Deltaboy1984
Member
The Bottom line is do what works best for you.
Basic inexpensive air rifle?
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Bikewer
Member
I do almost no rifle shooting any more, and a few years ago we started issuing the "patrol rifle" for the squad cars. These are standard AR platforms with the EOtech sights.
I found that I was very rusty indeed, and my aging eyes thanked EOtech for a useable sight picture!
After our last range session, I thought it would be a good idea to pick up an air rifle for some informal practice.
I found this:
http://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Crosman_M4_177_Multi_Pump_Air_Rifle_Adj_Stock/2631
Which is pretty much an exact copy of our duty rifle sans the EOtech, and you can pick up an optical sight for the thing for about 30 bucks more.
Looks pretty good, and the reviews are quite positive; accurate enough with .177 pellets.
But, for many... The thing looks EXACTLY like an AR and might cause alarm in urban or suburban areas.
I found that I was very rusty indeed, and my aging eyes thanked EOtech for a useable sight picture!
After our last range session, I thought it would be a good idea to pick up an air rifle for some informal practice.
I found this:
http://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Crosman_M4_177_Multi_Pump_Air_Rifle_Adj_Stock/2631
Which is pretty much an exact copy of our duty rifle sans the EOtech, and you can pick up an optical sight for the thing for about 30 bucks more.
Looks pretty good, and the reviews are quite positive; accurate enough with .177 pellets.
But, for many... The thing looks EXACTLY like an AR and might cause alarm in urban or suburban areas.
wiringlunatic
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- Dec 29, 2011
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- 35
As was said earlier, check your local laws before using an air rifle for pest control. Shooting squirrels in PA with an air gun will cost you about $200 a piece if you get caught (and all you need is one tree hugging neighbor to get caught)
That said, my boys and I shoot airguns in the basement and it's a lot of fun. My favorite target is the disc out of a hard drive hanging on a piece of string. It looks like a CD, but doesn't break when hit. My fun challenge is to hit it with a lever action BB gun and then keep hitting it as it spins and swings. Great moving target practice in any weather. I have a Powerline .177 pump up too and though it is accurate it feels like a piece of junk in your hands. I think I paid $5 for it at a flea market. I also have a Benjamin Franklin Model 312 that my father bought used maybe 50 years ago. A smoothbore .22 that shoots more accurate than almost anything I've ever shot with iron sights. My record is putting one of the .22 pellets into an empty .22lr shell. Took 6 tries and was only about 11 feet away, but couldn't have seen it much further away. Also, I did hit the shell with every one of those 6 shots. That is an amazing tackdriver. I have also hit airgun silhouette targets from about 30-35 feet (full length of our basement) I won't say I've never taken out pidgeons with the two pellet guns, but I also won't admit to it on here either. My father did take a muskrat out though that was taking up residence in our garage. Once the Benjamin caught him between the eyes it was definitely lights out. Dad's gone now, so the Game Commission couldn't do anything about it if they wanted to.
That said, my boys and I shoot airguns in the basement and it's a lot of fun. My favorite target is the disc out of a hard drive hanging on a piece of string. It looks like a CD, but doesn't break when hit. My fun challenge is to hit it with a lever action BB gun and then keep hitting it as it spins and swings. Great moving target practice in any weather. I have a Powerline .177 pump up too and though it is accurate it feels like a piece of junk in your hands. I think I paid $5 for it at a flea market. I also have a Benjamin Franklin Model 312 that my father bought used maybe 50 years ago. A smoothbore .22 that shoots more accurate than almost anything I've ever shot with iron sights. My record is putting one of the .22 pellets into an empty .22lr shell. Took 6 tries and was only about 11 feet away, but couldn't have seen it much further away. Also, I did hit the shell with every one of those 6 shots. That is an amazing tackdriver. I have also hit airgun silhouette targets from about 30-35 feet (full length of our basement) I won't say I've never taken out pidgeons with the two pellet guns, but I also won't admit to it on here either. My father did take a muskrat out though that was taking up residence in our garage. Once the Benjamin caught him between the eyes it was definitely lights out. Dad's gone now, so the Game Commission couldn't do anything about it if they wanted to.
It's not common, but I have run into a few disc platters made of glass instead of aluminum. Just an FYI if you plan to use a disc platter as an airgun target.
By the way, I always recommend eye protection for shooting airguns, especially BB guns. Steel BBs bounce better than a rubber ball if they hit something hard.
lloveless
Member
I had a neigbhor in Atlanta, that used a slingshot and ballbearings/marbles to rid his place of pests.
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Giterboosted
Member
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- Dec 9, 2010
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- 578
In the cheaper range, I've ALWAYS been pleased with my pumpmaster 760, and if you're a not so bright kid like I used to be, it can hold well over 100 pumps lol, k shot clean through a 8" tree stump with a regular old bb
wiringlunatic
Member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2011
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Actually, I've never encountered aluminum or glass -- all of mine were some sort of steel -- magnetic and rings nice and loud and clear like good steel, not the dull thud of aluminum. I tried AOL freebie discs that came in the mail first, but they tended to explode after one hit. Those things didn't even make good targets:banghead: My current disc has taken hundreds of hits from BB's, .177 pellets, and .22 pellets and looks awful, but hasn't broken yet.
Of the few hundred hard drives I've taken apart, I've never encountered anything other than aluminum platters and a very few made of glass or something similar--maybe silicon.
I don't think they can be steel. The coating that makes them work is a thin layer of some sort of magnetic oxide, if the base material that composes the platter were steel or any other magnetic metal I don't think it would work properly.
They do ring nicely, in my experience. I've got one that's nearly 2 feet across out of an old video disk that makes a great gong.
I poked around online and can't find any sources that suggest they're made of anything other than glass and aluminum--one source did suggest that some are ceramic.
I don't think they can be steel. The coating that makes them work is a thin layer of some sort of magnetic oxide, if the base material that composes the platter were steel or any other magnetic metal I don't think it would work properly.
They do ring nicely, in my experience. I've got one that's nearly 2 feet across out of an old video disk that makes a great gong.
I poked around online and can't find any sources that suggest they're made of anything other than glass and aluminum--one source did suggest that some are ceramic.
I wouldn't buy the Benjamin All-Weather Nitro Piston .22.
Been having ongoing squirrel problems* also and got tired of pumping my 25+ year old Benjamin 392 .22.
This airgun, $175 at Walmart (which is a very good price) has issues. Manual says a 100 round break in is needed to be accurate. Well 200 rounds later and after trying 8 or 9 different .22 pellets, that I probably spent $40+ on, I gave up. Was lucky to get a 4-5 inch group at 50 ft. Certainly not minute of squirrel. My old Benjamin pump will do 1" with me shooting it and probably a lot better with someone that is a better shot.
This airgun comes with a barrel shroud that turns out to be some sort of silencer. It has about a 5/16 hex hole in the end at about 1.25 inches from the barrel exit. This machined aluminum "nut" has 4 holes in it that bleed air into a sleeve maybe 3/4 inch diameter over the barrel, all the way down to the action.
I had caught a review somewhere where a guy drilled out the hex hole to a larger round hole and improved the accuracy. Apparently he never figured out the "nut" and shroud is removeable as he went to some grief getting all the aluminum shavings out when he drilled it.
Well I simply unscrewed the nut, slid the shroud off and went to 1" groups!
Wow!
Called Crosman and talked to a script reader in their "tech support". He told me the gun would shoot better after about 100 shots as it needed to "blow all the excess oil out". I asked him where this excess oil was, he said the barrel and the "piston". Told him I thoroughly cleaned the barrel multiple times with no improvement and asked how in the heck "excess oil" could get out of the sealed high pressure nitrogen filled piston. He then told me it really needed 200 shots instead of just 100. Told him I had passed 200. He was stopped dead in his tracks.
I then told him my findings with the suppressor off. He said put it back on it would improve the more I shot it. I told him I didn't think so as there is obviously a design issue with their suppressor upsetting the pellet. There is no oil to be blown out anymore.
He then told me was going to send that info to the their "engineers", suggested I run it that way and promptly hung up.
Decided I didn't need a Chinese POS that costs more than my Henry lever .22 that is just as quiet, with CBs, and a hell of a lot more accurate and for less money. I was so disgusted with their "support" I returned it today to Walmart.
My 25+ year old 392 will do just fine when I need a pellet gun.
* Obviously a squirrel had no problems chewing a hole through my silicone 3" turbo hose ($40) under my diesel pickup hood but- did you know given enough time they can also chew through a 3/8" diameter overhead aluminum neutral wire feeding my house? Any electrical types here know what havoc a bad neutral can cause to voltages in the house..not fun.
Been having ongoing squirrel problems* also and got tired of pumping my 25+ year old Benjamin 392 .22.
This airgun, $175 at Walmart (which is a very good price) has issues. Manual says a 100 round break in is needed to be accurate. Well 200 rounds later and after trying 8 or 9 different .22 pellets, that I probably spent $40+ on, I gave up. Was lucky to get a 4-5 inch group at 50 ft. Certainly not minute of squirrel. My old Benjamin pump will do 1" with me shooting it and probably a lot better with someone that is a better shot.
This airgun comes with a barrel shroud that turns out to be some sort of silencer. It has about a 5/16 hex hole in the end at about 1.25 inches from the barrel exit. This machined aluminum "nut" has 4 holes in it that bleed air into a sleeve maybe 3/4 inch diameter over the barrel, all the way down to the action.
I had caught a review somewhere where a guy drilled out the hex hole to a larger round hole and improved the accuracy. Apparently he never figured out the "nut" and shroud is removeable as he went to some grief getting all the aluminum shavings out when he drilled it.
Well I simply unscrewed the nut, slid the shroud off and went to 1" groups!
Wow!
Called Crosman and talked to a script reader in their "tech support". He told me the gun would shoot better after about 100 shots as it needed to "blow all the excess oil out". I asked him where this excess oil was, he said the barrel and the "piston". Told him I thoroughly cleaned the barrel multiple times with no improvement and asked how in the heck "excess oil" could get out of the sealed high pressure nitrogen filled piston. He then told me it really needed 200 shots instead of just 100. Told him I had passed 200. He was stopped dead in his tracks.
I then told him my findings with the suppressor off. He said put it back on it would improve the more I shot it. I told him I didn't think so as there is obviously a design issue with their suppressor upsetting the pellet. There is no oil to be blown out anymore.
He then told me was going to send that info to the their "engineers", suggested I run it that way and promptly hung up.
Decided I didn't need a Chinese POS that costs more than my Henry lever .22 that is just as quiet, with CBs, and a hell of a lot more accurate and for less money. I was so disgusted with their "support" I returned it today to Walmart.
My 25+ year old 392 will do just fine when I need a pellet gun.
* Obviously a squirrel had no problems chewing a hole through my silicone 3" turbo hose ($40) under my diesel pickup hood but- did you know given enough time they can also chew through a 3/8" diameter overhead aluminum neutral wire feeding my house? Any electrical types here know what havoc a bad neutral can cause to voltages in the house..not fun.
sidheshooter
Member
This is a fascinating thread; I don't know how I missed it (I guess May was a busy month).
I think need a new air rifle because of this.
I have to say though, the old crossman 760 (as well as the old 766-an obvious homage to Remington's nylon 66 back in the day-that was the forerunner of the 2100) did the job on anything small and furry that you could hit with them.
I swear, I killed so many small things with those guns when I was a kid that I'll probably come back in my next life as a fur n' feather hairball coughed up by an asthmatic cat.
That and a friend's Sheridan blue in "5mm"... man, I envied that kid and his gun.
Even worse, another friend's dad had a Beeman/Feinwerkbau "sport"; anyone remember those imports? I used to read old Peter Hathaway Capstick "Bwana" articles on hunting rats with those types of guns, all the while lusting after one. Forget the big 5; who needs that when you've got a barrel or side cocker, some Beeman silver bears (or sting) and some rats around a rural grain elevator?
Time to start looking for a good springer.
I think need a new air rifle because of this.
I have to say though, the old crossman 760 (as well as the old 766-an obvious homage to Remington's nylon 66 back in the day-that was the forerunner of the 2100) did the job on anything small and furry that you could hit with them.
I swear, I killed so many small things with those guns when I was a kid that I'll probably come back in my next life as a fur n' feather hairball coughed up by an asthmatic cat.
That and a friend's Sheridan blue in "5mm"... man, I envied that kid and his gun.
Even worse, another friend's dad had a Beeman/Feinwerkbau "sport"; anyone remember those imports? I used to read old Peter Hathaway Capstick "Bwana" articles on hunting rats with those types of guns, all the while lusting after one. Forget the big 5; who needs that when you've got a barrel or side cocker, some Beeman silver bears (or sting) and some rats around a rural grain elevator?
Time to start looking for a good springer.
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