NGC-Air Rifle

[JJ]

Yup!  This ought to do the job for those pesky rodent squirrels!! (LOL)  One shot...one kill! 

[Tom]

.45 caliber bullet should tenderize the meat nicely.

[atavar]

squirrels are yummy, but I would not eat one of those urban tree rats.  The squirrels in the city eat all manner of trash. 
The grey tuft eared Aberts squirrel (think of a two pound squirrel) as found in Arizona is some of the best game table fare on the continent.

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Aim between the eyes, they charge when wounded.

[Craigo]

Ruger Blackhawk Combo
Best bang for the buck kids, wife, even grandma and grampa have spent time at the cabin plinking with this thing. Real accurate after sighting in and super simple and best of all real good price. We have a few other high end cult air gins and this is the one that is shot the most.


https://www.amazon.com/Ruger-Blackhawk-Combo-air-rifle/dp/B001V67HTY

Craigo

[donn]

squirrels are yummy, but I would not eat one of those urban tree rats.  The squirrels in the city eat all manner of trash.

I'm sure they aren't the finest available, but around my neighborhood their diet is from what I can tell similar to what it would be in the wild.  The variety of ornamental plants and street/shade trees is really kind of squirrel paradise.  Wish we had redtail hawks.  Smaller females have been better eating in my limited experience.  The last one I had to trap, and I doubt the anxious hour or two stuck in the trap cage improved anything.

[atavar]

The trick to these is to skin immediately.  As the carcass cools the hide rather glues itself to the meat and you may need vice grips to pull it off.  Also, just as in deer use caution to keep fur off of the wet meat and wash any off as soon as possible.  The fur seems to impart a strong gamy taste to the meat. 
Very few game meats make as fine tasting gravy as does squirrel, probably why squirrel stew is such a favorite. 

[dibble]

If you hit a squirrel in the right spot you don't need a lot of power an.
d you can bait them into range and up against a good backstop.  No pellets will go through a paving slab.

If you are worried about noise crosman 2250s have longer barrels and are quieter

I have a Bsa Ultra pcp that easily does sub 1/2 " groups at 25 yds and with a silencer (I'm in the UK) is almost silent

[jlburgess]

I bought a Crosman Fury NP about a year ago for $89.  It's a .22 and rated at 950 fps.  With open sights I average a 4 inch group at 50 feet. I'm real happy with It and zero problems after about 1000 shots.  Maintenance couldn't be any easier, just a few drops of chamber lube every couple hundred shots. Highly recommended

[Tom]

30W non-detergent oil.  A few drops in the receiver/loading port and down the barrel.

[jlburgess]

30W non-detergent oil.  A few drops in the receiver/loading port and down the barrel.

My understanding is the NP air rifles call for silicone lube.  No dinosaurs except in other types.
I just got the Colt Peacemaker and Schofield replica bb guns today.  What a hoot!  The Colt is super accurate for a bb gun.  They are virtually free to shoot.  About 80 shots from 1 co2 cartridge.

[Tom]

Okay....all others unless specified differently for non-dino lubes.

[OlDogface]

For anything larger than a mouse I prefer my M107:  http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/infantry/rifle/M107.html

[atavar]

using dino lube in a high velocity air rifle makes for a LOUD report.  I was amazed at the sound. 

[Sasquatch Jim]

  Single pump spring guns, including the ones with a pneumatic spring or gas filled spring, must use silicon based lubes.
 Dinosaur lubes and any that are petro based, will diesel upon firing. This is evident by a louder muzzel report and a whisp of smoke from the muzzle.  This may result in a slight increase in velocity which will not be uniform and hence affect accuracy,
 but it can also damage the weapon.  A few decades ago at least one company sold an airgun deliberately engineered to use the dieseling factor to increase power.  I don't remember why, but they soon were removed from the market.  It may be that they had problems or it may have been a legal matter making them recognized as fire arms.  If you want to experiment with this and have a single pump spring gun you may try it, at the risk of damage to your rifle, by using a hypodermic needle to put a TINY bit of diesel oil in the hollow base of the pellet as you load it.  Immediately fire it and hear the louder report and see the wisp of diesel smoke from the muzzle.  If you have a device to measure velocity use that too.  But don't forget that it can damage your rifle.

[Tom]

Maybe that's why Daisy wants us to use 30W oil.  We have to rebuild/replace the seals in the air chambers more often.  Buy more parts. 

[LowRyter]

I have my Granpa's old Benjamin .22.  Still shoots as many pumps as you can put in it.  Must be older than me (60+).

Granpa used to shoot bumble bees offa Granma's flowers.  Yes, really accurate.  No, you don't need a scope. 

Not mine (his) but it looks pretty like this.

[rboe]

 :1: on the silicone oil. It can lead to a nasty surprise with the dieseling.

Also don't shoot it without something going down the barrel. You can blow out the seals.

[Sasquatch Jim]

  The correct silicone oil won't diesel, it has no hydrocarbons.
 You can buy cleaner pellets in the caliber of your weapon.  They are felt pellets slightly larger than the bore so that they fit tightly.  When fired, they offer protection against damage from firing an empty bore, and they clean the bore of small particles as they go. If you hit a big bug with one it will knock the crap out of him without damage to anything in your house
other than maybe some flying bug splat.

[dibble]

There's a guy over here(UK) who has done a lot of research on the shot cycle of air rifles, it's based on our 12fpe limit but.

In Spring Guns Diesiling -where the oil burns after the piston has come to rest on the air cushion is relatively harmless it just leads to unpredictable velocities. it can burn  seals though. It's more likely with heavy pellets.

Detonation which happens earlier in the shot cycle  breaks springs but is almost impossible to provoke at least at our velocities and pellet weights.

Some experts advise if a gun has been over oiled and is dieseling just to fire some heavy pellets (they have a higher start pressure) to clear it.

Silicone oil is important in pump and PCP guns because other oils might break down the seals, my gun is charged to 232 BAR or over 3000psi so a seal failure could be fun.

Some posts are quoting velocities of over 900fps, at these kind of speeds Diablo(normal waisted) pellets can become innacurate you might get better groups with a heavier slower pellet.

In England and Wales we have a lot of restrictions on powder burners but relatively few on Air Guns so a lot of back yard engineering is going on with them.

Because rifles are limited to 12fpe  you go for accuracy think of 6mm groups (c-t-c) at 50meters. Chrono your gun to find a sweet spot, test many types of pellet, hand pick some, wash, resize and hand lube them, clean the barrel then fire so many pellets to "re-Lead" it.  Get bored put up some old tin cans and have some fun with your kids.

We also have almost no restrictions on Moderators(silencers) so I make my own as you don't have hot gas to deal with you can use a mixture of solid baffles and felt making it almost silent.

[Rough Edge racing]

 We live in the woods and have both gray and red squirrels and chipmunks... Our large male cat kills and eats squirrels and literally wiped out the red squirrels a few years ago... They do come back but the cat keeps them under control. My wife's chickens go after chipmunks but I have seen them kill mice... I prefer not to eat rodent flesh of any kind.... I'm not fond of air rifles because too many adolescents  use them to shoot birds...

[dibble]

.. I'm not fond of air rifles because too many adolescents  use them to shoot birds...

I feel the same about motorbikes because youths ride noise scooters up and down my road..............