Air Rifle Calibre Advice

[Mortblanc]

[Scythe13]

What Mort says is spot on. Finding .20 pellets isn't the easiest of tasks.

What if you're out and a friend only has .22's with him? Personally, for post SHTF, I'm going with 100% ammo as .22 pellets. There are so many reasons for this. Yes it will have about 5 meters less distance, and a more curved trajectory. But if my rifle is zeroed at 25 meters, whether it's .22 or .177, it's still zeroed at 25 meters.

Whether I shoot a .177 or a .22 pellet, when I get a good clean kill shot on a rabbit, I have struggled to see which pellet has made the bunny deader than the other. A well places shot, from a .22 or .177, will result in a killed quarry.

In my personal experience, I'd rather hunt with a .177 in a nice clean, open, perfect condition situation. The top of the trajectory curve is much smoother and that makes it more forgiving for inaccuracies with range calculations.

In not ideal circumstances, as a way to compensate for my lack of .177 experience in bad conditions, I prefer to use a .22 pellet. The reason is that a small breeze is less likely to nudge it off course. The shorter distances I shoot in those conditions means I am much more unlikely to take a longer shot with the .22 which invariably means I'm stalking more, shooting from closer, with a heavier pellet, all of which means the pellet is more likely to go where I want it to.

With a .177 however, I am less experienced, and so I am currently unable to accurately adjust for any negative weather above a breeze.

We do plan to adjust all our gear for just .22 rounds though.

[Binnie]

Yes that is an issue, but I've yet to convince myself its a problem, its very easy and cheap to stock up on several 1000's or even 10,000's pellets to give yourself a good supply.

If however you do run out and are scavenging and then do happen to stumble across some .177 or .22 pellets, then what is chance that you will also find a rifle or 2 as well??

I fully accept that the chances of finding/scavenging .20 pellets will be impossible........and yes it does still concern me a bit, but I can't make up my mind if it is show stopper.

Again, playing devils advocate here, there is a bit of a trend going on with people buying these gas canister rifles that need charging, i can see charging the cylinders being an issue too

[Scythe13]

Dev, are you in a group? If so, what calibre are their air rifles? Standardise all your gear so you all have interchangeable equipment.

[Devonian]

Again, playing devils advocate here, there is a bit of a trend going on with people buying these gas canister rifles that need charging, i can see charging the cylinders being an issue too

Yep totally agree and I will be staying clear of PCP/CO2 etc and going for a good old springer (under lever) which is also what I've previously used.

Dev, are you in a group? If so, what calibre are their air rifles? Standardise all your gear so you all have interchangeable equipment.

No, no groups as such!

But you guys have now put me back on the right path - thanks!!

.22 it will be

[Binnie]

Sorry i was referring to scavenged weapons,

I've a gas ram break barrel and a spring under lever, i like both tbh

[Devonian]

Sorry i was referring to scavenged weapons,

Yes, that's a good point. Lots of unuseable rifles, but the pellets will still be there for the taking!

[Steve]

There is a common misconception that the heavier .22 pellet is less affected by wind, but this is incorrect, the amount of deflection is related to the velocity and also the "loss of velocity in flight", which is another way of saying the "ballistic coefficient". A .177 will fly flatter and be less affected by the wind than a .22 at the same power level, this has been proven.

However, if you were to tune a .22 rifle over the legal power limit, so that the velocity approached that of the .177 then the greater sectional density of the .22 pellet would give you a windage and trajectory advantage. It's easier to increase the power of a .22 than a .177, the larger calibre is more efficient at converting stored energy into muzzle energy.

Question - how much power do you need ? Actually, for common UK quarry, not very much. A 12ft-lb power UK legal rifle will easily kill a rabbit at 50yds, the key is in the shot placement. At such low powers there is no "shock" to speak of, the shot behaves as if you were pushing a pellet sized steel rod through the rabbit, whether a .177 or .22 rod makes little difference, but where you push it through is crucial. At UK legal power, you will find it easier to hit the kill zone with a .177, this is proven every weekend in competition by the best shots in the country.

As for .20 cal, forget it, it was massively hyped after Theoben published some faulty data about it. I argued online with one of the founders that the data was impossible and he finally admitted that there had been a printing error. I enjoyed that one.

[Midnitemo]

I have a .22 hw80 , tis a very good , accurate , well made air rifle if a tad heavy to carry for extended periods , I bought a pre charged .20 cal Benjamin pistol for ratting as my ratcatcher was overpenetrating and the rats were dying elsewhere(I needed tail's for proof) the .20 solved this particular problem and was a very hard hitting ratting pistol , ammunition choice/availability/price was a big problem I seldom managed to buy pellets of the shelf and more usually had to place online orders thus driving the price up....I would discount .20 on this alone, nut my choice in hindsight would be to go.177 for its flatter shooting as this is much more novice friendly with range estimation , if you feel the .177 lacks clout you can use the bisley magnums which are a similar weight in .177 cal to the average .22

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should read but not nut

[Devonian]

I have a .22 hw80 , tis a very good , accurate , well made air rifle if a tad heavy to carry for extended periods

I used to have .22 HW77 and yes it was a great rifle, this time I'm going for the HW97