Air Rifles

[macguru]

1. Am I right in assuming that if you live on a normal suburban 1/4 acre block (hence less than 200m from the road) that its illegal to discharge an air rifle in your backyard ?

2. But if you shoot it indoors or under the house no-one is going to mind about that (except possibly your wife) ?

3. Would you get a .22 one so the pills are subsonic ? (hence no loud crack)

Andrew

[6.5x55ai]

I run a PCP in 22 cal. It has a suppressor fitted (yeah I know not an option in Oz).
Without the suppressor the report is a "crack". The projectile is subsonic so can only assume the gas exiting the barrel is supersonic.
I would not like to shoot it without the suppressor fitted.

[Old Trev-39]

Speaking of air rifles, I have Feinwerkbau 600 side lever in good condition if any one is interested.
Cheers,
Trevor.

[BATattack]

If you want quiet get a PCP because most of the noise comes from the spring in a normal airgun. If you want to just practice get a .17 low powered target model and you won't be anywhere near supersonic.

.22's are better for hunting because you can run heavier slugs sub sonic with more muzzle energy and have a bigger wound channel.

I have a "cheap" hunting .22 PCP and accuracy is pretty impressive compared to their other springer airguns. Just using decent slugs without trialling 10 different types or playing with the pressure settings it will shoot about 1/2" at 25m. People that have spent some tuning and test indoors report 1/2" at 50m is achievable with a $900 PCP

[pjifl]

It never ceases to amaze me just how quiet the typical old Small Bore rifle with a quite long barrel can be using Rimfire subsonics or pistol 22 ammo. No sound suppressor. Once I did a lot of practice for TR shooting using one. At one time, you could pick up these rifles for peanuts from defunct smallbore clubs all set up with peep sights. Clubs often operated in building basements - but we have progressed in stupidity since then.

Peter Smith.

[macguru]

I used to shoot my g-grandpappy's 1915 S&W .22 in the loft over the garage with .22 BBs. (1960s) They are shorter than shorts, just some primer compound in the rim and a round lead ball. I guess they were used in fairground rifles before my time. But they would lodge in a slab of wood when fired at a range of 15-20 feet. He was a bookmaker but as far as I know I might have been the only person to fire it ..... we inherited it when my g-father died and I ended up selling it during an amnesty.

[pjifl]

I found that BBs were never sufficiently accurate for serious prone shooting practice. They were ok on rats at shorter distances.

Late at night they would scurry along the rafters in an unlined Garage where I was living. One had to get them when they momentarily stopped and were in front of a rafter. It was very isolated back then. Good sport.

Peter Smith.