Sunday, 11 October 2009

A Night-time Rat Hunt with the FX Verminator

Recently had a great time thinning out the scaly-tails at a local organic farm which my mate usually looks after. He's unable to get there at the moment... and I've been charged with keeping the black stuff at bay in his absence.

I've written about the night's shooting antics in December's Sporting Shooter magazine (on sale from the first week of November), and I've put together this short movie to set the scene...

8 comments:

  1. Nigel
    Which brand of air rifle gets consistently closest to the 12 lb limit?
    SBW

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  2. Any of the springers and PCPs that are billed as 'full-power' will be there or thereabouts. Most manufacturers will supply their rifles around the 11.2-11.4 ft/lbs mark (maximum, with the most efficient pellet) as they need to keep a safe 'buffer' zone between that and the 12 ft/lbs legal limit; they don't want people to inadvertently break the law. Personally, I think too much emphasis is put on power by shooters. I normally hunt between 10.8 and 11.2 ft/lbs. My 70-yard pigeon - see my 'Smash & Grab Woody' post of 25 Sept - was taken with an 8.4-grain pellet that records just 11 ft/lbs at the muzzle.

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  3. Cheers
    Your posts on the subject (and james' DVD) have turned me away from wanting an FAC air rifle. I suppose i should have worded the question a little more closely and it should have been:

    without fettling by the gunsmith which brand offers the best shot by shot consistency within the legal limit?

    Thanks
    SBW

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  4. Not sure what, exactly you mean in your revised queston, but am guessing you want an idea of which rifles are the most consistent, from one shot to the next (at full power). The answer is that most spring-powered rifles will shoot with around 3-4% shot-to-shot consistency - that's about 20 fps on 600 fps (.22) or 25-ish on 800 fps (.177). UNregulated PCPs, on the other hand, will show a typical power curve over the length of their charge of about 25-30 fps. And regulated ones about 10-15 fps. Bigger-bottled un-reg'd PCPs will have a longer 'flat' part of the power curve, so you get quite a lot of very consistent shots in the middle of the charge. The reg'd guns will be flat from start to finish - but unless they're running a buddy bottle air cylinder (like the BSA r10), it's probably fewer shots than the sweet spot of the unreg'd, larger-bottled PCP! (Confusing, eh?!!!) If you want me to name one (sporting) rifle that's the most consistent between shots, I'd have to say it's the electronic 'MCT' Daystates - like the MK4-iS or Air Wolf MCT. Although unregulated, the computer mapping on these Mapped Compensated Technology superguns is, effectively, a digital air regulator. HTH.

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  5. Thanks nigel
    that's exactly what i wanted to know
    SBW

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  6. whats the best bait for hunting rats?

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  7. pellet gun rat hunter4 June 2010 at 13:56

    wet dog food works GREAT!!!!!

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