Maybe someone will put this in a better section! With the talk of .22 CBs it is time to think of the Air Rifle. An air rifle will do all a 22 CB will do and do it with less noise. A scoped .177 FWB is deadly on small game, you can select a number of different shaped pellets. YMMV. Thursday, October 13, 2005 FWB 124 - a classic pellet rifle by B.B. Pelletier If it's motorcycles, it's a Harley. If it's wristwatches, it's a Rolex. If it's an air rifle, it's an FWB 124. This one spring-piston air rifle epitomizes the entire hobby. Why is it so popular and what makes it such a classic? Feinwerkbau's 124 was an all-time classic air rifle! It ushered in the modern age of magnum spring rifles. The great race for power! The 124 was, perhaps, the first spring-piston rifle to use technology over brute force to develop power. When it was new in the 1970s, the 800 f.p.s. barrier for .177 air rifles loomed large. A few models were knocking at the gate - the Weihrauch 35, the Diana 45 and the BSF 55. They offered nothing especially new, but with brute force and sheer size (except for the BSF) they were poised to break through the barrier. Then, from nowhere, the svelte Feinwerkbau 124 came along and shattered the barrier with power to spare. Within a year, two of the three challengers were also over 800, with only the Weihrauch 35, the largest of them all, still lagging. Feinwerkbau used technology to triumph The FWB 124 used a longer stroke coupled with a long but weak mainspring to generate a more powerful blast of air. Its piston was slender compared to the others, but a modern parachute piston seal made maximum use of the air it compressed. And, let's be fair, the 124 was a wow in .177 but a relative dog in .22, as the model 127. It was a one-trick monkey, while the HW 35 went on to be stretched and supersized into the Beeman R1 early in the 1980s. But, in .177 the FWB reigned supreme. Despite having a less-than-desirable trigger that challenged airgunsmiths and a new automatic safety we all learned to hate, the 124 prevailed above all others. The Weihrauch 35 had a Rekord trigger that put the 124's pitiful unit to shame, but it had to do so from the slow lane. The 124 was shooting around 830 f.p.s. with light pellets compared to the HW 35's 750. And, the powerful 124 had that barrel! FWB barrels are the best Feinwerbau has long had the reputation as the airgun company that makes the finest barrels. It's their forte. The 124 was endowed with a splendid example of what they could do when they put their minds to it. It was bored tight all the way through. When pellets came out the spout, they were always the same size. You never found a rough bore on a 124. The stock was beech, but the early ones had a wundhammer palm swell that delighted the unaccustomed shooting hands of Americans. The trigger blade was black plastic until the complaints piled high enough to force the factory to switch to aluminum. It did not change the trigger-pull one iota! Beeman R1 spring on top is dwarfed by the extra-long 124 spring. The wire is thinner, and the coil diameter is smaller, which made the rifle easy to cock. Easy cocking A 124 is so easy to cock compared to the other powerhouses of the day. That longer stroke allowed the mainspring to be made of thinner wire with a smaller coil diameter, which reduced the cocking effort measurably. Recoil, on the other hand, was the absolute worst in its class. The 124 was the first air rifle with a reputation as a scope-breaker. Today, it feels like a pussycat compared to the Beeman Crow Magnum or Webley Patriot, and modern scopes that have toughened along with the rifles would have no problem with a 124. You can still find a 124 in excellent shape for under $400 if you search. Avoid the internet auctions where prices are off the map. Instead, watch the smaller classified ads, and you can snag your slice of airgunning heaven.
I have a Benjamin that is almost identical to that. There's not a lot of difference in report between that pellet gun and a .22 short....at least, not that my ears can tell--both have that "whap" sound. My pellet gun has more steam than I wanted too...1,200 ft/sec maybe. But, I do agree: pellet guns are smart buy. I would like to get another in .22 caliber. EDIT: I have an RWS Diana and I think it's only 1,100 fps. Check out www.pyramydair.com I have purchased from them before.
Some may think the 124 FWB is a bit dated with its 800 FPS. Of course at the time, early 80s, it was a speedster and with the selection of flat, semi flat or spire point pellets you can take most any game. At that time I had a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo and was always amazed at the bird's eyesight. One afternoon in late fall I had the bird outside. Nearby, at 30 yards was a wood pile infested with mice. The bird loved to hunt the mice but on this day I let him "point" them for me. he could see the movements before I had a clue of their location. The bird continued to move his head from side to side and peer at one spot, trusting the bird I used the scope and targeted a tuft of grass at the base of a log. Pow! And we went to see if we scored. Laying very dead was a small mouse at the exact spot I had aimed. Mr. Pat, the bird, enjoyed a fresh bit of meat and I could not have been happier if a Boone and Crocket trophy. Any good mix and match between man and beast is a great team way to hunt. Someplace on the www is a better story by a famous writer and big game hunter on using the FWB 124. I'll see if I can find it.
Ah, here it is. And yes I still have my 124 FWB. BACKYARD SAFARI by Peter Hathaway Capstick First Printed in GUNS & AMMO June 1997 Reprinted in Last Horizons by Peter H Capstick (c)1988 AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION Whether you're toting a .600 Nitro Express or a slingshot, hunting is a state of mind, and the only difference between a rhino and rat is strictly between your ears. Today, whereas so much acreage used to be available to the shooter, urban swell and population growth have greatly cut back the freedom of the congenital rifleman. But be of good heart! Relief is here! Just open the back door... -------------------------------------- Molten platinum ribbons of tropical moonlight were just beginning to pour through broken clouds on the black eastern horizon when I felt the first patch of hackles prick up on the back of my camouflaged neck. But had I really heard it? Or was it just the caress of night breeze against the dense bush? I closed my eyes, concentrating upon the mottled shadows until my ears rang. Then, it came again, the furtive flutter of foliage, the most subtle, sneaking approach of the long-fanged predator oozing with almost perfect silence toward the bait. As slowly as I could, I took a long, deep breath and pressed stiff fingers into my solar plexus, lifting it off my stomach and calming the rookery of great blue herons that were flapping around inside. Quietly exhaling, I began to inch the rifle into position on the padded forked stick in front of the camp chair in my flimsy blind. Slipping up into firing position, I felt the cool Monte Carlo of the walnut stock smooth and snug against my face. Through the Bushnell Scopechief IV variable 1.5X-4.5X, screwed to full magnification to gather the thin, silver light, the scene was eerie, dreamlike, as I searched for the night creature I knew to be out there, lurking somewhere in the dark horror of jungle plants. A dozen fears and afterthoughts tore through my skull: Why hadn't I taken the time to build machan safely over the jungle floor? Why hadn't I brought the .577 double instead of the light rifle? What if there were a charge in this half light? I swallowed, steeling my resolve. I was a professional just doing what had to be done. It would be one shot or nothing. There was still time to back out, I calculated; I could always tell the authorities he had just never shown up. Then he was there, tremendous through the quivering lens, eyes bright over long, yellow teeth, the moonbeams glistening dully on his sleek fur. Sniffing the air, he moved cautiously closer, the crosshairs following him as the Multi-X reticle bounced them along like the trace line of an electrocardiogram. Wait, I told myself, wait until he settles down to feed upon his grisly meal. A glide of movement brought him furtively closer to the bait, glancing about him constantly. With nerves of Teflon coated titanium alloy, I froze as he turned my way, stared right at me, then went straight for the bait. The moment had come. I eased the intersection of the reticle until it rested exactly between his eye and ear, the close-up sight of his rippling jaw muscles sending a subconscious shiver of apprehension through me as I drew my shooting breath. I felt the flesh of my finger compress ever so slightly as the crisp trigger corrugations gripped. Then, with a soft blap, the meaty thud of the little bullet melded with the snap and recoil of the rifle. A single, convulsive movement and I knew I had done it again. The hard way. Well, I thought with satisfaction and relief, that's why you're a Pro. "Get another one, honey?" My wife's call from the front door startled me out of my reverie. I answered her that I had, indeed, triumphed over a superb male specimen of what we used to call in Rhodesia a bull gundwan. That's a rat to you, Norwegian variety. "Don't worry, dear," she bellowed soothingly across the parking lot, "I'll get rid of it for you. I know how ookie you think they are!" I shushed her, fearing the neighbors might hear, which would not overly elevate my status as Resident Professional White Hunter. "Thanks, honey," I answered in a hopefully over-hearable shout. "I wouldn't want to take a chance on bending over with that tricky disc of mine acting up the way it's been. Just put him with the others and check the bait. I might get a couple more before Johnny Carson." Cat, my wife, gunbearer, provisioner, and retriever, came out and, with a Kleenex-insulated hand, gripped the big rat by the tail and deposited him atop the pile of my three earlier victims, admiring-as she'd learned she had damned well better-the precision of bullet placement on the rodent's knob. She checked the bait-a portion of a Whopper, double meat, extra cheese, hold the onion-with the expert eye of a wild wandorobo with a Sarah Lawrence degree and pronounced it acceptable for at least the rest of the evening's safari. On the presumption that you are willing to part with the $1.50 newsstand price of this collection of timeless literature probably to look at the pictures, or you'd take advantage of the great deals on subscription specials offered herein, the same presumption concludes that you are a shooter/hunter who has left in your atrophying arteries more of the standard imbuement of hunting instinct than the average Girl Scout, IRS agent, or Vogue editor. If you're doing it right, hunting and shooting are states of mind. As I see it, if you rate a deer or duck the on the degree of success achieved rather then by number of chilblains accumulated, or your delivery on your very own of Capstick's Third Law of Aquadynamics (cold water flows into a hole in your boot at pi-r-squared the rate of warm water), please don't bother to read farther. Go shoot a roosting day pigeon or suck a quail egg. This isn't for you. However, if you enjoy psychic tiger hunting all year long, matching wits with the deadly and challenging Beasts of Ravin just about any time you are stricken with a dose of hunting fever, then your ship has just come in. It's of German registry and exclusively represented in this country by Beeman, Dept. SMP, 3440-GAC Airway, Santa Rosa, CA 95403. Consistent with the tradition that all guns must have a model number that means absolutely nothing, it has been dubbed the Beeman Feinwerkbau 124, which is the designation for .177 caliber (see what I mean?) or the Model 127, which is the same gun in .22 caliber. To refer to the 124 (my personal choice of the two for reasons we'll get into in a moment) as just another pellet gun is comparable to calling the .600 Nitro Express a "medium" rifle. Airgun hunting as a sport has recently been at ground zero of a running controversy between manufacturers, shooters, and shooting organizations. This writer, who is not best known for his collection of Presidential Citations for Morality, chooses not to further prove the point by moralizing on the issue, part of the crux of which is the fear of many pro-gun groups that if airgun hunting becomes widespread for otherwise legitimate game with guns of the capability of the Beeman FWB series, then the anti-gun gang who love nothing better than to dictate from lofty and generally ignorant and emotion-biased platforms what the rest of the public can't do, will probably legislate a Wasserman test for every kid who owns a Daisy. However, although an FWB 124 will kill rabbits and squirrel deader than true love at surprising distances with proper bullet placement, I have not yet heard of one involved in knocking over a Brink's armored car or implicated in any large, impulsive bank withdrawals. One area that seems unassailed by any faction is the use of the high-powered adult air-guns for pest control on damaging species such as rats, mice, starlings, sparrows, feral pigeons, and even crows under suburban conditions (where local laws permit--check first!) without the danger of an overpowered firearm bullet even as small as the .22 rimfire carrying perilously far. So let's presume that you would like the opportunity for some really challenging off-season, no limit varmint hunting without a couple of sections of backwoods Wyoming required for your hunting ground. The answer is a superbly accurate, high-velocity adult air gun, with low muzzle report, matched with a good scope and using properly designed pointed pellets that will do their job. The most basic decisions to be made in choice of a serious vermin control/casual target gun would be of type and caliber. Most production models of all makes range from the .177(4.5 mm) to the .20 caliber, mostly dominated by the Sheridan Company and the .22 offered by most American firms, but rare in Europe and Japan, where precision airgun shooting is really big business. There have been much larger caliber offerings recently, even .25, but let's keep this discussion as simple as possible, which if you've read this far would seem just about up to the author's capabilities. There are three basic types of long arms in the clan: the spring-piston style; the pump-up pneumatics, which compress air in a chamber to a pressure dependent upon the number of strokes; and the C02 guns, which draw their propulsive power from commercial cylinders of the seltzer-bottle-charger type. There are good points going for each type of gun. The pump-ups may vary penetration and velocity at will by regulating how much air is compressed. They are generally quite a bit less expensive than the spring-piston type and, although not as accurate, as well as requiring a hell of a lot of work to build up respectable velocity in most models, may be a good choice if you're just starting out whisper gunning. The C02 guns are really not suitable for serious varminting because of the nature of the gas used to fire them. Carbon dioxide and the pressure it develops in its cylinder depends a great deal upon ambient air temperature, quantity of the gas left in the cylinder, and how frequently shots are fired. Velocities and trajectories may vary widely, precluding their consideration as serious tack drivers, although they make great fun guns for around camp. But when it's cold out, brother, forget the gas guns and go back to girls. It's much more rewarding. Make no mistake, any of these types of airguns can and will kill small vermin efficiently; I merely maintain that because small pests have very small vital areas and the rules of sportsmanship apply equally to any phase of the hunting sports, then the most consistently accurate and powerful gun is, by definition, the best choice for the job. That, me little darlin', is without question the spring-piston, which I am damned tired of hyphenating and will hereafter refer to as the SP. Unlike golf dubs, the SP generically comes in only three species, the side-cocking, which uses a horizontal lever to compress the mainspring, the under-cocked, which does the same bloody thing vertically, and the barrel-cocking type typified by the Beeman FWB 124 and 127, which uses-ah, you're too quick for me-the barrel itself to compress that spring-steel black mamba that Bob Beeman faithfully promises is the world's longest air-rifle mainspring, thirteen and a half inches. It's not in the Guinness Book, but I'll take his word for it When you fire it, you will too! When you drain off the broth, the meat of the Mulligan is that the 124 will whistle a .177 pointed-style Beeman Silver Jet Magnum hunting pellet of around 8 1/2 grains at an average muzzle velocity of about 800 fps and a bench-rest average accuracy center-to-center of .15 of an inch. This is a small piece of trouble you do not wish to insert yourself between and its ultimate destination. This incredible velocity, generated by only one cocking maneuver of eighteen pounds effort, coupled with spooky accuracy, forms a song-and-dance team that makes head shots on rats, ground squirrels and a wide assortment of feathered heathens reasonably practical out to ranges of as far as fifty yards, and, given a good rest and quiet wind conditions, an almost dead-if you'll excuse the term-certainty at thirty-five yards. Now, just when you've become convinced that I have suffered some form of skull depression on my cerebral cortex resulting in complete ignorance of the superiority of the .22 skirted pellet over the piddling .177, permit me to apply the theoretical brakes and flip you a ballistic knuckleball. If you and I were sitting around Riley's Bar in Maun, Botswana, with our feet up and our fists full of something long, brown, and iceless, comparing lies about redheaded women and the relative ballistic coefficients (I once dated a .681 but couldn't handle the recoil in the long run), we would soon tire of such ethereal matters and get down to bullets and what they're supposed to do. If you're like most Americans, you've been brainwashed into the old "hydraulic bullet shock" theory, which I personally refer to as the "hydraulic crock" theory. You know the one I mean; it's as common as bank overdrafts and hangnails, where faster and lighter is better than slower and heavier. Lord only knows how many collect obscene phone calls I've fielded from some of my previous articles espousing theories of bullet performance during a decade plus of Karamojo Bell Fixation which led me steely eyed and stone broke into Safridom, but I'll tell you a thing, the same thing those five off-safari pro hunters over there by the bar will tell you: Penetration is what counts! If it doesn't get there, it doesn't matter if it was ever even fired. Well, Lassie, come home. All's forgiven. Just when I was seriously considering using my own name (Sparse Gray Matter), I have finally hit upon the Tupperware of ballistics, the only set of circumstances I have found between the sixteen-inch naval rifle and the 2.7-mm Kolibri Auto in which there is actually, genuinely, a situation in which lighter and faster is better! Have you recovered? Well I gotcha again, because it hinges in the hollow design inherent in the skirted pellets that air-guns handle, giving a decisive edge in penetration to the .177 over the .22, despite the implied laws of mass, weight, motion, and the Surrender of German Samoa. So help me hangover, the .177 is, all things considered, the top banana as far as hunting performance is concerned. With my thanks to Robert Beeman (who will likely be named co-respondent in this case, and who is a top purveyor of the finest of airguns and confidentially will even provide .22 caliber guns in plain brown wrappers) and drawing upon my own field research, there are quite a few reasons why the .177 is a better choice for varminteering than the .22. For one thing, never be openly associated with even numbers. The other kids will snub you for having a .22; I know. Now, if you have a .21, a .23, or dream of three digits--a .177, your social prowess will rise meteorically. Further, the .177 is innately smoother in flight than the .22. The .177 produces center-to-center groups 20 to 25 percent smaller than the .22 caliber. Should you doubt this, please advise me where I may purchase a top quality, Olympic Grade, match air rifle in double-deuce caliber. See what I mean? Now, a spin-off of this weight/power/velocity/diameter sectional density/air-resistance factor is easily seen in a common field problem of archers: game hears the twang of the bowstring and is elsewhere when the arrow arrives where it was aimed. Or, at least, where it was supposed to be aimed. This same thing can be a sticky factor in medium to long shots with pellet rifles, which in either caliber are subsonic in both models of the Beeman/FWB. If you are, however, firing the .177, you've got an average 200-fps jump over the .22, which is not exactly throwing rocks. This velocity advantage is normally the difference between varmints reacting to the snap of the firing mechanism or still being where they're supposed to be when that nasty little 8.5 grains of lead terminal tranquilizer arrives. When the kill-zone of a small verminous animal averages the size of a quarter, a twitch caused by muzzle report means a miss. Another happy propensity of the .177 pellet in the pointed hunting configuration is that in additionally giving better penetration, it paradoxically expands better (proportionately) and, because of velocity, creates more internal damage in tissue. Having eaten five tacos the other night, I can personally assure you this effect is devastating. If you're interested in ventilating larger varmints, such as crows or pterodactyls (I've killed nine of the former out of the bathroom window over the past two years with ten shots with the 124) the moxie the pellet retains upon arrival is paramount caliber selection. The superiority of the 4.5 mm is clear over the .22 overwhelmingly in the zeroing formula. A dead on setting at ten yards will cause the pellet to rise about one and three quarters inches above the line of sight, and then be spot on at zero again at thirty yards. At fifty yards which, let's face it, is the top end of practical hunting ranges of the non-powder guns in these caliber's (although at seventy-five yards under virtual laboratory conditions, the 475 foot-seconds remaining would permit a head-on kill of a ground squirrel) the holdover would be about the same as the hold-under at fifteen to twenty-five yards, i.e., an inch to an inch and three quarters. This is much flatter than the .22-caliber airguns, and if the shooter learns to think in teens of ten-yard increments, his field results with a good rest would be scary. Of course, as great an all-season hunting gun as is the variable-scoped 124, it is equally superb as a plinker or occasional shooter. The light sectional density and rapid falloff of velocity past reasonable shooting ranges assures you that you won't endanger the clergy or valid taxpayers beyond about three hundred yards with a missed shot and an unimpeded pellet. Yet, to this old elephant hunter, who will soon be combing his hair with a washcloth, the 124 and its kin, no matter what you choose in good relative quality airguns, is still a constant and legal excuse to wallow in that purest essence of your hunting and shooting heritage, merely being afield with a handful of clean walnut and fine, precision steel, topped off with a crisp, bright scope, walking with the shadows of the Good Ones who have gone to better covers. Your man-eating leopards, like mine, may be wharf rats, and your bustards feral pigeons. You, who are used to being lord of ten thousand square miles of miombo and nyika, may find the extent of your safari concession your suburban backyard. But it's not really different at all; the essence is the same. Airgun hunting is the perfect microcosm of big-game stalking and shooting, perhaps even more demanding of the rifleman, considering the cunning of the prey and the absolute precision of shooting required for humane, instantaneous death. Perhaps one dark day they will say of Capstick, the Great White Hunter, "HE STALKED THE STARLING AND SAVAGED THE SPARROW; HE MET THE RAT IN DARKNESS." I also suspect a smaller inscription, subscribed to by those who hunted with me: "We, however, have only his word for such deeds, as it was well known he was half Irish."
I really like this. http://www.pyramydair.com/s/a/Pelle...sionid=A83571C8DAE76EA1161D61F624882D05.app02 Gonna order right now. Thanks
http://www.airgundepot.com/big-bore-article.html http://www.cabelas.com/air-rifles-benjamin-rogue-357-epcp-air-rifle.shtml Sloth
For those of you interested, I was just looking through my July 20 issue of Shotgun News and there is a story on air rifles in there.
There has long been a debate about air rifles being used in a SHTF scenario and many people miss the point. The thought process is that you will have to shoot many two legged animals and large elephant size four legged ones. The majority of the time you will be launching projectiles at small game. This is not a do all tool but, it is another one to put in your tool box. Improvise, Adapt, Modify, and Overcome. FTM/PTB
Try the Daystate Wolverine in 303 caliber and not that not a misprint it 303 caliber lead pellet at a 100 ft.pds of power . Here is what you get with the rifle -bolt action -100.ft pds of power out of the rifle -5-shot magazine -15 shots before you need to refill the rifle onboard air tank or what ever you call it -air capacity is 300.cc -over all length is 44.inchs long -barrel length is 23.inch'" long -wieght is 9.pds without a scope I also have a Walther LG-300-177.cal single shot match air rifle that i use for 10.meter air rifle brenchrest that been set up with a fixed 4.power scope to shoot the brenchrest matchs .This rifle i get about 500.shots out of the rifle onbroad air tank before i need to refill it with a small scuba tank set up that i have. So this rifle will great for small up to meduim sized game animals
http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/bandit_1.html Nice thing is you can cast your own slugs for it I like that Benjamin .357 too.. still have my grandpas Bemjamin pump air pistol made many many decades ago and it still works
I've still got my Benjamin Blue Streak in 5mm from like 30 years ago. Still does single shot kills on Woodchucks, Skunks and Raccoons. Not sure how fast it is but it works for me.
I have an RWS Diana M48 with a Leapers 3-9 x 50. Sighted in with Beeman, RWS, or JSB pellets, it is a precision shooter. Eye dotting good on squirrels at 25-30 yards. If you have the space. springers or gas are a lot of fun.
Tried to start my truck 2 weeks ago, no go, found a nest on the wheel well cover. The tree rat had built a nest that consumed the wiring harness for my cruise control and window washer fluid hose and all the other sticks and leaves he could find. Racoons and Tree rats are not Disney Animals, just Targets on the move.
