Veggie Garden Defense

Chunky Stool

Well-Known Member
I'm going to buy an air rifle soon to rid our garden of rodents, rabbits, and specific types of squirrels (gotta be careful because some are protected by law).

It's gotta be reasonably quiet and cost less than $200 total.

Got any recommendations?
Looks like the scopes that come with inexpensive rifles are crap, so I'll probably need to spend around $50 on a decent scope.

These two gas-piston models could work, and they are very affordable:
Umarex Syrix
Umarex SurgeMax
 

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
They'll probably work fine. You can get piston/seal upgrade kits for those umarex's that will increase the FPS a bit too.

Most rodent and rabbit activity happens at night, and you probably won't need much better than the stock POS scope anyway, so I would instead suggest getting one of the cheap IR night vision attachments to put on it, so you can plink them off at night.

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Total cost should be right around 200 considering 90 for the rifle and 100+ for the IR. Maybe a little more unless it comes with batteries..
 

Nope_49595933949

Well-Known Member
They'll probably work fine. You can get piston/seal upgrade kits for those umarex's that will increase the FPS a bit too.

Most rodent and rabbit activity happens at night, and you probably won't need much better than the stock POS scope anyway, so I would instead suggest getting one of the cheap IR night vision attachments to put on it, so you can plink them off at night.

View attachment 5255940


Total cost should be right around 200 considering 90 for the rifle and 100+ for the IR. Maybe a little more unless it comes with batteries..
Just leave a light on, after a couple weeks the animals get used to it. From rumors I've heard.
 
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Nope_49595933949

Well-Known Member
An air rifle recoils differently than a normal rifle, and will actually recoil forwards after the initial backwards recoil. This force is not taken into mind with normal rifle scopes, so the forward recoil will tear most rifle scopes apart.Sep 11, 2022
View attachment 5255993
https://scopesfield.com › best-air-rif...
Quality scopes like leupold will have no issues with this. My wife dropped hers in a creek, on rocks when she was tracking her bear up the creek. Held its zero fine.
 

bam0813

Well-Known Member
Ive never had issues but honestly ive always left the one on it on it . I wouldn’t put my better glass on a gun that gets treated like that intentionally. Mine is more like a wrench than a gun in its treatment. Just something ive heard to be true so just throwing it out there so he doesn’t prove it true.
 

Nope_49595933949

Well-Known Member
Ive never had issues but honestly ive always left the one on it on it . I wouldn’t put my better glass on a gun that gets treated like that intentionally. Mine is more like a wrench than a gun in its treatment. Just something ive heard to be true so just throwing it out there so he doesn’t prove it true.
I hear ya. We beat the piss out of our hunting guns so we build them to hold up to a lot of abuse. I'm very very hard on things.
 
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