Air Rifles

How to choose an air rifle

Ultimately, choosing an air gun is a subjective choice. Like with my story at the start of this page, you may just want something that looks good. More likely, you’ll have other considerations that you want to take into account too.

In this section, I’m going to go through a few of the things you might want to think about when choosing your pellet gun, and suggest a few things you should be on the lookout for.

What do you want it for?

This is probably the first and most important question to ask yourself – why do you want to buy an air rifle? The answer to this will inform all of your decisions from there on out.

If you want an air rifle because you want to take down big game such as deer, you may need to have a rethink. An air rifle is unlikely to give you the power you need for big game hunting – although it’s possible to kill a deer with an air rifle, you’d need a pretty special piece of kit to achieve that. As an aside, it is legal in some US states to shoot deer with an air rifle, but it is illegal to do so in the UK. Check the laws in your area.

Marksmanship, recreation and hunting may come with different considerations depending on your budget. Let’s have a look…

Hunting

Using an air rifle for hunting is perfectly acceptable. Indeed, the first air rifles were considered superior beasts to their gunpowder-powered counterparts. More accurate, more powerful, quieter. One downside is that they can be pretty expensive, although a decent hunting rifle won’t break the bank.

I’m not going to cover big game here because I honestly don’t know the first thing about hunting big game with an air rifle. It sounds like madness.

However, rabbits, squirrels, birds – all of these can be hunted with an air rifle that isn’t too extraordinary.

Although accuracy is imperative for hunting efficiently and safely, another critical thing to consider is the power of the gun. You don’t want your pellets just bouncing off, or merely wounding the animal. A clean kill is fundamental to hunting, even for pest control.

A benefit to air rifles is that they are very quiet, so even if your shot misses the first time you can often get a second one off without your quarry fleeing.

A powerful .22 or even .177 will be sufficient for small game. Many people recommend a larger bore, such as a .25, but a .22 will do the job in most cases. When choosing your gun, be sure you are familiar with your local regulations. In the UK the legal limit for an air rifle is 12ft/lb – any more power and you need a firearms certificate.

You also need to ensure that the rifle has mounts for a good quality scope.

I would steer clear of a CO2 powered air rifle for hunting because they are LOUD!

Pest control

The considerations for pest control are much the same as for hunting – a clean, humane kill is imperative in my opinion. Hey! I like rats. Glue traps make me cry.

No, but seriously, a plinker may just wound your pests, and you’ll still have the problem. Besides, if you choose a good quality gun suitable for hunting as well, you can come home with a rabbit for the pot too.

The thing you need most of all in a gun for pest control is the ability to get a shot off quickly, and another, and another. With an air gun you have the advantage of near-silence, so you can potentially get a few kills at once but only if your gun allows. For this reason, a bolt-action or break-barrel rifle may not be the right choice – a PCP air rifle would probably be better.

On the other hand, you may want something that you can just pick up and shoot without having to charge, in which case a break-barrel or other single-action pneumatic rifle might be a better choice. You know your situation better than me.

Sport & Recreation

I am going to guess that you are not a professional marksman – you don’t belong to a gun club or association and don’t plan to compete. If you do, you should familiarise yourself with their regulations regarding calibre, power, etc.

Feel free, then, to look at my recommendations with your requirements in mind.

But if you just want to do some target shooting, there are likely two things to consider: price, and accuracy.

If you spend peanuts and get an inaccurate gun then it will be a waste of your time trying to knock down those tin cans at fifty yards – if you can’t reliably hit them regardless of your potential skill, why bother?

So, you need an accurate rifle. Be aware that it will lose accuracy at range.

You also needn’t spend loads of money on a bundle with a top of the range scope, laser pointer, camouflage decals and so on. You might want to get a sandbag or a bipod, however – it will make your shots much more consistent.

Also, if you’re going to be firing off dozens of rounds, then save your arms and don’t get a manually charged gun. You should probably spring for a PCP or even CO2 (since noise won’t be so much of an issue) – PCP is a more significant initial investment, but CO2 requires regular small spending on CO2 cartridges. Remember, a PCP rifle will need recharging after so many shots, so the ultimate in portability is a spring or gas piston rifle, but you’ll be forever cranking the lever.

What considerations should you make?

Before I get into the nitty-gritty, remember that the pellets your gun takes are also an important factor in reliability, power and accuracy. For best results, you should use the bullet that is recommended for your rifle. Most manufacturers will specify what they used to obtain the benchmarks they provide in their marketing material.

Some guns won’t take certain pellets; you may want to use lead-free pellets, and so on.

Pellets are also an important factor when it comes to your intended use. If you’re hunting, you will probably need to use pointed pellets or hollow head pellets – hollow head pellets “blow” on impact, meaning they rapidly decelerate and impart most of their energy to the target at once. This is the difference between a kill and a through-and-through.

If you’re serious about things, you might want to take a few pops at a target whenever you use a new type or brand or weight of pellet, because the change will affect how your gun performs.

Power

The power of the gun and the optimal distance for your target are related. A more powerful gun will be more effective even at range – for this reason, a higher powered rifle is better for hunting. Although you won’t be able to take a shot from a massive distance, you still need to be far enough away from your quarry not to spook it but still get a clean shot.

For marksmanship and target shooting, accuracy at a distance is more important – a more powerful gun will have a greater range, but with some trade-off when it comes to accuracy. It’s just something to get used to with your own gun I suppose.

For power, a PCP rifle or a break-barrel rifle is preferable. A spring-powered gun may not give enough, whereas a multi-stroke may give a variable output. A break-barrel or PCP rifle should give you a standard power per shot.

Some air rifles are obscenely powerful, such as the Benjamin Rogue. In the UK, there is little advantage to getting such a powerful gun – you will need a FAC (firearms certificate) from the police before you can buy one, so you may as well go for a cartridge rifle and be done with it. Having said that, an air rifle has the advantage of being very quiet – but this is tempered by the fact that it is costly too.

Accuracy

Unless you are literally just shooting for the hell of it, without care for hitting your target, then accuracy is something you will look for in your gun. My BB gun, as I mentioned above, was okay at around ten yards, but it really dropped off any further away than that. It was fun to play with, but there’s only so much you can do with a gun like that.

If your airgun isn’t accurate at the distances you want to play from then you’ll lose interest- fast. You’ll also not develop your skills since you won’t be getting any meaningful feedback from your practice.

All of the guns I recommend on this website will be accurate enough for most uses; if you want to practise your marksmanship then look for greater accuracy, same for if you want to hunt. Otherwise, any high-quality offering will suit you well.

There is a relationship between the calibre of the rifle and its accuracy, as it happens – a smaller bore is usually more accurate, i.e. a .177 is better for a marksman than a .22. However, the difference is quite slight and will only be noticed right at the margins of your ability. The drawback, of course, is that a .177 has slightly less stopping power than a heavier calibre gun and so this makes it less suitable for hunting at the range where it has the advantage in accuracy.

Swings and roundabouts.

Calibre

As above, calibre is something to consider when you’re thinking about accuracy, and when you’re considering hunting. For small game, as I said earlier in this article, a smaller bore will probably be sufficient, but a larger bore will be more reliable and give you that extra confidence in your shot.

The heavier pellets have different aerodynamic characteristics – their trajectory is different to lighter pellets. This is something a good shooter will compensate for, and which your rifle should be built to deal with as well.

There is also a difference in cost – it might seem fractional, but bigger pellets are more expensive. If you’re going to be popping off hundreds of rounds at your targets, then the cost will add up, and you won’t get much advantage from using bigger rounds for target practice anyway.

.177

One of the smallest pellets you’re going to come across, it is also one of the least powerful. The kinetic energy of a missile is directly related to the mass of the object and the velocity (speed) of the object. If you have a lighter pellet, such as a .177, then the energy it has is less than a heavier pellet for the same velocity.

For target practice, the .177 is a good option, because it is accurate at a distance since it has a flatter trajectory. But for hunting, it is not ideal because the pellets have less energy.

.22

Bigger than a .177, and heavier, this is the most common pellet for airgun hunting. A .22 pellet will normally have enough energy to give a quick kill, and they are still pretty accurate at range. However, they aren’t as accurate at long range as a .177.

Even though it isn’t as accurate as a lighter bore, it is still accurate enough for recreational shooting, and it’s a very common size so you can easily get hold of pellets (or the air rifle itself) in this calibre.

.20, .25, others

The .20 calibre is not as common as .177 or .22, but being somewhere in between it has better accuracy than a .22 and more stopping power than a .177. Personally, I wouldn’t bother – I can’t get the pellets at my local shop, so it doesn’t appeal at all. If you see a good deal on a .20 rifle, however, don’t let my opinion stop you. It just doesn’t seem necessary anymore

The .25 calibre is heavier than a .22 (I know, you’ve got it now, well done!). This isn’t really a common size at all, but it can be found. It’s useful mostly for hunting bigger small game. The pellets are more expensive and less common, so once again it’s not an attractive option for me. I also need all the help I can get to hit the target, I don’t need a slightly less accurate gun!

You can get heavier bore again, such as the Benjamin Rogue I mentioned above. These are truly powerful weapons but seem unnecessary to me. In the UK you are likely to need a FAC to own one, and if you’re going to that trouble, you may as well get a cartridge rifle or a shotgun.

Maybe it’s just me, but I have everything I need in my .22.

Budget

A big consideration here is budget. If you’re on a limited budget, you can rule out the less common options. Stick to a .177 for target shooting and a .22 for hunting and pest control. A break barrel is probably the cheapest option, but you can get good deals on a PCP rifle.

Often, the cheaper models are not value for money because they are unreliable, may have poor build quality and are overall a bit rubbish.

If you are really short of cash, and for some reason, you still feel you absolutely need an air rifle right now then try and find a second hand one. eBay, car boot sales, flea markets.

Something like the Benjamin Marauder is considered a good entry level air rifle, but it is still pretty expensive. There are other, more affordable options if you go for a break-barrel or even CO2 powered airgun, but you may be better off finding a second-hand airgun of known provenance.

The advantage of the bigger upfront cost is that it is very likely to last you a long time and be reliable, whereas a cheaper gun may not be such a good investment.

Propulsion method – what are the different types of rifle?

There are a few different methods for imparting that initial energy to the projectile – the pellet – in your rifle. Obviously, a conventional rifle takes that energy from an explosive mixture which is detonated on impact, and the energy from that rapid combustion is channelled forwards to the only escape route, which is the muzzle of the gun.

Air guns work in much the same way, except that initial energy doesn’t come from the combustion of an explosive mixture but rather the rapid expansion of compressed gas. Each type has its advantages, but also its drawbacks. Let’s look a bit more closely…

PCP

PCP stands for pre-charged pneumatic. It signifies that the rifle has an on-board tank which contains compressed air. When you pull the trigger, that compressed air is allowed to escape into the chamber behind the projectile, which propels it forwards along the barrel as the rapidly expanding gas escapes through the muzzle.

A PCP rifle can have the capacity to fire of anywhere from just a few to many dozens of rounds in a single charge. About 50 is quite common.

This means you can usually take down a few of your preferred game, and the ability to get shots off in rapid succession is an advantage for hunting. It’s also quite silent, which means you are again at an advantage if you’re hunting.

They are generally pretty accurate and have very little recoil.

The downside of a PCP is that it requires filling either by a compressor or a compressed air cylinder, such as a SCUBA cylinder. This means that unless you are carrying one around in the field, then once you reach the limit of your tank you are done and have to recharge.

They are also notoriously complicated, which multiple moving parts. They can be serviced by the owner, but are probably better off with a specialist which makes repair quite expensive.

CO2

A CO2 airgun is similar to a PCP in the mechanism of action, only the expanding gas is CO2, and it is usually contained in disposable cartridges. Because of this, CO2 is a popular choice for air pistols. The small size of the cartridges limits the number of shots you can take, but at least you don’t have to carry a SCUBA tank around.

CO2 doesn’t seem to offer the same level of power as PCP, and they can malfunction in much the same way.

CO2 is a bit of a waste, because you’re throwing away all of those cartridges, and you have that constant requirement. At least with a PCP after you’ve made the upfront investment (which is quite a lot, to be frank), you don’t need to keep on buying propellant. If you want the convenience of being able to get as many shots off as you can, but don’t need the rapid-firing capability, then a break-barrel rifle is a better choice.

Multi-stroke/pneumatic

Pneumatic air guns require pumping – either a single pump or multiple pumps (like that old Daisy airgun). They can allow for adjustable power output, which is a thing. I dunno why, I don’t see the point, but I’m no genius.

The obvious disadvantage is that you have to pump it up every time you want to take a shot. Some multi-stroke pneumatics can do more than one shot on a charge, but it’s not as convenient as a PCP or a CO2 gun.

I wouldn’t consider one for hunting because you might find yourself needing to pump it up at that critical moment, losing the chance and your quarry gets away. At least with a break-barrel, for instance, you can cock it and be ready to go straight away.

Break-barrel gas piston

These rifles are perhaps the most common, and very very easy to use. They’re also usually quite cheap, and have fewer moving parts than a PCP or CO2, and don’t require any extra kit at all.

They are really reliable; I had an old one which worked for years (still works now, with zero maintenance), but not the most powerful type available.

They work by compressing a piston against a gas chamber when you cock it. The barrel acts as a lever to push back the piston, compressing the gas.

When you pull the trigger, the gas expands, pushing the piston forward and pushing the pellet ahead of it, out of the barrel.

The downside of this type is that you get a bit of a kick as the piston hits the end of its run, essentially jerking the gun forwards slightly AS the pellet is leaving the barrel. This means they can be a bit less accurate because the barrel shifts as the pellet leaves the gun.

Which air rifle is best for me?

In the end, the choice you make will depend on the application for which you want an airgun. Perhaps you’d only want it for shooting tin cans – accuracy is important, but it doesn’t have to be sniper-like in its ability to hit at a distance. Or maybe you want to shoot rabbits – for this, you’ll need a slightly more powerful gun with a .22 bore, because a .177 may be too light. For pest control, if you’re at close range, a .177 may be sufficient – it will certainly be more accurate.

Perhaps the most pressing factor for your consideration is your budget – if you only have a few hundo, then a PCP air rifle may be out of your range unless you want to go second hand. To be honest though, unless I really needed the extra power capability of a PCP gun I would probably buy a brand new break-barrel airgun since it would also save me on any potential maintenance costs and it’s literally just plug-and-play, unlike a PCP.

I hope this lengthy page has helped you a bit – for me, it’s just made me even more confused. Anyway, either way, glad to be of service! Get in touch on Twitter or Facebook if you want to know more.

Jos