Anyone switching to airguns?

[Yoteman]

I recently bought two Red Ryder's ..one for our granddaughter and one for me, the old guy! A ton of fun while waiting for the "crisis" to end.
Brings back some great memories with my boys!

[beckty]

I have a Marauder and an Air-force Condor, both in .22. I shoot the Marauder about 90% of the time out of the two. The condor only comes out if I have a squirrel out at 75 yards at least. It seems like they are getting smarter though and i'm going to have to start using it more. You can't go wrong with the Marauder I bought mine from pyramid air. They have 3 different kits they sell them in, I went with the one that came with everything. Once you figure out what pellets it likes the thing will put all shots through the same hole until you run down your pressure. Pumping it up isn't so bad either, the trick is to pay the extra 10$ to have pyramid test fire the rifle then it will come charged pretty much. If you have to pump it all they way from zero it's definitely a chore. I only shoot mine down to around 2000 psi and then it takes me about 2 minutes to charge it back up.

[jigggawatt]

I bought a custom built Benjamin discovery from Mac 1 airguns for my son and mounted a good scope on it. He regularly takes squirrels out , out to a hundred yards. I bought a used scuba tank and use it to fill the gun. He loves the gun. It is a good shooter.

[joefrank64k]

Already did. No, the friggin pump I got was $300 w/the rebuild kits. But my airgun was $1800 because I couldn't justify the $2600 version...

http://s915.photobucket.com/user/ejhc11/library/Misc/Feinwerkbau

I always wanted a nice match air rifle and it was now or never. I believe this is already considered a banned weapon in NY due to the pistol grip....

Wow, now THAT'S an air rifle!

[Safra460]

Airgun is a lot of fun. Recently added the Marauder 22 and also bought the "Guppy" carbon tank to fill it up. Buy once cry once. The entire airtank setup cost about $500 but it is worth it.
If you want to try it, we can meet up at the Sunnyvale Rod and Gun club over the weekend.

[Lead Waster]

How do you dill up the pony/scuba tanks? Do you have to go to a dive shop? What's it cost to fill? I'd get the pump too though.

Seems like midway has the best price on the Marauder (from just a little bit of searching) but not sure about shipping.

Pyramid Air seems like a reliable air rifle store.

When I was back home at Christmas time, I found my old (broken Crossman 766) and my brothers 760. Wow, we had some fun when my folks had a cabin up in the boonies!

A pair of Red Ryders will definitely come home when my kids (who are 5) get a bit older too.

[jigggawatt]

I have the tank filled at Sports Chatel and it lasts for ever. I bought the regulator at Mac1 airguns

[tonygg]

Hi Leadwaster, I switched and then jumped back and forth between firearms

and airguns almost 30 years ago. Airgun shooting will aid firearm shooting

more than firearm shooting aids airgun shooting. The airgun world is quite

vast; the extent goes from plinking toys to full blown sporter/hunting and

extremely precise match air pistols and air rifles. The ten meter match rifles

can place 10 pellets into .03"-.04" ctc group. The 10 meter match pistols will

make .04"-.06" ctc 10 shot groups. I still have and shoot an FWB 124D sporter/hunter

air rifle that will print .10" ctc 10 shot groups at 10 meters. I bought the gun

in 1987, and I've only changed the piston seal once, about 2 years ago.

It uses a spring powerplant. That leads me to tell you that airguns can have

different powerplants: spring, CO2, air(precharged pneumatic) and single stroke pneumatic.

Spring guns can be break barrel, side stroke and under lever cocked.

Yes, the price asked for many of these guns can dismay you. Quality brands are

FWB, H&W, FWB, Walther, Steyr, Hammerli, and my favorite for spring sporters

and pre-charged pneumatics is Air Arms(England). I have an Air Arms Pro-Sport

that I used in sanctioned Field Target competition. Here's a peek:

http://www.air-arms.co.uk/products/spring-powered-rifles

I also shoot 10 meter air pistol, but I'll let you research that category on

your own, if your interested.

The Benjamin Marauder is an excellent low priced Pre-charged pneumatic air rifle.
It lacks the higher quality and trigger of the far more expensive Pre- charged

air rifles, but then it's 1/2-1/3rd cost and it gets the job done.

Thanks for bring the topic to light; i'ts one of my

favorite avocations.

Tony

[dragon7]

I bought a Gamo compact target pistol many years ago to practice with at home when I was shooting Bulseye matches in the 90's. Lot's of fun shooting at the length of my garage at 3/4 in. colored plasters. Brought it back out from storage a couple weeks ago when I was unable to find 22LR ammo. It's a lot more challenging to shoot than I remember.

[thatsteveguy]

I picked up a metal frame and slide Tanfoglio 1911 CO2 blowback BB pistol for backyard plinking. It's got some weight to it and with the blowback action it comes pretty close to mimicking a .22 rimfire 1911.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWJpZfEgrkY

[asm_]

Oh no, don't do it. Historians are going to refer back to this moment in history as the turning point where the last defender of 2A in CA finally caved in and switched over the airsoft.

[snorky]

I've been doing a lot of practice in my backyard with an old Gamo Hunter 200 lately. The trigger sucks, but I can shoot and work on other aspects of my shooting for cheap without driving to the range.

I've noticed an improvement in my shooting since I started practicing regularly with an air rifle.

[HeHateMe]

I've been playing with a IZH46M for a few years. Fun and super accurate, not to mention cheap to shoot.

[ScottsBad]

.22 rimfire and pellets are in such a different class that I can't compare them or say which I would buy first.

The .22 LR is probably something that everyone should have at least one of. And I like the Ruger 10/22 and 10/22 breakdown. Also, I have a Sig522, but it's not really worth the extra money.

I've got a couple old Feinwerkbaus that are really pretty nice, but I'm not that into target shooting or varmit hunting with an air rifle. I mostly like to just plink.

Believe it or not my favorite air rifle is a 40 year old Crossman pump that I've had since I was a kid. Back then they made them out of all metal and a wood stock. The thing is very very accurate with iron sites. And I can vary the power. One pump to scare the neighbor's cat from pissing on my chairs (shoot the fence under him). 6 pumps for taking out the damn wood pecker on the side of your house (if you can't scare him away).

I had to take it apart one time to put in a new gasket (air was leaking), but as long as I use quality air rifle oil the thing just keeps on going. Too bad they don't make them as well anymore.

For a while I was playing with M4 style airsoft rifles, but the dang things are expensive and the batteries are hard to fit into the rifle. I was getting over 400fps out of my two electric rifles. But then I started having problems. The triggers stopped working and when I disassembled the mech box to install new parts the damn thing was such a pain (I build ARs and do smithing frequently) that I just ditched them. But they are fun when they work.

[Jet Setter]

Love my airguns. I still have my old Daisy "10 pump" rifle that shoots .22 pellets at 570 FPS. I would like to get a quiet break barrel as I cannot afford the pneumatic rifles.