I’ve been testing and writing about airguns a lot the last few years. The biggest reason being they’re a blast to shoot. But there’s some other reasons as well.
1. .22 shells are hard to find due to shortages but there’s no shortage of pellets.
2. Along with #1 is the low cost of pellets. If you CAN find any, .22’s are $5/box (50) and pellets can run as low as $10 per 500 and there’s no shortage.
3. They don’t ricochet as bad or far as a .22.
I had some guns and ammo to test so I got up early this morning and went out shooting. I planned on only shooting 2-3 hours due to deadlines on three articles today and eight more coming up quick for a magazine that I write for. But I made one mistake. While loading up my gear I threw in my air rifle.
After I completed my testing I went ground squirrel hunting. Talk about relaxing. Like I say, I’ve been getting into airguns the last three years and have been doing a lot of ground squirrel hunting with them. It’s a blast.
I’d like to hunt with a break action airgun but I just haven’t found one accurate enough to hunt with as of yet so I threw in my Crosman Marauder. It’s a tack driver. Here’s what I’ve been doing. I throw on a backpack to carry my air bottle, hose, pellets, water, tri-pod and pad.
I’ll walk until I get to a fresh spot and then set up my bi-pod. You’ll want to carry a pad to set on. You’ll be doing a lot of setting so you’ll want to be comfortable. Of course today I forgot my pad and had to set on my backpack.
Out on the prairies it’s always blowing from 15 mph to hurricane force isn’t it, so you’ll need a rest. Shooting sticks help but I recommend a tripod. I have a Vanguard Pro T40 tripod that works great. It has extendable legs so you can shoot from any height.
Next you’ll want some good binoculars so you can spot the little buggers so I took my Leica Ultravid 10x42’s. They can be hard to see if only their head is peeking out at 50 yards away and much less now with the rains and thick vegetation we have. Well, thick for the prairie anyway.
It wasn’t that fast of shooting today, at least compared to normal and yet I still was burning through the 10-round rotary clips pretty fast. I carried three and should have had more. It wasn’t too windy today so it provided for some good shooting. I really wanted to make a 100 yard shot this spring but haven’t as of yet. Today would have been a good day for it to happen but I didn’t get a chance for a 100 yard shot. I did have one 59 yarder and hit another one that I figured was 75. Now I wished I had of stepped it off because I thought the 59 was only 50 so the 75 might have been more near to 85 and the furthest that I’ve hit one so far with my airgun is 75 yards.
Be careful this year. I think it’s a PETA plot but they say that whistle pigs south of Boise have the plague. I haven’t heard of any in Nevada as of yet but I’ve been running around the country lately and barely know what is going on in my own backyard!
The plague is transferred by fleas so don’t handle dead ground squirrels. I would imagine that it might be smart to spray your pants legs with Off but I don’t know if that would help or not for sure. Maybe to be safe you ought to wear your dog’s flea collar!
Well, before they go underground for the summer grab an airgun and go pop a few. It’s a lot better than staying home and mowing the yard.
