Air rifles primed to keep pests at bay

Many have looked out from the confines of the domestic bunker during the recent crisis to watch the wildlife teeming in the garden. In my case, this has included dozens of temptingly plump woodpigeon, squirrels and a couple of rats scrambling around my drains. This, of course, provides the potential for a ‘Lockdown Safari’ and some interesting inclusions under ‘various’ in the gamebook.

Then, we come to the subject of suitable kit. The sporting weapon of choice for garden work would be a .22 or .177 air-rifle. The day of the dedicated small-bore ‘garden gun’ has passed. I can’t help reminiscing   that my first shotgun was a Webley 9mm rimfire, first shot at a Jacob’s Cream Cracker (then the luckless brown job that came to eat the bits). Airguns are quiet – quieter still with a suitable sound moderator – and, generally speaking, far better for use in confined spaces than small shotguns or .22 rimfires (although dust-shot cartridges are still