My interest is that I want to buy a bb gun or air rifle to kill chipmunks at close range, but I’d like to get one quiet enough that the neighbors don’t freak out. I’ve checked, and it’s legal for me to own and shoot an airgun at chipmunks in my backyard. But a firearm would be illegal, and I don’t want any misunderstandings.
Yeah, there’s more than one airgun that fits that bill. I wouldn’t advise a spring or gas piston rifle, as they’re generally pretty loud and only fire at max velocity (usually supersonic). A multi-pump or a pre-charged pneumatic with an adjustment valve would probably be better. If it’s your first air rifle, I’d suggest a multi-pump with a rifled barrel. The Crossman Air Master 77 is cheap, rifled and fairly dependable. They’re made with a plastic receiver now, but it seems you have to move up to at least a Benjamin to get a rifle with a metal receiver these days.
I’ve been a fan of Beeman’s air rifles for the last 35-40 years or so. Subsonic (at least my R7 is), accurate, fairly quiet. Able to do a number on the local varmint population. This site looks like it has a few: Beeman Air Rifles | Airgun Depot
Weihrauch and Feinwerkbau make great ones too. As accurate as you likely can shoot, and then some.
Ooops, didn’t even think about CO2 guns because I never liked buying/carrying the cartridges, but they are an option that doesn’t require you to spend all day pumping. Beeman’s QB78 appears to fit the bill well, comes in .177/.22, has a metal receiver and wood stock, and even the .177 is rated for 650FPS*, well below supersonic.
Beeman’s other rifles are mostly out of what I’d consider the price range of a beginner’s air rifle. They’re nice rifles, but I think anything over $120 is pushing it. There are too many decent rifles to be had for around $100 as long as you are fine with holding plastic on your first rifle.
However, if the budget can take the expense of a nicer rifle, there’s a lot out there in the $200-$300 range. I did a search for the quietest air rifles, and found this page listing several rifles. I’m surprised at how quiet your R7 comes in at, with the reputation spring piston guns tend to have for being noisy. There’s also apparently been quite a few improvements at making most of them quieter since I last shopped for an air rifle, including silenced barrels. So, a spring or gas piston rifle should work well, as long as you check the noise reviews. I have no reason to need another air rifle, but after having a look at the current offerings, I kind of want one.
By the time you’re spending Feinwerkbau money, you can buy any air rifle you want, and don’t need my advice. 
*This is just about the lower limit of FPS for legally hunting squirrel in Texas. But, the FPS ratings should just be a general guide. My rifle’s not technically rated to be supersonic, but it can push a light pellet beyond it. If you’re worried about noise, use the heaviest pellets that work well in the rifle.
Thanks, that sounds about right. I don’t want to be messing with gas cartridges, either, and multipump sounds good.
I’ve never hooked it up to a sound meter, but the “Phhuuunnt!” noise it makes isn’t terribly loud. Sounded about as loud as my 60-ish pound weight compound bow, though a different sound. A framing nailer is louder. A .22 bolt action is far, far louder still. Even with subsonic stuff like Tenex.
I would think your neighbors would hear something, depending on your surroundings, but it wouldn’t sound like a ‘gun’ to them. Then again, it’s not pushing a .177 pellet all that fast.
From the prior posts, I imagine 30-35 years of improvement have made them quieter. I haven’t looked, and they’re probably sanctioned anyway, but Russian air rifles might be a bit cheaper, while still accurate, if they’re like their Izmash and Baikal target rifle brethren.
Are chipmunks a pest? Really asking. I always thought there were kinda cute and not a menace but I am a city guy so I don’t see too much of them.
They eat my blueberries, raspberries, currants, apples, strawberries, and tomatoes, to the point where I harvested a dozen raspberries and nothing else this year. The apple tree has been denuded. So yes, I consider them pests.
I agree they are cute, but I would be far happier without them.
squirrels are pests if you’re trying to have a garden. rabbits too.
“cute” only gets them so far.
Yep, squirrels can also be a pain if you have a roof that they’ve moved into. I got my first air rifle as an adult to rid myself of about a dozen that had taken up residence in mine. I had tried traps, but they were escape artists, and by the time I got a ladder out to retrieve the trap, another squirrel had released them.
@puzzlegal one drawback I can think of with a multi pump is: if you take a less than stellar shot and just wound the chipmunk, it is a bit of time before you’re going to be ready for a second shot. And the little guy will understandably make a lot of noise, warning all the chipmunks in the area. In my case, it was a bonus, because all the other squirrels moved out after a bad shot on one of them was followed by a dramatic, noisy death, so I had to shoot fewer squirrels. Not sure if that would be a feature or a bug in your case.
It’s a shame the OP isn’t a falconer. Those vids might be a YouTube sensation.
Late to the party, but here goes.
Where I live, silencers are to be had at any gun store, no questions asked. I have one on my pretty powerful (and loud) .25 cal PCP rifle. This thing kills small boar-sized game with a single shot to the chest at 40 yards, so could be easily used to kill a human.
With the silencer on, when I press the trigger, I hear a faint ‘click’ of the action and a ‘Poof’, no louder than a regular SBD fart. So, yes there are guns that are actually silent or nearly so.
In my younger days we would take a 2 liter plastic bottle and tape it to the barrel of a gun as a “silencer”. 1st shot was definitely quieter, second shot louder, but still quieter than a regular shot. With no sights to use due to a plastic bottle taped to your gun it was quiet, but not accurate.
In a similar vein, I was dividing my attention between watching TV and my roommate cleaning his .22LR Ruger revolver one afternoon. When he got done, he loaded it and wrapped it in a pillow. I asked “hey man, what ya doin?” as I followed him back to his room. He pointed the pistol at the floor, and shot (ground floor). It was about as loud as dropping a decent sized dictionary on the floor. Far more noticeable than my airgun, but someone in the next apartment wouldn’t have noticed.
Is the .25 PCP rifle that you mention, one of these types of airguns? If so, then from the link, they mention it fires a 33.6 grain pellet with 53 ft.-lbs of energy.
Which is a lot for an airgun, but compare to the .25 ACP centerfire pistol cartridge, and its ballistics for the 35 grain bullet, fired at 900 ft./sec., with a muzzle energy of 63 ft.-lbs. I would not hunt medium game with a .25 ACP. Nor do I find it suitable as a defensive handgun cartridge, though it’s certainly killed tens of thousands of people.
Accordingly, I’m sure your rifle is extremely quiet, and I envy your ability to easily and inexpensively purchase gun mufflers.
But that is a airgun, not a pistol that shoots 10 times “phut phut phut”, as in film