Shooting UK: Rabbits

Tundrik,

Can I endorse what C3PO said.

Most air rifles on the market will despatch a rabbit provided (a) you get close enough, and (b) you point it in the right direction.

If you are a newcomer to shooting, practice. practice and practice until you can meet the standard suggested by C3PO, and then practice some more.

Body shots are a waste of time - yes, you will kill, but the rabbit will die in its burrow not on the field.

Head shots are however not without risk, as an inch - sorry, 25mm - off, will result in a pierced ear if you're lucky or a shattered jaw and a lingering death if not.

I won't get into the 'let's list my gear' bit - as a generalisation however - go for what they call PCP rifles if you can afford them - they work by compressed air from a reservoir filled either from a diver's tank or a glorified bicycle pump - either will set you back £100-150 and need to be factored into the cost.

The alternative is a spring gun - where cocking the rifle either by bending the barrel back on a pivot or with a lever under the barrel, compresses a spring, which when released, drives a piston forward which compresses air in a cylinder which in turn drives the pellet out the barrel.

(A third alternative is a CO2 powered rifle such as the Crosman which uses a 'sodastream sparklets' type CO2 cartridge - these can work out as expensive and their performance is quite sensitive to outside air temperature which raises a big question mark about consistency so rule them out for rabbits in the field, although I have one which did sterling service with rats in the back garden)

Having used both spring and PCP, (and CO2)- the difference is remarkable. The PCP is far easier to shoot well - especially for a beginner.

Two of the great bugbears to good shooting are a poor trigger and recoil - or the fear of it.

The trigger on a PCP is likely to be crisper and lighter since all it needs to do is trip a 'hammer' to release the valve that delivers air from the reservoir to the barrel.

The spring gun trigger needs (via a sear system of varying complexity) to hold back the power of a compressed mainspring which is a seriously beefy piece of metal - (anyone who in their foolish youth has tried to reassemble a spring gun stripped down in a flush of enthusiasm is likely to have come close to their first hernia by tryng to compress the spring to get it back into the sodding rifle).

As for recoil - Newton's law will tell you there isn't any with an air rifle - a pellet of 14-ish grains at 500-odd feet per second (and no - I'm not going to give metric equivalents) is not going to kick back the weight of even a slimline air rifle.

Newton however never had the dubious pleasure of firing a spring gun where tripping the trigger releases a mainspring and hefty piston forward at alarming speed only to come to the end of their travel, hopefully cushioned by the air they are compressing, only to rebound and then again move forward to the limit of their travel once the pellet has exited the barrel - all within six inches of your face with much slapping twanging and mechanical violence.

Even Newton would have flinched.

With a PCP rifle all you get is the noise of the valve being opened which is a loud click, and the sound of the shot which can be very successfully moderated.

As for calibre - I use a .22.

I have always used a .22.

There was a time when my fingers were precision tools of exquisite sensitivity.

Now however they are great lumbering things akin to sausages which feel the cold rather more than I would like to admit.

Have you ever picked up a .177 pellet in the cold?

No, I will put up with the tennis ball-like (ladies, rather than men's, singles) trajectory of the .22 for the benefits of ease of use, and the feeling that the bigger the hole the better where it comes to hunting.

As for scopes - well there's another ball game...

Go for the best you can afford (deerstalkers will tell you to spend more on your scope than you did on your rifle).

Don't worry too much about magnification, (the 3X..., 4X... bit in the description) but do pay attention to the objective size - the ...X30 ...X40, ...X50 bit

If you are likely to be shooting in low light - e.g. dusk/dawn, the bigger the objective size the better, as it will capture more light and allow you to keep shooting longer into the murk and will give you a clearer picture.

Good luck, good hunting, and remember..

...practice, practice, and more practice.