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New to serious air guns and have some questions?

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Gundog

Member
May 29, 2015
295
7
WASHINGTON
I have been poking around the site trying to gain some knowledge about air guns. I have been shooting air guns off and on for 50 years mostly low dollar stuff as a kid then with my kids now with my grand kids. I did at one time own an RWS model 48 spring gun that was the best one to date. I now own 3 pellet pistols and 2 air riffles. The pistols are as follows Webley Tempest, Crosman 1377, Browning Buckmark 177. the current rifles are a Daisy Red Ryder & Crosman 760 Pumpmaster. I bought 4 of these in like new condition for $80 at a yard sale the other day. I have 2 Grandsons 5 & 7 that I shoot these air guns with.

I have shot competitively with hand guns in the past and a lot of target shooting some hunting. I am looking for a decent air gun for myself to hunt small game and target shoot with the grandsons. I do machine work and have some cool stuff I have made for target shooting like a Sinclair style benchrest, rear bags etc. and a portable bench. I live on 6.5 Aceres outside of town and have some small game issues moles, voles field mice and coyotes. Although I have a private setting it is still too close to shoot a rim fire or center fire type gun for hunting due to not having a safe background for a bullet to possibly travel a long distance. I live on a slight hill overlooking a 3 acre pasture full of small critters and the occasional coyote. We have lost cats to the coyotes and we have small doge that we worry about. My wife wants a pellet gun to in her words "ping them" when she sees them she is thinking non lethal when I see them lethal. Can a PCP air gun be set to ping them and be set to more than ping them when I am using it? I was thinking different cylinders with different pressures? I know this might make targetting quit different. What do you think?

I am looking at some of the entry level PCP air guns Marauder, Discovery, Hatsan model 44.

How many charges do you get from a larger paint ball tank or scuba tank when filling these guns? Sorry if I am asking dumb questions I have been looking through the site trying to find some of these answers if you have a section these common questions maybe you can point me to that.

Thanks Mike
 
Hello Gundog,no such thing as a dumb question when entering uncharted territory.

First and foremost,the type of airguns you are talking about buying should never be fired at anything you don't plan on killing!
Safety is imperative when dealing with pcp airguns,nothing to be scared of but they should definitely be respected.People in the UK have been hunting with sub 12ft-lb air rifles for years and the Pcp rifles available put out considerably higher energy.Any of your before mentioned choices would be fantastic for dispatching the smaller critters you are asking about.As for the coyotes the maurader in .25 cal or a comparable rifle in energy output would be recommended

As for how many fills from any given hpa tank,paintball,scuba,etc.Your major websites that sell tanks or airguns,such as pyramydair or airguns of arizona,have fill calculators for estimating the number of fills you can achieve from said tank.The tank size and fill pressure as well as then gun in question's air reservoir size and fill pressure are required fields for these fill calculators.All of which can be found on the same website selling these rifles. Another option is the handpump ,which is great for anyone starting out with pcp airgunning especially if you don't have a dive shop near your home.
I hope this helps,best of luck and shoot straight!
 
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Since you have machine skills, the best bang for the buck is a Hammerli 850. Do a search for it, there is a forum dedicated to the 850. The gun will run you about $280
and by the time you're through with it you'll have around $550 in it. I get a crazy number of shots off of a scuba tank with 30 ft lbs in .22, and accuracy that will rival the high dollar guns.

Edit: feel free to IM me if want some more details
 
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How many charges do you get from a larger paint ball tank or scuba tank when filling these guns?
Click to expand...

Here is a link to an online fill calculator which should answer your question above. You will need to know the size (capacity) of the airguns reservoir as well as it's max fill pressure to use the calculator.

http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/Tanks/FillCalc.html
 
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Thanks for the links and info. It is hard to use the calculator because I don't see the tank size listed on the models I am looking at.

Is the Hatsun AT44PA as nice or nicer than the Benjamin Marauder?

I have several target pistols with very nice match grade triggers that adjust down to a couple ounces and I usually like about 10-12 Oz for target shooting with a bench rest. If I want to modify a trigger or buy a new trigger which of the entry level guns would be easiest to get the parts for to upgrade them? I may eventually buy a much better gun as I am already planning a nice air gun range on my property I can see myself possibly really getting into this sport. I love to shoot accurate weapons I don't own any Saturday night special type stuff except the cheap air guns I listed for the kids.

The Hammerli project sounds fun but I am not sure I want to invest the time building a gun right now but I have not ruled it out.

The FX 400 is very nice but more than I am going to spend right now.

 
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Here's a link to another tool, the foot pounds of energy (commonly denoted as "fpe") caculator. You can use this to determine airguns' energy output for "apple to apple" comparisons (when foot pounds of energy are not listed) and use it in the future with a chronograph for foot pounds of energy testing, recording, adjusting, etc.

http://reloadammo.com/footpound2.htm
 
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Thanks for the link.

here are some of my target .22's I shot in IHMSA comp. I have some big bore guns not shown and a couple of the .22's I have moved to new homes. The center grip with laminated stock I built from a Savage Striker it has a custom barrel and I hand carved the stock. The black rear grip Striker it what it looked like new.

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/millnut/media/DSC03211.jpg.html][/url]



 
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"Gundog"Thanks for the links and info. It is hard to use the calculator because I don't see the tank size listed on the models I am looking at.

Click to expand...
Here are the Max Fill Pressures and Reservoir Sizes for for the guns you mentioned in your first post. Click on the name of the rifle and it will take you to guns page on Pyramyd Air where you can see even more specs

Benjamin Marauder
Max Fill: 3000 psi (207 bar)
Reservoir: 215cc

Benjamin Discovery
Max Fill: 3000 psi (207 bar)
Reservoir: 135cc

Hatsan AT44PA
Max Fill: 2900 psi (200 bar)
Reservoir: 180cc

Hatsan AT44PA Long
Max Fill: 2900 psi (200 bar)
Reservoir: 230cc

Scott
 
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Of the four you are looking at, I would go with the Marauder based on your criteria. Although I myself am a huge Hatsan fan, it has been difficult to get parts from them in the past, whereas Crosman is very notorious for excellent customer service. There are also many upgrades (such as a Hammer Debouncing device (which increases shot count)) that you may wish to install since you mentioned you like to tinker. The Marauder is also the quietest of the guns you mentioned and (in my opinion) has the best trigger.
 
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Sounds like you would get best service out of a Marauder. Its the small block chevy V8 of the airgun world. I would strongly suggest you go with the 25 cal as some have had accuracy issues with the 22. Also, the Marauder is very common and has a huge following and loads of after market goodies. The Hatsan AT44 in short or long are good choices but they are loud. The Discovery has a fill pressure of 2000 psi with air and can use CO2. 

The only thing is you will be pinging very hard with a 25 cal. You could tune it down but quickly returning to full power is not going to happen. I wouldn't even consider anything less than a 40+ foot pound 25 for coyotes at close range. Keep in mind that the cost of a HPA setup can be more expensive than the gun. 
 
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What about the Hammerli that Scubajeep talked about it seems like a nice gun if I buy a reworked one?

For an air system I was planning on using a scuba or paint ball tank they seem to be fairly cheap and a search on CL brought up many used scuba tanks. I have a dive shop about 4 miles from my house I will check to see if they fill tanks there or send them out.

The converted Hammerli uses a paint ball tank that says they can be bought for around $20 if I read that right and it seems I could buy several and just have them filled at the dive shop or am I missing something?

I have some nice scopes and if I read right they will work on a PCP gun correct. I know my old RWS spring gun had to have a special scope but that is not needed with the PCP guns.

I am trying to get this all figured out before I buy something. I appreciate the knowledge you guys have and the willingness to help. I really miss target shooting I could build a 100Yd range at my house but I am not sure my neighbors would like the noise of my larger caliber guns plus I have reloaded thousands of rounds for my other target guns and it would be nice just to shoot in my spare time rather than reloading to shoot.

Thanks Mike
 
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