Big bore recommendations
I’m thinking about getting an air rifle with a bit more power. My idea of the ideal big bore gun would be:
120fpe or more
very good accuracy
reasonably quiet (doesn’t have to be 100% silent, but it needs to be a lot quieter than a powder burner)
multiple shots per fill (maybe 5-10?)
reasonable commercial availability of pellets/bullets
weight light enough to hike around with
Is there anything currently available that would fit this description? I’d rather not have electronic parts, but could live with them if they had a good reliabilty record. Multi shot would be a plus (either semi-auto or manual feed from a magazine), but I could live with single shot.
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Silencer is a silencer. If your going to screw it onto the end of your barrel, you could screw it on to a firearm. That’s why we make shrouds or moderators that are extensions of the frame.
Ya and have to pay blah blah, but for an airgun?
Tax stamp is how you legally register a silencer and a can is a silencer. Not possible in good old California.
No reg. 62 ci tank. Started at 250 ish and shot 15 was in the 190’s. I wasn’t able to shoot every shot through the chrony. I put 15 slugs in a tin and fired the first and last through. I’m working on another valve that will be more user friendly and it should push 157.5 gr around 840 fps or 171 gr in the 820 fps. The most I have got is 290 fpe with 171 gr. 240 to 250 fpe is where .308 is suppose to work the best. I was just trying to break 300 fpe and I will but it is going to take more psi and I’m working on that.
Jerry why do you say a tax stamp and a can?
Sounds interesting. How flat is your fps for the 308? Are you using a regulator?
I can build you a 130-140 fpe .25 or I can build you a .308. I’m working on the quiet part of the .308 still but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. .25 being quiet is not a problem. You have to be careful on shrouds when you start hitting 120 fpe. Keeping it on the gun is one of the problems. If you want 175 fpe in .308 I think that 20 shots would be easy with 118 gr. Right now with my setup for 157.5 gr I was going for 15 shots over 200 fle and shot 15 was in the 190’s. So I know I’m getting -at least 12 shots over 200 fpe.
I’m not sure that anything actually meets your specs now! Well, a custom gun might.
Until the Daystate and FX .30s hit the market, there aren’t production .308ish guns available. And the Royale and Wolverine won’t be shooting 100+gr bullets unless the probes can handle single loading slugs. I expect these guns to be very finely tuned for the intended pellets and anything else will require modification or be a disappointment.
The Recluse can hit 980 fps but that’s with ball and it sure isn’t a quiet gun unless you go back to my original recommendation for getting a tax stamp and can. (I’m not certain that the recluse is threaded but I bet it is or can be). Accuracy with ball may be pretty good at shorter ranges, what range do you need accuracy out to? I’ve assumed 100 yards plus since trajectory is important to you.
The Benjamin Rogue is claimed to shoot 6 shots of 100gr ammo at 815 fps and the shroud certainly makes it quieter than other .357s. I’ve not read yet that the 100gr ammo is accurate though. I suppose you might find something that works well.
Don’t forget the importance of BC on trajectory. A pellet at 900 will end up slowing down far faster than a heavy bullet starting at 750. At longer ranges, it is not uncommon to see far more drop with low BC projectiles that started out screaming fast. The 115gr .308 I mentioned has a great BC but it takes a serious gun to get it to 900 and it may not be worth it.
The 120FPE was pretty arbitrary and was really based on what a 22lr will do; more would be better.
I do want to get something near the 900 FPS. It doesn’t have to be exactly that, but I really don’t want the rainbow trajectory from the 600 or 700 fps; I’d rather have the flatter trajectory of 800 or 900 fps. And so far, the guns that look most interesting are the 308 and 9mm/357 ones I’ve seen. But I’m really still trying to figure out what is within the realm of reasonable possibility. The Wolverine does look interesting, but I’m not sold, and the 100+gr slugs sound more interesting than the lighter ones.
Your requirements don’t need a bigbore to fill. Just call Tony and ask for a max power build on a AAA Condor with a slug lede cut.
Pushing a 6 ring at 900 nets over 111 FPE and a 7 ring at that speed makes 128 and that’s been done by several owners/tuners here. Turns out Tony knows a thing or two about shrouds as well…
The smallest, readily obtained big bore is .308. The smallest slug with consistent accuracy (in my experience with customers and fellow enthusiasts) is 115gr. That slug is only doing 686 fps to get 120FPE. Personally, I don’t have a problem with slugs that start slower but lose speed slower and for under 100 yard shots on coyote and below, that would work fine. But, if you require 900 fps, you need a .308 with the ass to hit 200FPE and that is a lot harder to make quiet. Or, you need a .308 that can accurately shoot 76gr slugs and that’s a gamble.
Or…you want a new Wolverine and are specing out requirements to lead to that selection? It’ll have to drive those 47gr pellets to 1072 fps to get 120FPE though…
No, I’ve really just started looking at this, so any suggestions will help me to research what might be available. Thanks.
have you looked into a qb conversion with a full shroud?
Thanks.
Would your recommendation change any if I said my top priorities were accuracy and quiet? With a 2nd priority of getting the fps to around 900?
Seems like the big bore airguns are still on the fringes.
Sounds like you want a Korean BB and maybe an after market shroud or silencer with tax stamp.
Your power/shot count requirements don’t seem hard to meet.
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Yup, no need to go to jail over a quiet airgun! Too bad it’s not an option in CA.
At least custom guns are!