[biff]

Something to do in the off season for me when it's too cold to shoot trap, I like to collect and shoot air guns. Most of the guns in the pictures are either one pump or CO2 guns, had some PCP guns but have tried to simplify and have fun.

This is a Benjamin CO2 I fitted it with some Walther grips I couldn't sell on here.

An IZH Russian .177 which is very accurate and a Pardini .177 both one pumps and for getting more serious where you put the pellet!

My Beeman R9 rifle .177 with a laminated stock with a Jim Maracci tune and my latest air rifle in .22 cal (both break-open) the urban camo is a Remington-Crosman with a Nitro Piston instead of R9 with a spring. I like the R9 with the open sights.

A Daisy side cock .177, and a Beeman P17($35.95)both are accurate. A crosman 2240 .22 cal CO2 and a Crosman357 which is 10 shot CO2 .177 cal.All of these are fun plinkers,inexpensive, and you can shoot them in your home with the right backstop and a great wife like mine! Biff

 

[indycamster]

Looks like some fun. Lot's of things to adjust and tinker with for sure. I guess with some justification, you can truly be called a certified AIR HEAD. CO2 is air right?
Next time you are up here in INDIANA, I will show you my old "Ben Franklin." 5 pumps will drop a crow at 50 feet...
Take care..

 

[cubancigar2000]

Nice Biff. I am getting ready to buy a large cal high power air gun. Air guns are fascinating

 

[Setterman]

Biff, how accurate (in general)are the pistols?

 

[Leo]

Biff, I do not have as extensive collection as you do, but getting serious in highpower rifle competition gave me a healthy respect for quality air guns. I use air rifles and pistols as a training aid at home for match shooting. I have a Feinwerkbau Air rifle that is designed to put 10 shots in a group .039" center to center at 10 meters. (1mm) It does the job dependably. Even with cheap crossman pellets, the group hole will not pass a pencil. The IZH46M Russian match pistol is as accurate as the rifle. Since the pellet goes so slow (500fps) you can actually pull the trigger and jerk the aim off the target before the pellet leaves the barrel. Follow through HAS to be perfect to shoot an air gun well. Training to shoot airguns well really helps in bullseye pistol and highpower rifle.

I shot air pistol air pistol silhouette competition. It is at least as challenging as big bore silhouette. With the price as ammo for centerfire pistol and highpower rifle being so high, I wish air gun sports were more popular.

Most people mistakenly look at all air guns as a toy. When you spend serious money, you get an amazingly accurate product.

 

[Trapmanjohn]

This is a very timely post for me. I've just become interested in squirrel hunting with air rifles. What caliber do you guys find best to hunt squirrels: .177 or .22? Which is typically more accurate etc. I’m primarily interested in sport type air rifles that cost less than $300.00 Yes, I find air rifles fascinating also.

Hit 'em hard,

John

 

[jhmorrisn]

Just like in all the shooting sports, an accurate gun is most important be it a rifle, pistol or shotgun.

You may have one that can put 5 shots in a group that measure .039 inches. But can you stand up on your own hind legs and shoot a five shot .039 group?

In warmer weather I enjoy nothing better than trap shooting but when it’s 3 above and snowing, air gun in the basement shooting a postal match has a nice sound to it.

There is a small group of air gunners who have started up a 10-meter Air Rifle Re-entry 10 shot postal. This re-entry event calls for your best 10 shots on a 5 bull target. You may as many targets as you wish. You just pick out the best one and it to me. You don’t have ant targets, no problem I’ll mail you some for the price of the postage.

You may e-mail me for more information.

Jim

 

[epmn]

For several years I shot Field Target using a Mac1 USFT and a Walther LG300 Dominator. I have since sold the Walther and for the most part gone back to games that go bang. These days I have a 10 meter setup in the basement and practice with a Walther LG300 rifle and an Aeron B98 pistol. Given how long, relatively, it takes for a pellet to exit the barrel, air rifles are a great way to practice shot approach and follow through.

Joel

 

[Leo]

I have never shot a measure .039" ctc group offhand. I have shot groups that will not pass a pencil. (.290") I know without any doubt that the rifle is not holding me back, it is the heartbeat and eyes in this 52 year old body. When training every day, I can shoot 10 shots under a dime at 10 meters standing offhand almost every time. The year I shot the 200-14x score at the Ohio state championship at Camp Perry in highpower I was shooting 5,000 pellets every two months for over a year. These days I still train a couple times a week and put 10 under a quarter almost every time, 10 under a nickle usually. With the pistol I put 10 in a 1.9 inch scoring ring. I am having some healh issues and the medicine makes me really nervous, so I tend to throw a flyer out to spoil the group.

I seldom shoot from a bench. I found that if I align my sights on a bench, that is not where I group my shots offhand. I also found that I shoot with peep sights and a front globe better than I shoot with a scope.

Jim, that match sounds like fun, I am in an offhand (centerfire) league right now. I know at least two of the others have good air rifles. Maybe I can get them together to participate in an air rifle league with you. I'll talk to them and send off an email. Maybe we can get some other trap shooters and have a couple of squads. With the kind of money spent on shotguns and gunsmithing here, I am sure $800 to 1200. for a nice air rifle would be within reason for a lot of guys here. Thank you for the invite.

 

[bodybuilder]

my first gun was a crosman 760 pump. That was over 30 years ago. I got that gun out yesterday and was looking at it and it won't pump up anymore. does anyone know who could fix it? It has many memories.

 

[train222]

Biff,

Air Rifles and Air Pistols are GREAT!

They are the only type of firearms that I can shoot these days...

You can check out my collection at the web site posted above...

Have A Great Day!

Stu Gabriel (MrGun)

http://www.mrgunsplace.com/

 

[J.D. Squire]

Biff check this site out it might be right up your alley.

J.D.

 

[biff]

Some info: there are many airgun sites on the web. For the last few guns I have bought, for the inexpensive ones in break-barrel, pump up,CO2, or even PCP have a try at Pyramid Air. I have bought some of the moderately expensive PCP(precharged power) from Airguns of Arizona where I got a Daystate PCP which had an electronic trigger.....talk about just thinking to pull the trigger, Poof! hair trigger! Straight Shooters is another AG site and has a discussion group, high quality guns also. The top of the line PCP Field Target airguns can run $2500-3500, but of course you can do it with less in a different class for around $500 or so. Field Target Competition is challenging and is something I would like to try, but for the moment I just plink with the guns I have which include some BB guns I will do some pics of.

I have never owned any of the large caliber air guns like the Sam Yang 9MM and the pellets(that's a pellet which is pretty hefty!)which are lead slugs are pretty expensive. The .22 cal can pack a heavy punch some claim 1250 fps(like a 22 long rifle) for hunting small game which I don't hunt animals except the clay orange type.

I'm not an authority on air guns, I just find them alot of fun! Air guns are another world and a little less expensive than trap, but like anything which is fun can cost $, it just depends how far you want to take it! There are alot of sites showing some pretty exotic stuff like you can see on AirgunArtisians.com

 

[biff]

More AGs if you are interested, not all but some more:

This was my first airgun, a Red Ryder, bought for me after WWll when I was 10 years old. You just couldn't buy any AGs during the war and I had wanted one as bad as Ralphie in The Christmas Story!

A couple BB guns, a Umarex and a Biakal Drozod, both are select fire submachine gun CO2 and for fun...a good way to go through BB's and CO2!

L-R Baikal 61 and a Chinese AK, both are sidelever cockers,next is an Avanti PCP with target sights which is super accurate. You fill it to 200bar which is 3000lbs and is .177 cal. Next is a crosman trailblazer in .22 cal and is a pumper and fun to shoot.

Another view of the Avanti. As you can see there is a wide variety of AGs out there and another world as you can see from some of the many sites on line.

 

[jhmorrisn]

With al these good looking air rifles, there should be a few owener's of them who would like to shot and compare scores.

All it takes is a couple of AR targets and a few pellets. Just shoot two shots on a 5 bull target more than once and mail the best 10 shots one to me.

If you don;r have any targets just say so and I mail you a few.

The address is W4G, 605 Barrington Circle, Papillion NE 68046

 

[indycamster]

Here ya go Biff, an Air Machine Gun. Made by Happy Hoosiers in Fort Wayne, IN.
I bet they'd even sell'em to Kentuckians...

http://air-ordnance.com/

At 12 rounds per second, you could shoot trap with this, talk about a shot string!!!

Indycamster.

 

[Frank C]

I have a Remington Genesis that cannot hit a basketball consistently at 50Ft!?? I have no idea why, even from a benchrest....I would not recommend one! Any ideas?

 

[Frank C]

I guess I should try removing the scope and try with open sights...

 

[biff]

Frank, that's a good idea to try it without the scope. They also recommend to shoot them for more than 100 rounds for an improvement in accuracy and to clean the barrel. Be careful what you do to clean it with. I bought 2 boresnakes in the .177 cal and soaked an area of one with Hoppes bore solvent and pull it back and forth in the barrel and then finish it with the other one with a light amount of lubricant. Airguns can also be more finicky about which pellets you shoot through them, also some of the cheaper pellets are not consistent in diameter and aren't lubricated as well.

On the Pyramidair site, you can read the reviews about the different pellets and find the weight of pellets which work best for your airgun, they have sampler packs. I didn't like the trigger that came with the Remington/Crosman
which is a very similar looking gun to yours. You can find aftermarket accessories for just about any gun, like I bought a trigger from Charlie Da Tuna for my Remington Gas Piston like yours which is possibly powered by a steel spring. The steel spring guns have more vibration which can affect the accuracy especially since the slow lock time(from trigger pull till the pellet leaves the barrel) for airguns.

Airguns are a little like shotguns, some work better for some diciplines of the sport than others do. Some of my guns I know are plinkers and some can do some serious paper hole punching like the IZH 46M pistol and a couple of the PCP rifles. I feel your rifle could be made to shoot better and with better results than you are getting.

EB, your Browning 800 pistol has a device built in to help dampen the spring vibration and should help with the accuracy. That gun looks like a pretty big handful and should sizzle out the pellets, which caliber did you order it in and did you get the free shipping they offer for orders over $100? They have a wide variety of pellets and sample packs that will help you find the one you and your pistol like. No matter what, cocking that gun should definitely put you in shape for trap come spring!! Biff

PS: You could always buy that airmachinegun Camster mentioned, it's too rich for this Ky boy's pocketbook and I'm just thinking about the pellets!

 

[arend003]

have a couple an old Hi Score break barrel psitol made in Germany that I got back in 71 a Benjamin pump rifle and an RWS 350M with scope can'/t hit a thing with the RWS