Introduction to Pre-Charged Pneumatic Air Rifles (PCPs)

Pre-charged Pneumatic air rifles or PCPs as they are more commonly known represent the ultimate in airgunning technology. The PCP works by charging a reservoir with a SCUBA tank, a hand pump or a special type of air compressor. Most airguns store a top pressure of around 3000 PSI or 200BAR. Depending on the power of the airgun this can get maybe even hundreds of shots at the low end of the power scale and to only 5 or so in big bore airguns. A typical hunting PCP like the RWS Rapier featured in the picture to your left will get about 30 consistent shots per fill before velocity starts to taper off and you change the point of impact. Power levels of PCP’s are often adjustable and you can get low powered guns in single digit FPE (Foot Pounds of Energy) right up to big bore airguns that range in the several hundred foot pounds of energy levels, these big bores have taken big game such as deer and wild pigs. PCPs are in general,  incredibly accurate and even have beat benchrest rimfire rifles in BR30 type benchrest matches.

PCP’s come in a range of action types from bolt action, semi automatic, pump action, lever action & straight pull type arrangements. You can get multi-shot or single shot actions as well.

Contrary to what you may think the more powerful PCP rifles can be quite loud if they are unmoderated. Target PCP’s and low powered ones can be as quiet as a spring piston air gun or even quieter due to the small volume of air needed to push the pellet out of the barrel.

The most common calibres of PCP air rifle are .177, .20, .22 and .25 calibre. If you are going to be using your first PCP mainly for hunting I’d suggest a moderately powered .22calibre (25-32 foot pounds of energy)PCP using a fairly heavy pellet at around 16grains. With this you should be able to take any feral bird with ease and rabbits with headshots. I have heard of foxes being taken with a PCP air rifle before but only at really close range (under 25m) and only a shot to the head. I would not recommend this to anyone unless they have the utmost confidence in their shot placement. The last thing you want is a wounded animal. We want to ensure quick, clean and ethical kills on our game and must to the utmost to ensure that. That said, if you are extremely confident and know that you can place the shot in the kill zone of a fox then you should be able to take him down with one shot but it comes down to shot placement.

Now is the time to buy a PCP they are the cheapest they have ever been and there is more choice out there now than ever. You could pick up second hand PCPs for under $800 and usually this will come with a foot pump. You are most likely to find a second hand PCP for around the $800-1200  mark. There are even budget PCP airguns available from manufacturers like Hatsan though I cannot vouch for their reliability or quality as I have not seen one but I am eager to try it as I think if it can better most spring guns accuracy and is reliable that it will revolutionise the market. There are many brands out there of PCP that are known quantities and the quality is high. The high quality brands include: FX, RWS, HW, Steyr, Anschutz, Theoben, BSA and many more.

The PCP is a worthwhile type of air rifle power plant to consider as it offers many advantages over other types of air rifle power plants. It may cost you a few more dollars than a spring piston air rifle but ultimately if you go all out and get the accessories such as a SCUBA tank and adaptor you will get far more enjoyment out of it especially in the power and accuracy departments. PCP’s represent the future of airgunning and whilst spring-piston types of airguns will probably always have the greater marketshare the PCP is to me a better option for your airgun hunter.

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Tags: air gun, air rifle, air rifle hunting, Anschutz, BSA, FX, hunting, introduction to PCP air rifles, PCP, RWS

Category: Hunting Rifles