Looking for opinions on a break barrel .22 air rifle from owners of PAL type airguns

savagefan said:
An even bigger problem is badgers will dig down into gopher holes for din dins and the holes they leave are dangerous to livestock and even vehicles. Besides, I like shooting them. Me an' the boys have wiped out thousands of them for thankful farmers, it keeps your shooting/hunting skills way sharper than punching holes in paper.
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This past spring/early summer a group of Nutz from Sothern Ontario voyaged to Saskatchewan and hunted/shot gophers. The farmers loved us and it was great practice shooting targets from 5- 300 yards. When the smoke cleared I conservatively estimate the area we hunted was shy of 8000!! Pictured are two members from Nutz that are without a doubt some of the finest people and snipers I’ve had the pleasure of hunting with!! All completed with mostly 22 rimfire with a sprinkling of 17HMR. IMG_2109.jpegIMG_2062.jpegIMG_2054.pngIMG_1919.jpeg
 
Years back, I purchase a Benjamin break barrel .22 from Crappy tire, it was detuned down 495fps.
The exact same rifle sold in the US that said 1100fps.
Ordered an OEM main spring from Gravel Agency, bumped it up to 1050fps.
It's okay to about 25-30m. But not as accurate as any of my PCP's.
 
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savagefan said:
Great stuff!! How many shots did that badger eat? They are tough bastards.
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I shot it at about 55 yards. Between the eyes in the stripe. Funny thing was , the farmer had asked what we were using and when I said 22 rimfire he commented it wouldn’t be enough to kill a badger. 15 minutes later I proved it was. They are an excavating machine!!
 
HuskyDude said:
Years back, I purchase a Benjamin break barrel .22 from Crappy tire, it was detuned down 495fps.
The exact same rifle sold in the US that said1100fps.
Ordered an OEM main spring from Gravel Agency, bumped it up to 1050fps.
It's okay to about 25-30m. But not as accurate as any of my PCP's.
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My basic Daisy 953 shoots half the size as my Crosman Summit break barrel at 20m. You never know where the next shot will land. They're okay for pop cans and spinners. But I wouldn’t use it for hunting.
 
Gophers aren’t that tough a creature but on the other hand, I also endorse the 22LR option with CCI Quiet-22 or even the old CB Longs I used to whack barn pigeons with. In a busy year, I experience less than 10 “has to be an airgun” shots, which colors my decision to stay away from PCP. I get the appeal, and know a couple pretty dedicated airgun shooters.

I’m on Ontarian, and maybe it’s the Albertans I like being around…but getting access to shoot gophers there hasn’t proven to be a huge challenge. Very gun-friendly province for sure, I’d do there what I actually DO here=go knock on the door and have a chat.

I’m also hoping to move out to the country in the next couple of years, we’re looking now. When my wife sends me links=I look up the township it’s in and the corresponding discharge laws. Just part of it. And living in a province that isn’t gun friendly, to the uninitiated….doesnt matter if it’s a squirt gun or a field cannon=guns are guns. I’d have a chat, just tell them your intention to shoot in your new property from time to time, dispatch gophers, 22LR or smaller, etc.
 
Longstud said:
This past spring/early summer a group of Nutz from Sothern Ontario voyaged to Saskatchewan and hunted/shot gophers. The farmers loved us and it was great practice shooting targets from 5- 300 yards. When the smoke cleared I conservatively estimate the area we hunted was shy of 8000!! Pictured are two members from Nutz that are without a doubt some of the finest people and snipers I’ve had the pleasure of hunting with!! All completed with mostly 22 rimfire with a sprinkling of 17HMR. View attachment 1066834View attachment 1066838View attachment 1066840View attachment 1066841
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Badger with a .22=wicked!!! As much time as I’ve spent out west shooting gophers=maybe seen 3-4, and only once when we were pulling into a gopher patch. I’ve been glassing gophers and seen huge gobs of dirt flying way up in the air over the crest of a hill in the distance. Rancher confirmed=badger.
 
There is a Dianna 34 on the EE and a Dianna 48 as well. Owned a 48 and it was a great rifle but the wife had a bit of difficulty with cocking it so I sold it to a nice fellow nutr.
 
Early last year I decided to waste some money and buy a high powered air gun. Didn't want to spend a lot so I picked up a Gamo Swarm Fusion 10X GEN3i .22 from Bass Pro on sale for about $280. These are supposed to be 1000 fps but that's with the lightweight pellets so I'm guessing more like 700 fps with regular 14-16 gr. lead pellets. That being said I have overall been pretty satisfied. It's a gas piston gun and comes with a 4x scope which, though nothing special, allows it to group 1" or better (sometimes closer to 1/2") regularly at 25 yards. Most of the Gamos have an adjustable trigger which can be dialed down pretty low for a surprisingly good trigger pull. It also comes with their 10 shot magazine system so reloading is just c o c k & shoot which is a lot less tedious than reloading after every shot.

It certainly is not a tack driving Olympic quality gun but for the money it's actually been a lot better than I expected. I've looked at the PCP airguns and most of them seem well made and very accurate but quality costs so you'll be paying for it. The other issue is the charging. Unless you have arms like Popeye and don't mind manual pumping you're into an electric pump which will cost you a good portion of the value of the gun. In fact by the time you've purchased a decent PCP gun and a decent pump you're getting close to $1000 which isn't far from CZ 457 MTR or AT-One territory.
 
.22LRGUY said:
Gophers aren’t that tough a creature but on the other hand, I also endorse the 22LR option with CCI Quiet-22 or even the old CB Longs I used to whack barn pigeons with. In a busy year, I experience less than 10 “has to be an airgun” shots, which colors my decision to stay away from PCP. I get the appeal, and know a couple pretty dedicated airgun shooters.

I’m on Ontarian, and maybe it’s the Albertans I like being around…but getting access to shoot gophers there hasn’t proven to be a huge challenge. Very gun-friendly province for sure, I’d do there what I actually DO here=go knock on the door and have a chat.

I’m also hoping to move out to the country in the next couple of years, we’re looking now. When my wife sends me links=I look up the township it’s in and the corresponding discharge laws. Just part of it. And living in a province that isn’t gun friendly, to the uninitiated….doesnt matter if it’s a squirt gun or a field cannon=guns are guns. I’d have a chat, just tell them your intention to shoot in your new property from time to time, dispatch gophers, 22LR or smaller, etc.
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There's a no discharge of firearms on the property condition ( County ordinance) I will see how the new neighbors are with me using a "popgun" to do the job, most pepole don't know that over 495 fps makes it a firearm, I will sound them out. Hopefully they are shooters and give a give #### about the county rules either.
 
savagefan said:
There's a no discharge of firearms on the property condition ( County ordinance) I will see how the new neighbors are with me using a "popgun" to do the job, most pepole don't know that over 495 fps makes it a firearm, I will sound them out. Hopefully they are shooters and give a give #### about the county rules either.
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AFAIK technically a pellet gun under 500fps is also legally considered a firearm it just doesn’t require a PAL and there are no storage requirements etc.
 
savagefan said:
An even bigger problem is badgers will dig down into gopher holes for din dins and the holes they leave are dangerous to livestock and even vehicles. Besides, I like shooting them. Me an' the boys have wiped out thousands of them for thankful farmers, it keeps your shooting/hunting skills way sharper than punching holes in paper.
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Those Badger excavations are particularly bad on a grass runway. Last thing you'd want to happen is to hit a badger excavation at just under landing speed.
 
savagefan said:
There's a no discharge of firearms on the property condition ( County ordinance) I will see how the new neighbors are with me using a "popgun" to do the job, most pepole don't know that over 495 fps makes it a firearm, I will sound them out. Hopefully they are shooters and give a give #### about the county rules either.
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Like i dont got any by laws that prevent me shooting firearms or pellet guns. Except if you are discharging outside the range you're considering poaching by DNR.

But then there is whole hunting regs. Airguns here cannot be used for small game.

So it can be one of those fine till you are caught or piss off the neighbours.
 
I don't hunt, I shoot paper rings only in a gub club, 99% with my PCP air rifles. I am a large volume shooter, I think I am averaging well over 10K shooting pellets alone in an average year that means without visiting the ranges when snow on the ground.

I was collecting my toys gradually over ten or so years and have no idea how much these would cost with today's economy, buying all of these at a single visit to the specialized airgun store.

My mentality was into "buy ones cry ones", so the three airguns in .22 and .25 what I have, for the money some may be able to dress up a smaller army.

A pellet airgun for hunters .... I would suggest looking into a .25 cal. A 34 grain pellet hits like a truck @100 and still relatively economical with air as well. 40 gn slugs can hit decent @ 200 meters if you do your part.

If the budget is not restricted, I would go with semi auto just for fun of it ...

I have a Leshiy2 that is a real beast with both pellets and slugs, and can imagine a fun in the battlefields you earlier were talking about.
 
I have .177 from P Auto that neighbors will see me shooting from my golf cart for the close up shots, it's the one I will show them. I will also use a lookalike that has more oomph and i'm sure they won't even notice the swap. Taken the advice of some of the posters here (Thanx guys) and took another look at subsonic rimfire. Much has changed since the days of CB shorts. I bought CCI segmented quiet 710 fps and also CCi subsonic hp about 1050 fps. I'll drag them along to my next range trip and see how they sound. If good I will stock up long before gopher season when the gun stores run out of stock.
 
Went to the range today, CCI quiet are very quiet indeed but will not cycle my 10-22, so I will run it like a straight pull. The CCI Subsonic HP are a bit louder and do cycle the action and smack a lot harder. Got the POIs figured for both so now to be patient. Thanx again guys.
 
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