Super Air Rifle deal

[Moe M.]

  As many of you know I've been into air guns for the last six months or so,  with this global shut down and limited travel getting out and about is more difficult,  Racial tensions, political up evils, and rioting has created shortages across the board including the weapons market, guns and ammo are flying off the shelves as fast as they are being restocked,  and the prices especially on ammo are getting higher every day.
  So when one of my adult boys suggested we get into air gunning and do some back yard shooting I had reservations about going along with him,  I hadn't shot air guns in several decades except for an airsoft 1911 pistol that I shoot in my basement in winter months and a few weeks of playing with my vintage Sheridan variable pump Blue Streak rifle a couple of years ago when we tried shooting a B&B forum Postal Match,  which didn't catch on.
 But he was right,  it turned out to be fun and practical,  pellets are still easy to get and inexpensive to buy,  and as long as you have a back yard space that's 10 or more yards long you can keep up your shooting skills and do it cheaply and without irritating your neighbors,  and with the right air gun you can clean pests out of your garden,  or use it on small game to put food on the table.
 If you want a decent quality air rifle today that's capable of good accuracy and enough power to take small game you're looking at spending a couple of hundred dollars and you may have to wait until the one you want is restocked, so if you aren't fussy about brand or type you might want to look to MidwayUSA.com,  for how long I don't know, but for right now they have an overstock of new Ruger Impact Max .22 Cal. air rifles,  they come with a really nice walnut stock,  have the state of the art Nitro Piston technology,  a noise suppressor,  True Glow adj. sights,  a recoil dampening Picatinny scope mount, and a 4x32 fixed scope and rings,  these guns retailed at Walmart for anywhere from $149.00 ~ $229.00,  Midway USA got a hold of a bunch of them for a deal and they are passing the saving on to their customers, for as long as they last (which won't be long) for $99.00.
 I bought one,  Midway shipped quickly enough that UPS had it at my door in three days, the Pros, the gun looks like it should cost three times the price, the stock is finely oil finished,  the bluing is flawless,  the action is smooth and the trigger while being about four pounds is smooth and crisp, and it's adjustable for first stage travel,  it has an auto safety that prevents bear trap bite,  now for the Cons,  the sights are made of polymer,  but they are rugged,  the scope is clear but fixed 4-power, with no adjustment for optical tuning of the eye piece or objective lens,  most combo packages for air guns come through with poor quality scopes, this one is no exception.
 I didn't even mount the one that came with my gun,  I've ordered a new Hawk scope for it,  after checking the stock screws and cleaning the bore I took it outside and set up my bullet trap for 15 yds., and shot five three shot groups with 14.9 gr. H&S Trophy domed Pellets and five three shot groups with Hobby 11.7 gr. flat nosed pellets,  both brand gave pretty good accuracy,  all groups measured within an inch at 15 yds.
 The gun is made by Umarex under License from Ruger,  they advertise 1000 fps. in .22 cal. with alloy pellets and 800 fps. with lead pellets, the Chronograph registered an average of 875 fps. with the 11.7 gr. lead wad cutters,  and about 770 fps. with the 14.9 domed lead pellets,  the FPE were surprising at 19.7 FPE for the lighter pellet and 17.9 for the heavier pellet, both far above the minimum 12 FPE requirement for small game hunting.
 I have not touched the sights and don't plan to until the gun is broken in,  but my first shot at 15 yds. at a 2" bull printed dead on in elevation and a half inch to the left of center,  and all my remaining shots landed in the same area (with no flyers which is surprising).
 Moving out to 30 yds. my groups opened up to about just over 2" inches,  which I'm hoping will close up as the gun breaks in and when I mount the new Hawk 3x9x40mm scope on it.
 The gun is much more than I expected,  while it has decent reviews there were a few that were negative citing  heavy trigger pull,  poor accuracy,  the cheapness of the scope, and the force needed to cock the gun,  personally, I didn't experience any of those problems with the exception of the scope which I can't opine on for I haven't used it.

 Bottom line,  if you're in the market for a decent small game hunting capable air rifle and you are on a very tight budget,  look seriously at the Ruger Impact Max that's on a limited time killer sale right now at Midway USA.   

  * Link--  www.midwayusa.com/product/1022565033

[wsdstan]

I have not shot an air rifle for about thirty years Moe.  I remember shooting pests at a friends house in Montana out of the kitchen window.  His air gun was a Feinwerkbau that shot .177 cal. pellets.

I have shot a couple of different air pistols lately.  One is a CO2 powered pellet gun that must be thirty or forty years old.  The other is the same type of pistol modified to shoot tranquilizer darts when doctoring cattle out in the summer pasture where you don't have any corrals and chutes to work them.  The vet will sell you the tranquilizer and "wake up" drops if he knows you well enough.  It sure saves a lot of time and works pretty well with the darts it uses.

[Phaedrus]

I have a pretty nice airsoft 1911 that got misplaced when I moved.  I wouldn't mind picking up a more "serious" airgun pistol to have something to plink with that doesn't require scarce ammo supplies.

[Moe M.]

I have a pretty nice airsoft 1911 that got misplaced when I moved.  I wouldn't mind picking up a more "serious" airgun pistol to have something to plink with that doesn't require scarce ammo supplies.

 I have two air pistols,  the one I shoot most is the 1911 air soft,  it's all metal,  and is an exact copy of a standard 1911 pistol except for the feeding system and magazine, while the magazine is the same size and weight as a standard 1911 mag. it holds the pressurized green gas(injected from a can) and holds 20 plastic air soft BB's.
 All of the functions on the pistol work just like the real gun,  the weight is the same, as are the Novak styled sights it comes with, it can fire 60 shots on one filling of green gas,  the pistol loads and cocks like the real pistol and when fired the slide comes back and loads a BB into the chamber and cocks the hammer,  it also has some felt recoil, not as much as the .45 ACP or a 9mm cartridge would,  but good enough for training purposes, which is what I use it for mostly in the cold months when shooting outdoors can be unpleasant.
 Accuracy wise it shoots as good as I can hold, from a rest or braced against a door jam it'll hold a group of about one inch or so at 25 feet and keep all of it's shot in one half inch sized hole at 15 feet,  it makes a great indoor pistol for keeping my 1911 skills sharp.
 I've owned it for about 10 years and have fired all of a couple of thousand rounds out of it without any malfunctions, I did have to replace one of the magazines which I dropped and broke off one of the ears that hold the BB in place,  th gun cost me $140.00 new and spare magazines were $30.00 each.
 My other air pistol is a .177 cal. Beeman/Webley single shot target pistol that is a break barrel on a spring powered action,  has plastic target grips and fully adjustable sights,  it shoot pellets in the eight grain weight range at about 375~ 400 FPS depending on the pellet and is extremely accurate out to about 50 feet or so.
 There are a lot of air soft and pellet pistols on the market today at very reasonable prices that shoot extremely well thanks to advances in air gun technology.       

[Moe M.]

I have not shot an air rifle for about thirty years Moe.  I remember shooting pests at a friends house in Montana out of the kitchen window of his house.  His air gun was a Feinwerkbau that shot .177 cal. pellets.

I have shot a couple of different air pistols lately.  One is a CO2 powered pellet gun that must be thirty or forty years old.  The other is the same type of pistol modified to shoot tranquilizer darts when doctoring cattle out in the summer pasture where you don't have any corrals and chutes to work them.  The vet will sell you the tranquilizer and "wake up" drops if he knows you well enough.  It sure saves a lot of time and works pretty well with the darts it uses.

 When paint ball games started to catch on they were using single shot Co2 pistols and rifles, I bought two of the pistols and a bunch of paintballs from a dealer who was getting out of them for under dealer cost,  they were made by Crossman and were used at the time for marking trees set for cutting, some of the rifles were no more than tranquilizer/dart guns that had been repurposed for shooting paint balls,  in all honesty they really were much too powerful, even with protective gear they would raise serious welts if you were hit with one.
 I would think that a reasonably priced air rifle that shoots cheap easy to get ammo would be a welcomed addition to a farm for pest control ?

[wsdstan]

I agree that an air rifle would be the best of the pellet shooters.  If I lived in or near town or had a lot of neighbors close that would be what I would do.  Given where I live a .22 is the pest control for now.  I looked at the Ruger you posted the link to and it is a neat rifle and at that price a good deal.  I went to a see how much those German Feinwerkbau rifles are running and they go from around $200 on the low end to $3000 plus on the high end for a competition model. 

I almost bought the Ruger last night but for some inexplicable reason thought I probably would not use it much.  I am going to get some CO2 cartridges for the pistol though.  Hope they are not out at the local sources.

[Moe M.]

I agree that an air rifle would be the best of the pellet shooters.  If I lived in or near town or had a lot of neighbors close that would be what I would do.  Given where I live a .22 is the pest control for now.  I looked at the Ruger you posted the link to and it is a neat rifle and at that price a good deal.  I went to a see how much those German Feinwerkbau rifles are running and they go from around $200 on the low end to $3000 plus on the high end for a competition model. 

I almost bought the Ruger last night but for some inexplicable reason thought I probably would not use it much.  I am going to get some CO2 cartridges for the pistol though.  Hope they are not out at the local sources.

My son has a few Co2 pistols and he's been getting the cartridges on line,  the local shops are either all out or their prices are stupidly high,  I'm pretty sure he gets his from Amazon or E-Bay,  which ever is offering the best deal at the time,  he's been buying multi packs of a dozen each for the best price.   

LOL, I have to agree with you,  spending a hundred bucks on a good deal that you won't use ain't much of a deal after all. 

[wolfy]

I've got a few inherited multi-pump Daisy air rifles that have rifled barrels for shooting .177 pellets.  They suck for accuracy when opting for BBs.....still acceptable accuracy for 10-15 foot shots at grasshoppers on the deck railing, but that's about it.  They are also acceptably accurate for perforating aluminum beverage cans and, since they are 'adjustable' as to shot-to-shot velocity, good for 'stinging' the neighbor's cats when they are monitoring our bird feeders.

My 'primo' pellet rifle is from CHINA.     I ordered it online and was lucky to get one of the good ones.  It's a break-barrel .177 with a nicely blued & rifled steel barrel and a varnished wood stock that rivals those they are putting on the cheaper Marlin 60s.  Crumby sights, but they work.  Funny thing is, the thing is deadly accurate and it only set me back by $17 if I remember correctly. 

I keep looking at the .22 offerings from Pyramid Air and a couple of the other major air rifle suppliers, but right about the time I think I have one picked out, the bad reviews start coming in.

As far as air pistols go, I don't have much, just an old Daisy CO2 200 BB shooter that I got in high school and a Crosman .22 pellet shooter that I got for Christmas when I was in the 8th grade.  Both still work well.....the Crosman CO2 is accurate, but the Daisy definitely is NOT.

[wsdstan]

Mine is a Crossman and it is more accurate than I am.

The tranquilizer shooter was a Crossman too.  I got pretty good with it and could hit a bull or cow in the ass as about forty feet.  It took awhile to get the trajectory down as it was kind of a rainbow sort of flight pattern.

[Moe M.]

I've got a few inherited multi-pump Daisy air rifles that have rifled barrels for shooting .177 pellets.  They suck for accuracy when opting for BBs.....still acceptable accuracy for 10-15 foot shots at grasshoppers on the deck railing, but that's about it.  They are also acceptably accurate for perforating aluminum beverage cans and, since they are 'adjustable' as to shot-to-shot velocity, good for 'stinging' the neighbor's cats when they are monitoring our bird feeders.

My 'primo' pellet rifle is from CHINA.     I ordered it online and was lucky to get one of the good ones.  It's a break-barrel .177 with a nicely blued & rifled steel barrel and a varnished wood stock that rivals those they are putting on the cheaper Marlin 60s.  Crumby sights, but they work.  Funny thing is, the thing is deadly accurate and it only set me back by $17 if I remember correctly. 

I keep looking at the .22 offerings from Pyramid Air and a couple of the other major air rifle suppliers, but right about the time I think I have one picked out, the bad reviews start coming in.

As far as air pistols go, I don't have much, just an old Daisy CO2 200 BB shooter that I got in high school and a Crosman .22 pellet shooter that I got for Christmas when I was in the 8th grade.  Both still work well.....the Crosman CO2 is accurate, but the Daisy definitely is NOT.

 Craig,  about 85% of all air guns are made in China and about 95% of all rifle scopes are also made there (even those really expensive brands with German sounding names),  my best rifle scopes and spotter scopes were made in Japan.
 I know a few people who have bought Chinese "Industry Brand" break barrel springers for anywhere from $45.00~ $100.00 dollars and have had good luck with them,  my most expensive is a Gamo .22 cal. nitro piston break barrel at  $220.00 I purchased right from Gamo USA on sale,  my latest is the Ruger Impact Max .22 cal. break barrel (also with nitro piston technology for $99.00 which I bought from Midway USA, both which are very well made with walnut stocks and rich blue on all the metal parts,  I've had the Gamo for a couple of months and has been flawless.
 I've only had the Ruger (made by Umarex under Ruger licensing) for about a week and have about 100 shots through it,  I haven't mounted the scope on it yet that it came with,  but the true glow adjustable sights were dead on from the factory at 30 yds.,  I didn't expect much for $99.00,  but I was very surprised at the quality of the fit and finish, air guns need a breaking in period and it varies with the make of the guns,  the reviews so far say about 200 or so shots for this model Ruger, but It's getting pretty good accuracy and velocity (800 FPS on average w/lead pellets) right out of the box.
 Powder burning ammo is getting scarce and expensive especially the common calibers,  .38spec./.357mag., 9mm,  .45 ACP,  Rimfire ammo in .22LR, .22mag., and .17 cal. were all easy to get up until this pandemic got going,  now they are getting harder to find and at double the cost.
 So far the air gun market (in spite of some back orders) is still pretty well stocked with guns and pellets,  it's pretty reassuring to know that I have a few guns that are self powered and plenty of inexpensive to use for practice and that are powerful enough to take small game cleanly and humanely.
 Pyrimyd Air has a deal on pellets,  buy three tins of any caliber or brand and get a fourth one of your choice free,  so far I've been testing pellets (like powder burners, air guns are pellet fussy) and order a few tins for each caliber that I have .177, .5mm (20 cal.), and .22 cal. and have about 5000 premium hunting and target pellets stocked up for a total of $75.00,  and I can shoot them in my back yard legally and without disturbing my neighbors.     
 I wouldn't place too much credence in some of the reviews that you might read on line,  don't get me wrong, reviews are important,  but they aren't always written by someone knowledgeable on the subject,  what I've found is that if you have 25 reviews saying the product is great and five who say it's junk,  you can pretty much assume the five negative reviews were from people who didn't know how to use the product, or had expectations  that the product couldn't fulfill,  RWS and Diana break barrel air rifles are among some of the best German air rifles you can buy,  yet I see a lot of reviews saying that they are grossly inaccurate,  the reality is that they have reputations for excellent precision accuracy,  the problem with the reviews is that those guns are springers, and you have to learn how to shoot them, if you hold them in a tight grip like you would a powder burner you can't hit a Buick from 25 feet away,  but hold them loosely and and lovingly and they'll shoot in the same hole every time.
 There's always the chance of getting a lemon no matter how much you spend for something,  and yes the more it costs usually the better the quality,  but I've owned more than one Caddy that was troublesome, but I had a Pinto wagon (nobody had a good thing to say about Pinto's) that had 200,000 miles on it that just wouldn't quit,  I finally gave it to an older couple who needed a car and couldn't afford to buy one, they drove that thing    for two years and loved it.   

[wsdstan]

I have too many hobbies and shooting air rifles will have to wait although it sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

[Moe M.]

I have too many hobbies and shooting air rifles will have to wait although it sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

  LOL,  I'm not trying to sell you on one Stan,  I'm just sharing my thoughts and experiences,  for anyone who might be thinking in that direction,  as an aside, if it weren't for the pandemic restrictions,  the panic buying of guns and ammo because of the political times we are in, and the soring prices and shortages of both guns and ammo,  I'd still be shooting my rimfire and centerfire guns as well as my flintlocks, around here a can of Goex 3-F is selling for $45.00 if you can find one. 
  Last year in my mind air guns were just toys to be played with occasionally or were a quiet way to get rid of a garden raiding groundhog,  but today they've become a more practical option, for me any how. 

[wsdstan]

I understand that.  Just dumb luck but I stocked up before prices escalated again. 

Out of stock is the new normal these days. 

[Moe M.]

I understand that.  Just dumb luck but I stocked up before prices escalated again. 

Out of stock is the new normal these days.

 I have always kept a good supply of ammo and a stock of reloading supplies and usually replace any that I use with fresh stock,  but when it became obvious that we were going to be experiencing another round of shortages I picked up a little extra and stopped using what I have to play with,  but with pellets being so available and inexpensive I can still scratch my trigger time itch with my air guns.
 If I'm sounding like a broken record don't be bashful about telling me to give it a rest  ,  with the advancements in technology and the availability of inexpensive Chinese made air guns you can buy pretty decent guns for short money, I'm even giving some thought to buying a few more when ever they come on sale just to use as trade items if the economy takes another down turn,  or if we get hit with a second wave of Chinese flu, if the wrong side gets into power after the elections anything that shoots along with the ammo is going to have a lot of value,  especially if it doesn't need a legal paper trail.
 And if things get back to "normal" I haven't really lost anything, if I can buy them cheap enough I won't have any trouble getting my investment back. 

[madmaxine]

I'm with Stan.  Moe's a dirty dog for tempting us.  Especially when I'm blowing through money like a fool setting up my first ham shack

[Moe M.]

I'm with Stan.  Moe's a dirty dog for tempting us.  Especially when I'm blowing through money like a fool setting up my first ham shack

 Thanks Tony, it really is a nice feeling to know that you're helping out a brother.