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Survival hunt with the Air Venturi Alpha

Marley and I recently headed out for an overnight, survival-style hunt with the new Air Venturi Alpha, putting it through a real-world field test rather than a controlled range session. This trip was part of my ongoing Left for Dead series, where I take various airguns into the field and use them in practical survival situations with minimal gear—hunting for food, setting up shelter, and relying on the rifle as a true working tool. The goal of this series isn’t just to test equipment, but to learn the strengths and limitations of each gun when it actually matters. Spending extended time in the field forces you to pay attention to things like reliability, handling, efficiency, and how well a platform integrates with basic outdoor gear. It’s also been a great way for me to sharpen my own outdoor and survival skills rather than just reviewing gear on paper. The location for this overnight adventure is fairly new to me other than a brief look of it on Google Earth where I was able to get a general representation of the terrain and area to setup camp.

Before heading out for any hunt I always like to check my gear, the roads we travel are pretty jarring and can cause scopes to loosen and lose zero. The Alpha is a very small carbine with overall length around 33.5″ and weight just over 4lbs. Over this past year I have enjoyed various compact airguns, they are great for traveling as they don’t take up much space and pack into my Saviors bag very well.

The Alpha has 118cc reservoir with a fill pressure of 250bar, giving 20 usable shots on the regulator putting out 26fpe. I set my target out to 40 yards to check zero and make any last-minute adjustments before heading out. The Alpha did come with two self-indexing rotary style magazines that are pretty easy to load and securely hold pellets.

I have not tried that many different pellets but from what I had, the H&N Barracuda 18’s were shooting pretty dang good off my crude wobbly bench setup. For my scope I was using the Hawke Frontier 2.5-15×50 with the Tactacam 5.0 to hopefully capture any hunting action.

After zero check Marley and I secured the Jeep and headed into the backcountry where I wanted to first find a good location to setup a camp and be able to dump some of my gear. We followed a dry creek that winded through some thick Junipers, Sagebrush and Pines, looking on each side of the creek for a nice flat location to setup camp. I did find a nice clearing that was flat and did have a few large Junipers that could serve as a wind break, even had a few fell trees about 50′ away for firewood.

I did bring one cheat item, a 10×13′ tarp that I do carry sometimes during summer months to get shade in the desert, lightweight and doesn’t take up much space. On many of my trips I bring a shooting tripod, together these can make an excellent and very quick shelter. I like going with a larger tarp as this allows enough material to have a floor and three walls. I use the tripod as a center pole and guy out the front making a nice A frame style tent.

Having the open front allows me to dig a firepit out front that will reflect heat into the shelter while still having easy access in and out. After setting up the shelter I packed most of my stuff away in the shelter, camera gear mostly to lighten things up for the afternoon hunt.

I did roam around the area near camp to look for rabbits but found it to be far to thick for any good visibility of movement. I decided Marley and I would hike down through the dry creek to an area that is more open desert terrain, this would hopefully be better for spotting rabbit activity. We hiked about a mile before stepping out of the dry creek onto what looked to be a pretty active game trail. It looked like a pretty busy trail for both rabbits and coyotes, a good sign that hopefully would lead to some good hunting.

The temperature was in the mid 60’s but when you are hiking around in the open desert with no shade it does get pretty hot. Marley and I took refuge in the shade of a large sagebrush where we relaxed for a much-needed water break. I brought two liters of water and if desperate enough could have hiked further down the creek to an open water source.

I did bring a rangefinder, something I always carry and works very well for glassing areas and getting a good judgment of various ranges. For small game hunting I always like to try within 50 yards, especially with light calibers.

Moving on we continued following this game trail that zig zagged through the sagebrush often coming to a clearing where visibility is good. I started seeing the faint movement of rabbits/jackrabbits scurrying through the thicker areas. When hunting for substance it can get frustrating, part of that desperation makes us work much more cautiously with our movements though.

Marley and I slowly followed this trail for a while but ultimately decided to start heading back the other direction as the sun in my eyes was working against me. We took a few more breaks, just sitting in what little shade we could find, scanning the distance for movement. I finally spotted a good-sized jackrabbit wandering through the sagebrush in the distance. We moved on it and we slowly stalked our way up to a large manzanita bush that I figured would provide some good cover for us. Sure enough he was sitting at 42 yards out, didn’t even notice me watching him.

I was able to make a perfect headshot sending him airborne before flopping down into the sand embankment of the creek. Marley took off to claim her prize that would ultimately be our dinner for the night. I would have preferred a Cottontail, but these Jackrabbits tend to have much more meat, it was a situation that was meant to be. After wrestling the bunny into my pack, we headed back up the creek to a shaded area where I could spend some time and process our kill for the evening meal.

I like to always do this away from camp to minimize any visitors that might be drawn in by the smell of blood, we do have bears, mountain lions, coyotes and foxes that frequent the area.

Making it back to camp it was now time to dig out a small firepit and collect some wood that we could use to cook and provide us some sustained heat to keep us warm through the night. As mentioned, I had a few fell trees that had plenty of wood to collect along with some Juniper bark that makes excellent firestarter material. I was able to get a nice little fire going and then sharpened a straight branch to use as a skewer to cook the jackrabbit, the first time I’d ever tried something like this.

My thoughts on the Alpha sofar were very good, it’s a nice lightweight and short little gun for hiking around and certainly shoots offhand well. From someone who does a ton of hiking with various different airguns, weight does become a huge factor in keeping yourself from getting fatigued. I think for shorter range small game hunting these are a much better choice over a larger, more powerful option. The limitations are just that though, lower power means we have to get closer, but we are not having to carry as much weight and the shorter length makes it easier to stalk through thicker sagebrush.

There is something deeply primal about harvesting an animal and cooking it over an open fire. Stripping the process back to its basics—no modern conveniences, no excess gear—puts you directly in touch with why we hunt in the first place. In that setting, an airgun proves just how practical it can be as a survival tool. Quiet, efficient, and effective, it allows you to take small game cleanly and sustainably, turning opportunity into actual sustenance rather than just an experience.

Moments like that around the fire are a clear reminder that airguns are far more than recreational devices. Used correctly, they are legitimate tools capable of providing food in a real-world survival situation, which is exactly the kind of context I want to evaluate them in. The jackrabbit taste nowhere near as good as a Cottontail but certainly had plenty of meat for both Marley and I, for the future I might try something different to minimize the game taste.

After finishing up our much-needed dinner, I made some camp coffee and proceeded to gather some more firewood for our long night of cold temperatures. I did have a jacket, beanie, gloves and a happy little dog to keep me warm…still, fire would be a necessity. Overall, it was a pretty rough night. We managed only a few hours of broken sleep, with coyotes sounding off around midnight and keeping things lively. At some point the fire died down, and rather than constantly feeding it, I eventually hunkered down in the shelter—drifting in and out of sleep, more tired than motivated to keep it going. By morning we were low on water, so we packed up camp, buried the fire, and made the long march back to the Jeep. Despite the lack of sleep, I had a great time and was thankful for a bit of good luck in harvesting a jackrabbit. Having that meal made the experience feel complete and reinforced the value of the setup. Below are a few of my thoughts on the Air Venturi Alpha for those interested in a budget-friendly airgun that still checks a lot of important boxes.

Pros

  • Sub $300
  • Lightweight
  • Decent build quality
  • Folding Stock
  • Easy to load magazines that function well
  • M-Lok​

Cons

  • Fixed Moderator
  • Stiff Sidelever (heavy spring)
  • Trigger needs adjustment
  • Fill probe (it does atleast have male foster though)​

Even with its faults, it’s hard to be overly critical of the Alpha at its price point. Overall, Air Venturi did a solid job with the package they put together. For the type of hunting I typically do, it checks most of the right boxes, and I can easily see it being a platform that lends itself well to end-user modification and incremental upgrades over time.
If you’re interested in seeing the full adventure, it’s all documented on video. Sharing this kind of content helps me continue producing more real-world, field-use projects like this, and it’s always appreciated.

Thanks for coming along on the journey.