Looking for 1st Air Rifle

It's a little more than your budget amount, but, it's hard to beat a Beeman R7 or R9. Great accuracy. Fantastic trigger. Light. Easy to cock. You can shoot rodents all day with either one of them without fatigue. They both hold their value when time comes to upgrade. But I'll bet you won't trade and that you'll keep it and simply add another gun. 

The Walther terrus in 22 cal is on sale right now at AOA for 169.95. Really quality airgun for the price. 
​ You might step up a little with RWS 34 in 22 for 255.00 also on sale at AOA. Both shoot jsb 15.89 really well for me. The 22 cal is best for pests. It is good to get the utg drooper scope rail DNT06 for both guns.
I've tried several Benjamins n these are better quality guns for about the same money.

Beemans are great guns!!! 

I've owned a Benjamin Summit .22 for about 6 months now and can assure you it is a dead accurate shooter out to 60 yards. the NP2 system gives you plenty of power and the shrouded barrel does a great job of hushing each shot - important for pesting and small game hunts. I shoot at a gun club with ranges from 10 yds to 100 yds. The 25 yd range is laughably easy with the Summit and the rifle absolutely owns the 50 yd range. The .177 is a laser for sure, but I chose the .22 since the NP2 system delivers a hefty 19-21 ft lbs of energy at the muzzle which translates to more retained ballistic energy producing superior knock-down power out to 60 yards. Cocking effort is moderate, somewhere in the low 30 lbs of effort, and very smooth. I make a habit of shooting in sessions of 1.5 to 2 hours without almost no breaks beyond a target reset called every 1/2 hour or so. My rifle is home tuned, having been taken down and had the air chamber thoroughly cleaned, moly grease applied to the piston and piston seal sides as well as all of the sears in the trigger assembly after each had been polished with a dremel tool. Rifle is solid while still being just a bit lighter than you'd expect. Picatinny rail is rock solid and gives you many scope options. My rifle currently shoots JSB Exact Heavy 18.13 grain pellets out to 100 yards with so/so results; I wonder if a 21 grain pellet might do even better at that range. For ranges 25-50 yards the CPHP 14.3 and JSB 15.89 grains do fine, delivering sub 1" groups when the wind is down and I am on my game. In fact, at 50 yards one of my favorite sports is to target clay shards scattered on the mounds backstopping our target fences, some shards down to 3/4" square, and shatter them with a single shot. The Summit, with a moderate quality scope, easily does this.

PM me if you want more information about the Summit in general and/or my Summit and it's maintenance in particular.

tbh i would stay off the benjamin and the other cheap gas ram guns. Just get a hw30s for rodents and targets. Youll start with something nice for sure, and if you get the sickness then you can get a pcp or a larger springer without the first gun collecting dust. 

Aaaaand, again, the information provided by the original poster (OP) goes right out the window for some members here. Sub $200 budget usually means a cost below $200... where the "cheap gas ram guns" are found. C'mon, @Deja, try meeting people where they are instead of telling them they gotta step up to your standard if they wanna get on the AGN island.

Steel spring and gas piston rifles in the $125-$185 range have proven over and over and over again how well-made, accurate, dependable, and fun guns can be made using modern manufacturing techniques that closely mimic (and in rare cases, actually match) the quality of Weirhauch, Diana, BSA, and a select few others from the Continent. Heck, lots of people have caught the air gun fever through exposure to nothing more than a sub-$100 air rifle from a Big Box Store.

Ok you said “ around $200”. It’s more than the one you mentioned but Midway has the RWS 34 on sale thru the end of Nov. for $239. I got one last week expecting it to be older stock with the To5 trigger for that price but it had the newer To6 trigger much to my surprise! If you can afford it this is a great buy as normally it’s in the $300 range. While shopping the lowest I found was $279. The quality of the D34 is better than the ones in the box stores and the trigger on it is fantastic compared to them. But if you cannot afford the difference you can still have a lot of fun with whatever you get. Just wanted to let you know about a great deal.

I too bought a 34 from Midway, mine was listed as a "blem" for $233 to my door. My suggestion is to buy what you want or can afford and try to wear it out. You can always upgrade when funds allow.

Get the 34 or R7 or 9 on black friday... Save a bundle and have a high quality rifle..

Midway should honor whatever price is in effect when you order even on backorder. Mine came with scope base and fiber optic open sights. I forgot about Black Friday sales. It’s close so if you’re it in a rush you might find better prices. One reason I bought mine was most if not all of the lower end rifles come with a not so great trigger, gamo for instance costs $36.00 for a trigger upgrade from charliedatuna site. Also the scopes that come with the cheaper rifles will most likely need replacing as they don’t seem to hold up in a lot of cases. Not trying to talk you into anything just want you to be aware of after purchase costs as it sounds like you have already considered. Good luck on the sales!

Hanslowmo. You will notice a theme in the above advice. Most of us mean well when we recommend something more than $200. The reason is we have been through it already and have bought the cheap guns already. I bought a Gamo Accu .22 for $200. It is an underlever and had a scope included, even came with a sling. That was over a year ago. The sling is still in its package. The scope was worthless on day 2. Had to buy a $120 scope for a $200 gun (technically $150 gun, if you consider the scope at least worth $50) I have since spent close to 4K in airguns, PCPs actually, but I have like 3 springers in my sights each one averaging $600. I still have my Gamo, it's in pretty bad shape, and it doesn't hold the groups it once did. It also depends on what you want to do with the gun. Shoot cans? then a $200 gun will probably do. Shoot Chipmunks in the head every time out to 30 or 40 yards? Save a little money. Buy once, not twice.

Most of the time the scopes that come with the Benjamin guns are finished before the first tin of pellets.

"Hanslowmo"Alright guys so my impatience got the best of me yesterday and I went ahead and bought the Benjamin because I could get it the day I bought it and figured it would be fine since I was mainly just gonna habe backyard fun with it.

Well this morning I tried it, and just got back from returning it this afternoon.

The Gun looks great, but after trying to zero the scope, constantly having inconsistent results with grouping, and other inconsistencies like the scope being adjusted all the way up, but still shooting 3-4 inches low from 20 yards away, it was just so damn frustrating and I realized spending a little extra is well worth it, even if I just plan on having fun with it in my backyard.

Gonna keep looking and probably wait for black Friday and get one of the above recommendations, most likely the RWS 34 because of its price and multiple suggestions.

Thanks again for the info guys, lesson learned!

Click to expand...

I had a similar experience with a Gamo whisper nitro piston. After a couple tins of pellets, I bought a pro sport and have no regrets. The Gamo was over powered and difficult to shoot accurately. The trigger was dreadful. I think you will be pleased with the RWS 34. Quality springers are expensive, but they are accurate and a pleasure to shoot. 

R

The nitro piston isn't much of a benefit. You still have the same recoil, just less noise than an untuned springer. The field target guys still use regular springs in HW97s, TX200 and Pro Sports. My HW 97 and TX200 are tuned and just make a thunk sound when shot.