Take-down Air rifles

Once known as the poacher’s gun, the take-down rifle first made its debut onto the airgun scene when the Colchester Gamekeeper PCP was launched. Now a highly collectable air rifle, at the time of its launch over 20-years ago it was seen as an oddity or a poaching tool, due to the fact that it could be easily carried broken down and then re-assembled for illegal use later.

However, time has proved this is not to be the total case, as since then there have been more rifles of this type produced by various companies. However, I feel they offer a most practical alternative to the fixed builds many of us use today and have a definite place in both hunting and pest control areas.

Blame The Movies

Even though there are many valid sensible reasons for owning a take-down, there’s still something attractive about opening a case to assemble the rifle. I suppose we can blame films like ‘Day of the Jackal’ and those featuring assassins going unnoticed as they head for the top of a building with a suitcase containing a hi-velocity snipers rifle.

Hollywood aside, the fact is the take-down is very useful for the times you need to be discreet, or your personal circumstances dictate you need something non-aggressive looking for carrying your air rifle to an area you’re allowed to shoot. I originally got into this out of curiosity and then necessity.

A few places I shoot have footpaths that are the fastest route to a hotspot for quarry be that rabbits to rats, woodies to magpies. So the ease of carrying the rifle in a bag that looks like a rucksack or briefcase and to wear clothing more associated with a rambler – in other words just good old comfortable outdoors wear is a huge asset. I can climb over styles on clearly marked footpaths without a second glance. Disappear onto the land to open the case and can have the rifle assembled in less than a minute and not much longer be fully camo’d up.

Some instances you’ll need another bag for your clothing but for my favourite takedown, the Air Arms TDR, such is the generous nature of the bag I can fit in a camo over suit, faceveil, gloves and cap or even a net for simply draping over me. But enough of methods of use, as I’ll deal with those in my ‘Airgun Hunting’ series at a later date – back to the rifles available and those I rate and use.

Wadeson-Rated

Without doubt second to the TDR (based as it is on the S410 action) is the Brocock Enigma, then I’d say the FX Verminator and hopefully soon I’ll be testing the Fast-Fire 10, as from reports I’ve seen it really does look interesting.

For transportation the usual way the ‘takedown breaks down’ is into three major component parts. Those being the butt section of the stock which can be removed from the action, and the silencer taken off the barrel.

For reasons of legality; all reputable air rifle manufacturers now build these guns so when the rear section is removed the air rifle is inoperable. The reason obviously being that once the butt section is removed; in some cases you would have a ‘long barrel air pistol.’
Alternatively, on the Enigma the whole butt section including grip can be detached. Then again, such is the design of those that employ a buddy bottle for the butt section, when removed you quite frankly have no power!

This seemingly simplicity of the rifles shouldn’t deter any shooter considering them because once all together put together, they are as accurate, handle as well and are reliable as any standard equal quality ‘full size’ production gun.

Case For Consideration

For ease of use, it’s good to see most manufacturers supply cases for their take-downs to allow you to leave the scope in place so there’s no hassle setting zero. Even so, when assembled it doesn’t take longer than a few minutes to just re-check your zero. Incidentally, as most of these rifles are aimed at the hunting sector then they’re mostly multi-shots with the exception of the distinctive, single shot Gunpower Stealth.

So the reasons to use and own one are obvious. Personally and due to the amount of different shooting scenarios I encounter I actually need a take-down rifles in both .177 and .22. Reason being I prefer to use the .177 for field use on rabbits and the .22 gets used for ferals and rats.

The larger calibre also comes into service even in the woods (and sometimes fields) if the wind is getting up as I now (check out this months Airgun Hunter for details) once again favour a .22 calibre air rifle for breezy/windy conditions due to the pellet being less affected. Now the other preference and reason I opt for the .22 calibre take-down is I want a large shot capacity if ratting and especially if discreetly arriving to sort a large number of roosting feral pigeon.

The Case For A Case…

Take-down air rifles usually come in an attaché style case instead of a full length rifle slip. It’s this single factor that makes them worth a look, especially to urban dwelling hunters, as in this paranoid ‘anti-gun’ society it allows you to carry your rifle from home to shooting ground without attracting undue attention, and without distressing the general public. There’s a lot to be said for showing a little discretion.