N/A old man that is newby to air guns

Am I reading your profile right? You are 123 years young? Way to go and still shooting, I'm impressed!
no just feel like it most days,,,since i retired the timing worked out where my MOL got covid and double pneumonia at the same time.. she almost died
and after 3 weeks in the hospital she could not look after herself anymore. so we moved her in with us and my wife still works full time in the health care business so i am my MOL caregiver .. not much time for any of my fun stuff now . and its made me old . 68 going on 98 somedays. but not 123 LOL. BY THE WAY,, I UPDATED MY PROFILE
 
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well my shooting ability is still pretty good,, my problem is i now have neighbors i didn't have 10 years ago and my 22 mag just cracks the whole world when it goes off. i shot a couple of air rifles with open sights and at 20 yards i had a nice group
A break barrel will be too loud and not powerful enough for many situations.

A suppressed subsonic 22LR would be my choice can the suppressor will be the most expensive item.

High powered PCP Airguns can do the job but not as cheap or easy as the rimfire.
 
GTA stalwart Mark611 has bagged dozens of groundhogs out to 70 yards or so with his Diana 460 Mag .22 cal. That would be my choice for the job, as well, being one of the most accurate as well as most powerful coilspring guns around.

I think you could score a used 460 Mag for 300 USD.
He also claims to shoot as well as Si Pittaway🤔. I've killed dozens of them too. Most of them on my friend's cattle ranch and a couple here. The closest was here at the house at 18 yards with a 15 fpe 22 cal Hw95. Head shot, DRT. So it is possible. The furthest was here at 320 yards with a 223. Centermass and still crawled a bit. I've shot them anywhere in between those distances with 22lr, 17 hmr and 223. Under 50 yards a 22lr will work ok, 50-100 yards a 17 HMR will do. 100+ yards, a 223 or better.

Counting on making every head shot on a small live animal at any distance past 30 or 40 yards with a pellet gun is irresponsible. That goes for longer distances with heavier equipment as well. You can't always cherry pick your environmental conditions, live animals can move at any time and us regular humans are subject to making any number of errors.

Whatever weapon you choose it has to be capable of passing through or quickly damaging the vitals. Diehard varmint shooters use hi speed fragmenting bullets and take body shots. They basically grenade the internals. Believing you're making every head shot on a small animal at 50 plus yards (with anything) is delusional. At least it is for us regular human beings. Especially with piston airguns
 
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