Is There Really a Difference?

After finally choosing the best pellet gun, it can be a confusing task to sort out the best air rifle scope. With dozens of choices (all with different features), you’ll have to consider the kind of pellet gun you’re purchasing and the kind of shooting you’d like to do. All scopes are not the same. Note: you should never use a firearm scope on an air rifle; the recoil from the air rifle is more powerful than that of a firearm and will damage the scope. Do your research. It’s worth it, as there are some very real differences between air rifle scopes and you don’t want to end up with one that’s more (or way less) than what you need. Here are the basics to get you started in finding the best air rifle scope.

Fixed Scopes

Among your less expensive choices will be scopes that have fixed magnification. This means that the magnification on them is always the same; you can’t change it to zoom in closer. The magnification level on the lens will be indicated by numbers such as 4×32. This means that when you look through the scope, the image you see will be magnified 4 times.

A fixed scope lens (in addition to being less expensive) is quick and easy. The downside to this type of lens is that you can’t increase the magnification. Fixed scopes are great for hunting small game (like rodents) at close distances.

Variable Scopes

Unlike fixed scopes, variable scopes can be zoomed in to a variety of magnifications. You’ll see more numbers on the side of a variable scope; for instance, 3-9×32. This means that the scope is able to magnify from 3 to 9 times. The increased magnification on variable scopes make them great for hunting at longer distances, but they tend to be pricier than fixed scopes.

What Does the Last Number Mean?

The last number on a scope is the objective lens size. The side of the lens you look through is the ocular lens, while the opposite side is the objective lens. The larger the magnification, the bigger your objective lens will be. A bigger objective lens lets in more light, which makes the picture clearer and brighter. If you’re shooting in low light or at dusk, a larger objective lens is ideal.

The Bottom Line: Do Your Homework!
As you can see, the scope you choose matters just as much as the air rifle. If you’re first starting out, don’t want to spend a lot of money, and won’t be shooting at long distances, a fixed scope should work well for you – do not use the fixed scope for deer hunting. If you’re a more experienced shooter or one who wants to shoot at a longer range, don’t waste your money on a fixed scope. Instead, spring for a variable scope. As with all things, keep in mind that you get what you pay for; cheaper scopes may denote a lack of quality. It’s worth investing in one that will last.

Some might think that the air gun (which includes air rifles, pellet guns, air pistols and any other weapon that uses gas or compressed air to force a projectile at high speeds) is a recent invention but the truth is, air guns have been around for centuries. In fact, the blow pipe, which is used to send sharp darts usually tipped with poison, has been around for much longer than that and uses the same basic technology.

Also, most modern day air rifle owners don’t realize that the preferred form of weaponry in the 16^th century was the air gun. Although they had guns in the 16^th century, they were loud, smelly and required the manual lighting of gunpowder. Most nobles and other folks with money used air guns for hunting. They were expensive then, but they were also quiet and could be used in wet conditions, unlike the arquebus, which was the firearm of choice until the musket came along.

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries the air gun became quite popular among soldiers. They had a number of advantages over the musket when it came to combat. For one thing, they were quiet and didn’t have a muzzle flash, so you wouldn’t give away your position when you fired. They also would work in the rain and were easier to load, which resulted in faster shooting.

The air rifle got a big boost in the 50’s and 60’s, as they were advertised heavily as toys for kids. At the time, kids idolized frontiersmen like Davy Crockett and nearly every kid wanted one, as shown in movies like A Christmas Story and books like The Great Brain Series. Today, air guns compete with paintball guns, but both are used widely, mostly for sport or group competitions, but occasionally for hunting as well.

Clearly air rifles have come along way in the past centuries.  Never before have we seen such a great selection of rifles and air rifle scopes avaliable.  Some of the big names like Hatsan, Benjamin and Gamo provide rifles that would make previous generations very jealous.  I have also seen a tremendous amount of new enthusiasts starting to purchase air rifle accessories online.  Be cleaning kits, targets or anything else the air rifle industry is alive and well.  I can’t wait to see what new innovation we can expect to see.  My favorite would be the joining or air rifle scopes and night vision goggles.

Learn how to hunt rabbits here.

Rabbit Sott’olio: delicious reward for airgun hunters

Ingredients

– 2 cleaned rabbits

– 4 quarts of vegetable oil

– 1 spoon plus 1⁄4 cup of olive oil

– Unpeeled cloves of garlic

– 6 sprigs fresh thyme

– Red wine vinegar

– 1 sliced red onion

– Carrots, chop down into small pieces

– 4 cups baby arugula

– 1⁄4 cup of lightly toasted pine nuts

– 1⁄4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, shaved or grated

– Salt and ground pepper

How to make:

1. First, heat the oven up to 300 oF. Scrub the rabbits with salt and pepper, then place them in a Dutch oven. Mix vegetable with olive oil with a 3:1 ratio with the amount enough to submerge the whole rabbits. Add in garlic and thyme, and use aluminum foil to cover the Dutch oven. Cook the oiled rabbits in the oven for about 1.5 hours. Check if the meat become tender and fall apart the bone. Let them cool.

2. In the meantime, mix 1⁄3 cup of red wine vinegar with 1⁄3 cup of water, and boil the mixture. Pour this hot vinegar mixture over the sliced onions prepared in a bowl. Stir the bowl, add in salt and pepper, and let the onions to pickle naturally.

3. Lightly heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil, then add the carrots. In the next 6-8 minutes, cook and stir the span until the carrots are tender but not soppy. Add salt and pepper for move to the next step.

4. Make a vinaigrette: Put 1⁄4 cup of red wine vinegar in a bowl and gradually add in 1⁄4 cup of olive oil, until the oil and vinegar are thoroughly mixed together. Add salt and pepper to this mixture.

5. When the rabbits are cool down, take the meat out of the bones.

6. The meat can be served for 4 people. When serve, warm up the meat with some oil in the pan. In a big bowl, gradually toss the arugula with the drained red onions, cheese, carrots, pine nuts, and about 3 tablespoon of vinaigrette. Split the salad among four plates, and top with the rabbit, adding some cheese and salt and pepper if you like.

Let think of a dark and cold outside, meanwhile in your warm room, you are cleaning your beloved air rifle and telling your kids great hunting stories, with a full stomach after a delicious meal. There is nothing more relaxing than that! Keep calm and aim well.

There are some considerations that you need to bear in mind as you are going to camp alone. This article will present 8 excellent tips for an unforgettable perfect camping trip.

Camping alone will bring you wonderful memories and experience.

1. Have Some Experience

Camping alone is only suitable for experienced campers. If you are new to outdoor activities, stick with other people several times before going on your own. No one suddenly wakes up and becomes an outdoorsman. Start with the basic, learn from experienced people and you will build up your necessary experience. When you are skilled enough, you can go camping alone.

If you are new to outdoor activities, go in group or join some training course beforehand.

2. Share Your Camping Plan With Your Family

Before you are going on a solo camping trip, it is important to inform your family about it. Create a detailed schedule and stick to it when you are on the trails. If there is something unusual happens, your family will know what to do in that case.

3. Be Prepared

You should consider your plans carefully and bring only essential items for your trip. Bring things that help you survive in the wild, leave luxury comfort things at home to make sure that you can manage everything easily on your own.

4. Go For Attainable Plans

If you are new to solo camping, don’t be impatient and throw yourself in harsh trails. If you are injured or lost in a trails, things become worse since you can rely only on your own. You should begin with popular and marked trails to build up experience. In such populated areas, you have more change get help from passerby if anything bad happen.

At first, go in marked trail in populated area for your own safe and build up your experience.

5. Hone Your Safety Skills

You should always bring a first aid kit and know basic medical treatments. You should learn to read weather to react according to the case, too. In some areas, be aware of wild animals there such as bears, mountain lions… and know what to do one you encounter them. It is best to prepare some sort of equipment such as bear spray, defensive tool..etc

6. Keep In Touch

You should bring along a communicating device that allow you to contact to the outside world in case of an emergency, such as handheld radios. Cell phone is not reliable as you think since they will fail on battery or connection cut off in remote area. You can invest in a good satellite phone or a personal locater beacon or another transceiver device. These devices will help you contact with emergency responders and people back home. If you are on a low budget, you can borrow or rent them.

7. Entertainment items

You should have some sort of entertainments to keep your spirit up. In the dark cold night, you can bring along a book, or your favorite instruments, like a flute or a harmonica or anything you feel comfortable with. Some campers love to do bushcraft work while sitting in front of a campfire.

Bring something that can entertain you. Always keep your spirit high.

8. Plan on a multi-day trip

Spending a night outside the wild makes it different from a quick trip. You can experience more than your think. A 3 days and 2 nights will be ideal for your experience, when you can live in harmony with the nature as well as getting over the fear of being lonely in the great space. After getting back to your busy life, you will feel more confident and different. In a multi-day trip, you should plan activities beforehand, such as first day you will go all for setting up camp site, second day is for air rifle hunting and last day for fishing. It is important to distribute your time on each activities. Normally, the first day is the busiest day since you have to prepare your camp site, setting up tent, prepare camp pit, cooking table…etc The second day is the ace of the trip when most interesting activities should be done. The last day will be saved for light activities since you have to take time to pack the camp gear and go back home.

Bring along your favorite air-gun or fishing rod if you plan on doing some hunting or fishing in the camp.

Sometime there may be some incidents that you are not expected but as long as you prepare well and come home safe, they will be part of your experience and fun memories. Be prepared and enjoy the nature.

–> Picking good CO2 for your favorite pellet gun.

Never put all eggs in one basket. Setup your survival gears in 3 layers for emergency cases.

Layer 1: The Main Pack

The main survival backpack consists of all important gears to guarantee you a comfortable experience.

The first layer of gear is your main survival or hunting pack. This pack should content gear that will allow you to be self-reliant while being out on the wild. Take all the supplies you would use for a 3 days backpacking trip and you are well prepared. You can add in some items for self-defense against animals such as pepper spray, bear spray and some communication device just in case something bad happens. The Spec Ops T.H.E. Ultimate Assault Pack is a great choice. This battle tested is super tough with great design for outdoor activities including shooting involved sport. When placing flat on the ground, the front pouches create an ideal pad for your gun to rest in (which is an original idea of the designer).

–> Read more about the Spec Ops T.H.E. Ultimate Assault Pack

Layer 2: The Kit Bag

This second layer contains some essential items, that you can call it some kind of bug out bag (or BOB). Normally these items are just for backup but in case of necessary, they can be your life saver. You can use any sort of small pack as soon as they are comfortable and convenient to wear. You can use a modular medical pack, leg pouches, military-style belt pack or even chest rig.

Ideally, you can choose a kit bag or medium molle pouch which is rugged and reasonable sized for your survival items.

–> See more pre-set survival kits here

The kit bag is a backup setup, which provide you emergency items if the main pack is lost.

What will you want to put in this kit bag? In short, you should pack items that have similar functions like those of your main pack but with a space-saving scale. For example, you will get a survival blanket instead of a sleeping bag, an inflatable water bladder with some disinfection tablets instead of water-filters and canteen. Some utility items such as Bic lighters or fire starter rods, compasses, backup folding knives, cordage, first aid kit, thread and needle, fish hook, rubber band and a small metal cup for boiling are recommended, too. If possible, add some high-calorie snacks or candy, or MERE for your kit bag. This kit will be attached to your body, be it on the belt or on your thigh, or on your chest, which will be independent of your main pack.

Layer 3: Your EDC Set

Your last ditch: your EDC!

The last survival layer is your everyday carry set. This set should have a pocket EDC knife, mini flashlight, multi-tool, lighter, and some other personal things that you can put in your pockets. These great EDC items will your boosting hope or even life saver in case you lost all other gears. In the worst scenario, you can survive with just a knife and a lighter with basic outdoor skills. Yes, you may be not a rampaging Bear Grylls, but at least you can make a shelter and a fire and hopefully, manage to gather some food to wait for rescue.

If you are into outdoor hunting (or a kind of prepper), get your best air rifle and pack your BOB in good arrangements before you go. You can read this article about choosing a good airgun. As the old saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”, be a little more cautious and everything will go smoothly in every situation. Always be prepared!

–> 8 Great Solo Camping Tips You Should Know

Air rifle CO2 cartridges are very inportant, since most of the troubles involving CO2 driven air rifles are unworkable and clogged valves or failed o-rings and seals. In most cases, low quality CO2 cylindesr were the main cause of these troubles. The working life and performance of your CO2 airgun’s valve and seals are seriously determined by the quality of the CO2 you are using. Other factor is the type of seal that the cylinder makes against the o-ring. Impure CO2 can decrease the pellets’ velocities and lower the number of shots per cylinder.

Tips To Choose The Best CO2 For Your Airguns

There are many brands of CO2 cartridges on the market today and you should choose the cleanest CO2 for your gun. However, it is almost impossible to know brands offer the highest quality CO2. There are some ways you can know, for example, going through several o-rings or cutting open the capsules to check the inside.

In this sample, a “good capsule” and a “bad capsule” were cut open to help demonstrate the idea. As you can see, the bad boy here had unusual amounts of oil and grit coating the capsule walls. On the other hand, the good capsule is very clean.

Bad airgun CO2 cartridge has oil grit and coating inside, while good CO2 capsule is very clean.

Low quality capsules often have CO2 leak. The most common leakage problem is initiated by a CO2 capsule’s tip which make a bad seal against the o-ring. There are no less than three different styles of caps and some type suits your airgun while some don’t. You should try the sample before buying a large number of CO2 capsules for usage. This had to do with the valve design and cap compatibles.

Another thing to note is that some capsules have odd shapes which will not fit your airgun valve which causes severe leakage. In that case, don’t be a penny pincher and try to use pliers to force the capsules into your gun’s valve. This action will damage the gun’s frame and puncture assembly. Simply buy a better ones, and never turn back the bad brands.

You can put a drop of air rifle valve oil on the CO2 capsules’ tips. This drop of oil can help prevent CO2 leakage and extend the valves and o-rings time of service.

Read those tips carefully and you can enjoy shooting with your best air rifle for a very long time.

Read 7 Benefits Of Using An Survival Air Rifle

Airguns have a rich history and with the current technology, a good survival air rifle is an excellent choice in your survival gears. This silent weapon excels in small game hunting such as birds, rabbits, squirrel, and other small game animals.

In the good old day, air rifles were presented in many battles and events, too. For example, the Girandon air rifle was used during the Lewis and Clark Expedition circa 1780‘s. This early airgun was be able to penetrate ply wood at 100 yards. Although this gun is required to be pumped over 1200 times to reach enough pressure for firing 40 bullets, it was still an excellent weapon at the time. The velocity of bullet was 450-650fps, which was equal with black powder rifle at that time. That means air rifles are no toys, they used to be the proud of their owners in the past. Recently, their prime become to come back with new technologies and refinement.

–> Choose a good spring piston air rifle for you.

What you need is a good air rifle, pellet tins and your pump. No need of powder, primer or other complicated things. You can also make your own pellets, too.

Why Should You Have An Survival Air Rifle?

When you are using an air rifle, there are 7 main benefits as follow:

• Air rifles have very quiet shots. Even if you miss the first shot, there are no loud sound so the game are still unaware of what happen in the area.
• Pellet guns are easy to shoot. They are easy to point with and are user friendly for inexperienced shooters or even beginners.
• Airguns often have reasonable price. So are the calibers. You can practice with air rifles with limited budget. Beside, spring driven airguns only need pressured air provided by a pump to shoot, which is great in long term usage.
• Pellet rifles have iron sights and they are very accurate. With a good air rifle scope, the shooter can shoot very close groups. Even small game may be shot down easily with 10 – 50 yards distance.
• Air guns are legal to own and shoot in most areas. They are not considered firearms and are not required gun permissions to own. That will save you a lot of troubles.
• Air rifles make an ideal hidden gun. It can be kept secret from outsiders with an air-sealed container, together with some pellets box, and a maintenance kit. You only need a PVC pipe with 2 end caps and that is it. You can bury the container, or hide whenever you like.
• Airgun pellets will not lose their quality easily. The pellet is just a simple metal piece, and there are no cases, powder, or primers to worry about. You can even cast your own calibers by yourself with minimum tool supplies.

After sealing off the airgun into your container, safely hide it in a secret spot. In a crisis, retrieve them as your hunting air rifle or a defensive weapon. It is strong enough for hunting, even big game, yet quiet enough for sneaky action. For defensive purpose, it serves great since the pellet’s velocity is good enough to drive off intruders. When the situation become worse, it can handle things seriously with a slight change of aiming points.

Conclusion

Whenever you want to choose survival weapons, consider a good pellet gun for your gear, especially your best air rifle for hunting since that is its main function. Spring pistons are recommended since they do not need air source such as SCUBA tansk or CO2 cartridges, just a pump which is good for long term usage. They are inexpensive, accurate and quiet, yet strong enough to handle everything from hunting or defense. Ammunition is cheap, easy to obtain. Yes, a survival air rifle is an excellent choice for your long term off-grid survival plan.

–> Click here to read Guide on how to choose a good airgun.

–> Read the detailed view of Benjamin Marauder PCP air rifle here

–> Read user reviews of this airgun here

In another video, a hunter silently take down a ram horn in the middle of the pack. Even he miss once, the animals are hardly notice due to the superb silence of the air rifle. These wild sheep are known for their great endurance, still, with honed skill and a good airgun, the job is humanely done.

As you can see, with a pellet gun of .25 or above, hunting big games is at a breeze, and you will be rewarded with honing skill of approaching and aiming.
There was a time that air rifles are underrated but with such modern technology, airgun sport has revived and become one of the most leading instrument for outdoor men. Airguns can do everything a firearm can with some more advantages: the legitimate of using, the superb silence, the cost of calibers and safety concern. Airgun can be used for shooting practice as well as hunting both small and big games, even in survival situation, air rifles have their place as a self reliance tool, too. Buy the best air rifle you can afford and enjoy your wild life.

Read about airgun scope

This article will briefly explain the main important points that you should know if you want to buy the best air rifle scope. Detailed explain will be discussed in another article on this website.

Choose the best air rifle scope can make your shooting experience much more enjoyable.

Know Your The Recoil Rating Of Your Gun

PCP, single or multi pump pneumatic and CO2 gas compressed air rifle can use almost any type of scope. However, a spring piston air rifle needs a specific scope that has matching recoil rating. See detailed definition of pellet gun here.

Adjustable Objective

The size of the opening surface on the airgun scope is defined as the objective. The larger the opening is, the more light is passed through the scope, which enables user to magnify the target more. This means that scopes with a larger objective have greater magnification capabilities. You should choose scopes that have adjustable objective. They allow you to achieve best accuracy by observing various distance.

Reticle

The reticle is a grid or pattern placed in the eyepiece of a scope to establish scale or position. It plays an important role in shooting. There are many types of reticles but in this article only popular and practical types are mentioned:

• Crosshair reticle: 2 straight lines crossing each other at the center.
• Dotted Crosshair reticle: A dotted crosshair is a crosshair reticle with a small dot at the center.
• Duplex Reticle reticle: This type is a crosshair with thicker lines at the edges and thinner lines in the center.
• Mil-Dot Reticle reticle: A mil-dot reticle offers dots of a controlled size spaced along the crosshairs for better accuracy.

Anchored Optics

A firearm only recoils backward while spring driven airguns recoils both forward and backward. Hence, an optics that are anchored to the actual gun are necessary.

A scope that suits your air rifle will boost up the accuracy. Your firing experience will become much more enjoyable. A spring pistol air rifle needs more consideration when a scope is in need. Take these suggestions into accounts and choose the best scope you can. It worth your investment.

Read more about popular airgun brands.

It is a long debate when discussing about who made the best air rifles because the quality of a specified brand may commonly vary among their models. However, every brand features its own notable traits which are mostly presented in all models of production. Whenever you are considering an air rifle purchase, it is good to be aware of these (sometimes minor) differences. The differences can be good or bad depend on your own taste, but it won’t hurt to know more. Read this to see a thorough guide of choosing air rifles or see the comparison table here for better reference.

Gamo

Gamo is a somewhat middle range air rifle manufacturer. The company basement is in Spain and they produce a fairly good number of solid airguns. For example, the Bone Collector Bull Whisper IGT is a typical fine airgun that Gamo produces. It is one of the best break barrel airguns available on the market today.

Gamo pellet guns are great cost effective guns for starters but for investment, their products are not the best bet. Gamo airguns tend to work very well for a little while, then their performance is not as good as that of their prime time. This is due to the affordable materials that Gamo used on their product, which keeps the prices so great, but they are also not long lasting. It is an obvious and reasonable tradeoff that many people are willing to take on. Overall, choosing Gamo brands is a very good way to step into the airgun sport.

Beeman

Beeman used to be one of the few companies that made great pellet rifles. However, as there is more advancing technology and more and more manufacturers step in the market, which make air guns become better and more competitive, Beeman products have fallen behind the newcomers.

It is not that they are lazy thinkers. In fact, Beeman designers have been trying to innovate many things with decent results, but they have not predict potential problems. They had great ideas, some are really good, but they forgot to test them extensively or spend more effort to refine them. For a better illustration, let’s take a look at the Beeman RS1 Dual-Caliber. It is a clever idea that enable you to switch barrels between a .177 and a .22. This is really an excellent idea when an air rifle can shoot both .177 and .22 calibers. However, the reality is always harsh. The gun recoil is so powerful that the screw that holds the barrel becomes loosen, thus decrease accuracy drastically. The loosen screw also jiggle around with every shot. While the idea of dual calibers is good, it will be better if Beeman refine the gun joints and solve the issues before releasing the product. With a proud history, Beeman could come back to their prime again if they test and execute their guns properly; as for now, there are still a lot of things for them to do.

Crosman

Crosman is really a mix bag. Some models are just like novelty airguns for someone who wish to be a hero of the old movies. On the other hand, Crossman have made some outstanding and trademark models, such as the Benjamin Marauder or the PCP Challenger. The Benjamin Marauder PCP air rifle is an extremely compact keepsake that will last forever, and of course everyone should have own or have a try at it. Crossman is neither good nor bad. It depends on specific model that will decide the quality, so read airgun reviews carefully, or go to a shooting club to choose the right one.

Winchester

Winchester is a long famed brand with good products. Every Winchester air gun produced has the same standard quality until now. Their reputation and quality is inherited which is a good thing.

The drawback is that Winchester air rifles are designed for experienced shooters. Winchester is not difficult to use but there are many adjustable features which can cause a beginner to confuse, thus he or she cannot maximize the gun performance. The scope is particular complex for newbies, however it will give you a great shot if properly set up by veteran. So, if you have been into air rifles for a good time, buy a Winchester without hesitation. It will not disappoint you.

RWS

RWS makes some of the best air rifles for the money. The RWS Diana Model 34 is one of the best selling air rifles on the market today. This airgun has become popular for no reason. It is solid, beautiful, friendly to user, easy to load or maintain, and on top of that, it is very easy to fire with. It features great sights which make accurate shot and it is also compatible with various types of pellets.

Most other products of RWS is of the same quality, too. Their features reflect renown precised German engineering tecnologies. A good thing is that RWS has great customer service. If there is any issue with your RWS air rifle, contact them and they will figure out a solution for you. Sometimes customers will get a free replacement of some airgun parts as well. RWS airguns are a little more expensive than those of Gamo or Crosman, but you get what you pay for. RWS offers good products with excellent customer service.

Who Made The Best Air Rifles?

Nevertheless, the best air rifle you want is the one that suits you best. For example, a certain shooter cannot feel comfortable with a RWS Diana Model 34 with issues with handling or resting against their shoulder but he feel so good with a Crossman PCP Challenger with its comfy butt pad. Each of us is an unique individual with different characteristics and so is gun. Some designs are suitable to you, some are not. It is best if you try some different pellet guns before deciding a purchase to find the best air rifles for you. As you feel good with a certain one, get used to it and maximum its performance.

Read more: Accurate Shooting Tips