How many of you have hit a wall with airguns....

rwsmike

Not sure about hitting a wall, I'm just nervous about running out of ammo. Have had a $45 pre-paid order at Air Gun Depot over two months and nothing to show for it. Kind of puts a damper on heading to the range and throwing lead. Hate to send my last pellet downrange and then say, "Now what?" Have a couple nice guns and another beauty on the way, but not much good without ammo. Like the Nation, though, lots of kindred spirits here to commiserate with. Keep the Faith, Brother. 
 
I’ve been there and back a few times. Got my first airgun in 1997, when I moved from the city of Chicago to a 2.75 acre suburban lot. Sold all of them in 2003 when I moved to an 18 acre farm. Moved to a 477 acre farm and stayed out of them. Moved to a suburban 3.6 acre lot in 2018, so I got back into them. It’s been a love/hate relationship over the years, filled with lying manufacturers, lying cheating forum members, only a few overmoderated forums, and lot’s of mis-information. Been a few honest forum members several of whom I have remained friends with. Once again, my feelings are turning to dislike. We now have professional YouTubers making videos to help manufacturers and distributors lie to sell their products. There is little truth to be found on any airgun forums, and anyone to tries to tell the truth will only have their posts deleted/censored to protect the advertisers on them. Most forums are only useful for selling the shoddy goods we’ve been sold to less knowledgeable members.
 
totally get what you are saying, having some of the best guns certainly doesn’t help because they shoot too well out of box. No challenge! Like many people a lot of us are all about the chase and as soon as we reach a certain point we lose interest even with 100 yard Sub MOA shooting guns. 


One way I kept myself from hitting the wall is to increase the difficulty level by turn the power way down and use cheap ammo with the most horrible BC! Now even at only 34 yards a 5mph wind would present me with a challenge thanks to the awesome BC of 0.012 and 480-600FPS speed! Dropping a squirrel with a head shot with 7FPE at 45 yards is probably the most exciting shot of my life, far more so than any other hunt I’ve ever done. I still remember clearly I watched the pellet drop right onto the squirrels’ head and it dropped like a rock! 


My suggestion is to find ways to make shooting more challenging! Forget slugs at 1000 FPS, forget exceptionally good BC so there is less wind drift. In fact go the opposite direction and try light and cheap pellets at super low speed, all of sudden it’s not so easy to print any sort of descent groups in any wind. Most threads talk about power and speed but true airgun nirvana IMHO lies with low powered .177.
 
totally get what you are saying, having some of the best guns certainly doesn’t help because they shoot too well out of box. No challenge! Like many people a lot of us are all about the chase and as soon as we reach a certain point we lose interest even with 100 yard Sub MOA shooting guns. 


One way I kept myself from hitting the wall is to increase the difficulty level by turn the power way down and use cheap ammo with the most horrible BC! Now even at only 34 yards a 5mph wind would present me with a challenge thanks to the awesome BC of 0.012 and 480-600FPS speed! Dropping a squirrel with a head shot with 7FPE at 45 yards is probably the most exciting shot of my life, far more so than any other hunt I’ve ever done. I still remember clearly I watched the pellet drop right onto the squirrels’ head and it dropped like a rock! 


My suggestion is to find ways to make shooting more challenging! Forget slugs at 1000 FPS, forget exceptionally good BC so there is less wind drift. In fact go the opposite direction and try light and cheap pellets at super low speed, all of sudden it’s not so easy to print any sort of descent groups in any wind. Most threads talk about power and speed but true airgun nirvana IMHO lies with low powered .177.

I totally agree with this guy. If I get bored, I grab some rws superdomes .177, turn the speed down to around 550fps and have fun! I try and shoot mice in the rocks at night at 40+ yards and its quite rewarding when you connect with one lol. 
 
I’ve kinda hit a wall I guess. It’s not totally self induced. It’s probably 50% industry related. The sudden surge of new airgunners and the cleaning of shelves has sorta turned me off. No desire for new projects because stuff isn’t available and with any gun project, you can burn a lot of pellets dialing it in. Happened to me with firearms and I thought I was safe in this hobby. Guess I was wrong. Gun guys will be gun guys. Maybe they will migrate to crossbows or something next and screw that up. Fortunately I have other hobbies so now my airguns are just for casual enjoyment.
 
Well you can't be stuck to one hobby/addiction you should have several. I like building electric bikes and computers, and modding my MG Midget. Shooting powder burners when there is powder to burn is good and I haven't even used my reloading stuff yet. So have plenty that I can do even though I am a bit messed up physically. Don't limit yourself too much.
 
Sometimes its good to unplug from all these social media outlets... info (or entertainment) overload will do it. Like a virtual EMP for yourself, lol. We all hit a wall... or will. It's normal.

Of late I like going back to the basics... good ol 10meter, springers & pistols; worthwhile springers or pistols though keeping it simple. Do it to challenge yourself, your mental and physical being. Some of you are very lucky having all that space or a place to shoot freely. Some are like me... stuck (however temporarily) in an area with bad politics and about only 10meters indoor to play with, propping up the target and running for the safe every moment the family steps out. Lol. 

Sorry for rambling on. Point is (at least for me) when you hit a wall, it may just mean you need to unplug as you may be too far tuned into all the noise/drama with things AG. Step back to what made AGs fun for you in the first place; will different for each one of us.
 
As far as the naysayers and negativity displayed here by cmatera and vinny I don't believe these forums, members, YouTubers and manufactures would exist for long if it were as you describe it to be. My dealings with all of this has been exactly the opposite of what you describe for the most part. My Impact shoot's every bit as good as all the YouTubers show, if not better, and the mods found here on this forum and others have made it possible for me to tune my Gen1 to Gen2+ specs.

I have also posted many tips and tuning tricks I have learned or figured out on my own here.

I have seen negative comments given to pretty much every brand of gun posted here and they did not magically disappear but are still around.

As far as some being paid to advertise specific manufacturers wares I see it is so. I also see that when something is not the best they will most often point it out which is a good thing as they have reputations to uphold.

Not to offend just my take on the same subject through my biased lenses.
 
When I started in 2007 I bought what I could afford. Gradually I was doing my own crowns to improve accuracy. My first rifle was an 850 Air Magnum .177 in CO2 that I used to clear out squirrels on a friends horse ranch. I learned much particularly about that rifle and what I could do with it. I like to take different rifles out hunting. Some very much more challenging than others.

I get bored shooting paper and prefer being out hunting squirrels. 


 
I shot offhand most of my life,even adjusted scopes shooting offhand,then a little over a year ago I was having a heck of a time getting a scope adjusted so I sat down,that did the trick and I said to myself gee I can shoot way better shooting from a bench,so for the last year I have been using a bench,well not really a bench but a fold up table sitting on a fold up chair and using blocks of 2x4s to get the right hight......well today I got back to shooting offhand.....and my prejudice against overspending for accuracy returned as did my prejudice against big ass heavy scopes.

Brick wall ,no way,I also shot a Daisy 499 BB gun,I shot for Fun and if one gun is giving me a hard time I grab another then another,cause I ain't got time to hit a brick wall.....damm I never forget the guy that hit the brick wall on his motorcycle.

One other thing that helps me=I like to customize less expensive pellet guns to make them shot great and look good,

now that is a hobby into itself...

The influx of new people to the sport is the most I have ever seen.patience my friend the Jedi is within.

Get on up,hold study lad.....shooting offhand you don't have to worry about so such monkey business,until the day comes you get really good at it....ok years LOL.
 
I’ve been there and back a few times. Got my first airgun in 1997, when I moved from the city of Chicago to a 2.75 acre suburban lot. Sold all of them in 2003 when I moved to an 18 acre farm. Moved to a 477 acre farm and stayed out of them. Moved to a suburban 3.6 acre lot in 2018, so I got back into them. It’s been a love/hate relationship over the years, filled with lying manufacturers, lying cheating forum members, only a few overmoderated forums, and lot’s of mis-information. Been a few honest forum members several of whom I have remained friends with. Once again, my feelings are turning to dislike. We now have professional YouTubers making videos to help manufacturers and distributors lie to sell their products. There is little truth to be found on any airgun forums, and anyone to tries to tell the truth will only have their posts deleted/censored to protect the advertisers on them. Most forums are only useful for selling the shoddy goods we’ve been sold to less knowledgeable members.

@cmatera

Thank you Sir.

ThomasT
 
"I totally agree with this guy. If I get bored, I grab some rws superdomes .177, turn the speed down to around 550fps and have fun! I try and shoot mice in the rocks at night at 40+ yards and its quite rewarding when you connect with one lol. "

vmaxpro - I cannot see what makes this sort of thing rewarding. Now you are no longer relying on skill but luck instead if the gun can no longer shoot a group. Its pure luck if the shot happens to wander onto the target. I much prefer finding ways to raise the level of difficulty and improve my skills in some way. For example shooting off hand instead off a rest.