.177 and .22or .22 and .25 for small game?

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Posted: 22 Apr 2026 at 9:17am

Why would the paper punches be smirking? Truthfully you'd be better off with targets than spinners as you can monitor your misses etc as you get use to gun. Checking wind drift of pellets etc.
Theres a cheap spinner target at gun city. A one inch and two inch circles . Push into ground. Page 102 of you got to be out there to see.
Perfect for taking on your trip. Light compact enough to sit in backpack light and simple.

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Posted: 22 Apr 2026 at 12:04pm

Spinners are great once you have your gun(s) dialled in but nothing beats paper for getting your gun dialled in. Even a large piece of cardboard with a simple cross in black marker pen works well. The big advantage with paper - as long as it is big enough, is that you can see if you are high, low ,left or right of you point of aim and adjust accordingly.

Even when you have your guns zeroed at what ever range you prefer, paper is best for working out your hold-overs and hold unders at different ranges.

Can't recall who came up with the bottle top challenge - Pauly5 I think? It's an easy way to test your accuracy is up to par

Regards
-Ec

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Posted: 16 hours 60 minutes ago at 2:00am

if you can only have two air guns...

I'm a .177 shooter/hunter I only have two .177's but that's just because I got lucky but if I could only have two airguns I'd keep my prosport and buy a Diana 31 panther in .22 as I've had one of those and they're awesome, light, accurate (jsb14.3gr) a real outdoors bush basher food harvester with great T05 trigger, I see them at Youngs for $750 the same price as a Cometa Fusion which is a great springer also but it's not Diana level and then the Gamo's are 1k for budget airguns.

Brand is as important as Caliber.

You can buy a sh*t brand and it's a good one, but that's not common

Nowadays I look at survival, .177 and .22 pellets are everywhere. they used to be so much cheaper, I see some AA tins have doubled in price over 5 years and they will never be cheaper than now, so stock up while you can.

.25 I've never seen or tried so I dont know how common the pellets are but I bet they're not that common.

both .177 and .22 12-18ft/lb max with good shot placement will kill any small game in NZ and if the world turns to crap, both will head/neck a duck/goose rabbit/hare/possum out to 60m consistently with the right pellet and practice

I drive a hilux too, think practical if you want to survive

Air-arms Prosport .177 FAC
Optisan 10*32

Air-arms Tx200 Mk3 .177 FAC
Hawke SW 8-32*56

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Posted: 6 hours 37 minutes ago at 12:23pm

True regarding the .25 pellets. Places the GC have a very small selection however they have slugs galore, which I'm not a fan of for what i want.

I've got JSB Hades, Apolo Air Boss domed and Gamo Pro magnum on the way for testing, the latter 2 from Broncos and the JSB from .

I'll post up some results from those pellets.

It'll be hard to beat the .22. for accuracy, but the real test for that will be Friday at 50m.

I do like the magazine system however, and most air rifles don't offer that. It's added complexity, but you can also slide the mag aside and single load pellets too, so if that system fails, there is a fail safe.

There's a few camp sites I go to where getting a feed with either the .22 or .25 will be a goer. They're places where quiet is good. I've used subsonic .22 in the past and distances are close.

I hear what you say about brand, but I'm not sure I agree. I've had rifles and guns from many different manufacturers, and the logo is never a guarantee. Remington, Beretta and Winchester have all let me down on occasion, despite their respective reputations. And, in the case of Remington, that was before almost all their rifles were utter sh*te.

Having said that, I may replace the .25 with a single shot of some kind. I've had 9 concussions and losing a magazine is not out of the realm of possibility. I'll pick up a spare later this week, just in case, and I already have a spare for the .22. Not a deal breaker, considering the single load capability, but just something to be aware of.

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Posted: 5 hours 19 minutes ago at 1:41pm

concussions, you mean head injury and therefore loosing stuff ?

I just stick to straight forward single shots, dont matter if break barrel, side or under lever, as long as you got the pellet it likes and use good technique.

I've always been a .177 fan although years ago a mate went to aussie left me his diana 31 in .22 well that turned out to be an awesome food harvester.

thing is .177 and .22 are in desks , draws all over the world, they like .22lr and 308 common as but .25, .30 like 6.5 or 204 not common, often hard to find.

I can go into most sport shops and buy a tin of something in a decent weight for .177 or .22

Bump into someone and they probably got some pellets somewhere in those calibers, they're like diesel, they will never run out (all trains, trucks, ships, military vehicles all on diesel)

for accuracy at long range i stick to proven results, 10.34gr to 10.65 in .177 or 14.3 to 15.8gr in .22 most brands have something in that range.

Remington isnt a good brand in firearms, that's hype, better of with a Bergara

Thing with airguns is QC is often sh*t in airguns unless you paying top $, I've had big dollar springers with inherent dramas but I have to say both these AA springers have been awesome.

I recently put a new spring in my prosport, never done that before, its twangy as but still awesome as. I might need to send that away, get a guide or something.

Good brands can often be bought at half price of a brand new one if you wait, watch.

I saw 3 tx200's on trademe a week ago, in 3 days they were all gone from $950 to $1500 little while back I seen Youngs had none, now the price is 2k, no mention of prosports anymore and I think they are more comfortable to shoot of me anyway but I will keep pushing forward with the tx.

End of the day .177 and .22 has killed everything in the small game world right back to the beginning when it was all iron sights. the animals havent changed, not any tougher but marketing creates perception.

They say beware the man who only has one gun, he probably knows how to use it...

I know a few of them in the real world.

Any caliber will do the job if you do your part but you dont want to buy a 6.5 creed NO more in airguns when .177 and .22 are proven for decades upon decades

I'm just raving on lol

Air-arms Prosport .177 FAC
Optisan 10*32

Air-arms Tx200 Mk3 .177 FAC
Hawke SW 8-32*56

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Posted: 2 hours 57 minutes ago at 4:03pm

By the time I've finished finding a pellet the .25 really likes, I'll have 10 tins of .22 and the same of .25, only one of which will be genuinely usable in either calibre at anything over 20m, and that's OK. They're cheap, and so am I. The Gamo Hunter in .22 is superb. The JSB Exact diabolo in .25 is the best of 4 I've tried so far and generally accurate, but if I want to match the .22 accuracy, I need to try more which is why the ones I've ordered but couldn't find locally are on their way.

Yep, after 9 concussions, my memory is ............questionable, if I can remember the question. No electrical activity at all in 20% of my right frontal lobe. Thankfully my phone handles all the sh*t I need to remember, if I think to put it in there. Technology is a wonderful thing, sometimes.

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Posted: 1 hour 58 minutes ago at 5:02pm

nothing wrong with tins of pellets that dont work the best for your gear as there will always be someone who needs to try a pellet and one of yours might be what they need to try for their own equipment.

I been struggling to hold good groups with my tx using quality pellets that my prosport loves so after days of trying everything I decided the scope might be fked, so I swapped them, put my hawke 8-32 on the tx, dialed it in and bingo, its an awesome shooter, holding tight groups as good as my prosport to the 40m that I've shot to so far today, I try the 60m and 80m range tomorrow if wind allows.

Anyway I thought well I'll shoot the Prosport with this 10 fixed optic just to be sure its the problem, not fractionally canted or something stupid and that scope just goes so well on the prosport i never would have guessed.

The prosport does have a longer pistol grip and wide flat forestock compared to the tx round shape, it also has a slightly higher check piece and it turned the Prosport into an entirely different animal, fast to get on target, light and it held zero.

I'm going to play with it more later or tomorrow.

I love airguns even when they drive me nuts.

Head injuries, dont let it get you down or define you, I've suffered them also from various serious accidents like the bends lol my memory is also crap and yep Id be fkd without my phone to remember everything or my kids or missus.

Aslong as your out there doing it, pulling the trigger or wanting to your living and enjoying life and that's what matters bro.

If I did ever go .25 it would be this the hueben gk1

https://www.hubenairguns.shop/collections/airguns

I used to have an Edgun Veles, very similar but was in .177 I should never have sold that, I'd sell a politicians kidneys to get it back

Air-arms Prosport .177 FAC
Optisan 10*32

Air-arms Tx200 Mk3 .177 FAC
Hawke SW 8-32*56

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Posted: 1 hour 40 minutes ago at 5:20pm

Mate I'm 66 and i don't ley anything get me down I've been technically dead twice and 3 near drownings that left me coughing up water and blood so given I'm still above ground I'm happy and grateful.

Thanks for that link. I'll have a shufty.

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