3 position Spotsman Air Rifle, HELP!

[kBob]

"It's for the children."

There, now everyone will have to help me. My club assists the local JROTC rifle team and they want to upgrade from the Army issue Daisy M835 single pump guns.

The JROTC instructor has correctly noted that the big probem with those guns is the need to break positiob for each shot. Returning from a recent local match he and the kids were all fired up with the idea of CO2 guns like the big teams use. This means they were excited about one of the teams $1000 plus precission guns.

Lots of money to even arm the first string with those and the goodies they need to work.

I noted that the OCMP has the Daisy M888 which is basically the M835 in CO2 format. I have Googgled myself to death and still don't know diddly about how well these guns actually work and what accessories are needed to keep them going. How many shots from a cylinder? What is needed to reload the cylinders? Any info or links to such would be appeciated.

Given that this team has only 2 members breaking 200 on a 300 point course I am reluctant to see them or the Friends of the NRA spend $4000 plus on rifles they are not ready for when the whole first team can get four rifles that would do for under $1000.

Anyone know of any reason I should not encourage them to go for the M888?

Thanks.

-Bob Hollingsworth

 

[Mark whiz]

My youngest son's team went to the "charged" guns from Daisy a few years ago with mixed results. Basically all you need extra is a scuba tank (and necessary adapters) for charging the guns when needed.

They originally was shooting the Crosman 2000s which use CO2 cartridges - but they seemed to fail quite often due to internal seal issues. Based on that problem, I went ahead and bought my son his own Daisy 753 pump.........and we never had a seal problem with that rifle. And it is just as accurate as the Crosman or the 888s (as I was able to shoot a 98 prone target with it on more than 1 occassion)

While the pump does require breaking form, Sporter class shooting gives the kids enough time to complete their shots anyway. As long as the kids are big enough (strong enough) so that the pumping does not weaken them during a match, I think the 753s or 853s are more than sufficient for the type of shooter you describe.

As an additional consideration, the charged guns like the 888 can be affected by temeperature. If you live & shoot in higher temperatures, (we were in FLA at the time) increasing ambient temps can really affect accuracy. In one match, once the temps rose at mid-day, one girl's rifle just went haywire - she lost one whole target course just trying to get the rifle zeroed in again, when it had been dead on just an hour before. This was a shock and a shame because she is a damn fine shooter and this cost her the match.

 

[Steve N]

DISCLAIMER: I am FAR from an air rifle expert, so everything I say is NOT gospel. I did just get my Daisy Avanti 887 last Monday. The 887 is the same rifle as the 888 except the 887 has a stock sized for an adult.

The Daisy Avanti 888 is an approved (CMP 3P rules) sporter class CO2 air rifle. The gun comes with a sling, butt spacers, sights, and one 2.5 oz CO2 cylinder. The cylinder is good for about 300 shots, according to the manufacturer. I am only on my first cylinder of CO2, so I cannot say from personal experience.

To fill the cylinder, you will need a "refill station" offered by Daisy for about $60. One end has a CGA320 fitting on one end to fit a standard industrial CO2 cylinder, the other has the fitting to fit the gun's cylinder. You can buy a 15-20# industrial CO2 cylinder for about $110. Make sure you get one with a dip or siphone tube. You can buy them at any welding gas supply shop. Paintball is very popular, so both welding shops I went to knew exactly what I wanted. The cylinder won't be new, but that is not a problem. Just make sure the cylinder has a current hydrostatic test, which is good for 5 years. Refilling the industrial cylinder costs $15-$20.

You will also need a digital scale to weight the gun cylinder to make sure it is filled properly. The cylinder needs to be filled to exactly 2.5 oz. I have also heard a complete charge is when the filled cylinder weighs 470 to 475 grams. I have heard that overfilling the cylinder can lead to gun malfunctions. The same goes with extreme temperature changes. The cylinders do have a burst disc in case they are overfilled. A scale can be bought at Office Max or Staples for around $20.

Extra CO2 gun cylinders are about $45 each.

I was advised to buy a couple of extra O-rings for the cylinder, just in case. I was told they can be bought at Wal-Mart.

I had been looking for an air rifle for about 6 months before deciding on the 887. Everything I heard about it said it was a quality rifle. It is accurate. Right out of the box, within 25 sighting shots, I was printing 3 shot groups inside the 8 ring, and I am far from an expert shooter. Trigger pull is adjustable, and pilkguns.com shows how to modify the trigger to adjust it down to the lightest possible weight.

For some resources, see pyramidair.com, pilkguns.com, champchoice.com. Also visit the forum targettalk.org. It is dedicated to airguns and smallbore competition shooting.

The CMP price is a good deal. The 888 is usually around $270 at the online stores.

The rifles Mark whiz mentions are pre-charged pneumatics (PCP). They use high pressure compressed air from a scuba tank, hand or electric pump to pressurize the cylinder to 3000 PSI. The concept is the same as with a CO2 guns, except PCP use ordinary air. The major difference is cost and quality of the rifles. The PCPs are at the higher end of the cost scale.

 

[pbhome71]

How about Avanti 753, or 853?

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Sorry for the noise...