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Skylerbone

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I did a strange thing yesterday, strange for me that is; on impulse I picked up a pellet rifle. From earliest childhood I have spent time around firearms and began the ownership experience at age 13 with a 77/22. Thing is, toy guns, cap guns, and "BB guns" were always expressly forbidden, all classified by dad as "not real".

Fast forward several decades to a new house with rather expansive basement and a desire to increase range time while negotiating the schedules of three active children. My mind turned immediately to the idea of an air rifle with a trap and so we are halfway there.

With no notion of good or bad, I purchased a modestly priced Crosman Shockwave Nitro in .177 with 4x scope and enough pellets to get acquainted with the feel. I plan to try several brands to test accuracy, I'll probably fiddle with the trigger eventually, and I may invest in an AO scope at some point if I take to liking the new rifle.

So...are any of you quietly plinking away indoors? Is a store bought trap the way to go or would a home-built funnel of sorts be worth the effort long term? I have the tools and skill for woodworking at my disposal and was contemplating plywood with a steel liner to safely direct pellets. I have room for a 15yd range without modifying existing walls, and no mechanicals exposed anywhere near any part of the range. Beyond the backstop is 8" block wall (concrete).

Thoughts? Experiences? Pictures? Any help is greatly appreciated including tips on the rifle itself.
 
I've plinked away in my basement with air rifles many times. Never would I spend money on the store bought trap. If you have the tools and skill, you could surely emulate a store bought trap. For me, a phone book (remember those?) in front of a sheet of 3/4" plywood worked as a backstop (phone book) in front of a backstop ( 3/4" plywood) with a concrete wall backstop. Steel liner seems over board. I've heard lead pellets fired from an airgun indoors may present an issue without proper ventilation but find that hard to believe. Be safe and good luck.
 
I like a 1/2" plate of soft steel set at an angle as a stop. The steel dosent make as much noise as wood or other backers ive used, tho phone books especially wet work really well also.
That guns a bit more than Id like for shooting indoors, tho it will work fine. The scope tho will likely give you issues unless you adjust the focus down a bit.
 
I use a 1/2 in plywood frame to hold a 1ft X 1ft x 3/16 in steel plate at a 45 deg. angle to deflect pellets into a wood box with 2 - 3 in of sand.
Use 2 layers of heavy carpet as a curtain behind the frame to catch any pellets that miss the target. Use a piece of cardboard in front of the deflection plate to hold targets. Glue a piece of carpet to the back side of the steel plate to keep the noise down. Works in my garage and keeps the grand kids interested.
I use a Crosman PowerMaster mod. 66 with pellets or BB's. Have fun and be safe.

Buflow
 
I use a 1/2 in plywood frame to hold a 1ft X 1ft x 3/16 in steel plate at a 45 deg. angle to deflect pellets into a wood box with 2 - 3 in of sand.
Use 2 layers of heavy carpet as a curtain behind the frame to catch any pellets that miss the target. Use a piece of cardboard in front of the deflection plate to hold targets. Glue a piece of carpet to the back side of the steel plate to keep the noise down. Works in my garage and keeps the grand kids interested.
I use a Crosman PowerMaster mod. 66 with pellets or BB's. Have fun and be safe.

Buflow


Id build it pretty much exactly like that! The sands a good trick!

Mine wasnt as nice.
Angling the plate is important especially if your shooting BBs, you can usually get away with a flat plate and lead pellets but not with bbs.
 
As a shooter of powder burners for many years now I too have found myself turning to air guns for easy target practice in the back yard. No loading up the truck with guns, ammo, and gear and driving to the range. Just grab a rifle or pistol, tin of pellets, a few targets and walk out back. There are no houses behind or on the back side of mine, just woods and an overgrown field, perfect for pellet gun shooting. My range is about 50 yards. My picnic table makes a good shooting bench.
What little noise I do make does not bother my neighbor on the other side of my house since he is a shooter also and president of the local range.

I do a limited amount of shooting indoors but when I do I use a fairly large cardboard box filled with old magazines and worn out jeans and shirts. Old jeans are very effective at stopping pellets traveling at 750fps and make very little noise when hit.

A bit OT. You may find yourself expanding your air gun inventory like I did. I started out with a Benjamin Trail NP2 in 22 caliber which slings a 14.3 gr pellet at over 800fps. Then I bought a Webley Tempest in 22 caliber.
Several months later I bought a Stoeger ATAC Supressor in 22 caliber. The Stoeger shoots a bit slower than the Benjamin, averaging 750fps for a 14.3 gr pellet but is much smoother shooting. A few months after that I bought a Cometa Indian pistol in .177

This weekend I bought a Hatsan 135 Vortex in 30 caliber from Pyramyd Air. Not sure why, just had to have one. The ability to sling 44 gr pellets at 550 fps sounds like fun to me. 50 gr pellets lowers velocity to a tad over 500fps according to the vids I have watched.

Good luck with your new interest.
 
I have to say that while I always expect solid advice from THR I am bowled over by the quick and excellent advice already, thank you all!

The past several years have seen a shift in my focus with a strong emphasis on rimfire, muzzleloader, and pistol, much of it due to kids who also enjoy plinking but not the multi-hour training sessions.

I had contemplated phone books but locally they have continued to shrink in all dimensions so finding a suitable number might be difficult. The reason for considering steel is simply to prevent splintering of the plywood and not as an overkill measure. Living in the Midwest, I have a radon mitigation system ventilation the basement but not sure if it would aid with potential lead issues.

I like the suggestion of sand/old denim as a means of capture and maybe all I need is a stack of sandbags set in a frame to capture loose once it begins trickling down. Hopefully at that range shots will be concentrated in one spot making replacement straightforward. A few layers of denim draped in front may be enough to keep the bags intact completely which would really make my day!

I've already considered adding a pistol, with pump action and break barrels being the direction I'm leaning. No idea if the collection will expand beyond that point. At no time did I think I'd have more than a dozen rimfires in the safe and yet...you guys know the story. I can say the bug is catchy and the questions about what to buy next are already swirling.

Thank you all again.
 
I used to do a lot of airgun shooting indoors using a steel trap. It worked but it was noisy. A few years ago I bought a kit from Archer Airguns for this silent pellet trap. It's a wood box that you put a layer of duct seal inside to catch the pellets. It's not "silent" but it's much quieter.

oWyFGP6.jpg

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The target holder is a clipboard that's cutaway to leave just a frame.

Apparently, AA no longer sells it but here's another site by the guy who designed it, with some good detail shots:

http://www.babymd.net/aa_improved_silent_pellet_trap.htm
 
Dave, I think you've solved my dilemma for me! I'll have to pick up a few supplies this week and get to work! If it turns out well I'll try add pictures and details in a separate post.
 
Well I got impatient, I'm still healing from a cycling accident that makes even standing a chore, so it ain't purdy but I think it's going to work. 14 lbs. of duct seal approx. 2" thick built from 23/32" pine plywood. I bought a full sheet and had it cut for me in 16" strips so I could manage the size without hassle and I have enough to make 2 more.

You can see it shifted slightly while I was screwing things together which I failed to notice thanks to the painkillers- I know I shouldn't have been running the tablesaw or joiner but it seemed safe enough at the time. I think interior dimensions I decided on were roughly 12"w x 14"t x 14" d. I'll probably add a 2X to the bottom/back but I think the front lip will prevent strikes that low.

Looking to do something other than a clipboard for targets. Thanks to all who got the fire lit with excellent ideas!
IMG_4596.JPG
 
Well I got impatient, I'm still healing from a cycling accident that makes even standing a chore, so it ain't purdy but I think it's going to work. 14 lbs. of duct seal approx. 2" thick built from 23/32" pine plywood. I bought a full sheet and had it cut for me in 16" strips so I could manage the size without hassle and I have enough to make 2 more.

You can see it shifted slightly while I was screwing things together which I failed to notice thanks to the painkillers- I know I shouldn't have been running the tablesaw or joiner but it seemed safe enough at the time. I think interior dimensions I decided on were roughly 12"w x 14"t x 14" d. I'll probably add a 2X to the bottom/back but I think the front lip will prevent strikes that low.

Looking to do something other than a clipboard for targets. Thanks to all who got the fire lit with excellent ideas!
View attachment 758198
That'll do!
 
Looking to do something other than a clipboard for targets.
I have a similar trap and I just use a piece of scrap cardboard on the front of the trap and tape targets to it. When it gets too shot up, I cut another piece of cardboard.
 
I managed to fire a few rounds tonight, very informal affair. Using a carpet remnant atop my old bachelor pub table (who's top was not bolted into place- my bad), I did some rough zeroing of the scope at 30'.

There's definitely a trigger job in the near future to shorten pull and I'll need to condition myself to the strange-to-me recoil impulse but all things considered it went reasonably well.

As for the range and targets I'll definitely need better lighting and either a real target or I'll have to dig up my black Sharpies. Bad shooting aside I must admit I had fun!

IMG_4605.JPG

Seven shots before I attempted to zero . IMG_4607.JPG

It was difficult discerning red marker from brown cereal box but I gave it a go. IMG_4608.JPG

5-shot group size relative to my thumb.
 
IMG_4609.JPG Picture from about 6' with my iPhone zoomed in.

I thought I threw out enough excuses to pardon my patterning...er...group. I'm used to seeing results like this at 50 yds with a sporter weight rimfire and I want to believe under better conditions I can do better, but even a lousy day of shooting was worth bragging about

If I find what I'm looking for tonight there may be time for some trigger work, an added light source, and actual targets. Having a century old house sometimes means outlets aren't as plentiful as I would like and this probably having been the coal room meant there was little call for them so I'm shooting with a 60W ceiling bulb located 10' to the side of the trap. It may not look like it but I swear I've handled a rifle before. Must. Try. Harder.
 
View attachment 758267 Picture from about 6' with my iPhone zoomed in.

I thought I threw out enough excuses to pardon my patterning...er...group. I'm used to seeing results like this at 50 yds with a sporter weight rimfire and I want to believe under better conditions I can do better, but even a lousy day of shooting was worth bragging about

If I find what I'm looking for tonight there may be time for some trigger work, an added light source, and actual targets. Having a century old house sometimes means outlets aren't as plentiful as I would like and this probably having been the coal room meant there was little call for them so I'm shooting with a 60W ceiling bulb located 10' to the side of the trap. It may not look like it but I swear I've handled a rifle before. Must. Try. Harder.

I still can't shoot a spring piston or gas spring piston air rifle as good as a decent rimfire rifle. Plus, there is the fact that a scope mounts to the piston's cylinder (receiver) and the barrel is hinged at the front of that receiver. Open, close, shoot, and repeat.

Some shooters can master the way a break barrel air gun moves when the shot is made, but all I can do is lower my expectations for accuracy and have fun. :)
 
Wood box with 45 degree 1/8 inch steel plate backed with plywood deflecting pellets down into sand.
 
It may not look like it but I swear I've handled a rifle before. Must. Try. Harder.

Keep in mind when shooting airguns is that good follow-through is critical to shooting well. The time between when you pull the trigger and when the pellet exits the muzzle is much longer than with a firearm, even a .22 rimfire. That means you have to maintain your form until the pellet exits the gun for a longer time. It's hard.

The good thing about this is that once you master follow-through with an airgun, you will notice that your firearm shooting is noticeably improved.

I got my first BB gun at 8 and my first firearms at 13. However, I shot pellet rifles a lot during my teens, since it was easy to do so in the house, vs. going to the range with my dad. I'm convinced this made me a better marksman because (a) I had more practice and (b) had to master follow-through.
 
Good vids on youtube on how to use a roller bearing to improve the trigger. Sounds a bit odd but once you watch the vid it will make sense. Did wonders for my rifle while keeping it safe also.
 
I emailed Chevota for information on tuning and spent some quality (and not so much) time on YouTube last night to form some thoughts on the action before I actually put hands on it.

Checking email just now, the file I was awaiting has arrived, thank you, Chevota and I promise a cover-to-cover read until it sinks in. I'll be firing up the laptop later for that.

I did stop today at a hobby shop and picked up a few supplies in anticipation of necessary work. While I may have actually jumped the gun, no pun intended, as of now I have a short, smooth, and consistent trigger with the installation of a bearing and shims plus some careful sanding up to 600 grit.

What I had hoped to find today were official targets and an assortment of pellets as I, the newbie, bought 1 tin for break-in purposes only and it appears they are almost universally despised for quality (Gamo). Of course every rifle is unique so I don't discount the possibility that mine may wind up loving the stuff. I did note a round or two off target that I otherwise felt good about and again, I've yet to unpack my rest so it's equally likely to have been me.

On follow through; I realize its importance as I shoot subsonic .22 almost exclusively, the exception being a few finicky autoloaders that require extra oomph to cycle. Been plinking with those for 36 years now.

This was tonight's last group before final scope adjustment, 5 rounds with that one flyer. I loaded up a 6th round and it poked the dot into the hole in the cardboard. Once again my thumb for comparison. Really catching the bug!

IMG_4616.JPG IMG_4620.JPG
 
I don't think Gamo pellets are all that bad. They are good all around practice, plinking, and pest shooting pellets for the typical pellet rifle most Americans purchase. No, they might not be "target" grade, but they are pretty dang good for what you can find at Walmart, Academy, etc.

The Crosman/Benjamin pellets fall into the same category in my opinion.

If you really want to try bad pellets, try a tin of Daisy's.
 
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