Air rifle advice please

[doobin]

On 08/09/2024 at 21:32, swinny said:

Wow can't believe you lot. In all my shooting and not done any for a long while and maybe not as much as some of you may have done. 

 

But. .... 177 all day long man! Bisley magnums pack a hell of a punch. Lot flatter trajectory.  Can't believe people still mess about with 22.... or even .20 for that matter.

 

I was always a single shot man. (But had some multis)

 

Had allsorts aa s400, daystate air rangers, rapid 17, bb s10, logun sweet 16, falcon fn12 bloody all sorts!

 

My personal favourite bsa hornet .177 with the mmc cooking system. Regulated rifle mint!

 

Do some reading up mate, airgunbbs etc. 

 

.177 is where it's at out to 40 yards head shots no worries with practice

I'd normally agree with you...but...

 

Bisley Magnums pack a punch because they weigh a lot. Which means the trajectory isn't nearly as flat as other .177s. The BC is also not great. And the biggy for me- they are just not accurate in a lot of barrels.

 

Squirrels are tough. They need a good hit to take them down. You will also be shooting them up high, which means you need to know your holdover points for that. So you may as well learn the holdover points in .22 for squirrels IMHO.

 

Other than that, I'm a .177 man too.

[doobin]

I use a 240v high pressure compressor to fill my PCPs

Edited September 11 by doobin

[Muddy42]

I live in a red squirrel area so the greys get hit hard.  There is a guy locally who volunteers for the work of reducing grey squirrel numbers. Plus there are various subsidies that the landowners can apply for.  He has tunnel traps set during from Autumn to spring and then he cleans up any survivors with a powerful thermal spotter and a shotgun, before the leaves are back on the trees, so they can't really hide.

[openspaceman]

3 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

He has tunnel traps set during from Autumn to spring

Really, how does a tunnel trap avoid catching polecats, hedgehogs or the reds?

[Muddy42]

49 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

Really, how does a tunnel trap avoid catching polecats, hedgehogs or the reds?

I'm not an expert but I understand the traps are live traps and non discriminatory, so you need to check daily and release any reds (after they have had a decent meal!). Never seen a polecat and there are very few hedgehogs left after the badgers moved in 20 years ago (before that there were no badgers here).

 

Here is all the Scottish government technical advice of the Scottish grant scene (£200 per trap pa if you are in the right area) which specifies the type of traps to use: 

https://www.ruralpayments.org/topics/all-schemes/forestry-grant-scheme/sustainable-management-of-forests/grey-squirrel-control/grey-squirrel-control.pdf

 

 

[GarethM]

South of the border it's like £60 a hectare and 80% of the trapping costs.

 

But these schemes have hefty requirements for paperwork, wildlife plans and such.

 

They were talking of £100 for 100m of watercourse to control mink but that never came into existence.

 

Paperwork just isn't worth the time, so most of us do it off our own backs.

 

Any trap usually has a entry hole restriction plus a few sticks or wire to make it hard for a hedgehog to enter.

[Stubby]

8 hours ago, doobin said:

I use a 240v high pressure compressor to fill my PCPs

I use the same Ruben . Its sold as a BSA but I don't see a BSA badge on it . You have to leave the fan running for a while after a fill . Is yours like that mate ?

[Muddy42]

2 hours ago, GarethM said:

South of the border it's like £60 a hectare and 80% of the trapping costs.

 

But these schemes have hefty requirements for paperwork, wildlife plans and such.

 

They were talking of £100 for 100m of watercourse to control mink but that never came into existence.

 

Paperwork just isn't worth the time, so most of us do it off our own backs.

 

Any trap usually has a entry hole restriction plus a few sticks or wire to make it hard for a hedgehog to enter.

 

Tell me about it, the paperwork requirement for any type of land management is horrendous these days plus decent mapping software and an A3 colour printer. Its not just to get grants like these, but a lot of stuff you have to do by law returns that you can't avoid. Both of these squirrel schemes are part of larger land management exercises, so the bigger estates are normally doing the paperwork anyway and getting an employee/contractor to do the work.  

 

[openspaceman]

3 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

I'm not an expert but I understand the traps are live traps and non discriminatory, so you need to check daily and release any reds (after they have had a decent meal!). Never seen a polecat and there are very few hedgehogs left after the badgers moved in 20 years ago (before that there were no badgers here).

 

Here is all the Scottish government technical advice of the Scottish grant scene (£200 per trap pa if you are in the right area) which specifies the type of traps to use: 

https://www.ruralpayments.org/topics/all-schemes/forestry-grant-scheme/sustainable-management-of-forests/grey-squirrel-control/grey-squirrel-control.pdf

 

 

Okay, I get you now, I associate tunnel traps with how one sets a Fenn  to kill rats or squirrels but avoid birds getting in. They cannot be used where polecats or reds are about and the entrances need to be small enough to keep hedgehogs out.

 

Live trapping I associate with "cage" traps. I Didn't like having to kill greys from one as it was all too easy to fumble it and the beast escape or not get a clean kill. I really disliked the family cage traps as it was horrendous trying to get them out one by one. If I caught three I would stand it upright walk off 20 yard and then let fly with number 6. It is 50 years to the month when I last used cage traps for squirrel.

[GarethM]

Never really had any trouble dispatching from a cage trap, it's just a case of keeping really calm and not spooking whatever is caught until you have the right angle of dangle.

 

Rifle is easier than pistol due to the distance as your not looming over them, but definitely prefer Fenn traps whenever possible.