Air rifle for survival?

[tennessee01tacoma]

I got a gamo silent cat for Christmas and was thinking about how useful it could be in a survival situation. With lead pellets it doesn't break the sound barrier and all you hear is the spring unload. With the supersonic alloy pellets you have a sonic crack. You can carry 250 rounds of ammo with virtually no added weight. I know the argument will be made that if your gonna carry anything it should be a real firearm, but if for instance you could carry an air rifle strapped to your pack and carry a primary weapon and use the air rifle for survival hunting. So am I off base here or is an air rifle more of something for a cache, or shelter. Edited December 29, 2012 by tennessee01tacoma

[Fourtyfive]

Works for me.

[gjohnsoniv]

Why not?

Edited December 29, 2012 by gjohnsoniv

[Spots]

Id rather have it at a cache/shelter location. Same reason I'm not adding a .22 to my bag. Everything needs to have a multi use roll. A deer rifle can kill large game, and provide protection. A .22 can not. IT would be useful for hunting, but not something I'd be lugging around on every trip

[UncleJak]

If it was all I had, I'd use it. 

[Romad7]

Supersonic? I'm not very knowledgable about air rifles but that sounds pretty good, what's a good rifle to look at that has that kind of velocity? That'd be a good small game rifle and I've survived on less in the field.

[Will H]

It would be nice to have for small game.  One thing I think a lot of people overlook is just how loud their ARs are going to be.  Quiet hunting can help a lot if you are trying to lay low.

[gunwhatgun]

I was at one time heavily into airguns. I still mess with them a bit. There is a learning curve to shooting a spring powered air rifle. each has it's own hold and very delicate trigger pull that must be learned to achieve consistant accuracy. Once this is done they are lethal on small game and will make you a much better shot. If you can get one of the nitro piston rifles the learning is much easier and they are much easier to cock and can be left sharged without loss of power. Beaman and Bennjamin are good brands and you will find that most of the ones with the brand names of powder burners are for the most part re=badged crossman's, which can be a good thing. The major drawback is weight. My Beaman RS2 in .22 is as heavy as my AR. For this reason it may make more sense to go with the powder burner and subsonic ammo if you are worried about to much noise.

[tennessee01tacoma]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Romad7" data-cid="871796" data-time="1356833348"><p>
Supersonic? I'm not very knowledgable about air rifles but that sounds pretty good, what's a good rifle to look at that has that kind of velocity? That'd be a good small game rifle and I've survived on less in the field.</p></blockquote>
It makes a pellet rifle sound like a .22, not the gun itself but the projectile breaking the sound barrier makes a small sonic boom, that's more like a loud crack. The speed of sound is about 1000fps at sea level it's faster at higher elevation. My gamo is advertised at 1250 fps with alloy pellets or 1000 fps with lead which doesn't break the sound barrier and all you hear is the spring unload in the gun. Gamo or Benjamin break action rifles are good from what I understand. Edited December 30, 2012 by tennessee01tacoma

[Moped]

I agree with Spots on this.  I think this would be good in a cache or at your shelter.  That's a lot of extra weight to lug around just to be used for hunting.  When you are on the move, less weight is better.  And it will not do double duty for defense.  However, I think several of these and 20,000 pellets or more would be very handy for hunting and target practice, once you get where you are going.

 

While I have some things in my BOB for hunting, I don't really plan on taking the time to hunt while moving to where I plan to shelter.  I plan on getting there as fast as possible, as quickly as possible and as unseen as possible.  The longer you are out on the "trail" the more likely you are going to be someone's target.  I don't plan on that.

[Guest polishprepper]

FYI as far as I can remember the speed of sound goes down the higher in elevation you go up because the air gets thinner it applies to airplanes so I would think it applies to all things going through the air pellets included

[MattCary]

I'm considering one as well. Would also be interested in recommendations from those that have them.

[tennessee01tacoma]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="polishprepper" data-cid="872114" data-time="1356883418"><p>
FYI as far as I can remember the speed of sound goes down the higher in elevation you go up because the air gets thinner it applies to airplanes so I would think it applies to all things going through the air pellets included</p></blockquote>
Your right my mistake but at my elevation the lead pellets still dint break the sound barrier. Which is around 1000 fps.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Id rather have it at a cache/shelter location. Same reason I'm not adding a .22 to my bag. Everything needs to have a multi use roll. A deer rifle can kill large game, and provide protection. A .22 can not. IT would be useful for hunting, but not something I'd be lugging around on every trip

 

I beg to differ in a major way. They may not have the stopping power for up close engagements, unless there is a CNS hit, but at the same distance a person would use a scoped deer rifle a 22 is quite capable fo stopping a threat. A suppressed 22 engaging a threat at 200 yards is a very effective tool for protection. It would also very demoralizing to have no clue where to go to hide. Even without a suppressor a 22 can keep people at bay well beyond 200 yards. I can hit 1/2 sized steel targets at 200 yards 9 out of 10 times. That is a target that is 12" wide and 18" tall. A 22 is less intimidating to kids or women and provide a level of protection a pointy stick doesn't.

 

I can guarantee if I start engaging a threat at 100 yards with any of my 22's they will not be a threat for very long.

 

Here are several studies on the varsatility and lethality of the 22.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=22+lethality&oq=22+lethality&gs_l=youtube-reduced.3..0l2j0i5.103962607.103965059.0.103965396.12.12.0.0.0.0.147.894.9j2.11.0...0.0...1ac.1.iLAFFo7B72s

 

Dolomite

[Dolomite_supafly]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o25ieULe_Ik

 

Some more testing.

[Guest polishprepper]

Regardless of what caliber I guarantee one thing nobody will enjoy being shot.....and unless they are one BAMFer they will probably give up after the first round....a 22 is a very lethal round unlike large calibers which tend to go through 22s ricochet around in the body.....

[Refleks]

Air rifles will work fine for small game given sufficient velocity, just make sure you buy a quality brand and have spares on hand (o rings etc), there's more to go wrong than with a simple .22.

[RichardR]

I own a pair of Gamo spring-piston .177 air rifles, velocity is about 1000fps w/lead hunting pellets, they are very accurate out to about 40 meters, deadly to small game within that range & comparitively quiet, but they are not exactly silent either.

I have owned a number of different types of pellet rifles over the years from gas to pneumatic to springers & I typically get much cleaner more "humane" kills on larger racoon/ground hog sized garden pests with the spring-pistoned Gamo's.

.22 cal spring-pistoned air rifles would be an even better choice for "survival" purposes IMHO as they have a bit more energy than the .177 cal ones do, only problem there is post-shtf pellet availibility, .22 cal pellets are a tad less common & a tad more expensive than .177's are.

[Lumber_Jack]

This may be pushing the ethics of hunting a little bit for me, but shows some impressive results with PBA ammo traveling at 1650fps

 

http://youtu.be/ugyO7dcF1n8