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22calairgunhunter50 · Guest

I am wanting to buy me a good made 22 caliber air rifle for Squirrel hunting & target shooting & i will have $ 225-$250 to buy it with I will have my own 3x9x40mm scope to put on it myself so the scope doesn't really matter i have looked at most of the popular brands & i am brand new to the air rifle world so what rifles do any of you guys recommend for me to consider + i will need a good 22 caliber hunting pellet as well i do know that all air guns are different & they may shoot different pellets differently form one brand to another

Slavia · Moderator

Hopefully somebody will chime in with some gun choices, but a couple of thoughts on the other stuff:

If you go for a spring piston gun it will have recoil in both directions, and not all scope reticles can handle it. You don't mention the model scope you have - it might work, or it might not.

You're right; pellet choices can be confusing, and each gun will have its own preference. In general, you can eliminate the flat-nosed ones for hunting - those are for punching clean holes in paper. My own opinion is that the "specialty" pellets with gold plate or steel balls in the nose aren't worth the trouble, either. The super light weight pellets go fast for sure, but don't necessarily have more kinetic energy than the heavier, slower ones. Plus, they carry the risk of damage to a spring-piston gun. Finally, the pointed "field" pellets don't seem to have much of a following.

So that leaves you with round-nosed or domed lead pellets. Even so, there are still a lot of choices. You'll just have to experiment (sampler packs are available).

Airguns have an extended break-in period, anywhere from 500 to 1000 rounds (especially so for springers). Springers can also be hold sensitive, so you'll spend that break-in period learning how to hold the gun to the best advantage. Do a search for "artillery hold" and you'll see what I mean.

Check to be sure that your jurisdiction allows hunting with airguns. Here in Minnesota it's not legal, except for eliminating pests on your own property. If that little squirrel or rabbit that's terrorizing my wife's garden hops across the road, then I have to wait for the season, get a license, and use a firearm. On the other hand, there are states that allow deer hunting with airguns (subject to caliber restrictions).

22calairgunhunter50 · Guest

It's a 3x9x40mm Center Point & i bought it from a buddy that used it on his 22 caliber air rifle so it should work with the rifle i get we were shooting his 22 cal his is a Bone Collector that's why i am gonna buy me a air rifle Mr. Green

22calairgunhunter50 · Guest

The Benjamin Trail NP Nitro Piston® All Weather .22 Ca .it's almost a 1,000 fps & it looks to be a good one for the price & it also comes with a 3x9x40mm Center Point Scope the price is $189

Robw · Veteran Member

Pyramyd Air has the Benjamin Regal NP on sale for 169.99 with free
shipping.

http://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Benjamin_Regal_NP_Air_Rifle_Combo/2838

This is one that I bought last month. You don't have to do all that
I did to it as it is a very good gun out of the box. I would strongly
recommend the GTX II trigger though as the stock one is very hard to
be accurate with. It is a VERY easy install and makes a world of difference.

http://www.airgunhome.com/agforum/viewtopic.php?t=10377

Robw.

Robw · Veteran Member

As for a good pellet, I would try to find a good domed pellet as they
have a better BC than other shapes and fly very accurately. Both Regals
that I bought like Superdomes and Kodiaks with Crosman domes a not too
distant third.

Robw · Veteran Member

By the way. Big 5 sporting goods has them for sale at $239.99! So
the ones at Pyramyd are a good deal.

robert w · Senior Member

I'd go with a diana rws 34 myself.fine right out of the box.own 4 of them

toadmyster223 · Senior Member

I have a Benjamin Titan GP that I would trust to squirrel hunt with, and it was only 150 dollars. However, quality control, I have heard, was not great on their production, and I got lucky, with a "good one."

Alloy pellets are junk. You're going to have to buy 10 varieties (or so) of pellet, and find out what you gun likes to shoot the best.

Also, make sure your scope will work on pellet guns. Non-pneumatic air rifle have a violent, if hard to notice, FORWARD recoil that will break rifle scopes so fast you'll want to cry

Copy-pasta'd from your other thread that got the axe

Staffy1 · Member

Go second hand and get a HW (Beeman) 50 S they are great little guns , very accurate with match trigger and will be far more accurate than a cheaper brand new gun?

dcw · Member

a good Beeman RX or HW90.

toadmyster223 · Senior Member

My .22 caliber Titan GP has accounted for over 300 confirmed kills- I hear their quality control is iffy, so I may have gotten lucky with a "good" rifle. She's ridiculous, though- dead-nuts accurate with the right pellets, and as a shooter with a lot of .177 experience, I can tell you it kills things with authority. Don't get fooled by a gun with super-high velocity. My .177 would shoot through a lot of things and leave them to run away... the .22 sounds like a baseball impacting. I love it.

Post script: LOL looks like I already answered this. Sorry- it's late, I need a nap.

toadmyster223 · Senior Member

Original Poster: Have you decided on anything yet?!