Air guns?
- Thread starter wavinwayne
- Start date
Those 1970's Sheridans are great guns!
Same here. Good for pest control and hunting small game like rabbits. Accurate and powerful. I had reservations about the mechanical complexity of the action sliding on rails, but it's held up well over the years.
Like many guys, my airgun journey started when I got my first BB gun as a kid. That was a Crosman 760, a pump that could shoot BBs and .177 pellets. As an adult I got an RWS 34, a simple spring piston barrel break .177 caliber. It is better made, more accurate and powerful than that old Crosman. And being spring piston, it requires some practice to shoot well, since when you pull the trigger, the spring piston slams forward while the pellet is still in the chamber & barrel. This requires a smooth trigger squeeze and steady follow-through and hold on each shot. In this sense a magnum spring piston air rifle is harder to shoot than a "real" rifle like a 30.06, and that practice pays off with greater accuracy. The unique recoil of these spring piston air rifles is also hard on scopes, so choose carefully.
I no longer have it, but about 20 years ago some seller at the flea market had some Arabic or Chinesium no name .22 break action for like 30$. Weighed a ton. I had to have one. It would absolutely drop a cat sized critter at 25 yards. It didn't last long, maybe 4-5k shots but it was fun while it lasted.
I still have a Crosman 760 from my youth, but it has bad seals. Looked into fixing it, or getting it fixed, but didn't get far. My understanding is that the ones made now have plastic barrels? The milk carton of Crosman BBs and box of Beeman Silver Jet pellets are still mostly full.
Now have a Gamo Varmint in the house.
Now have a Gamo Varmint in the house.
Are air guns still in short supply?
I bought a Ruger Impact, this is an updated version but seems to be pretty similar, and about 40 bucks more than I paid. Good price point, wood stock (not a fan of synthetics), 22 cal pellet. I use it to plink squirrels. Pretty accurate, but I have noticed pellets vary a lot. If you want accuracy buy match grade stuff. Cheaper ones seem to have a lot of variance to them. Not an expert by any means, but I like it.
Ruger Impact Elite .22. Cal. Pellet Air Rifle
shopruger.com
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Most airguns are sensitive to the shape & mass of pellets used. Pellets that work great in one, don't in another. I've bought pellet packs which have at least 10 different sizes & shapes of pellets of the same caliber, try them all out and see what works in your particular gun. Then buy those pellet(s) in bulk with confidence.
Another factor is that most air rifles do best when the pellets are subsonic. Powerful rifles need heavy pellets to keep velocities down. Pellets that go supersonic (or even transsonic), tend to lose accuracy because it drastically changes airflow around the pellet. It's best to keep muzzle velocities below mach 0.8, or about 880 fps under sea level standard conditions.
Pretty sure this thing does not go supersonic, it's one of those break barrel units and wasn't very expensive. But I have heard pellets work in some, and not others, so bought 4 different ones when I ordered the rifle. None were terrible but you'd get an occasional flyer with the cheaper stuff. Good enough for what I use it for.
“No Country for Old Men” … Excuse me sir , can you please roll down your window a little ?
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