Why do you choose air rifle over rimfire?

[ToddGeddes63]

You can still get great deals on the Crosman stuff. If you sort by diameter you can tighten up the groups decently. The "big name" brands are the ones getting north of 5-6 cents a pellet. This is especially true if you can't get 500 pellet tins and have to but 200-250 per tin.

I charge whoever sends me to walmart 2 tin of the cphp pellets, per trip! I haven't bought pellets this year at all! but I have noticed my trips to crazy town have fallen off. Maybe there on to me..

 

[steve123]

PCP's are weird??!! A little over a week ago I cleaned my barrel and I tested some different slugs and my Uragan King in 25 cal wasn't shooting very good with any of them even my old standby of 29gr NSA slugs. Ha, I seriously considered selling it and buying another pcp. Sometimes airguns just funk out?!

Yesterday I went to my friends place to shoot various guns but my favorite rifle is being pillar bedded so I got out the same gun I mentioned earleir - The King. It was shooting darn good?? I was hitting a 3/4" spinner almost every time at 50Y with the 29gr?? Only 1-3 mph wind was present so I went and shot at various small to medium sized steel targets farther and farther to 191Y, then shot the medium sized steel at 200Y, 250Y, 275Y and 300Y. It was easy to hit them all once I saw where the occasional miss went so I could make a correction.

To make a quick comparison I got my nice 22rf out but I only shot at the 300Y steel. I hit that steel at basically the same ratio. But the 22rf ammo obviously had more vertical dispersion and the difference being when the wind changed it wasn't enough to move off the target like it did with the King. It was Wolf Match Extra so not cheap ammo either.

This airgun has lower ES than the 22rf has so in low wind it does just as well on these targets in spite of having half the BC. If it had been windier I'm sure the 22rf would have prevailed.

29gr NSA/.75BC/925fps
WME 40gr/.15BC/1060fps

I do like observing how the differences actually pan out?! The 22rf is more consistent day to day as far as holding zero and grouping well. The PCP has more POI shifts but when its shooting good "watch out" you 22rf !

 

[tommyb]

You can shoot just as quite just as accurate with no chance of ricochet from a 100 dollar 22lr than you can with any pcp. When you listen to what is being said here it's clear my and your investments into pcp are safe for now. But sooner or later others will become aware of what I know and it will hurt small caliber pcp sales and value. Think you all should know that.

I read your post several times. I'm a bit confused, but I want to understand your meaning more fully. Sometimes the wording and my interpretation are not in sync.

I think both rim fires and PCP air guns have, and will continue to have, a solid foundation for their respective buyers. I'm not sure that low end/budget rim fires will 'hurt small caliber PCP sales' because I think they are used for different purposes depending on the needs for their intended audience. As you mentioned, there is good rationale here on this thread for why shooters choose PCP vs. rim fire. By contrast, I think most Rim fire shooters like that platform for qualities they perceive are of high value. I have both Anschutz and high end PCPs, and I like them both but they serve different purposes.

In any case, can you elaborate on your thoughts?

Thanks, Tom

 

[Filnez]

There's a $100 .22 rimfire that will shoot 18 grain bullets virtually silently at 38 foot pounds and deliver 1/2" groups at 42 yards (my zeroing distance)?

$100 rimfire rifles only exist in the imagination anymore, even rusty old beaters cost more than that. To get one quietened down is going to cost quite a bit. True you can buy some ammunition that is quieter than much of the othet .22 lr ammo, but it is innaccurate and most of it is ineffective game killing and is still louder than most air rifles. Having a barrel threaded is expensive and going through the hassle and wait of purchasing a moderator is not good. When you get up into higher powered air rifles shooting heavier projectiles you might have the equivalent ricochet danger to .22 lr bullets. Air rifles shooting pellets at muzzle energies of less than 50 foot pounds are never going to be as dangerous as .22 lr cartridge rifles will be.

I own and use both. They all have advantages and disadvantages. The shooter chooses what to use by deciding which one fits their situation best. Sometimes there are laws which just don't allow firearms. Sometimes people just want to use something different. Inferring that air gun shooters are all somehow stupid and a $100 .22 could do anything that all of these air rifles are doing is an insult and demonstrates that the poster lacks any experience or knowledge of what he is talking about.

 

[tommyb]

There's a $100 .22 rimfire that will shoot 18 grain bullets virtually silently at 38 foot pounds and deliver 1/2" groups at 42 yards (my zeroing distance)?

$100 rimfire rifles only exist in the imagination anymore, even rusty old beaters cost more than that. To get one quietened down is going to cost quite a bit. True you can buy some ammunition that is quieter than much of the othet .22 lr ammo, but it is innaccurate and most of it is ineffective game killing and is still louder than most air rifles. Having a barrel threaded is expensive and going through the hassle and wait of purchasing a moderator is not good. When you get up into higher powered air rifles shooting heavier projectiles you might have the equivalent ricochet danger to .22 lr bullets. Air rifles shooting pellets at muzzle energies of less than 50 foot pounds are never going to be as dangerous as .22 lr cartridge rifles will be.

I own and use both. They all have advantages and disadvantages. The shooter chooses what to use by deciding which one fits their situation best. Sometimes there are laws which just don't allow firearms. Sometimes people just want to use something different. Inferring that air gun shooters are all somehow stupid and a $100 .22 could do anything that all of these air rifles are doing is an insult and demonstrates that the poster lacks any experience or knowledge of what he is talking about.

OK, I got it. Understand your thoughts on rim fires and air guns.

First sentence - Who makes a rim fire for $100 that shoots 18g bullets? All of the rim fires I am aware of shoot 40g bullets, so this is new to me and have never heard of this before.

 

[Filnez]

Nobody does, that's part of the point of my post. I can't take my Kimber 22 and shoot any direction that I wish while I'm hunting on my property without endangering someone. I can take any shot in any direction with the Weihrauch HW100S. There are areas that are served by airguns that cannot be filled by .22 cartridge rifles. And vice versa, there are plenty of situations where a decently low cost simple .22 lr and some easy to get cartridges with no support equipment such as air supplies needed would be perfectly suitable and wasting thousands of dollars on complex airgun setups is just silly. Firearms and air arms both fulfil purposes. Some of us do tend go overboard and blow in a lot of money unnecessarily, but for most it's a hobby and a form of entertainment.

 

[Headshots]

Where the airgun worked better than a rimfire , for me, is backyard shooting. And hunting farm fields, and irrigation canals back in Idaho. I purchased my first nice airgun at 16 . A FWB 124 .177 w walnut stock , muzzle brake and Beeman 2.5 power scope . I was selling solar heat when a guy asked me if I like airguns. Yep , he didn't buy any solar but I started making payments an my new rifle. I would set up thick phone books w targets and shoot away in the back yard Mom would even take some shots. I had a shotgun, 223 Remington, and some .22s but the airgun got used most.

 

[tommyb]

Nobody does, that's part of the point of my post. I can't take my Kimber 22 and shoot any direction that I wish while I'm hunting on my property without endangering someone. I can take any shot in any direction with the Weihrauch HW100S. There are areas that are served by airguns that cannot be filled by .22 cartridge rifles. And vice versa, there are plenty of situations where a decently low cost simple .22 lr and some easy to get cartridges with no support equipment such as air supplies needed would be perfectly suitable and wasting thousands of dollars on complex airgun setups is just silly. Firearms and air arms both fulfil purposes. Some of us do tend go overboard and blow in a lot of money unnecessarily, but for most it's a hobby and a form of entertainment.

That was not clear to me. I thought you had a $100 rimfire that did shoot 18g bullets. Very confusing, but thanks for clarifying.