How Did You Get Started - Tell Your Story!

I’ve been around guns since I was a kid, starting with a Daisy BB gun. Over the years I’ve owned plenty of others—too many to list—and none of them especially matter for this story.

During COVID, when ammo was nearly impossible to find, I picked up a CO₂ Crosman 2300S pistol on Amazon. Honestly, it was part boredom, part curiosity. I’d never shot a CO₂ gun before, but for around $350 it felt like a low-risk gamble. Pellets were cheap, I could shoot in my backyard, and I wouldn’t have a fortune tied up in it. So, I grabbed a box of CO₂ cartridges and a tin of 500 pellets, figuring those would last me forever.

My first thought was: what am I doing with a .177 single-shot pellet pistol? No power, no rapid fire, no “Tim the Tool Man” grunt factor. Sure, it had a Lothar Walther barrel, but at the time that didn’t mean much to me. I figured if it was a dud, at least I hadn’t lost much.

Then it arrived. One afternoon I unboxed it, slipped in a pellet, and—open sights, one hand, from 50 feet—I was smacking tin cans. And I hadn’t shot in years. I was floored. That little pistol was accurate. Before I knew it, that “lifetime supply” of pellets started disappearing fast.

That was it—I was hooked. Fell straight down the rabbit hole. Since then, I’ve been shooting airguns at local ranges, side by side with the powder-burner guys in bullseye matches, benchrest, and more. I’m not out there to beat them, just to enjoy myself.

This past spring I even bought a .22LR benchrest rifle, shot three matches with it, cleaned it, and put it away—right back to my air rifles. But that’s a story for another day.

I’m curious: How did you first get into airguns?

I think your stories would be interesting.
 
Other than a Daisy BB gun back when I was in grammer and jr high, there was nothing but rimfire and then centerfire while in college and a few years after that. In 1972 I was posted to Turkey. We had a NATO rod and gun club and after I had been there about a year one weekend there I saw a lot of people handling a break barrel, make unknown. They were cocking and dry firing it a lot, and I thankfully passed. When I got back to the states in late 74 I started researching, sending off for catalogs, finally settling on the old ARH in W.Va. I ended up ordering a FWB 124d as it was about all I could afford, and was absolutely thrilled with it. It did not take me long to order a Willams receiver sight for it which is back on it now. Sometime in the early 80's I put a Beeman blue ribbon on it and it stayed that way for 30 years, until I had to have the gun resealed and figured how unbalanced it seemed when shooting, It just handles better with iron sights and I have more fun that way. I did a few years ago put an Anschuts globe sight as a front sight and that gave me more sight options than the fixed FWB post.

Back in my early days with it I was living in base housing at Eglin AFB and made a pellet trap and would shoot from our master bedroom down a hall and across the front bedroom. When our son was born and ended up in that bedroom, I would only shoot when my wife had him in the living room. The sound never seemed to bother him.
 
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I had a Crosman 760 and a Benjamin as a kid. Fast forward 50 years, I was at the house after hunting season and it was snowing outside. Having nothing to do I was wishing I lived somewhere I could shoot at my house. I called a buddy who had and English made pellet gun that I had never seen. It ended up being a TX 200. When I mentioned maybe wanting to get one he said we ought to get into PCP’s. That’s the day I fell into the rabbit hole.
 
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Great story! I got into airguns because of rats! A couple got into our garage then one got into the house through the doggy door.....that meant WAR! So I set traps, caught a few but some were too smart and couldn't be "trapped" so I had to find a different way to get those. I stumbled upon AGN and GTA researching on the web looking for different ways to dispatch rats....purchased an RWS Meisterschutz Pro and learned how to build a bait station using peanut butter as bait. Now I use technology and use a wireless doorcam to alert me....I am winning the war...😂👍. So I need to thank rats for starting my airgunning fun! I have shot directly thru papayas seeing a rats tail hanging thru a hole it created thru the papaya.....fun stuff!
 
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I have been actively engaged in outdoor past times since I Moby Dick was a minnow.
Never had any interest in air guns since my Daisy pump BB gun when I was about 10 years old.
After that it was 22's then to centerfire rifles and handguns. Then about 7-8 years ago I just lost interest in the PB's except my shotguns for hunting quail and pheasant.
One day I was going to shoot my bow at the indoor range my archery club has and ran into a PR rep for the fish and game who asked if I had ever been into the air gun store and indoor range that was next door. "Nope, have no interest in BB guns" he laughed and persuaded me to just go look. They put a Daystate Pulsar in my hands and turned me loose with some pointers on form.
The pure accuracy that gun had was stunning and I was hooked. I have had airguns from 22 to 45 cal even a 20 gauge PBBA. At one time I think there were 10 of them in my herd.
I am now down to 4 air guns and can now manage to shoot all of them pretty regularly.
 
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Brought up around guns. Had a bb gun as a kid, it was a lever action but not Red Ryder.
As an adult, I got laid off from the shop(machinist) and we had gone to a yard sale.
There was a rusty crusty Crosman 760 I bought for a dollar or two. Another sale I found a cheap Daisy 4x15 scope.
Went all through a cleanup(it still pumped and shot) and became deadly on chipmunks and some red tree-rats .
I became hooked. Next was a new 1377, and then a Chinese B3 underlever, then a QB78. Down the rabbit hole I went!
 
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My story is a bit different. I was into archery, and I've always liked odd weapons. I saw an ad for the benjamin pioneer airbow somewhere and was blown away by the concept and velocity. Basically a super powerful limb-less crossbow, it also sorta resembles my favorite weapon from the video game dead space 2. (Called the javelin, I even put a laser sight on, making it even more like the javelin from that game) Decided to buy one and a hand pump. I had so much fun shooting it, I shot it so much and had to pump it every 8 shots, I didn't let the pump cool down and blew the seals. Its a great deal of effort anyways, so I decided I better buy a SCBA tank and opted for the biggest one for max fills, and less frequent scuba shop visits. Then i realized with that scba I could get any pcp i wanted and was finding out about more, my 2nd was a .45 evanix Rex p. Then not long after got a huben k1, fascinated by its power and semi auto function. Around this time I was tired of the scuba shop not completely filling my tank and charging me $25 each time, and with a big bore and semi auto they were becoming frequent and cost prohibitive. They had a cascade setup and mostly filled scuba tanks to 3200 psi or so, so they either didn't bother topping off their system to fill me to 4500, or they didn't top it off after cooling down. It usually had around 4200 in it so it must have been filled pretty fast to be hot enough at 4500 to cool to 4200. Plus they made me leave it and pick it up the next day. so before I knew I was ordering a compressor too. I quickly fell in love with the huben and was going through slugs so fast I decided to spend the money on corbin swaging stuff too. I have never owned a .177
 
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"I was alone, I was in my room, and I got started." (Rodney Dangerfield)

Oh, we're talking air guns, right?

Yes, well I too was a youngster of 8 when I got a Marksman 1911 style, BB/pellet/dart pistol. Shot it at an empty detergent cardboard container in my basement (they were large, round containers of around 10"?).
No formal training, just; "Don't hurt yourself or anything else!"
It's been a long journey since then using mostly firearms as most here, but a "ratting" YouTube video got me rolling to investigate ratting in my neighborhood. I was soon hooked, as they say.
That was in 2010 and I'm still heavy in the rabbit hole!

mike
 
In 2007 i went to a gun store near my house to look over some powder guns. I picked up what I thought was a Beeman r9 from the used gun rack. I looked it over and went home a started during a little research... I came across the yellow forum. I joined the forum and posted a question about the gun. I stated on the forum it was a Beeman R9 made in San Rafael Ca. The multiple responses I got were that it was impossible because they didn't make the R9 until later. I returned the next day to see it wasn't an R9 but a R8. Paid 150 for it and the rest is history.

I still have it.
 
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Early 70’s and in my small town in southern Illinois we had what is called pest control. Pest birds,rats, and mice were worth so many points and after the the contest was over November until February all the saved heads and tails were were counted up and which ever team won received a prize, knives were for first and still have mine lol. And now we pay people to do this today. This was done in our ffa chapter and the farmers loved it.
 
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Always loved anything that shot a projectile. Typical progression... slingshots, bows, airguns, rimfires, centerfires, compound bows, crossbows, recurves, back to homemade bows and slingshots. Now shooting airguns - almost to the exclusion of everything else. 😄

Somewhere in the middle of rimfires and centerfires (and under the influence of a Beeman catalog) I bought a FWB124 to have a good pellet gun close to hand. Did a lot of casual plinking and a bit of pesting with it.

About 25 years later I needed to replace the piston seal on the 124 and while researching I stumbled on to an article of people claiming to shoot 1/2" groups at 40 YARDS - I couldn't believe it! 😳

Of course I had to try that myself... and got seduced by the dark side. Been a hopeless case ever since 🤪

Cheers!
 
Besides kid stuff, backyard rats got me into it. I went to Bass Pro and bought the most powerful.177 springer they had (in my ignorant state). It was super loud, inaccurate, hard to pump, and didn't humanely kill the rats.

After a lot of reading here, saving up, and patience I now have a premium PCP setup that I'm embarrassed to think of the total cost. But it sure is fun and great at taking care of pests! 😅
 
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I got hooked on shooting in general ever since I got my first toy gun at about age 6-7. Graduated to cap guns then I got a red rider
when I was about 10. I was 18-19 before I got my hands on a "real" air gun. It was a Diana in .177 and more accurate than anything
I shot before that I was so impressed at an "air rifle" accuracy with the ability to always shoot it in the back yard I was hooked.

40 years and 25 guns later (of all sorts) I still love shooting my air rifles, now on 1.3 acres and plenty of critters in the boonies.
 
First BB gun was daisy pal in 4rth grade. Got a 10 pumper a year later, and followed with another every couple years when they wore out. Stopped with airguns when I hit 18. The house I bought in 2000 had space to shoot powderburners until houses got built around me. A few years back, my wife wanted to try hunting and I was gettin ready to apply for my first Wyoming antelope tag. Bought a Discovery .22 so we could shoot at the house again to practice. She rolled her deer that year at about 100 yards with my Ruger .308.

I started field target thinking it would help my field shooting out west and be cheaper on ammo than CMP Service Rifle matches. I dropped that Wyoming Antelope from the seated field target position at a ranged 265 yards. Have not been to any field target matches in awhile. Got distracted with archery. Still improving that game, but shoot airguns at home, especially indoors in the winter.
 
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In 78 Dad got me Crosman 766 since our yard wass overrun with squirrels and chippers, and had a blast all through high school. After high school went into the military, married and relocated to SWFL. After buying a new house in a rural neighborhood we had a pest problem develop in 2008. My dad had left 766 in the garage and was rusted beyond repair. I went to Walmart and bought a Beeman dual caliber gun, but quickly returned it. After some research, I wound up getting a refurb Marauder for cheap along with a hand pump that proved to the ticket getting rid of the pests. Since pumping was a drag, I picked a couple Weihrauch's for cathartic target shooting in the backyard and some FT sessions at a neighboring towns Airgun club. I've since picked up a compressor and have crawled deeper down the rabbit hole.
 
Good day, Airgun Nation

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to respond to this post. I’ve read each and every comment, and I’ve truly enjoyed them all.

Your stories and reflections have brought back many memories for me.

At the end of the day, it’s really about our families, our friends, and the memories we carry with us through life.

I’m grateful to each of you for sharing your experiences.