🔴 If you had to choose just ONE caliber — Which one would it be? WHY?

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JungleShooter

JungleShooter

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Sep 5, 2018
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Lima (11,000,000 people + twice as many pigeons)
🔴 If you had to choose just ONE caliber — Which one would it be?
Why?

After a year or two in airgunning, I chose .22 caliber.
🔶 I chose to stick with one caliber BECAUSE:
(1) Different calibers have different uses, and buying "just the right tool for the job" is great. I probably would if I could!
But getting a bunch of specialist guns is financially not feasible at this point.
So, instead of getting many specialist guns, one for each shooting scenario, I try to get a few generalist guns.
➔ So, the caliber has to be suitable for many shooting scenarios (even if it is not "ideal").

(2) Only one caliber means: I only need to buy only one caliber for my projectile/barrel testing.
It keeps my bank account happy (and my wife, too, as I avoid filling yet another drawer with lead toys). 😄

(3) Only one caliber means I only need to research one set of projectiles: •the selection of pellets and slugs, •their ballistic coefficients, •the terminal performance of hollow points at different velocities.
All that is plenty of tedious work, and certainly not all of it really fun.



🔶 I chose .22 caliber over other calibers BECAUSE:

(1) .22cal offers me a significantly higher ballistic coefficient (BC) over .177cal — and .25cal doesn't have a hugely improved BC over .22. The BC is of course for better wind drift resistance (as I'm still terrible at reading the wind, it's just so finnicky!).

(2) For urban hunting my guns need to be quiet, so PCP it is. And I fill them with a $-friendly hand pump: A larger caliber isn't great for quietness nor for handpumps.

(3) For hunting I want a fairly flat trajectory so that my point blank range (PBR) is fairly long.
Sure, the .177 would offer me an even flatter trajectory than the .22 — but even my low powered gun (15FPE) gives me a PBR of 11-33y and that's good enough for many of my shots.
Quarry at longer ranges usually gives me time to laze and dial, they are helpful in that way.

(4) .22cal makes larger holes in my quarry than .177. This I find good (and my quarry not so much, I suppose). 💀 Sure, .25 or .30 make even larger holes, but then the loudness and the air consumption go up significantly.

(5) The larger the caliber the less attractive the pricing, variety, and availability of projectiles — so again .22cal is a good middle.

(6) .22cal is just easier to handle for loading the breech/the magazine, the .177 are pretty tiny....


⭐ I find .22cal is a good do-it-all caliber, a generalist caliber. 😊

Yes, your mileage may vary! 👍🏼
So, what is your opinion?
And why?


Matthias
 
In my opinion the .30 caliber would be the best fit for "Just one caliber". Not too big for birds or squirrels and plenty of power for deer and hog headshots if needing a caliber for survival meat. It is also good for smaller pest like turkeys, yotes and ground hogs. This caliber bucks the wind well also for longer ranges. Just a great caliber all-around for many tasks.
 
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That would be the .20 cal. Flat shooting and accuracy is its calling card. With the new jsb exact heavies 15.9 @ 900 fps mv, my Az tuned rapid mk ll. Can tinker at 10 meters, Benchrest @ 50 yds and pest very effectly @ 100+.
Click to expand...

Yep. The 13.73s can be competitive in FT @ sub 20fpe, and the 15.89s have a surprisingly good BC for long range/small caliber joy. 

I'd have a hard time between .20 and .22 though. 

If this proposition of being required to only have 1 caliber included any regular field target, I'd want the .20. 

If there was no sub 20fpe FT in the situation though (ie hunting, pesting, long range accuracy,etc) I think I'd have to go with the .22. On the lower end of the spectrum the JSB 13.43s and 14.35s shoot pretty well in a couple of guns that I've shot them from. And on the opposite extreme, the 25.4gr Monster RDs shoot as good as any .25 or .30 when it comes to long range accuracy. The .22 even opens up the potential for slugs, if lucky enough to have a barrel/gun that likes them. 

I like the idea of one caliber/one gun, just for simplicities sake, but it would really need to be something like a Red Wolf or Delta Wolf for digital tuning, or a Veteran for analog tuning, that offers easy and dependable repeatability from one use to the next (pellet weight/fpe). 
 
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.177 here. In fact it IS the only caliber I shoot. For what I do with an airgun and where I do it, it is the logical choice. I mostly punch paper and take out smaller rodents like mice and chipmunks in my rural neighborhood backyard. Ammo is cheap, available everywhere (if you aren't picky), lots of shots per fill (I hand pump my guns) and they're quiet.
 
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Tough question. Several months ago I would have said .22 hands down, but after spending 3 weeks shooting ground squirrels in Montana with .177 Polymags and Mako 10.5gr slugs, it's a toss up. I had no problem taking them at 50 and 70 yards with slugs. That is with a 17 fpe at the muzzle gun. However, I would miss the explosion of water filled soda cans and expired eggs a .22 wadcutter provides.

I guess if I had to pick only one, it would be .22 for the knockdown power, ease of loading, larger holes when paper punching, and of course, reactive targets.
 
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