The airgun thread - lets see where this goes.

kojackJKU

Autism Family Travellers!
I live in Canada where handguns are highly restricted. Well everything is besides hunting rifles and shotguns. Have a few of those but I am interested in having some fun with shooting. Airguns seem a logical choice for me to pile up a collection of cool stuff for next to no money. Lets see what everyone has. All I have now is a decrepit promaster 66 that needs the entire insides rebuilt. it holds no air and I am going to modify it to pack a little more punch so to speak.

I am interested in rifles, hand guns and airsoft as well.

post em if you got em!
 
J

JWP58

Guest
I would like to get a really nice PCP airgun, like a daystate or FX. But I cant seem to take money away from my other hobbies..
 

kojackJKU

Autism Family Travellers!
I was looking at a couple of walthers, the tactical, and the desert eagle with the blowback system. I also HAVE to buy an automatic airsoft gun. I have shot a real Canadian version of the M-16, whatever the name of it is, an it was the most fun I had with a weapon. You can go through serious amounts of ammo with those.
 

EMrider

Explorer
I decided about 4-5 years ago that quality airguns provide about 98% of the enjoyment of shooting firearms at about 30% the cost and 5% the hassle.

Compared to ammo, even the highest quality pellets are very inexpensive and readily available. And I can safely shoot all my airguns into a simple ductseal backstop at ranges from 10-40 yards. Most importantly, a good airgun is incredibly accurate and most are, or can be made, very quiet.

I have tried PCPs, but prefer the reliability and self-sufficiency of spring guns. No support equipment needed. Just grab pellets and go.

My preference is for lower powered guns that are accurate and quiet in .177 cal like the Beeman R7 or HW50. I also like a sub 12fpe air arms pro sport. All are fine for small game out to 40 yards. But they really excel at backyard target shooting and plinking.

I probably have 50,000 shots through my R7 with only one spring replacement and a simple re-lube that took maybe 20 minutes in total.

Here is an excellent review of the HW30.......which is identical to the Beeman R7 except that the HW30 comes with open sights whereas the R7 is scope only.

http://my.tbaytel.net/coopers/HW30SReview/review.html

Good luck choosing. Once hooked, airguns are hard to stop collecting.

R
 
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kojackJKU

Autism Family Travellers!
Yep. I used my pellet gun as a kid to rid the area of pesky red squirrels and get a few meals of grouse. head shots. that was just my 66 powermaster. I still have it but It does not pump up at all. I need to find a replacement kit for the insides, and any mods I can do for more power. I am on a few airgun shopping sites and I think im going to start cleaning out the clearance sections. I am wanting a few auto guns too. have a long lists of weapons I want to get.
 

kojackJKU

Autism Family Travellers!
airsoft will be great for ridding my property of pesky household animals that the people around here just let run loose....weather it be cats or dogs. non leathal but will get the point across not to venture into my land and piss and tear up garbage. There is nothing worse. Well, besides raccoons, but we don't have them around here much yet. that's when the leathal airguns will be coming out.
 

Shlaytim

AZBADAZ
I love air guns, have had one since I was 6yrs old, 30 years later I am still plinking in the back yard. Both my kids have one each, trusty daisy red riders, a pink one for my daughter and pine/walnut colored for my son, and they have never failed either one of my kids from the abuse they have received. I built them a target box that they can hang empty soda cans in, and if they miss the can, I hung a rubber floor mat and a piece of outdoor carpet in so no ricochets, the bb drops and gets collected in a old bread pan in the bottom of the box. After they have shot for a while they just collect the bb's from the pan, reload and ready to go again. Was simple, cheap, and a lot of fun to build. Best thing is they are great with the guns, understand shooting in a safe direction, how to properly care for there guns, and they have fun doing it. Thats a win win in my book. As for me, I spend enough money on my sporting guns and other hobbies that I wont spend alot on a air rifle, I like them, just not enough to drop more then say $150 on one. My air rifle of choice is the crossman phantom, spring gun, break action, and scoped with a 3x9x40 scope. It shoots 1200 fps and is deadly accurate. I have shot squirrels, rabbits, etc. from 40yds with one shot-one kill, no problem. I have done a couple mods to it (thanks youtube) and it is one heck of a tack driver. Cheap air rifles that have provided priceless memories for my kids and I, what more could a Dad ask for?
 

Nullifier

Expedition Leader
I have a gamo and it is a lot of fun. I shoot all the time with it. We have targets set up in the conservation area behind my house in the sub division. It is great fun to plink from the porch lol.
 

stioc

Expedition Leader
I grew up with a pellet gun, it was a prized possession of mine as I had to beg and plead my parents to buy me one. They made me wait 2 years until they got me one (when I got in 6th grade). I got my kid a Daisy BB gun and immediately noticed the mistake...the round BBs ricochet all over the place while my old lead pellets absorbed the energy and flattened after hitting an object. While I built a catch for the BB's using a large thick cardboard box behind the coke can stand but it's still not as fun as the pellets were. May be I can find plastic BBs that disintegrate upon impact?

Speaking of the pellet guns I had heard some pellet guns are powerful enough (very high velocity) that some people were using them to kill hogs, not sure how true that is or how humane that is but just a thought.
 
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stioc

Expedition Leader
OK, since I had time today I decided to give the Daisy Red Ryder another try after a year or so of it just sitting there. This time instead of trying the paper bullseye targets I decided to make it more fun for my 10yo so we collected and setup odd cans and plastic bottles in the backyard, put a heavy cardboard behind the targets and then draped a heavy beach towel behind the cardboard to absorb the energy. Say what you may about 350fps but at 10 yards or so these things pack a punch, I embedded several BBs into the wooden fence deep enough to sit flush.

Well we had fun for almost 2hrs, the BB gun was a hit this time. Between the three of us we probably shot approx 300 BBs that probably cost a couple of bucks (I think paid $20 or so for a 6000 BB jar). Once our initial targets were pretty tattered up we then remembered we had left over water balloons which were even more fun :)

I've been meaning to pick up a bolt action .22 for fun (I think bolt-actions are more fun than a semi-auto similar to a manual transmission) but a basic BB gun can also provide quite a bit of fun right in the backyard without sending the neighbors into a frenzy lol.
 

EMrider

Explorer
I grew up with a pellet gun, it was a prized possession of mine as I had to beg and plead my parents to buy me one. They made me wait 2 years until they got me one (when I got in 6th grade). I got my kid a Daisy BB gun and immediately noticed the mistake...the round BBs ricochet all over the place while my old lead pellets absorbed the energy and flattened after hitting an object. While I built a catch for the BB's using a large thick cardboard box behind the coke can stand but it's still not as fun as the pellets were. May be I can find plastic BBs that disintegrate upon impact?

Speaking of the pellet guns I had heard some pellet guns are powerful enough (very high velocity) that some people were using them to kill hogs, not sure how true that is or how humane that is but just a thought.

Yep, the big negatives with BB guns are ricochets and their inaccuracy. Since they are primarily plinkers, I can live with their inaccuracy, but the ricochet problem led me to toss them after my kids and I got nailed a few times.

.177 pellet guns are the way to go. Far far fewer ricochets and much better accuracy. A multi pump like the daisy 880 or the crosman 2100 are great fun and inexpensive too. With 2-3 pumps they shoot at about 450-475fps and their accuracy is pretty good. Both were easy to pump, load and shoot for my boys ages 9 and 12.

Airgun hunting is growing and oddly enough, CA is probably the most airgun friendly state in its hunting regs. IMHO, they are ideal for small game. Lots of people hunt hogs with them too. But for hogs, you typically need a PCP that shoots at 50fpe or more. Not easy to get that power in a springer.

Good luck.

R
 

JPsLC

Observer
I found this thread as I sit here an wait for my Crosman Nitro Venom air rifle to show up. It's my first air rifle, so I'm pumped (sorry for the cheesy pun). Hopefully tomorrow will be spent shooting several pellets to break it in and work on sighting the scope.
 

stioc

Expedition Leader
Nice purchase. Is it the break-barrel type or CO2 powered? Mine was the break-barrel type.
 

Coby65

Observer
I bought a Crosman AIR 17 when I 10 or 11 years old at Kmart and still have it to this day.
It was always fun when I was in the Army to see a bunch of tough guys hanging out plinking with thing and laughing at misses.

Wife was actually the best shot with it. :)
 

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