It's probably me, I am a terrible person and an even worse shooter. I'm glad, at least, you could enjoy some schadenfreude on my behalf.
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The best long range airgun
- Thread starter WyoAirguns
- Start date
It's probably me, I am a terrible person and an even worse shooter. I'm glad, at least, you could enjoy some schadenfreude on my behalf.
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Guest
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Where did you buy the gun? Have you checked the crown for damage? What happens when you shoot at lower pressure? And what do your groups look like? I talked to AirForce last week on the phone. Give them a call up and they will take care of you. 6" is unheard of even on a bad barrel and is totally unacceptable. Obviously it isn't you as a shooter it is the gun. I write too direct sometimes. If AirForce or Lother Walther messed up, they need to correct that horrible product. Hope you follow through or at least put the gun up for sale. Lots of people will jump on those guns as they are constantly out of stock and easy to fix.
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I can tell you this for a fact, having shot prairie dogs at over 100 yards in Montana. Your rangefinder and your scope might make more difference than your rifle, as long as you have any suitable rifle. The Leica Rangemaster 2400-R will walk all over the Bushnell Scout 1000 ARC in that situation. Until you get accurate and repeatable ranging, it DOES NOT MATTER how accurate your airgun or .22LR rifle is if shooting out to 200 yards at a PD town. Then there is the matter of dealing with heat distortion and wind, which you just have to learn from experience. More important than a small difference in rifle accuracy. There is also the matter of ergonomics if carrying a rifle around for miles in heat rather than bench resting it. The Lonestar .25 will walk all over a Texan in that regard, and it can be modified to shoot much more powerfully than as it came from the factory.
There is always the issue that getting the tightest groups at a target range will somehow equate to getting the most hits in the hunting field. I have found out that it is very often not the case. For instance in the PB world, did you work up a very accurate load bench rested at the target range using Winchester 760 powder on a hot day in July, and then expect to get the same results on a cold day in November shooting from sticks out on the prairie at 300 yards, and at a different altitude? Those changes made a difference in magnitude that far dwarfed any small difference between the groups that any two particular rifles produce. Just buy a bunch of different pellets and slugs and form your own opinion in your own PCP rifle under your own set of circumstances.
Bottom line: just get something that works well and then practice, practice, practice under actual field conditions and quit listening to "armchair experts". It was an "expert" handloader that loaded my cartridges with Winchester 760, and I quickly dumped that crap when I got into reloading and H4350 beat up on Win. 760 powder like a red headed stepchild.
There is always the issue that getting the tightest groups at a target range will somehow equate to getting the most hits in the hunting field. I have found out that it is very often not the case. For instance in the PB world, did you work up a very accurate load bench rested at the target range using Winchester 760 powder on a hot day in July, and then expect to get the same results on a cold day in November shooting from sticks out on the prairie at 300 yards, and at a different altitude? Those changes made a difference in magnitude that far dwarfed any small difference between the groups that any two particular rifles produce. Just buy a bunch of different pellets and slugs and form your own opinion in your own PCP rifle under your own set of circumstances.
Bottom line: just get something that works well and then practice, practice, practice under actual field conditions and quit listening to "armchair experts". It was an "expert" handloader that loaded my cartridges with Winchester 760, and I quickly dumped that crap when I got into reloading and H4350 beat up on Win. 760 powder like a red headed stepchild.
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@beezer, could not agree more. The gun however is the base, if it’s shooting 6 inch groups then nothing can help it. Once the rifle is shooting adequately then everything else will have to be learned. This is what makes long range shooting fun and challenging.
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Well now i’m quite interested in a air force 257, seems like a lot of gun though and not sure I need all that power, low shot count concerns me too. Definitely a gun id like to own at some point though. I’m restricted to only buying from utah airguns because I have 1400 in store credit there so unfortunately daystate is out of the question. I’ll have to do some more thinking about the RAW vs Impact, I know many like to hate on the impact but i’ve also talked to many of this form that tell me they’re amazing guns.
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airforce is very specialized in larger game hunting and it’s really not a gun to shoot for enjoyment if you set it up for hunting. It’s extremely good at what is designed for and nothing else.
As much as I think RAW are fantastic guns the impact and Mavericks can’t be beat in versatility, impact is still better. I would stick with .25 or .22 with 700mm superior heavy liners and plan on getting the dual transfer port or power slug kit then set it up for heavy slugs. Both .22 and .25 heavy slugs have BC of 0.95 so quite good with proven accuracy. My suggestion is .22 because of the slug availability and versatility but if you want best performance and accuracy 25 still has better BC with the 42 and 50 grain slugs later of which has BC of 0.12. Of course FX ergonomic and features make them a joy to shoot.
once the gun is setup properly and you get scope and all the other parts of your shooting system sorted you won’t have problems tagging PD out pass 150 yards with ease.
edit: for reference I have both .22 and .25 barrels and tried many slugs, my preference is sticking with .22 because I don’t need that kind of power, much heavier .25 slugs do buck the wind better but .22 is no slouch! I had no issues hitting 12 oz water bottles repeatedly @165 yards with only 23 grain slugs at 830fps. When I was messing around with 33 grain .25 slugs at 900FPS 5-8 mph wind had very little effect(less than an inch) at 110 yards, same condition the 23 grain would need 2-3 inches of hold.
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Lots of people love Impacts. If you want one I suggest buying what you want. The power of the Texans is what you need for super long distance. If you can abide for 100 yards and under, an Impact is okay
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lol pararie dog at 200 yards .. you'd have a great setup to be able to do that reliably with a high end firearm .. the way i see it people fail to see the beauty of air rifles .. alot of these guns have '38 special' or better power at reasonable distance now, quiet, and deadly precise within their point blank range .. so yeah .. your 'slugs at 200' stuff with pellet guns isnt impressing anybody lol .. just you .. fact of the matter is you could pop a deer at 40 yards with that 357 bulldog and drop it .. now thats impressive from a silenced weapon .. mid size game kills in the range almost anything realistic happens .. take advantage of that instead of getting pissed while you still can ..
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I think you might be watching too many videos. For a guy who has zero tuning experience, I think you have unrealistic expectations. Buy a .223. I have been shooting my Impact almost daily for two months. Still trying to conquer 100yrd every day accuracy. You are not going to buy one, twist a few knobs and be suddenly dropping prairie dogs at 200.
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If your talking about me I have no expectation of doing accurate or consistent shooting out to 200 yards. With some practice and a little tuning I got my taipan to shoot sub moa at 100 yards with pellets which I was very proud off. My goal for this summer is to get sub moa groups with slugs which i’m sure will be a challenge but that’s the fun part about it. My bad in my earlier responses I could see how it looked like I was thinking that’s what I was going to get with an airgun but I was just curious as to what others thought the best long range gun was.
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Unless you are going to limit yourself to one distance you need tuning as a skill set no matter what gun or caliber you choose. Tuning is not hard, it's time and $200.00. It's the FX Impact MKII .25 for me, 200 yards all day long. Minor tuning is on the gun. Oh and the follow up shot is in my scope click click. Major tuning requires 2 10 cent allen keys. The FX MKIII Wildcat Sniper is also a good choice. Oh, and the tuning is on the gun. And if you are weighting for the Impact MKIII GOOD LUCK. The Marketing will start a year out before you get your hands on one unless you put a deposit on one now, and I mean NOW.... The airgun market is Worldwide. Airguns maybe the only projectile platforms that market Worldwide.
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qball
"airforce is very specialized in larger game hunting and it’s really not a gun to shoot for enjoyment if you set it up for hunting. It’s extremely good at what is designed for and nothing else."
I disagree completely with this. I have 2 AirForce rifles. I find their simplicity an advantage and find them to be both potentially very powerful as well as easy to maintain and shoot at either short or long range.
"airforce is very specialized in larger game hunting and it’s really not a gun to shoot for enjoyment if you set it up for hunting. It’s extremely good at what is designed for and nothing else."
I disagree completely with this. I have 2 AirForce rifles. I find their simplicity an advantage and find them to be both potentially very powerful as well as easy to maintain and shoot at either short or long range.
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