I have several guns in .25 caliber, with both PCP and springers represented. I’ve used these guns to take squirrels, rabbits, prairie dogs, groundhogs, pigeons, crows, turkey, Guinea fowl, quail, pheasant, springhare, mongoose, hyrax, raccoons, ringtail cats, bobcat, fox, coyote…… by this time it’s safe to say I’ve shot a lot of game with guns in this caliber, and I feel comfortable making some strong statements about the .25, which might also be controversial. The first of these is that up until recently I’ve come to consider it the best all-around caliber. The reason I say “up until recently” will be explained later. Up until recently, the .25 has been the largest of the standard production calibers and has been around since the early 1900s. However, most of the earlier guns chambered for this caliber were under powered and their performance limited the .25s utility to close range plinking, and if that’s the application why bother with a larger caliber? A .177 works just fine.

Shooting a .25 caliber PCP with open sites, this gun is a hammer on squirrels but lord help a coyote that comes in on my squirrel distress call.

While this caliber is gaining popularity in the high powered precharged pneumatic airgun world, there are still fewer springers up to the task, though this has been changing as well. For a springer to effectively propel a 24 grain pellet at high enough velocities to be useful for hunting, the gun requires a large compression tube and a very strong spring. Examples of spring piston guns being produced in .25 are the Webly Patriot, the Beeman RX2, the Hatsan 125 Sniper, the Weihrauch HW90, and the Benjamin NP Trail, which are all fairly hefty guns.

So why did I say I believe this is the best all-around caliber? Because it hits with authority and creates an excellent wound channel making it a very effective caliber for taking almost all airgun appropriate game. And that broad statement is the crux of the matter, a .25 is not too much for a squirrel or a rabbit, killing quickly without ripping your quarry up. On the other hand it is perfect for bigger stuff like turkey or raccoon, and if a coyote comes up, while not the perfect option, it is still a valid one for these larger animals.

So why did I say my opinion might be shifting? Because I think that a compelling argument can be made for the new .303 airgun caliber, and for all the same reasons I like the .25. I made a strong statement a few months back that the .303 is the new .25, and believe there is some merit to this view. It is getting to the boundary of being a viable small game option, however it is usable and does perform even better than the .25 on bigger game. However, it is only available in limited guns and there is only one manufacturer of pellets though I think both of these situations will change in future.

The .25 is strong medicine on the longer range shots, carrying lead further, and being less effected by wind.

There is no doubt that these springers are all a handful and takes some muscle to cock (40-50 lb cocking effort is typical), but the end result is a fully self contained powerplant that can generate close to 20-30 fpe! To put this in context, most magnum springers in .177 or .22 are doing very well if they put out 18 fpe. If a springer can propel a 24 grain Field Trophy pellet at approximately 750 fps, it is getting close to the velocity one expects out of the typical .22 caliber magnum springer. Therefore the trajectory obtained is pretty close to that of a standard .22, but my-oh-my, what a difference in terminal performance! A jackrabbit hit at fifty yards will be knocked clean of its feet. A .25 pellet moving at this velocity is more than adequate for raccoon sized game out to forty yards, which I would not recommend a .22 (and definitely not a .177) be used for. As a matter of fact this is the springer/pellet combo I’ll opt for when shooting raccoons or woodchucks. Because the larger .25 pellets have a better ballistic coefficient they will retain more energy at greater distances resulting in superior knockdown power, and if the hunter needs to reach out a bit further they can still get a clean kill. While there is no doubt that a perfectly placed pellet, even a .177, can kill a medium sized animal the .25 is much more forgiving and allows some latitude in shot placement. Besides hitting harder, the .25 obviously opens a larger wound channel than the small calibers.

Where the caliber really comes into its own is when shot from a PCP gun, and this has become an almost ubiquitous offering, with manufacturers such as Daystate, FX, Crosman, AirForce, Sam Yang, BSA, and several others offer most of their poplar models in this caliber. Larger calibers are more efficient in PCP guns, and the .25 caliber in a high power PCP can easily generate energy over 50 fpe using standard Diabolo pellets. The guns in my collection in .25 include an FX Verminator Extreme, Benjamin Marauder, Airforce Talon-P and Condor,  an Evenix Windy City, Rainstorm, and Max, and a couple of custom rifles including a Quckenbush. All of these guns provide good accuracy, and really excellent in some of them.

It used to be that finding a supply of .25 pellets was difficult, and the selection limited. But these days there are a number of .25 caliber pellets available from the online airgun stores, though you’re not likely to find them at your local gun shop.  Pellets manufactured by JSB, H&N, Beeman, Eu Jin, Crosman and Webley can be found in a variety of styles; round nose, hollow point, wadcutters, and field points.  The lighter of these pellets, such as the Beeman Laser, weigh in at about 17 grains, and heavier ones such as the Eu Jins go up to almost 35 grains. While I will usually shoot heavier pellets out of my .25 PCPs, when using a spring piston gun I’ll opt for a lighter pellet. The reason for this is that the PCP working off of a high pressure charge can get a couple hundred feet per second higher velocity with a given pellet than can be achieved with the springer.

In summary, if you need to get a hard hitting airgun for hunting larger quarry the .25 is a good option, so long as you use a gun engineered to handle it. Remember that unlike firearms, with airguns it is the gun and not the ammunition that provides the power. On the upside, when coupled with the right gun the .25 pellet will provide more power, it will retain velocity better, and it will open a larger wound channel. On the downside; the spring piston guns are heavier, harder to cock, have a bit more recoil, availability is more limited and there are not as many models of gun to choose from. However, with the advent of the online airgun shop availability of guns and pellets is not really an issue. Now don’t misunderstand what I am saying here, the .177 is a respectable performer on small game, and the .22 is also a great all around caliber. But when all is said and done, if I’m going to acquire a new gun these days, it’s going to be a .25 caliber if the gun I want is the appropriate platform for it. If you’re looking for a new gun you might want to consider a quarter bore!

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One of the most common questions asked by hunters when they start to use airguns is “how much power do I need to kill a rabbit, a coyote, a deer? Conscientious hunters want to make sure they are using enough gun to cleanly drop their prey. Hunters should try for the quickest, cleanest, and most effective kill. When the trigger is squeezed it should be for the highest percentage shot, be that a head or a chest shot. I’ve heard some say “you should always use a head shot when squirrel or rabbit hunting”, but I believe it’s situational. When I hunt squirrels in spring my preference is head shots, because the dense foliage on the trees allows me to get closer and in these conditions a chest shot might leave them with enough gas in the tank to get lost in the leaves and branches. But I’ll take the chest shot on the same quarry in the same woods in winter, when there is less cover on the trees and less chance of losing an animal even if it runs a few yards.

Power delivered on target is not the limiting factor in most cases, rather it’s the ability to put the target right on target.

I’ve heard some maintain a headshot is more humane, and while I would never inflict unnecessary pain on an animal, the fact that it runs a few yards after a chest shot doesn’t mean its feeling more or less pain. Remember that the typical death of a squirrel or rabbit in the wild is generally a lot less pleasant than getting shot, head or chest. The pertinent question one should ask; is there a valid reason for shooting the animal? These reasons can be for food, to control populations, to eradicate populations, and I’ll go out on a limb and say trophy hunting. The hunters motivation to hunt is an individual issue, the regulations are based on if it make sense from a wildlife management perspective.

Circling back to the question of power; the statement that a hunter wants to make the quickest, cleanest, and most effective kill means that they need a gun generating enough power and poking a big enough hole to meet these objectives. In North America we’re a firearm culture and we’ve been raised to believe more power is better. Because of the prevalence of firearms, airguns and their capabilities have been overshadowed, so their validity as hunting weapons has been suspect. The truth of the matter is that airguns can put out a lot more power than has been generally attributed to them,  and that at the same time it takes a lot less power to cleanly take game than many people realize. In this article I’ll take a look at some of the rules of thumb I use in my airgun hunting to ensure that I am using a gun appropriate to the game and situations I expect to encounter.

What Energy Levels do Airguns Produce?

Most of the conventional .177, .20, and .22 spring piston rifles on the market today will generate between 10 -20 fpe of energy, with outliers in either direction. A few, especially the big .25 magnums can go considerably higher tracking up into the 30 fpe range. That is enough power to take anything up to a raccoon size animal if the correct shot placement, pellet selection, and range is adhered to. But as a rule, springers can be difficult to master and shoot accurately. Both the .22 caliber 16 fpe and .25 caliber 30 fpe guns will anchor a raccoon at 30 yards with a perfect headshot, but it can be harder to get the shot placement with the more powerful gun. We’ll come back to the accuracy vs. power discussion a bit further on.

When you get into precharged pneumatic rifles the range of energy levels produced really opens up, my guns go from a UK spec’d 12 fpe Webley Raider to a 550 fpe .457 Quackenbush. As a rule, most guns in the .177 and .22 calibers are in the 16 – 35 fpe range, the .25 in the 35 – 60 fpe range, the mid bores (.303 – .357) from the 75 fpe to 200 fpe, and the big bores (.40 – .50) anywhere from 200 fpe to 600 fpe. Again there are outliers in all of these, especially when we start look at tuned, modified, and custom guns, but the above gives a reasonable overview.

So there is a wide range of velocities and energy levels that today’s airguns can produce. But this is just one variable in what guns are best for a specific hunting scenario. To keep this discussion manageable, I’m going to limit it to small game and predator hunting, as big game is more of a niche segment of airgun hunting.

Hunting airguns benchmarked against the .22 rimfire

Probably like most guys of my age that grew up in the USA, the .22 rimfire was the basis of my development as a hunter. As a kid I carried a number of rimfire rifles through the mountains, desert and coastal hills of (a very different) Southern California. My California was one of orange groves and bean fields, rolling hills, and undeveloped tracts of land where a kid could walk along with his rifle over his shoulder, waving to cars as they drove by without rousing the local SWAT team. I took countless ground squirrels, rabbits, crows, quail, raccoons, and the occasional coyote with these guns. I dropped a lot of game and I lost some, and really came to understand that a well-placed shot was the key factor to success.

A .22 rimfire typically pushes a 40 grain bullet at 1050 fps, generating 100 fpe. So if we look at the energy delivered by a 16 grain .22 pellet moving at 900 fps and generating 28 fpe, and consider the fact that the .22 rimfire didn’t always do the job, we might be forgiven for discounting the air rifle out of hand. However either of these projectiles would anchor a big jackrabbit on the spot at 50 yards with a well-placed brain or a heart shot. In my experience the average air rifle is more accurate than the average rimfire, so I’m more consistently able to make a “perfect” shot with one of my air rifles. On the other hand, the rimfires heavier bullet and much higher velocity (especially at 50 yards) means that even a less than perfect hit will probably kill the rabbit.

The crux of the matter is just this, while energy dumped on target is important, it is the ability to place the shot on target with precision that is critical. What I mean is that a gun delivering a pellet to a jackrabbit’s heart at 10 fpe is not going to make it any more dead than hitting it with 25 fpe. So my maxim is that” its accuracy first power second”. This of course is making the assumption that a minimum power level is achieved.

The British experience has proven this to be the case, in a country where by far and away most of the guns are under the legal limit of 12 fpe (without a firearms certificate),  our cousins across the pond have been very successful in hunting rabbits, squirrels, crows, and  pigeons in huge numbers.

I believe that all things considered, more power is better, it allows you to reach out further, gives more latitude in shot selection, and lets you hunt the larger bodied animals we have in North America. There are times however, when hunting around farms, buildings, livestock etc. that a lower powered gun might be preferable. I was out doing a pest control pigeon shoot inside and around a barn, and opted for a low power setting on my pcp of 10 fpe (you have to love the adjustable powered guns). These pest birds went down cleanly, there was no over penetration on hits, and the couple of misses that hit the tin roof didn’t cause any damage.

The influence of range as it affects the power required to kill quarry is usually less of an issue than the shooters ability to place the shot accurately at longer distances. Because of the lower velocities obtained with most airguns, which also shed velocity rapidly due to the relatively poor ballistic coefficient of most pellets, makes dealing with trajectory more of an issue than experienced with a rimfire. This is not to say you can’t reach out with an airgun, I’ve routinely taken prairie dog at about 100 yards with higher powered .22 and .25 caliber guns. However you’re ability to place the pellet exactly where you want it will limit your range before the drop in killing power does.

I’d flown in for the EBR arriving in Phoenix late Thursday night, picked up my rifle at the baggage claim, jumped into a rental car, and headed off for Tucson. After a stop along the way, I checked out of my hotel and was on my way to Quail Creek with one of the best Airgun ranges I’ve ever seen.

Arriving at the range there was a lot of activity with the AoA contingency getting things set up.  AoA had supplied a filling station with a number of carbon fiber tanks on these really cool little wheeled caddies, and had one of their compressors on site to keep the air flowing!  Quail Creek Airgun club has 20 lanes each with a standardized shooting bench under (most stations) and awning. Each of the lanes is 75 yards, with tiles set at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 yards on which steel silhouettes can be placed for those reactive events, with portable stands that are positioned at 25 meters and 75 yards for target events, with targets and mounting supplies provided by the sponsors.

The AOA Airguns Only Adventures truck welcomed the shooters on to the range!

Shooters hanging out before being called to their shooting stations. This match was exceedingly well organized.

They rolled out the BBQ wagon and we tied on a feed. The food was great, and the ice cold coke didn’t hurt on the hot sunny day.

Several gun company representatives came and represented!! I love the fact that you get President/ CEO’s of companies that not only come, mix and talk with customers, but also compete. Tony Belas from Daystate (along with the beautiful new Wolverine B Type 35 fpe bottle forward design (more about that to come) and Fredrick Axelson from FX with his Bobcat bullpup, and Brad Bonar, the national sales manager for Hawke. Ross … from Milbro along with the shroud king himself, Andrew Hugget, pitched up. So much airgunning expertise in one place is very unusual in the States and these guys were very accessible and genuinely happy to get feedback directly from customers.

Besides the substantial cost shouldered by all of the sponsors, I don’t know if most of us realize how much work actually goes into this event. AoA had all of their employees working for days to prepare for the two day EBR. And the effort put in by the members of the Quail Creek Airgun Club was really quite impressive; as range masters, timers, score keepers (not to mention building the range), directing traffic, manning the BBQ and coffee wagon, they are a truly first class group of people. As a matter of fact the residents of the community embrace the event, and everywhere we went the locals were welcoming, friendly, and helpful (I got lost …. a lot).

Three time FT World champ Nick Jenkinson lining up during the 25 m Benchrest.

Preparing the targets before the match.

There were three events, 25M benchrest, Combat Silhouette, and Extreme (75 yd) benchrest, and lots of great shooters. You can check the results on the AoA site,  there will be plenty of information flowing on the events, and you can also see a video I generated speaking with some of the visitors, at the address below. I didn’t shoot competitively but shoot my event (combat silhouette) and had a blast! I will tell you, this was a great event and if you couldn’t make it this year… you’ll have to plan for next… well worth the trip. Especially for me, I got to meet a lot of the guys I’ve been communicating with on the blog, my website, and the forums.

The Venezuela team traveled far and shot well!

Steve Schinis (owner of the Yellow Forum, Nick, and I talking between rounds.

Of quick note, I have found a virtual warehouse of video data from hunts over the years that I’ll be posting on my YouTube channel and website. If you haven’t visited, please do and subscribe!

A much younger me in the California deserts with my Beeman C1. I have shot hundreds of jackrabbits with this gun, low power but light, compact, the most ergonomic stock I’ve used (as a matter of fact had an exact replica made for my Discovery).

I know that many readers of this blog are experienced airgunners or airgun hunters, but I also get a lot of mail from those new to the sport. A question I’m often asked is, what gun is better to get started in airgun hunting, a spring piston or a PCP? As we know the prospective airgun hunter has a couple options when considering an airgun; either a spring piston or a pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) power plant being the most widely used. Pre-charged pneumatics are filled from a high pressure air source, such as a SCUBA tank, and offer many advantages to the hunter. They are compact, accurate, powerful, recoilless, and effective with large caliber pellets. The disadvantages are that they are expensive, take additional filling gear, and are reliant on an external power source. The other power plant mentioned is the spring piston airgun; the advantages being that they are fully self-contained, can be quite powerful and accurate, and as a rule cost a lot less than PCPs. The disadvantages are that they tend to be larger and heavier (not always the case though), have more recoil so take a bit more practice to shoot well, and require more effort to cock as a strong spring must be compressed to ready the gun for shooting.

I’ve been using this one springer for about twenty years, and still bring it out on a couple hunts every year.

A compelling argument can be made for either of these power plants, and there are strong proponents for both. I think that it depends on your intended use, your specific hunting requirements, personal preferences, and how deep you want to dig into the piggy bank. I have both and use both for hunting a variety of quarry, but in this post we’ll take a look at the spring piston power plant. I find the idea of a fully self contained gun very appealing, and will often take a springer along when heading out fishing or camping, anywhere that I don’t want to carry along a lot of extra gear or can’t be reliant on an external source of power to keep the gun shooting. So let’s take a look at what these guns can do with respect to performance, and what type of hunting you can use them for.

Spring Piston Performance

The spring piston airgun generates power using a powerful spring-loaded piston that is housed within a compression chamber. Cocking the gun (using a break barrel, side lever, or under lever mechanism) causes the piston assembly to compress the spring. When the spring is released it pushes the piston forward compressing a column of air in the chamber behind the pellet. The spring piston power plant is capable of developing sufficient energy to get a projectile moving at supersonic velocities, though effectiveness as a hunting tool is not solely a function of muzzle velocity. Pellet design is somewhat different than that of a firearm bullet, and many do not perform well at supersonic velocities becoming unstable as they transition across the sound barrier, which can adversely impact accuracy. In addition, a major advantage of airguns is that they are quiet. But once the projectile goes supersonic an audible “crack” is generated, yet still with a lower sound signature than a .rimfire 22 short. If the projectile is kept subsonic, then any sound from the gun is primarily the mechanical noise generated by the piston slamming home. I don’t mean to imply that you disregard muzzle velocity, by all means look for a gun with a higher velocity. But then rather than trying to achieve the highest velocity possible with that gun, which is typically achieved using the lightest pellet available, try a heavier pellet.  A 14 grain pellet moving at 1000 fps yields more power that a 7 grain pellet moving at 1200 fps. The heavy pellet moving at subsonic velocities is generally quieter and more accurate, yielding better terminal performance on game.

Most airguns generate relatively low power compared to even a rimfire. This is not always the case; there are a couple pre-charged pneumatic airguns in my collection that are getting close to 600 fpe. However, most (not all) spring piston guns are limited to under 20 fpe. This is plenty of power for small game out to forty yards, and bigger stuff such as raccoon and woodchucks at 30 yards.

About 10 years ago I met airgun hunting pioneer Randy Mitchell down in Kentucky, and our first hunt together was squirrel with springers …… and the last time we hunted together was big bore pcps in Africa.

In the United Kingdom, where airgun hunting has a huge following, hunters are limited to 12 fpe guns without a special (and almost impossible to obtain) firearms certificate. They have taken untold numbers of rabbits, squirrels, pigeons, and crows with these guns over the years. The whole objective of airgun hunting is achieving optimal accuracy from both the gun and the hunter. This is the overriding criteria; once a gun is doing 14 fpe any small game animal it connects with is going down cleanly so long as the shot placement is correct. However, once pinpoint accuracy is achieved, more power never hurts, and it will permit the hunter to reach out a bit further! I’ve been using a Beeman C1 (built by Webley & Scott) for well over two decades, and this mid 800 fps carbine in .177 has put more game in the bag than just about any gun I’ve ever owned. If you’ll be going after larger quarry such as raccoon, a gun producing 20 fpe or more is a good idea.

Another consideration when choosing a hunting springer is the cocking effort. It only takes a single cocking motion to prepare the gun for shooting, but the effort can be substantial. As a rule of thumb, the more powerful the gun the more effort will go into cocking it.  That’s why my 30 fpe .25 caliber Webley Patriot is not the first choice when plinking. The 40 lb cocking effort is very manageable for a days hunting, but is less ideal if the intention is to shoot a couple tins of pellets during a range session! I think finding the right balance of accuracy, power, cocking effort, and field attributes (size, weight, fit) is key to selecting the right gun.

I started tuning my own springers and building up hunting guns out of cheap Chinese knock offs… A great learning experience if you want to experiment, but overall I’d say buy the best gun you can afford. I have some of my old premium guns in the collection, but all the less expensive guns have been given away, traded, or sold over the years.

What Caliber Is Best?

There are four standard airgun calibers; the.177, .20, .22, and .25, with the .177 and .22 by far the most common. An old adage I’ve heard repeated by many British airgunners is; .177 for feathers and .22 for fur. I don’t think it is quite so simple, and believe that the best caliber depends on what projectile will be used, what ranges will be encountered, how large the quarry is, and the hunters ability to deliver precise shot placement with a particular gun. When comparing the .177 and .22 for instance, both can be effective; the point is that due to the lower velocities achieved with the .22 (in the same model gun) the trajectory will be more arced while the .177 will shoot flatter and require less holdover. On the other hand, shooters that don’t have a problem judging holdover will be able to deliver higher impact energy on target with the .22 caliber.

Pre-charged pneumatics airguns work more efficiently with larger caliber pellets, so I’ll usually opt for a .22 or larger. With springers on the other hand, I don’t have a strong preference and use the .177 on most small game without reservation. The .20 caliber is a good trade off between the advantages and limitations of the two more common calibers, but both guns and ammo are a bit limited in availability and selection, yet still worth consideration. The .25 is the big kahuna when it comes to spring piston air rifles, and can generate upwards of 30 fpe. There are only a handful of guns that are chambered for the largest conventional caliber, but it is a very effective for medium sized game.

An in-depth discussion on projectile styles is out of the scope of this article, but I will say that a wide selection is available. There is a pellet style and specification for virtually any hunting application; wadcutters and hollowpoints that limit penetration, roundnose and hunting points that increase it, and specialty polymer tipped pellets that optimize the tradeoff between penetration and expansion. There are light alloy pellets that allow lower power guns to increase velocity, and heavier pellets that allow more powerful guns to deliver greater energy at longer distances. The typical cost for a tin of high quality .177 roundnose pellets is around $6.00 for 500 pellets; though you can spend half that or twice as much depending on what you want, inexpensive any way you look at it.

Increased Hunting Opportunity

There are many options available when it comes to the selection of a spring piston air rifle for hunting. The one that is best suited for you depends on what you want to hunt, where you will hunt, what ranges you’ll shoot at, and of course, which rifle appeals to your sense of aesthetics. Many of the newer spring piston airgun designs are capable of supersonic velocities. But as discussed, there is more to it than simply getting the highest muzzle velocity; it’s picking a gun that yields adequate power and exceptional accuracy. When you hit a small game animal with a head shot at 35 yards, it doesn’t really matter if the muzzle velocity was 900 fps or 1130 fps. It’s all about shot placement! When making your rifle and pellet selection, keep in mind that once the pellet goes supersonic there may be some degradation in accuracy depending on pellet design, and it will be louder. With the right gun and pellet combination, a spring piston airgun provides more than enough power to cleanly and efficiently kill just about any small game or pest species found in North America. And because they are quiet and have limited range, they are practical for use in more built up areas. This can result in more hunting opportunities closer to home, and opens up otherwise inaccessible areas where even a rimfire is too loud and carries too far be practical.

Other Stuff

Booked my flights out to Arizona for the end of the week and can’t wait to hit the extreme Benchrest again this year …… loads of fun; great shooting events, great people….. if you can make it, it’s well worth the drive! I’m bringing the FX Boss, lots of pellets, and bench rest gear this year….. probably won’t make a huge difference, but after using a borrowed  gun last year I promised myself I’d bring my own equipment…. but there are some outstanding marksman coming! Hope to see you there, and if you get out there say hi, I’d enjoy meeting you.