and the Ruger a bit less. And there are other brands but I haven't used them. I had a "Nitro-piston Crosman Vantage but it was very hard to cook (HA ! ) @ 1200fps and in .177 not very accurate beyond 20-30 yds due to light pellets. 22-cal is what you want for pests, but the FX series will be in that $1K Range I believe.
 
i have a diana panther 31 in 22cal pal rated, and it definitely does well with vermin like pidgeons, squirrels, black squirrels, chippys, blackbirds ! .. get a hawke scope on that and bingo, youve got a great set up.
im not sure about stock length for you but for me its on the short side... they are well built and last forever ! ... just do regular maintenance like cleaning barrel, and using the rws cleaning n oiling kit at spec round count..
 
Thank you for the many fine replies and suggestions. I have been busy helping on the farm, that time of year. I think I could spend about $300-400 for a complete kit, rifle, scope and pellets. I would rather not seek out having a stock cut I'm 5'4"....not sure how to measure for a length of pull. Does a scope really help on an air rifle? A friend said that if your eyes are good, and the sights on the rifle are decent, 20-30 yard squirrels should be in trouble. And purchase heavier or lighter pellets?
 
Oh jeez.. scrub my idea as the cheepest ive seen the panther go for was 390 buck at dl airgun.. they are soldout. Not a bad price for a German quality pelletgun but still over your budget..

Yes you can shoot iron sights .. takes abit of skill but easier to pick off those nasty buggers when they are on the run.
Dont go by light or heavy pellets…. first find out what weight of pellet your gun shoots most accurately and use that !

scopes.. with springers you need a scope that can handle springer recoil, otherwise they wont last. … why i recommended a good scope which is almost the same price as the pelletgun. ..

well im not sure about cheeper pelletguns…. Others here probably have some n can advise about em
 
I am late to the show, but
if you really want to impress the audiences...
get a Leshiy2, buy ones cry ones ;)
Semi auto, interchangeable calibers, 8 shots mag, very impressive engineering...
I got one when first time surfaced in Canada years ago and seeing it now again @ airgunsource.
I bet you for any money you will put aside all your other guns, this one is very addictive little beast.
Mine is currently dressed up with .22x500 barrel (but I have several other barrels as well), at least 80-90 shots from a single fill, detuned down to 750 fps for 15gn Hades, for property damage protection ;)
 
bigHUN said:
I am late to the show, but
if you really want to impress the audiences...
get a Leshiy2, buy ones cry ones ;)
Semi auto, interchangeable calibers, 8 shots mag, very impressive engineering...
I got one when first time surfaced in Canada years ago and seeing it now again @ airgunsource.
I bet you for any money you will put aside all your other guns, this one is very addictive little beast.
Mine is currently dressed up with .22x500 barrel (but I have several other barrels as well), at least 80-90 shots from a single fill, detuned down to 750 fps for 15gn Hades, for property damage protection ;)
Click to expand...
Now that does sound interesting. Thank you.
 
I would recommend a Diana 24, the cocking effort is medium, it has enough power for squirrels.
I have both the 24 and 34, the 34 would be hard to crock for most women. * I had to put crock cause C.O.C.K is not allowed. LOL!
 
sixp5 said:
I would recommend a Diana 24, the cocking effort is medium, it has enough power for squirrels.
I have both the 24 and 34, the 34 would be hard to crock for most women. * I had to put crock cause C.O.C.K is not allowed. LOL!
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply and this gal appreciates your humor.! I have looked at Diana rifles, very nice but seem very long in the stock....;(
 
CharDub said:
Thank you for the many fine replies and suggestions. I have been busy helping on the farm, that time of year. I think I could spend about $300-400 for a complete kit, rifle, scope and pellets. I would rather not seek out having a stock cut I'm 5'4"....not sure how to measure for a length of pull. Does a scope really help on an air rifle? A friend said that if your eyes are good, and the sights on the rifle are decent, 20-30 yard squirrels should be in trouble. And purchase heavier or lighter pellets?
Click to expand...
I don't quite remember how to measure for length of pull....elbow to trigger finger joint..IIRC? I generally like a shorter LOP myself. There's a lot to address in this post. Many people don't "need" a scope, but it sure helps. With a rifle I noticed that from a young age, that my eyes didn't seem to adjust very fast between the distances, and even with better than 20/20 corrected vision, a scope was a big help.

What kind of powerplant do you want? I'm kind of done with big spring piston guns, as they are challenging to shoot and have to be held in a unique way vs. a regular gun. They are also hard on scopes, and need air rifle rated scopes.

I bought a wood stock Crosman 392 last year, and will not be bothering to scope that one. Has quite a bit of power. Takes a bit to pump up, but no spring to fatigue if left full of air, and not much goes wrong with them. It's a very small, compact air rifle.

I also have an early Benjamin Discovery that I bought as a package with the pump. Bought that one, as the dual fuel capability was nice, and it was much handier than a lot of the PCP guns. Mounted an older big game rifle scope I bought from a fella used, on it for cheap.

For better killing power I wouldn't even consider a .177, and go right to a .22. Bigger is alright too, but gets expensive to shoot (relatively speaking), and less options, and usually have to order them online.

Have to figure out what the gun likes better; but generally the higher powered guns work better with slightly heavier pellets.
 
CharDub said:
All of these replies are very helpful. Thank you.
Click to expand...
If you're not on the Canadian air gun forum yet, I'd get on there too. There are a few guys here into "pneumatics" but mostly powder burners.

As another fella mentioned, you can also shorten a wooden stock a bit. It's not as tough as a person might think. The way I've done it, is by carefully marking all the way around, how far I want to cut. Using a masking tape might be helpful for avoiding some surface splintering. Be conservative, it's easier to take off a bit more than put it on again. I cut from different angles, because no matter how hard I try, I'm going to have the blade veer off. Preferably I want the final cut to be in the middle of the stock and not on the surface of the wood to avoid the last piece tearing away and causing a repair.

After it's close, I'll use an orbital sander with an aggressive disc to level everything off and make it perfectly flat and even.

Putting the butt plate/pad back on, I can use the stock profile as a template to get it perfectly flush. If you're sanding and redoing the stock finish anyway I wouldn't worry about taping it off, or removing it periodically to sand the edges closer.

Wouldn't be afraid of buying used from members with good trader ratings either.
Some of the guns can last a lifetime. For heirloom quality though, it may be fixable, but the break barrel guns can suffer from barrel droop. Side or under levers are better, but as I mentioned, they can be a bit tougher to shoot. And the higher power ones will be heavier to tame that.

Don't get too caught up in velocity claims. Some of the cheaper ones in .177 state huge numbers only achievable with super lightweight pellets. First, they're harder on a piston gun, and they shoot wild. When a small pellet hits trans sonic speed it really wreaks havoc on their accuracy. Most guys stay away from that and I've heard under 900 feet per second seems to be more accurate. Can't say for sure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom