Hello to all my blog’n friends, let me start off by apologizing for missing last weeks post, I was out of the country and traveling hard for a couple weeks. And even sorrier to say I had no shooting on this trip, which took me first to Vienna and then across the channel to Scotland. The IWA was underway in Nuremberg during the course of my travels (which is the European equivalent of SHOT Show), but hard as I tried was unable to shift my schedule around to drop by the exhibit.

One cool thing related to my hunting/airgunning however, was that while in Vienna I stayed at a very nice hotel in the cities center, which is the location of high end shops for clothing, jewelry, and all of the accruements of wealth from all the “right” designers. And there right in the middle of it was a fantastic hunting shop that targeted a different hunting world than we’re used to in the states. Fine double rifles and shotguns at prices that ranged from what you might expect to pay for a new car on up to a small house, were lined up on the racks. And in the midst of all of this, was a rack of German spring piston airguns, though the clerk told me he could order a PCP for me, but they didn’t stock them in the shop.

Getting ready to start filming a round table session!

The sound-man is getting me mic’d up. It’s great working with a very professional production crew.

The did have some great ancillary gear, and I laid down a chunk of change for a new Eberlestock daypack with an integrated scabbard, which will allow me to carry everything, including my gun, on my back when hunting. This is especially important to me, because I often have to hit the field with guns that have not been equipped with sling swivels. A manufacturer will often supply me with a new gun on loan for evaluating; many of these guns do not offer sling mounts as a standard, and since I am expected to return the gun in the same condition I received it in, can’t drill and mount my own. Consequently I find myself hiking up and down hills and through the woods clutching the rifle in my hands. I’ve come up with a couple of different mounting options, but think this pack is the slickest system yet. Besides the scabbard, it has a built in small game carrier, a hydration system, and plenty of gear packets. I’m on the road again, sitting on a plane as I write this, but will get some photos of the pack posted when I get back home in a couple days.

This trip does have something to do with airguns, I’ve mentioned in the past that I’ll be hosting the hunting segments on the “American Airgunner” this season (the program will air on the Sportsman Channel and the Pursuit network) and have several hunts in the can; several African hunts, deer in Alabama, javalina in Arizona, predators in Texas. This week I’m heading into the studio to tape the round table sessions with our group of usual suspects out of the airgunning world along with a couple new faces. I’ve got several hunting topics we’ll be discussing, and am excited about the 2014 season.

I’ll be getting ready for the prairie dogs to come out, and am really looking to get a couple of my new guns out for this long range shooting. I will be using the Daystate Huntsman and Wolverine Type B on a couple of upcoming shoots, and am particularly looking forward to getting the high shot count type B on a Pdawg town! I’ve been very impressed with the accuracy and the gun likes the heavier JSB pellets, which is a plus in the often breezy conditions we encounter. I am going to try for a prairie dogs in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, South and North Dakota, Arizona, and anywhere else they occur this year. I have a personal best of six states in one season, but we’ll see if I can do more.

If you have any topics you’d like me to take a look at, or any specific gun, scope, pellet, or other gear to evaluate, let me know. I’ll be coming at you with some exciting hunts and gear reviews, introducing you to some of my hunting buddies, and passing along some tips on where to go, so keep in touch!

I found that a gun like the Crosman 2240 Co2 provided adequate power out of the box to take small pest species like starlings and rats at close range. This gun was also one of my early attempts at making grips …..

Handgun hunting has become a very popular sport over the last couple decades. As a rule, handguns are more difficult to shoot than rifles and as the range is shorter than with a rifle it puts much more emphasis on closing with your quarry, and many hunters have found themselves drawn to the challenge. I took up the sport in the late seventies, hunting small game with a number of rimfire pistols and revolvers. Before long I’d graduated to the big bores, and spent a lot of time in the field tracking feral hogs up and down the coastal hills of my native California. I found a heavy centerfire like a .44 mag a great round for this up close and personal brand of hunting.

With some minor tweaking we got the guns up to about 14 fpe using Co2, my son is holding a rabbit he took one one of our hunts in the high desert. He’s off at grad school now, so it gives you a time reference.

As my interest in hunting with air rifles grew, it crossed my mind that using an airpistol for small game and pest control would provide me with an opportunity to get in more shooting, and be a lot of fun to boot! I started looking around and found that while there was an almost unlimited selection of low powered CO2 plinkers (clones of popular Colts, Sig Sauers, etc) there was a very limited selection of handguns with the accuracy and power to reliably kill anything larger than a field mouse. I wanted a hunting tool that would be applicable for shooting pigeons inside of a barn, or rabbits around the garden. Many years ago a chart was published in the Beeman catalog that stated most small game and pest species required 3 to 5 foot pounds energy (fpe) to kill, and since I planned to use these guns inside of the twenty yard range thought that a muzzle energy around 9-10 FPE would be sufficient.

I started building gun using components from Quackenbush, Glover, and others to convert the platform to a PCP. This was a 9mm version that was doing about 35-40 fpe. I sent this gun to the engineering group at Crosman to have a look and play around with.

There were a few guns that came close to this; the Sheriden H Series multi-pump .20 caliber pistol, the Crosman 600, the Crossman 2240 CO2 in .177 and .22, and a few others. I found that that the stock Sheriden and the Crosmans produced around 8 fpe and were capable of making clean kills on pigeons, starlings and rats at close range, so long as I was close and could make the head shot. These results should not be surprising, British airgun hunters are limited to sub 12 fpe airrifles (without a special firearms permit), and have obtained excellent results using them for rabbit and pigeon hunting. When taken in the context of firearms, most airguns are relatively low powered, and the ability to precisely deliver a pellet on target is the critical piece. If you are keeping the range inside of twenty yards, it doesn’t matter if you hit a squirrel in the head with 8 fpe or a 12 fpe, what matters is that you hit him in the head!

At the next SHOT Show I was handed the Marauder to have a look at. I received an early gun and used it a lot on small game and varmint. This was the first mainstream air pistol adequate for most small game hunting.

Of course if accuracy is comparable, more power is better. A more powerful gun will allow a bit more latitude in shot placement and it will allow shots to be taken at slightly longer ranges. This simple truth lead me on a search to find ways to boost the performance of the guns that were available, and I stumbled on a small cadre of hobbyist that were hot-rodding production CO2 pistols; particularly the inexpensive and readily available Crosman 2240. This gun can be purchased for around fifty dollars, and with a Dremel tool and a couple evenings tinkering, can be turned into a 9-12 fpe hunting gun. The pistol is dismantled and the internal dimensions of the valve increased, and the transfer port between the valve and the receiver opened up to facilitate improved gas flow. The process of modifying the valve and transfer port, optimizing the hammer spring, and fine tuning the trigger is not only easy but a lot of fun. There are also a number of after market accessories such as complete replacement valves, receivers and bolts, and custom grips in exotic woods and laminates now available from several sources.

I’d recommend either a low power scope or a red dot as a sighting system for most applications. Red dots are not as good a choice if shooting in very bright sunshine as it washes the dot out.

I have used the modified 2240 to take pigeons, squirrels, cottontails, and jackrabbits out past 20 yards. While not an absolute necessity, it is preferable to stick with head shots. The intrinsic accuracy achieved with most of these airpistols is more than adequate; sub 1/2 inch groups at twenty yards are the norm. It is a good idea to check several different brands of pellets to see what works best with a specific gun; I find that light weight round nose pellets are effective hunting projectiles well suited to the lower velocities of pistols. Hollowpoints tend to be ineffectual at these low velocities, wadcutters don’t penetrate very well but are efficient transferring energy at these close ranges, and pointed pellets are typically the least accurate. While caliber is not critical, one can argue whether the higher velocity and deeper penetration of the .177 or larger wound channel and increased energy delivered by the .22 offers greater advantage. This might be one of the few times an alloy pellet might be a good option; I have recently been shooting the Gamo PBA Raptor .22 caliber pellet with some interesting results. There is a substantial jump in velocity over standard pellets. Inside of twenty yards they are fairly accurate and the terminal performance is quite good. As a matter of fact I’ve had much better results using them in pistols than rifles.

Other handguns from Brocock, the Grand Prix in this photo, and FX started to roll out give more choices in some fine airguns.

There are three basic options available when selecting a sighting system for the hunting air pistol; at these close ranges iron sights are fine, but many hunters opt for either a scope or a red dot. Most of my guns are equipped with low power scopes, and as pest control often takes place at night some are also equipped with lights and lasers as well.

Up to this point we have been looking at the most common airpistols available, but there are some new high power PCP and CO2 handguns on the market that open up new territory for the hunter. The FX Ranchero is available in .177 or .22 caliber: this PCP pistol uses an eight shot rotary magazine and generates about 16 fpe, though the adjustable power can be dialed down when shooting in more enclosed spaces. These numbers place it in the same performance range as many full sized rifles. Another source for high power airpistols are the small custom houses specializing in providing components for conversions or producing ground up builds. Once an airpistol is above the 20 fpe threshold, it is capable of taking prairie dogs, woodchucks and raccoons. Dennis Quackenbush has a line of big bore (.308 and up) PCP handguns that put out well over 100 fpe and have been used to take feral hogs and coyotes!

With the right gun, such as this 130 fpe .308, you can take much larger game!

If you are a handgun hunter and want to get in some practice, or simply want a compact shooting tool for taking care of pest control duties around the property, an air powered handgun might be the right option. Make sure you pick a gun that is up to the job, find the right ammo for it, and practice a lot to make sure you can hold up your end. Getting in lots of practice should present no problems; a tin of pellets, a few CO2 cartridges, and an open section of basement or garage and you are good to go!

What’s going on

I’m packing up for a business trip to Europe next week, first Austria then on to Scotland. I am going to try to stop over in Nuremberg for a day to visit the IWA, which is the European version of the SHOT Show, though there is much more focus on the airgun side of things. On my return I’ll be off to the studio for taping new “Round Table” episodes of the American Airgunner, which will air this summer. After that we are trying to set up a predator hunt in Texas, though we’re getting late in the season. On the other hand we’ll have prairie dog trips coming up soon!

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I am writing this weeks blog from my hotel room in Arizona, and what a week it has been. I flew into town last Wednesday and drove over to Airguns of Arizona to catch up with the Robert Buchanan and his team, look at the new guns that came in (really interested in the new Brocock) do a little shopping (one can never have too many pellets) and make a general nuisance of myself before loading up and heading for my hunting spot to meet up with Kip Perow, who is the resident hunting expert at AOA. Kip and his guiding partner Steve from Copper Country Outfitters, had been scouting the area, and we’re my host on this trip.

Lining up my shot, I’d wanted to stay inside 50 yards, but felt comfortable with the 85 yards offhand.

I’ve been wanting to hunt javalina with an airgun for years, the only problem was that none of the states in which these animals occurred allowed airguns to be used, until this year. Arizona in a single bit of legislature have made this state the destination spot for airgun hunters, providing opportunity to take mule deer, couse deer, pronghorn, javalina, mountain lion, and bear with big bore airguns….. the only place for most of these species as a matter of fact.

Opening day of the hunt found us up and in the field well before sunrise, driving deep into national forest land on a Ranger, before setting off on foot over the rugged and hilly terrain. We glassed the hills and washes looking for the little desert pigs, and finally found a small herd, which as we followed merged into a much larger herd. I dropped a good size javalina at 85 yard with an offhand broadside chest shot. The video and story will be communicated in various media, but suffice it to say here that the scouting sweat and tears that Kip and Steve put into setting up my hunt, made this possible. If you’re hunting in a new place and don’t have the ability to scout for yourself, getting a good guide is your best bet for success.

Kip and I looking over my trophy, This was the highlight of my hunting year!

After day one, Robert and his father joined us for an excellent dinner at the San Carlos casino,  along with a lot of fun story telling and banter mixed in with lots of airgun talk. We left the next morning, but got a text from Kip with an attached picture of Robert with his Javalina.,,, Well done Robert!

Following the javalina hunt we returned to Phoenix, and I spent the day today with buddy Scott Dellinger shooting Eurasian collard doves and pigeons while testing out the terminal performance of several pellets. We had a large pile of these tasty pest birds after a few hours of shooting, and a great deal of fun to boot. Going out tomorrow morning before ending my hunting holiday and flying back to the frozen north country I now call home.

Other News

I am leaving for a conference in Vienna on the 5th then on to Edinburgh on the 10th of next month, and am trying to arrange my schedule to spend a couple days in Nuremburg Germany in between so that I can attend the IWA, which is the international version of the SHOT Show, but I find to be much more focused on airguns (since many of the finest airguns come from Europe).

Have some new products I will be testing out; airguns from Brocock, pellets from Predator International, and a few new calls. Well, this a quick post as I need to get up early for my hunt…… I’ll touch base later in the week and be back on track with more during the week.

A stealth gun is optimal when you have to shoot in factories, barns, or suburbia. And often you’ll be shooting in close confines or out of a car (or as in the case, both).

One of the reasons that airgun hunting has gained popularity is that increasing urbanization has resulted in less land available for traditional hunting pursuits. The observer of nature and wildlife will also note that these built up areas; such as industrial complexes, railroad yards, dumps, or other tableaus from the urban landscape often become the home territory and feeding grounds for a variety of pest and small game species. Airgun hunting for pest animals provides a service to the property owner while allowing the hunter to hone his shooting skills and have a little off season practice close to home.  Where local regulations permit, it is often possible to obtain permission from owners and facility managers to shoot pest animals on their property. The process of gaining access is helped along by demonstrating that you are responsible, explaining that you will remove pest species that cause financial damage or present a health risk, and will use a type of hunting tool that minimizes or negates the risk of damage to people or property. When I am asking permission to shoot on a property, I’ll often carry along a couple articles or books that discuss airguns and airgun hunting to share if they seem interested. I also keep a gun stowed in the trunk of my car that can be demonstrated on request, and this has led to more than one plinking session! A frequently encountered obstacle to overcome is concern over liability; I carry a form letter which states I assume responsibility for any damage I might inadvertently cause and to release the owners from liability for any injury that might befall me while on their property.

The Airforce Talon-P in carbine configuration will let you goit after coyote in the suburban setting. this little .25 caliber gun is kicking out pellets at 50 fpe.

Once you determine that the local ordinances allow you to shoot an airgun and have lined up a property to hunt on, you may feel that everything is set and ready to go. But things can still go wrong! You may find yourself in a legal shooting area with permission to hunt and an eye on legal quarry, only to find you must pass through a populated area where it is preferable not to be seen toting a gun. This is when a stealth gun, one that is either very compact or a takedown, and quiet, is a huge advantage. The gun must also be quiet, generate appropriate power for the intended use, accept various targeting accessories, and if it can be broken down for transport to my hunt site, all the better.

A takedown model such as the FX Verminator is a great example of a stealth gun: it takedaown, it’s compact, quiet, multishot, dead accurate, large shot capacity…it might be the perfect stealth gun as a matter of fact.

Just about any airgun is quieter than almost any firearm, some more than others. Spring piston airguns tend to be pretty quiet out of the box; most of the noise originates from the piston slamming home and is more of a low level mechanical twang than the sound of a firearm discharge. However it is not easy to find one that is truly compact or can be taken down. Pre-charged pneumatics and CO2 powered guns tend to be louder, producing a firearm like crack though at a substantially lower volume.  While the report of even a high power air rifle is much quieter than a rimfire, there are ways to quiet these guns down further still. A PCP or CO2 gun with a shrouded barrel can be as quiet as a whisper, and this is a standard component of a stealthy urban hunter in my opinion.

Urban hunting for pest such as pigeons, starlings, rats and smaller species typically occur at closer ranges, say inside of 25 yards. So a great deal of power does not need to be generated to achieve fast clean kills. One could argue that a gun producing 12-14 fpe is more than adequate for most pest control duties, and it certainly will cause less damage in case of a missed shot. I generally use a lower power 12 fpe PCP for this type of shooting, such as the Marauder P in carbine trim. If I intend to shoot something bigger such as a groundhog or raccoon I will opt for a more powerful pcp rifle. There are spring piston airguns that have the power and range for larger quarry, but they tend to be big and bulky. It is quite possible to find a substantially more powerful pcp in a compact and unobtrusive package, which makes them a better candidate for taking care of larger urban pest.

The Benjamin Marauder pistol is a lower power gun that will let you take any small game species efficiently and quietly, I an easily carried package.

I mentioned that the gun should provide a means of mounting targeting accessories such as scopes, lasers, and lights. Iron sights are fine with respect to range, but as urban pest control often takes place in darker conditions I prefer a scope. A high power scope is unnecessary for the ranges typically associated with urban hunting.  However a lower power scope is very useful, especially in settings of low ambient light, such as hunting in a dark factory building or shooting rats at night. There are a couple of other pieces of gear that are of use in these conditions; such as a laser and a flashlight mounted on the gun using a specialized mounting system with remote switches that permit them to be easily set up and quickly deployed.

I have several guns that qualify as urban hunters; the aforementioned Benjamin Marauder P as either a pistol or carbine, the handy little Brocock Specialist ,22 as a carbine that offers a step up in power at around 20 fpe, and the FX and Kalibr are excellent examples of the class of guns available based on a bullpup design. They are very compact, powerful, accurate, and quiet with a multi-shot magazine. One of my favorites for stealth hunting whene noise isn’t a primary concern is the little AirForce Talon P in carbine configuration. This gun a barely larger than a handgun and can generate about 50 fpe, which is well in the range to kill a suburban coyote at 50 yards.

As I’ve pointed out many times before, one of the most compelling advantages of hunting with airguns is that they open up new hunting grounds closer to home. Often these urban settings don’t occur in the aesthetically pleasing landscapes we all prefer to hunt in, but they do offer target rich environments that can provide a lot of shooting fun and practice for when we can get out to the country

UP Next!

I’m on my way out tomorrow, first to So Cal for a couple days then on to Arizona. I’m meeting up with Kip and Robert at AOA, then Kip and I are heading off to hunt javalina under Arizona’s new airgun regulations, then I’m out for a few more days of predators, desert varmint, then meeting up with my buddy Scott for a couple days of dairy farm pest birds. Going to do a springer only day as well, because I had such a good time with these guns previously!

Then in the first week of March I’ll be in Vienna for several days then up to Scotland on business, but I’m trying to open up a day so I can swing down to the Daystate factory for a looksee, and if that happens should have some very good stuff to tell you about!

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Robert Buchanan and I on a pest bird shooot…. those Daystate guys now how to make a bottle forward gun!!

From the perspective of appearance, some people love them others loath them, but when it comes to shot count bottle fed rifles can’t be denied …… But with the new breed of guns from manufacturers like Daystate, even those solely in the utilitarian camp will have to take a second look!

When buying any new air rifle there are several relevant factors to consider; power, accuracy, loudness (or quietness depending on perspective), trigger characteristics, the guns physical dimensions and how it fits the shooter, etc. Another important item specifically related to precharged pneumatic airguns is online air storage capacity, which dictates shot count and therefore how many shots are available each time the guns air storage reservoir is filled.

For any given gun, the shot count is a balance between how much air the gun can store and how much it uses on each shot. I have two Webley Raiders in my collection, which are identical except for the fact that one is set up for the UK market (12 foot pound of energy (FPE) limit), and the other has been set for the maximum power I can get out of this rifle design (40 fpe). The 12 fpe gun gets 60 shots per fill and the 40 fpe gun gets 28 shots. In other words I choose to give up 32 shots per fill in order to get an additional 28 fpe. The only way to get a higher shot count while keeping the same performance (peak velocity/energy) would be to increase the volume of available air.

When hunting small game and varmint I often want to use a gun that generates maximum power (to stretch out the shooting range), and don’t always want to carry an extra air tank in my pack. The way to accomplish this is deceptively simple, store more air in the gun! But increasing the dimensions of the air reservoir can be tricky; it needs to be done so that the balance and shooting characteristics of the rifle are not compromised.

On another trip to Arizona I took out the FX Gladiator, and was doing some long range prairie dog shooting with it.

There are essentially three ways to substantially increase the onboard air storage; you can attach a large capacity air bottle to the forestock, incorporate a large capacity air bottle into the buttstock design, or do both. There are several guns on the market that use the forward mounted air bottle, the BSA Superten and Theoben Rapid being good examples of the breed. Less common are guns that use the air bottle as the structural basis for the buttstock, exemplified by the AirForce line of guns (the Talon and Condor) and the Logun Sweet 16. These guns provide a very high shot count even when the guns are dialed up to provide the maximum possible power. The third configuration is a combination of the two, which is the least common approach seen on guns like the FX Gladiator with a buttstock air bottle and a under barrel air tube.

I’ve used the forward bottle guns from BSA, Theoben/Rapid, Daystate, and FX. I think this is a good design when you want to tune a gun to deliver maximum power with big heavy pellets. All of these rifles will let you drive heavy projectiles at high velocities while maintaining a fairly high shot count, the actual number depending on the bottle volume (typically between 400 – 500 cc) and the power level set up for the gun. In some of the earlier models (like the BSA Superten) I didn’t really like the feel of the bottle as the stock didn’t cover it, though I still found it possible to shoot accurately. But the newer guns such as the Daystate Wolverine Type B tend to have more ergonomically designed stocks that either seamlessly dovetail into the bottle.

The Airforce and FX have models (Talon and Verminator respectively) that have the air bottle forming the buttstock, and this configuration lends itself very well to the high tech look and feel of their guns. The bottles have a capacity of 400-500 cc of compressed air, and at full power can give up to 40-50 shots per fill. Dial the adjustable power down and you can get a couple hundred shots per fill! I find that with these bottle buttstock guns it is necessary to pay close attention to the scope mount used, if they are too high I find it difficult to achieve a consistent sight alignment. However, with a medium profile mount I do very well with both the Talon and the Condor. The Verminator and Gladiators have the mose ergonomic butt stock configurations built around the air bottle.

This is one of the old school guns, the BSA SuperTen I borrowed on an early varmint hunt in South Africa.

The method of filling these guns vary from manufacturer to manufacturer; in some models there is a filling port built into the gun so they can be refilled without demounting the bottle from the rifle. In others the bottle is removed and attached to the filling tank with a connector, filled, and then the full bottle is remounted. And in some there is the option to use either method, which is my preference. I like the option to carry a full tank that can be swapped for an empty in the field, but also like the option to quickly refill the gun without going through the extra steps of removing the bottle first. Regardless, the primary advantage of all of these guns is the increased shot count even when the gun is set for the highest possible power.

like the bottle fed rifles when hunting in target rich areas. On a recent prairie dog shoot out west, where I got a couple hundred shots a day, the WindyCity let me stay in the field for long periods. This was a great step saver, in that we were spot and stalk hunting and managed to move a couple of miles away from the truck on each outing. On more than one occasion I was still knocking prairie dogs over as we hiked back to the vehicles, while my buddies had long since run their guns dry. Between the high volume of the onboard bottle and the ability to carry a compact lightweight extra bottle, you don’t really need to stop shooting with these guns. That’s something to think about if you plan to do a lot of shooting!

I have often said, I am a lucky guy; I’ve got a great family, strong faith, an interesting and fulfilling professional life, and I’ve had a chance to let my hobby grow into a second career of sorts. And it is the latter that I want to talk about in this post. If you’ve read my writing you’ll know that I started shooting airguns seriously while living for more than a decade in Europe. It was a combination of not having much opportunity to shoot firearms, an availability of quality airguns built for adults, and happening to come across the British airgun magazines carried by my local newsstand in the Netherlands. I was really captivated by the writing of John Darling and what he was doing with airguns, and I’m a guy brought up out west with firearms and a love from the classic writers in Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, Fur-Fish-Game, and the adventures of big game hunting in those pages. I moved back to the states for a couple years before leaving the country for Japan and Australia and other stopovers before coming back a few years later. In this period back in the states, my company was sending me to Eastern Europe or Asia for a month on, then back to my high desert home for a month off work. During my month on I went hunting almost every day, and over a two year period I shot literally hundreds of rabbits, ground squirrels, and other varmint with my airguns, and got the first taste of predators with air power. This is the time that made me a confirmed airgun hunter, and I only used my firearms for big game, predator, and wingshooting. And once I found out about the new big bores and jumped on the early train, this started to diminish as well. The problem was, there were not many places to hunt……. but that’s also been changing! More and more states have been expanding their regulations to allow airguns as a legal method of take. And a few of these places have become destination trips in my opinion, and that’s what I want to talk about this week.

Hunting in West Texas can be a predator hunters dream!

What makes a place a destination spot? For me it’s defined by opportunities to hunt game that can’t be hunted in other places, hunt animals in a quantity unavailable in most places, or in a variety unavailable elsewhere. My top five are West Texas, Northern Arizona, California’s high deserts, Virginia, and a tie between Missouri and Alabama. I’ve been hunting most of these places for a few years, as hunting laws have been put on the books.

Texas was one of the first places where we could use airguns to take larger game; their regulations don’t allow any game animals to be taken with air, but that leaves jackrabbits, cottontails, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, pigeons, raccoons, ringtails, fox, bobcats, coyote, hogs, and all the exotics. You can find places to shoot rabbits all over the state, and the same can be said for hogs and predators as well. The trick with Texas is that there is not much public land, so you’ll need to get access to private ranches. The easiest way is to hire a guide, because they have land to hunt on. If you book a couple days to hunt predators or hogs (usually at night), it is almost always possible to go out and hunt varmint in the day for no additional charge. It’ll cost a bit, but a fraction of the price of a deer or elk hunt….. and you’ll get a lot more hunting and shooting in. And if you want to spend a bit more or you find a place that lets you on for a trespass fee, free ranging Aoudad, Axis deer, black buck and other free ranging exotics are a possibility.

Out for a rabbit hunt in Northern Arizona.

Arizona has probably come on this year as THE destination; because for small game / varmint you have jackrabbit, cottontail, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, pigeons, Eurasian doves, and predators. And as of this year, almost all bug game is on ticket: javalina, whitetail, coues, mule deer, pronghorn, bear, mountain lion are all allowed. As a matter of fact, it is the only place you can take javalina, coues, mule deer, or pronghorn….. and there is a lot of public land to hunt.

When people think about a gun friendly or hunting friendly State, California does not come immediately to mind. However they were one of the first places that allowed airguns for small game; you can take turkey, quail, chucker, cottontail and jackrabbits, ground squirrel ,,,, any small game you can take with a firearm is permitted with an airgun. And the great thing is that there are cast areas of public (BLM, Nat’l forest) land to hunt over.

I started hunting Virginia a few years back, they allow squirrel, rabbit, turkey, whitetail, bear, coyote to be taken with airguns. I love squirrel hunting, and the beautiful forests on the rolling hills hold big populations of fox and gray squirrels. They also have good populations of whitetail along with generous limits. It also one of a couple places country wide where you can bag a turkey with your airgun! I haven’t shot a bear with my big bore airgun yet, but I’m going to try in Virginia next season!

Missouri and Alabama are a tie for number five, and both make it in on the basis of being a place where the airgunner has the opportunity to bag a nice whitetail buck. Missouri has probably become the region in which the most whitetail have been taken since they opened the season a few years back, and Alabama just made airguns legal this year. They both also are great venues for squirrel hunting, which if you haven’t done it with an airgun you need to get out and give it  go!

All of these States require that you buy a license, and most have a provision to allow a short term license if you’ll only be hunting a few days in the year. The cost, depending on what and how long you’ll hunt, will be between $50-$100. You notice that I have emphasized more of the big game spots as destinations, and this is not because I like big game hunting more, but because it is often necessary to travel to find a place permitting big game with an airgun. But you can find small game opportunities wherever you live.

But still. I’ll travel for a squirrel or rabbit hunt as well. If you look for deals you can find some good ones, I recently found that I can get a flight on a budget carrier from Minneapolis to Phoenix for about $150, I’ve bought a yearly license for $150, and it adds up to an inexpensive weekend trip. As a matter of fact, it’s worth it to go for a pigeon or dove shooting weekend.

What’s Coming Up?

I’m on my way to Texas on Thursday for a predator hunt with my friend, guide, and outfitter Don Steele. We’ve got a weekend to see how much fur we can put in the truck, and I want to try for the grandslam; coyote, bobcat, fox, and raccoon.  I also have a lot of new camera gear for capturing video of the hunt …. so maybe something will make it up on my youtube channel! Talk to you all next week!

Lots of new camera gear, hope to get some good video footage.

Been on the Road!

Love Japan, but it kept me awy from shooting and hunting…. and there’s a lot to do in the coming weeks!

Hello to everyone, sorry I missed last weeks post! Just got home from a long trip to Tokyo last night, after leaving the SHOT Show I had to jump right on a flight to the land of the rising sun. I like Japan: the people, the food, the culture, and as I used to live here so it’s also a bit nostalgic…… but I was ready to get home! Very cold here in the Twin Cities, so I spent the day today im my basement sorting out some new guns, working on some new camera gear I’ll be using on my website/Youtube channel, and pouring over maps getting ready for a couple of upcoming hunts. I’m going to tell you a bit about the SHOT Show, but first I’m going to share some information on my hunting buddy Brian Beck and a couple of predator hunting competition he entered while I was off eating sushi and udon!

Becks Big Weekend!

Brian with the Sam Yang Recluse .357 and a weekends bag from the competition down in Indiana.

I’ve talked about Brian here before, I think he is one of ….. if not the best predator hunter in the country specializing in airguns. He enters open competitions and uses an airgun against teams shooting small caliber centerfires …….. and he does very well. When I got home there was one of those “YOU REALLY SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE” emails that surfers, fly fishermen, and hunters get that fill them with envy, jealousy, and other less than sterling qualities we all sometimes exhibit …… if were honest with ourselves 🙂 .   Brian was shooting a Sam Yang Recluse .357 and the 116 grain HPs from Robert Vogel AKA Mr. Hollowpoint. The Recluse is stock out-of-the-box trim it left the factory in and is generating about 130 fpe. Brian had been shooting a Halley .308 for a long time, but has been ripping them up with the Recluse not to mention his tweaked up AirForce Condor .25, but this time it was all Samyang! Brian was using his FoxPro call and a variety of calls: vocalizations such as bitch heat, long howl and prey distress such as jackrabbit, gray squirrel, and rodent squeaks for the closers. He took 3rd last week with four dogs and 4th this weekend with eleven dogs. But here’s the thing ……… besides shooting against centerfires, all the others competitiors were shooting in 2-3 man teams and Brian was on his own (all his buddies let him down, sorry about that, but he didn’t let that slow him down)! Way to go Brian…. you’re doing the airgunning world proud!.

SHOT Show

The SHOT Show is the biggest gun/shooting exhibition in the world and is where companies go to release new product to market!

The show was a blast as usual, there was a lot of interest around airguns ….. every year I see the presence grow larger, with more companies, products, and buzz about airguns…. our sport is getting visibility within the mainstream. I have a series of videos that are coming out on the show that give a good look at the range of airgunning gear on offer….. but I will mention that two of the hottest new items on display in my opinion were the Daystate Wolverine Type B and the FX Bobcat .25 caliber bullpup. I’ve talked about the Wolverine quite a bit lately, and think it’s probably one of the more important guns to come a long in awhile; it looks like an Air Ranger but it is really an innovative new design with the action fabricated from a single chunk of aluminum that anchors the barrel, air bottle, receiver, and scope mounts to a single block of metal which results in an exceedingly stable and robust design. I think in coming years this may well be the gun that others are benchmarked against. The Bobcat takes the proven Royale action and delivers it in a very compact and ergonomic (not easy in a bullpup design) package that will appeal to the guys that like these little tactical type air arms.

Terry Doe was involved in the Daystate Wolverine project for many years, and shared his insight on the newly released Type B….. and readers of this blog know how I feel about this gun!

I also like the Calabri/Hummingbird (English translation of Czech name) which is a very compact package …… another one I can’t wait to get a hold of!

One of the items that got a lot of attention was not a gun, but rather an accessory most of us PCP shooters covet: the  Raptor Pneumatics EZ-Fill-4500 Air Compressor.  This electrically powered, relatively compact and quiet (only slightly louder than the air conditioner at my hotel) compressor, has an adjustable automatic shut-off dial and an automatic moisture purge.  It weighs less than 60 lb and was the compressor we took to South Africa on our recent safari, and left for our future hunts. It is cooled by an antifreeze radiator system, and can fill my 80 cubic foot, 4500psi tank (from zero to full) in about 3-4 hours. Check the online AOA shop for price, it is the first compressor I’ve seen price where you don’t have to raid the kids college fund to afford.

Also saw a low of my friends, Steve Schinis (owner of the Yellow Forum), Eric Henderson, Ted Bier (Tedsholdover), Rick Eustler (Airgun Web), Terry Doe (Editor of Airgun World) and of course the guys from AOA; Robert and Greg et al. One of the great thing about our sport, even though it may sound cliché, are the great people involved. Some of these people I hunt with or do projects throughout the year, some I hunt with, and some I communicate with by phone or email, but to get the club together in person is always a lot of fun. All these guys have contributed to the world of airgunning in a number of ways, doing so so out of their love for the game, and continue to do so.

Miscellaneous Notes

Don’t know if you’ve been catching the videos that our friends at AOA are putting out; Kip Perow is Host and they guys are doing some excellent stuff …… if you haven’t done so already, you need to stop by for a look. The link is on their home page. My news is that I’ve signed on to host a number of the hunting segments on the American Airgunner program on the Pursuit Network, which is picked up in over 30 million homes and has a viewership of well in excess of 100,000 weekly viewers, and I’ll be doing some great hunts this year as well as round table segments with an expanded list of participants. Also starting my 8th year writing the Airgun Advantage column for Predator Xtreme. And finally, I don’t know if you’ve seen the new Airgun Hobbyist magazine, but this publication is the only didcated airgun magazine in the USA and the staff are working hard and doing an excellent job for our sport …… take a look and support them with a subscription if you can. That’s all for this week, catch up with you all in a few days!

Sorry I’m a day late with my post, I’ve been out hunting. I spent the last four days in Alabama filming a deer hunt….. and freezing! I packed my lighter weight stuff and spent two of the coldest days in a stand I’ve ever experienced, but had a great time shooting with some great folks. Ended up with a small buck at the tail end of the hunt after letting a few bigger ones walk. I was waiting on a bigger and older deer to show…… then the weather changed and everything shut down, and in the end I just wanted some venison in the freezer! I used a Sam Yang .457 with a 260 grain BHD bullet, and the footage will show up on one of the hunting programs next year.

The trip home is taking me right into this polar vortex and -45 degree cold that has descended across the north, then back to work for a couple of weeks before my next airgunning roadtrip to Nevada. I’m going to spend my indoor time working on my basement range/studio/workshop complex 🙂 , and I’ll spend some time shooting and recording some information on a few new guns including my new favorite the Daystate Wolverine Type B. I’ve got a shelf full of .22 pellets in a vast array of weights and configurations from several manufacturers to work up. I have to say that at the elite (and more expensive) end of the airgun spectrum, that rarified air where the best vie for market share, I am a solid Daystate supporter. I’ve been shooting and hunting with the Wolverine .303 and Huntsman Classic extensively and feel that besides being dead accurate, appropriately powerful, air efficient, ergonomic, etc etc, they are simply the nicest looking rifles in my gunrack! And while I normally prefer the looks of an air tube rather than a bottle under the barrel, the Wolverine Type B has all the attributes mentioned for its stablemates, and still looks great with the bottle up front. Would love to see a .30 version of this gun! BTW: if you get the British magazine Airgun Shooter, take a look this months (February…. I know, their release cadence is confusing) for an article I wrote in which I took the Wolverine .303 predator hunting in Texas. I’ll also have an article coming up in Airgun Hobbyist Magazine on the Wolverine Type B shakedown next month.

Also while down in Alabama, I took my friend Dammion Howards son Hunter out on a spring gun squirrel hunt one afternoon while on the mid day break from our stands, and had a good time with this appropriately named 12 y/o, after which he went out and arrowed his first archery deer. If you get the chance, take a kid out hunting and show them what the sport offers. I’ve done this with a couple of kids and their non hunting fathers from church, and it always feels good to bring more new enthusiasts into the sport. Down these same lines my oldest daughter has been home from college over the holidays and came down to the basement while I was sighting in a rifle, and said “can I have a try”? We ended up spending the evening shooting together, and when my youngest daughter (who’s never had any interest in shooting) saw her big sister having a blast, she had a go, did surprisingly well having never before shot a rifle, and stayed down shooting with us. My son who’s away at grad school and couldn’t make it home for the holidays used to go out hunting and shooting with me, but my girls not so much. That was another holiday gift for me!

I also wanted to mention the JSB .30 caliber pellets, both the .303 and .35, have really been impressing me. I’ve always liked their product line and use the .22 and .25 caliber pellets in many of my guns, and as with the smaller calibers the consistency in quality and weight results in outstanding accuracy in most of my guns …. as a matter of fact these are probably the most universally digested pellets across my gun collection. The terminal performance on game is outstanding as well; I’ve used them to take fox, bobcat, raccoon, guinea fowl, duiker, springbok, and pig and found that they penetrate well, seem to optimize the energy dump on game, and hold together. I’m starting to work through a number of my top pellet picks using several different shooting platforms and will be posting more on that in future

I’ll be posting on the SHOT Show, my upcoming javalina hunt in Arizona, and I’m trying to find time to get down to Texas for a predator hunt in the next few weeks, so hope to have some good material for you all soon. The last thing for this week is to thank the readers from this blog for the emails and comments on my website and YouTube channel, and to let you know there is some good stuff coming up. I have a network of airgun hunting friends across the country, that have been doing videos of their airgunning adventures, and I’ll start adding this footage in future….. so stayed tuned!

Jim

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/echochapman

Website http://www.americanairgunhunter.com

Big bore airguns were used as early as the 1700s to take wild boar in Europe. There is extensive documentation on the use of these guns, though they were not widely known and very few huntsman of the day would ever get a chance to use one. They were expensive and complicated to manufacture and their ownership was restricted to the very wealthy nobles of the day. But over the last decade there has been a resurgence of this primitive hunting technique, which is rapidly growing in popularity.

A couple of the early pigs I took with my Quackenbush guns down in Texas. There are several destinations for airgunners wanting to bag a hog today. I’m going down to Alabma on a combination deer/pig hunt next week.

Introduction

I’ve shot a lot of hogs over the last several years; in Texas, Florida, California, wherever the opportunity presented. I’ve chased warthog in South Africa on multiple occasions and continue this activity on yearly trips to the Eastern Cape. I’ve been skunked on bushpigs the last couple years, but will spend as many nights huddled over the rotting carcasses used for bait as necessary until I add this species to my list. Like many hunters across the country, I am a committed hog hunter. There is however probably one fundamental difference; my hunting tool of choice (where permitted by law) is a big bore air rifle.

The big bore airgun came on the scene in the 1700s, all but disappearing during the intervening centuries. However there is a new breed of airgun available that utilizes high pressure air to drive heavy large caliber bullets at 650 – 900 feet per second. My favorite pig gun right now is a Quackenbush .451, which propels a 172 grain cast lead bullet at approximately 800 fps yielding well over 200 foot pound of energy! OK, that’s not a powerhouse when compared to a centerfire rifle or even a .44 mag. But the tackdriving accuracy along with the terminal performance of these slow moving projectiles can really mess up a pig’s day, even the big tuskers. There is a growing fraternity of big bore airgun hunters in North America, and hogs are one of the favorite quarry because of availability, and the regulations in several jurisdictions allow them to be taken with air powered rifles.  The two key aspects of air hoggin’ are to get into the appropriate range and select the optimal shot! I can tell you from personal experience on ferals, Russians, and warthogs that the penetration and power are more than enough to cleanly and efficiently anchor even the big ones.

Lining up my .457 on a North Texas pig hunt, I’ll shoot offhand when required, but like a monpod or bipod shooting stick if available.

All airguns that are appropriate for taking hogs are powered by compressed high power air. You may have seen the guy on the hunting show shooting a pig in the head from a few yards with a .177 springer propelling an alloy pellet, which at best is a stunt that no ethical hunter would consider. PCP rifles in .22 and .25 have been used, but you have to be very sure of your gun and marksmanship to use a minor airgun caliber, and it wouldn’t be my recommendation for a pig gun. What I’m discussing is an appropriate tool for fair chase hunting. There are essentially a couple sources of big bore airguns available to today’s hunters. There are a few mass produced big bores, these are airguns manufactured in Korea by Shinsung and Sam Yung. Both companies have many years in the airgun business and produce guns in .308, .45, and .50 calibers. They are at the lower end of the power band typically putting out approximately 200 fpe, but are readily available and more than adequate for a forty yard pig gun. Crosman stepped up with a .357 that was doing about 250 fpe and has been used to take quite a few pigs.The next source is arguably the best, the semi custom production guns of Dennis Quackenbush. These guns are an order of magnitude more powerful than the Korean guns, but the downside is that you may have to get on a year long waiting list for a rifle. When it finally arrives however, you know it was worth the wait. And finally, we are seeing small start up shops that put out custom guns. The best of these should build into viable businesses with time. Demand is exceeding supply as the popularity of the sport grows and I am anxiously awaiting new big bore entries onto the market.

Pre Charged Pneumatic airguns can store a fairly large volume of air and provide from a couple to many shots on a single charge. The guns are filled by connecting the air tank to the guns onboard reservoir using a hose fitted with a quick release connecter. A pressure gauge allows the fill pressure to be monitored during the charging process, and the line bleed and disconnected when the desired fill pressure (2500 – 3500 psi) is achieved. Once filled, the gun is ready for action. In the field I carry a small carbon fiber buddy bottle in my day pack that will allow me to refill the gun as needed, and the process can be accomplished quickly. There are also a few lower power mid bores that I consider primarily predator guns, but can be used for hogs when an opportunity presents, such as the Daystate Wolverine .303.

Texas Hog Hunt

On one trip to Texas, I carried a .50 caliber gun that had been setup to generate over 600 fpe. The projectile used was a 325 grain slug that a friend had cast from soft lead and was designed with a hollow base. We had experimented with flipping this bullet and shooting it back end first, finding that at 50 yards it was grouping at just under an inch. While this is not great accuracy out of this particular rifle, it was more than adequate for a fifty yard hunting gun. Hiking the ranch early one morning and glassing the river bottom from a low hillside, we spotted a group of hogs feeding. There weren’t any monsters, but there were a couple shooters in the group. Setting up the stalk, I moved quickly into position and set up on shooting sticks while remaining hidden by a thick stand of brush. As the herd stepped into view at about sixty yards, I picked out a small boar and lined up a broadside. The big slug went through both lungs, and after running a few yards the 180 lb pig rolled over and thrashed a minute before going still.  While skinning the animal we retrieved the bullet from under the skin on the opposite shoulder, the projectile formed a perfect mushroom … a very big mushroom.

As I related in the beginning of this post, I’ve taken several animals with a variety of airguns; feral hogs, Russians (up to 300 lb), and several large warthogs. In just about every case the kills have been one shot and clean. Those of us that hunt hogs in this manner opt for headshots more than most firearms hunters do. The ability to deliver spot on shot placement due to both the intrinsic accuracy and low recoil of these guns routinely makes this a viable target zone. You don’t get the hydrostatic shock delivered by a centerfire, but a big .45 or .50 caliber hole in the right place does just fine.

Warthogs!

A few years ago I was on a friend’s ranch in South Africa hunting plains game. We’d gotten permits to use bigbore airguns for these animals as part of an evaluation hunt to see if this would be allowed on an ongoing basis. My friends place had an over abundance of these African tuskers, and we ended up shooting quite a few to reduce the population. Two less than stellar shots stand out in my memory from this first hunt, even better than some of the picture perfect stalks and kills we’d put on. It underscores one of the basic principles of this type of hunting, shot placement is paramount!

In the first, we’d been after a kudu glassed from a distant hillside and had been stalking the bull for about a mile. As we poked our heads over a small canyon rim, I found myself staring at the largest warthog I’d ever seen. Massive body and massive ivory, he was standing broadside with the light wind in our favor. My hunting plans change immediately; this had just evolved from a kudu to a warthog hunt! Ducking down I slowly cocked the gun and stood back up, he hadn’t moved. Shooting downward at a steep angle, I placed the crosshair straight up on the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The hog was knocked right of his feet, I mean he didn’t kick, he didn’t squeal, just dropped like a bag of cement. We stood there a minute then started whooping and high fiving, I hadn’t bothered to reload when he went down and was carried away by the excitement. I bent down to pick up my pack and walk up on my trophy, but as I straightened back up was horrified to see the hog jumping to his feet and heading straight up the hill at a half run half drag. He was out of my range before I could reload, but my buddy (and a PH) snapped up his 30-06 and with two quick shots that both hit finally dropped him. Even though I badly wanted this pig I didn’t claim him as my own, it was my friends shots that had anchored him. A post mortem explained the event, I’d shot high and clipped the spine, temporarily stunning the critter. I guess I been thrown off by the angle of the shot, or maybe it was buck fever spawned by a really big animal, but I broke the first rule of airgun hunting and not made the right shot placement.

Loading the hog for the trip back to the processing shed.

Another Quackenbush, another type of pig (warthog) and a different continent (Africa), but the same result…. bacon for breakfast and ham for dinner!

The second shot started off when glassing from a dirt road while driving cross country, we saw a line of Warthogs trotting down a hillside about three hundred yards off and parallel with the path we were on. We grabbed the shooting sticks and took off on a run down the road before finding a wash that led to where we expected the pigs path to converge on us. Half running half crawling through the heavy thorn bush, we climbed out of the gully and got to the ambush site we’d selected. Sure enough, after a few minutes we heard the sound of hoofs which resolved into a perfect line of warthogs appearing over a low ridge. The animals were only thirty five yards away and the big sow in the lead stopped dead when she saw us. My hunting partner hissed “take it, shoot, shoot” and I did. I hit that old sow right between the eyes with a 325 grain bullet that glanced off her sloping forehead, where upon she gave an indignant squeal and a snort, then turned tail and led her family off in the direction they’d approached from. Last sighting was the line of hogs disappearing over a distant hill at a dead run. My friend, who is also a PH, turned and looked at me saying “that’s why head shots aren’t great on that animal”. It wasn’t the guns terminal performance; it was my shot selection in both cases. But I learned, and have shot several more of these fantastic critters with much better results. As a matter of fact, the general sentiment of the PHs we’ve hunted with is that we are at least as effective as firearm hunters and more so than a majority of the bow hunters they guide due to our focus on shot placement and shot selection along with the ballistic performance of the big, heavy slugs.

Much more in line with typical results was about three years back, when we were driving to the far end of the property to scout an area to hunt bushbuck. We spotted a group of three nice little boars of a similar size, very slowly rooting across a hillside about four hundred yards away. We picked a line that had lots of brush covering our approach and started towards an intercept point. I’d broken my ankle a few weeks before and had the cast removed early so I could hunt, and was doing my best to keep up, but not moving real fast. At any rate we got into position behind a bush about fifty yards below the level of the hogs on the hillside, and about fifty yards ahead of them. My leg was pounding so badly that I couldn’t stand, so I sat down and laid my rifle across a detached bipod I had in my pack and waited. The lead pig kept moving parallel to the hill, but the two behind turned and started down. Deciding to shoot before the two rear hogs stumbled down and on us, I opted to take the boar in the front. I was just preparing to shoot when the pig started walking again then turned to look in our direction, offering a front quartering shot. I stoked the trigger and heard the bullet impact as he dropped with a grunt. The shot had gone through the right lung, traversed the animal in an oblique line, and smashed the left hip.

To my way of thinking, this penetration on an animal this big and this tough is proof positive these guns are an effective hunting tool. The fact that they are also quiet when compared to a firearm didn’t factor in while shooting in the African bush, but it does have the potential to open up areas closer to home where a gun isn’t currently an option. As feral hogs continue to extend their range and spread into more urban environments, and hunting space comes more difficult to find airguns will continue to grow in popularity as a viable means of take, Regardless of whether your motivated by pragmatism or simply the urge to maximize the challenge of your hunts, an airgun may be something you want to try.