I love reading how different guys come up with different ways to customize their air rifles. So this is a semi-short post about mine.
Since I have a ranch with barns and bags of feed stored in them, there's no end to rats. I have ranch dogs and free range chickens & guinea hens, so working poisons or traps are a PITA. So I started down the line of "what can I shoot them with at night when they come out of hiding ... AND not blow holes in the barn walls and roof?" That meant an air rifle, not a firearm.
I ended up choosing the Benjamin Akela .22. It's pushing pellets out at about 1000 FPS, keeping the velocity subsonic ( loud no crack of the bullet breaking the sound barrier inside the barn, thus no startling the remaining rats). At first I tried a standard telescopic rifle scope, but was hard to acquire them with the pace they hustle around when any lights are on in the barns. So I changed to a HALO red dot (Halosun 310C) for quicker engagement, plus started using a pair of dim 10w incandescent bulbs in shop spotlights pointing down the barn, and me sitting behind them (vice having any overhead bright barn lights on). Those two changes made a big difference. The rats came out more freely and they moved about more, but they'd still be on a trot from cover-to-cover when running across the rafters above. It wasn't the perfect solution, but much better.
This last month the dang rats got SO bad they were all through the chicken and guinea coops at night, plus EVERYWHERE in the barns. So we came up with the ultimate rat rifle for my situation ... moving my ArmaSight Contractor 640 thermal scope off the ranch coyote rifle to the Akela air rifle. Now NO lights were required and with rat night vision limited to only ~5 yds in pure dark (my estimate based on experience), and no crack of a supersonic bullet/pellet ... they calmly walk from spot to spot, plus sit out in the open. I have been able to sit back and make shot after shot. Good aimed shots with them stationary or almost stationary. One after another. They didn’t seem concerned at all about the subsonic air rifle shots, as long as there were no lights on. Initially we were getting up to 20 a night inside the first hour after dark. Then after we knocked the "rat surge" down, it’s about five a night and I’m only putting in about 30 minutes.
Ok to the Akela modifications. Pic is attached. I cut my Akela stock down a bit, getting rid of what I considered "excess" lower stock wood. I found it wasn't required structurally, but was more for looks. I didn’t need looks, and it just kinda got in the way. Perhaps because I so rarely shoot anything bullpup.
So I streamlined it, sanded it, then rattle-can painted it black. Mine didn't come with fancy wood ... it was what the Turks were calling "Turkish Walnut". I found akin to pallet wood and mine didn’t come with much of a finish on it, maybe the very lightest of walnut-ish stain, but no poly or varnish over that. So spraying black didn't bother me. It fit the purpose as simply a rat killer.
My only complaint (if you can call it that), is that the top of the picatinny rail is so high from the bore, that the center line of the optics is over 2.5" over the bore line. If shooting at much of a distance (say 50 yds and beyond), this isn’t a big issue. But when shooting under 30 yds and wanting a <1" group for clean rat kill shots ... it means memorizing the convergence of the bore line vs optic line.
I chose to sight it in at 40 ft, which with that large convergence has me holding almost 2” high at 20 ft. So high in close … then POI is 40 ft … then hold low to about 55 ft, then gravity has you holding high again from then out. Geez… But you get used to it.
So most shots are under 40 ft, at about 25-30 feet. But the barns are 50 ft long, so we keep the convergence (POI) sighted for 40 ft. Make sense? Just “different” for someone used to taking long 250-300 yd coyote shots where all you are concerned with is “hold over”, not any type of “hold under”.
Last whine ... the picatinny rail on my Akela wasn't true to specs. It mounted my cheap telescopic scope mount and it mounted the chinese Halosun 310 HALO sight, but the thermal scope's QD mount was spot on picatinny rail specs, true military-grade. It would not fit down in the picatinny rail's slots. We didn't modify the thermal scope's QD ... that’s a $4500 optic/mount. But instead we carefully opened the slots on Akela's picatinny rail till it would fit down in them. We mic'd it all out, it clearly was the Akela that was off specs. But this solved it. A little black touchup and you can't see where we fixed it, and now the thermal was on it super snug. Then simply sighted it in and were shooting thumbnail size groups ... in the dark!
The only mod I'd still like to make to the rifle is to add an after-market barrel band, securing the barrel shroud better to the air tank. One with small picatinny rails so I can add a combination light/laser. That would be great for barn walk thru's, etc.
So I overall like the Akela. It's a very accurate rifle, you can cycle if fast for rapid shots when multiple rats come out together, and you get lots of shots per charge. A heavy .22 cal pellet from it turns a barn rat just about inside out. Quick, clean kills. And … with no holes in the roof and walls!
Oh yea ... and wear eyepro. Pellets bounce around when shooting in barns! <GRIN>
