Posted on 12/30/2015 9:55:23 AM PST by Rannug
Does anyone have any comments about springer air rifles in general, and the .25 calibre specifically? Giving consideration
1500 fps for .177 is great. About the same as a .22 rifle. Price is right also.
I like the idea of subsonic for sound for how and where I would use the air rifle.
We still are in the subdivision, haven’t got to move out yet.
The springers are heavy, about 8-10 pounds.
The gas (nitrogen) piston type will outlast the spring piston by about 2-1/2 times, and they are smoother and shake less during a shot. The accuracy is about equal.
Both need 200-300 rounds to burn off the factory oil and stop diesel explosions of the oil vapor.
1500 fps is above the speed of sound of air (1126 fps).
After about 75 ft the pellet will be subsonic and will be kicked by the supersonic pressure wave catching up to it.
It will then get kicked and tumble. It’s predictable, so you can sight it in accurately, but it’s better to be subsonic and not deal with it. Any slight burr on the pellet voids accuracy on a tumbling pellet.
.22 shorts are subsonic. They will not set off shot spotters. And they’re quieter than my Gamo .177 single break action.
I had at Hatsan 95 in .25 cal. It was by far the most difficult air rifle I ever shot. I was unable to hold a consistent group at 25 yards. Finding pellets was not a problem as I would just order them online from Pyramid Air.
I sold the Hatsan and bought a Crosman Nitro Venom in .22 cal. I immediately upgraded the trigger to a GRT-III from Charliedatuna.com and greatly improved the performance of the rifle. I also dumped the cheap scope that came with it and upgraded it with a Center Point 3x9x40AO. This thing is a beast and rodents don’t stand a chance.
Shooting off a bean bag bench rest, I can hold a one inch group at 50 yards and a two inch group at 75 yards. I could probably do better, but I don’t think I can upgrade my parts as easily as my rifle. The eyes are getting old and the nerves aren’t as steady as they used to be. My favorite pellets with this rifle are the RWS Superdomes 14.5gr.
niteowl77 is spot-on. Springers necessarily are of limited power because the reliance on spring power means they recoil IN BOTH DIRECTIONS when fired. Which means even the lower-powered models require a shooting/recoil management technique that is unique to springers. Larger calibers tend to magnify this characteristic.
PCP guns tend to be easier to shoot than springers because they require no special technique, not to mention they’re more fun for plinking because many load the pellet from a magazine, which, along with not needing to be pumped, allows faster follow-up shots. Springers also tend to be heavy, as airguns go, in part because the extra weight helps the shooter cope with the double-recoil.
Ignore the nonsense from anyone who recommends you buy a gun advertised to shoot its pellets faster than the speed of sound. Pellets are rather blunt projectiles, not designed to fly faster than sound, and are so ill-suited for supersonic flight that they sometimes will disintegrate in mid-air from the stresses of “wave form drag,” which is an inescapable characteristic of supersonic flight.
Plus, slowing through the transonic region is unsettling for any projectile, so optimum accuracy (with airguns) is achieved by remaining entirely below the speed of sound. ALL .22LR match-grade ammunition is subsonic. It isn’t necessarily advertised that way, but if you’ll check the specs, they all advertise an MV of less than 1100 fps.
About eight years ago, I bought a Beeman R9 springer in .20-cal for backyard pest clean-up. It proved so effective, I started using it for all my small game hunting.
The .20 is a sort of an odd duck, a compromise between the greater mass of a .22 and the higher velocity of a .177. I knew from experience that .22s tend to course straight through a bird as small as a European house sparrow without much loss of velocity, and so can overpenetrate and cause damage to near-by light-weight structures (bird houses, aluminum gutters, etc). I use my R9 a lot in built-up areas, and shoot a lot around my purple martin and bluebird houses to kill marauding starlings and house sparrows, and I was concerned about where the .22 pellets might end up. The .20-cal pellets tend to exit less, and with far less energy than a .22 when they do exit.
But if my usual prey were larger, maybe opossums or raccoons or feral cats, I definitely would opt for the .22’s greater mass. Maybe even a .25.
And there isn’t such a wide selection of pellets available in .20 (even less for the .25), but JSB does make their excellent Exact Diabolo pellet in .20, and, fortunately, it shoots very accurately in almost every gun it is tried in. It’s also a fairly heavy pellet in that caliber, which I count as a plus.
I routinely kill rabbits and squirrels out to 40 yards (and a touch further) with my R9. This year alone, I culled well more than 100 squirrels out of my mother’s fruit orchard, and more starlings than I could count. My record shot thus far with the R9 has been a starling at a laser-ranged 56 yards, so if you’re conservative with shot selection, it’s plenty of gun out to 40-ish yards.
Pellet mass and velocity is a trade-off. From the same gun, the heavier pellet will tend to shoot at a lower velocity. The lighter/faster pellet has a flatter trajectory, so it is more forgiving of shooter errors in range estimation and hold-over. However, a heavier pellets is less likely to be blown off target by a crosswind, and its greater mass means it will carry a lethal level of momentum further down range, despite its lower velocity at the muzzle. At the same velocity, the heavier pellet always will penetrate further and therefore is more lethal.
In fact, the lighter pellet will lose momentum to aerodynamic drag so much faster owing to its lower mass that at significant distance, somewhere between 25 and 50 yards, the heavier pellet actually will be the faster of the two, despite the heavier pellet having been slower at muzzle exit. The wise hunter will shoot the heaviest pellet his gun is accurate with, then learn to accurately gauge the distance, and to be precise in his hold-over at any given range.
My R9’s muzzle velocity is only about 700 fps with the 0.89-gram Diabolo pellets, so by 40 yards, the projectile is descending pretty steeply. Even with such modest velocity, the heavy-ish pellet remains lethal to that range, but precision in range estimation and hold-over is a must.
Switching from a firearm to an airgun for small game also proved serendipitous because, unlike rimfire ammunition, there’s been no pellet shortage since Obama was coronated. Airgun hunting definitely is more challenging, but I also find it more rewarding. And my ability to bag my limit remains dependent on me finding them rather than any limit posed by the airgun.
Two other points I forgot. Because of their unusual recoil characteristics, springers require scopes built specific to them. Ordinary scopes are only hardened against recoil to the rear. The simplest way to make sure your scope is up to scratch is just buy the gun scoped from the factory. And if it’s an Old World gun, it probably also will come properly zeroed, out of the box.
And Old World springers usually are built really tight. Most — such as the Beeman — have a 1000 round break-in interval, so you know it will provide many years of trouble-free shooting. Mine shot the 0.89-gram JSBs about 30 fps faster after a thousand rounds than when new. And when they finally wear out, the springer’s highest wear parts are replaceable (by a trained airgun smith) for a fraction of the cost of a new rifle.
You, and some others, prefer the .22. I was looking at the .25 to be used against something perhaps in the future. I figured they would be sufficiently more powerful. Would someone care to comment on the practical, useable, power? What is it good for with a picked shot?
This is another hair up my ass. Thanks for all the comments so far.
Rannug
Thanks for the link. I was reading Lewis and Clark logs and the air rifle was mentioned. Interested me, and I finally am checking it out. Lots of reading from your article. An .87 calibre round? Nah. No thanks. But I thank you for that like. The world just got more interesting.
Rannug, keep in mind that the .25cal is heavier and slower than the .22 cal. If you’re going with a springer, your power is limited, as is your accuracy. Distance and wind conditions will be a major factor. Depending on what it is that your hunting, the .22cal may be more practical. If you are looking for power, go with a pneumatic air rifle and go with a big bore. You’ll have all the knock down power you’ll ever need.
So many things to check out. Thanks for your advice.
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