VarmintAir's Airgun Hunting Blog

FX Whisper .22 - Goes To Local Park - For Ground Squirrel Hunt

Park in the middle of the forest.

The above picture shows what is known, in the local vernacular, as a park.  Most places would probably just call it a meadow.    

It was a gorgeous day, so I decided to take a trip to the local forest, just to hang out for a few hours, and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.  Of course I took an airgun along, just in case I got the urge to do a little ground squirrel hunting.

On my way out of town, I stopped and grabbed a $5 footlong for lunch.  I didn't really have a lot planned, just basically a kick back kind of day. Not planning to do much hunting, I didn't bother to bring the video camera.

I picked a forest road, and started down it until I found this park area, that looked pretty nice, and decided to spend a few hours there.  I pulled into the shade, under a nice big Ponderosa pine tree, and broke out my collapsable canvas camp chair.

One of the things that I like about hunting ground squirrels and chipmunks in this forest is, it's a great way to hone my shooting skills for fall tree squirrel season.  All three critters share the same forest habitat, so while hunting the first two critters, I'm also scouting the same area for tree squirrel sign.  

The Abert's Tassel Eared tree squirrels build their nests in these pine trees.  They aren't great wanderers, and don't venture to far from their home ground, so once you find sign, you know there is a squirrel not to far away.  Getting a shot at one though, is a whole different issue.  They are true masters of concealment.

As I was just sitting and enjoying my lunch, one of the big furballs decided to drop by and see what I was doing in its neighborhood.  It was only about 30 yards away, so I snapped a quick picture of it for posterity. Come this fall, I will be back.

Abert's tree squirrel keeping an eye on me during lunch.  Look at the size of that bushy tail.

The Abert's run about two pounds in weight.  The Golden Mantle ground squirrels run about nine ounces, and the chipmunks around here weigh about three ounces.  In other words, both critters are much, much smaller that the Abert's tree squirrels. Hunting the smaller furballs is a great way to practice for hunting the much bigger tree squirrels.

The ranges that you get shots at are the same for all three types of critters.  After successfully hunting the ground squirrels and chipmunks for four or five months, and taking them regularly from 40 to 60+ yards, the tree squirrels look like they're the size of house cats, in the scope, when it's finally legal to take them starting in October.  It's almost unfair.

After finishing lunch, I decided to take a short walk along the edge of the park, and back into the trees for maybe 50 yards.  For some reason, both the chipmunks, and ground squirrels like to hang out around the edges of these parks.

I grabbed my .22 cal Whisper to take along.  I had gone a couple of hundred yards, and hadn't really seen any activity, when a chipmunk suddenly jumped up onto an old stump at what lasered to be 47 yards. As I was setting up for the shot, a ground squirrel jumped up onto the same stump from behind.  Decisions, decisions.  I decided to go for the ground squirrel.  Fate works in funny ways.  Today, the chipper caught a break.

Since I'm sighted in a half inch high at 50 yards, I held a little low, and sent the pellet on its way.  At impact, the ground squirrel was blown off the back of the stump, and the chipmunk launched itself off of the front, never to be seen again that day.

Ground squirrel taken at 47 yards with FX Whisper.

Since I wasn't real intense about hunting, I decided to head back to my vehicle.  When I got there, as I usually do before putting my gun  away, I quickly glassed the area around me.  As happens many times, I spotted a ground squirrel sitting on a stump out at 52 yards, facing to the left, watching me.

I got the rifle set up on my bipod, and since there was almost no wind, held dead on, on the squirrels ribcage.  When the pellet struck home, the squirrel just dropped in place. It didn't even roll off of the top of the stump.  Instant DRT.

Squirrel taken at 52 yards.

It turned out to be a fun few hours.  If you can dope the wind, it's darned near impossible to miss at these ranges with the .22 cal Whisper.  The 16 grain JSB's, I shoot in it, are impressive to say the least.

Next time out, I'm going to hunt my .20 cal Logun Mk II.  She's another tack driver.

 

 

Ground Squirrel Hunting Video - With The FX T12 Whisper - .22 PCP - Quiet But Deadly

The FX T12 Whisper is a PCP that you don't really hear a lot about.  I've had mine since early 2007, and she has been a stellar performer on a variety of ground squirrels, as well as prairie dogs.

It's manufactured by the FX Airgun Company out of Sweden.  They are known for making excellent quality airguns.  I have several others of theirs, and they are some of the most accurate PCP's that I have had the pleasure of shooting.

The Whisper that I own is in .22.  She takes a 12 round, self indexing magazine, and I get 36 shots on a fill.  The one complaint that some folks have, is the fact that it does not have an air gauge that shows remaining pressure.  I have never found this to be an issue.  I know I get 36 shots (3 mags) on a fill, so when I've gone through three mags, I know it's time to refill.  No big deal.

I took her out yesterday for a romp in the woods, and to see if we could maybe find a few ground squirrels.  I haven't hunted with this rifle in a couple of years, and was really looking forward to getting reacquainted.

As usual, the first thing I did, was to put my portable target frame out at 50 yards, and check my zero.  I keep a 3x5 information card on each of my rifles.  I pulled the one for the Whisper and reviewed the data for this gun.

It showed the best fill pressure to be 2900 psi to give 36 shots.  It also showed that the JSB Exact Jumbo in 15.9/16 grains to be the lead pellet of choice, and also showed that I have her sighted in at one half inch high at 50 yards.

I threw my Caldwell Shooter's Bag on the hood of my vehicle and rested the rifle on it. The wind was pretty stiff, so I waited for it to drop and fired one shot at a Birchwood Casey Shoot-N-C  bullseye target.  The inner circle 10 ring, is one inch in diameter. So I then know, that by holding at six o'clock on the ten ring, it's one half inch from there to the orange dot in the center.  The pellet landed just a tiny fraction of an inch from the orange dot.  The zero is obviously still good, so I put the target frame away, geared up, and started to hunt.

I was only about 75/80 yards into the forest, when I spotted the first squirrel of the day sitting on a stump at 60 yards.  At sixty yards, I put the horizontal crosshair on the top of its head, and because of the left to right wind direction, put the vertical crosshair on the left edge of the squirrels body.  I took up the trigger pressure, the shot broke and rolled the furball off the back of the stump.  Not a bad start to what turned out to be a fun day.

A little while later, I spotted another squirrel sitting on stump, at a little over 100 yards away, and started my stalk to close the distance some.  I shouldn't have bothered.  As I was checking the squirrel through my binoculars, to make sure it hadn't bolted, a Red Tail hawk came whistling out of the trees and grabbed that sucker off the top of that stump.  I've seen that before, but it's still pretty amazing to see when it happens.  Amazing or not, I also knew that a hawk in the area would put a damper on the squirrel hunting for awhile.  

I decided to head back to my vehicle for a lunch break, to let things settle down, and hope the hawk would vacate the area that I was hunting in.  While eating my sandwich, I could see that there was actually a pair of Red Tail hawks soaring above where I was located.  Probably a mated pair.  I had lunch, and just hung out for about half an hour. The hawks eventually disappeared off to the south.

Figuring that things had settled down enough, I grabbed my rifle and headed back into the forest.  I hadn't gone but maybe a hundred yards, when I saw a squirrel hunkered down on a log, facing directly toward me.  The distance lasered at 49 yards. I set the rifle up on my bipod, and holding a bit low for that range, touched off the shot. At pellet impact, the squirrel was picked up and tossed off the back of the log.

Like I seem to manage to do at least once on every hunt, I forgot to put the camera in record mode, so didn't capture the shot on tape.  When I got up to the squirrel though, I could see that the pellet entered just under its nose and had passed the full length of its body. Instant lights out.

The afternoon was a bit overcast, windy and cool, but I was able to locate a few more squirrels, and it turned out to be a very fun day.

Below are some video clips I shot during the hunt.  They run just a bit over 3 minutes, and may take 20 to 30 seconds to load.

 

When it comes to PCP's, I think the FX Whisper is kind of a sleeper.  It sells for under a grand, and when it comes to accuracy, mine holds its own against my other guns no problem.

I really like the synthetic thumbhole stock, and I also like the fact that with the camera mounted, it only weighs a bit over eight pounds.  Even at 8000 foot elevation, I can carry this rig all day.

I've got another area in mind to check out for squirrels, and I think the Whisper will be the gun of choice for that hunt as well.

     

   

 

 

FX T-12 Whisper - .22 cal - Shooting The Baracuda Green - 12.6 Grain Tin Pellets - Over The Chrongraph

I picked this gun up new in early 2007.  It has been a stellar performer, and starred in the second half of my DVD, "Airgun Hunting the California Ground Squirrel."  

I decided, that since it has been awhile since I had run her over the chrono, that I would shoot a string, using the 14.5 grain DYNAMIC PCP-2, tin pellets, and see how she's doing compared to a couple of years ago.

On a 3000 psi fill, she is still real close to the original 36 shot string (3 mags).  This time, the average velocity is just a bit higher at 882 fps, compared to 871 fps the first time.  The ES is 33 fps, compared to 27 fps the first time, but still good enough for my hunting needs.

Since the DYNAMIC tin pellets have become very difficult to come by, and I have a couple of situations where I must use non-lead pellets, if I want to hunt those properties.  I'm curious to see how the performance of the relatively new H&N Baracuda Green tin pellets stack up against the DYNAMIC PCP-2's, in a few of my guns.

I previously tried them in my AA 410CRBSL carbine, and determined, that from a shot count perspective, they are less efficient when it comes to air useage, but beggars can't be choosy, and though they aren't as efficient as the heavier DYNAMIC PCP-2's, they would certainly suffice in a pinch.

I also wanted to see how the Baracuda Greens would perform, from an air use efficiency stand point, in my Whisper.

What I found, was a situation similar to what I saw with the AA 410 carbine.  On a 3000 psi fill, a 36 shot string with the 12.6 grain Baracudas, showed an ES of 77 fps, where the 14.5 grain PCP-2's only showed an ES of 33 fps.  For my hunting application, an ES of 77 fps is just to great, and will have a negative effect on POI, especially at longer ranges.  

If I stopped at 24 shots, with the Baracuda Greens, (2 mags) the ES was a very low 17 fps.  It was with the third mag, that the velocity started to drop like a free falling safe, and the ES climbed like crazy.

I could probably improve things a bit by going to a higher fill pressure, but I don't like exceeding the manufacturers recommended max fill specification, so in actual practice, with this pellet in this gun, I would simply shoot two mags, and then refill the gun.

At this point, I've still got a good supply of the DYNAMIC PCP-2's on hand, so there is no need to switch to the Baracuda Greens just yet, but I always like to have a plan "B" just in case.

Next, I need to give them a good accuracy test at 50 yards.  There is just too much snow on the ground right now to be able to do that, but both this Whisper, and the AA 410 carbine look like they want to shoot this pellet pretty well.  I've only had a chance to do a small test at 25 yards, but they look like they have serious potential.

So, if you are in need of a non-lead pellet, for what ever reason, check out the Barracuda Greens, at first glance, they look like they could be a good substitute for lead pellets.  At least in some guns.

 

  

 

FX Whisper .22 - Prepped For 2012 - California Ground Squirrel Adventures

Ground squirrel hunting, in my corner of the world, kicks off in about five weeks.  This year, I'm going to campaign several different rifles, including my FX Whisper.  I haven't shot this rifle in about three years.

I've owned her for about five or six years, and she was one of the main players in the production of my DVD, "Airgun Hunting the California Ground Squirrel."  The way I have her currently set, she generates about 24 fpe, shooting the DYNAMIC PCP-2 tin pellets, and the accuracy is excellent.

If you happen to have a copy of my DVD, the last half of the video was shot using this rifle and the PCP-2 pellets.  There are kills out to just under 100 yards using that pellet.  She drives the PCP-2's at an average of 871 fps.

The FX Whisper is a fairly light weight rifle.  I wanted to add some weight, so I mounted a Simmons 6.5-20x50mm scope on her.  With the camera mounted, she tips the scale at just under 8.5 pounds.  Light enough to carry all day, yet heavy enough to hold steady in my Stoney Point bipod, when taking a shot.

I'm also going to try the H&N Baracuda Green tin pellets in her, and see how they perform.  The DYNAMIC tin pellets have become very scarce, so it would be nice to have a readily available alternative.

The next thing that I need to do, is clean the barrel, and get her sighted in.  I'm also going to set up the chronograph, and see what she is doing, velocity wise, with the Baracuda Green pellets.  The DYNAMIC PCP-2's are 14.5 grains, and the Baracudas are 12.6 grains, so I'm thinking the velocity will probably be over 900 fps with the Baracudas.

I get 36 shots on a 2900 psi fill.  That's three mags, and that is typically more than enough for a two or three hour hunt.

I'm also going to campaign with my AA 410 CRBSL .22 carbine, and my Marauder .22 cal rifle this year.  This should spread the load a bit, and make for some very fun squirrel hunting.  I can hardly wait to get started.   H-minus five weeks and counting.

As in the past, I'll be posting the hunting stories, with embedded videos, here on the blog.

More to come in February. 

 

FX Whisper - 36 Shot String - With .22 Caliber DYNAMIC PCP-2, 5.54mm Head Diameter - 14.5 Grain Tin Pellets

I don't remember exactly when I first got my FX Whisper, but I'm thinking maybe about 5 or so years ago. I bought it specifically to use in the filming of my DVD, "Airgun Hunting the California Ground Squirrel."

I had originally intended to use my FX Monsoon with the camera mounted to the scope for filming, but soon discovered, that the semi-auto action cycling after each shot, would cause my video camera to malfunction.

Like my FX Monsoon, my Whisper has the synthetic thumbhole stock. The stock design helps to keep the weight down.  This rifle is a pleasure to carry on long hunts.

The accuracy is excellent.  I grabbed a frame out of my hunting DVD, that shows this group being shot at 40 yards.  Coming from the HD video format to a still clip, has the aspect ratio a little funky, but you can still see it shot a bug hole with the tin pellets. The 10 ring on that target is one inch in diameter.

Most of the video clips shown in the second half of my DVD were shot with the camera mounted on the Whisper.  I took ground squirrels from about 30 yards, all the way out to just under 100 yards, and hundreds of squirrels at ranges in-between.  The Whisper's performance with the tin pellets was awesome.

Here's a typical 36 shot string.  I could probably get the power up to around 27 fpe, with the light tin pellet, but it shoots so well at 24.4 fpe, that I've never bothered to try and increase it, plus it kills any squirrel that I can get the crosshairs on.

FX Whisper, 36 shot string, with .22 Caliber DYNAMIC PCP-2, 5.54mm head diameter, 14.5 grain tin pellets, with a 2900 psi fill.

1 - 859     10 - 867     19 - 876     28 - 879

2 - 861     11 - 867     20 - 874     29 - 884

3 - 864     12 - 863    21 - 882     30 - 875

4 - 864     13 - 866    22 - 879     31 - 874

5 - 867     14 - 869    23 - 883     32 - 874

6 - 863     15 - 870    24 - 884     33 - 870

7 - 865     16 - 874     25 - 881     34 - 872

8 - 866     17 - 869    26 - 877     35 - 869 

9 - 868     18 - 871    27 - 886     36 - 861

AVG - 871 fps

ES - 27 fps

FPE - 24.4

The FX Whisper is a ground squirrel slaying machine.  Airguns of Arizona is the importer of the FX line of airguns, as well as the DYNAMIC tin pellets.

Airgun Hunting Video - Prairie Dog Hunting = Shooting in the wind

Prairie dog towns and wind, just go together.  The question isn't, will it be windy today, but just how windy will it be today?  I got out for a hunt yesterday, and knew as soon as I got out of my rig to open the gate to the ranch, that it was going to be a breezy one. 

If it's not windy when I first arrive at the ranch gate, I will usually get in a few hours of hunting before the wind kicks in, but if it's windy at the gate early, it's going to be windy all day, and yesterday it was.

I adjust my hunting style based upon the prevailing wind conditions.  If it's calm, I'll take shots all the way out to 100+ yards.  If it's pretty windy, I'll cut that in half.  On this trip, I limited my shots to inside 60 yards.

I hunted a little with my FX 2000, but mostly was shooting my FX Whisper with the 15.9 grain JSB Exacts. I haven't shot it in almost a year, so the first thing I did was to put my target frame out at 55 yards, throw my Caldwell shooter's bag on the hood, and check my zero.  I have her shooting about a half inch high at 55, so I pretty much hold on, or just a little bit high out to 65 yards.

I was shooting at a Birchwood Casey Shoot-N-C Prairie Chuck target.  One of the nice things about this particular target is, it replicates the real life size of a prairie dog quite well.  So shooting at one of these things, gives me a real good idea of how the pellets are going to hit on actual prairie dogs, at range, in the field.

I set up my target frame so that the wind was at my back.  For checking zero, I wanted to minimize the effects of the wind as much as possible.  I tried to shoot during the lulls. (when the wind was down to about 8 mph)  She put five pellets right where I expected them to go. You could easily cover the group with a quarter.  Considering that I was shooting over the hood, off of a Caldwell bag, in the wind at 55 yards, I was very happy with the results.  I took one final shot at the eye on the Prairie Chuck target, called it close enough for government work, and started hunting.

Winds of 8 to 13 mph will buffet you around pretty good while shooting.  It made the hunt very challenging for sure.

The following is a video of a few of the shots from yesterday.  The first one is of a clean miss. This one was at 53 yards, and all I could see was a very small part of the top of the dogs head sticking up above the lip of the mound.  Their eyes are located very near the tops of their heads, so they don't have to expose very much of themselves when looking around the area. The shot was an RCH high and left.  The way he launched out of the burrow, made me think the pellet said hello on the way by. It was real close, but since we weren't playing horse shoes, it was a miss.  He spun right around and disappeared back down his burrow.  I didn't get a second chance.  

Sorry about the wind noise.  It was bad enough, that it would occasionally swamp the built in mic on the camera.

The video may take 10/15 seconds to load, and is a minute and thirty seconds long.

All in all, it was another fun day afield with a couple of my air rifles, hunting the wily prairie dog. I got myself windburned, but that just comes with the territory, when hunting in the always windy prairie dog towns of the west. 

The season ends tomorrow, until the middle of June, and I'm already making plans to be back out there on opening day.

  

Airgun Hunting Video - FX Whisper - Earning Her Keep

I've had my .22 caliber FX Whisper for a few years now, and it is one of my favorite PCP rifles. From a distance, it is very difficult to tell apart from the FX Monsoon. They both have similar synthetic thumbhole type stocks.

The Whisper is a 12 shot bolt action, where the Monsoon is a 12 shot semi-auto. They use the same rotary type magazine, so that comes in handy when shooting either gun. I have three, and just swap them between rifles.

The scope on it is one of my favorites.  It's the MTC Viper 4-16x50mm with a 30mm tube and side focus.  This scope sports the multiple aim point SCBR, Small Caliber Ballistic Reticle, and works out great on this gun.  It's a heavy scope, but the Whisper is a light rifle, the two match up together well, and make for a nicely balanced hunting rig.

Mine averages 868 fps with 14.5 grain PCP-2 tin pellets, and generates 24 fpe at the muzzle. I think that is a bit low, but the accuracy is superb, and it drops squirrels at long range no problem, so I hate to mess with it, and haven't. Half inch or better, five shot groups at 50 yards in decent conditions, are the norm. I have taken ground squirrels to almost 100 yards with it. Head shots at 65 yards are a no brainer, so to speak.

If you have seen my varmint hunting video, "Airgun Hunting the California Ground Squirrel," the longest shots in the video were made using the Whisper. Those were at 80, 90, and 98 yards.

With the large full length barrel shroud, it lives up to it's name, "Whisper" quite well.

On a 3000 psi fill, I will get three magazines, (36 shots) which are more than enough for a typical mornings hunt.  My hunting routine involves hunting my way around, so that I'm back at my 4Runner for lunch.  At that time, I eat, rehydrate, recharge the rifle, get more ammo if needed, and then head out for the afternoon's hunt.  Works great.  Sometimes, I'll even sneak in a 45 minute nap. LOL.

Mine has the synthetic stock, but it is also available with walnut now. I kind of favor the synthetic, simply because I mainly hunt, and some how my wood stocks pick up dings and doinks that the synthetics don't.

The rifle has a nice field type trigger pull. Mine breaks at just under two pounds. I'm not a big fan of really light triggers on my hunting guns, so I'm very satisfied with the Whisper's trigger pull weight.

The video below is made up of some clips that I shot while hunting California Ground Squirrels with the Whisper.  The first video clip of a head shot, was at 55 yards, and that is the exact sight-in distance on this rifle.  The rest of the clips are between 55, and 70 yards. The sound of the 14.5 grain DYNAMIC PCP-2 tin pellets impacting on the squirrels is very impressive. They are an excellent hunting pellet.

If you watch closely, in several of the slow motion clips, you can see the pellets in flight.

The video may take 10/15 seconds to load, and is two minutes long.

FX T-12 Whisper, light, accurate, plenty of power, and very quiet. It doesn't get too much better than that in a nice hunting PCP. Try one, I think you will like it.