Determining the right air gun caliber is a very important factor to consider so that you can be successful in your endeavor. For example, if you want to be able to take down a deer you will need the power of a pre-charged pneumatic big bore air gun as opposed to a low power CO2 air gun for plinking and killing tin cans.

Conversely, it is unrealistic to use a large air gun caliber for 10 meter competitions or eliminating small birds. Typically, .177 pellet guns are used for target shooting, a .20 pellet gun or .22 air gun to control ground hogs and opossums and .25 caliber for animals the size of beavers and bob cats. For hunting animals 146 to 200 lbs like a coyote up a to deer, a large bore air gun is used.

Once you decide on the best air gun caliber and match it to the purpose that you have in mind, you will want to buy several weights and test them ahead of time to find the most accurate pellet (what I like to call the “magic pellet”) so that you have a deadly accurate combination of caliber and pellet weight.