Gardening Frustrations__ The season of the Varmint

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Well, found 50 pages of these new-style air rifles on Walmart website. Sheez, these things have 2-3 times the power my old 760 did! Better prices then Crosman site too. Bought this Winchester 1400CS with shoulder strap, 3-9X32mm scope, bipod, muzzle break & 1400FPS! New-era varmint bad-assery here in Ohio, where 12 gauge is now illegal.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/35715947?ref=myacct
 
unionrdr said:
Well, found 50 pages of these new-style air rifles on Walmart website. Sheez, these things have 2-3 times the power my old 760 did! Better prices then Crosman site too. Bought this Winchester 1400CS with shoulder strap, 3-9X32mm scope, bipod, muzzle break & 1400FPS! New-era varmint bad-assery here in Ohio, where 12 gauge is now illegal.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/35715947?ref=myacct
Click to expand...

Hopefully the 12 gauge is only illegal within city limits?? Living in the country we used to be over run with deer hunters every year.......... Unfortunately there are not many anymore for some reason, and we have too many deer by far. The automobile is the main predator these days. I always disliked hunting season for the fact that I had no idea who was hunting and how cautious they were or weren't. One year 3 hunters chased a doe right through the school yard during recess...... which didn't go over very well, and I've had people shooting within a few hundred feet of my house. I've long advocated a hunting season within Helena city limits to deal with the urban deer problem they have there.......... give people a taste of what we have to put up with out here ;-)

H.W.
 
10 gauge or less the regs say that I just looked at? Some hunting/shooting sites say stuff, then you look it up & do the WTF routine. Just picked up an ammo pen & 2 different weights of pellets/designs. Boy do they have a pellet for every situation now?! Varmints to birds to squirrels. Guys have killed fox & grindhogs with these things. Idk? gotta read some more? Anyway, these magnum air rifles have an " FPE"- Foot Pounds of Energy of 12 to 30 for the expensive ones. Mine's 18FPE, 1400 FPS with a 5gr-5.56gr pellet. Hopefully the 9.6gr rocket hunting pellets will be at least 1100-1200 FPS? So these 12-18 FPE rifles have an effective range of up to about 75 yds. Most small game is about half that range in my experiences. & air guns are legal in Ohio, & many other states. So they'd be great for urban special get-rid-of'em shoots. They did one of those in the Cleveland Metro parks last year or so.
 
I always had the hardest time killing groundhogs. Even with a 12 Guage and full Choke at 15 feet it could take 3 plus shots. Those things tick me off.

Where I live now is all peace and love so no guns to solve my problems. Instead I have to whack them with a shovel.
 
lol. Go troglodyte on'em! ORG, hurt, hurt, smash smash! ha. And them dang groundhogs must be related to them golf critters? After ya give'em both barrels, ya gotta take that funny-lookin' club & beat'em ta death! I've shot them things with my long-barreled antique 22 semi with CCI mini-mag jacketed hollow points...in the head, twice, no less. Lil somebitch crawled back into his bolt hole!
 
Some of them are expensive, like $560+. But some impressive numbers just the same. I figured 1400 FPS to be enough. Dang rabbits & starlings around here are annoying. Too many of'em...we'll see now! Click, click, boom!
 
A buddy of mine solved his garden varmint problem with an electric fence. Got the controller from Agway. Puts out about 9000 volts. He hears zapping at night and has dead critters in the morning.
 
Check local ordinances. Many municipalities consider air-powered rifles to be firearms for all intents and purposes if they surpass a certain FPS rating.

I think Reed City's limit is like 500 or 700 FPS.

I still shoot them sometimes, and encourage the kids to if they want, but that doesn't mean we can't be charged with unlawful discharge if the city wants to be dicks. I think they simply have those statutes on the books in case there is a problem.
 
Or, perhaps, someone they don't like? At any rate, here's me, my new tee & new Winchester 1400CS in .177 caliber. A 9lb gun, but feels steady & with a 3-9X32 duplex scope.

$213 out the door for pick up from Walmart.com.
 
unionrdr said:
Or, perhaps, someone they don't like? At any rate, here's me, my new tee & new Winchester 1400CS in .177 caliber. A 9lb gun, but feels steady & with a 3-9X32 duplex scope.

$213 out the door for pick up from Walmart.com.
Click to expand...

We play with this one.

black_ops-1.jpg


1250fps. $159.
 
Mine's rated @ 1400FPS with 5gr alloy pellet in .177 caliber. A guy on YouTube shot a young wild pig with a .177 @ 21yds in the head & dropped it like a bad habit! I got some Lethals by Gamo in 5.56gr to try. Amazon botched my order & sent me same in .22, rather than the dome head lead 8.3gr I ordered. I like speed & distance these days. Had my fill of carbines & such. Those would likely be considered assault rifles around here? Wasn't sure, so I got the long rifle.
 
In my experience with air guns is to keep the pellet speed below 1000fps. Actually near 850fps is just about ideal. Shoot heavier pellets to achieve this and shoot many kinds to see what groups best. I know my basic break barrel .177 would hold a dime size group at 30 yards with a cheap scope. I even did testing out to 100 yards and was able to get clean pass through shots on a dog food can which tells me there was still a ton of energy. So armed with that bit of info, take aim on all those pests!
 
thanks for posting that. I'll keep it in mind when I get the ammo in & find a range to start testing my theories with the Winchester.:mug:
 
No problem. Honestly probably best to order some online. Look into rws or diabolo pellets. Very consistent.
 
I did, from amazon, but they botched the order with one I took off the order for one I still wanted. Found a duplex 3-9X40 mil dot center scope, but 145 bucks online.
 
Got to be careful with some scopes as they can't take the beating a "springer" gun exerts. Actually much more detrimental than a high powered rifle.
 
TX_Brewing said:
What is this "death bucket" of which you speak?
Click to expand...

Fill a bucket with water about 1/3 full, cover the surface with a few handfuls of sunflower seeds, add a ramp with a scrap of wood, and sit back and watch......

i freshened up the seeds every morning, and emptied them every 2-3 days, mostly out of curiosity. Best bucket had 8!
 
My parts for the large live trap are either here or on order, and the design is taking shape, The 24" square opening is plenty of space. A shop in Billings will bend the material. I have the infra red beam system. The trap will have one primary opening, and two exit doors in the far end. Those exit doors will be about 6" apart and open vertically. Between the two will be a connibear trap, so when they hit the exit, it will be "all she wrote"
I bought a a 12 gauge pump the other day..... A Winchester 1300 model, which will deal with the coons I see, pretty effectively. My 20 gauge / 30/30 24V over and under offers only a single shot. The 1300 offers 5. I'm also in the market for a pump action 410. I used to have an SKS derived semi auto 410, but gave it to a friend...... too dangerous for my taste. War has been declared! The score is 25 to zero in my favor so far. (9 skunks and 16 raccoons). I don't count the bunnies.

H.W.
 
I did a video on airguns the other day. The .22 should take care of things when it's done...
 
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The score is 18 raccoons, and 9 skunks as of this morning. I caught a raccoon in a conibear that was just short of 40 lbs!!! The biggest coon I've ever seen. I fully expect to wake up one morning and find a small black dog in my conibear. Some folks absolutely refuse to keep their dogs home. Dead dogs don't roam much or get into trouble.

H.W.
 
And for those pesky garden munchers, another golden oldie from the cougar closet...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
unionrdr said:
10 gauge or less the regs say that I just looked at...
Click to expand...

12 gauge is smaller than a 10 gauge so it should be legal pretty much wherever shotgun hunting is legal. IIRC, this naming convention comes from how many lead balls of that bore size it takes to weigh one pound. In other words it would take 10 lead balls at 10 gauge bore size to weigh one pound while it would take 12 balls of 12 gauge to do the same. This convention applies to all shotgun gauges except 410 which is the actual bore size in inches, i.e. A 410 shotgun has a 0.41 diameter bore.

BTW, anything larger than 10 gauge is banned practically everywhere, possibly everywhere, for hunting in the US. Market hunters used to use 2 and 4 gauge punt guns to kill massive amounts of birds. Owning these very large bore shotguns may be legal but one can no longer hunt with them.
 
Ah,ok, thanks. I obviously got it backwards. But these new era, magnum air guns have plenty of power for game of any size, depending on the caliber & type of gun. PCP's are the most powerful, but also the most expensive. Then there are the break barrel " springers" nitro gas piston, Co2, & pumps.
 

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