Basic inexpensive air rifle?

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The Chinese CO2 guns are fun, and there are a ton of customization parts available. But they're not great all-around air guns. CO2 loses its oomph when it's cold outside, and rapid fire will chill the carriage and cut power. Power varies with temperature, which hurts accuracy.

There are some really good spring air guns available for under $200 these days for Gamo and others. Check out http://airgunner.org.
 
I wouldn't call GAMO good. I one I have is powerful but inaccurate poorly made and had a bad trigger. Not very quiet either.
 
I use .22 LR Aguila Super Colibri LRN 20 Grain 500 fps No Powder Super Quiet out of a Ruger 10/22. I have to load them one at a time manually but they work good on pigeons and sound like a large pellet gun going off. Neighbors have never noticed or complained in my cookie cutter sub-division.
 
Pyramid returned my money too, the 1st time. In my state, it is illegal to buy a .22 cal. pellet gun or a .177 air gun that exceeds a certain FPS. I ended up having it shipped to a family member in another state.
 
That's odd--- I'd go ahead and get one that has "illegal" FPS, and just use heavier pellets. Pellets have a cone on the back, and get less stable as they get near the speed of sound (around 1100 FPS). One way to make one more accurate is to use heavier pellets that fly slower. The heavier pellets hit harder, too.
 
Please stay away from the daisy 880, quality has MUCH declined since we were kids, along with accuracy. For about $100 you can have a Ruger blackhawk break barrel pellet rifle. It is a spring gun, inexpensive, but not cheap. Fairly accurate, and plenty powerful. Comes with a reasonable scope. There are also several crosmans that would fit the bill. Having said that. I have a Crosman NPSS, it was considerably more expensive ($275? IIRC) but has a gas cylinder instead of a steel spring, and a fully shrouded barrel that greatly reduces the report. It also comes with a much better scope. It will shoot around 2" at 40 yards pretty regularly. Airguns are a bit diffrent animals than powder burners, there is a learning curve. Hang out on airgunone, or 54network a bit and read old posts. Also airgundepot, and pyramidair. Airgun depot has review videos of most popular guns. Most of what you want to know will be there. If you buy a spring or nitro gun the biggy's are 1) NO dry fires, once cocked a pellet must be fired. 2) No regular oil, airgun only. Regular oil will combust like diesel fuel when fired, and burn your seals. Watch out, air rifles are addictive like crack, you can get sucked in quickly.
 
+1 on the Blackhawk. Airgun Depot has a Ruger Blackhawk (air rifle, not the revolver!) 177 pellet rifle for $59 plus shipping. Yes, it is a refurb, but these are normally fine. It has a synthetic stock you may want to fill with something to add weight. As you've learned (since you are looking at the QB's as an alternative), spring rifles do recoil and are not the easist to shoot. The weight helps. Or get the Ruger Airhawk, same rifle with a heavier wood stock. Those are the down sides. Here are the nice features of this air rifle:

It is an excellent clone of the German RWS34 air rifle. Most internal parts, like springs and seals, are compatible. This is also the same rifle as the Xisico BAM B25.

It has an outstanding trigger. Gamos and Gamo clones like the Crosman and Stoeger spring rifles do not. There are after market fixes for the Gamo trigger, but that will run you another $30 or so.

It is about a 14 fpe air rifle (~900 fps with real 8 gr lead pellets - start with Crosman Premier Light 7.9 gr dome pellets as these work well in many rifles). Plenty of energy for your pest problem.

The price.

You can always send it to Mike (www.flyingdragonairrifles.org) for a tune later. Mike also is buying and tuning these for resale now. The web site is a work in progress, but has his phone number. Best to just call him.

Amazon has good deals on air rifle scopes and mounts. For your use, check out the UTG 4x32AO (aka Leapers) and medium height UTG scope mounts. $45 will cover both, shipped. This is an airgun rated scope. The scopes and rings that come on most air rifle combos are garbage by comparison.

If you get a springer, be sure to clean up the stock to action holes with alcohol, blue loc tight the screws, and wait for it to set up. I do same with my scope mount screws. Clean the barrel with Goo Gone, and a patch run through weed wacker line with a not on one end. Air rifle barrel steel is not as hard as powder burner barrel steel, hence the weed wacker line vs cleaning rods. Goo Gone won't disolve air rifle seals like Hoppes!

And yeah, don't dry fire a springer. Another way to give one an early death is shooting lightweight alloy pellets in it. Stick with lead pellet weight around 8 gr for 177. The spring driven air piston slams home too much with the light alloy pellets and will destory the air seal a shot at a time.
 
All good advise there. The blackhawk was my first air rifle as an adult. It was a good starting spot. I also added wieght to mine in the form of sand in the stock. Plug the pistol grip with a rag and silcone, then fill fron the buttpad. Made a huge difrence in accuracy. Mine did have a habit of kicking the scope off from time to time, but I didn't locktite mine. Once I bought the npss I nearly never fired it agian, it's good but the npss is that much better. I wouldn't hesitate an instant on the refurb. One other cool thing about air rifles is that you can shoot indoors during the winter months. A good pelet trap, and an understanding spouse leads to a happy gunner.
 
Wow. Thank you so much for all the good info here, guys. Sounds like I really need to read up before buying.
 
Plus one on Mike at Flyingdragon. I went his shop in Iowa and tried out a few guns. I ended up buying a tuned QB78 in .22 cal. He also has scopes and mounts. Today I mounted the scope and sighted it in. Very accurate. All pellets were in a 3/4 inch hole at 25 yards. 720fps on a chrony. That's with cheap pellets. More killing power, better accuracy safer and much easier to shoot than the GAMO Bone Collector. Plus it was cheaper and the scope is many times better. He also has springers including some Rugers on hand.
 
Here's a couple from tonight. Crosman NPSS .177 cal. Off the shelf rifle, with off the shelf ammo, Crosman Destroyers.

First a ten shot string from 35 yards. This is a 1" dot
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And a 3 shot at 20.
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I pity the ground squirrel that comes up against you and that Crossman! Nice shooting! (I don't think I'd do that well with a .22 LR!)
 
I just stumbled upon this thread and have found it interesting to say the least.
I am having a rat problem around the back yard shed and I do also own a RWS 34 which must be repaired as I lent it to my brother who promptly broke the cocking lever mechanism and now it must be sent off for repairs.
I found Random Discharges post interesting because I had no idea the Ruger Airhawk,that is widely available around here at Academy Sports,is a clone of my RWS 34.
My 34 is in .22 caliber and there is not a rat made that can stand up against it.
It is a powerful pellet rifle for sure.

On another note I thought about buying some of those Super Colobri's for my old Marlin 25 .22 rifle but after reading they might get stuck in the barrel,as they are supposedly not made for rifle use,then I read a few of you are actually using them in rifles and was wondering if you have had issues of the little round not exiting your barrels.
 
"I pity the ground squirrel that comes up against you and that Crossman! Nice shooting! (I don't think I'd do that well with a .22 LR!)"

Kind words. The 35 yard string of 10 is actually one of the best out of that gun ever. It (or me) has a habit of one flyer per group. As for the 22, I generally shoot at 42 yards because I have a large stump in the yard I use as a bullet stop. I have shot the crosman back to back with my 10/22 at that range. Useing Fedral 745 bulk, the crosman shoots rings around the ruger. I will have to admit, I did modify the crosman a bit. They come with plastic barrel pivot washers, which I changed to brass. And tightened the barrel lockup. But it is otherwise stock.
 
Btw. These were benchrested from my picnic table with a harris bipod and cheapo sandbag. Not offhand.
 
Powerful springers need a very light hold for consistent accuracy. You can't just pull them in tight to y2our shoulder like you do a powder burner, pneumatic, or CO2.
A Crosman 2100 would do very well for chipmunks and squirrels at 20 yards or less.
I took many squirrels in my youth with a 2100.

The vast majority of springers need a good tune and trigger work right out of the box.
Coupled with the learning curve required for consistent shooting, I'd not recommend one for a first time buyer.
 
One warning about airguns: A lot of guys start by buying a cheap springer and then discover the kind of accuracy and power available in really good guns. After owning a number of cheap airguns I bought a Beeman/HW R7 for $125 in the mid-1980s and that was followed by a lot of really nice guns. Air guns take up half the space in my lab. (My favorite is a Theoben Sirocco from the 90s that can regularly put a pellet in a 1/2" hole at 50 yards.)
 
Bengimans and Blue Streak are under 200 bucks and they are great work horses. Dad got his in 1965 and I sent it back for a rebuild back in 1988 and it still shoot 177 pellets through 1/2 oak boards at 20 feet.
 
I bought a Beeman/HW R7
Click to expand...
Took me awhile to get around to the R7, but since I bought it, I shoot it more than any of my other airguns and it would be the last airgun I'd own if I had to pick just one.
 
Hey guys. I've come to the decision that with all the other houses being in close proximity, even an air rifle can look like a real gun and I don't want someone hearing a shot and seeing me standing there with what appears to be a rifle.
I ordered some have-a-heart traps. We'll see. The good news is that the one REALLY problematic chipmunk actually got nabbed by some kind of predator. I found him ripped open in the yard. The other chipmunks don't seem interested in getting in the house so I don't know that I'll do much about them.
 
I may not have a heart, but a friend applied an effective ground squirrel treatment in his yard that did not endanger his dog. He bought rat trap (giant mousetrap that'll break your finger), baited it with peanut butter, then put it in one of those plastic shoe storage boxes. He cut a door out of one of the short side of the box, put the trap on the inside of the boxes lid, gently snapped the box on to the lid (the box is upside down now), and put a brick on it. The dog can't get at it, and, for a minute, the ground squirrels like the cozy place to feed.
 
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