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Why I like big bore single-shot air rifles

By B.B. Pelletier

I promised a reader of the April 11 blog that I would explain why I like my big bore airguns to be single shots.

Big bores can be VERY accurate
And, single-loaded bullets are also VERY accurate. Ask anyone who reloads ammunition for firearms why they do it, and one of the answers is they can make better ammo. Better means more accurate.

Single shots out-perform repeaters
I’m not making this up – check it out. For the best accuracy possible, always use a single-shot. This is very important in pellet guns. By inserting a pellet directly into the bore, rather than letting a mechanism do it for you, you are cutting down the chance for damage to the pellet.

My favorite Pyramyd big bore
I like all the single-shot big bores Pyramyd AIR offers, but I do have a favorite. The Big Bore 909S (which used to be called the Big Bore 44) is a .45-caliber single-shot rifle with a sliding breech cover for loading the barrel. It is SO EASY to load this rifle – even with a large scope mounted on top.

The 909S loading port is longer than the loading trough on the Career Dragon .50-caliber bolt-action rifle, so you can load longer, heavier bullets. Take a look at the .45 caliber pellets available on this website.

A single-shot means more ammo possibilities
Consider this: the 909S is a .45-caliber rifle with the SAME bore size as a .45 ACP pistol cartridge. So there are HUNDREDS OF LEAD BULLETS to choose from! Any good gun store should have several styles of cast lead bullets that will fit your rifle. They need to be sized 0.451″ or 0.452″, which is the most common size for the .45 ACP.

The 909S also produces about the same power as the Dragon, even though it shoots a slightly smaller caliber bullet, so you lose nothing by choosing it. Of course, the Dragon ain’t no slouch, either! Pyramyd stocks three .50-caliber pellets for it. Aftermarket bullets are not as common as they are for the .45, but if you cast your own, they can be whatever you want. Just don’t go too far past 275 grains in weight because the rifle won’t stabilize a bullet heavier than that.

The other reason I like single-shot big bores
This reason is simple – AIR. Big bores go through a lot of it. It’s fairly useless to have 10 fast shots if you only have enough air for 4! So big bore repeaters are all in the smaller calibers. When you want to shoot a real bruiser, it will be a single-shot for sure.

Let me know what you think of big bore single-shots!

6 thoughts on “Why I like big bore single-shot air rifles”

  1. Thanks for reading the reports.

    Big bores are loud airguns. I believe the largest (.45 and .50) are nearly as loud as a .410 shotgun. The 9mm is not as loud, but it’s pretty close.

    The sound big bores make is not as hard on the ears as a conventional gunshot. It is a sustained boom, rather than a sharp crack. My comment that some are as loud as .410s probably comes from the longer duration of the sound, because they probably do not reach the same high decibels of firearms.

    B.B.

  2. I W’D LIKE TO KNOW SOME MORE INFO ABOUT BIG BORE 909S.
    1. AIR TANK VOLUME IN CC
    2. WHAT ARE THE REAL FPS WHIT 170,180 Gr. BULLETS AT THE MUZZLE.
    3. CAN I REDUCE THE “BIG SOUND” IF I PUT A SILENSER IN THE FRONT OF THE BARREL.
    4. EVERYONE IN WEB WRITE THE BEST FOR THE 909S. FINALY HOW EFFECTIVE
    IS THIS AIRGUN FOR THE HUNTING GAME.
    THANK YOU

  3. Balsi,

    I don’t know the volume of the 909S, but I would guess it’s around 375cc. As the posting states, there is air enough for about 4 good shots.

    Whitetail deer have been taken with the 909S. You have to keep the range reasonable, which is 50 yards or less in my book, and a high heart/lung shot will be very quick.

    As for reducing the sound, I don’t know how effective a silencer would be on this gun. Of course you would first have to go through the legal paperwork to get it registered with BATF, and you would need probably a 9mm model for an H&K MP5. That’s going to run $300 or more for the silencer and $200 for the approval/tax stamp.

    B.B.

  4. Laws on the silencer apply to firearms not air guns. The BATFis only concerned with them on behalf of air gunners because they can be easily removed and places on a firearm of the same caliber.

    This is as I understand it.

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