7 Best .22 Air Rifles (2026): PCP & Break-Barrel Ranked

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

The .22 is the most popular air rifle caliber for a reason: it carries far more knockdown than a .177 while still shooting flat enough for practical hunting and pest control. If you are buying one air rifle to do everything, a .22 is almost always the right call. Here are the best .22 air rifles in 2026.

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Quick Answer: The best .22 air rifle overall is the Benjamin Marauder, a quiet, accurate multi-shot PCP. The best value .22 PCP is the regulated Umarex Gauntlet 2, the best no-tank option is the Gamo Swarm Magnum break-barrel, and the best budget pick is the Ruger Air Hawk. Choose a PCP for accuracy or a break-barrel for grab-and-go simplicity.

Table of Contents

The Seven .22 Air Rifles Worth Buying

Every rifle below was checked against our own live pricing before it went on the page. The Ruger Air Hawk used to sit here as the budget pick and it is gone: no query we have returns the rifle rather than an accessory or a Ruger air pistol, and a recommendation you cannot act on is not one.

Air rifle	Best for	Power plant	Street price
Benjamin Marauder	Best overall .22	PCP	around $795
Umarex Gauntlet 2	Best value PCP	Regulated PCP	around $350
Umarex Origin	Best first .22 PCP	PCP	around $350
Gamo Swarm Magnum	Best without a tank	Gas piston break barrel	around $280
Crosman Mag-Fire	Most shots per load	Nitro piston break barrel	around $175
Crosman 362	Best multi-pump .22	Multi-pump pneumatic	around $130
Hatsan Mod 95	Best magnum springer	Spring piston	around $170

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1. Benjamin Marauder: Best overall .22

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

The Marauder in .22 is the airgun most serious shooters end up with. Shrouded, multi-shot, adjustable trigger, and .22 is the caliber it was really designed around: heavy enough to carry through a breeze, light enough to shoot flat inside fifty yards. It needs a fill source and it is worth the trouble.

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2. Umarex Gauntlet 2: Best value PCP

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

Regulated at three hundred and fifty dollars, which still does not look right written down. The regulator holds every shot to the same pressure, so a magazine of .22 pellets lands in the same place instead of walking up and down the target as the bottle drains. Nothing else near this price does that.

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3. Umarex Origin: Best first .22 PCP

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

The Origin ships with its own hand pump, and Umarex put a full-power shot at thirteen pumps of it. For somebody moving up to .22 PCP without wanting to buy a carbon fibre tank in the same week, this is the way in, and the shrouded barrel keeps it civil in a back garden.

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4. Gamo Swarm Magnum: Best without a tank

• Caliber: .22
• Power plant: Gas piston break barrel
• Street price: around $280

If you want .22 and you do not want to own an air tank, this is the answer. Ten shots from the magazine, gas piston, and full magnum power, which in .22 means enough for rabbits and squirrels at the ranges you should be taking them. You give up the flat trajectory of a PCP and gain never filling anything.

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5. Crosman Mag-Fire: Most shots per load

• Caliber: .22
• Power plant: Nitro piston break barrel
• Street price: around $175

Twelve rounds in .22 and a nitro piston, for well under two hundred dollars. The Diamondback and Xtreme versions both turn up on the card below at slightly different prices. It is plasticky and the trigger takes learning, and it is still more rifle than anything else at the money.

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6. Crosman 362: Best multi-pump .22

• Caliber: .22
• Power plant: Multi-pump pneumatic
• Street price: around $130

The multi-pump is the format people forget, and in .22 it is genuinely useful: three pumps for the back garden, eight when something needs dealing with. One hundred and thirty dollars, no gas, no tank, and the power is whatever you decide it is that afternoon. It is also the best rifle here for teaching somebody.

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7. Hatsan Mod 95: Best magnum springer

• Caliber: .22
• Power plant: Spring piston
• Street price: around $170

A heavy Turkish springer with a wood stock and a Quattro trigger that embarrasses things costing twice as much. In .22 it hits hard, and the weight that makes it awkward to carry is the same weight that steadies it on aim. It rewards somebody who has learned to hold a spring rifle loosely.

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Proving the .22 Claim Instead of Repeating It

Every airgun site says .22 is the do-everything caliber and none of them show you why. It is worth two minutes, because the answer also tells you when .177 is the better buy.

Energy in foot-pounds is the pellet weight in grains, multiplied by the velocity in feet per second squared, divided by 450,240. That constant is the standard one and you can check it on something familiar: a 40 grain .22 Long Rifle at 1,200 fps comes out at 128 ft-lb, which is what the ammunition makers print.

Now take one powerplant producing the same energy either way, which is roughly how a springer behaves. Call it 20 ft-lb. In .177 a typical 8.4 grain pellet needs about 1,035 feet per second to make that. In .22 a typical 14.3 grain pellet needs about 793. The .177 is flatter and easier to place at distance. The .22 arrives slower and heavier, and a heavier pellet sheds a smaller proportion of its speed to air resistance, so it holds more of that 20 ft-lb at thirty yards and transfers more of what is left into the animal rather than carrying it out the other side.

That is the whole argument, and it tells you where the line sits. For paper, tin cans and starlings at twenty yards, .177 is cheaper to feed and easier to shoot well. For anything with fur on it, .22 is the one, and it is why six of the seven rifles above exist in this caliber at all. Beyond about .25 you are into a different conversation, covered in our big bore guide.

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What a .22 Is Actually Legal to Hunt

Choosing .22 has a legal consequence as well as a ballistic one, and it is worth knowing which side of the line you are on. Texas publishes the clearest numbers of any state, so they make a good yardstick even if you shoot somewhere else. For squirrels, pheasant, quail and chachalaca, Texas Parks and Wildlife requires an air gun firing at least .177 caliber at a minimum of 600 feet per second. Every rifle on this page clears that without trying.

The bar for big game is a different world. Alligator, bighorn sheep, javelina, mule deer, pronghorn and white-tailed deer 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 producing at least 215 foot pounds. A .22 pellet weighs about 14 grains. There is no .22 air rifle made, at any price, that comes close to that, and anybody telling you otherwise is selling something.

So the honest scope of a .22 air rifle is squirrels, rabbits, rats, pigeons and similar, inside about forty yards, and it does that job better than any other airgun caliber. For hogs or deer you need a big bore, which is a different rifle and a different budget. Check your own state before you shoot anything and treat none of this as legal advice.

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Why .22 Is the Do-Everything Caliber

Compared to a .177, a .22 fires a heavier pellet that carries more energy and transfers it better into game, giving cleaner, more humane kills on squirrels, rabbits and similar quarry. It gives up a little velocity and trajectory, but at real airgun ranges that barely matters. That balance of power and practicality is why nearly every serious hunting PCP is offered in .22. If you want more knockdown for bigger small game, step up to .25; if you only shoot paper, .177 is cheaper. See the full breakdown in our .177 vs .22 vs .25 guide.

.22 Air Rifle FAQ

Want the full field by power plant? See our best PCP air rifles and best break-barrel air rifles. Hunting? Read our best air rifles for hunting guide.

Want the details? Read our full Benjamin Marauder, Umarex Gauntlet 2 and Gamo Swarm reviews.

Read our full Diana 34 review for a classic .22 break-barrel.