Squirrel And Rabbit With Air Gun

[Chief Grey Bear]

Ye ol' pellet gun is great on small game. I, and now my son, have harvested lots of squirrel and rabbits. He has even shot quite a few doves with his pellet gun!

I think though I would start with a .22. I think you will enjoy that much more. I can't say I shoot much small game at 50 yrds but, I do like the .22 over the pellet for getting shots in the tops of high trees where squirrels can be.

One note, I don't think I would set up any bird feeders for squirrel hunting. That would most likely be considered baiting and thus illegal.

[RSBreth]

I know it's not the answer you wanted, but like others have said - for what a good quality air rifle costs you can get a decent .22 rimfire. I've shot a lot of varmints out of my garden with the air rifle I have (old Crossman) but I'd rather use one of my .22's with subsonics - it's quieter than the air rifle, and the results are more deadly.

I must be the yin to your yang - my wife doesn't like us to stay anywhere that won't let us have a firearm with us.

[Gavin]

Might depend on what your local ordinances say....Its a misdemeanor to discharge a firearm or projectile weapon within the city limits of my municipality...I'm pretty sure that my neighbors wouldnt care but you never know for sure.

[jdmidwest]

Hey Chief, did you use a steel BB when you shoot the doves? Might want to check the regs, no rifles or pistols of any type on Migratory Birds.... And of course, your admission is double trouble, both Federal and State.

I use airguns alot around the house. I bought a nice Stoeger X20 this summer and it killed alot of pests in the garden. Growing up, I had a Crosman 140 22 cal that kept the blackbirds at bay off of the hog feeders, rabbits out of the garden, and other varmits. Then I graduated to a 22 and started on bigger game. But I still own a nice collection of airguns, I can practice all day in the rural subdivision without bothering anyone else with the noise.

[Chief Grey Bear]

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves ("rifling") cut into the barrel walls. Don't know of many pellet guns that have that. I know his don't.

Harrasing the blackbirds huh?? I sure you didn't kill of those migratory creatures.

[fishinSWMO]

Sure, they kill squirrels and rabbits. I have never had a fancy one, just the cheap multipump ones like my boy has now a daisy powerline 880. I used to kill lots of rabbits and squirrels when I was younger with one, my son has killed some squirrels with his.

[Jack Jones]

Thanks for all the responses. I appreciate the posts this has generated.

Ringer, I'm going to have to look at where those non-pellet ones near Springfield are so I would avoid them.

I suppose the next step after taking fly tying courses will be to hit a hunter ed course. I figure squirrel won't be the hardest thing to get after with the pellet gun, but rabbit will be more difficult. Imagine its tough to find them on hunting land, especially without a dog. My wife's shih tzu probably isn't up to it, LOL.

[Dutch]

We used to do rabbit hunting on the Talbot area w/o dogs. It was full of them.

[Geoff]

I have a 1300 fps Gamo and it tears squirrels up. Its more then enough to do the job. if the shot is placed right, it darn near pops their heads off. However, its not much quieter then 22 if any quieter at all. They are pretty loud once you start get to the fancy ones. mine is a big cat IIRC

[Kayser]

I have a .22 1250fps pellet rifle that I use on muskrats. Fixed barrel, side cock, with a scope. Fixed barrels are more accurate than break-barrel models, especially with a scope (barrel moves, scope doesn't, throws off the shot). I've taken it squirrel hunting before, but I'm starting to use my Henry .22 when I want the single projectile- I like having multiple shots when I find a tree they're cutting. I grew up hunting them with shotguns (IL kinda forces you to, almost), and a 20 gauge was my favorite, right behind a .410. A good pellet gun will be almost as effective as a .22 for hunting, though, because of the similar bullet speed. Only real difference is there is no hollow-point mushrooming to help with killing.

And although they're harder to find, rabbits will go down a lot easier than a squirrel- wounded squirrels run off, wounded rabbits lay down.

Hope this helps,

Rob