The most powerful airgunPart 3

by Tom Gaylord

The most powerful big bore airgun is something that will always be in flux. Whatever I say, it will be wrong tomorrow when somebody tweaks a design or shoots a bullet that is 100 grains heavier.

When we held the Big Bore Airgun Championships in Maryland at the Damascus Airgun Show, we got to see a lot of great ideas. But one by Ray Apelles sort of typified what I just said. He took a Career 9mm single-shot and loaded a 275-grain lead slug in it. Through the chronograph he got credit for a lot more energy than that rifle is usually capable of. But at 50 yards there was not much accuracy. It wasn't a combination anyone would choose to hunt with. So on paper it was powerful - but not a combination anyone would ever use.

I am also talking about guns that can move autonomously in the field and can be fired from the shoulder. There are air cannons that are much more powerful than what I'll mention, but I would not consider them because they are mounted on a gun carriage.

Today, however, there are large-caliber airguns that do have accuracy. You can hunt with them and they will not fail you in the field. So I'm going to nominate one of them as the most powerful. Big Bore Bob has made a .79 caliber rifle that shoots a 1,005-grain lead slug generating over 1,000 foot-pounds. A bison was taken with this airgun.

There may be another gun I have overlooked, but this is the most powerful big bore I know about at this time.

If you have read all the postings to this topic, you begin to see why it is impossible to answer the often asked question, "What's the most powerful airgun in the world."