Air Rifle Shooting for Pest Control and Rabbiting

I preordered Air Rifle Shooting for Pest Control and Rabbiting by John Bezzant several months ago (March to be exact) from Amazon. I received the book in mid June, and after reading it and leafing through it multiple times, I am ready to offer up a few opinions.

First, the book is a very easy read. Mr. Bezzant has filled the book with a 156 pages of conversational style writing that is easy to pick up, and no matter where you thumb through the book, something of interest seems to catch my eyes. The color pictures are interesting, and the diagrams are simple and easy to understand.

I ordered the book because I enjoy airgun books, but I was specifically looking for something about pest control. Pet control and rabbit hunting stories seemed like an interesting read. Unfortunately, the book is more of an airguns 101 type read, with a little pest control thrown in to boot.

This is not a fault of the book or the author; I was just expecting something different. This book could be considered a perfect starter book for someone new to the hobby, but if you are looking for rabbit hunting stories or airgun hunting techniques, you may find yourself disappointed with this book.

The book consists of nine chapters:

  • Teaching Yourself to Shoot an Air Rifle
  • Suitable Weapons
  • Scopes
  • Ethical Aspects of Air Rifle Hunting
  • Ammunition
  • Know Your Quarry
  • Fieldcraft and Field Equipment
  • The Law
  • Maintaining Your Hunting Rifle

Rounding out the book is an appendix on “The Bazooka” (.25 caliber BAS XL Tactical), Kill Zones, a Glossary of terms, and a semi-useful index.

Some of the diagrams are really useful (especially the ones in the chapter on Scopes). There is a diagram in the Fieldcraft and Field Equipment section that shows you how to estimate distance to a feral pigeon located on the roof of a building. This is probably second nature to anyone that thanks about the math, or to experienced pest control shooters, but seeing the diagram makes a lot of sense.  First estimate your distance to the wall. Then estimate the distance up the wall. Next estimate the distance up the roof. Add all three distances together to get the range, which is probably going to be further than if you just considered a straight line.

The book also contains some really unnecessary fluff. To explain, in the chapter on Ethical Aspects of Air Rifle Hunting there is a section on dispatching injured quarry.

“If you are going to shoot you must know how to kill – not just with a gun but with your bare hands.”

WTF? The book then goes on to explain how to dispatch rabbits, birds, and rats by hand. No thanks.

Air Rifle Shooting for Pest Control and Rabbiting contains a lot of useful and educational material; much more so than unnecessary fluff. In fact I can honestly say that I learned a great deal from the chapter on Scopes. This chapter alone, along with the diagrams on trajectory and line of sight, range settings for different varmints, target groupings, and different point of aim placement for wind condition and kill zones was worth the price of admission.

If you are a collector of airgun books or maybe want a book on the basics of airguns then this does make for an interesting read. Just be warned that you may not find as much airgun hunting information as may be implied by the title.

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