Which fac air rifle calibre

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shezza87

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Morning guys.
I’m sure this topic has been done to death.
I have had air rifles most of my life. Mainly springers.
I’m about to lut in a variation for an FAC
airgun.
There is a nice .25 fx locally but i have zero experience with this cal
Can someone shed some light on pros and cons.
Many thanks
 
It would be .22 for me in fac in your place . . better pellet choice. pcp or springer . Personally i love 177 in fac . yes the power is lower there is also less strain on the rifle . and as power is only based on pellet weight and speed and knowing 900 /950fps is about the best speed for pellets . i stick with the precision accuracy of the 177 . and i get a choice of pellets from light to inside .22 weights i can fine tune the accuracy. after all we dont do big game in the uk with airguns. A precision hole in the head still equals dead.
 
I'm in a similar position and I have opted for .22. Whether it's the right choice remains to be seen. I choose .22 purely as I have 1000's of .22 pellets already. I'm happy to be advised otherwise though, especially from those with more experience.
 
Unless you want very serious power, for the typical types of game you are going to shoot with a FAC airgun, I think .25 is probably the best choice. Still quite a wide range of pellet choices which aren't too expensive and yet the weight is about right for most power applications. If you want a lower power FAC say 20-40 ft-lbs .22 can obviously work very well
 
I went with .25" as its often very windy where I hunt and the heavier pellet is less affected by a cross wind. At 63 ft/lbs I'll confidently use it for crows at 100m.
 
I've used a FAC .25 FX Crown for almost five years now. I use it in preference to ,22LR and .17HMR when I can as it's cheaper and very deadly. Wind , weather and distance requirements dictate. I use JSB pellets , mostly exact king 25.39g sometimes hades or exact king heavy which are 33.95g. I haven't seen the need to try slugs with it. Quarry is mostly woodpigeon, corvids, rabbit, grey squirrel and rat. Provided I do my bit it kills everything cleanly. I sometimes drop the power if i'm in a fixed spot to the target . I can make scope adjustments to give an appropriate zero. Here are the power settings :

FX CROWN with JSB Hades 26.54g

Power ratings:

Setting FPS ft lbs

MAX 930 50.98
5 895 47.22
4 836 41.20
3 775 35.40
2 714 30.05
1 664 25.99

I like the calibre , it hits hard at the target but I doubt there's much difference between FAC .22 Air but I confess I haven't tried it. I'm sure OP you won't regret going .25 though. Hope this helps a bit.
 
bear-uk said:
Regarding power, my fac air rifle is very loud running around 75 ft lbs. Whereas my.22 rimfire is totally silent.
Click to expand...
Noise would play a big part in it. Some of the places i shoot are pretty close to houses.
I like the idea of an fx as i understand they can turn the power up or down. This may not suite a .25 though.
 
shezza87 said:
Noise would play a big part in it. Some of the places i shoot are pretty close to houses.
I like the idea of an fx as i understand they can turn the power up or down. This may not suite a .25 though.
Click to expand...
I can turn my agt Vulcan 3 down so it's quite but obviously the weight of the slug drops. It's probably easier to play around the the fx to meet your need's.
If you don't want to throw a heavy slug a long way there's no need to Max the gun out.
 
Martial Rosie said:
I've used a FAC .25 FX Crown for almost five years now. I use it in preference to ,22LR and .17HMR when I can as it's cheaper and very deadly. Wind , weather and distance requirements dictate. I use JSB pellets , mostly exact king 25.39g sometimes hades or exact king heavy which are 33.95g. I haven't seen the need to try slugs with it. Quarry is mostly woodpigeon, corvids, rabbit, grey squirrel and rat. Provided I do my bit it kills everything cleanly. I sometimes drop the power if i'm in a fixed spot to the target . I can make scope adjustments to give an appropriate zero. Here are the power settings :

FX CROWN with JSB Hades 26.54g

Power ratings:

Setting FPS ft lbs

MAX 930 50.98
5 895 47.22
4 836 41.20
3 775 35.40
2 714 30.05
1 664 25.99

I like the calibre , it hits hard at the target but I doubt there's much difference between FAC .22 Air but I confess I haven't tried it. I'm sure OP you won't regret going .25 though. Hope this helps a bit.
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting ratings. I’m pretty new to pcp guns.
(Had centrefires or springers for years)
great insight to what you can do with variable power settings.
 
1260engineer said:
It would be .22 for me in fac in your place . . better pellet choice. pcp or springer . Personally i love 177 in fac . yes the power is lower there is also less strain on the rifle . and as power is only based on pellet weight and speed and knowing 900 /950fps is about the best speed for pellets . i stick with the precision accuracy of the 177 . and i get a choice of pellets from light to inside .22 weights i can fine tune the accuracy. after all we dont do big game in the uk with airguns. A precision hole in the head still equals dead.
Click to expand...
What was your ideal power (fp) in the 177 and your pellet choice?
A friend had a air arms that he highly rated and was running at 16fp
 
1260engineer said:
It would be .22 for me in fac in your place . . better pellet choice. pcp or springer . Personally i love 177 in fac . yes the power is lower there is also less strain on the rifle . and as power is only based on pellet weight and speed and knowing 900 /950fps is about the best speed for pellets . i stick with the precision accuracy of the 177 . and i get a choice of pellets from light to inside .22 weights i can fine tune the accuracy. after all we dont do big game in the uk with airguns. A precision hole in the head still equals dead.
Click to expand...
TBF for yourself, having seen some of your shooting pics and vids .177 should be more than adequate and also the fastest to target further increasing your chance of an accurate shot and clean kill.
For most mortals the bigger calibres with higher energies probably allow a slightly larger humane kill zone so are possibly more immune to minute shooter error which makes them more forgiving so to speak, although I could be talking bollix 😂
 
I have both .22 & .25 for some reason I use .22 more and I don’t know why . In fact I will fit the Zulus on tomorrow and start using it again .
These are my groups using 33.9 gr @ 970 ish fps at 110 -115 yards
 

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Richie# said:
TBF for yourself, having seen some of your shooting pics and vids .177 should be more than adequate and also the fastest to target further increasing your chance of an accurate shot and clean kill.
For most mortals the bigger calibres with higher energies probably allow a slightly larger humane kill zone so are possibly more immune to minute shooter error which makes them more forgiving so to speak, although I could be talking bollix 😂
Click to expand...
I think you are 😂
 
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