High Caliber Air Rifles

[Awoke]

I was at my local Airgun shop yesterday. I had dropped my rifle off for the purpose of having them give it a once-over/maintenance. It's a .22 caliber break action rifle that shoots about 800 FPS. Inexpensive. (Less than $200 with a $100 scope)

But it needed some TLC, and I got the guys to zero my new scope on it. While I was shooting the breeze with the guy, I asked his recommendation for a solid hunting pellet. (I like to shoot RWS superpoints, because IMO they are the nicest casting with the least flashing lines, etc, but he was sold out of them)

Anyways, while discussing the ultimate pellet, he mentioned .25 caliber, and I said "pardon?". Then we got talking in depth about higher caliber air rifles that I never new existed.

They have been making air rifles up to .50 cal for a long time now, unbeknownst to me, and he was telling me that his rifle (Either 9mm or .45) can group up at 1/2 inch groups, at 100 yards!!!!!!!

I was like wtf? Really? 100 YARDS??? 1/2" GROUP????

I guess they are going to be releasing a .303 or a .308 caliber soon too.

He said that it's illegal to hunt big game in Canada with Air rifles, but if it were legal he would not hesitate to shoot a deer with his rifle. Apparently the USA hunters have been using larger bore air rifles for wild boar hunting for a long time.

Some names to check out are FX airguns and AA (Air Arms) engineering. These rifles have a high pressure air cylinder built right in, with a valve port, and you use a compressor to fill it before heading out for the hunt (or target shoot).

Really nice looking, but they are not $200 rifles - They start at about $1000 without a scope.



The FX Cyclone:


http://www.southyorkshireairguns.co.uk/ekmps/shops/southyorksag/images/fx-cyclone-rifle-17-p.jpg


The AA S510:
http://www.southyorkshireairguns.co.uk/ekmps/shops/southyorksag/images/air-arms-s510-rifle-4-p[ekm]350x253[ekm].jpg



Anyways, just thought I would share.

[OutDorsMan]

An interesting bit of history:

http://www.lewisandclarktrail.com/lewisairgun.htm



Meriwether Lewis purchased an air gun with his own money at Harpers Ferry, while purchasing supplies for the expedition. The air gun was utilized to impress the Indians that the Corps would encounter. The air gun was probably manufactured by Isiah Lukens, horologist and gunsmith of Philadelphia; it was returned to him after Lewis's death in 1809 and sold at an auction on Luken's death in 1847, discovered and identified in 1976




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqFyKh-rUI


http://www.topairgun.com/girandoni

http://www.topairgun.com/files/2019619/uploaded/GirandoniPageImage2.jpg


Many people that I talk to about air guns have the impression that most air rifles and air pistols shoot small caliber pellets or even BBs. They are amazed to learn that there are air rifles known as big bore air rifles that are capable of taking down large animals such as a deer and that these air rifles have the ability to shoot heavy pellets such as 9mm, .45 and even .50 caliber with authoritative results.

Given modern technology, many people think that the big bore air rifle is something new. However, from 1790 to 1815, the Austrian Army used a 22-shot .46 caliber repeating air rifle known as the Girandoni air rifle because unlike single shot gun powder muskets there was no smoke to be seen and very little noise to be heard. Soldiers had to be specially trained and hand pumping the air reservoir 1500 times to a working pressure of 800 psi finally gave way to newly developed repeating gun powder air rifles that were arriving on the scene.



Consensus has it that the Girandoni air rifle was carried by Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition in 1803 to 1806. In fact, two accomplished Pennsylvania gun maker historians recently succeeded in producing four working reproductions of an original Girandoni air rifle as shown by the American Rifleman videos below. One was given to the donor of the original, two were kept by the gun makers for demonstration purposes and one was sold to a friend for $34,000. When I asked if they were going to produce more of the Girandoni air rifles, I was told by one of the gun makers that they were off to other new projects. However, I was also told that if a manufacturer wanted to start producing Girandoni replicas that one of theirs could be available for copying by that manufacturer.