Category: Videos

Video Synopsis:

In this video some hunters are out on a 12-day black bear hunting trip in northern Arizona using a .45 caliber PCP air rifle and a mess of dogs. As the video demonstrates, a .45 big bore air rifle pellet can take down just about anything as long as it’s got a enough juice behind it. These guys are using a Bushbuck; however, I personally would go with the new AirForce Texan Big Bore!

As you can see, the dogs tree a huge bear fairly quickly but, just when you think this will be an easy shot, they come across something that gets in the way. I won’t spoil it you’re reading this during the video. I’ll just say it was not just the lawful thing to do but the ethical one as well. The second bear was no so fortunate.

These big bore air rifles are a lot of fun and provide good range for first-class hunting. Although this shouldn’t be so surprising when you consider that they are essentially launching musket balls.  While not reaching the velocities of conventional ammunition, most traditional firearms in effect “waste” a lot of energy as they over penetrate, which is less of a problem with air rifles but it will typically still occur even with big game if using a 500-foot-pound gun unless some bone is in the way. In addition to bear, other North American big game often taken with big bore air rifles includes bison, boar, American elk, red/mule/white tailed deer and cougar. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that game hit with a pellet may not drop as instantaneously as when hit with a conventional round. A such, be prepared to follow or track an animal, which should be made easier by the significant blood loss that should result from a well-placed shot. As you can see in this video, the bear when down pretty darn instantly, but kind of froze for a few moments rather than going out like a light.

Keep it safe, responsible, humane and fun!

If you’ve read our Pest Profile on the Common or “Norway Rat,” then you are already aware of just how invasive and deleterious a pest this species is. Controlling their populations with an air rifle is a very humane way of mitigating their impact, especially because it is laser-specific, unlike poisons that can kill native wildlife and pets just as easily as rats.

The video above is a good demonstration of how to hunt runts within an infested structure. Among other things, I appreciate how patient and careful the shooter was; notice he took only clear head-shots. In this particular case, his conservative approach also minimized the risk of a miss and likely ricochet issues as there were many metal tanks/piping in this old barn.

Hunting in the evening with night vision is probably the best way to get clear shots, since rats are largely nocturnal. However, if you like many can’t afford a good night vision scope, no worries because rats are also “crepuscular” (active around dusk), meaning you also have a good hour or two of shooting around sunset…as long as your standard air rifle optics are bright and clear.

The individual above set a “Nutella” feeding area to try and lure rats into a good location (I never tried this but peanut butter is also easy to use and always seems to work for me). But notice that he was also successful hunting around the livestock feeding areas and associated points of ingress/egress in the vicinity.

Overall, a very good example of responsible and humane air rifle pest control.