How This Simple Weapon Could Save Your Life
Air rifles have long been associated as a kid’s toy or a beginner’s gun. However, these seemingly insignificant rifles can be a survivalist’s best friend. With ammo for popular weapons being in short supply as a result of Homeland Security buying up all the ammo, conserving your defensive munitions has become a top priority.
So, when and if disaster, or worse, Armageddon, strikes to make sure you’re prepared with a quality air rifle. I know what you’re thinking “what in hell is this crazy white boy talking about BB guns for?” Well, allow me to present my case.
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When hunting moderate–to–large game it requires a larger caliber round for obvious reasons, which uses sizable caliber defensive munitions. Plus, unless you’re feeding a village of people from each hunt, you have some unique challenges to deal with in hunting large game.
- Once you’ve brought an animal down and butchered it, you’ll have to preserve the majority of the meat. That could require a power source which may not be available or long processing time required to cure, smoke or jerky the meat.
- Smoking the meat could give away your position to the Zombies (bad idea in a societal collapse situation!)
- Having meat out in the open can also draw other predators looking for an easy meal.
- If you’re on the move, transporting the meat takes time and energy. Not to mention that it uses resources.
If you can do it safely and are willing to leave it behind in a bug out situation, then the advantage is more time between hunts, but in more survival situations than not, medium–to–big game are off the table. That’s where the advantages of an air rifle become very evident. Air rifles are light weight, and you can carry large amounts of ammunition in a small space. You can get 6000 BB’s in most cases for under $10. And with the right air rifle and that number of BBs, you can keep hunting small game animals like squirrel, rabbit, raccoon and various birds.
However, you can’t just pick up a 350 fps Daisy rifle and hope to have major success hunting. Like everything in survival, you need the right tool for the job. At minimum, I would recommend an 800 fps air rifle. It has adequate power for short–to–medium range small game hunts and in my neck of the woods, there are plenty of squirrels and rabbit to harvest for survival.
Preferably, you want 1000 to 1200 fps air rifle and if you can get one with a silencer on it, all the better. With that power, you’ll use less ammunition and kill more quickly and humanely. Plus it broadens your hunt and allows you to bring down slightly larger game-like wild turkey.
What’s the advantage of having an air rifle as a survival strategy?
- Air rifles don’t require much if any cleaning to continue top performance.
- Small game animals are much more abundant and easier to find than larger game animals reducing hunting time and the number of days you may go without food. That allows you to focus on other critical elements of survival.
- The sustainability of your ammunition makes resupply less frequent reducing cost and your risk of a Zombie encounter.
- It minimizes the use of your larger caliber and defensive weapons and munitions.
- It operates by compressing air and not explosive gunpowder. The noise reduction minimizes exposing your position.
- If you add a silencer to that already reduced noise signature, you not only further reduce your exposure to Zombies, it's less probable you’ll frighten your game off, giving you more opportunities to get a kill making survival much more likely.
Gamo Air Rifle
So, as odd as it may sound, one of my main survival weapons is an air rifle and I seriously won’t leave home without it! My pick for the best air rifle is the Gamo Silent Cat! Academy Sports and Outdoors describes the Cat as:
“The Gamo Whisper Silent Cat Air Rifle is a single-shot, .177 caliber air rifle featuring an automatic cocking safety system with an effort of 30 lb. and can fire at speeds up to 1,200 fps with a PBA pellet and 1,000 fps with a lead pellet.
The air rifle has a fluted polymer bull barrel and a non-removable noise dampener, and also includes a 4 x 32 rifle scope with 1-piece mount. Fiber-optic front and rear lights provide optimal visibility, and twin cheek pads make ambidextrous shooting comfortable. A ventilated rubber pad on the butt plate absorbs recoil for smooth shooting.”
Benjamin Air Rifle
If the Cat doesn’t purr for you, then the Benjamin Titan series air rifles might man it up for you a bit. Once again, from Academy the Benjamin Titan XS is described as:
“A rifled steel barrel and an all-weather synthetic stock to provide durability and a ventilated rubber pad to help absorb recoil. This Nitro Piston-powered air rifle has break-barrel action and is designed for use with any .177 pellet. The rifle comes with a Center Point 3 – 9 x 32 scope and features a Weaver-style rail system for easy mounting.”
Whatever rifle suits your specific requirements make sure you get one that has enough power to get the kill quickly and quietly which will conserve ammo and the game you hunt!
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The 22 Rifle: Myths And Truths Exposed
In the view of some, the Crossman pump .22 air rifle is the ideal survivalist air rifle. It is simple to operate, generates good foot pounds of energy and the .22 pellet is more deadly on small game than the .177 pellet. It is quite noiseless in operation. It does have the disadvantage of requiring multiple pumps to reach full velocity, but it is durable beyond belief and will last long after other single pump air rifles have developed air leaks which render them almost valueless. I am not affiliated with the Crossman company in any way, so this opinion is not influenced by any prospect of financial gain.
I love my Umarex 22. Octane. At approx 14-16 feet, it’ll send an pyramyd pointed alloy pellet through hardened sheet steel (like a satalite receiver dish) and auto safety glass (side and rear windows) like a hot knife through butter!