By:
On:
In: Gun Review
Tagged: , , , ,
With: 0 Comments

This is not a review, but more a reflection on my Quackenbush Big Bore Rifles, and why they mean so much to me. I’m often asked what my favorite big bore airgun is, and that’s not an easy question. I have several, shoot many more, and find that my answer is constantly shifting based on the most recent experience in the field. I really like my Bushbuck .457 carbine that was built for me by Airguns of Arizona and set up with bullets cast especially for the rifle by my hunting buddy Kip Perow. It’s accurate, very powerful, rugged, compact….. but it is also very heavy, which may or may not be an issue depending on where and what I’m hunting. I’ve been using the AirForce Texan a lot lately, in a variety of calibers including ,257, .308, .357, and .457, and find these guns very efficient and powerful hunting guns, and truth be told I probably use these more than any other big bore right now. The Texans are accurate when set up properly, they are very powerful, and the carbines are compact. There are several other big bores from Hatsan, Seneca (especially with AirBolts), Profesional Big Bores, and others that I like and use. Depending on the shooter and the intended use, any of these is a viable hunting gun….. maybe the perfect gun for you. But the big bore airgun that generates the most emotional response from me are the Quackenbush rifles. I have long stated thatRead More →

By:
On:
In: Gun Review
Tagged: , , , ,
With: 0 Comments

I’ve been using the AirForce Texan quite a bit lately to hunt everything from Turkey to Whitetail. I have rifle and/or carbine versions of the .257, .308, .357, and .457, and have found myself gravitating more to these as my go to guns for bigger game, finding that across the board they offer the right balance of accuracy, power, shot count, and tactile response of the trigger. I also have come to appreciate the ability to dial in the optimal power setting for a specific bullet, which I think of as the airgunners equivalent of powder burners hand-loading for their rifles. I’ve had several of my rifles barrels cut down, re-crowned, and set up with a suppressor to quiet them down for shooting in areas that might be noise sensitive. The addition of the suppressor not only quieted the gun down, but brought it back to about the same overall length. But with my .457 carbine, I didn’t care about noise, instead wanting to have the most compact and powerful brush gun I could come up with. As a disclaimer, I will do a video and a write up later to go into the range work and optimizing the performance, in this short post I’ll just tell you about a couple of simple things I did to optimize it for my use. The first thing I added was the Covert Clutch Universal Tactical grip sleeve, which is a rubber sheath with a raised pattern that provides a solid grip thatRead More →

By:
On:
In: Gun Review, Vimeo channel
Tagged: , , , ,
With: 0 Comments

In 2017 I was back in South Africa for a couple weeks of hunting with Rob and Andrew (Hounslow Safari’s), and on this hunt took the Ataman .30 caliber pcp air rifle into the field after a springbok, one of the small African antelope that are the perfect blend of size, wariness, and speed to make for a very challenging hunt. Andrew and I patterned this herd and set up an ambush along a ridge they regularly traveled. A couple groups passed by, but I couldn’t get a shot. After a couple hours of stalking and setting up, the chance finally came!Read More →