TL;DR version at the end for those of you with rat terrier attention spans.
So I spent the last few weeks lurking and reading while doing my research. A lot of great info and helpful people. Finally decided on a Regal XL .22 for my first quality air rifle and after a few messages with @DonnyFL, paired it with one of his Koi moderators. This morning I got to shoot a few groups before the rain set in and I was blown away.
To understand why, humor me a bit while I give some background. I'm 56 years old and spent my childhood back in the late 60's, early 70's roaming the NC woods with a Daisy pellet rifle (880 I think). My dad was a WWII vet, US Army and it rubbed off so I ended up in the Army in '84, 1/504th PIR, 82ABN. Keep in mind, I'd never fired an actual centerfire or even a rimfire until basic when I shot 40/40 qualifying and the Drill Sergeant thought I was lying after he asked me how I learned to shoot and I replied, "a pellet gun". So off to Ft. Bragg, humping a ruck totin' an M-16 like a good infantryman. One thing leads to another and I'm picked up to shoot on the All Army rifle team for 2 years (1st place '86, 2nd in '87), then AMTU Sniper Course (AMTC now and all moved to Ft. Benning), then a short stint as Small Arms Marksmanship Instructor (M-16).
So for my short 4 year enlistment I did a crap load of shooting and came out with a serious case of constant tinnitus (ringing ears). I gave up centerfire after that except for an AR-15 I put together and migrated to rimfire mostly. My bull barreled CZ .22 LR is my tack driver favorite but I haven't even shot in almost 10 years because I got off on this motorcycle kick (Mid-life crisis?) around 2008. And that is why I'm blown away with this Regal. I setup at about 15yds to check the scope zero for my first shoot and to get familiar with the rifle... one hole groups. Set the target out to 50yds... groups were one ragged hole, covered most with a dime and I'm old and rusty mates. This thing is amazing so I screwed the silencer on, thinking it might hurt the group spread... nope, one ragged hole. And so quiet, my ears are in heaven and I'm in love.
There you have it. I remember devouring Beeman catalogs back in the early '80's and lusting over the R1, thinking one day I'm going to have me one of these quality air rifles. Better late than never, eh? Thanks for reading, I admit to total ignorance concerning airguns and hope to learn all I can from you lot. Sorry for the wall of text.
TL;DR version: After all these years I finally got me a nice air rifle and I learned plenty from this forum, along with DonnyFl, some youtube channels like AEAC(Steve?), Ted's Holdover, Cyclops, etc. Sorry, I'm still learning these names that match the channels. All I know is I'm happier than a pig in S&*@
cheers
So I spent the last few weeks lurking and reading while doing my research. A lot of great info and helpful people. Finally decided on a Regal XL .22 for my first quality air rifle and after a few messages with @DonnyFL, paired it with one of his Koi moderators. This morning I got to shoot a few groups before the rain set in and I was blown away.
To understand why, humor me a bit while I give some background. I'm 56 years old and spent my childhood back in the late 60's, early 70's roaming the NC woods with a Daisy pellet rifle (880 I think). My dad was a WWII vet, US Army and it rubbed off so I ended up in the Army in '84, 1/504th PIR, 82ABN. Keep in mind, I'd never fired an actual centerfire or even a rimfire until basic when I shot 40/40 qualifying and the Drill Sergeant thought I was lying after he asked me how I learned to shoot and I replied, "a pellet gun". So off to Ft. Bragg, humping a ruck totin' an M-16 like a good infantryman. One thing leads to another and I'm picked up to shoot on the All Army rifle team for 2 years (1st place '86, 2nd in '87), then AMTU Sniper Course (AMTC now and all moved to Ft. Benning), then a short stint as Small Arms Marksmanship Instructor (M-16).
So for my short 4 year enlistment I did a crap load of shooting and came out with a serious case of constant tinnitus (ringing ears). I gave up centerfire after that except for an AR-15 I put together and migrated to rimfire mostly. My bull barreled CZ .22 LR is my tack driver favorite but I haven't even shot in almost 10 years because I got off on this motorcycle kick (Mid-life crisis?) around 2008. And that is why I'm blown away with this Regal. I setup at about 15yds to check the scope zero for my first shoot and to get familiar with the rifle... one hole groups. Set the target out to 50yds... groups were one ragged hole, covered most with a dime and I'm old and rusty mates. This thing is amazing so I screwed the silencer on, thinking it might hurt the group spread... nope, one ragged hole. And so quiet, my ears are in heaven and I'm in love.
There you have it. I remember devouring Beeman catalogs back in the early '80's and lusting over the R1, thinking one day I'm going to have me one of these quality air rifles. Better late than never, eh? Thanks for reading, I admit to total ignorance concerning airguns and hope to learn all I can from you lot. Sorry for the wall of text.
TL;DR version: After all these years I finally got me a nice air rifle and I learned plenty from this forum, along with DonnyFl, some youtube channels like AEAC(Steve?), Ted's Holdover, Cyclops, etc. Sorry, I'm still learning these names that match the channels. All I know is I'm happier than a pig in S&*@
cheers
