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Air Venturi Avenger Recommendations for a New Guy...

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paul.hruza

Member
Jan 9, 2021
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Forum Members,

I am a lifelong firearms owner/collector/hunter/shooter/FFL with very little air rifle experience. Many years ago (we are talking probably 1970 here) my father bought me a Crosman 761XL BB gun (which is long gone of course!). The only air powered rifle I have purchased in my lifetime is a BSA limited edition (I have gun 121 of 1000) single stroke .177 pellet rifle I purchased in the early 1980s while stationed with the USAF in the UK. I still have it to this day. It is a beautiful gun that shoots well as far as a amateur can tell... LOL

I recently viewed some videos on YouTube about the Avenger. I was pretty impressed by all the features it has for such a low priced rifle. Honestly speaking, I had never even heard of a PCP gun so all of this is new and actually quite interesting to a guy like me. Gun powder driven ammunition has become somewhat expensive and I like to "plink" so I thought I would give it a try. I purchased the rifle and have added a Hawke Airmax 3-9x40 scope w/ UTG Medium Quick Detach Rings and a UTG RECON 360TL bipod. I also chose to use FX Hybrid 22 grain hollow point slugs to start with the gun. I made the pellet choice based on one of the videos.

I purchased a 3-stage hand pump from eBay and it seems to do the trick as far as pressurizing the reservoir. It doesn't take the fill to the maximum as it should have according to the seller (4500) but it does get me to 3500 so for the price I paid (Originally $35 but they sent me back another $16 since it doesn't get to 4500) I think this is good enough for now. I don't mind hand pumping the gun. It actually fills pretty rapidly in my opinion.

I'd like to purchase a reasonably priced Chronograph (for tweaking/playing) and am also interested in a DonnyFL Tanto silencer to use with the rifle. 

With all of this in mind, I am open to any ideas/opinions/suggestions regarding the two items above plus any other information you might have for one of the new guys... I am one with a curious mind who enjoys learning as much as possible about the things that interest me so please throw it out there!

Thank you in advance!!!

Paul
 
I have the exact gun. Are you shooting slugs because of hunting?

if you’re just plinking, lighter pellets=Lower psi setting for the regulator=more shots=less pumping. 

It’s not pellet picky to 50 yards. 
At 1800 psi reg setting, With my gun, the FX 18gr and AA 18gr are the most accurate past 50 yards. Haven’t had luck with any JSBs past 50 yards. Even though they are from the same factory! Seems like the FX has the best quality and very minimal skirt damage/irregularities. 
Definitely get a silencer! I found a 3D printed one off eBay for 30bucks. No adapter needed. Big difference in loudness. I was tempted to get the DonnyFl and adapter too but didn’t want to spend half the price of the gun!

Clean the gun before shooting! I finally did and noticed a difference in accuracy even though it’s still accurate before the cleaning. 



 
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If you want a chronograph that you can use for everything from airguns to bows to powder burners, look at the caldwell ($90 on Amazon or $140 for the kit). It can have issues with lighting, but I have heard that the "upside down" version significantly helps this (but it's 3x the money at $219).

https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=caldwell+chronograph&crid=DZKUD8CF23W7&sprefix=caldwell+chr%2Caps%2C191&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-a-p_1_12

If you decide to pay the $219 for the "upside down" version, and only plan to use it for airguns, consider the FX pocket chronograph. It isn't cheap, but it is absolutely convenient and makes shooting strings almost pleasant. See the video below (sold me on saving my money to buy one as a compliment to my Caldwell, but I use it for several air rifles). I now almost use it exclusively...and absolutely love it.

https://www.airgundepot.com/fx-radar-pocket-wireless-chronograph.html

https://youtu.be/wM53F1naSJE

By the way, I ascribe to the philosophy that trigger time is trigger time and if you practice good habits with air rifles and pistols, those exact same habits transfer to powder burners. That, and they are an absolute hoot to shoot. Very relaxing and just a great way to get time behind a rifle for very little money in ammo (relatively speaking).



Good luck!
 
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I almost forgot...I own a .22 cal Avenger too, and they are fantastic rifles for the money. Some folks recommend keeping the fill pressure below 300 bar (like say 250), which reduces the overall stress on components. From what I gather, some of the "sister" rifles to the Avenger had failing parts that might also be the same (or similar) parts in the Avenger. I used to fill mine to 300 bar, but will try and stick with 250 bar going forward, since the rifle is so stingy with air, I expect to still get a very respectable shot count (with pellets at a lower regulator setting).
 
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Gents,

Thanks so much for all your ideas and suggestions! I have been looking at the Caldwell... Might just pick one up soon. I have been doing a little plinking right inside the house the last few days since the weather has been rainy/crappy. I can only reach out about 50 feet or so (stupid walls get in the way!!! LOL) but that's far enough to start aligning the scope. This gun really is a blast to shoot... Can't wait to get outside and go "long range"!

I'll have to check out some of the other pellets suggested as well. I purchased the slugs I mentioned based on the YouTube video that inspired me to buy this rifle. I figured it was a good starting point. I'll also look farther into a silencer. The gun isn't that loud to me considering I have been a gunpowder guy for over 47 years! Then again, I sure would like to make it quieter, specifically if I get into "bird hunting"... Ducks right in the "back yard" here. :)
 
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Yeah I'm running my Avenger at different settings for different situations and like to keep it down around 1800 PSI or slightly less for the 16 grain area. Using a Caldwell chronograph and changing the hammer spring I can shoot very cheap h&m Spike pellets or the h&m Meister coogan. Ignore the spelling on that but the Meister krugens are 16.04 grain and the jsv Hades are 15.89 so they both go streaming down in the 870 to 925 FPS depending on whether I have the hammer spring on one quarter turn or on three and a half turns without changing the regulator. 

For pigs or turkeys I crank the regulator to 2400 or 2500 PSI and shoot 20 to 28 grain pellets or slugs and again the velocity is in the 820 to 890 ft per second. I wouldn't recommend turning the hammer spring past four turns in but instead if you need more velocity for a slug you can increase the regulator pressure to 2600 maybe 2700 PSI Max.

The most important point in getting accuracy is to thoroughly clean the barrel and possibly use a spiral deburring tool and some Polish and then clean it and dry it.

A lot of barrels have chokes and that can cause some problems when lead from one brand gets stuck in the grooves and then another brand comes along and binds as it passes through the choke area. The interesting thing about the Avenger is that it does not use a conventional spiral land and groove system but is longitudinally organized and the twist rate is slow which prevents over stabilization with pellets. If you don't understand the term over stabilization with pellets then you should study that online. Part of the issue would be at this point that pellets are drag stabilized because of the skirt and slugs required the gyroscopic spin. In order to get that spin fast enough you might have to push them faster but then again sometimes they'll actually shoot well at 650 to 750 ft per second out to the 50 or 60 yard range. It seems quite a conundrum based on firearm velocities but then again we're talking about air guns and things are not what you would expect in you really need to have a chronograph and spend some time. 

Raccoons and coyotes don't like a 24.8 grain slug that has 40 ft pounds of energy hitting them in the head because that is lights out. 
 
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