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Hunting Florida with Air Rifles

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  • kendive

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    Unless there was an exclusive airgun season, 99.9% of hunters will not use one, myself included.

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    Every State has different laws. This was pulled from another forum... Soooo Lots and Lots of unethical weapons allowed out there...

    Alabama- centerfire
    Alaska- centerfire
    Alberta- .23 and up centerfire
    Arizona- centerfire
    Arkansas- .22 and up centerfire
    California- centerfire
    Colorado- .24 and up, 70grn or larger bullet/ minimum of 1000ft/lbs at 100 yards
    Connecticut- .243 and up if legal in your area
    Delaware- shotgun/muzzle loader
    Florida- centerfire
    Georgia- .22 and up centerfire
    Hawaii- Any rifle with at least 1200 ft/lbs of ME. This would start at around .223 I think
    Idaho- Centerfire (cannot weigh more than 16 lbs?)
    Illinois- Shotgun/ML/Pistol only
    Indiana- Rifles with pistol calibers/shotgun/ML/Pistols
    Iowa- .24 or larger centerfire only for antlerless season in part of the state.
    Kansas- .23 or larger centerfire (actually says larger than .23 so maybe .24 is the mininum)
    kentucky- centerfire
    Louisiana- .22 and up centerfire
    Maine- .22 magnum rimfire and up!
    Manitoba- Centerfire, but it says .23 and below not recommended. Does not say illegal though.
    Maryland- ME of at least 1200 ft/lbs
    Mass- Shotgun/ML
    Michigan- centerfire in certain areas
    Minnesota- .24 and up centerfire
    Mississippi- No restrictions that I could find
    Missouri- centerfire
    Montana- No restrictions
    Nebraska- Rifles with 900 ft/lbs or more at 100 yards
    Nevada- .22 centerfire and up
    New Hampshire- centerfire
    New Jersey- shotgun only
    New Mexico- centerfire
    New York- centerfire
    North Carolina- No restrictions
    North Dakota- .22-.49 centerfire
    Nova Scotia- .23 and up
    Ohio- Shotgun/ML
    Oklahoma- centerfire with 55 grn or heavier bullet
    Ontario- centerfire
    Oregon- .22 centerfire and up
    Pennsylvania- centerfire
    Quebec- 6mm/.243 and up
    Rhode Island- shotgun/ML
    Saskatchewan- .24 and up
    South Carolina- centerfire
    South Dakota- rifles with 1,000 ft/lbs or more ME
    Tennessee- centerfire
    Texas- centerfire
    Utah- centerfire
    vermont- No restriction
    Virginia- .23 centerfire and up
    Washington- .24 centerfire and up
    West Virginia- .25 rimfire and up and all centerfire
    Wisconsin- .22 centerfire and up
    Wyoming- .23 centerfire and up
     

    USMCShooter

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    My longbow delivers roughly 19FPE....Killed over 30 deer with it....and by most hunter's opinions, it's ethical....
    I don't believe FPE is an accurate measurement of lethality...never have, never will....and this isn't the first time I've had this discussion....in England, Australia and a few others, anything more than 12FPE requires a permit.....I've taken hundreds of Squirrel and Rabbit with a 12FPE airgun.
    As I stated, I've extensively tested in game carcasses.....FPE is nearly irrelevant....like archery, shot placement is critical. I tested my .25 in a 230lb Missouri buck carcass before I dressed it to dissect.....at 40 yards the pellets exited the skull from 3 angles...with plenty of energy left. From the front it penetrated over 16 inches....from the side, above the heart, it shot through and through.....for double lung it shot through a rib and was laying under the hide (external to the rib cage) on the off side....I've shot deer, hogs, raccoons, possums, armadillo, coyotes, foxes etc....all lethal....
    Whether someone wants to accept airguns as a viable, ethical method of hunt is their call....but there are some archery purists that don't think anything under a 70lb compound bow is ethical....
    I've tested...proven to myself the lethality of airguns.....a lot comes down to the shooter....like it does with any instrument used to take game....am I going to shoot a moose with my .25....nope.....but I might with a .45 after I tested it on a carcass.
    To each his own.....another reason I'm glad I'm American.....

    s/f

    Jamie
     

    John B.

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    Comparing archery to air rifles is comparing apples to airplanes.... I'm just saying.

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    FrommerStop

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    I agree that comparing the energy delivered by most arrows to the energy delivered by firearm and airgun projectiles is misleading. An arrow has an extremely sharp point and one only needs sufficient momentum for it to penetrate. I can readily by hand thrust an arrow into an animal. I can not do the same with most cartridges used for hunting. So it is comparing apples to oranges. A medium size high power rifle like a .243 is way superior to any bow as a hunting weapon if you use the right bullets and of course using the right arrows also in the respective weapons. There is a difference between cutting with a sharp instrument and smashing tissues with a bullet. I think we all know this. Everyone that could switched from cross bows and bows to firearms by the time the flintlock was perfected. The native americans also badly wanted them.
    For quiet squirrel killing I prefer to use CCI quiet segmented bullets rather than the airgun. Overall I can buy a reasonably accurate .22 last time I checked more cheaply than a highly accurate rifle. But maybe that has changed.
    But now that silencers are legal over the counter for air rifles, perhaps the air rifles do have some worth while advantages over a .22. I am not going to buy a silencer for my .22s and do all of that paper work and have to tell the ATF everytime I want to cross a stateline.
     
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    SAWMAN

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    For you airgun guys - - -> What is the typical makeup of an airgun projectile ??
    If it is lead,is it soft lead or hard lead ?? Does the makeup of the projectile have anything to do with the caliber gun ?? IOW . . . are projectiles used in "big bore" guns made of copper,brass,tungsten, etc,etc ??
    Do the airgun guys worry about B.C. of the projectile or is the typical range to target too close ??
    What are the projectile nose shapes offered ??
    Sorry for all the questions . . . just trying to learn something new. --- SAWMAN
     

    FrommerStop

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    For you airgun guys - - -> What is the typical makeup of an airgun projectile ??
    If it is lead,is it soft lead or hard lead ?? Does the makeup of the projectile have anything to do with the caliber gun ?? IOW . . . are projectiles used in "big bore" guns made of copper,brass,tungsten, etc,etc ??
    Do the airgun guys worry about B.C. of the projectile or is the typical range to target too close ??
    What are the projectile nose shapes offered ??
    Sorry for all the questions . . . just trying to learn something new. --- SAWMAN
    I do know the traditional .22 caliber pellets that I used in my old pump crossman pellet rifle were soft lead. I know that the technology has gone well past that. I at one time used a crossman pellet with one .22 cal lead ball shot behind. Killed a large cat with it that was out hunting like I was. Today I would not do that, but at 15 my behavior was different from what it is today.
     

    USMCShooter

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    Sawman, pretty much everything up to .30 is a badminton-shaped pellet...although

    There are several guys out there casting heavier 'air-bullets' down to .25 caliber for some of the higher speed guns, as pellets in them will go super-sonic...a buddy of mine has a .25 Air Force that shoots a 60 grain bullet to around 920fps....but with airguns, this quickly decreases the shot count per air fill..

    There are some companies making up to 9mm 'pellets'....to which I refer to a badminton shape.....but most above .30 that are hunting shoot pistol bullets....a buddy of mine in AZ has tested both soft lead and hard-cast pistol bullets and hasn't seen a significant accuracy difference, but has seen significant penetration differences. Everyone that I personally know that shoots big bore uses mostly pistol, with some using hard-cast 45-70 bullets up to 400 gr. Having seen the impacts of some of them, I liken it to shooting a black powder pistol....big and relatively slow moving...

    One of the things I've heard from several friends that hunt seriously with the big bores is that they prefer a medium-weight pistol bullet....200-240 grain with a large Meplat for energy transfer to game....seems to work well as he took a Red Stag with it as well as a big Nilgai antelope down in texas...

    Someone has said that comparing air guns to archery is apples to oranges....I don't disagree, but I don't agree either....a sharp, cutting point makes a difference....but the FPE for that sharpness is reduced significantly.....however, the ranges are very similar....usually under 50 yards...so an archery mindset lends itself well to airgun hunting.....shot placement and the ability to get in close are key....

    Hope this helps?

    On another note....I've had at least 15 serious firearm/archery buddies that were just disinterested in airguns.....one of them is in danger of his wife killing him now because he's caught the bug...lol! I'd invite anyone to shoot some of them just to see how truly capable they are.....sub MOA to 100 yards isn't that rare in them.....the beauty is....they're QUIET! And ANY trigger time can only make you a better powder burner shooter....prior to any tactical sniper matches, I spend a day with one of my spring guns....if you can shoot a springer accurately, you can shoot anything....

    s/f

    Jamie
     

    SAWMAN

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    A shaft with a broadhead up front has almost no energy dump. Kinetic energy. What it has going for it is a massive amount of penetration.
    When using a projectile,speed and weight are the key ingredients for quick and lasting ( all the way thru the animal) energy transfers to target. The projectiles mushroom or opening is due to the speed and bullet design.
    My opinion (seems to me) with a airgun projectile you would have the worse of both worlds. Not enough expansion for energy transfer because of the slow speed,and not enough penetration and width of projectile (vs broadhead,fixed or mechanical) to completely penetrate for a massive blood loss. --- SAWMAN
     

    USMCShooter

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    Google Predator pellets....I hunt exclusively with them....

    I won't own a gun that won't feed or group them.....which gets me severely chided on many of the airgun forums....except by other serious hunters...as wild as it seems, they have a sharp polymer tip inserted into a hollow point....which comes out at some point through the wound channel....and expands many times to twice the diameter...depends on what it hits first....in .22 I've shot big, Northern Red squirrels facing me, on the bridge of the nose and found them at the base of the tail....calipers show them at .40 diameter....that's 10 inches of penetration, at 35 yards...side to side at anything over 20FPE, to include .177 smokes through them and clips off through the woods....

    I bought into the FPE/ethics game at first....and then talked to a couple of folks that had done empirical, real world testing....and decided I'd do my own....now I'm 100% confident taking shots on game....there is always a chance that a bullet isn't going to perform like expected, in any caliber....and of course the animal gets a vote in the equation as well....

    Would I take my .25 deer hunting, no. Even if it was acceptable....I wouldn't shoot them with the legal .30 in FL either....unless I turned it up and was shooting bullets.....after I tested them in a carcass. I will shoot deer with a big bore....looking at a .45 now....but, I like quiet....until I can get a big bore quiet, I'll just shoot a front-stuffer....but the new Gamo (NOT a fan of the company, but they now own BSA) TC45 has my attention....if it's quiet enough....or I can hush it some more with some lathe work....it'll replace the front-stuffer where legal....I rarely shoot over 50yds anyway....archery mindset....even with my sporterized 6.5X55 Mauser deer rifle....a majority of my shots have been within 100yds.....

    s/f

    Jamie
     

    FLT

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    I’ve never considered them for more than pest in the yard, but I had no idea that big bore air guns had that kind of power. It’s all pretty amazing to me.
     

    FrommerStop

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    I’ve never considered them for more than pest in the yard, but I had no idea that big bore air guns had that kind of power. It’s all pretty amazing to me.
    In the past they were used in warfare. Lewis and clark had an airgun that they used that was big magic to indians that had never seen one before.
    Girandoni air rifle
    Length: 3′ 11″
    Muzzle velocity: about 500 fps (152 m/s), 117 ft lbs (159 J)
    Caliber: 46, 210 grains (13.6 g)
    Place of origin: Holy Roman Empire
    Designer: Bartholomäus Girandoni
    In service: 1780–1815
    Used by: Austrian Empire, United States of America (Lewis and Clark Expedition)
     

    Jevaughn

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    My brother went on a paid deer hunt in Texas area last year, one of the guys in his group used a .357 caliber air rifle, took down a 240lb buck with it at 150+ yards. Now, my brother's all excited and wants to get into airgun hunting. For me, I'm content with my .30-30 or my .308. Granted, I don't get to go into the woods as often as he does, so I'm gonna go for the best 'bang' for my time.
    Youtube has videos showing all kinds of airgun hunting and shooting. Even a good many showing ballistic gel tests, accuracy tests at various ranges. From what I've seen, an airgun won't do as well as your typical hunting rifle at longer ranges, but they seem to be very good at 100-ish yards and less for sure.
     

    SAWMAN

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    Just wondering . . . do you have any stats on the terminal energy produced by that ??gr. pellet/bullet at 150yds ?? --- SAWMAN
     

    Jevaughn

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    Just wondering . . . do you have any stats on the terminal energy produced by that ??gr. pellet/bullet at 150yds ?? --- SAWMAN
    From what I've seen, they're getting 1200-1300 fps at the muzzle with a 120 grain bullet on the higher end with most of the .357/9mm projectile rifles, but 1000 fps is about standard it seems. Granted, they lose velocity with each following round as your air reserve depletes.

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    SAWMAN

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    WOW . . !! . . that is really fast with that heavy of projectile. What are they made out of and what profile ?? --- SAWMAN
     

    FrommerStop

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    My brother went on a paid deer hunt in Texas area last year, one of the guys in his group used a .357 caliber air rifle, took down a 240lb buck with it at 150+ yards. Now, my brother's all excited and wants to get into airgun hunting. For me, I'm content with my .30-30 or my .308. Granted, I don't get to go into the woods as often as he does, so I'm gonna go for the best 'bang' for my time.
    Youtube has videos showing all kinds of airgun hunting and shooting. Even a good many showing ballistic gel tests, accuracy tests at various ranges. From what I've seen, an airgun won't do as well as your typical hunting rifle at longer ranges, but they seem to be very good at 100-ish yards and less for sure.
    The key thing is precise shooting with such weapons.
     

    Jevaughn

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    WOW . . !! . . that is really fast with that heavy of projectile. What are they made out of and what profile ?? --- SAWMAN
    Nosler ballistic tips seem pretty prevalent, but so are cast rounds.

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    Big Shrek

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    Maybe this is being thought of in the wrong way...
    Trump talking about snuffing silencers...but air guns are the ULTIMATE in Silence!!
    No POP, no BANG, no BOOM, not even a pew...

    At a distance of 100+ yards...doubt many would think that the sound of an air gun firing at that range would be a danger, or even something to remember...
     
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