A few years ago I read about a bunch of fellows who were using airguns to take pigs and other exotics with heavy lead round balls. I also learned Lewis & Clark toted a pneumatic gun along with them on their way west. This morning I noted in my American Hunter that an Outdoor Channel episode featuring a hog kill with a Gamo air rifle would be aired in Sept.

A visit here:

http://www.gamousa.com/videos.aspx

shows a couple of pig kills with both .177 and .22 pellets.

Interesting...

Matt

I think you'd be more likely to piss a hog off than kill it with a pellet gun. Everything's possible I guess, but it just sounds like a generally bad idea and a waste of time to me.

i watched the videos and looked .. its a 40lb'er, not a "Boar" but a boar .. quackenbush makes great big ole big bore air rifles, which are precharged .. these are the equals to a muzzle loader

the gamo extreme hunter CAN kill a pig, if its small enough, under perfect conditions .. but so can a wristrocket and a marble

single stroke springers should be considered to be small game only .. raccoons, rabbits, etc ... can they kill larger things? yep .. but this makes me wanting to have a 22 trailgun for taking EXACTLY this size pig as using a bazzooka

Just my opinion, but talk about using airguns for hogs may just lead to a bunch of unethical behavior. I can't imagine them being anywhere near adequate--I know my Sheridan .20 cal is a squirrel killer, but not a hog-unless as jeffe said, a piglet.

Yes, the Gamo Extreme with Raptor pellets may be able to dispatch a small pig, but it would be far, far from my first choice -- especially when there's a chance a hog like the one below could step out at any moment. To me, touting its usage for anything larger or more tenacious than a cottontail rabbit is irresponsible.

dustoffer-

Funny you should mention the 5mm Sheridan. I had the pneumatic Blue Streak back when I was a teenager and absolutely loved it. I still recall the claim in the big Sears catalog: "Will shoot through a 1-inch pine board"

I had a ton of fun with mine, and it was amazingly accurate with those yellow-boxed cylindrical pellets. Later on, I started to order pellets from Beeman, and its performance became even better via the use of the sharply-pointed Silver Sting (if I remember the name correctly).

Sure does bring back many fond memories...

I have in my safe ,a blue streak,with a figured walnut stock,and a yellow box of pellets.

There are a couple of manufacturers of big-bore (I think they are .45 caliber) airguns that are purportedly pretty lethal and adequate for some big game.

I have, in my garage, my Sheridan Blue Streak, 2 yellow boxes, and one red box, plus another tin of some kind of pellets. Haven't been able to find either the red or yellow box for several years. The grackles don't like it at all, and neither have the skunks and other varmints I've dispatched with it.

Don't know if I have a 1" pine board--maybe I better go see--

As many pigs as I've seen hit hard with rounds that penetrated well and still put up a huge fight... I've always considered the airgun thing to be a stunt at best and irresponsible at worst.

People asked to do it once-in-a-while and I've never allowed it as I can't imagine you'd get a clean kill unless the distance was mighty close and the placement PERFECT (and I've never been clear on whether its even legal in CA).

With so many terrific centerfire rifles, handguns, muzzleloaders, archery equip. etc., its always baffled me why someone would be distracted by airguns. Several clients explained to me that for some people its because of (how can I put this delicately) "a diminished legal capacity to own firearms". Is that truly the case... or do people just want to do it for the additional challenge?

Kyler

IMO it's the same mentality about the use of 22 LR for shooting hogs. I lost track of the times in Texas I heard someone say something about how they have killed umpteen hundreds of hogs with a 22, so bigger isn't needed excpet for long shots. Mostly they were talking about shooting trapped hogs, or shining at night among the crops in the summer, and not even retrieving the hogs, but let them lay or run off, whichever, for the buzzards and coyotes. I couldn't muster up the effort to argue the point, mostly because I didn't want to do anything to put my invite and good graces in jeprody. However, in two instances, one in meat I cooked myself, and another in a shoulder given away, 22 bullets were found. The hogs seemed to be doing fine when I shot them, and no wound was noticable in cleaning, so it must have healed.

Some people just can't be talked into reason on these issues. Personally I think the same thing applies to the 223, but that has been beat up enough. My point in mentioning it is that if I think a 223 is marginal, then sure as heck i think a pellet gun is a lark. My minimum cartridge is the 7.62x39, or 6.5 Grendel, or the 6.8 SPC, which are much more powerful than a 22 or a pellet.

KB

quote:

Originally posted by Kyler Hamann:
As many pigs as I've seen hit hard with rounds that penetrated well and still put up a huge fight... I've always considered the airgun thing to be a stunt at best and irresponsible at worst.

People asked to do it once-in-a-while and I've never allowed it as I can't imagine you'd get a clean kill unless the distance was mighty close and the placement PERFECT (and I've never been clear on whether its even legal in CA).

Kyler

I saw one take a few rounds from 30-06 at 80 yds and less a couple of years ago, not a brain shot, but lungs. I think you would be right on the air rifle not being legal in CA for Hog, it has to be centerfire rifle. I think Air rifle is only legal for non-game animals.

John

I do believe the airguns that they are currently being manufactured in either 9mm, 45cal, or 50cal are quite capable of taking large game. And humanely at that. 100 some odd grain 9mm bullet, 45 cal round ball, or 50cal round ball at ML velocities are no different than a bullet fired from a real gun.

quote:

Originally posted by txhunter77:
I do believe the airguns that they are currently being manufactured in either 9mm, 45cal, or 50cal are quite capable of taking large game. And humanely at that. 100 some odd grain 9mm bullet, 45 cal round ball, or 50cal round ball at ML velocities are no different than a bullet fired from a real gun.

Perhaps, some day, our DFG will catch on with new technology, but I won't hold my breath.

John

quote:

Originally posted by txhunter77:
I do believe the airguns that they are currently being manufactured in either 9mm, 45cal, or 50cal are quite capable of taking large game. And humanely at that. 100 some odd grain 9mm bullet, 45 cal round ball, or 50cal round ball at ML velocities are no different than a bullet fired from a real gun.

I don't know if you mean ML pistols or what, but as I read the specs, the best currently available (if you can get on the list) big bore airgun is the Quackenbush which pushes a .495 ball, 182 gr round ball, at around 800 fps. Will it kill a hog? Obviously since it is, in effect, a "lite" .45 ACP. Would I willingly go shoot a hog with a .45 ACP? No.

Personally, and discounting the appeal of a big bore airgun, I'd think you're MUCH better off using the much maligned .357 magnum at 50% more velocity as far as killing power goes.

If I could buy one, I'd think they would be a lot of fun to play around with, but shooting deer and hogs with them, not for me.

I believe the minimum caliber for airguns in Missouri is .45. But that is for deer and probably used as a traditional muzzleloader. I am not sure about airguns for boars. But when you mistake the Quackenbush for a pellet rifle you are not making any sense whatever. A 120 gr round ball doesn't equate to a 10 gr pellet in a springer or a multipump Benjaman(sp) or Sheridan. Packy