what would i be able to hunt and eat with an air rifle?

Question

I am thinking rabbit, squirrel and duck? Would I be able to kill these with an air rifle? Is there anything else I could shoot and eat?

in the UK, no bears or wolves

Answer 1

your been fed a lot of bollocks hear again,
The killing zone of a ligal air rifle (anything under 12 ft lbs) is up to 20 yards and even then you have to be acurate ie head shots.
Good shooting can be acomplished by a set of good sights and a silencer.
You mention shooting rabbits, squirrels and ducks, no problem there providing you can get close enough, On any bird up to the size of a phesant you should not have a problem with providing you can get close enough and their legal to shoot, Wildfowl genraly have a veary thick plumage so you may struggle to kill them,for the likes of gease i would say your wasting your time( certan spicies are legal to shoot & no licence is requiare regardles of what some have said)
One bit of advice i will give you is if you intend to shoot any game bird, then you should purchas a game licence form your local main post office, with out one it is iligal to shoot game in the british isls .Also make sure you have permision from the land owner whos land your shooting over otherwise your poaching and can also be done for armed tresspasing.

If you intend to get into hunting the way that you are, then it may not be a bad idea to apply for a shotgun/firearms certificate.

For anymore advice just e mail me, your last e mail i could not reply to for some reason.

Answer 2

Huh, I never knew they made .50 caliber air guns! So yes I guess that would kill a deer (wisely the author limited his range to approx 50 meters). But since you asked "airgun" I assume you did not mean such a highly specialized weapon although they are available.

Typical airguns are usually .177 caliber or .22 caliber. With a .177 caliber pellet flying at 1000fps (feet per second) I would limit myself to small birds, squirrels, maybe rabbits and pests. If possible I would buy an airgun that is .22 caliber and just as fast.

It may not be legal in your area to take game with an air rifle. You will have to check. Also make sure you practice shooting it and know what size group you can expect (3-5 shots and the distance between shot centers on average) at a certain distance (say 20meters, 30 meters, 40 meters, 50 meters)

Also shot placement has huge amount to do with the effectiveness of an bullet. Either heart lung or head shots will be required, and you ill have to know if the pellet can penetrate through skull and how deeply it will penetrate through tissue.

You should do a lot of research before buying or hunting. It sounds like fun though.

Answer 3

With your garden variety air gun (Daisy Powerlines for example) you would be able to take most all type of small game, from birds, groundhogs, rabbit, etc. The post stating 30 shots to kill a rabbit is grossly incorrect.

One shot (well placed, of course) from a powerful enough (700 FPS or better) pellet gun will kill just about any common animal. So many people think of these guns as toys, but the actually are quite lethal in skilled hands. I recall learning to shoot with mine before moving up to gunpower, and I downed many a garden pest, including a 20-some pound groundhog. I could easily see a pellet gun such as mine taking down an animal as large as a deer, so long as the shot struck the right place (in and around the ears, eyes). But I wouldn't recommend it, due to the fact it would no doubt be a slow death and incredibly painful to the creature.

If you're looking for some type of survival rifle, I would strongly urge you to consider something in .17 HMR or .22LR/.22Mag.

Answer 4

You can hunt almost anything with the right air rifle. A .31 cal. air rifle, made by Isaiah Lukens was used by the Lewis and Clark expedition 1803-1806 here in the states to hunt small game and deer.
Beeman makes awesome .177 - .25 Cal. Air Rifles
The Beeman Crow Magnum IV shoots .22 Cal. 935 fps or .25 cal. 815 fps. So whatever you could hunt with a .22 short rimfire, you could probably take with one of these. Beyond this factory air rifle, I am not sure what custom options might be available.

Answer 5

Air rifles can be very fatal. Many animals can be killed if hit in the proper spot. I wouldn't recommend hunting anything beyond small squirrels, rabbits, doves. You wouldn't want to wound an animal. I think you should try a small .22 to hunt with.

Answer 6

Quills, rabbits, squirrels, ducks, small rodents would be easy kill from less than 60 to 50 yards. Anything bigger like a boar, or small deer will not be able to take down.

Answer 7

With an air rifle? A pellet gun or a BB gun? With a pellet gun, you might have a chance, but you are going to have to alter your list of prey from "rabbit, squirrel and duck" to maybe "rats, chipmunks and sparrows."

(To bring down a rabbit with an air rifle will take you, oh, lets say, if you are really good, 20-30 shots, providing the rabbit will stand still long enough......)

Answer 8

You can hunt small game animals , such as squirrels, rabbits, ground hog, racoon, and a skunk. You can succesfully kill them under 30 yards with a head, lung, or heart shot (the lung and heart are behind thier shoulder) with bare sights or scope. You can also kill opossums, crows, cats, dogs (cats and dogs have to be legal though ask the owner 3 times to get it put up and the 4th time KILL IT!). But you dont want to eat them just kill them as pest. There are more ... coyote (pest) and hogs (food). Kill hogs with a heart, lung, head, shot but you may have to track him down once shot because thier not small game. You also can shoot them in the back. (located above the back leg) It will most of the time drop them because they're paralyzed. You can kill them under 40 yards. Do NOT kill ... deer, turkey, or waterfowl its illegal. Okay well now just make sure you have the gear and license and permits and check out the hunting laws. How you tell if an animal is diseased is kinda obvious .... they could be skinny, loosing hair, vomenting, and have wierd odd scars on them. Usaully small game may tend to have worms, BUT as long as its not in thier meat they're fine to eat. Happy Hunting!

Answer 9

It depends on what kind of air rifle you are using. I've seen air rifles advertised that are supposed to be able to kill stuff as big as deer, but they shoot pretty good sized pellets, and it looked like the used compressors to supply enough air to push the pellet hard enough to bring down something that big.

Answer 10

Apart from the obvious answers (rabbits, squirrels etc), you could probably get a few tramps, and I love the idea that you could get a deer with a small air rifle. Perhaps if you used it as a club.....