squirrel control

[oldclaypaws]

I did consider buying an air rifle for squirrel control, but its a moral dilemma. The bonus if I could bring myself to become a serial killer is our wood is also full of pheasants and pigeons, which is free meat. Even if I could shoot one, there's still the issue of skinning and gutting, so Tufty and friends are looking pretty safe at the moment.

What surprised me is how accurate, silent, effective and expensive modern air rifles are. If you want to shoot loose wild targets humanely (eg squirrels etc) you really need a good quality accurate rifle rather than some budget brand. A decent Weihrauch, Air Arms or BSA Pre-charged are amazingly accurate, you should be able to group within 2-3 mm at 40yards, many of the shots going through the same hole- so if the quarry stands still for a second, a head shot is fairly easy for a competant marksman. But you'll need a budget of maybe £600-£1000, as theres not just the rifle but £200 for your bottle or pump, the scope, bag, silencer, and spare magazines to be considered. A shotgun can be a lot cheaper than a top of the range air rifle, but then you need the licence.

If alternatively you just want to despatch squirrels as effectively and affordably as possible rather than seeing it as a challenging 'sport', your best option is to live trap and then see them off with a more affordable rifle from close range, which could be a spring rifle for maybe £100-£300, or use a lethal trap.

Rural types like farmers seem to have far less problem than soft townies shooting pests and killing, when you farm and live in the countryside you experience livestock being sold to slaughter, pests being shot and the cycle of life and death on a daily basis, so they have to be far harder.

That said, my farmer pal Rex is one of the softest farmers anyone has ever known. His wife realised some of their chickens were geriatrics which is why they'd stopped laying, so she asked him to snap the neck of a couple. He had nightmares about it, took a sleeping pill, got up in the night half asleep and fell out of the upstairs window, rolling down the thatched roof before landing with a thud in the garden (unhurt). When he finally summoned up enough courage to have a go at a chicken, he aimed a 12 bore at one from point blank range, faced away and pulled the trigger. The result was he covered the farmhouse in feathers and chicken pate.

[Dexter's Shed]

a good summary of tools there paws, I have the pump up air rifle, but prefer the shotgun every time, as the target can then move and your still in with half a chance, yes they need a license, but unless you have done some dodgey dealings in the past, they are very easy to get, £50 and they last for 5yrs, handy too if you don't have a passport to hand, I wouldn't advocate shooting a pheasant with an air rifle though, have seen too many shot ones with old air rifle scars/slugs in them from people taking pot shots

as for skinning, here's a little clip from one of our shooting days, it's a very simple way to breast a pheasant, which is the best bit, but any bird can be done in the same way

WARNING!!! IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH OR AGAINST SHOOTING FOR THE POT, DO NOT CLICK THE LINK


http://youtu.be/wt72FGyQpQU

[oldclaypaws]

Just to expand slightly on my comments on Air Rifles, as I spent maybe 50 hours looking at review videos, reading online discussions and handling them (before not buying one);

Since I were a lad back in days of steam railways, air rifles have moved on somewhat. If you have the budget the most popular are now PCP or pre charged pneumatic, they are a relatively recent innovation from the last 20 years or so. They have a small air tank built into the body of the rifle which will hold enough air for up to around 100 shots, depending on model and ammo. These are refilled either by using a special handpump, or by just clipping on a hose and adapter from a pressurized divers tank, which lasts months for a £5 fill. The advantage is there's no cranking before each shot, and no recoil from a heavy piston releasing in the gun when shot- so they weigh less, are more accurate and with a repeater magazine can be effortlessly fired in rapid succession every couple of seconds, almost like a semi-automatic.

The most highly thought of PCP make and model is probably the Weihrauch HW 100; superb rugged quality, very reliable, a little heavy (which can give it stability), consistently superbly accurate, around £800. A virtual copy of it and near competitor is the Arm Arms S410 which is British and offers a similar performance for a marginally better budget than the Weihrauch. Another 'pretty' British model worthy of mention is the BSA R10 Mk II, although there are reports of reliability issues on some with dodgy pressure seals. Daystate also have quite a following, their flagship being the Wolverine .303 which although an air rifle fires at 100lbs pressure, is designed to shoot medium sized game like deer, and requires a firearms certificate. Its £1500.

.177 pellets, although lighter than .22 travel at a far faster velocity, so tend to be more accurate at typical air rifle distances.

For anyone considering a high quality traditional spring rifle, at far lower cost than a PCP but still very accurate, you could do worse than the Weihrauch HW 97. I was fairly drawn towards their synthetic stock black thumbhole model, the HW 97KT, for £325 or so. Looks the biz and gets excellent reviews.

Should be remembered you don't have to kill things, just plinking them at targets is quite a relaxing but challenging way of passing an hour or two, many people enjoy target shooting indoors and seldom line up a tufty in the sights.

[Wendelspanswick]

A friend has a CO2 powered air rifle that is superb, it takes the soda stream type CO2 bulbs.

[oldclaypaws]

CO2 Air Rifles are similar to PCP's at a much lower initial cost, but are far more expensive to run as you need to buy the CO2 bulbs. A bulb will cost £5 and last maybe 150 shots, so you're paying more for gas than pellets. Additionally, most are not full powered and the gas pressure tends to vary with temperature (eg lower power when cold), so they're not consistently accurate. They are often used for 'fun', reproduction and 'plinking' guns, kinda exchange and mart back pages stuff. Many of them mimic military guns like the AK47 or machine guns, but in order to save gas have very non-lethal performance and shouldnt be used for pest control, they don't have the power. Its the system used in paintball and airsoft guns, which kind of sums them up. Its not a system that the big air rifle players use, due to the inconsistencies and limitations in performance. They are good fun though, one of the better CO2 models is the Umarex Magnum which gets respectable reviews and could be used at shorter ranges for squirrels, but for a tad more money you could get a really good top end spring gun like a Weihrauch HW 97 or an Air Arms TX200 which will outperform the Umarex and cost far less to use.

[Wendelspanswick]

Think you got your figures wrong there, 50 off 12g CO2 bulbs are £18, so 36p a bulb not £5 a bulb!
And getting a high pressure air refill is free?

[oldclaypaws]

The few better CO2 guns such as the Umarex Magnum use the larger 88g CO2 bottle. They are about £5-£6 and last around 150-200 shots, so about 3p a plink just for your gas.

The CO2 guns using the 12g bottles last around 30+ shots which cost typically 50p, but are used largely for lower power 'backyard' guns which are unlikely to either have the accuracy or power to kill humanely. (Can killing for fun ever be humane?) More shots per bulb indicates lower power.

Most PCP users will have a three stage pump such as a 'Hills', which are around £160. The air is free, you just attach a hose and use elbow grease to manually fill the fixed tank on the gun, which takes a couple of minutes of puffing.

The discussion prompted me to look at a couple of PCP reviews again, and I had the misfortune to come across someone on youtube using a Daystate Wolverine to shoot squirrels and pigeons, which I found fairly sickening. They seemed to think it was entertaining to see a creature which was sitting there innocently minding its own affairs one second disappear into a cloud of feathers and mangled flesh. Death is easy to dispense, an appreciation of the miracle of life and the beauty of nature perhaps takes a bit more intelligence than just killing it for kicks, which is why I'm a member of a wildlife trust and not the shooting fraternity. This time of year our wood fills with refugee pheasants from the shoot on the hill, being a safe haven for them gives us some satisfaction. I respect the engineering and design that goes into an accurate weapon, but won't be using one myself any time soon, I've grown out of the adolescent destructive phase and try in as far as possible not to cause suffering to other creatures. A veggy diet revival isn't out of the question and I'm having second thoughts about allowing bambycide in my wood this winter- the deer don't do massive damage and I'd sooner accept them and take a few measures to protect valued trees than destroy the deer.

I think I'm more a rainbow type than a Rambo, and a distiller rather than a killer.

[Dave and Verity]

Few things to add to the debate:

2- 3 mm group at 40yds, yes this is achievable from a bench rest with zero wind. It is absolutely not achievable by an average shooter in real life field conditions. To assume this makes a head shot at 40yds easily achievable, is a tad "rash".

Yes a shotgun can be a lot cheaper to buy, but then add the cost of a police approved cabinet and licence and you won't be seeing that much of a difference, you also gets what you pay for in both discilplines. Good quality ammunition costs around tuppence a go for an air rifle and the applications for both are different. Air rifles are only suitable for hunting static prey, shooting anything whilst it is moving is an absolute no no. More stealth/fieldcraft is required, the upside being that more vermin can be shot per session due to their near silent operation.

Divers bottles last varying amounts of time, different pressures (232 and 300bar mainly) are available and in different sizes from 3 - 15 litres. How long they last depends on how frequently you shoot. An other cost is inspection which will be either 2.5 or 5 years apart depending on the type of valve fitted. Cost is around £28 - £50.

Number of shots per fill varies greatly, I have a Brocock which is good for 30 shots and an Airwolf which is good for 150.

PCPs are no more accurate than good springers, just easier to shoot due to the negligible recoil, they definitely don't weigh less, carry my HW100 around for an hour and you'll be convinced of that. I also have a Steyr FT110 which is incredibly heavy. Some are heavier than springers, some aren't, there are also some incredibly heavy springers out there.

They are not semi - automatic, a bolt or sidelever activates the mechanism as opposed to pulling the trigger.

The Hw100 is highly thought of, I have one. There are also many others that are highly regarded. The Air Arms is not a copy of the HW100, it has a different fill system, cocking mechanism and does not use Bellleville washers to regulate it's power curve. I could go on.

The Wolverine operates at 100ftlbs energy at the muzzle, not pressure. It is also available in a sub 12ftlbs version.

.177 is no more accurate than .22, due to it's higher muzzle velocity it flies with a flatter trajectory. This makes it much more suitable for target shooting as rangefinding is less critical. It is widely used for hunting, and given ten different shooters, you would get at least 15 differing opinions as to which is the better calibre. Weight of the pellet is also a huge factor, a heavy .177 could fly at a more pronounced trajectory than a light .22, and then there is ballistic co efficient......

HW97 rifle is an excellent rifle, I use one regularly. There are also much cheaper variants which would be suitable for squirrel control i.e. HW99.

CO2 can be used for vermin control, but I would say at much closer ranges due to their lower power and variability when temperature changes. However if you zero at 5 deg C, and shoot around that temperature you will not notice any difference. The crossman ratcatcher has been going for donkeys years, and does exactly what it's name suggests. Personally I don't use one anymore, but that is because I have more suitable rifles to choose from.

The 88gram co2 cartridges used by the current Umarex Air Magnum (confusing) are around a fiver and represent the worst value as a means of propulsion. 12g bulbs are much cheaper, high pressure air cheaper still. If you want the cheapest, buy a pump or use your biceps to cock the rifle.

Sorry to be such a pedant, but you may have picked up this subject is very dear to me.

Dave

[Dave and Verity]

Sorry again, but your last thread must have been typed whilst I was typing mine. I take some offence at this:

"I've grown out of the adolescent destructive phase"

I'm 46 years old, so hardly adolescent, have invested massive numbers of hours in educating myself and practise, and don't kill anything for pleasure, I do it for a legitimite purpose. I only shoot vermin with good reason (a requirement of the general licence), I do it humanely and in all but the case of rats or crows, I make full use of the carcass.

I have a huge garden with approx 300 trees in it, the squirrels are left alone as they do no harm there.

Dave

[oldclaypaws]

Its reassuring to know that someone with a huge knowledge and experience of the subject largely confirmed most of the technical conclusions I had reached from just surfing and conversations with shooters and distributors and little practical experience- I think I've shot no more than about half a dozen air rifles, always at targets, including the HW100, AA S200 and TX200. I also target shoot a recurve bow, its a test of skill and dexterity- although I prefer a paper bullseye target to a plastic animal.

The reference to adolescent destructiveness was a reference to a phase I recall going through as do most teenage lads- that is a fascination with air rifles, crossbows, explosives, fast cars and general mayhem. Its part of growing up. It didn't infer I label responsible older vermin shooters with the same description, I know most shooters are very responsible, carefully observe all the correct legal and safety aspects and aren't just doing it for kicks. What they do is often necessary and takes great skill and knowledge. They tend to respect wildlife and know a lot about it.

There are as you will know though, a minority who aren't as observant of ethics and still seem to enjoy taking a pop at virtually anything. I think Mrs Paws recently signed a petition protesting against the Continental practice of devastating the endangered migratory bird population for 'sport', and I recall there was some considerable disquiet when the King of Spain went off Elephant shooting, despite being president of the Spanish WWF.

If crows were attacking my lambs, or rats were spreading disease and chewing through wires round my homestead, or I shot skilfully for the pot - I can see the case for shooting. I fail though to be able to relate to the whole scene of rearing peasants or grouse, charging a small fortune to a privileged few as part of an elitist ritual of seasonal slaughter, and blasting the poor beasts out of the air. Or for that matter, teasing a bull and then stabbing it slowly to death in front of an audience. Both seem anachronistic, there's a divide between necessity and those who kill for entertainment. Hasn't the human race evolved beyond the Amphitheatre? You only need look at the titles of video games or movies on the TV to see that many humans take a sick fascination and take pleasure in watching violence and the killing of other creatures, including other people. That I find a very sad reflection on mankind.