Greetings,My name is Brad and the intention of this post is for those looking to get in to the PCP Air Rifles. I’m going to be direct this hobby can get expensive pretty quickly.
Before getting started you should really look at the pros and cons of Rimfire and PCP to figure out which is best for you.
If you’re new to Rifles in general make sure not to put all your eggs in one basket. What I mean by that is don’t spend your entire budget on the rifle. Here is a list of things you also need to consider. Do yourself a favor and copy and paste some of these items you think you may need in to an excel sheet, do a little research and add up all the pricing. Remember you can always start small on the rifle and buy higher end accessories as an investment and use those on or with a bigger rifle purchase later.
Rifle Rest / Sand bags
Scope
Scope rings
Sling and the mounting hardware
Air Tank
Hunting Sticks
Tripod
Hunting Blind
Chair
Gun cleaning stuff
Gun Case
Targets/Traps
Spotter scope
Range Bag
I wanted to share this story that begins a little over two years ago. How a simple starter $300 Air Rifle and pump combo purchase turned in several thousand dollars. You could buy a couple of nice rimfire rifles with that budget, so really evaluate if this is what you want. For me it was worth every penny.
Things to consider before purchase.
Plenty of places at the ready to safely shoot it? If not it’s not easy to door knock asking for permission to hunt, takes a lot of knocks at the door to get a yes.
Private gun clubs. In my area some have 3+ year waiting lists. All of them have different set of rules some more restrictive than others. Just do a little searching, they typically only have a meeting once a month so it’s better to do it now and get it out of the way. Two years later as of last week one had an opening and I got voted in. It can take some time.
Not to fear there are public ranges, you can look for those as well. But a warning about these. Public ranges seems to invite inexperienced people. I’ve had guns pointed at me while they worked on a gun jam. I’ve seen people fire when someone was walking out to put up targets. People trying to fire so quickly with a .22 to mimic a machine gun. I get hit with brass every single time I go a public range, it’s dog eat dog at this places so be careful. Private gun clubs are a better place to be, nicer ranges, safer and more respect is given and received from fellow marksmen.
Can you expand in this hobby? Outside of budget the limiting factor is air.
My first PCP air rifle was the Benjamin Discovery .22 cal which comes with a hand pump. Every 18 shots or so I’d need to pump this gun up. If you’re hunting in the woods, not too big of a deal, just circle back to the truck and fill it up. Worked out for me perfectly in this application. It’s when you take this gun to the range you’re going to realize this is a pain.
Why? When your hunting you only shoot at game, the time between shots is pretty decent. At the range you will go through 18 rounds pretty quickly. You’ll spend five minutes pumping this up, I normally have to take a break during the pump process. But now your heart rate is up. Add time and wait to cool down so you can take a steady shot. You spend more time pumping then you do shooting if you take it to the range. Also it is quite a sight to see some goofball using what is essentially a bike pump to an on looker at a public shooting range. In this area I’ve only met one person that knew what a PCP air rifle was. I received some interesting looks and comments that’s for sure.
I knew I wanted to upgrade to something more fancy later, it was time to lay the foundation down that would allow me to expand in the hobby. That’s finding a place I could take an air tank to get filled. It took me a little over three weeks, I called 30+ companies. They did Co2 only, or most commonly couldn’t fill a tank to 4000psi. I exhausted what I thought was all my options, on the verge of giving up and stopping my new found PCP Air Rifle crack fix. In a last ditch effort I posted on a couple forms and it just so happened one member lived in my area and told me of a scuba shop, an hour and half one way that could fill them. I called and verified, I then ordered a great white tank.
Again it’s an hour and half one way, and I just moved now it’s closer to two hours one way to get this tank filled. Two hours travel, thirty to one hour wait to be filled, two hours travel back. That’s pretty much a Saturday long gone each time I need a refill. Make sure you do your due diligence, it’s frustrating and takes a lot of calls but it’s critical you do this. Don’t assume just because there’s a paint ball place near you they can fill it. One is 5 miles from here, Co2 only fills. Also all the ones I called young unexperienced employees answered and outside of their name can’t tell you anything if they can fill it. It’s almost not worth the time to call paint ball shops, at least in my area.
That $300 rifle I started out with now cost me about $900 (I went with great white tank for obvious reasons due to travel time).
The glass I had for it was a 3x9 for this rifle it’s great! For something with 200+ yard range I’m going to need something else. The sky is the limit on scopes with prices. I went with a Sidewinder Hawke 35, that’s another $700ish.
Shooting 100 yards out even with splatter targets it’s pretty hard to see. Don’t forget to pick yourself up a spotter scope, I bought a cheap $75 one, does the trick. Don’t forget a bench rest or sand bags! All things I didn’t have. Also Ear plugs, not for your gun but for everyone around you at the range firing AR15’s. Without them you’ll have a headache and run off in no time.
My history
From the age 8 I started with a BB gun and worked my way up springers in a short time, I hunted with springers consistently, around age 14 I won my first trophy at a gun club in a Jr rifle association .22 Rimfire competition. Once I hit 21 I got in to Skeet and pistol shooting. At the age 23 I had a shotgun barrel blow up on me, I physically felt one of the BB’s from the shot just rub my whiskers on my face. I haven’t shot a gun with powder since, which was 13 years ago.
How did I get in to PCP Air Rifles?
I missed shooting since my bad experience and was interested in going back in to Springers. I decided I’d start off with a really nice one. I began researching and discovered Ted’s video shooting a bird over 100 yards. I never heard of PCP air rifles and was immediately intrigued. I spent months doing research and started with a Discovery. Later I leanred all these things I needed, didn’t have or wanted. Till finally I was in a good position with my equipment to purchase a cricket last year. Since then the only thing I’ve purchased is ammo and targets. But its on going, it never stops I want a nice pair of hunting sticks or Tripod with a gun rest. But that's a good thing
I really wish I thought a head of time before getting back in to shooting about all those items I listed. Hopefully with this share you won't be caught off guard as much as I was.
Happy hunting!
Brad
Before getting started you should really look at the pros and cons of Rimfire and PCP to figure out which is best for you.
If you’re new to Rifles in general make sure not to put all your eggs in one basket. What I mean by that is don’t spend your entire budget on the rifle. Here is a list of things you also need to consider. Do yourself a favor and copy and paste some of these items you think you may need in to an excel sheet, do a little research and add up all the pricing. Remember you can always start small on the rifle and buy higher end accessories as an investment and use those on or with a bigger rifle purchase later.
Rifle Rest / Sand bags
Scope
Scope rings
Sling and the mounting hardware
Air Tank
Hunting Sticks
Tripod
Hunting Blind
Chair
Gun cleaning stuff
Gun Case
Targets/Traps
Spotter scope
Range Bag
I wanted to share this story that begins a little over two years ago. How a simple starter $300 Air Rifle and pump combo purchase turned in several thousand dollars. You could buy a couple of nice rimfire rifles with that budget, so really evaluate if this is what you want. For me it was worth every penny.
Things to consider before purchase.
Plenty of places at the ready to safely shoot it? If not it’s not easy to door knock asking for permission to hunt, takes a lot of knocks at the door to get a yes.
Private gun clubs. In my area some have 3+ year waiting lists. All of them have different set of rules some more restrictive than others. Just do a little searching, they typically only have a meeting once a month so it’s better to do it now and get it out of the way. Two years later as of last week one had an opening and I got voted in. It can take some time.
Not to fear there are public ranges, you can look for those as well. But a warning about these. Public ranges seems to invite inexperienced people. I’ve had guns pointed at me while they worked on a gun jam. I’ve seen people fire when someone was walking out to put up targets. People trying to fire so quickly with a .22 to mimic a machine gun. I get hit with brass every single time I go a public range, it’s dog eat dog at this places so be careful. Private gun clubs are a better place to be, nicer ranges, safer and more respect is given and received from fellow marksmen.
Can you expand in this hobby? Outside of budget the limiting factor is air.
My first PCP air rifle was the Benjamin Discovery .22 cal which comes with a hand pump. Every 18 shots or so I’d need to pump this gun up. If you’re hunting in the woods, not too big of a deal, just circle back to the truck and fill it up. Worked out for me perfectly in this application. It’s when you take this gun to the range you’re going to realize this is a pain.
Why? When your hunting you only shoot at game, the time between shots is pretty decent. At the range you will go through 18 rounds pretty quickly. You’ll spend five minutes pumping this up, I normally have to take a break during the pump process. But now your heart rate is up. Add time and wait to cool down so you can take a steady shot. You spend more time pumping then you do shooting if you take it to the range. Also it is quite a sight to see some goofball using what is essentially a bike pump to an on looker at a public shooting range. In this area I’ve only met one person that knew what a PCP air rifle was. I received some interesting looks and comments that’s for sure.
I knew I wanted to upgrade to something more fancy later, it was time to lay the foundation down that would allow me to expand in the hobby. That’s finding a place I could take an air tank to get filled. It took me a little over three weeks, I called 30+ companies. They did Co2 only, or most commonly couldn’t fill a tank to 4000psi. I exhausted what I thought was all my options, on the verge of giving up and stopping my new found PCP Air Rifle crack fix. In a last ditch effort I posted on a couple forms and it just so happened one member lived in my area and told me of a scuba shop, an hour and half one way that could fill them. I called and verified, I then ordered a great white tank.
Again it’s an hour and half one way, and I just moved now it’s closer to two hours one way to get this tank filled. Two hours travel, thirty to one hour wait to be filled, two hours travel back. That’s pretty much a Saturday long gone each time I need a refill. Make sure you do your due diligence, it’s frustrating and takes a lot of calls but it’s critical you do this. Don’t assume just because there’s a paint ball place near you they can fill it. One is 5 miles from here, Co2 only fills. Also all the ones I called young unexperienced employees answered and outside of their name can’t tell you anything if they can fill it. It’s almost not worth the time to call paint ball shops, at least in my area.
That $300 rifle I started out with now cost me about $900 (I went with great white tank for obvious reasons due to travel time).
The glass I had for it was a 3x9 for this rifle it’s great! For something with 200+ yard range I’m going to need something else. The sky is the limit on scopes with prices. I went with a Sidewinder Hawke 35, that’s another $700ish.
Shooting 100 yards out even with splatter targets it’s pretty hard to see. Don’t forget to pick yourself up a spotter scope, I bought a cheap $75 one, does the trick. Don’t forget a bench rest or sand bags! All things I didn’t have. Also Ear plugs, not for your gun but for everyone around you at the range firing AR15’s. Without them you’ll have a headache and run off in no time.
My history
From the age 8 I started with a BB gun and worked my way up springers in a short time, I hunted with springers consistently, around age 14 I won my first trophy at a gun club in a Jr rifle association .22 Rimfire competition. Once I hit 21 I got in to Skeet and pistol shooting. At the age 23 I had a shotgun barrel blow up on me, I physically felt one of the BB’s from the shot just rub my whiskers on my face. I haven’t shot a gun with powder since, which was 13 years ago.
How did I get in to PCP Air Rifles?
I missed shooting since my bad experience and was interested in going back in to Springers. I decided I’d start off with a really nice one. I began researching and discovered Ted’s video shooting a bird over 100 yards. I never heard of PCP air rifles and was immediately intrigued. I spent months doing research and started with a Discovery. Later I leanred all these things I needed, didn’t have or wanted. Till finally I was in a good position with my equipment to purchase a cricket last year. Since then the only thing I’ve purchased is ammo and targets. But its on going, it never stops I want a nice pair of hunting sticks or Tripod with a gun rest. But that's a good thing
I really wish I thought a head of time before getting back in to shooting about all those items I listed. Hopefully with this share you won't be caught off guard as much as I was. Happy hunting!
Brad
