30 Cal? But why??

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intenseaty22

intenseaty22

Member
Mar 7, 2017
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GA, United States
As I was reading some other threads about hunting with airguns, I saw where someone said most States only allow .40 and above. That got me to thinking: Should I ever really consider a .30 Cal? I don’t punch paper, I sight in and hunt. .30 Cal seems to me like an adequate larger game hunting round. But if it’s not legal, should I even bother? $2K is a lot of money to drop on something, like a Crown, for example, if I can't shoot a deer with it. What are y’all’s thoughts on this? 
 
I agree , unless you have a place for coyote or smaller hogs. I notice you like to deal with Charlie for your guns , I also prefer him two reasons I only live about 30 minutes away , and he is very good at what he does. I have .25 cal for hunting , but I’m finding I have more fun shooting .22 target and squirrel. Don’t think I could see a 30 cal for what I do now , but this hobby has a way of making you talk yourself into something you don’t need sometimes. 
 
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Well it sounds as if you have answered your own question.
​
I suppose the thing to ask is does the state you live in allow hunting big game with air rifles? I believe many if not most do not. Assuming your state doesn't allow it then do you plan to travel to those states on a regular basis to hunt that do allow it? If the answer is yes then it would sound like sticking with 40cal or larger would be the better option to be in compliance with more air rifle hunting states which would give you a greater number of states to hunt in rather than just a select few. In the end it just depends on what your after, if you plan to just shoot targets, paper or otherwise then get the crown so you can be a part of the me too crowd as the crowns do appear to be quite accurate or at least have the ability to be.

​As always if you plan to travel to hunt with an air rifle then it would be wise to do your due diligence and fully read and comprehend the hunting laws in other states before going there and not just relying on internet word of mouth.
 
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I can only speak for myself, but here was my rationale,

I bought my .30 RAW as a long distance bench gun, and occasional hunter. On the rare occasion I will hunt with it, I want to be able to easily kill anything up to medium size game. Let’s be real, 78 fpe is a ton of power for a pellet (not bullet) gun, but is still less than most hunters use for squirrel! Sure, you can kill most medium size game with a .25, but the .30 will kill them harder, haha.

As for the bench shooting, Martin at RAW still recommends .30 over .25 for 100+ yard shooting. And yes, that includes the poly .25 that, IMO is slightly over hyped. 

One guy’s opinion. Hopefully worth at least as much as you paid(?)

Brian
 
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All opinions welcomed Brian. I did not want to hear what I want to hear, but rather what y'all think. Maybe one day I will be a bench shooter, that day is not today or probably the next 12 months. Will evaluate at that time. Based on that alone I am sticking to .22 for the time being. Will consider a .25 if I find a sweet deal on one, and then it will be a Cricket, a Vulcan, or a Taipan. I do however want to map out and budget for what I expect to do/buy in the future and this discussion helps me tremendously with that. 
 
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I think a lot of people use .30 cal pellet guns for better down range stability vs. the wind. In powderburners, that can be accomplished either by increasing velocity or using a heavier bullet or both. We pellet shooters are generally limited to < 950 fps, for best accuracy, so we only have the pellet mass to play with. 

Going to bullets and removing the aspect of instability of diabolo-shaped pellets in the transonic region may be a way around this. Tofazfu was using a .257 with heavy bullets for awhile there.

For those of us who are not shooting animals at beyond 50 yards and nothing bigger than raccoons, there's no point. 

If I were looking at an airgun for big game, I'd probably be looking at a .45. Then again, the cost is so much higher for those airguns, we may as well go with a muzzle loader or slug gun and get the same benefit.
 
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If hunting for Deer is the goal then don't strap yourself with a caliber that is not legal or at least likely to be. I am pretty sure when Texas legalizes that the .308 will be the minimum since that is what the TPWD Whitetail Team Leader used on his test hunt a little while back but things can get "squirrely" when legislators get involved! My personal opinion on any gun is if it won't hunt then I do not need it. Paper is boring to me unless sighting in or proving a gun IS sighted in but I grew up with a Grand Dad who was an amateur gunsmith, bullet caster, re-loader and Mule Deer / varmint hunter.

Thurmond
 
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I hunt a lot! But where I hunt is in an exurban area, less than a mile from the city limits. The last thing I need is to misjudge a shot, and have it sail through someone's window, or worse! 

From experience, a .25 caliber, with at least 45 FPE is enough to take coyotes cleanly out to about 50 yards. Fox, rabbits, and doves out to about 100 yards. 

And one other thing. Just because it is bigger (caliber), doesn't make it more accurate. My 9 mm is barely a 75 yard gun, not from an FPE standpoint, but from an accuracy one. 
 
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I guess we could focus the discussion on .177 vs .22 
.22 vs .25
.25 vs .30
.30 vs .35
.35 vs .45

At the end of the day, what would YOU choose if you could only own TWO air rifles? Of course that’ll vary from shooter to shooter based on their goals/priorities. I guess that begs the question, what would I pick if I absolutely had to downsize to (2) Guns?

Bullpup .25 as a catch/kill all gun that’s sporty to lug around and not so fancy that I’m worried about it the whole time.

Big Bore .45 - so the sky is the limit in terms of what you can (ethically/sanely) hunt in north America. 

With those 2 guns, your only dilemma is deciding whether to over OR under kill the medium size game like yotes, Fox, freakishly large coons, etc. A first world problem if there ever was one, haha. 

I guess .30 is sort of a “luxury caliber”? I sure love mine, but if push came to shove and I HAD to pick between hunting and long range bench shooting, I’d pick hunting. BUT only with a big bore back-up.. 

If you want to hunt everything BUT big game, .30 looks really good, paired with a sweet shooting .22.

.177? Stick a fork in it unless it’s a requirement for whatever you’re doing or if you live in the UK..

 
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Depends on you, your State, willingness to travel to hunt ( not on my budget ).
I wouldnt go with the " .49 and above" as every where that allows it is different.

Enjoyed using a muzzle loader DAQ in TN back when that was legal. Ended up never having a shot past 40 yards ( and was sighted for 50 & out ). About 3 years ago TN outlawed all airgun hunting - Squirrels & such are opkay in season-. WA State say's NO hunting.
It is fun as is archery, crossbow, other but, if really needing meat a BP would be used.

Airguns are fun. Big-bores have a very cool novelty about hem , can be good BP recruitment tools, can shoot long range. But the big bores have drawbacks mentioned here above. 
Safety , even a hot .25 using slugs needs as much of a safe backdrop as a hot .22RF, a .30 easily can clear 800 yards.
For general shooting ( just all around sirgunshootijng, can's, targets, varmint, .... ) I like the tiny bore and .22 for all my airgun needs.

It's just more fun having the wind effect shots or else I would use a .308 or.... .


John
 
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@spysir At this point in my life it's not my willingness, but rather my ability. I am kinda tied down, frankly to my back yard these days. So, no travel hunting for me. I will try to make it out to EBR one of these years, if only for the experience of it and to meet some of you all. But I have gotten sucked in, in a major way into Airguns and like to look at my options even if not feaseble at the moment. My kids will grow up and I will have more free time and I like to have an idea of how to set myself up. At home I shoot my .22 Cricket Mini and the Regal XL in .22 as well. But I do have several PBs including one Very Nice Browining XBolt in SS .308 with a flutted barrel that will no doubt put meat in the freezer. I also own a very nice Hoyt Bow that is very capable. 
 
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"Brian.in.MI"I guess we could focus the discussion on .177 vs .22 
.22 vs .25
.25 vs .30
.30 vs .35
.35 vs .45

At the end of the day, what would YOU choose if you could only own TWO air rifles? Of course that’ll vary from shooter to shooter based on their goals/priorities. I guess that begs the question, what would I pick if I absolutely had to downsize to (2) Guns?

Bullpup .25 as a catch/kill all gun that’s sporty to lug around and not so fancy that I’m worried about it the whole time.

Big Bore .45 - so the sky is the limit in terms of what you can (ethically/sanely) hunt in north America. 

With those 2 guns, your only dilemma is deciding whether to over OR under kill the medium size game like yotes, Fox, freakishly large coons, etc. A first world problem if there ever was one, haha. 

I guess .30 is sort of a “luxury caliber”? I sure love mine, but if push came to shove and I HAD to pick between hunting and long range bench shooting, I’d pick hunting. BUT only with a big bore back-up.. 

If you want to hunt everything BUT big game, .30 looks really good, paired with a sweet shooting .22.

.177? Stick a fork in it unless it’s a requirement for whatever you’re doing or if you live in the UK..

Click to expand...

I think if I could only have two, they would have to be the .22 and the .25 for this time period in my life. Frankly a .177 like the HW30 and a .22 like my Mini Carbine will probably suffice me. There are times I need to shoot small mice or chipmunks at close range and the .177 would come in handy for that. The rest of what I do now is squirels and some birds. I would not even hesitate to shoot a pig with my .22. I am very confident with it and have no doubt I can hit a pig right where it counts with the right pellet for the job. If I go deer hunting, the Xbolt comes out to play. 
 
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I got 30 cal just because I like shooting it. I like long range plinking. I haven't hunted in awhile but a 30 cal can be used on medium game and below if I choose to shoot critters. My 30 cal Hercules gets over 100 FPE with pellets. I also have a couple of modified BT65 30 cal Carnivores that get 80 FPE. If I find a good slug I will get back into casting to save money and for higher BC.
 
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My 2 cents on the .30 in general... I’ve come to see it as the best all purpose caliber. Without any change of tune, you can hunt a hog with it today, a deer tomorrow, (where legal) and a squirrel next week, and it will do an adequate job on all with a fair amount of quietness and air usage efficency. 

A .25 is close in its universality, except that you will likely want to change your tunes between larger game and smaller game, as high fpe .25s are generally air hogs. I’ve been playing with an updated factory Condor with the TalonP internals they ship with now. It can do 99fpe for a few shots or 50-60fpe for several dozen shots, but I have to change tunes and loads for each usage. I wouldn’t want to squirrel hunt with the same tune I would coyote hunt with (for lung shots on the coyote that is). 

I’ve found 72-74 fpe to be my preferred .30 tune. At that muzzle power, both Polymags and JSBs are penetrating clean thru 3/4” pine or full gallon water jugs at 100 yards. 
 
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Geez, I hope there are no states considering .30 cal *pellets* for deer(?). Can it be done? Sure. Should it be? No. 

Legit .30 caliber *bullet* firing airguns are on a whole other level. 4 or 5X the energy of a .30 pellet gun.

Yes, I saw the video of a scrawny Mexican deer killed by a .25. How many deer has that guy wounded? Sure, they’ll share their perfect shots with the world.. I can tell you that .25 pellet hit the aorta or pulmonary artery for it to go down in seconds. Even a direct hit to the heart with a pellet wouldn’t kill it that fast. I don’t think game laws should be written on what is theoretically possible (or even probable) They are normally written with a huge “fudge factor” for the animal’s sake. I digress, and hope common sense prevails. 

Ok, where were we? Oh yes, .30 cal in general. Didn’t mean to hijack or change the topic! 

B

 
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