Second Hand airguns

Second Hand Airguns

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Air rifles seem to be becoming extremely popular at the moment, whether it be for pest control or backyard plinking or for full on target shooting. At the moment we are getting a lot of emails and calls asking if we have any second hand ones in stock. The answer of course is yes..... however, a second hand airgun may well be more expensive than buying a new one and a new one is likely to have more benefits. 

Here's an example:

 This is an 'Original Model 50' in .22 made in the 1970s. It is in really good condition and we have it up for £170. Seems like a good deal? Well it is. If you want that specific gun. The reality is that it's power output is only 7.5ftlbs. Not bad, but ideally for pest control you want something at around 11ftlbs. Put in a new spring? £45 for the spring and then you will need a professional gunsmith to do the work as older airguns can have quite complex preload systems on them and you wouldn't want it to be over the 12ftlbs legal limit. Total spend would be around £270. Worth it if you are a collector perhaps, but for someone new to the sport a new Hatsan Breaker is only £99, full power and comes with a years warranty.

So. Something for people new to airgun shooting to consider.

 

Gun Lamps

Gun Lamps

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Much of the shooting we do is at night given that most of the time we are out pest controlling on the farms. This means that a gun lamp or night vision is essential. There are loads of different varieties on the market at the moment at prices to suit all budgets. Traditional night vision scopes have been around for ages but I don't like them due to the ease of damage you can cause. (Friends have had some horror stories with earlier models!).

My own personal preference is the Nitesite Viper. This fits onto my day setup with no need to re-zero and suits my style of shooting. (Sit on my backside waiting for things to come out!).

The shooting position is completely weird, the tv screen sits atop the scope and with a bipod fitted I can sit back and simply hold the stock of my gun to aim.

It does look a bit on the bulky side and won't suit everyone, however the picture quality is exceptional and due to it being an IR camera and not a traditional 'night vision' scope you don't need to worry about having the lens cap on during the day. In fact, you can use this system in day time conditions, something a disabled friend of my mine finds most useful being partially blind.

Picture clarity is excellent.

The drawback of these systems is that you do get a glare off the screen. Whilst this doesn't seem to bother the quarry, it does mess up your own night vision and so walking around with one can prove difficult. (I walked into a tractors fork lift prongs the other night and took out my shins!) The battery lasts for 3-4 hours which is more than adequate for my night shooting, this takes about an hour to recharge. The mounting system is easy to use and takes just a couple of minutes to clip on to the scope. I have been using a standard BSA 3-9x50 Essential (no parralax) and it works fine with this, however a bit of focus control wouldn't go amiss.

Others in my group prefer to look down their scopes and shoot more traditionally. 

The Tracer LED range of gun lamps are a great cheaper option and do the job.

These come in a variety of sizes and prices. We have found that they do tend to chew through the batteries (c123 camera types) and this can get expensive unless you buy them in bulk. The light these give off is fine for up to 40 yards (listed as 100 but in reality it isn't practical). Everyone I know that uses these have fitted red filters to them so that the quarry aren't spooked so easily. Most of these lamps are detachable as well which is useful for storage if your gunbag isn't particuarly deep.

Finally there are the 'laser designator' lamps. We had a play with one of these last night.

 These give out a green laser light (which when looked through your scope looks like a traditional night vision set up). The light easily picks up quarry and their eyes reflect well off it. It doesn't seem to spook them in the slightest and we found that the adjustable sizing system for spot size worked really well. The power of this lamp is amazing and it produces a crisp circle of light well out to 100m which is not needed for our purposes, but good to know. It is rated as a cold weather lamp, but this doesn't bother us as we don't tend to shoot out in the cold anyway. The mounting system is a real pain to get on and off the gun, whilst the adjustable mount works well once installed the 2 screws are really fiddley to use which is a shame as the rest of the setup is amazing. It comes with a tough 'soft' carry case for storage and an optional pressure switch which can be attached if you don't want the light on all the time. More to follow as we go out an play with it more.

Rat round up

Rat Round up with the terrier

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After last night's rat shoot I took my terrier Rufus to clear out the more awkward ones we couldn't get. Think we will need another night of shooting as he only managed to get 2...... Though the cold weather was starting to set in.

Rat Attack

Rat Attack

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Out on the farm last night knocking over some rats with Joe and Ash. Photos below.

Joe should look happier having just hit a pigeon

Rats crawling on the girders in the barn

Joe was using his new Hatsan Striker Edge with BSA .22 special scope, Ash using a Gamo Whisper Fusion with Hawke 3-9x50 scope. I of course used my usual Evanix Sniper K with Nitesite Viper set up.

Double tapping the rats!

Grain Silos

Don't shoot the tractors

Airgun Silencers

Airgun Silencers

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I've always used a 'silencer' on my rifles, especially my bigger calibres. It is an obvious thing to have on anything bigger than a .243 as it not only quietens the gun down, but also helps improve accuracy. To have one on a rifle, rim-fire or cente-rfire, there needs to be a slot on your firearms certificate specifically for it and the one you buy must be 'proofed' and marked as such for the calibre you are using.

My Custom Tooley .338 has a massive silencer on the end of it. I can shoot this with no ear protection and whilst it still makes a bang, is well worth having. (Yes I know it makes it heavy but you get used to it and I don't take standing shots with it anyway).

Over the top? Custom Tooley .338 with custom built sound moderator

So it might seem strange that you would need a silencer for an air rifle. After all, unlike firearms or shotguns, there's no real big bang going on.

 With an airgun you will hear a sharp crack from the muzzle. That's the compressed air expanding after it has pushed the pellet out of the barrel. This can disturb whatever you are shooting at or it can disturb your neighbours.

A lot of the cheaper air rifles come with a fully fitted silencer such as the Gamo Whisper X.

Pre-charged airguns can be more effectively moderated than spring- powered airguns as there is no real moving parts such as the spring with them but it is still worth having one on a spring gun  as what the shooter hears is not what will be heard downrange. A rat or rabbit will only hear the twangs of a springer as something distant and it is unlikely to bother them too much.
Silencers need to fit your gun perfectly. Fortunately most modern air rifle are 'plug and play' with  a thread already there to accept a screw on silencer quickly. It is well worth zeroing your rifle with the silencer on it as the addition of one can change your aim slightly (I never shoot without mine).

My Evanix Sniper Carbine is my 'everyday gun' for pest control, and despite it already being quiet I replaced the muzzle break with a BSA Silencer.

The only problem of  having a silencer is that it can make your rifle rather long and unwieldy and this would explain the move towards bullpups and carbine. This is one of the reasons I chose a carbine rifle myself. A lot of rifles these days are 'bull barrels' with an inbuilt silencer shrouding the barrel, however it is still worth putting on an additional one on.

Silencers start at around £35 for a basic one with a 1/2 UNF thread (the standard fitting of most modern airguns).  The one shown above is rubberised and works well with guns such as the Gamo Coyote.
Weihrauch make some very good silencers and these are available for between £50 and £60. These along with the BSA equivalent are probably the most popular ones we sell.

If you want a better look to your gun, there are all sorts available such as carbon fibre or camo covered ones

Overall there is no reason not to have one, especially if you are using a modern gun with a standard thread.

Farm ratting

A busy morning in the shop followed by some tree surgery for a friend... Big tree had come down into her pond! This was with Ash from The Garden Spider Landscaping company.

Dry suits on and chainsaws! Took us all day to get it out and chopped up, then up to the farm to shoot rats once we had dried out. (After discovering that the dry suit had a hole in it!)

Starting at the chicken coops where they have been causing problems, taking eggs and chewing the roofs to bits. 5 big ones were shot here using a Gamo Whisper Fusion and an Evanix Sniper air rifle.

Moving on to the grain barns. The minute we walked in the rats scattered! Ash managed to hit his first one with a 'hip" shot at close range (not even using his laser sight which we give him stick for having on a rifle) We shot 30 in the space of 2 hours here!

The mild weather we have had has meant the rats have been breeding more than usual. We have never had such a 'target rich environment' and could easily have doubled this number.. Just too tired from all that tree cutting to be out late.

We have been using the new Predator Polymag pellets for pest control and they are exceptional at dropping them instantly. On the Evanix Sniper we have mounted a Nitesite Viper. An excellent piece of kit. 

We shall be taking our pistols next time as the rats were running around really close, one was even trapped in the rubbish bin, dispatched with the rifle, but it would be so much easier with an air pistol.