Small Farm:
Unless you specifically want to try the air rifle (as a novelty?), I'd suggest you stick with the .22 rifle. You can get a single shot pink Cricket for a little over $100. Really good, accurate air rifles will cost 3X to 4X that, plus the scope. Anything shooting less than 500 fps is going to be marginally effective on anything much larger than a sparrow. Most rifles in that range are intended to be youth plinkers. Great fun on bottle caps, etc, but not something I'd want to hunt with. I have a Beeman R7, which is the gold standard of small plinkers.....nearly capable of putting 5 shots through the same hole at 10 meters.....but even it exceeds the 500 fps limit. To be lethal at that velocity means a large caliber.....like .22 or even .25.......and you won't have much range due to the large drop from the low velocity. Maybe 50 feet? If they capped you at 500 fps, they didn't intend for you to do anything serious with it.
Until a person is exposed to the fascinating world of air rifles, most would not believe what is out there. And most would not believe how much the good ones cost. Like $500 and up.
Or go really large........
http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/
Unless you specifically want to try the air rifle (as a novelty?), I'd suggest you stick with the .22 rifle. You can get a single shot pink Cricket for a little over $100. Really good, accurate air rifles will cost 3X to 4X that, plus the scope. Anything shooting less than 500 fps is going to be marginally effective on anything much larger than a sparrow. Most rifles in that range are intended to be youth plinkers. Great fun on bottle caps, etc, but not something I'd want to hunt with. I have a Beeman R7, which is the gold standard of small plinkers.....nearly capable of putting 5 shots through the same hole at 10 meters.....but even it exceeds the 500 fps limit. To be lethal at that velocity means a large caliber.....like .22 or even .25.......and you won't have much range due to the large drop from the low velocity. Maybe 50 feet? If they capped you at 500 fps, they didn't intend for you to do anything serious with it.
Until a person is exposed to the fascinating world of air rifles, most would not believe what is out there. And most would not believe how much the good ones cost. Like $500 and up.
Or go really large........
http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/