If any of you folks who hunt big game with air guns also hunt with PB, could you tell me why you might choose an air gun over a PB? I can understand issues of noise and safety. Any other benefits?
Big Game Hunting
- Thread starter sjs
- Start date
I don't hunt big game with an airgun yet but I think part of the attraction is similar to why people bow hunt or hunt with handguns. Making it harder is part of the attraction. A little like why I shoot the 30 yard challenge with my sub $500 airguns. Anybody can kill a deer with a 30 06. Not everybody can do it with an airgun.
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I did it just to be different, for various reasons I don't any longer. Biggest two reasons for me were mine was a Texan and it is a true POS, and it is a one shot hunting rifle. You have to know the expected temperature range of the day of the hunt, and fill to a pressure that will work for one shot the entire time of your hunt, always being careful to not let sun on the bottle if the temp is rising during the day. The pressure change with temp change very easily takes you out of the range you can trust the accuracy on a texan, and if it gets warm and you let sun hit the bottle, hello massive valve lock even if you filled to the low end of pressure for one shot accuracy. I discovered that last bit attempting a less than 50 yard shot on a coyote in late afternoon while deer hunting after temp had gone up 30 deg F from morning hunt. I had filled appropriately for that temp rise and should have been ok, but the dappled sunlight added enough heat to the bottle to valve lock me, shot blooped and likely hit the ground less than 20 yards from muzzle. Pressure on guage after that shot showed I was still in valve lock territory.
Then you have the extreme length of pcp's for hunting big game, sucks in thick woods and most blinds. If I want quiet/light/short range I'll take my AR pistol suppressed, skip the quiet and I'll take my favorite handgun in 375 supermag, or if I feel like being extremely careful, I'll take my old S&W 41 mag, but always afraid of putting a mark on it since it is worth too much money these days to take into the woods, one scratch would likely be a several hundred dollar drop in value. I still take it once in a blue moon.
Then you have the extreme length of pcp's for hunting big game, sucks in thick woods and most blinds. If I want quiet/light/short range I'll take my AR pistol suppressed, skip the quiet and I'll take my favorite handgun in 375 supermag, or if I feel like being extremely careful, I'll take my old S&W 41 mag, but always afraid of putting a mark on it since it is worth too much money these days to take into the woods, one scratch would likely be a several hundred dollar drop in value. I still take it once in a blue moon.
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So the entire reason I got into shooting air guns was hunting. I used firearms for the majority of my young teenage years and eventually graduated to muzzleloader and traditional flintlocks. Up until 4 years ago I was an avid archery hunter starting with an old hand me down bear compound and then went to a handmade trad bow. For me the Airgun is something new and exciting and something else I can tinker with and customize. There isn’t a ton of info out about ballistics and every air gun is wildly different from the next and the assortment and customization opportunities of ammo was very attractive to me. To date I’ve harvested 6 deer, 3 hogs and my daughter took her first deer with my Evanix Rex .45 cal! It’s been incredibly rewarding and fun!
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