An airgun, when used properly for the right job, can be an invaluable prepping tool. A small-caliber airgun relatively quiet, powerful enough to exterminate small pests, extremely accurate at close range and are safer to use in congested population areas.
We did a podcast on the subject, give it a listen while checking out the article based on the podcast information.
Airgun
This article and podcast were motivated by a recent annoying experience with varmints in our yard.
We got our air gun here after a raiding party was perpetrated on a peach tree in our yard, inspiring us to sight in our airgun and get a little bit of practice with it.
Now we regularly practice with firearms, it’s just something that we do a lot of… but we just haven’t shot the ole airgun in a couple of years. Additionally, Spice mentioned following the last time she shot our airgun that the rifle was difficult for her to use.
Are airguns humane?
We have an older Gamo Whisper .22 air rifle, it shoots pellets at 975 feet per second, which gives it 30.19 foot pounds of muzzle energy. The pellets travel downrange starting at 975ish FPS, dropping to about 900 FPS at 20 yards. Assuming a 14.3 grain bullet, that means at 20 yards the gun has a calculated 5.03 inch flesh penetration.
Using this energy calculator, it shows that my airgun/ammo combination has an impact energy of 25.73 foot-pounds.
Is that enough to humanely kill small pests? Absolutely. Here’s a chart I am borrowing from the Valley Pocket Gophers for the amount of impact energy to humanely kill small animals:
Sparrow 2.0ft-lbs
Squirrel – 3.0ft-lbs
Pigeon – 3.0ft-lbs
Rabbit – 5.0ft-lbs
Crow – 5.0ft-lbs
Groundhogs 10+ft-lbs
Raccoon – 40ft-lbs
Fox – 65ft-lbs
Personally, I would feel totally comfortable shooting anything up to a rabbit within 30 yards of me with my airgun. Anything bigger than that, however, I would want to get out a bigger stick or use a live trap (in town).
Rats (Both The Regular Kind & Tree Rats) Are Not Your SHTF Friends
I admit I’ve killed lot of squirrels when I was a kid with an air gun, protecting gardens. Squirrels can endanger your life if you are in a SHTF situation. I’ve shot many a squirrel, and I’ve also shot many a rat with my old Crosman Pump Up .177 pellet gun.
My neighbor had a barn and the area under the barn’s slab was infested with rats. He would pay me and his grandson a nickle a rat to shoot them when we saw them so we would sit on a nearby stump and shoot them when they came out.
As we got older, we graduated to shooting them with .22’s with bird shot and even .410 shotguns. To this day you can go see the bottom of that barn siding is absolutely covered in lead shot impact sites.
Training
Airguns make great training tools, they are cheap to run, quiet and legal a lot of places that have much tighter restrictions.
Check the laws in your own state to determine if airguns are considered firearms. I know that Paranoid Prepper reports that BB guns are firearms in the People’s Republic Of New Jersey, so be sure to check in your own state.
Airguns and BB guns are outstanding training tools for new/young shooters. You can quietly and inexpensively send 1000 rounds downrange a day with a BB gun, and teach all of the skills of safe and effective shooting with one.
Spice’s favorite thing about airguns
We all love spending a great day of shooting, but very few of us care for what comes after… cleaning your gun.
The good news? You don’t have to clean your air gun nearly as much as you do a regular gun.
The guns are not cleaning-free, because pellets are made of lead and they will leave residue in your barrel and eventually gum up your rifling… so running an occasional steel brush down the barrel is a good idea. Still, it’s not the same as shooting 500 rounds of filthy .22 LR ammo, then having to clean your gun.
Choosing an airgun
What kind of airgun do I recommend for prepping purposes?
First, I would avoid any gun that has CO2 cartridges. Why? Because it’s better to not depend on a product that you have to replenish as you use it.
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For basic training I like BB guns, something like the Daisy Powerline 880 which has a BB reservoir, it’s powerful enough to be accurate but cheap to operate.
For a good basic varmint gun? I like something like the Gamo Swarm Maxxim .22 caliber pellet rifle.
There are, of course, many great choices these are just two that I happen to like. Your mileage may vary.
I got a Benjamin Marauder .25 cal because I wanted the option to take down larger varmints if I needed to. With the pellets I use they can deliver 18 foot-pounds at 50 yards which means I can hit anything in my yard and expect a clean kill on all but the largest animals that frequent my property. While we do get fox and raccoons in the middle of the night, during the day the biggest I’ll see are groundhogs and rabbits. There are better hunting pellets, but they don’t all fit in my 8 round magazine, so I considered the current batch a good compromise.
For SHTF, I not only stock about two thousand pellets, I also have an air reservoir with regulator set to 3000 psi for a few dozen refills. And for long term disasters, I have one of those high pressure hand pumps that can refill either the gun’s reservoir or the external reservoir up to 3000 psi…as long as I’m patient. And for a post electric world I have pure optical sights that can replace my electronic sights that are currently attached to the air rifle. Never hurts to be ready, just in case. 😉