Air Rifles for Prepping and Survival

Can an air rifle fill a role in prepping and survival? Or are powder/cartridge firearms the only effective tool for those purposes? My blog co-author, Butch C., weighed in on this topic a while back. But I’ve been researching the latest air rifles, including models due out in 2014. So I thought I’d post an update and a few of my random thoughts on the subject.

Air rifles and air pistols are often used for recreation: target shooting and plinking. But for prepping and survival, we’d be more interested in small game hunting (birds, rabbits) and/or pest control. If you have a field of crops or even a large garden, you might need to do some pest control. As for game, rabbits and birds are often taken with air rifles, with .22 caliber as the optimum choice.

I’ve noticed there are more than a few YouTube videos featuring hog hunting with air rifles. The Gamo Hunter Extreme .25 caliber seems to work fine for that purpose. Technically, you can hunt even larger animals with an air rifle, but you need much more powerful air rifles in larger calibers (.30 and up). They exist, but are rather expensive. And at that point, you are better off with a firearm.

Air rifles designed for hunting small game are typically break-barrel systems. They obtain their air pressure from a piston/chamber system. You charge the chamber with air pressure by bracing the stock against your thigh, and pulling the barrel toward the stock. One crank of the barrel pressurizes the chamber. But the force needed is rather large; for the Gamo Hunter Extreme (.25), it’s 58 lbs of force. The Gamo Bull Whisper Extreme model takes 41 lbs of force to charge. For the Benjamin Titan GP (.22), the force is a reasonable 31 lbs. As you can see from those numbers, the force needed to charge a break-barrel air rifle is an important consideration.

And that’s why the (new for 2014) Benjamin Trail NP2 Air Rifle is such a big deal. A new piston/chamber design reportedly gives you the same pressure with about 10 lbs less cocking force. It’s due out this spring or summer, but it’s already the most anticipated air rifle of the year. At about $250 street price, it’s not the least expensive hunting air rifle, but it might be the best combination of moderate price and desirable features.

There are some advantages to air rifles over firearms. Air rifles are not generally considered firearms (as of this writing) under federal law (ATF specifics here.). This means that you can buy an air rifle without paperwork or FFL transfers or waiting periods. However, quite a few States have some air rifle regulations; see a summary here and also at Pyramyd Air.

Air rifles are also much quieter than most firearms. Here’s a test and ranking of over a dozen popular air guns. Each is quieter than an Arrow T50 heavy duty stapler stapling into a piece of wood. So you can do pest control and hunt small game without alarming neighbors, and without attracting the attention of potentially hostile persons (during a time of civil unrest). It also means you don’t need hearing protection.

Air rifles are also relatively inexpensive. An accurate and relatively powerful break-barrel air rifle is about $150 to $200, and some of the better models are not much more. They are also inexpensive when it comes to ammo. In most cases, for a cartridge firearm, you will spend much more money on ammunition than on the firearm itself. But air rifle pellets are very inexpensive.

I should talk a little now about PCP air rifles. Gamo explains: “In contrast to Break Barrel Air Rifles, Pre Charged Pneumatic guns use a reservoir of compressed air to propel a projectile.”

You can get 30 to 50 shots from one charge of the compressed air cylinder. But PCP air guns are pricy. You need an expensive high-end pump as well as the air gun. Typical pricing is in the $500 to $700 range for a PCP gun that would shoot with somewhat less velocity and no better accuracy compared to a break barrel air gun. And the break barrel air gun is less than half the price. For small game and predators, you are probably better off with the break barrel air rifle. It’s just more cost effective.

For accuracy, even low and moderately priced air rifles are very accurate. It’s less of an issue with air rifles than firearms, because the air rifle as so little recoil. You should keep in mind, though, that supersonic velocities and air gun pellets do not go well together. The best accuracy is from velocities in the range of 700 to 900 fps, not 1100+ fps. And if you need more power for hunting game, choose a larger caliber: .22 is sufficient for most small game; air rifle hunters like the .25 pellets though, for their greater weight and penetration. But then again, you go up in cost and in the force needed to charge the .25 caliber air guns.

For self-defense, get a good pump-action shotgun, like the Remington 870. Air rifles in .22 and .25 caliber have much lighter bullets than firearms in the same caliber. So if you were to try to use a .22 air rifle in self-defense, it wouldn’t even be as effective as a Marlin model 60 in .22LR.

Air rifles are great for prepping purposes:
* quiet
* can take small game
* useful for predator control
* legality is less burdensome than a firearm, but check your local laws
* inexpensive

- Thoreau