VarmintAir's Airgun Hunting Blog

Theoben .20 Caliber Crusader Gets Turned Lose On California Ground Squirrels

The Theoben Crusader is a beautifully made, high power, gas spring air rifle. The fit and finish are excellent.  It is most definitely a man sized rifle. I'm guessing that it takes between 40 and 50 pounds of cocking effort to break the barrel open to load a pellet. 

I have several medium power spring powered air rifles, and wanted to try something that was rated as "high power". After doing some research I decided to buy a Theoben Crusader in .20 caliber. The idea of a gas spring, instead of a standard metal wound spring, was also an interesting concept to me.

I had heard that the firing cycle sensation was quite different from regular spring powered guns, and I wanted to experience that. The stock on mine is nicely checkered walnut. The trigger pull took a bit of getting used to, but after a dozen or so shots, I was very comfortable with using it as it came from the factory. It has a bit of take-up, and then breaks cleanly. If you are fussy about trigger pull, I'm sure it can be improved. 

The firing cycle is interesting, in that it is kind of an inert "thunk". Sort of a very quick punch against your shoulder. It definitely sounds and feels different from any of my regular springers. I like it. The balance is excellent, and it's an easy rifle to carry in the field for long periods of time.

Initially, I put a Bushnell 3200, 7X21X40MM mildot scope on it but then realized that, because it's a break barrel, the breech end of the barrel would hit the sunshade, so I removed the 3200 and mounted a Bushnell 5X15X40MM Legend with mildots instead. It has worked out just great on this rifle. I used the Dampa Mount that came with the rifle.

I tried several different pellets in it, and the definite winner is the Beeman .20 caliber 13.3 grain Kodiaks. When I did my part, I could keep them in a half, to three quarters of an inch group at 50 yards.  

This is definitely a hunting rifle, not a plinker. It's powerful and I use both arms to cock it. An afternoon of just plinking with it will give you some sore muscles for sure, and in the end, not that much fun. It has a lot going for it as a hunter though. Accurate, powerful, with automatic safety, and because it uses a gas spring, you can leave it cocked while hunting without worry about weakening the main spring.

This is an expensive rifle, but very well made, and well worth the money. The next obvious thing for me to do with it was to get out and hunt some ground squirrels.

I'm the sort that always wonders what the heck is around the next bend, or over the next hill. I had one of those questions about a canyon I came across while hunting with the Crusader this past Spring. I had been hunting along a cow path that meandered easily through the oaks, when it suddenly headed down into a canyon I had never hunted before. 

Since I was already a good distance from my truck, and it was late in the day, I decided that canyon would have to wait for another time to be explored.

A few weeks later I had the time to hunt that canyon for the first time. I got to the area early to give myself time to hike through the original area, and into the new canyon. I have found that following cow paths through the woods is a pretty good way to go. They may be big, stupid, and taste good, but they seem to know the least strenuous route to take through steep, hilly terrain.

As I'm following the cow path down into the new canyon, I start seeing squirrels sitting on limbs, stumps, and running through the grass. I think I saw the Crusader smile.

Man, this was virgin territory. There was a large pile of deadfall from an old oak that had toppled many decades ago, and sitting among the limbs were three adult ground squirrels. The range to the farthest one was 48 yards. I was sighted in at 50 yards so I simply rested the rifle on my bipod, put the crosshairs on his chest, and squeezed the trigger.

When the shot broke, there was a loud "THWACK" as the pellet connected, and the squirrel dropped down into the deadfall and out of sight. A second squirrel at about 39 yards simply looked around to see what the noise was about, but didn't run off.  I loaded up another pellet and tried a shot at squirrel number two. This time I aimed at his head, but didn't hold under enough, and the pellet sailed right between it's ears. It could not have missed by more than a quarter of an inch but it might as well have been a mile.

Once again, he just sits there while I load up another round. This time I held on his throat and the pellet caught him right between the eyes. Not so much as a twitch. Instant lights out. The third squirrel decided he had better things to do and disappeared into the pile of deadfall.

This was definitely virgin territory. I was picking squirrels off from about 30 yards on out to my longest shot of 51 yards. The Crusader makes it almost too easy. At a muzzle energy of 19 foot pounds, she was dropping the furballs with resounding authority.

I'm very pleased with the hunting performance of this rifle. She is definitely shooting half minute of squirrel out to fifty yards and beyond. When I do my part, there is no missing with this rifle. One shot kills are the norm.

It turns out that this canyon was well worth coming back to and checking out. I'm glad I took the time to hike in for a day hunt. I will be back.

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The FWB 300S - Varmint Rifle Extraordinaire

Five shots at 15 yards. JSB Exact Express. 

Five shots at 15 yards. JSB Exact Express.

In anticipation of hunting young California Ground Squirrels with this gun, I did a bit of scope swapping today. I still had the Leupold 3X9X33MM EFR mounted on my AA 410CRBSL Carbine from tree squirrel hunting last Fall.

What I discovered while tree squirrel hunting with that combo was, I need a scope on the 410CRBSL that has mildots. It was my first time hunting the Abert's tree squirrels, and I assumed that a 30/40 yard shot would be a long one. Wrong! I had a lot of shot opportunities at 60 to 75 yards. A mildot scope would have been very useful.

On the other hand, the Leupold 3X9 EFR is the perfect scope for the FWB 300S. I limit my shots to a max of 45 yards on ground squirrels with this gun. The duplex crosshair on it works just great with the FWB. I actually have two possible hard aim points with this scope. The first, obviously is the crosshair itself. The other is the tip of the post where the crosshair gets thicker. This also is an additional aimpoint, on the horizontal crosshair, for holding into the wind. Very handy really.

After swapping the scope onto the FWB 300S, I set up a target indoors at 15 yards, and zeroed the scope. The rifle loves 7.9 grain JSB Exact Express pellets. At the top of this story, I've included a couple of typical five shot, 15 yard groups.

I will ultimately sight it in, out-of-doors, at 35 yards and then shoot it at 40, and 45 yards, to get my hold over data. I will also shoot it at 20, 25, and 30 yards to get my hold under data. 

The young ground squirrels start coming above ground each year around the middle of May. They make great .177 caliber, recoilless match air rifle targets.

Most folks don't think of the FWB 300S, 10 meter match rifles  as varmint rifles, but to me they are just that, and very good ones too.

They deliver pin point accuracy, and the remaining power at 45 yards, with a well placed shot, is more than enough to kill a ground squirrel, so there really is no good reason to not hunt with them. I've been hunting with mine for close to 35 years. They truly are amazing air rifles.

At the ripe old age of 66, the years really fly by now, and I'm not trying to rush anything, but I can hardly wait for late May to get here.

Weight Sorted .22 caliber Predator Polymag Polymer Tip Premium Hunting Pellets

Being a varmint/small game hunter, I have been curious about these pellets for some time. I've decided to test them in several of my PCP hunting rifles. I'm curious to know if they are good for short, medium, or long range hunting applications in my guns. 

The first step was to weight sort them to check for consistency. I did the weight check on three 200 pellet tins, for a total of 600 pellets.

The advertised weight of the .22 caliber version is 16 grains. In my experience most pellets come in somewhere around the advertised weight, and that's fine provided they are consistent in the majority.

I use a gemological scale for my weight sorting. These scales are intended to be used for weighing precious gems and other valuable materials. I have found mine to be very accurate, fast, and repeatable. Something I would expect from a scale designed to weigh gems and precious metals. Mine does weigh in grains as well as carats, milligrams, troy ounces, and several other units of measure.

The Predator Polymag's were impressively consistent. The majority weighed in at 16.2 grains. The next largest group was only one tenth of a grain lighter at 16.1 grains, and the third largest group weighed one tenth of a grain heavier, at 16.3 grains. Living on each end of the bell curve turned out to be very lonely. On the light end there were only 6 pellets that weighed 16 grains, and on the heavy end we had a total of 8 pellets at 16.4 grains.

My understanding is that JSB manufactures the lead body of the pellet, and they are then sent to Hungary where the polymer tips are inserted and the packaging occurs.

The next step in this project will to be to shoot them out of several of my PCP hunting rifles. Because of the length with the polymer tip, they can pose a problem in some gun's magazines, so I am going to shoot them out of my RWS Rapier, AA 410ERBSL rifle, AA 410CRBSL carbine, both with the single shot trays, and my Benjamin Discovery. 

This should be an interesting experiment, because all of these rifles shoot the regular 16 grain .22 caliber JSB Exact Jumbo dome head pellets extremely well.

Watch for the accuracy test results in a future blog entry.

Six hundred sorted pellets.

 

The Mental Component of Shooting and Hunting, and Why I Weigh My Hunting Pellets

It's about confidence. Over the decades that I have been hunting and shooting, I have very much become aware of the fact that, in addition to my equipment and physical ability to shoot, there is a mental component to shooting as well. When all of those areas are working at their best, there is no doubt in my mind that I will be able to make the shot when required.

Confidence comes from knowing your ability, having great equipment and knowing how to use it, and eliminating as many variables as possible. In my guns and ammunition, I try and eliminate as many of them as I reasonably can. I constantly hone my hunting technique, and have learned to manage the mental side of shooting along the way. 

Ultimately, the goal is to eliminate as many variables as I can, and then learn to manage those that I can't.  Range estimation used to be a challenge, but with the advent of quality laser range finders, that variable has been eliminated.  

Wind is a variable that can't be eliminated, and has to be managed.  Shooting well in the wind, is a learned skill, and I'm not aware of any real short cuts. You just need to do it, and do it a lot.  The wind doping skills will come with time and experience. 

Much of what I do in airgunning is based on many decades of long range varmint hunting with highly accurate, benchrest quality rifles, and ammunition. 

I view hunting with my airguns in much the same way I did with my powder burners. Eliminate the variables where possible, and learn to control, as best you can, those that you can't.

With airguns, there is no brass to prep to benchrest standards. No neck sizing, no necks to be turned for consistent thickness, and there is no bullet seating depth to experiment with. There are no primer pockets or flash holes to be uniformed, and the concentricity of a loaded round is a non-issue in airguns. 

The concentricity of the pellets made available to us from the pellet manufacturers, is what it is. Nothing much that we can really do to check it, or change it. We just have to believe they hold a very high standard, and I think with the better brands, they do.

What variables does that leave to an airgun hunter to eliminate? Well, buying accurate rifles with good barrels that have a true and proper crown on them is a start. A decent trigger is another plus. For me, the trigger doesn't have to be match grade, but it does have to be consistent. Clear and reliable optics is a given, and a power plant that gives reasonably consistent velocities from shot to shot is a must.

That pretty much leaves us with the ammunition to sort out. Testing multiple pellets in the gun to see what it prefers is the usual plan. I then take it one step further and sort the chosen pellets into groups that are separated by .1 of a grain. 

At one time, I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with sized and unsized high quality pellets, and came to the conclusion that, for my application, it made no measurable difference. 

I do a lot of shooting at prairie dogs and/or ground squirrels in the 50 to 80/90 yard range. Small differences in pellet consistency show up at those distances. 

Once a pellet is chosen, I spend time shooting them at my sight-in distance, and closer and farther distances, to determine my hold over and under data for the ranges that I will typically be shooting at. 

The end result is that from the "mental aspect" of using that gun and ammunition combo to hunt with, I am very confident in their ability to do what is expected on each shot. When I miss, I don't question my equipment or ammunition, I look at what I did wrong on that shot, and what needs to be done to correct the issue on the next shot.

Sorting my hunting pellets by weight is eliminating one of the variables that I have control over. When I go on a hunt, my confidence level is high that the rifle and ammunition combination I am using, is going to do what I need it to when called upon. I can now concentrate on dealing with those things I have no control over, like the wind, and high angle uphill or down hill shots.

Sorting my hunting pellets, is just one part of an organized approach to airgun hunting and shooting that has worked really well for me over the years. I know it makes a difference when shooting at small targets at long ranges, and from a mental stand point, I like that.

The picture at the top of this story shows the results from weight sorting 800 .22 caliber Kodiak pellets. The spread runs from 21.3 grains to 21.9 grains. I shoot them together in the tenth of a grain weight sorted groups. 

Long distance shooting with ammunition that is as good as I know it can be, gives me a mental edge when hunting, and from a confidence standpoint, I like that feeling, and it pays off in the field. 

Five weight sorted, . 22 caliber Kodiaks, fired at 100 yards from an FX 2000 in a light left to right wind. The red dot is 1 inch. The group measures 1.25 inches ctc. That's minute of furball no problem.

 

 

 

 

HW-97 Centennial, .177 Caliber HW Commemorative, Collector's Item or Excellent Hunter?

I think it was the year 2000, that a special edition of the  HW-97 in .177 was introduced, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the HW company being in business. It's a beautiful rifle, sporting a very nice green and silver laminate stock. I picked this gun up as a pre-owned specimen in very good condition. I got it from Bob Newman, at Air Venture in Bellflower California.

Since it didn't have the original box and paper work, I knew it wouldn't be considered a perfect collector's item, so I decided that like the rest of my guns, she would be a hunter.

The scope of choice would be a Bushnell Legend 5X15X40mm mildot mounted in Beeman 5030H rings.

I tried several pellets for accuracy, and the best in this gun is the Beeman 8.6 grain FTS. Average velocity, over a 20 shot string, was 810 fps with an extreme spread of only 5 fps. This is a very consistent and accurate rifle.

I've taken a lot of ground squirrels with this HW-97 rifle, but there is one particular shot that sticks out in my mind.

A friend and I were finishing up a great day afield hunting ground squirrels. We had hunted our way back to my vehicle, and he was busy putting his gear away. I still had a pellet in the barrel of my rifle, and rather than just shoot it into a dirt bank to empty the gun, I started looking around for a target of opportunity.

As I'm looking over the area, I spotted a ground squirrel sitting in the grass chewing on something. I get a quick range on it with my finder. Sixty six yards. About that time it bends over and disappears into the grass. A few seconds later it pops back up, and is holding something in its front paws, that it starts gnawing on.

I immediately get the Centennial up and rested on my Stoney Point bipod to line up a shot. It's late in the day, and there is virtually no wind, so hold over is going to be the only issue I'll need to deal with. 

I rest the first mildot on the very top of the squirrel's head and start to squeeze the trigger, the squirrel suddenly drops down and disappears into the grass again. A few seconds later it's back up and chewing on a late afternoon snack. I let the mildot settle on its head and squeezed off the shot. Instantly the squirrel drops back into the grass.

The shot looked and felt good, but because of the tall grass, I can't see a thing. About the time I was going to take my eye away from the scope and walk over to the spot I last saw the squirrel, a tail slowly rises up out of the grass, and rapidly starts rotating around in a circle. That is the sure sign of a fatal hit.

When I get down to the spot where he dropped, I find a very dead squirrel, and I also see what he was eating, because he still has the acorn in his mouth. The pellet entered at the tip of the right shoulder and passed clear through. Sixty six yards with an 8.6 grain pellet, no wind. I'll take it. The pass through tells me that I have some energy to spare. 

What a great way to get rid of that last pellet. The HW-97 Centennial is a great looking, and shooting rifle. I'm glad I added it to my collection of hunting springers.

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PCP Fill Port Protection, ie., Keeping Dirt Out Of Your Gun's Valve Systems.

One of the critical things to do to keep a PCP (Pre-Charged Pneumatic) airgun functioning properly, is to keep dust, dirt, and debris out of the fill port, and thus out of the air valve system. No one wants to have to deal with an air leak in their rifle.

Some of my guns have fill port protectors built in. Like the Logun MK II with a rotating sleeve that covers the fill port. Some, like the Air Arms 410 and Benjamin Discovery, have screw on, or snap on caps. My FX 2000 has an accessory plug that is put back in the fill port when finished filling, but a few have nothing to keep unwanted material from entering the fill port area, and eventually into the fill valve.

My FX Monsoon, Whisper, RWS Rapier, and Logun Solo, are all guns with no fill port protection. This could be a problem, and was made apparent to me one afternoon when I had stopped to take a few pictures of squirrels I had taken earlier.

I had laid my Whisper across a nearby stump while I shot the photos, and when I went to pick it up to continue hunting, I noticed a bee was crawling into the fill port hole. That's all I would need to do, stuff the fill probe into the port without noticing the bee, and blow bee parts into the air cylinder and valve systems.

After scratching my wooden head for a bit, I came up with an inexpensive, and very viable solution. SOFT FOAM EARPLUGS.

I went down to my friendly neighborhood Walgreens, and picked up a package of foam earplugs. The kind that you roll between your fingers to compress them, and then insert them into the ear canal, and after a bit they will expand up to fill the opening. I cut them down some, because I needed two on each air cylinder, and their length would cause one to push the other out when being inserted from the other side.

I also colored them black with a "Sharpie permanent marker" to better match the gun's finish. They work to perfection. No more worries about bees, or anything else getting into the fill ports on those guns without protection.

As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words", so I've included a picture above, and a couple below showing how I use the earplugs. For contrast, in the gun, I've shown the plug in it's original color, but in actual use, I use the black ones.

The fill port on the Monsoon goes clear through the end of the air cylinder, so there is another plug on the other side. It just doesn't show in the picture. This is a very inexpensive, yet effective method for keeping debris out of guns with fill ports, but no cover or plug.

  

Hunting Prairie Dogs With Airguns. What, are You Nuts? Part II

The day I arrived on the ranch, I spent some time getting my rifles sighted in, and getting ready to start hunting prairie dogs the next day. My back-up gun was an RWS Rapier in .22 caliber. It's essentially the same gun as an FX 2000 with a couple of notable differences. FX made them for RWS using the FX 2000 platform. The stock is a different design, and it uses a two shot shuttle system instead of the eight shot rotary magazine used on the FX 2000. The trigger is the same, and I had adjusted the power to match the FX 2000. It was sighted in exactly the same as the FX . My plan for the back-up gun, should any issues arise with my main gun, was to pull the RWS out of it's stock and put it into the FX 2000 stock. That way everything stays the same as far as the feel of the gun and trigger is concerned. It turned out that I didn't need it, but I wasn't going to travel all the way to Wyoming from Arizona without a back-up gun available. Murphy's law and all.

I was out bright and early the next morning. One of the things I've learned over the years of hunting prairie dogs is, early morning generally means less wind to contend with. Since this was my first day of hunting prairie dogs with an airgun, I wanted to start off with little to no wind, and adapt as it picked up during the day.

The ranch I was hunting on is a 25,000 acre cattle ranch. The owner also raises hay for his own use as well as for sale. The prairie dog towns are scattered around the ranch property. The rancher asked me to specifically focus on a group of dogs that had moved into one of his large hay fields. The amount of damage they do to a field of hay is truly amazing.

As I came over a rise in the road, I was looking down on the hayfield four or five hundred yards in front of me. There were huge barren areas all over the field, and in the middle of every one of those areas was a prairie dog mound or five. Sitting on the the tops of most of the mounds were from three to six dogs. That really got my pulse racing, and put a big smile on my face.

One side of the field bordered on a wash that looked to be about 15 to 20 feet deep, with a bit of sage brush running along the edge. That was a good thing, and I could use it for cover. I decided to use the wash as my approach route to the priaire dogs in the hay field. There was a low spot in the terrain, where I pulled over to get my gear out without being seen by the dogs. I could also follow it down to the wash and start my approach from there.

I could tell from the number of prairie dogs visible, that it was going to be a high volume shoot, and I needed to take air for the PCP rifle with me. I have one of the AIRHOG Pigmee 4500 psi tanks that I hunt with. It gives me enough air for about 250 shots from the FX 2000.

I put the tank on my belt, hung my binoculars and rangefinder around my neck, grabbed my Stoney Point bipod and rifle, and headed for the wash.

The hay field ran about 400 yards along the wash, with lots of dogs from probably 25 yards on out to 100 or more. My plan was to move quietly along the wash, pop up out of it, clean out what dogs I could, drop back into it, move along for about 50 yards, and repeat step one.

It worked to perfection. At the first stop, I got well over a dozen dogs from about 40 yards to 70 yards before the rest decided they didn't want to play anymore. Because the FX 2000 doesn't have any muzzle blast to alarm the neighboring critters, I had lots of dogs sitting on mounds further along, barking and yipping out their warning calls.

One of things about these guys is, they will sit side, by side, watching you while you pick them off one after the other. On my next stop there were 6 young dogs sitting on a mound at 60 yards, and I dropped four of them, with consecutive shots, before the last two bailed.

I spent the entire day working on that hayfield. When I got to the far end of it, I just started working my way back to where I had started. The dogs down there had started coming back out, and I had tons of shooting on my way back to the starting point. I used every bit of available air in my Pigmee tank. I started out keeping  count of the kills, but eventually gave up and just shot dogs. What a blast. I spent another four days there doing very much the same thing in different dog towns located on the ranch.

By the end of the week I was making 80/85 yard shots like they were 50 yarders. Nothing like several hundred shots a day, at varying distances, to hone you shooting skills. Especially wind doping.

There were a few areas on the ranch, where the prairie dogs had been well educated by guys shooting powder burners, and I just could not get close enough to use an airgun, but in those places that were relatively unmolested, it was some of the most fun I've had in years.

I do recommend a high quality, accurate, .22 caliber PCP generating 28 to 32 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle. You need the power to reach out and humanely kill them at the 80/85 yard range where you will get a lot of shots. The 15.9 grain JSB's were passing clear through prairie dog skulls at 75 yards. At 85 yards they didn't usually exit, so that is where I set the distance boundary.

Don't let anyone tell you that prairie dog hunting with airguns isn't practical, because it is, and it's some of the most fun, and challenging shooting a person can have using air power.

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Hunting Prairie Dogs With Airguns. What, are You Nuts?

When most people think about hunting prairie dogs, they think of .22-250's, .220 swifts, .223's, .257 ackley improved's, and other traditional hotrod varmint cartridges for long distance shooting. I decided to do something a bit different and go after them with a "modern adult air rifle". I actually had a few folks laugh right out loud at the very idea.

I've hunted the black-tailed prairie dog for several decades, and I've used a bunch of different center fire varmint rifles over the years, but I also did a lot of walk around shooting with .22 rimfire handguns. Based on my experience with the handguns, I knew it would be feasible to hunt prairie dogs with the right "modern adult air rifle."

My rifle of choice would be my .22 caliber FX 2000, Pre-Charged Pneumatic (PCP) air rifle. I chose this gun because I knew, in good conditions, it could hold close to one, to one and a quarter inch groups at 100 yards. I also chose it because I could dial the power up to a level that I knew would make humane kills on prairie dogs at the 85 to 90 yard ranges that I would be shooting at.

In July of 08, I headed up to a ranch in Wyoming to give airgunning for prairie dogs a go. When I got to the ranch, I didn't immediately go for the prairie dogs. It was mid-afternoon, and instead, I spent a few hours on the prairie sighting in my rifle, and practicing shooting in the prevailing winds...and when you hunt prairie dogs, there will be prevailing winds. 

My sight-in zero was to be 75 yards. I knew that a 50 yard shot would be about as close as I would typically get to the dogs. I also knew that most of my shooting opportunities would fall between 60 and 90 yards.  

With the gun sighted in dead on at 75 yards, I decided to also spend some time shooting at large Birchwood Casey, Shoot-N-C bullseye targets at 50, 75, and 100 yards, in the prevailing winds, to get a feel for the required amount of hold off in those conditions.

I really like the Shoot-N-C targets for long range testing, because the bright lime colored pellet impacts, give immediate visual feedback as to whether the amount of hold off you used was appropriate or not.

My pellet of choice was the 15.9 grain .22 caliber JSB Exact Jumbo. My FX 2000 shoots them into half inch and less at 50 yards. I set the power level to launch them at 940 fps on average. That gave me 31 fpe at the muzzle, and that is more than enough power to handle prairie dogs in the 80 to 90 yard range.

Most of my scopes are variables with mildot reticles. I run them at 8 power.  With a 75 yard zero, I found that I needed a bit more than a one mildot hold over at 100 yards, and a one mildot hold under at 50. At the in between ranges, I would simply extrapolate.

One of the nice things about hunting in a nicely populated dog town is, getting 200 to 300 shots per day is very doable.  At that rate, it doesn't take long to get your hold over, under, and hold off data worked out in actual practice. By the second day, you are making some incredible shots on prairie dogs at ranges most people think of as being in .22 rimfire country. A quality PCP air rifle is an amazing tool, and hunting with one, is one of life's nice pleasures.

I'll get into the actual hunt in the next installment.

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FWB 300S Tyrolean, the Grand Old Lady Still Gets the Job Done

I just love it when a hunting day starts like this one did. 

 

I was through getting my gear out of my truck. I had just finished putting my binoculars and rangefinder around my neck, when I did a quick glance around the area with the naked eye. Something about an old hollow log laying on the hillside by a small creek caught my attention.

It's amazing, how after decades of hunting ground squirrels, you develop a sense of where they will be. There was something about the end of that hollow log that looked a little out of place. 

 

It looked to me like there was a squirrel's head peeking at me from just inside the end of the log. I checked it with the binos. Yep, br're furball is laying in the end of that log with just his head peeking out, watching me get geared up. 

 

I put the rangefinder on him and got 33 yards. Today I'm hunting with my 30 plus year old FWB 300S Tyrolean, 10 meter match air rifle. She's sighted in for 30 yards. My Stoney Point bipod is already set up, so I slip a pellet into the grand old lady's barrel, rest her on my bipod, hold just on the top of his head and send him a wake up call. 

 

The pellet connects with a solid "thwock", he rolls out of the end of the log, and his tail starts cranking like they do with a solid brain shot. 

 

This is good. I haven't even closed up the truck, and I've already got a photo-op volunteer. 

 

Well heck, I might as well look over the rest of the area. I come about 90 degrees to my left, and sitting on the end of an old fallen oak stump, on the side of the hill, is another ground squirrel basking in the early morning sun. 

 

I laser him real quick, and get 37 yards. The morning air is dead calm. I put a little daylight between the horizontal crosshair and the top of his head and squeeze off another shot. I'm shooting the 8.4 grain JSB Exact pellets. 

 

Again the grand old lady works her magic. There's a nice solid, "thwock" and down comes br're squirrel rolling end, over end, down the side of the hill. 

 

This was an amazing start to what turned out to be a great day in the field hunting ground squirrels.  I gathered them up and took a picture of the two of them posing with the Grand Old Lady. 

 

I wound up hunting the entire day with the old gal. It's really fun sometimes, to take old technology into the field, and watch her do her thing. It does take me a few shots though to get the feel for that 8 ounce trigger all over again. 

 

Anyhow, we had a blast, and before we headed for home I took a group photo with some of her other conquests of the day.

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Is the .177 caliber FWB 300S Powerful Enough to Hunt Ground Squirrels With?

Most people don't think of the FWB 300S rifles as hunting guns. They are pretty much thought of as target rifles. I guess I'm the odd man out, because I hunt with mine.

In it's day, the FWB 300S was at the top of the heap, as far as 10 meter recoilless Olympic Competition air rifles were concerned. In the mid 70's I purchased two of them in different configurations. The first one, I call a "sporter" model. It doesn't have any sights, has a somewhat slimmed down stock profile, and is set up for scope use only. It shoots an 8 grain pellet at an average velocity of 610 feet per second.

The second rifle is the FWB 300S Tyrolean stocked version, with adjustable match sights and the full length barrel weight. I removed the rear sight and mounted a scope on it. It shoots an 8 grain pellet right at 600 feet per second.

Both rifles are spring powered, recoilless, side levers.  The fit and finish on these guns is second to none. Not only are they beautiful to look at, but shooting them is one of airgunning's real treats . They generate about 6 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. Not power houses for sure, but with proper shot placement, they do get the job done and are a lot of fun to hunt with.

At ten meters, these guns as expected, will stack pellets one on top of another. The accuracy is truly astounding, but I'm not a target shooter, I'm a hunter. I found early on, that  these rifles within their limitations, were deadly on California Ground Squirrels.

Both rifles are set-up with scopes. The sporter has a Leupold 3X9X33mm duplex EFR on it, and the Tyrolean has a Bushnell Legend, 5X15X40mm mildot riding on her. Both scopes work out really well in the field.  

At first I limited my shots to around 20/25 yards, believing that distance was going to be about the effective range of the pellet/gun combination. What I found however, was the pellets were passing completely through the ground squirrels on head shots, so I started pushing the range out in five yard increments. The result was that I found the effective range for me, on California ground squirrels with the FWB 300S, was more like 45 yards.

On tree squirrels it was a different story. Those guys are tough critters, and are much harder to kill than their ground squirrel cousins.  I found it best to limit shots on tree squirrels to around 20/25 yards. 

The following is a story about a hunt I made with the FWB 300S sporter a couple of years ago. It was an amazing day in the field, and one I will remember for many years to come.

 

Today, I've decided to hunt an area on the ranch that sits at a high elevation, (5000 ft) and has a canopy of ancient (400/600 year old) oak trees. Because of the heavy canopy there isn't a whole lot of ground cover to hide the squirrels.

 

The area is covered with a lot of deadfall, old oak limbs, hollow stumps, old logs and such. The squirrels love to make their burrows in, around, and under these things.  They love to sit on top of an old brush pile, that they have built their den under, and survey their domain. It also gives them a quick escape route, should a predator suddenly appear in the area.

 

I've just received several of my airguns back from being tuned up by the folks at Beeman. One of them is a 30 plus year old Feinwerkbau 300S in .177 caliber. It has a semi-sporter weight stock. In it's day, a variation of this gun was the choice of Olympic Airgun Competitors world wide. It's a spring powered rifle, and is designed to have no recoil.

 

I decided to hunt with it today. It's truly amazing to shoot. The lack of recoil lets you watch the hole from the pellet appear in the target. In my case today, the targets were California ground squirrels.

 

I like to put the pellet in the spot on the squirrels head that's half way between the corner of it's eye, and the ear hole. Hit that spot and it's lights out just about every time. The FWB 300S makes doing that almost too easy. 

 

This years young are above ground now, making for a very target rich environment. It's also the perfect time to be hunting with the 300S. I don't usually get a lot of shots on adult ground squirrels under about 40 yards or so, but the young haven't been educated yet to all of the dangers in their world, so shots on them, from 25 yards on out are quite common.

The young squirrels haven't been kicked out of their dens by their mothers yet either, so multiple squirrel kills from one mound are also very common.

I hunted a small canyon that had produced good results in the past, and I wasn't disappointed today. I hadn't gone 25 yards when I saw the first group of four or five young squirrels near, on, and around a large mound. I took two of them off of the top of the mound before instinct told the others to get under ground.

That scene repeated itself many times over as I hunted my way up the canyon. I lost count of the number of squirrels I took that day, but it might have been a personal best. The temperature was perfect and the squirrels, young and old, were literally everywhere.

My longest shot was 43 yards, which is just about the outer limits of this guns ability in my hands, to cleanly make head shots on ground squirrels.

Other rifles of similar power, like the Beeman .177 R7 for example, would also work well against California Ground Squirrels at similar ranges. 

So, to answer the original question. Yes the FWB 300S is more than capable, in the accuracy and power departments, of taking California Ground Squirrels with head shots, out to 45 yards.  

 

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