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All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General > Air Gun Gate

Sighting In a Scope

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Backyard Hunter:
Please respond with advice about scopes for hunting squirrels.  Am I wasting my time with a scope or should I just use the green & red dot barrel sight?  The first scope that came with the break-barrel gun kept slipping in the mounting rings no matter how tight it was!  Then it broke at the adjustment housing.  The 2nd scope that I have on my gun has moved until the adjustment mechanism body is resting on the mounting ring.  So I left it there and tried to sight it in.  Even with a bench rest I can’t get even a 1” spread at 40 yards (more like a 6” spread).  This is very frustrating!

gene_sc:
First of all what distance's are you shooting at prey. Most folks are shooting critters 15 yards out to 30 yards. Personally I use variable scopes and that would be my choice. I do not hunt or kill things but I do allot of paper punching from 25 yards out to 50 yards. I am sure more of the members will chime in on your post.

famine:
Have you used loctite to make sure your screws aren't loosening up on you? Once you use loctite and set your scope stop pin you shouldn't need to worry about your scope moving.

airiscool:
Scope, or open sights, you need a certain minimum accuracy if your going to hunt.

You need a gun that you can consistently put your shots in the kill zone, at a certain distance, for the size of the game your hunting. If you can't find a gun/sight/pellet combo that can do that, you'll just be wounding critters.

For Squirrels, the kill zone is about the size of a quarter, better yet, a nickle if you plan on using head shots (most humane type kill).

Even if you get a good scope, if that gun still can't shoot into the kill zone every time, I would not recommend that you use it to hunt with. Find a gun/sight combo that will.

When I was young, I had excellent eye sight and did alot of Squirrel hunting with just the open sights on my Winchester 77 rimfire. Now, my eyes are too old (so's the rest of me !). I use 3-9 variables for Gray and Red Squirrels, and Starlings. 3 power for the wider field of view when the Squirrels are closer than about 20 yards and moving - 9 power when they are out 20 - 40 yards. And, 9 power for the Starlings.   

Paul

Atchman2:
Most of the time in Tennessee you aren't going to shoot much further than 30 yards.  I think even a fixed 4x scope will work most of the time. 

My squirrel guns have 3 x 9 Leapers Scopes on them.  I prefer non-AO because I don't want to mess with it. 

If you tell us what kind of gun you have maybe we can help you with your accuracy problem? 

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