Airgun Sickness, or, Multiple Airgun test, or...

[BarryinIN]

This will probably end up being a multi-part story.   So...

 

Part I:

I seem to be on an airgun bent right now.   With summer break coming up, my chances for range time drop to zero soon.  In the past, I looked to matches on weekends to get my fix, but the match outlook is looking bleak this year.  

 

Hence the interest in things I can shoot in the backyard.  Or even in the garage in winter. The archery daughter and I have been practicing archery in the backyard for three years now.   Recently, I've been sneaking an airgun out there instead of a string stick.   Hopefully that can continue.  She has even shot a few through it.  

 

First came the Walther LGU rifle, which is a nice rifle.  Perhaps nicer than I need.  It has seen a lot of use already.  It's downsides include being heavy, and it's not suitable or legal for some competitions.   Both matter to my daughter.  It will be years before she could hold it up to shoot, and if she could it wouldn't do her much good because they use .177 caliber in 4-H.  And after a moving target system was destroyed by a "Magnum" air rifle a few years ago, they don't allow the big guns.  They really want you to use their Daisy 853 rifles.  

 

So I got one. 

Because that's the kind of competitive parent I am.  

 

Or.. I bought one because the CMP has been selling them in rebuilt condition for $100 for years, and everyone says it's the best match rifle you can get without spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars.   The fact it's the same gun 4-H uses only helped. 

 

Daisy has been making the 853 for 30 years or more.  I bet they've sold millions of them. Most youth and ROTC clubs use them.  There are variants like a 5-shot repeater and different stocks, but they are all close to the same. 

 

The CMP will happily sell you a refurbished one for $100 plus $15 shipping.  They have new ones for $215.  That's a bargain too, since every other source I know of wants $350 or more.   Yes, I know, you can spend that same $100 at WalMart and get a Gamo that shoots 9,000 fps and has pictures of TV hunters on the box, but the 853 can actually make a group, and won't rattle your fillings out when doing it.   I've seen and used these 853s at various places, and they take abuse and still shoot extremely well.  

 

At our first 4-H Shooting Sports shoot this year, we couldn't get into our borrowed range so had to change plans and shoot airguns back at the fairgrounds.   These rifles had not seen a bit of care since before last year's fair. Not even a drop of oil.  We broke them out and shot them for the next two hours.  Due to time constraints, we left the same targets up all day.  It didn't take long to see one ragged hole forming in each target.   This was not the same few kids shooting over and over, but each kid getting five shots and getting back in line.   Not bad grouping for being done by a bunch of shooters, some who had never shot anything before.  

 

We did have trouble.   Human error kind of trouble, not gun trouble. Like many airguns, you need to cock the bolt before you pump it. Otherwise, it won't hold air.  In the chaos of instructing four kids at once, watching a line of kids, and loading the rifles for the kids, one of us instructors would occasionally forget to run the bolt.  Or not remember if we had ran the bolt.  So we'd load it anyway and since I was down at the end I'd use it to take a quick shot offhand at a target off to the side.    I shot maybe eight pellets this way, and when we were done I noticed all were in the black of the target.   They are good rifles if I can take four different ones and stay in the black with a half effort offhand. 

 

I'm glad I got mine. It's been well worth the hundred bucks already. This is one item you can order from the CMP without being in a CMP-affiliated club or having other credentials. 

http://thecmp.org/cmp_sales/rifle_sales/air-rifles/sporter-air-rifles/

They are about halfway down this page.   Print the order form and either email or fax it in.   I mailed mine on a Monday and the rifle arrived the following Monday.  Pretty fast service for a short-handed volunteer operation. 

 

Mine wasn't perfect but wasn't bad.  It had one fair sized ding in the stock, and the receiver had quite a bit of "rebluing" via Sharpie marker, but it operates fine and everything feels tight where it should be. I haven't chronographed mine, but I would guess if it isn't on the mark to where it should be then it's close enough not to matter.  

 

It comes with the front and rear target sights, a packet of front sight inserts, a sling, two stock spacers, and a manual.  The stock is short, so the spacers are mandatory for us big kids.   The sling is the simple M-16 strap type, but instructions show how to make a cuff type shooting sling from it.  The sight apertures are three different round, and one post, plus what is already in the front sight. 

 

These are single pump pneumatics.  A second pump does nothing except release the first pump of air and replace it with another.  We've found that accuracy is improved if, while pumping, you pause briefly once the pump lever is all the way out before closing it, rather than slamming it open amd closed. This seems to let a consistent amount of air in each time.  The pumping effort isn't bad for an adult, but with the kids, we do the pumping.  If they do it, often muzzles go all over the place .  Especially with boys, who can't admit they can barely get it done.  

 

Here is my zeroing target.  This was shot at the standard airgun 10 meters.  The pellets were plain old Crosman.  There are two groups there.  The (first) high group, then another lower that is the better of the two.

Not bad for $100.

 

Part II will cover when I felt the need for an air pistol. 

[BarryinIN]

I haven't posted in a while. Things only got worse for me in the airgun front.  I've bought four more air pistols and three more air rifles.   And they cost a little more each time. 

 

My latest is a Walther LGR Universal- a 10 Meter match rifle.  This is the same model used in the 1984 Olympics to win gold in Men's Air Rifle.  

Um, what?

Because I needed it, that's why. 

 

The attached picture is not mine, but could be it's twin.  What have I done?

 

[BarryinIN]

And deeper I go.   

Not mine, because mine isn't here yet, but  you get the idea.   FWB 65:

[BarryinIN]

Since I've learned a thing or two about airguns, and buying airguns, I thought I'd share a few random thoughts.  

 

- Shooting them really does help.  I couldn't guess how many times I've heard people say airgun practice pays off.  I never doubted them a bit, but I'd be remiss if I didn't start off by saying it was very satisfying to head to the range after messing around with airguns for a few weeks.  My usual summer layoff helped instead of hurt for a change.  

 

-Buy carefully.  There are airguns and there are airguns.  Buy quality.  The top WalMart rifle at $140 may sound good enough, even after you do a quick search in your smartphone and don't find any info on it.   Wait, and research.  You may never spend a better $60 than the difference you spend getting a $200 one after you've researched them. 

 

-Gimmicks are gimmicks.  Two barrels in two calibers.   "Free" scope.  Camo finishes.  But you probably knew that.  Here's one gimmick that sucks most people in though, including me: Velocity. 

 

-I'll give that it's own paragraph.  Velocity is not necessarily your friend.   Sure, it is great to have, but it usually comes at a price.   Let me put it this way.   One of my rifles is a .22 that won't quite make 650 fps with most pellets.   Many people would ignore it from the start because of that, but I can whack a 4" swinger or hanging cowbell offhand with ease at the edge of the woods 57 yards away, and it really whacks them too.

 I don't know what more I'd need from an airgun.  

It does this because the velocity doesn't vary more than 6 fps over 10 shots, and the shot cycle is so smooth it hardly moves and gives a mild "thunk" sound at the shot.   By contrast, my 1,000 fps (with certain pellets on certain days) rifle vibrates and twangs like using a broken baseball bat, and jumps like a scared cat at each shot.  I have had it for years and never could shoot a decent group with it.   There are a few fast ones that behave OK, but they are the best exception.  Backing off the throttle a little gains much better behavior.  

 

-Go across the pond for info.   There are some good info sources here, but the more you look into airguns, the more you'll find yourself at sites where trucks are called lorries and fries are chips.  The U.K. shooters have become pretty sharp on airguns by necessity.  The thought and work we put into all forms of shooting they put into airguns. They have solved things we haven't thought was a problem yet.  The Germans are another leap ahead of them, but unless you read German you are out of luck. 

 

-Forget some things.  Forget the idea that airguns are for kids.  Kids couldn't get half of today's airguns ready to fire.   Forget your buddy who said he pumped his Sheridan 300 times and it shot through three telephone poles. He didn't.   This may sound like heresy, but if you ever spent much time studying the old Beeman catalogs, forget a lot of that, too.   While he got more adults into airguns than any other person, some of his writings just don't stand up, whether due to time or what.  He used to put down the .22 caliber by saying the .177 was 20% more accurate.  They are about even, at least now.  Match guns are all .177 due to the rules; not for accuracy gains.   He pushed the .20 caliber in later years, but it seems that accurate .20 pellets are hard to come by currently, for some reason. 

 

-Barrels and pellets are better than they used to be.   No kidding: I truly believe someone used to today's pellets would throw out half of each box I used to buy.  The designs are better, and the quality control is leaps and bounds better.  Even the Crosman Premier line you can buy at any store will shoot well in most guns.   I used to discard lots of pellets when I was a kid, but even though I'm pickier, it's an uncommon event now.  And the guns shoot them better due to the barrels.  Like pellets, today's barrels blow away what used to be acceptable.  Any of the better companies who don't already make a great barrel will buy Lothar Walther barrels and be done with it. 

-There are big bores now. It's not uncommon to see airguns in .30, or .35/9mm, or even .45 or .50 caliber.   Crosman has a bullpup repeater in 9mm.   Plenty of makers have big bores that can take deer easily, and there are a couple of .50 air shotguns. 

 

-Pre-Charged Pneumatics (PCPs) allowed this to be more common.  A PCP gun can be filled from a pump or air tank and hold enough air (2,000-3,000 psi) to do a lot of things.   A PCP might hold enough air to get off five shots in the big .45 and .50 calibers.  They might get 25-30 .22 or .25 caliber shots from a fill, or 40+ in .177, and at high velocity (smoothly) also.    Match guns are almost all PCP now.   With their lower velocity needs, a PCP match rifle can shoot an entire 60-70 shot match with ease, and the regulators will make each shot nearly the same.  

Like I said above: they aren't (just)  for kids.

 

-Replica guns aren't bad.   It used to be that you could get an airgun replica of a firearm that did OK, but you had to get something else to shoot really well.   I don't see a replica in the Olympics soon, but they are pretty nice now.