Evanix is out with the .30 cal too now

[Nomadic Pirate]

Well,...... Pyramyd has them in stock now

[QVTom]

Buy, buy, buy...............!

[LEE IN VA.]

Who's going to be the guinea pig? LOL!

[Nomadic Pirate]

For 854.99 I would definitely jump on a Rainstorm .30, but at the moment the funds just aren't there

[Mod90]

.30 is soon to be the new .25

I wonder if anyone would make a .410 PCP

[ancient1one]

.30 is soon to be the new .25

After seeing what Tim from Mac1 did at the EBR with a .30 at 75 yards I agree big time. Now pellet manufacturers have to start making more .25's and .30's.

What happened to the 33 - 35 grain .25's JSB announced this spring/summer? I have not heard anything about it since August.

[rkr]

.30 is soon to be the new .25

I don't know really. With the very limited choice in cast bullets and diabolos in .30, the .25 and .357 are hard to compete with. When .25 came out it had just .22 to compete with. You also need to remember that people are power hungry, would you rather take a 120 fpe .30 or 180 fpe .357?

[Mod90]

Yeah, we airgunners can be greedy when it comes to power rkr. & you do have a point to a degree about it being hard to compete to fill the gap between .25 & .357
But what most larger bore air gun shooters really want is a caliber that can allow them to stretch their range out well past 150 yards & be less affected by wind, but can still deliver enough force to dispatch a pest or impact a target with authority, without having to aim for the sky in order to hit the target. A lot of long distance shooters love & prefer the .308 caliber for this reason, as well as the .257
The .25 can make it past 150 yards easy, but is somewhat lacking in the power dept at those ranges. The .357 can to, but is a little slow so trying to reach those distances requires a lot more h/o the further you need it to go. The .30 may turn out to be able to provide just be the right combo of weight, velocity, energy retention & wind resistance at longer ranges, depending on pellet/bullet weight & how fast a particular gun can move them.

[rkr]

Yeah, we airgunners can be greedy when it comes to power rkr. & you do have a point to a degree about it being hard to compete to fill the gap between .25 & .357
But what most larger bore air gun shooters really want is a caliber that can allow them to stretch their range out well past 150 yards & be less affected by wind, but can still deliver enough force to dispatch a pest or impact a target with authority, without having to aim for the sky in order to hit the target. A lot of long distance shooters love & prefer the .308 caliber for this reason, as well as the .257
The .25 can make it past 150 yards easy, but is somewhat lacking in the power dept at those ranges. The .357 can to, but is a little slow so trying to reach those distances requires a lot more h/o the further you need it to go. The .30 may turn out to be able to provide just be the right combo of weight, velocity, energy retention & wind resistance at longer ranges, depending on pellet/bullet weight & how fast a particular gun can move them.

That is the case with today's mass production guns. However, I believe the .357 guns will also reach 900 fps in the future (with a bit of tuning production guns do that already) and that when combined to poor ammo selection will make .30 a bit obsolete. Besides, if you are serious about reaching long ranges then bullets are the way to go and .357 has much more selection. It could even be that .357 may become a niche caliber if .45 guns develop enough. It actually seems that .257 and .308 are gaining popularity for long range airgun  shooting as it is now, it will be tough for .30 to compete with them with the limited ammo choice. Of course we have super duper acuurate .30 FX ST barrels but they are for pellets only and pellets are really not the best choice for long range shooting with their poor ballistic properties, I think there's a reason why the "Extreme" bench rest competition is 75 meters only

[Mod90]

I see your point. Solids are definitely the ideal way to go from .30 cal on upwards especially for longer distances.

wrt the shortage of available ammo in the .30 cal, imho if enough gun makers make guns in the .30 cal, ammo makers will follow along sooner than later to capitalize on the new demand. And then there's the alternative, one could make their own cast boolits

I just believe it would be easier to make the .30 cal shoot solid bullets @ 900fps than it would be to achieve the same velocities with the larger .357 shooting a similarly designed bullet.


But like I said, we airgunners can be a little greedy at times. Some of us just want it all 

[Rescue35]

Some of us just want it all 

and we want it now!

That Sniper in .30 is looking good. Of course then there is the Rainstorm II. Off to check credit card balances...

[PakProtector]

Even a .224 boolit has a better BC than a 30 cal pellet. 40-ish grains of .224 in reasonable shape( w/o no deliberate efforts to reduce its BC ) will be in neighborhood of .09...which is double a 30 pellet... Bob's 30 BT at only 70 gr is .12...and that equals *MUCH* better long range performance in a breeze. The shortened .257 from NOE will do quite well...and going to .308 will allow reasonable performance on a 3k fill and at reasonable velocity.

I balance that with the worry about where a boolit with high BC is going to wind up when I point rifle up to draw a bead on a squirrel in a tree...
cheers,
Douglas

[Mod90]

.30 cal 70 grain BBT @ 900 fps vs squirrel.

The real question is would it be enough 

[rkr]

.30 cal 70 grain BBT @ 900 fps vs squirrel.

The real question is would it be enough 

I think you better go hollow point to maximize the kill effect and to avoid lengthy tracking of wounded squirrel One thing that wasn't discussed is shot count and there smaller calibers will shine, although most serious long range shooters will use bottle + regulator making that a moot point. Another thing is the barrel land height in the rifling, .257 and .308 firearms barrels have relatively high lands requiring more oomph to get that bullet flying fast enough.

[PakProtector]

.30 cal 70 grain BBT @ 900 fps vs squirrel.

The real question is would it be enough 

The marauder is happier spitting them out at 1000 fps...I think that is adequate for squirrel...but for an engine room shot on a 'yote a HP would be useful...and I'd still bet heavily on complete pass thru. if not, shedding 150 or so FPE into a target will not be w/o significant damage...lol

[Mod90]

Well rkr , we all know once caliber exceeds past .257 shot count goes to pot unless reg'd, & regs defeat the benefits of increasing the caliber. But even if one could only get 10-12 shots on a fill the gains in energy would be a worthwhile trade off to the abundance of shots available from the smaller calibers. You make a good point about the lands, but this is an airgun barrel. They're usually made thinner walled & with more shallow rifling that pb barrels anyway, so I don't think the depth of the lands cutting into the slug would cause too much excessive friction requiring that much more air usage.

[Nomadic Pirate]

Will the .30 be the next .25 ?

possibly,.......That is entirely dependent on pellets manufacturers, it's nice to have different powers/calibers to fill gaps,
30-40 FPE .22 - 50-60 FPE .25 -  80-90 FPE .30 - 120-130 FPE .357

Than if you wanna go big you have all kinds of options in .357 and .45 to have them in the 100s FPE

It's all about applications, I would like to have a 80-90 FPE  .30

[rkr]

Well rkr , we all know once caliber exceeds past .257 shot count goes to pot unless reg'd, & regs defeat the benefits of increasing the caliber. But even if one could only get 10-12 shots on a fill the gains in energy would be a worthwhile trade off to the abundance of shots available from the smaller calibers. You make a good point about the lands, but this is an airgun barrel. They're usually made thinner walled & with more shallow rifling that pb barrels anyway, so I don't think the depth of the lands cutting into the slug would cause too much excessive friction requiring that much more air usage.

10+ shots at 100+ fpe is entirely doable, my .357 gets 14 shots in between 116 and 136fpe with a power curve. The problem is getting a very flat shot string as even 10 fps less velocity makes easily 1/2" POI drop at 100 yards, which is the reason why 100M competitors usually attach their guns to a regulated air source. It's also interesting to observe how heavier pellets are appearing and bullets are used in smaller calibers making it possible to reach higher fpe values. A big diameter bullet itself is not a big advantage unless we talk about hunting. Personally I have no need for a .25 or .30 pellet gun as I have a rimmie with LDC to cover that power area but I might consider a .257 or .308 bullet shooter for 100M and 200M bench rest shooting.

[PakProtector]

Will the .30 be the next .25 ?

possibly,.......That is entirely dependent on pellets manufacturers, it's nice to have different powers/calibers to fill gaps,
30-40 FPE .22 - 50-60 FPE .25 -  80-90 FPE .30 - 120-130 FPE .357

Than if you wanna go big you have all kinds of options in .357 and .45 to have them in the 100s FPE

It's all about applications, I would like to have a 80-90 FPE  .30

You cite energy at ~950 fps...why the discontinuity at .357? Those pellets are 80 grain...that would be 160 fpe if the rifles are capable of that.
cheers,
Douglas

[QVTom]

It seems the current .357 production offerings fall short of 950 fps with  available pellets.

Tom