Another newbie with a question

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Mahajrodney

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Mar 14, 2020
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CT
Hello folks.

(1st post) Newbie to air guns, 62 years young, retired Navy submariner and former commercial nuclear operator. Relaxing (compared to before) working with an Emergency Planning group now.

Alas, I'm an old NRA guy ready to take the plunge into the airgun pool. I've studied the situation over the past several weeks and realize I need to be ultra quiet in my subdivision (small backyard, retirees, school children with nervous mothers). But I also want the hunting potential of .30" when I can get out into the wild. It's a lot of money, but my thinking has lead me to the FX Dreampup as my choice 1st airgun, as it's both the above configurations that are needed: 1) ultra quiet, and 2) coyote takedown power. I see no point in starting with a lower budget setup and then slowly upgrading to a higher quality one, wasting money along the way.

So, my question to the group is: What's quieter, the .17" barrel with DonnyFL, or .25" barrel with DonnyFL? And then, which DonnyFL for the quietest configuration, Tanto, Tatsu, Koi, Sumo, Ronin, Emperor? (I think I read somewhere Emperor might be too heavy and would require a band mod or something).

I'm not worried about the .30" configuration for noise, yet, as that will be a future barrel upgrade. 

I do thank the group for any advice you can give me as I start out with this endeavor.

V/r,
Rodney 

 
I think if your going for ultra quite it’s not really an issue of caliber but an issue of power output. In theory a .30 cal making 20 footpounds would make less noise than a 50 footpound .177. 

If you go for a dreamline you should be able to tune your power settings to make all calibers as quite as you need. Though as they come from FX they should be back yard friendly. 

I would say that any Donny FL, sumo sized and up will tame any air gun for the most part. Unless your getting into big bore. 


 
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Firstly, thank you for your service. How small is that yard in the sub division? Ultra quiet is good, but pass thrus and ricochets and proper backstop will be more important considerations still. From your description it sounds like you have to be as low profile as possible. A sub 32 FPE .22 or a .177 will do depending on the size of your yard. A .30 you will have to treat the same way you would a .22 rimfire. Two different guns for two different purposes.
 
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Welcome aboard, Dream pup is a good choice or....Impact w/power plenum. You could get either barrel .22 or .30.. The thing about the Impact is the power wheel, you can lower the power with a turn of the dial adding shots per fill and quieting the report and also turn it up for hunting. BTW I have a .25 Impact that gives me the best of both worlds and is fairly quiet with a tanto. I believe they come with a donnyfl from the factory now.
 
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I do not know any thing about the gun your talking about , But I do no on my guns the impact of the pellet is louder than the gun, Even in soft 2X4 wood,

A box of old clothes is about as quite as I can get it, 177 , 22 and 25, Most of my guns are shooting around 940 FPS , I can stretch my yard targets to about 50 yards.

Thank you for your service ,

Mike
 
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As all have, first, I appreciate your service to our country and on behalf of all of us. I have Sumo moderators on all of my pcps except the RAW and Redwolf, and as others have stated, the issue is not with the moderator. The issue is with the target. I have Donny Sumo moderators on my Air Arms S510s in both .22 and .177, both shooting +/- 25 FPE, and all you can hear on the shooter's is the sound of the hammer striking the valve, but on the target end, there is a significant whop or ping depending upon whether you are shooting wood or steel - and even a noticeable whop when shooting dirt. Sound at the rifle's end shouldn't be an issue with a Sumo.

Good luck!


 
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If I wanted a .30 to hunt with from FX? It would be beyond any doubt a FX Boss tuned & optimized by Alan Zasadny with a top tier scope & adjustable FX No Limit rings. I don’t enjoy Bull Pup’s & as a lefty even less.

Just please be aware that pellets/slugs can potentially be as bad or worse than any .22 rim fire in the antics of coming back, bouncing off things. I can’t spell the R word. Lol




 
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Hello jheikkila,

Thanks for your response and the perspective on power output over caliber. That makes intuitive sense to me. Also, the friendliness and tune-ability of the stock Dreamline sounds good, which i also was hoping I was getting right. Sumo or above .. got it!

Big bore is down the road. I gotta retire again and then convince the wife to move with me out of CT to TX . From what I see, there're a lot of wild hogs needing to learn some respect down there. Haha.

Again, thanks for your perspective, and good luck to you and yours. 
 
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Hello L.Leon,

You're welcome for the service, but no need for thanks. I had wanted to be a submariner since I was 10 y.o. I should have had to pay the government for the privilege. It was not unlike being in the Boy Scouts, except we got to play with REALLY expensive "toys".

I appreciate your "safety first and above all" warning. I'm sure prison food wouldn't agree with my taste buds. Pass-throughs and ricochets, yeah, I'm sweating them bad. Gotta use a good pellet trap, sloped, rubber mulched, backed with steel, etc. Back yard is about 20 yards max. I do plan to not point at anyone's home and use my shed as a backup backstop, reinforced plywood for a primary backstop to protect it. We'll see. I promise I won't be doing anything fancy in the yard, just bench shooting for accuracy testing mostly.

And keep it below ~32 FPE. Got it! This lines up with what jheikkila emphasized. Thanks.

I'm contemplating using mop heads like in the (no longer available) Airsoft Valor pellet target trap system. The hanging mop strands used prevented return fire from the airsoft pellet trap. I'm wondering if I can rig up something like that for real pellets to block ricochets. We'll have to see.

Again, thanks for your thoughts, and good luck to you and yours.
 
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My preference in New England has been .22 caliber. The reason is the .22 has the best variety of pellets (and slugs, if you move to Texas). You can buy bulk pellets for a penny each or match grade for 4 cents each. You can get pellet weights from 10 gr to 30 gr and are the most common size. The .30 is still much less common, so you can't just grab a cheap tin of plinking pellets while grocery shopping and the price will at least triple.

So A Dreamline in .22 completely stock shooting JSB 18.1 gr is a solid choice. If you see a coyote, tune it a little hotter for 25 gr JSB monsters. In theory, the JSB 18.1 gr should be accurate to 100 yds, The 25 gr should be good to 130 yds and the Hybrid slugs should be good to 220 yds. When you retire, buy a 700 mm .30 barrel and a power plenum.
 
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Thanks Sonny,
Interesting that FX Impact, but I think it's too much gun for me. That's a young persons airgun in my mind. It doesn't appear to be an airgun for a slow person, and my brain isn't getting any faster or sharper these days. I will have a learning curve just learning the difference between air and gunpowder. You shooters who correct for "coriolis effect" and other rocket science can have that game. I salute you all and really enjoy watching you drop targets from 500 yards on You Tube.

As for me, I probably won't live long enough to be able to take advantage of an Impact's full adjustment potential, nor for the $1500 sniper scope I'd be compelled to put on it.

I'm thinking I could really be happy with two Wildcats, and getting a Dreampup seems a good way to do it with only one airgun. And the Dreampup (bottle version) is looking so good to me, it's scary. But, I am looking at the Impact now, and I do like what I see for a possible future upgrade, if I ever get to where I feel a need to advance more. And, of course, after I hit the lottery. Haha.

Good luck to you and yours Sonny, and thanks for your insight. 
 
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Hello Airgunmike56,
Thanks for the tip about soft targets (i.e., old clothes). It'll be a good way to get the wife to buy me some new stuff too. Haha. 
Yes, I see where people are using rubber mulch, duct seal, etc. and I will surely try to keep that pellet impact noise down. 
Thanks for mentioning it (I am taking notes), and good luck to you and yours!

Oh, and you're most welcome for my service. I had a blast! It was like McHale's Navy .. a lot of fun and games. 
 
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Hello bdzjlz,
You're most welcome for my small contribution to our nation's security. You'd take your thanks back if you knew how much poker and pinochle your tax dollars paid us to play while we punched holes in the oceans. Haha.

And thanks for that good information about real world of target sound, gun noise, Sumo, and FPE. I appreciate it. I'm beginning to see the pattern in the important parameters as I get feedback from the forum. The airgun test demonstrations sometimes sound loud, and sometimes sound quiet from the same gun. This is what was confusing I think. And the sound meters will read decibels depending on where they are placed in the testing station, often right next to the gun. And they sound different depending on whether they are indoors, and what the layout of the indoor station is. 
But, thanks to the people like you here, willing to share your experience, I am starting to see through the darkness and get the big picture. Thanks for that. 

That Red Wolf is one sweet looking gun. 

Cheers!
 
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I am new to air rifles. I went with the FX impact .25. Like you, I looked at cheaper options, but just decided to skip all that and bite the bullet. I like it because I can tune it up to shoot heavier projectiles for hunting. Then just turn down the power wheel for lighter pellets in the backyard. It is very quiet with the moderator that came with it. I put the putty in my pellet trap to make it quieter. The thud hitting that is louder than the gun.
 
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