ive lived here at my rural house since 06 and set things up to be pretty sustainable .. taught myself how to garden and what to grow to feed myself and the chickens which are a big part of the scheme .. theres a reason i went to pcp and got rid of the springers lol .. dont kid yourself, theres 'zero' room for jackin around with a single shot toy that likely will miss on the first cold shot in a real scenario .. if it was all i had it would be better than nothing, but not much better ..
Just joining now. Only read the first page, so forgive me if the OP has already chosen.I hope he was wise enough to ignore those recommending pumpers. When you start thinking of henhouse predators, they're just not powerful enough, unless you're talking about the fancy one by FX. ;-) Pumpers are just good for nostalgia, plinking, and maybe some light hunting, in the case of the Sheridans. PCP is doable, if it's not a survival scenario. However, I don't feel like they're as reliable, as them being airtight depends on a lot of O-rings, which age out over time.A .22 springer in the 20-25 FPE range is what I'd go with. You don't need match grade accuracy, just reasonable, everyday accuracy and enough power to take out a predator. You might be having to shoot up to coyote size, so .177 is out; you're not always presented with an ear canal shot. Same for foxes and raccoons. A .22 pellet into the lungs at 800 fps will take care of them. It'll be overkill for your pest sparrows and such, but that's OK.
[...] Springers that deliver Muzzle Energy in the 20 to 25 ft.lbs. range would be in the Super Magnum range. Scope destroyers, heavy, not terribly cheap. And listen to me.
The spring Or gas pistons will degrade.
I've killed coons with body shots from a 5mm Sheridan Silver Streak that was over 40 years old and still had the original seals in it.That gun saw 2 lifetimes worth of use and hard use at that. A break barrel would not of held up near as well under the same circumstances.
Anyhow... after reading your reply I've come to the conclusion that a .25+ cal repeating PCP would be my choice. Regulated preferably. I would not have to fill it to max to get a few consistent follow up shots in the case that my only source would be a hand pump. An 8 or nine shot mag would be plenty for a single hunt or to remove an unwanted egg sucking varmint.
However, the choice of gun is not the end of the discussion. What about the ammo? I think I would need to set myself up so I could cast my own ammo.
I hear this comparison in gas rams between airgun gas rams and tailgate/windows dampeners/shocks all the time.I don't think there is any comparison at all. A gas ram for an airgun sits in 'rest' position most of it's life and is typically in controlled climate conditions.An automotive window shock spends it's life in the compressed position and goes through thousands of extreme cold to extreme hot cycles.In my opinion, they are complete different animals living in complete different environments.
Im a little late to this discussion, but im gonna give my two cents anyway. Myself and a close friend have mini farms, both of us use pellet rifles mainly. Because we cant have pb you ask? Nope, we both have them. Simply put, we shoot the pellet rifles more and trust that they are going to hit what we are killing. Both of us us .25 marauders mainly and only with hand pumps. Will they tear up? Yes , everything does over time thats why its important to have spares for it. Anything short of a major catastrophic failure i can have back up and running in an hour or two, provided i have spares. As far as stopping power, he and i both have dispatched everything from birds up to deer with a .25 m-rod. Coons, possum, dillos, snakes and even a dog or two. Im not advocating shooting anyones dog or deer hunting with your small bore but i can say with 100% certainty that it will handle it in an emergency.
theres a reason i went to pcp and got rid of the springers lol .. dont kid yourself, theres 'zero' room for jackin around with a single shot toy that likely will miss on the first cold shot in a real scenario .. if it was all i had it would be better than nothing, but not much better ..
...Can't beat the spectrum a powerful PCP can cover, and can't beat how easy a PCP is to repair, and sure can't beat having a repeater in case you need it,None of those aspects can be touched together by any other platform but a PCP
Quote from: Nomadic Pirate on November 27, 2021, 02:22:16 PM...Can't beat the spectrum a powerful PCP can cover, and can't beat how easy a PCP is to repair, and sure can't beat having a repeater in case you need it,None of those aspects can be touched together by any other platform but a PCPI disagree with this. PCP's have a lot of small screws and parts and are dependent on a LOT of O-rings. I would say they are generally more accurate and easy to shoot well, but maybe less reliable in the long run.
A Racine Sheridan like I shot my first squirrel with - wish they still made them like that! Accurate, powerful, light, great trigger, self contained. If I had to vote for greatest air rifle of all time that would be it!
Quote from: Marc on September 07, 2021, 08:21:50 AMA Racine Sheridan like I shot my first squirrel with - wish they still made them like that! Accurate, powerful, light, great trigger, self contained. If I had to vote for greatest air rifle of all time that would be it! X2! Another thing and it's one I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet. Is cold climate and it's effect on a coil spring powered piston going to be too detrimental especially for a 12 fpe gun?