lol fair enough. (Teamspeak is a VOIP program for pc's and i'm not trying to Jimmy Saville you
)
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You can buy an air pistol or rifle as your 18 by just merely walking into the shop with ID (due to your age) and you won't have any problems. You can buy air pistols up to 6ftlbs (8 Joules) or air rifle up to 12 ft lbs (16 Joules). Any air rifle or air pistol over those limits you will need a firearms certificate but this shouldn't be any worry for you.
- Generally Air pistols/rifles will be firing lead pellets but some pistols also fire metal ball bearings but these are unsuitable for vermin thumping and you should stick to pellets.
- With airguns to kill vermin you are covered by a "General license" to kill collared doves wood pigeon, crows, rooks, jackdaws, magpies, jays, feral pigeons, brown rats, grey squirrels and rabbits as long as they are being treated as vermin for health or protection or property and land (eg destroying crops or plants/trees). You don't need to apply for anything you are just automatically covered by it. Having said that don't start shooting at any passing pigeon that comes you way in your garden.
You cant shoot or kill any songbirds or conventional garden dwelling animals like hedgehogs, sparrows, thrushes, starlings etc. That will get you in trouble.
- You Shouldn't fire an Air rifle or pistol within 50 feet of the center of a public highway if it means anyone being injured, interrupted or endangered. Eg firing at something and there's a road right next to where you are firing but you should be OK within your back garden as long as the pellet doesn't leave the boundaries of your property. As soon as it goes into a neighbors property you have commuted an offense unless they have given permission for you to shoot on their property.
For killing a grey squirrel ideally I would say you want something pushing 4ftlbs + at 10m range. I doubt you would get much closer than 10m to a squirrel without it getting too twitchy or doing a runner. Anything under 4ft lbs i would say isn't powerful enough to dispatch a Squirrel cleanly, humanely and effectively. I've seen people take pheasants with a 2.5 ft lbs Air pistol at really close (sub 5m) range to the head but not advisable.
Pistol wise you are very limited in you options for anythign shooting between 4-6ft lbs and it starts to get expensive.
The following shoot over 4 ft lbs
£80-90 Crosman 2240 Co2 pistol (upto about 5.5ft lbs I believe)
Fairly reliable and simple air pistol which should be ideal for the Job. Single shot loading via a bolt action on the top and takes 12g co2 capsules so no cocking or springs. As it's co2 it will have a lot less recoil than a spring pistol and is easier to shoot. Highly customizable if you wanted to get into that side in the future
£80-110 Crosman 1377 American Classic Pump Pneumatic pistol (upto about 5.5ft lbs again with the max pumps)
As above fairly reliable and simple air pistol which should be ideal for the Job. Single shot loading via a bolt action on the top but this takes its power source from pumping the fore grip up to 10 times to get increasing power up towards the higher end of its capability. Again no spring so no recoil and fairly easy to shoot. Highly customizable again
The only other 2 pistols i would recommend but are way out you budget are the Wiehrauch HW45 but this can be hand for about £150-175, build quality is amazing, capable of upto 5.5ft lbs and it's really reliable and great to shoot but it's a spring pistol so a lot harder for a novice to shoot due to the recoil. Then the other would be the Webley Alecto a single shot pneumatic up to 5.5ftlbs with 3 pumps and very accurate but lesser build quality compared to the HW45 but a lot easier to use as it has no recoil. Sadly has a price of £250+.
I wouldn't bother with the break barrel pistols you see from GAMO and the like as unless you are used to shooting springer pistol you will be horrendous at shooting them and lucky if anything to hit the target.
The alternate option
Buy an air rifle.
There are some cheap (and fairly nasty) air rifles for about £80 give or take a tenner. The Baikal MP-512M comes to mind or any SMK rifle but they should do the job but be pains in the process.
Alternatively you can try picking up a used air rifle such as any BSA or Webley break barrel air rifle and they should be pushing 7-9ft lbs and be decent enough and accurate enough to easily do the job although you will have to practice getting use to the spring recoil but it's no where near as bad as a spring pistol
