air rifles

John Bourbon

John Bourbon

Well-known member
Hello all. I have an itch to buy a high quality air rifle, but I know nothing about them. Do any of you guys know of a web site, or preferably a forum, that one could haunt long enough to be able to learn a little something about them?

Thanks,
John
 
John,


I know little about most everything, but I know a lot about air rifles.


Some things you might want to consider...
1.) Where will you be shooting?
If you get a rifle that can push a pellet beyond the speed of sound, you will have a loud "crack" each time you fire.
Many folks opt for a pellet gun which can fire a heavier pellet at a slower speed, rather than a small light .177 cal.


2.) What will you be shooting?
Starlings and Tree Squirrels or, Crows and Cats and Coons?


3.) how much shooting will you be doing? .177 pellets are cheap as heck, .20 and .22 and .25. and .40 etc get spendy.


4.) how strong are you?
Some of the Spring Piston Air rifles take considerable strength to cock back, and are not suitable for youngsters because of that.


5.) What is your budget?
You can go from a red ryder to the moon here.


Id say if I had about $50 to spend on an air rifle, Crossman 760 or similar pneumatic.
A ton of fun, capable of light game and cans, accurate and cheap.


$100ish. Benjamin pneumatic.


$250 and up.... RWS


Remember though, as the pellet drops from supersonic to subsonic, it will start to tumble and go helter skelter.


I'd stick with a pneumatic to start, rather than a spring piston.


You can always graduate to a spring piston later on.... Id get a Benjamin in .177 cal...


Anything in a .177 you can also shoot a bb through too.


Many of the forums cater to the precharged pneumatic guys....


Those are really high end systems that you could hunt with... Pigs and coyotes etc.




I hope this helps a little.
 
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John,
I have been a air gun nut for most of my life, my collection has a mix of springers and pcp guns. The market today has so many good choices along with some really good glass at a good price as well. It would be best to educate yourself on personal preference before looking at price. Spring guns can take some getting used to, some are more "hold sensitive" then others. PCP (pre charged pneumatic)guns are about the easiest to shoot accurately but carry a bigger price tag because you need to purchase a air supply of some sort. Take a look at Pyramydair.com they have a section called "airgun academy" that will answer a lot of questions and bring you up to speed as to what is on the market. Good Luck
 
Interesting thread...air guns interest me...my son "loaned" my dependable Sheridan to an old hunting buddy without my sayso--and the buddy contracted Alzheimer's and the gun wound up with HIS son. Grrrrr. But I am particularly interested in the Quackenbush style big-game air guns. Does anyone have experience with those?
 
I don't have nearly the experience that others here will have. But I am in the same boat as you. I have been looking into the various types of airguns that are out there. I have found Tedsholdover.com to be full of great videos to demonstrate what airguns are capable of. He caters to the pre-charged guns, but does have a video or two with older pump pnuematic guns and spring guns.

I have talked to several guys that really like the Nitro Piston guns and there is a Nitro Piston II that is due to come out soon. Those are made by Crossman/Benjamin. I have also been looking at the Benjamin Discovery as a more cost friendly pre-charged pneumatic gun.

Have fun in your search. These things are way more capable than I would have ever thought.

Chad
 
Hello all. I have an itch to buy a high quality air rifle, but I know nothing about them. Do any of you guys know of a web site, or preferably a forum, that one could haunt long enough to be able to learn a little something about them?

Thanks,
John
Click to expand...


I have an RWS model 48, I like it. I bought it for typical sniping of vermin and plinking.

My biggest comment with it is that it is LOUD!!! Therefore it isn't ideal for sniping of vermin. A 22 cal rifle shooting cb caps is much quiter, something to consider. CB caps penetrate well, but don't mushroom so the kills are not instant, so less than ideal on that end. Obviously if you live out of town or the 'burbs the noise isn't an issue.
 
Depending on your choice, many spring powered and most all of the PCP guns have shrouded and baffled barrels. This feature reduces noise to a level conducive to plinking in your back yard. Caliber choice has a lot to do with noise as well, .177 can be very quiet where a .25 will turn a few heads. .30 caliber is starting to pick up some popularity now too. I own a RWS 48, its one of my favorite squirrel rifles and yes it is a little loud but it also produces over 20 foot pounds of energy and out to 35 yards its plenty accurate with JSB 15.9 pellets.
 
I'm really interested in this too, I need to do some magpie control around my place. Those SOB's got into my fly pen last spring and killed 15 baby chickens in an hour, and they have also figured out how to steal eggs from our henhouse.
 
One thing that a lot of folks don't realize, that a good quality air rifle will rival any .22 for accuracy and most have quite a punch within their limitations. Spring rifles from Beeman and Airarms have match grade triggers that are fully adjustable. One thing to watch for are the lower grade guns made in china, they advertise velocities obtained only with light alloy pellets and have the most awful triggers imaginable.
 
I borrowed a Gamo .177 break-action air gun with a 4x32 scope from a buddy to take out some squirrels around the house this year (Air guns are legal for small game in AL).
Within 75', it knocked them for a loop.
 
I've got a gamo big cat 1200. I like it. Very accurate and I've shot a lot of critters with it. Squirrels, crows, pigeons etc. no problem.
 
I got a Gamo Whisper from Cabelas on sale a few years back for $200. Cant beat it... Supersonic with Gamo Raptor pellets, but other lead pellets it's subsonic. Accuracy out to 40 yards is pretty impressive. I can hit a tennis ball most of the time, the times I miss are probably due to me.

Gamo's come with a cheap trigger, I googled and found an aftermarket trigger for about $15 that is smooth as can be, took me 10 min to install.
 
I bought a Gamo Whisper and it was fine in the beginning. Bout 50 pellets in it started spraying all over the place.
Resighted it in, and it started spraying all over again. Gamo said I have to clean the barrel after every 5 shots!!!!
WTH, the RWS I had growing up NEVER got cleaned and I picked squirrels and rabbits off for 2 decades with it. Has
anyone had accurracy issues? I have a buddy that has same gun, same problem.

Doug
 
I bought a Gamo Whisper and it was fine in the beginning. Bout 50 pellets in it started spraying all over the place.
Resighted it in, and it started spraying all over again. Gamo said I have to clean the barrel after every 5 shots!!!!
WTH, the RWS I had growing up NEVER got cleaned and I picked squirrels and rabbits off for 2 decades with it. Has
anyone had accurracy issues? I have a buddy that has same gun, same problem.

Doug


I'm the buddy......Mine is a "Shadow".......Was shooting AWESOME......then all of a sudden I can't hit a 3x3 box.......may get a couple on target then back to crap again.....
Click to expand...
 
Does you gamo have a scope? When you sighted it in does the elevation turret have a lot adjustment in it? Does the windage turret have a lot of adjustment? Most break barrel air guns have what is called " barrel droop" and while it pertains more to the scope then the barrel there is a easy fix. Inside each scope at the bottom of both adjustment turrets is a tube and a spring. The perfect mount height for the scope would be so both turrets are past center( screwed down with a couple of turns remaining before the knob stops) to keep these two springs with enough tension as to not change the rifles point of aim when it gets knocked around. One way to check to see if the scope is in working order. Screw the elevation turret down till it stops and back off one full turn. Set up at 10 yards and shoot a group, if you get one ragged hole you know the scope needs to be mounted higher to put pressure on that spring. In the case of windage the same thing. There are a couple of different "Droop compensation mounts" available they run 15 bucks or so and mount to the rifle and then the scope goes on the mount.
 
Thanks but I'm not sure that's the problem. You see everything was good and then it went south. It won't group at all. I can refer the scope and it good for maybe a shot or two then it's all over the place. Shot or two on, then one high,low, lower, back up. Scope is tight. Doesn't get banged around. I thought the scope was bad but then my buddies gun did the same thing. The scope doesn't run out of adjustment, it can put it back on the bull but the gun won't stay consistent
 
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