Why Hunters Regress Back To Airguns
I got a BB gun at 6-yrs. old, a pellet gun at 9-yrs. old, shotgun at 10-yrs. old and then a .22 at 12-yrs. old. I started deer hunting at 9 or 10. By the time I was 12 I had left my airguns in the dust of history.
Then 50 yrs. later I circled by a buddy’s house. He set up a target in his front yard and proudly pulled out a break barrel air rifle. For the life of me I could not understand why a grown man would regress and go back to shooting an airgun.
Five more years went by and I started hearing more and more rumblings about airguns. Finally I thought I might as well check them out. If nothing else, they’d made interesting copy for my articles. I publish over six articles per week, year-round, so I’m always looking for new topics. If airguns were getting “hot,” I’d better investigate and share what I’d learned. I figured they’d be good for one or two articles on them. Boy was I wrong!
Shortly thereafter I was at the Professional Outdoor Media Association’s Convention in Missouri. During the Media Day at the Range event, I met Susan from Winchester. She showed me the ins/outs of their break barrel air rifle. Before long I had one in my hot little hands.
But upon shooting it, I was disappointed. I could only get a 1 1⁄2-inch group at 15 yds. I had a buddy on the SWAT team shoot it. He only got a 1 1⁄4-inch group. That’d never work. With airguns you’re hunting small animals with small kill zones. I called Winchester and they said “Yea, we expect a 1 1⁄2-inch group at 13 yds.”
Why I didn’t give up on airguns right then I’ll never know, but I persevered. Before long I got invited to the first two GAMO Squirrel Master Classics where writers are teamed up with GAMO air guns to hunt squirrels in a friendly competition. Fun and productive. My articles on the event and airgun shooting in general landed me on the Prostaff of Crosman airguns for four years. More shooting. More testing. More hunting. Yet this went on for about five more years before I fully committed to being “an airgunner.”
Since then I’ve tested airguns from Winchester, GAMO, Crosman, Benjamin, Sig Sauer, Ruger, Walther, Springfield… and now I’m sponsored by UMAREX. I learned a lot along the way. Like what types of airguns and pellets are most accurate. And how various guns must be held for best accuracy.
In the hopes of preventing you from becoming disillusioned by the wrong airgun and giving up like I nearly did, I’m going to write a nine-part series of airgun articles that should speed up your learning curve and help you become an effective airgunner quickly. Believe me, you don’t want to struggle through the way I did.
The first big decision is which caliber should you buy? I started squirrel hunting with .177s. The next year I tried .22s and noticed it took 40% fewer shots for me to tumble a squirrel out of the tree. My .177’s have been collecting dust ever since. I’m sure some of you might argue that a .177 will penetrate deeper, since there’s less surface area, thus less friction. Sounds plausible. But after hunting with both and seeing the difference, I can assure you the .22 is deadlier. The .177s are fine for targets, practice shooting, and tiny pests like starlings and some ground squirrels, but go with a 22-caliber for small game hunting.
I was fat, dumb, and happy with my .22 for years… until I got a Umarex 25-caliber rifle called the Gauntlet. I’d seen .25 pellets for sale, but didn’t want to clutter up my life with yet another caliber. And then I hunted with that Umarex 25! I noticed as much improvement in killing efficiency as I had when stepping up from .177 to .22.
So my advice would be don’t buy a .177 for taking game. The .22’s are good, but I’d suggest going for the real deal: Umarex 25-caliber Gauntlet. This is, I think, the ultimate small game airgun. I’ll share more details on a subsequent post. In the meantime, you can investigate it online yourself.
In my next installment I’ll cover the three main types or styles of airguns:
Break barrels that cock a spring or fill an air bladder.
2. CO2 powered
3. Pre-charged Pneumatics
Oh, before I go I should answer the title of this piece. Why did I “regress” back to airguns? Because it’s fun! Modern airguns are accurate and effective without the noise and recoil of firearms. They’re effective on small game, but even large game like deer and feral hogs. Stay tuned! More to come. See you next installment.
