I thought Flashers would have a man to do the shooting, whilst he himself just roamed the grounds of his vast estate?

Happy chrimbo CFH 🙂

One of my colleagues shoots foxes out of her bedroom window.
Me: “What’s the furthest away you’ve got one?”

Her, straight faced: “Just under a mile.”

Is this her?

*Can’t quite believe that Flashy shoots peasants Pheasants with a 12/20 gauge but doesn’t know what air rifle to buy/has any contacts in the shoot he’s in to come & do some rabbit control* 😉

Must have a seriously high powered rifle to be hitting anything at “just under a mile”. Must also be missing and injuring quite a few as well. There aren’t any legally available rifles in the UK that have a grouping capacity to reliably hit a fox from that distance, even if there was no wind

My thoughts entirely. Full bore target shooters can stretch a consistent round to 1000 yards. Modern calibres like 6.5 Creedmoor will stay consistent (ie supersonic) out to 1200 or more. In the real world I shoot rabbits and fox out to long distances, but that’s with a tactical rifle, consistent loads and over forty years of experience. In .243 calibre I would confidently shoot out to 600-700 yards, but then it would have to be a consistent, readable wind. 450-500 is already starting to push the limits on most days. The rifle and scope combination has been built up over a decade to reach that level of confidence. The margin of error on what would be considered an accurate rifle out of the box (ie sub 1 MOA) would make a centre body-mass shot on a fox inhumane much beyond 300 yards.

One of my colleagues shoots foxes out of her bedroom window.

Me: “What’s the furthest away you’ve got one?”

Her, straight faced: “Just under a mile.”

They have quite a big garden and I don’t think she uses an air rifle.

Bullshitter of the highest order .

One of my colleagues shoots foxes out of her bedroom window.

Me: “What’s the furthest away you’ve got one?”

Her, straight faced: “Just under a mile.”

They have quite a big garden and I don’t think she uses an air rifle.

Maybe she’s firing the foxes out of a cannon?

Maybe she’s firing the foxes out of a cannon?

Maybe she’s from Thailand and has a certain skill. Replacing ping-pong balls with these?

If I could track one down, a Theoben with the gas ram. Awesome rifles.

Theoben Rapid 7 for bunny control, but then I would say that as I used to make them. 8)

but then I would say that as I used to make them

What happened to Theoben? Shot a few over the years, fantastic bits of kit.
I always wanted one but could never quite stretch to it.

Rapid? If the Op wants to spend 2.5x times his budget, sure.

Also Theoben springers don’t have the best triggers, if you want a Theoben, buy a Weihrauch.

Jamba – £300 is a reasonable price for a bunny basher considering pellets come in at under £20 for 1000, how much does a slab of shotgun cartridges cost? Also, how likely is the OP to have a garden suitable for shooting a shotgun in? £300 or risking his licence, let’s do the maths…

Theoben went under, financial trouble iirc. See also Parker Hale. I think AA and Daystate are the last ones standing, all the rest either went under or were bought out by other brands parent companies (BSA by Gamo, Webley by Hatsan, Falcon by AA etc.)

As this is an MTB forum, and we all now ride 180mm bikes along tow paths, i’m going to suggest that for shooting small rabbits in your garden then this:

is clearly perfect for the job…… 😆

(if you think being “underbiked” is embarrassing, then you really, really don’t ever want to be “undergunned”)

Suppose it savs on the mincing if you want to make sausages…

Rabbit proof fencing…

Have a look at some of the second hand airguns on airgunbbs.com

Why bother – apply for your FAC and for the price of a half decent air rifle you can get an utterly lovely .22 rimfire,

stevied – Member

What happened to Theoben?

I believe quality went down when they took the manufacturing in house, coupled with very high prices and poor customer service.

Airarms S200 here – bloody lethal.

The muzzle velocity is also adjustable via a grub screw to make it very illegal if you’re daft enough.

When I first got it I sighted it in by pinning a target to a piece of wood 25m away and rested the gun on a box to create a steady platform.

Once I was happy with the adjustments I then went on to shoot off the pushpins that held the target up!

One day I’ll apply for my FAC then I can use my brothers .22 rimfire ad the 17HMR.

Couldn’t you just drive over them like you do with deer?

They have learnt to stand between the headlights…..

how about small bore shot gun ? the local estate used us to keep the local rabbit population down with an old long barreled choked 4-10. good range for a shotgun not too loud and nice recoil.

Why bother – apply for your FAC and for the price of a half decent air rifle you can get an utterly lovely .22 rimfire,

How big do you think his garden is?

This is like someone asking what bike to take round red trails and everyone telling them they need a Brooklyn or Karpiel.

An air gun at sub 12 will be quiet enough to work at their ideal ranges which won’t disturb neighbours or have the embarrassment of the local FEO laughing in your face when he realises you pissed £70 up against the wall to try and shoot rabbits in your garden with a gun utterly inappropriate for the job.

Rimfire is fine for clearing golf courses and working beyond 30odd yards. Provided the land is cleared and safe which unless he’s the Duke of Hampshire I doubt it will be.

Shotguns are shit because they are noisy, one shot and everything runs for the night. Again, unless you’re planning on moving far enough away to take the second shot you would be wasting your time. Just throw fireworks if that’s your plan.

OP this man can help.

Very efficient too, good reviews.

Here

Spot on, Squirrelking. Thanks.

Just deal with them the way that they deal with Pigs in Texas…

‘You can’t do this in France’ says Ted Nugent, whilst shooting pigs from a helicopter.

God help us all.
🙂

+1 for the cat solution. We have two who are really very good at self-feeding, especially in the springtime when the new crop of bunny youngsters is at their most vulnerable. We’re on a mixed farm in the middle of Angus and I’ve not seen a single (self propelled) rabbit in the garden for over ten years.
The only down side is that the big ginger lad has also found a taste for hares and at 9kg, he can manage anything that he can ambush. He brought a live weasel into the house the other day; strangely enough, I wasn’t putting my hands anywhere near that little confrontation, so left them to work it out between them. He didn’t eat the tail…

Oh aye, and air rifles: I’d also vote for the HW77. You do need to use it often enough to become and stay familiar with it but it’s excellent for small game.

Ok so I think I have this figured out, airifles are good but cats are better.

So why not get a cat with an airgun mounted to it’s head, Ultimate bunny hunting machine…

CFH, do you shoot locally?

I don’t know much about air rifles but the few precharged ones I’ve used have been epic (BSA super ten about 12 years ago being notably good).

This guy is pretty good as vermin control snipers go:

[video]https://youtu.be/nsi7I9tH_Ic[/video]

I hope you are going to eat them CFH – or maybe a nice pair of slippers?

The ideal killing spot is between the Eye and Ear. This is easily achievable with a PCP air rifle. A laser range finder will also help in judging distances.
My Air arms S410, can and does kill them at at 50 yards. That is what my scope is zeroed at.
Although its fun, a .22Lr with night vision is a lethal combination.

I’ve picked up quite a few old pre charged pneumatic rifles for as little as £120 if you hunt around .
I picked up a tatty project AirArms TX200 MK1 today for £99 in a local gunshop.
There’s bargains out there, they even had an old BSA Mercury in need of a service for £50.
Get to some shops and see what they have knocking about, you may have to ask as they don’t always put the more used examples on display.
I have all sorts of fancy rifles some costing over four figures, but you know what, most of the vermin I’ve shot has been killed with my old 1980’s Weihrauch 35 in .22. It’s in everyday use as a grab and shoot rifle. Probably had a couple of hundred squirrels with it this year.
So a basic spring gun can do the job.

I picked up a tatty project AirArms TX200 MK1 today for £99 in a local gunshop.

😯
thats a good deal

It was a great deal, but I only went in to get my two air bottles filled 😆

Ill offer you £100 so you can turn a profit 😉

@hammy – Thanks for the offer! Very kind. Think I’ll buy and see what happens from there. Springers appear to be winning so far, if only for the simplicity of the grab & go aspect.

@jerrys – Happy Christmas to you and family, y’old fart! 🙂 Hope you’re on great form and are finally going to get round to cutting that steerer tube down! No guest appearances planned in the near term, but likely to be dropping in later in the Christmas week. Need to take their presents in. Many changes in the offing there, big and good changes! Watch this space…

Well its sat there doing nowt 😉

It was a great deal, but I only went in to get my two air bottles filled

Isn’t that how these things usually happen?

Theoben –

poor customer service

Too right. I spent £650+ on a Rapid 2. 2nd time out a seal went bang. I rang them up, yes, just send it back. We’ll fix it.
Once they had it, they said I’d misused it, as ‘that seal never fails’.
Right. Then they wanted me to pay the return postage, as their guns are totally reliable, and it wasnt a warranty failure.
The gun was totally spotless and had been used correctly. Never would I deal with them again.

Thread resurrection…

Had totally forgotten about this, if I’m honest. Had to go to Mole Valley for a few other bits and bobs and had an impulse purchase of one of these,

VMX Quantum Black

So far so good! Getting the sights dialled in pretty well, grouping on a target the size of a 10p coin at about 30yds and gradually working on a bit more distance. Ever since buying it, the bunnies have disappeared! Still, a nice distraction to be able to plink away in the garden.