Pneumatic Defense

Big-Bore Air Guns Pack a Lot of Versatility Into an Easily Obtainable Package. See Which is Conducive to Your Needs.

- Gordon D. Smith

Mainstream Americans still regard air guns as toys — the BB guns we use to teach our kids when showing them how to shoot and safely handle guns. Most people are astounded when told there are production air guns on the market today that can take down game. More “shock and awe” come when they’re clued into the fact that, way back in 1805, Lewis and Clark used a big-bore repeater air gun on their expedition to open the West, and, around the same time, Austrian troops effectively used big-bore air guns as sniper weapons against Napoleon’s troops.

One such air gun available today is the Wing Shot from Korean maker Sam Yang. This .50-caliber pre-charged pneumatic shotgun is no toy and can do some serious damage. We took it for a spin to see how well it holds up against a couple other big bores out there.

An Underrated Weapon

Before getting into the comparison, let’s take a brief detour to explain the trip down this path. As we mentioned, powerful air guns have been around for a long, long time. However, they weren’t readily available. Today’s hunter has the ability to easily obtain these guns, and we wanted to get the word out. Second, after the initial investment, these guns are inexpensive to shoot. Third, in all but a few states/municipalities they’re not considered firearms and don’t require special purchase requirements or paperwork. Fourth, we’ll talk a bit about their usefulness in a SHTF scenario.

Operation of these air rifles is similar to powder-actuated arms, with the additional step of attaching a high-pressure fill hose from an air source to the male foster fill nipple on the air reservoir of each of these guns. Please note that bicycle pumps and garage-type air compressors aren’t capable of producing anywhere near the required pressures, so you’ll need the proper equipment to charge these guns.

Wing Shot