Originally Posted By: bluebunnyAnybody have any thoughts or experiences with PCP air rifles?
How loud are they? Do they have enough knock down power at reasonable (50-75 yards) distances? Thanks
Loudness depends largely on the power level. Many smallbore air rifles come equipped with shrouds. I have some experience hunting with several guys with a variety of smallbore PCP's. The ones equipped with the better shrouds shot .22, and .25 pellets (22, and 31grains) around 930-950fps, with the impact of the pellet producing more sound than the rifle. They also had PLENTY of killing power at 50-75 yards as far as sqwerls, rabbits, and other small game is concerned.
I've seen several hogs, and other larger animals shot with several different makes of .45caliber bigbores (DAQ's, Gargoyle's, Sam Yang 909/909S, and a very nice one-off .45 built by a gunsmith friend of mine).
I couldn't tell you a thing about the Spring Piston-type air rifles....other than they are known to be more "hold sensitive", and require more disciplined technique to shoot accurately than the PCP's (especially the more powerful smallbore PCP's).
As far as range...what are you hunting, and under what conditions? Unfortunately, another important bit of info for anyone interested is "how much do you want to spend?".
Here's a peak at predator hunting with a bigbore PreCompressedPneumatic airgun, and it's limitations/challenges for the "average shooter/hunter" such as myself.
http://www.predatormastersforums.com/for...964#Post1275964
I'm targeting bobcat with my .45PreCompressedPneumatic....just got my season started last week as it's been plenty cold so they should be furred-up really nice about now until maybe mid-to-late February. Wanting to put a 154grainer between it's eyes within 50 yards or less.
My .45 air rifle has plenty of power to kill reliably with a body shot.....I just want to put them down without tracking due to much of the terrain I hunt. If I can see 50 yards in most every direction of the cat, I'll take a body shot because I don't think it would make it much further than that with a good hit to the vitals.