I always recommend the .177 caliber for varmint hunting and pest control. But for small game hunting, take the more powerful .22 caliber. Although I did hunt small game with my .177.
FYI, Prices and ratings are accurate as of time of writing.
1. Benjamin Marauder Hunting Air Rifle .22 Caliber
Highlight: Made for accuracy, floated barrel, and suitable scope mounting.
Helpful review: Anything I have ever read about accuracy issues on air rifles is primarily due to barrel construction. This is outside the scope mount issues, which I don't include in gun manufacturing. After checking this out, Benjamin, I think they have solved the problem of poor barrels.
The way Benjamin built this rifle, it does not care about being held on the front of the stock or sitting on a sandbag. I have read about other precision air guns that are very fickle about how the gun is held or can't rest on a front sandbag without a rear sandbag; what a giant pain in the ass, especially for an air rifle that I want for hunting. The barrel on this gun is fully floated and should not be used to sit on or even bumped hard, like precision firearms, so it may not be the best for a hunting air rifle. I have not spent much time hunting and keeping the gun barrel out of twigs, or I need to hunt elsewhere.
The Benjamin does come in 25 caliber, but I chose to test the 22 caliber primarily due to the ease of finding ammo. The 25 caliber hits much harder and would be better for hunting. Still, I didn't want to spend many miles hunting down pellets, so I tested the guns with pellet ammo available at WalMart so I could spend time shooting them, not feeding them.
The stock has an adjustable comb right out of the box. This made it more comfortable for me to shoot and is a good addition to an air gun that sports itself as a precision shooter. The recoil is zero, so keeping my check weld is easy. I will later put some padding on the riser to increase the comfort level. I think I will use a strip taken from a yoga mat and glue it on the riser. The trigger is a two-stage adjustable unit, making it even easier for target shooting.
Now for the downside of this air gun: filling the pressure chamber. This gun does not use the barrel break like most others; a pump fills it. Here is the part that having more gravity than most comes in handy; pumping this up to power is difficult. I can get about 40 shots at full power from a filled chamber. Then it's back to the workout room to pump like my life depends on it. I have reviewed some powered PCP units to fill the air guns, but the price was too high for a gun I shoot very little.
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2. Gamo Swarm Whisper Air Rifle .22 Caliber
Highlight: Designed to shoot 10 rounds before needing a refill.
Helpful review: Like all of Gamo's offerings, this one is amazing, with a side order of awesome. The power that Gamo can create from a break barrel cocking air gun is unbelievable. The built-in suppressor is a great feature and keeps this unit quiet for such a powerful air gun.
The standard complaint online about Gamo rifles is that the included scope is not amazing. I get it; with the air gun being so amazing, the scope should be the same, and in all honesty, it does not meet the same level of quality as the rifle. Gamo, an air rifle builder, dipped a toe into making optics to include in the kit. The scope is excellent for the ranges. A single cocking air gun will be effective, but the picture is a little blurry. A little blurry means I can't read the writing on the target at 25 yards, but I can hit the X ring every time, so if I need to read the typesetting at 25 yards, I will use a Vortex.
This rifle, along with all Gamo guns, is half the weight of other air rifles I enjoy shooting. That is not a dig at Gamo, but just a fact. If I can get a good one, I enjoy shooting air guns made with walnut stock and metal barrels. The Gamo is made almost exclusively out of high-strength plastics. I don't know what the plastic is, but it never fails. The stocks are formed to what I rate as perfect. The barrels are plastic and lined for pellet travel, keeping the weight down and the weather-fighting ability at the highest level.
When I shot this in my yard, the neighbors knew what I was up to and called to make sure it was not a 22LR. So, the built-in silencer must have removed a ton of noise. I can only imagine the volume if it was not built-in. The power that comes out of this air gun is impressive. I can shoot halfway through my homemade pellet backstop, so caution must be taken. This air rifle could hit targets at 100 yards, but it will need a better scope. For up close ethical hunting, 25 yards is my max range, and this gun and scope combination will never leave a shooter high and dry.
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3. Hatsan 95 Air Rifle .22 Caliber Combo
Highlight: Walnut stock and German steel barrel.
Helpful review: This air gun is not for kids. The power is immense, but the weight will be too heavy unless they can put it in a wagon and pull it behind them. This gun is hard to shoot freehand by myself. I can only imagine how hard it would be for a youngster to hold it up and get a good shot off.
The box says this air rifle weighs in at eight pounds. I am sure that is the weight of just the air gun. When I put the scope on the gun and a sling, it weighed about twelve pounds, which did not come from a simple scope. This air rifle at the range looks like a million bucks for a very affordable price. Everything clicks or locks in like a high-quality rifle when I operate this gun. The only parts not made of steel are the little suppressor thing, the trigger guard, and the butt pad.
The trigger is a bit on the heavy side. The high-power air guns all have a stiff trigger pull, which must be needed to release the air pressure safely. I am not an air gun mechanic but a gunsmith, so I don't have that answer. This air gun has a little kick; it feels like a firearm kick and feels like home.
The scope that comes with the kit is OK, but the open iron sights with fiber optics are my choice for this gun. Anyone who expects a high-quality scope to be included with an air rifle is hoping against hope. If a maker has a good scope, the price will reach 500 bucks or more for the same gun, which is a good way to go out of business. The fiber optic sights could be used by firearms manufacturers as an example of how to do it right the first time. Hatsan learned the fiber optics sights game for the handgun world, which shows.
One last thing to point out is this air rifle is loud! If I shoot this in my backyard, I am sure I will meet whoever is on duty from the city cops soon. It sounds like a 22LR, and my neighbors should call the cops. The other point is that a standard fence, either wood or vinyl, will not stop the pellets; I have to use a multiple OSD layers backstop to keep the pellets from trespassing.
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4. Benjamin Trail NP XL .22 Caliber
Highlight: Molded in Thumbhole Stock, great for accuracy and easy trigger press.
Helpful review: This air rifle is close, if not the top level offered by Benjamin. The air gun is heavy, and to be honest, that is a good thing; the very lightweight air guns usually mean low quality and low power. The stock is well-made and fits a full-size shooter like a champ. This gun is probably not the right one for small kids as it will be hard for them to fit it, and be heavy to carry.
Like most of the Benjamin air guns I have ever tested, it has much power. I shot this into a piece of OSB leaning against the shed at the cabin, blasting through the wood and out of the back. When it exited, it barely exited, to be honest, but it did make it all the way through. It is very powerful.
This air gun has a very short break-in period; I was done with this and ready to take this hunting squirrels or other things that needed to be a target. I bought a can of pellets at WalMart and went to the field and shot around 30 pellets, and this thing was putting everything in a quarter-size hole in a box I used for a target. I didn't know how to break in a pellet gun, so I declared it ready and broke in.
The kit comes with a variable scope that will adjust to 9x magnification. This high-powered setting gets blurry and looks best to me from 3-5x power magnification. I set it to 4x power and left it there. This gun will hit that range with enough power to kill the game, and the provided scope will do fine for what I needed it for.
When it comes to power, this air gun has it in spades, but cocking the barrel takes a lot of effort. For smaller folks, this may be an issue. I happen to be built like a bear, with long arms and round in the middle, and cocking it was OK for me, but for a 12-year-old, unless they have long arms, it may be a bit of a struggle. This gun performs better with heavy pellets. Keep the rounds flying under the sound barrier to keep them accurate. When this air gun hits the game with heavy pellets, the damage is massive, and I am saying that as a guy who is not a fanboy for air guns. I have seen this rifle hit a squirrel in a non-lethal area and take the animal due to the concussive forces. It was a very impressive power delivery.
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5. Umarex Ruger Blackhawk Pellet Rifle .177 Caliber Kit
Highlight: Ruger's influence on quality and scope is included as well.
Helpful review: This air gun uses a spring to send pressure to the pellet and launch it downrange. This makes a bizarre recoil; the only thing that will know the recoil is different is the scope, especially the scope mounts. The recoil pushed forward first, and then the opposite effect went into the shooter. For this reason, many scopes will die on a high-powered air gun, and scope mounts will be blamed for not keeping a zero; it is the nature of the gun.
This air gun is .177 caliber, but it is not designed to shoot BBs, only pellets. The weight is placed towards the back of the gun, making it easy to balance against the body when shooting. My rifle shot straight out of the box, and from what I can find in other reviews, this is a standard for the Blackhawk model rifle, making me feel good. The iron sights were spot on, and I felt the urge not to bother testing the scope; the old-school me loves a high-quality air gun that hits hard and shoots straight, and the scope seems to change the way I feel about the air rifles, and I have no idea why.
I put the scope on the gun and got it zeroed, put the thread lock on the little screws and tightened it down with the torque wrench, and let it sit for about an hour. When I took it to the weeds down the street, I could knock a hole in the bottom of a beer can from 20 steps away all day or until the bottom was no longer there. I must have shot about 100 pellets into cans that day until my hands were so cold I could not stop shaking, so that was my cue to go back home and get some bourbon on board to warm up – it's a prescription I have.
I used the standard off-the-shelf pellets I had on hand: hunting-style or pointed-tip pellets. I have read that the wadcutter or flat-nosed pellets will tumble when they fly down range; I don't know; I have no way to check on that other than lousy accuracy. For the distances I shoot pellets, I have never seen a difference in accuracy due to pellet design. This air gun costs about 130 bucks, and I can shoot it all day for 10 bucks worth of pellets; how can I go wrong? And if the pigeons come back to make a mess on the deck again this summer, I won't have to go to the weeds, just sit in a deck chair and let them have it.
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6. Umarex Ruger Targis Hunter Max Pellet Rifle .22 Caliber with Scope
Highlight: The included scope is 3-9x32mm and comes with a mount designed to fight scope movement from recoil.
Helpful review: Another air rifle is wearing the Ruger name, and things are improving daily. This kit is the only one I have reviewed that comes with a sling. The sling is nicely made and does not have ragged edges like the low-priced options on the market.
The iron sights are very serious about their ability to adjust. They are also fitted with fiber optics to make them jump out and easily use. The rear sight will adjust for windage, left to right, and elevation, up and down. The adjustments can be made with my fingertips. This means I don't have to take a screwdriver with me if I need to adjust them, and I like that option.
The scope is good but has a bizarre focus ring on the front. I am not saying this is wrong; it just doesn't seem normal. The one thing I liked about this ring was that the markings were in yardage, so it would get me close immediately. Then, there will be some fine-tuning, and I will be good to go.
The stock has some rubber inserts to make it easy to grip, and they do make the shooting experience nicer; I would like the same inserts on a high-power rifle, primarily if they work as well as these. The sound suppressor is a five-chamber setup and does a good job of keeping the noise down to a reasonable level. The scope mount is an excellent piece of engineering; it is made to help eliminate the unique recoil impact of air rifles. After a few trips to the range, most air rifle scopes will be sloppy, and depending on the quality of the scope, the mount may fall off. Even with this recoil-fighting mount, keep the screws tight, and check them before going to the range.
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7. Gamo Wildcat Whisper Air Rifle .177 Caliber Kit
Highlight: In .177 caliber, the noise was hushed, suitable for shooting in the backyard.
Helpful review: This air rifle is great and quiet, and I think it is due to its lower caliber. I have some 22-caliber air rifles, which are loud and much louder than I thought an air rifle should be. One thing I have found is to use heavier pellets. They are always more accurate. I believe the speed at which they travel, and their very low weight will cause the external ballistics to cause the ammo to wobble.
When I took this gun to the range or, as the folks in the neighborhood call it, the weeds up the street. I had difficulty getting this to shoot in the same spot more than twice. I knew what to check and went back to the gun shop. I checked all the screws and found all but one to be loose. After about half an hour of tightening stuff, the air gun shot like a Gamo rifle should, which is lots of fun.
I have shot many pigeons from the porch. Some wild maniac keeps putting breadcrumbs in the park, so I must help drop the pigeon population as a good neighbor. I have never had a bird get hit and drop over on the spot; they usually fly away for a few feet and then drop to the ground. That is due to the lower caliber. The 22-caliber pellets hammer them into the ground. In my experience, the 22 caliber air rifles are always louder, so it will depend on the neighbors and the city in which someone lives.
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8. Gamo Whisper Fusion Mach Air Rifle .22 Caliber Kit
Highlight: The kit comes with a 3-9x40mm scope.
Helpful review: This gun is well-balanced and easy to maneuver and shoot for all levels of shooters. The stock geometry was well thought out and comfortable to shoot until I ran out of pellets and had to go home. The cocking power for this gun is heavy but not impossible, be ready to get a workout if a whole tin of pellets goes to the range that day.
The power of this air gun is comparable to the penetration from my Stoger PCP air guns. I can drive a 22-caliber pellet halfway through a 2x6 board. When I shoot that exact board with a comparable air gun in .177 caliber, they only make a very deep dent, unlike the heavier 22-caliber pellets. The rounds hit in the same X ring at 25 yards for the entire afternoon of a break-in period, or, as most folks would call it, screwing around with a new toy. I must make a severe point: this air gun's power is in a proper adult air rifle, not a toy.
The stock design from Gamo is my favorite part of their builds. The grip angle is perfect, at least for me. The stock cheek weld is comfortable and easy to shoot, and it is easy to get a good sight picture through the included scope. I want a riser for the scope, and that is only to fit my big ol' head. The rubber inserts for grip are tremendous and make shooting this rifle easy, especially when it is cold outside; the rubber seems to make the stock work better; I am sure it is due to the more tactile feel on my fingertips.
This air rifle is at the top of the price range that I feel air guns should cost, and I will pay this much for what I get in the kit. I do have some PCP air guns that did not make this list. They are a different article and have other issues that must be addressed. The high price for this Gamo rifle reflects the advanced engineering that has been put into this rifle to perform at these levels.
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9. Gamo Varmint Air Rifle .177 Caliber Combo
Highlight: The kit not only has a great air rifle but also has a pellet launching pen.
Helpful review: I am unsure where I would use the pellet pen, but I have the tool if I ever need to sneak up on a chipmunk in a meeting like a 6XL ninja. The kit includes an adjustable magnification scope and mounts. Remember that the recoil from an air gun works on scope mounts differently than a firearm, and some thread locker will be needed. The mounts must be made to fit the air gun and the scope. They cannot be manufactured like mounts for a deer rifle, so use the thread locker and save yourself the headache of trying to keep everything zeroed.
When I test air guns, I zero the scope to shoot at 25 yards. Some air guns claim to be lethal at further distances and more powerful. I just think shooting animals further than 25 yards with an air gun is not ethical, so I don't care what the claims are for hunting. If I were to use this strictly for punching paper plates in the weeds, I would try this at 100 yards to see if it would do it. We have snow and freezing temperatures right now, so I am not walking that far to set up a target for kicks and giggles.
This air gun is like many others and cocks the pressure chamber with a break barrel design. This method of cocking will change up the shooter's position; it has to; the whole gun and the shooter have to move. If extreme accuracy is needed, a different style of gun is required. When the Gamo is cocked, it can bring a lot of power to the game. At 25 yards, the small game is in the danger zone. The pellets for this gun are .177 caliber, and they slam into the target and penetrate deeply.
Using the thread locker and torque wrench to ensure everything was as close to perfect as possible, I kept the scope on zero for the rest of the tin of pellets. Even when I had to move the entire gun to cock for pressure, and when moving the barrel as a whole, there was a very real chance to twist the entire gun, including the stock... So, a genuinely pinpoint shooting air gun is not going to happen, but a pigeon killing machine is going to happen.
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