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Hunting Calibre??


Jezza42

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oh i dunno, i find .22 very dramatick therefore a bit drag queenie'ish lmao!   .177 has that dashingly hansom penash of the manly world

.............................. .http://bit.ly/V4G7lP

i always hunt calibers at night, seems they dont runnabout so much...

I have used all three, but the .20 has had me won over since 1996, so I have given it a good go! I still have .177 and .22, but there is no comparison and I won't take a .177 hunting ever again - nor willanyone bring one on my land to hunt. SORRY, but that is how it is.I have seen far too many woundings with it from good riflemen - pigeons hit well, seen the feathers move at the strike through either binos if spotting for others, or through the sight and they fly off and tower later, even ferals from the cow cubicles.

 

.22 is fine, but given the additional velocity available with the .20 there is a tangible benefit of the middleweight, so much os that I now have three rifles in this calibre:

Theoben Taunus

Theoben Rapid

Daystate Huntsman (modern one).

 

I also have my old and trusty HW77 that I bought new in Exeter in 1985 and a glorious Theoben SLR, both in .22. I love using the SLR, but it is heavy and I haven't put a sling on it, so I have to force myself to hump it through the woods. Finally I have one .177 left, a proper old target Theoben Grand Prix (1986) and I have used it hunting, but the puny pellets are just too fiddly and you have to be so much more critical with shot placement that for my type of see, lift, shoot it isn't up to the job. If you can lie and use a bipod and take your time, OK, but I work on the principle that you have a maximum of 3 seconds from the time you spot the quarry to get your shot away - less with scampering squirrels.

 

I use 3 pellets in the rifles. Crossman Premiers are deadly accurate, but the same weight as .22, so the advantage is lost.

H&N Field Target Trophy have always gone well in all three of my .20 guns and are perfectly acceptablegrouping wise, this is the preferred pellet in the Huntsman.

The Taunus will shoot Bisley Superfields into the same hole at 35 yards, but also puts FTTs to the same point of aim, so I can mix and match and not know which I have shot,they shoot that much the same - useful coincidence.

The Rapid also shoots FTT perfectly, but it also likes JSB Exacts and these are a bit more efficient through that barrel (been high spotted and polished) and the slight drop in velocity at the muzzle (10fps) is nothing compared to the 2gn extra in weight - so downrange energy is significantly higher than FTT and only for a pellet diameter difference in drop at 35 yards - so I use the heavier Exacts and take the extra energy as a bonus for cheating the wind.

 

The flight path of a .20 is very close to the .177- I don't care what Chairgun or other paper/theory tables suggest, out there on targets at various ranges there is so little to choose between them I cannot understand people hampering themselves with lighter, smaller pellets. But that is just me and my land - what you do on yours is up to you.

 

WHY am I so in favour of the middleweight? For the same reason I prefer 7mm for deer, boar and plains game. It has a benefit in sectional density, the marriage of pellet weight, frontal area and length all combine to give the best mix of compromises. Where .22 and .177 have one aspect going for them (.22 better downrange energy retention, .177 less arc of flight) the .20 has almost the same flight arc as .177 in practical terms and in practise, not theory, plus it has good downrange energy, plus better wind drift characterisitcs...so several little refinments that go together to make it a very useful calibre for all round hunting, up to 30ft-lbs, then the bigger calibre takes over because you can't drive the .20 fast enough accurately to go above 30ft-lbs. It isn't as if I haven't used .177, but it just isn't good enough for me.

 

This was my Theoben Olympus in .177 -it wasn't always this easy!

Olympus004.jpg

 

And this was my custom Air Arms, also in .177 - a real tack driver that won many high level competitions, but not with behind the trigger! I could shoot Swan Vestas heads at 35 yards with it,but I still had plenty of flyers with it.

AirArmsS410002.jpg

 

.177 is just not reliable enough for me.

 

Very good read and a compelling argument. I think my next air rifle will be a .20, perhaps a SFS tuned 95K if I can get one

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''.177 is just not reliable enough for me.''

 

owch some ones been nobbled on a custom job then...

 

i've crono'd the odd 'special jobby' on ranges and blow me if a few were coming in at 9.5 fp's..eeeek 'the full 12fp' they were told, and ooo they got a load more shots with the reg fitted lol. eeeee owch!

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''.177 is just not reliable enough for me.''

 

owch some ones been nobbled on a custom job then...

 

i've crono'd the odd 'special jobby' on ranges and blow me if a few were coming in at 9.5 fp's..eeeek 'the full 12fp' they were told, and ooo they got a load more shots with the reg fitted lol. eeeee owch!

 

Nope. I have my own chrono thanks. It is more ot do with the frontal surface area, grain weight and velocity. For ease of target shooting, there is no argument. For shocking power, which hunting requires, there simply is not enough. The Olympus, pictured, being a break barrel, didn't have a regulator :hmm: For years it remained at 11.4 ft-lbs with AA Fields.

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''.177 is just not reliable enough for me.''

 

owch some ones been nobbled on a custom job then...

 

i've crono'd the odd 'special jobby' on ranges and blow me if a few were coming in at 9.5 fp's..eeeek 'the full 12fp' they were told, and ooo they got a load more shots with the reg fitted lol. eeeee owch!

 

Nope. I have my own chrono thanks. It is more ot do with the frontal surface area, grain weight and velocity. For ease of target shooting, there is no argument. For shocking power, which hunting requires, there simply is not enough. The Olympus, pictured, being a break barrel, didn't have a regulator :hmm: For years it remained at 11.4 ft-lbs with AA Fields.

 

oooo, i only get 80 yard accuracy out of one pellet.. many to the 60 mark, but a few more pellets are umm, rubbish to coin a fraize.(i tune to the pellets too).

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Surely am not the only one who thinks this is all a load of rubbish.....Am I ?

 

All calibres (.177,.20,.22.25) in sub 12ftlb variation are fine for uk air rifle quarry.

All will do the job fine when used correctly and accurately its just each calibre has its own charictoristics that you need to learn and master !

 

I dont belive there is one purfect calibre or one better than the others myself, pros and cons with all. On the flip side of it a guy I know who is a CF and rimmy shooter really believes that sub 12ftlb air guns shouldnt be allowed on any live quarry.

 

Horses for courses so to speak, get out and try them if you can and then buy what you like and master it !

 

Regards

 

Matt

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Surely am not the only one who thinks this is all a load of rubbish.....Am I ?

 

All calibres (.177,.20,.22.25) in sub 12ftlb variation are fine for uk air rifle quarry.

All will do the job fine when used correctly and accurately its just each calibre has its own charictoristics that you need to learn and master !

 

I dont belive there is one purfect calibre or one better than the others myself, pros and cons with all. On the flip side of it a guy I know who is a CF and rimmy shooter really believes that sub 12ftlb air guns shouldnt be allowed on any live quarry.

 

Horses for courses so to speak, get out and try them if you can and then buy what you like and master it !

 

Regards

 

Matt

 

your spot on.. theres always a one of, or a specialy crafted tool that elevates above the rest, when in a skilled hand.

 

but be jessus your ruining the more inportant facts, the talking and the hyping is more than important here!! afte all some one trying to sell you it ffs! cant you think of making them richer hehehe...joshing :bye: :bye:

 

hehehehe very sarky sorry.

 

better go buy a gun mag so i can be cool too hahahaha...... theyre all the same power, the cros sections between a .17 and a .25 are bugger all at this leval, mildly differing. Alas, with each caliber theres a diference in aproach, the person who masters/tailors to it gets a better result, changing the caliber, and often the pellet produces a worse result than 'whats i'm used to' and so is crap, and we all sing along, ohhhhh no it isnt...ohhhhhh yes it is lmao!!

 

mines bigger un yours ner ner lol.

 

dawned on me on another post, .22 does have a slight edge in energy retension yes? it's nominal, it also has the 'bigger cross sectional area' yes.. so why is .177 the one with the over penatrating reputasion, when a .22 penatrates further?

cant have it both ways, if it penatrates deeper it must go right through must be bigger much faster and better than .177? hehe biggu and bigga the hype goes.

 

deads dead.. if your only shooting to 30 yards please go to sleep you dont know lol.(or get some serious time in on the range..things change the more you do it, sudenly 40 isnt even risky, even if there is a mild 2 mph northerly wind coming in at you uplifting the pellet..0.0001 inch..use yu gut man! its there.

Edited by ghillies
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erghh with that, thats enough for me, setting my own pedastool up here..longer way to fall.

 

gnight all, enjoy the singing i'll go shooting instead lol.

 

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