An airgun may not be my favorite for hunting but at distances up to 20 yards an airgun can drop an animal of the size of a pigeon or a squirrel with a well placed pellet. It requires good marksmanship and knowledge of where to aim but it can be done.

The R7 is a joy to shoot, and very accurate.

There are a lot of springers these days that are barely subsonic, but the ones that sit around 900-1000 fps seem to be more accurate in practical terms. With .20 - .25 caliber pellets, that's quite a bit more energy than you had at your disposal with the R7.

marcus who:

A silencer acts in the same manner as a tapered turd. By being tapered the turd does not allow your cheeks to come back together too quickly and cause a slapping sound every time you expell a complete turd.

In an airgun, the pressurized air splits the atmosphere and causes a vacumn to be formed behind the rapidly expelled air from the gun. Since mother nature abhors a vacumn, the atmosphere rushes in to fill the vacumn, and the sound you hear is the clapping of the atmosphere filling the vacumn and hitting itself.

A silencer slows down the expulsion of the air after the pellet has left the barrel and thereby reduces the size of the vacumn, and the speed necessary for the atmosphere to refill the void.

Bountyhunter

P.S. I am looking for a full copy of Paladin Presses "Hitman" on the web complete with all pictures. I have found a site with just the text, but I would like the whole thing. It's an academic interest as I know most of its techniques from other books.

I love teh analogy <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Peter,

That's a wonderful simile. You had me ROFLMAO!

John

Reminds me of a true story I read in Jim Corbett's "Maneaters of Kumaon". Corbett was hunting a man-eating tiger through the Indian jungle. At one point, believing that he had lost the animal's trail, he and his native guide were (IIRC) returning to camp. Corbett, an amateur egg collector, had found the nest of a rare bird and was carrying some of its eggs in his left hand; he gave his heavy rifle to the guide and was carrying a lighter rifle (I don't remember the calibre but I don't think it was a .22) in his right hand. At some point, he turned - I think to say something to his guide/bearer, and suddenly found himself face to face with the man-eater he had been tracking for days.

He said that three things, which at first would appear to be very bad luck, actually saved his life. First, the animal was a man-eater; a normal tiger would have been spooked and would instinctively have attacked, but the man-eater, having lost its fear of humans, didn't. Secondly, had he not been carrying the eggs in his left hand, he would instinctively have reacted himself; this would definitely have caused the tiger to attack, and at such close range Corbett would have had no chance to defend himself. Thirdly, the fact that the rifle in his right hand was small and lightweight meant that he could carefully bring it around, aim it, and fire it with one hand, whereas with a heavier rifle he would have had no chance.

His first - and only - shot went through the animal's brain, killing it instantly.

(IIRC, his first act after confirming that the tiger was dead was to return the eggs to their nest, as an offering to whatever deity had been watching over him.)

It's been many years since I read "Maneaters of Kumaon" but that scene has always remained vivid in my memory.

>>But in regards to the book. I still believe that he was
>>totally unprepared and his skills and abilities didn't
>>match his ego. And his luck run out.

In fairness, you can't say he was "totally unprepared" - he went quite well prepared, and he survived for several months.

I agree that his skills and abilities didn't match his ego - I suspect, personally, that he was a bit of an "adrenalin junkie". The main impression I got from the book was that he simply didn't learn the same lessons from experience as a "normal" person would. Whereas most of us would regard a close brush with death as an indication that we had pushed it a little too close to the edge, McCandless seemed to interpret it as further proof of his own invincibility. (Of course, maybe I'm thinking of Jeff Bridges's character in the movie "Fearless".)

But in fairness, I cannot agree that he was "totally unprepared".

Presumed ,
How in the world did I miss this post. I am indeed open minded enough to know that airguns are perfect for small game.

I have a daystate PH6 in .25 and my hunting buddy, the same one that I was talking about in earlier posts, has a daystate huntsman in .22. We hunt mainly cottontails and jackrabbits in southeast Arizona and can very cleanly kill them out to 50yds.

Marcus, if you doubt this, I have pictures and even video of me doing it. I suggest you do a google search of air rifle hunting and I think it will open your eyes. There are very expensive handmade air guns up to .50 caliber that have been used to kill elk, deer, and wild hogs, check out quackenbush air rifles. I think you will be surprised.

Very good point Lost, thanks for an interesting discussion, Chris

One very practical approach is to carry a medium power longarm and complementary sidearm. For example, a favorite pair I carry on deer hunting trips is a bolt action .30-06 rifle and a .22 LR revolver, normally a S & W 63 kit gun. Such a readily portable battery has sufficient power for anything in North America, albeit a little light for grizzlies. OTOH, it also deftly covers small game hunting. Such a pairing of complementary guns allows great breadth of coverage with normal full power loads which are so readily available.

Some other broad complementary pairs would include a sidearm and a combination gun which provides both a rifle and a shotgun barrel with one superimposed over the other. In addition to the previously mentioned Springfield M6, the Savage M24, and a Russian import under the name Baikal make available shotguns in 12 and 20 ga., and .410. They also cover the gamut of calibers from .22 LR through .30-06 and beyond. If for instance the Savage 24 is chosen with .22LR and 20 ga. 3" magnum, then a good complement would be a medium to high powered handgun. An alternative longarm would include a dedicated rifle in .22LR or even a shotgun.

Another obvious consideration in choosing a survival gun is the weight of ammunition. In preparation for various activities, we recorded the following weights of factory ammunition in factory boxes (as weighed on our somewhat aged baby scale, YMMV):

.22 LR--5oz.--for a box of 50 rounds of 37 gr. hollow points.
.32 H & R Mag--17.5 oz.--50 rds., 95 gr. bullet.
.357 Mag-- 30 oz.--50 rds., 158 gr. bullet
.44 Mag--59 oz.--50 rds., 240 gr. bullet.

.223 Rem--8 oz.--20 rds., 55 gr. bullet.
.243 Win--14 oz.--20 rds., 100 gr. bullet.
.270 Win--17 oz.--20 rds., 130 gr. bullet.
.30-06 Spr--19 oz.--20 rds. 150 gr. bullet.

20 ga--35 oz.--25 rds., 1 oz. shot.
12 ga--45 oz.-- 25 rds., 1 1/4 shot.

John

Thanks for the kind words.

Beautiful rifles, both. We don't see many repeaters around here.

I haven't personally gotten into PCP myself, partly because so much of my shooting is in the basement just for practice, and partly because of the infrastructure required.

Obviously, they're nearly ideal for what you're doing, but do you feel that the dependence on scuba tanks, compressors etc. affects the suitability of PCP for survival considerations?