Canadian Airgun Forum

Hey everyone new to the forum. I‘ve been terrorizing squirrels and small game my entire life. I’ve joined this forum to ask for advice. I’m looking at getting back into the air gun scene with the purchase of a new air gun. So im come here today to ask for your advice.
1) .177cal vs 22cal? Pros and cons. Myself i thinking of the .22cal route but im open to discussion.

2) Best air gun website that ships to all of Canada.

3) And lastly. In your group opinion best 500$ and under air gun. Scope preferably included but from what I can tell most are junk out of the box so that’s a minor issue. I’m not looking for fancy. Break barrel or similar styles of loading are fine. I want something hard hitting,reliable and accurate, 1000+fps range.

Welcome to the site from southern Alberta!

Take a look here https://www.airgunsource.ca/us/ to see what is available. Also look at the for sale section of this form. Tell the members what you wish to use the gun for would help with recommendations. Two guns that are PCP in low price range are; Gauntlet , Avenger. https://airgunarcheryfun.ca/ and https://canadashootingsupply.ca/ are good places to check out as well. Do not get to caught up on FPS as pellets start to be unstable at higher end of spectrum. IMHO .22 or .25 maybe the better choice for hunting. If you can find a group shooting Field target in your area, go to a shoot. you will see a lot of air rifles and get some good advice. Plus YouTube has a lot of channels devoted to airguns. Hope this helps you and welcome aboard.

Welcome to the forum.

IMO spring powered 1000+ fps and accuracy do not go hand in hand. Quite the opposite.

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I have some airguns.

Very good comments above!

And as I know for a spring powered air gun, the most powerful magnum type can do around 25, 26fpe (900fps on 22cal, and about 700fps on 25cal), and it's not for 177 because of the pellet weight just too light and you won't have accuracy to even more would probably damage your rifle. And for such a powerful springer, manufacture will detune it for the 177 model.

Usually 900fps is a good muzzle speed for springers that shooting pellets when considering accuracy. Maybe control it lower than 900fps is even better.

For the high power magnum springers, you may have other disadvantages. You got power, but you need much more effort to cock, and the weight of the gun is heavier, and it's usually not scope friendly... For my XS28 Magnum 25cal, I don't dare to adjust the trigger too light, just in order it's always at the safe side... Things like that you can imagine...

At last I agree that the most important thing is still accuracy. Power without control is nothing... And a well placed shot with less power always better than a full power shot which you missed the target...

My XS28 is a Chinese clone of a Diana. It shoots 25g.25cal JSB King at about 670fps, about 25FPE. Good enough accuracy to me. And it's cheap. But you need to be handy or have a good guy who can help you to tune it up or done a good first time open box maintenance before you can enjoy it.

Oh, and for the cocking effort, I have to use both my arms and never made it with one hand...

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~Plinkers~
FX-M3-22 Compact#PP700-Carbine#Diana48-177#XS28M-25@26fpe#HW45 Beast#AW-Custom Z-Killer DE
~Competitors~
FWB300SU#Tau-7#IZH-46M#FWB-65#CP88-C
~Target~
HW 30s/35e/97k/40+Extender/P3+Scope/70#CZ200s Laminated@10fpe#AA ProSport-177@12fpe

Thank you everyone for the quick reply’s. From a little research I’ve done I’m now leaning to a PCP rifle. I still wanna stay near the 500$ budget but a rifle that caught my eye was a Air Venturi Avenger. Seems fairly priced and highly recommended.

Welcome to the forum.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Welcome to the Forum. The Air Venturi Avenger is a great gun. Plus you can eventually upgrade it to a wooden stock. But it will be hard to stay within a $500 budget. As with any PCP rifle you will either need a hand pump or a compressor. The Avenger's factory tune definitely needs a compressor. There are not many underlevers under $500 available. That leaves break barrels, of which many fine guns can be had for your budget. You will also want to upgrade the factory scope that comes with any airgun, they are virtually all throw-aways. I personally would not be without a break barrel. There are days I want to shoot, but do not have the time or want to be bothered with pumping up my PCPs.

Depends on what you need to do and how far you need to shot at, and the budget.

If you don't have PAL, a 495fps is good enough to kill squirrels and birds, etc. within 30 yards. And .22 is better than .177, use dome pellets as they are tiny bit accurate then others and for the little guys you don't really need much knock down power. You can get these rifles right away from Canadian Tire, Cablea's, Sail, etc. For beginner I will suggest you to do so as if you got a problem with the gun you can easily replace it.

If you have PAL, go for whatever you can within the budget--you can search for HAM to see which ones are best rating from 2020/2021 (2022 rating seems not posted yet till last Sunday, I didn't check after), for Springer I believe the Air Arms TX200 is best or choose HW30/50 for more afforable, for PCP it is Air Venture Avenger or Diana Stormrider --both are new user friendly and cost friendly, Multi-Pump will be Seneca Dragon Fly--this thing is deadly accurate in close-mid range and almost 16fpe power

If you want get a rifle with some custom changes/parts, check airgunarcheryfun.ca with Wes and he is always able to give you idea or help you for the tune you required and test it before ship to you.

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A Bunch of
495fps Springers/CO2/PCP
PAL Rated plinkers and target rifles
Finally get my PAL after 1 year waiting

I can just see some HW owners eyebrows raising.

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I have some airguns.

Well, its not me, HAM rated TX200 higher than HW 30/50/90 however HW is also good, as well as cheaper. Diana 34/RWS 3400 also listed as gold awarded springers.

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A Bunch of
495fps Springers/CO2/PCP
PAL Rated plinkers and target rifles
Finally get my PAL after 1 year waiting

In addition, if you want non PAL rated most powerful gun, canadaairgunsupply has Karl .30 495fps version, it is 24FPE for a NON-PAL rated gun...

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A Bunch of
495fps Springers/CO2/PCP
PAL Rated plinkers and target rifles
Finally get my PAL after 1 year waiting

I'm not surprised the under lever bested the break-barrels.
They should have tested the HW97 as it also is an underlever, as-are the HW77s & yes, they are less expensive than the Air Arms rifles.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

That had to have a rainbow trajectory, but perhaps due to greater BC's, is not really different at all. It would be if only going 380fps compared to a .177's 495fps.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Lol~ Yeah, why they compare TX with the HW30/50/90?! Not the same animal at all~

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~Plinkers~
FX-M3-22 Compact#PP700-Carbine#Diana48-177#XS28M-25@26fpe#HW45 Beast#AW-Custom Z-Killer DE
~Competitors~
FWB300SU#Tau-7#IZH-46M#FWB-65#CP88-C
~Target~
HW 30s/35e/97k/40+Extender/P3+Scope/70#CZ200s Laminated@10fpe#AA ProSport-177@12fpe