New air-rifle perhaps?

Rimfire bolt action rifles, lever action, pump action and self loading rifles. Air rifles.

New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by bladeracer » 25 Jan 2025, 5:08 pm

I'm not a huge fan of air-rifles, but if I could own this here I'd love one :-)
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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by on_one_wheel » 25 Jan 2025, 5:48 pm

Oh s**t .... there goes my tax return
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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by bladeracer » 28 Jan 2025, 4:05 pm

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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by Wapiti » 29 Jan 2025, 11:05 am

Hey can anyone recommend a reasonably priced, accurate .177 air rifle, for small pest birds in sheds that s**t all over your equipment, that won't shoot through modern corrugated roofing/custom orb?

There isn't a rimfire round that won't punch through any of that stuff. 22 Ratshot will work, but it's expensive and VERY marginal in performance.
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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by bladeracer » 29 Jan 2025, 11:25 am

Wapiti wrote:Hey can anyone recommend a reasonably priced, accurate .177 air rifle, for small pest birds in sheds that s**t all over your equipment, that won't shoot through modern corrugated roofing/custom orb?

There isn't a rimfire round that won't punch through any of that stuff. 22 Ratshot will work, but it's expensive and VERY marginal in performance.


My CO2 Ruger 10/22 Umarex air-rifle probably fits the bill. 10rd mag and a red dot, great in the sheds. Only makes about 620fps so doesn't usually go through the walls.

Ratshot is rubbish, I use it for march flies but that's all.
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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by Wapiti » 29 Jan 2025, 12:53 pm

Yeah I finally got onto a few boxes of that old Winchester ratshot, the stuff in the 50rd loose boxes. It's hit and miss, usually involves some neck twisting which isn't what I'm about.
I've tried to get dealers out this way to pressure the importers to bring in that Fiocchi 12g no.12 shot loads, that'd sweep the roof purlins clean. But they won't. All they're interested in is clay shooters, and buckshot.
Thanks for your suggestion, I'll do some searching about the Umarex. I'd prefer an old-style air cocker though.
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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by bladeracer » 29 Jan 2025, 4:37 pm

Wapiti wrote:Yeah I finally got onto a few boxes of that old Winchester ratshot, the stuff in the 50rd loose boxes. It's hit and miss, usually involves some neck twisting which isn't what I'm about.
I've tried to get dealers out this way to pressure the importers to bring in that Fiocchi 12g no.12 shot loads, that'd sweep the roof purlins clean. But they won't. All they're interested in is clay shooters, and buckshot.
Thanks for your suggestion, I'll do some searching about the Umarex. I'd prefer an old-style air cocker though.


Just buy a bag of #12 and swap it into bulk field loads if that's what you want to use. I don't go smaller than #9, which is very bloody small.
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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by Wapiti » 29 Jan 2025, 9:10 pm

Yeah I tried to get #12 shot and would've even got maybe, a Lee Loader for 12ga just to do that, but couldn't find that size shot listed anywhere.
Every supplier I tried thought I was nuts.
The last thing I want to do is reload for shotguns. I have absolutely no interest in that, and find shotguns quite a compromise for what we do and hardly use them except with buckshot. Hence the air rifle idea.

7.5 and even 9 shot, will blow straight through shed cladding, at say 20m. The factory loadings I've tried anyway, on the test pieces of custom orb I've tested on. But 12 shot is too light and hasn't enough energy, to do that. According to my (barely) professional attempts at calculations. If I had 12-shot cartridges, I could wipe out a whole row of the bloody crapping birds with one shot, by sweeping along a purlin on an angle. The purlins are 7m high in the hay sheds.
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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by bladeracer » 29 Jan 2025, 9:42 pm

Wapiti wrote:Yeah I tried to get #12 shot and would've even got maybe, a Lee Loader for 12ga just to do that, but couldn't find that size shot listed anywhere.
Every supplier I tried thought I was nuts.
The last thing I want to do is reload for shotguns. I have absolutely no interest in that, and find shotguns quite a compromise for what we do and hardly use them except with buckshot. Hence the air rifle idea.

7.5 and even 9 shot, will blow straight through shed cladding, at say 20m. The factory loadings I've tried anyway, on the test pieces of custom orb I've tested on. But 12 shot is too light and hasn't enough energy, to do that. According to my (barely) professional attempts at calculations. If I had 12-shot cartridges, I could wipe out a whole row of the bloody crapping birds with one shot, by sweeping along a purlin on an angle. The purlins are 7m high in the hay sheds.


Don't need any loading gear, except maybe a crimper if you want to, just drop some wax on top or wrap it with insulation tape. #12 shot would be pretty ineffective I would think past about 5m.
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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by Wapiti » 30 Jan 2025, 8:18 am

Yeah but how to open up a crimp on an unfired cartridge? To tip out the large shot?
Wax is not a very good idea for what I'm trying to do, it will make the shot into a large projectile and will absolutely hole the sheeting.

I've seen a few YouTube videos where blokes have cut off the crimps off cheap 7.5 shot cartridges and poured wax on top of the shot. It stops it falling out, sure, but the result on a target is a big slug of shot in one ball. To me, that's obviously counter to what I described I'm trying to achieve.

No. 12 Ratshot in 22LR at 7m will absolutely kill pest birds if hit in the body or head, the issue is the tiny amount of shot, spreading all over the place after bouncing through the riflling in the rimfire barrel means the shot pattern has huge holes in it so marginal kill rates meaning wounded animals flapping around in purlins 7m up. I don't stand for that..
7/8ths ounce of 12 in a 12g will absolutely fix that, even in an open choke. Nobody has tried it so everything is just opinions right now hey?

Apologies to people who've been annoyed by "thread creep". I realise I should've started two others, one about a good accurate springer pest sluggy and one about 12 shot.
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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by bladeracer » 30 Jan 2025, 8:40 am

Wapiti wrote:Yeah but how to open up a crimp on an unfired cartridge? To tip out the large shot?
Wax is not a very good idea for what I'm trying to do, it will make the shot into a large projectile and will absolutely hole the sheeting.

I've seen a few YouTube videos where blokes have cut off the crimps off cheap 7.5 shot cartridges and poured wax on top of the shot. It stops it falling out, sure, but the result on a target is a big slug of shot in one ball. To me, that's obviously counter to what I described I'm trying to achieve.

No. 12 Ratshot in 22LR at 7m will absolutely kill pest birds if hit in the body or head, the issue is the tiny amount of shot, spreading all over the place after bouncing through the riflling in the rimfire barrel means the shot pattern has huge holes in it so marginal kill rates meaning wounded animals flapping around in purlins 7m up. I don't stand for that..
7/8ths ounce of 12 in a 12g will absolutely fix that, even in an open choke. Nobody has tried it so everything is just opinions right now hey?

Apologies to people who've been annoyed by "thread creep". I realise I should've started two others, one about a good accurate springer pest sluggy and one about 12 shot.


I generally just poke a knife blade in the centre and tease the petals out to tip the shot out. I have also cut the top off, dumped the shot out, dropped in #9, BB's or slugs and wrapped the front with insulation tape, works just fine.

But definitely, I'd much prefer a .177" SLR for shed work :-)
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Re: New air-rifle perhaps?

Post by stihl88 » 30 Jan 2025, 10:35 am

Wapiti wrote:Hey can anyone recommend a reasonably priced, accurate .177 air rifle, for small pest birds in sheds that s**t all over your equipment, that won't shoot through modern corrugated roofing/custom orb?

There isn't a rimfire round that won't punch through any of that stuff. 22 Ratshot will work, but it's expensive and VERY marginal in performance.


You could try the Aguila Super Colibri's, super quiet and only 14ft lbs of energy so should be safe for the roof? A typical .17 cal air rifle is in the range of 10 ~20ft lbs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-T2TWje2e8

The standard lower velocity Colibri is for pistols and will come out at about 5ft lbs, if you use these make sure to see if they're clearing the barrel if you choose to use these.
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