Airguns Beating Rimfires

jps2486 · Aug 9, 2025

The development of airguns and projectiles are to the point now that airguns are beating rimfires in many competitions. The Karma Red Panda, FX Impact, Evol and Brocock Sonoran are phenominal guns and will outshoot rimfires regularly. What's the point of buying a custom rimfire and spending $3-4000 and maybe, maybe it will shoot provided you test hundreds of dollars worth of ammo to find the right lot number.

MTSquatch · Aug 14, 2025

I never had the opportunity to shoot a real precision air rifle until it was featured on a stage at a sniper match I attended. I have to admit, it was pretty fun to shoot and surprisingly accurate at 50 yards. I can see myself getting one soon. Can’t beat getting good practice in a small amount of space.

The Miles to Matches podcast did a good episode on air rifles (EP 150).

tsovern · Friday at 4:19 PM

Air is hobbled by the rules in NRL22. Don't think you'll be seeing air dominance in that organization.

lash · Friday at 4:42 PM

jps2486 said:
The development of airguns and projectiles are to the point now that airguns are beating rimfires in many competitions. The Karma Red Panda, FX Impact, Evol and Brocock Sonoran are phenominal guns and will outshoot rimfires regularly. What's the point of buying a custom rimfire and spending $3-4000 and maybe, maybe it will shoot provided you test hundreds of dollars worth of ammo to find the right lot number.

What types of competitions?

jps2486 · Friday at 5:42 PM

lash said:
What types of competitions?

N50 for sure and inroads are being made in PRS.

lash · Friday at 5:59 PM

It looks like 11 PRS airgun competitors total in the U.S. Not more than one in any single state.

ma smith · Friday at 6:11 PM

Lets not forget that 22lrs are just fun to shoot
and putting up with their zany behaviour....
Lets us say...builds character...

steve123 · Saturday at 9:14 PM

ma smith said:
Lets not forget that 22lrs are just fun to shoot
and putting up with their zany behaviour....
Lets us say...builds character...

Man if you think 22rf's are zany then just own a pcp air rifle for a while and you'll learn what finicky really is. Though some pcp's are just about trouble free and others can be a PITA.

It's mostly the match 22rf ammo cost that drove me away from shooting mine more often but also I can shoot the pcp's on my property.

One pcp I have I swage 4400, 22 cal, 42gr, slugs for $165 and it'll outshoot my Anschutz 22rf at 50Y using match ammo. I shot my best 100Y group with this air rifle slug gun vs my Anschutz.

steve123 · Saturday at 9:31 PM

lash said:
It looks like 11 PRS airgun competitors total in the U.S. Not more than one in any single state.

View attachment 8747969

I doubt popularity of pcp's in PRS or NRL will ever catch up to that of rimfire.

What I'd really like to see is how well the very best 22rf shooters in these sports would do with a well tuned good running pcp vs there own 22rf in a bigger match.

Mongo68 · Saturday at 9:55 PM

lash said:
It looks like 11 PRS airgun competitors total in the U.S. Not more than one in any single state.

View attachment 8747969

Sometimes we’ll have 4 or 5 at our monthly matches. Don’t think they’re listed there…

jps2486 · Saturday at 10:17 PM

steve123 said:
Man if you think 22rf's are zany then just own a pcp air rifle for a while and you'll learn what finicky really is. Though some pcp's are just about trouble free and others can be a PITA.

It's mostly the match 22rf ammo cost that drove me away from shooting mine more often but also I can shoot the pcp's on my property.

One pcp I have I swage 4400, 22 cal, 42gr, slugs for $165 and it'll outshoot my Anschutz 22rf at 50Y using match ammo. I shot my best 100Y group with this air rifle slug gun vs my Anschutz.

What is this particular rifle, please?

steve123 · Sunday at 12:51 PM

jps2486 said:
What is this particular rifle, please?

It's my 4 year old Thomas HPX custom and set up for 65-ish fpe.
This is when it's in it's benchrest configuration.

This in it's normally used configuration, aka

bipod and rear bag, but I don't shoot it prone much anymore.

A 87Y group and that 100Y group with it.

One time I hit our 100Y 1" spinner 9 times in a row before I missed but I'd fallen off the reg or I might of done more.

lash · Sunday at 4:13 PM

steve123 said:
It's my 4 year old Thomas HPX custom and set up for 65-ish fpe.
This is when it's in it's benchrest configuration.
View attachment 8749101
This in it's normally used configuration, aka View attachment 8749103bipod and rear bag, but I don't shoot it prone much anymore.

A 87Y group and that 100Y group with it.

One time I hit out 100Y 1" spinner 9 times in a row before I missed but I'd fallen off the reg or I might of done more.
View attachment 8749105 View attachment 8749106

That is a pretty stock, in a very utilitarian modern style.

And the groups don’t suck either.

steve123 · Sunday at 5:01 PM

lash said:
That is a pretty stock, in a very utilitarian modern style.

And the groups don’t suck either.

Thanks Lash.

I let the woodsmith have free rein on the stock so it's all his design. A hybrid design to be used in different ways. I'd done things a little differently but to be fair the communication between us wasn't the best and I'm to blame for my part in this. Plus this was his first attempt at such and the poor guy was battling cancer.
If there is ever a next time......
But not that it doesn't work well.

Thomasair's/Mike Nisch latest iteration slug guns are really stout guns, much more than mine is, and he's made quite a few improvements over the years including heavy match barrels with special rifling.
He's texted me 100Y groups he's shot where 25 shots would fit under a quarter and many 250/mostly X's at 50Y on N50 cards, one had 24x which is in the region of 1/8th" precision.

I tried to get him to design a repeater but he's got no time or desire since he has a 1.2 year backlog as is.

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Airguns Beating Rimfires

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