7 Best Air Rifles for Hunting (2026): Small Game to Deer

Last updated July 26, 2026 · By Nick Hall. For the big picture, start with our complete air rifle buying guide.

Air rifles have become genuinely capable hunting tools. A modern .22 or .25 PCP is quiet, accurate, and hits hard enough to cleanly take squirrels, rabbits, raccoons and predators, and a big-bore can even take deer. The keys are energy (FPE), accuracy, and shot placement. Here are the best air rifles for hunting in 2026.

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Quick Answer: The best hunting air rifle for most people is the Benjamin Marauder in .22 or .25, a quiet, accurate PCP with plenty of energy for small game and predators. The best value is the Umarex Gauntlet 2, the best self-contained option is the Gamo Swarm Magnum, and for deer and hogs you need a big-bore like the Benjamin Bulldog .357. Aim for at least 12 FPE for small game.

Table of Contents

The Seven I Would Take Hunting

Every rifle below is one I checked against our own live pricing before writing about it, so the prices are what a retailer we track is actually asking today. They run from two hundred and eighty dollars to a thousand, and the split is simple: the cheap end takes small game, the expensive end takes hogs and deer, and there is not much in between that does both.

Air rifle	Best for	Caliber and power plant	Street price
Benjamin Marauder	Best overall hunting PCP	.22 and .25, PCP	around $795
Umarex Gauntlet 2	Best value hunting PCP	.22 and .25, Regulated PCP	around $350
Umarex Origin	Best first hunting PCP	.22, PCP	around $350
Gamo Swarm Magnum	Best with no tank at all	.177 and .22, Break barrel, gas piston	around $280
Hatsan BullBoss	Best bullpup	.177, .22 and .25, PCP bullpup	around $418
Umarex Hammer	Best big bore	.50, PCP big bore	around $1,000
Benjamin Bulldog	Best .357 bullpup	.357, PCP big bore bullpup	around $870

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1. Benjamin Marauder: Best overall hunting PCP

• Caliber: .22 and .25
• Power plant: PCP
• Street price: around $795

The Marauder has been the default serious hunting airgun for over a decade and it still is. Shrouded barrel, adjustable trigger, multi-shot magazine, and enough energy in .25 to take everything up to a raccoon cleanly. It is not cheap and it needs a fill source, but nothing at this price shoots better out of the box.

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2. Umarex Gauntlet 2: Best value hunting PCP

• Caliber: .22 and .25
• Power plant: Regulated PCP
• Street price: around $350

Regulated, which at this price is close to unreasonable. A regulator holds each shot to the same pressure, so your point of impact stays put across a whole magazine instead of climbing and falling as the bottle empties. That is the single thing that separates a hunting rifle from a plinker, and the Gauntlet 2 is the cheapest place to get it.

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3. Umarex Origin: Best first hunting PCP

• Caliber: .22
• Power plant: PCP
• Street price: around $350

The Origin earns its place here for one reason: it comes with its own hand pump, and their own literature puts a full-power shot at thirteen pumps. If you are moving from a break barrel to a PCP for hunting and you do not want to buy a tank in the same week, this is the way in.

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4. Gamo Swarm Magnum: Best with no tank at all

• Caliber: .177 and .22
• Power plant: Break barrel, gas piston
• Street price: around $280

If the fill gear is the thing stopping you, this is the answer. A ten-shot break barrel with enough energy for squirrels and rabbits at sensible range, and nothing to charge before you walk out. You give up the flat trajectory and the shot count of a PCP, and you gain never thinking about air again.

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5. Hatsan BullBoss: Best bullpup

• Caliber: .177, .22 and .25
• Power plant: PCP bullpup
• Street price: around $418

A bullpup puts the action behind the trigger, so you get a long barrel in a short rifle. That matters more in the field than on paper: a full length PCP is an awkward thing to carry through brush or work out of a blind, and this gives you the same barrel in something you can actually handle.

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6. Umarex Hammer: Best big bore

• Caliber: .50
• Power plant: PCP big bore
• Street price: around $1,000

Half an inch of bore and the energy to go with it. This is the class of airgun that clears the Texas big game bar with room to spare, and it is what you buy if the plan is hogs or deer rather than squirrels. Two full power shots per fill is the honest number, so it is a stalking rifle, not a volume one.

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7. Benjamin Bulldog: Best .357 bullpup

• Caliber: .357
• Power plant: PCP big bore bullpup
• Street price: around $870

The Bulldog was the rifle that made big bore airguns mainstream, and it is still the most practical of them: bullpup short, five-shot magazine, and .357 is enough for hogs at the ranges an airgun should be used at. Treat seventy five yards as the outer limit and it does everything it promises.

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What the Law Actually Requires, and the Arithmetic Behind It

Most hunting airgun guides tell you to check your state and leave it there. That is not much help, so here is one state that publishes hard numbers, and a piece of arithmetic that falls out of them and that I have never seen anybody run.

Texas Parks and Wildlife sets it out plainly. For squirrels, pheasant, quail and chachalaca you need an air gun firing a projectile of at least .177 caliber, at a muzzle velocity of at least 600 feet per second. For alligator, bighorn sheep, javelina, mule deer, pronghorn and white-tailed deer you need a pre-charged pneumatic, firing at least .30 caliber and at least 150 grains, at a minimum of 800 feet per second, or any combination of bullet weight and muzzle velocity producing at least 215 foot pounds. Pre-charged means the propellant comes from a source physically separate from the gun, which is the tank or pump, not a spring.

Now run the numbers, because those two routes are not the same. Energy in foot-pounds is the projectile weight in grains, times velocity in feet per second squared, divided by 450,240. Put the literal minimums in: 150 grains at 800 feet per second comes out at 213.2 foot pounds. That is under the 215 the alternative route asks for. A rifle that scrapes past the caliber, weight and velocity test produces slightly less energy than the energy test would demand on its own, so the two paths to legal are not interchangeable, and the gap is real if you are close to the line.

The practical version: if you are hunting anything bigger than a rabbit, you want a big bore making comfortably more than 215 foot pounds rather than something sitting on the minimum, and you want to have read your own state rather than Texas. Our air rifle laws guide covers the wider picture and none of this is legal advice.

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How Much Energy Do You Need to Hunt?

Airgun hunting is all about matching energy (measured in foot-pounds, or FPE) to the game. As a rule of thumb: 12 FPE is the widely accepted minimum for small game like squirrels and rabbits; 20-30 FPE (a good .22 PCP) is comfortable for small game and predators; 30-45 FPE (.25 caliber) adds margin for bigger small game; and 100+ FPE from a big-bore is what you need for deer and hogs. Accuracy matters as much as power: an air rifle relies on precise shot placement to the head or vitals, so pick a rifle you can shoot tight groups with. And always confirm your state allows airgun hunting for your target species, as many now do.

Hunting Air Rifle FAQ

For the full field by power plant, see our best PCP air rifles and best break-barrel air rifles. Hunting deer or hogs? Read our best big-bore airguns guide, and pick your caliber with our .177 vs .22 vs .25 guide.

Want the details on our top pick? Read our full Benjamin Marauder review.