newb alert, I have questions

[romanlynch]

I tried searching a couple phrases but didn't get the results I was looking for. I am looking to get my first air rifle and have some criteria to go on but I can watch youtube videos all day and get no where, it's frustrating. I will be getting some acreage in the near future and want to be able to hunt smallish game on it.



What I'm looking for more info on:

.22 caliber - Biggest game would be rabbit or maybe ground hog, if there's a better caliber lmk



springer/gas piston break barrel or underlever - From what I can gather the fixed barrel systems are marginally more accurate then the break barrel. I haven't gotten to much info on the gas piston vs spring aside from "gas piston is better cause spring wears" out argument.



price - This is a tough one. I get googly eyed looking at some of these and then see that they are $700+. I *think* I would like to stay $300 or less but there's potentially wiggle room if the consensus is it's worth it. (This would be my first so I don't want to jump down the rabbit hole right off the bat)



Manufacturers - Another hard topic for me not knowing anything. From what I can gather Gamo is okay but usually over priced. Benjamin Trail seems have mixed reviews. Hatsan, Beeman, Diana are in there somewhere too. High ends seem to be Weihauch but looks like most are out of my price range.



I enjoy researching things and reading discussions so any direction is welcome and appreciated.

 

[dizzums]

i wouldnt get a springer to hunt with, youll likely maim more than you kill .. theres a couple of cheap recipes in the 'range' involving a 50$ handpump and an entry level pcp .. i'd say a stormrider in .22 would be good, also a marauder pistol, and a gamo urban .. with a slight curve in price respectively .. wont go wrong with any of them .. if i was thinking i might be stretching shots some the stormrider probably has the best velocity to reach out a bit further .. the prod is lethal close in .. the urban is good just its a gamo lol .. its a good gun though from what ive seen ..

 

[Sqwirl57]

.22 HW97K from Krale. $500 shipped, 3 days to your door. Its good for squirrels and rabbits but groundhogs are a bit of a stretch. I'd recommend a minimum of 20ftlbs for them but I've dropped them with less.

The gun is definitely a foot down the rabbit hole but I wish I had started there rather than the cheap guns that I had started with. I would have saved hundreds and hundreds in the long run.

This is my 97K at 55yds. 5 shots, 0.397" group. Its a fantastic gun.

 

[Kraemer99]

As in about most things “you get what you pay for”. A $300 limit is really not enough and would not be a pleasant experience. Wait till you have a bigger budget. Then you will get a more desirable gun and much better results afield. 

 

[Ripper]

A springer or a piston gun would be sufficient as long as you can learn to shoot it accurately . Some people can some people can’t. I can only shoot the lower powered Springers accurately.I tried all different types of holds including the artillery hold of Course. I’ve had a couple of the cheaper Springers and didn’t like them at all and it didn’t have nothing to do with the accuracy. That’s why it was already mentioned that you can get a decent priced starter PCP rifle that is easy to hand pump.There are several in the $300 range that would be good starter PCP rifles.I started out with a cheap Chinese hand pump for $45 that I bought five years ago and still works but don’t use it anymore because I bought a compressor. I just keep it for back up.If you were thinking about shooting groundhogs also you want something with quite a bit of foot pounds of energy in a 22 caliber. I’ll let some of the people on here that are more experienced than I am give you some more advice.On PCP Rifles I started out with a Benjamin and ended up with the Daystate.And still have the Benjamin and works OK. On a Spring piston, I started out with a Benjamin and ended up with a Weirauch.The Benjamin break barrel ended up being junk and lost all of its power within 30 shots.In my opinion brake barrels are just as accurate as fixed barrels as long as you buy the better quality rifles.Sorry if I couldn’t be more help but I don’t want you to make the mistake and buy something that you will consider a waste of money later on.

 

[crosman2016]

.22 HW97K from Krale. $500 shipped, 3 days to your door. Its good for squirrels and rabbits but groundhogs are a bit of a stretch. I'd recommend a minimum of 20ftlbs for them but I've dropped them with less.

The gun is definitely a foot down the rabbit hole but I wish I had started there rather than the cheap guns that I had started with. I would have saved hundreds and hundreds in the long run.

This is my 97K at 55yds. 5 shots, 0.397" group. Its a fantastic gun.

Wow! 50 yards? Incredible. 

 

[benderville]

i started in two years ago with a crossman 760 pumper 40 bucks then bought a daisy 880 not much more then bought a crossman 22 cal shockwave have less then 200 dol in three guns and am having a blast shoot every day run over 1000 pellets through each one i would start small and get some shooting in then you will have a good idea of were you want to go in this sport

 

[Drew]

I know you mentioned .22, but I just picked up a Diana 34 T06 from numrich.com for 199.99 plus shipping. For me I was very skeptical bout the gun and seller and price, but it has been a good rifle so far, much better than anything I could get at Walmart. Some of the new jsb heavy pellets can pack a pretty good punch, but if you are hunting with a .177, shot placement will be very important. I also like the post about the hw97 .22 from krale.

but also, if paying 500.00 for a springer, take a look at a gamo urban pcp and a hand pump or possibly a air Venturi avenger or gauntlet 2 with a hand pump.

 

[AirShot]

Your budget is pretty slim, cheap springers are often refered to as tomato stakes as parts are hard to come by andvtearing them down can be a difficult job. Better quality springers are easy to find replacement parts and easier to service. Also more accurate and user friendly. PCP guns have come down in price but you need an air scource, if your young a pump might ve ok but not for this 71 yr old man!! The other thing you did not mention is optics, to get the accuracy required to hunt small game a scope will be needed, a scope can easily cost more than the rifle to get a good one!! As mentioned before save your money until you can afford good stuff or you will find yourself having second thoughts about making cheap purchases. You get what you pay for is cery true when airguns are involved. I have an AA TX200 with an 800 dollar Leupold scope and have had no issues with that scope for 30 plus years, how many cheap scopes has the avg shooter gone thru in that time??

 

[Babaganoush]

I was always told you want to buy the right tool for the job. If you are sure you will be doing pest control on larger animals like groundhogs and maybe raccoons you will need (err...highly benefit) from something with more power than your average $300 .22 PCP.

The only two guns that pop to mind in the $300 range are the AEA Challenger in .25/.30 and another vote for a .25 Avenger.

 

[Guest]

.22 HW97K from Krale. $500 shipped, 3 days to your door. Its good for squirrels and rabbits but groundhogs are a bit of a stretch. I'd recommend a minimum of 20ftlbs for them but I've dropped them with less.

The gun is definitely a foot down the rabbit hole but I wish I had started there rather than the cheap guns that I had started with. I would have saved hundreds and hundreds in the long run.

This is my 97K at 55yds. 5 shots, 0.397" group. Its a fantastic gun.

Wow! 50 yards? Incredible.

Yes incredible! Fantastic gun, fantastic price, fantastic group! 

 

[pnwairgunner]

I have to agree with

.22 HW97K from Krale. $500 shipped, 3 days to your door. Its good for squirrels and rabbits but groundhogs are a bit of a stretch. I'd recommend a minimum of 20ftlbs for them but I've dropped them with less.

The gun is definitely a foot down the rabbit hole but I wish I had started there rather than the cheap guns that I had started with. I would have saved hundreds and hundreds in the long run.

This is my 97K at 55yds. 5 shots, 0.397" group. Its a fantastic gun.

You get what you pay for. And a 300 dollar pcp is the bottom of the barrel. If you want to buy one pellet gun and be done with it, spend a couple hundred more dollars and get a great quality springer. Buying cheap is a sure fire way to wind up discontent with your purchase and you’ll wind up like so many others with a room full of cheap stuff that doesn’t perform at the level you want. 500 bucks is a GREAT place to start for a springer. 
Decent quality PCP’s start at around $500 plus the $200 hand pump and scope, scope rings , etc. And when I say decent quality I mean decent. Not great, not middle of the road, just decent. You are going to have $1000 spent before you kill your first squirrel. Then a year or so down the road you will be investing in scuba tanks and a $1500 compressor to fill them with once you get tired of pumping the hand pump.
Getting into PCP’s is like dating a hooker. It gets expensive and you’ll always be lying to your wife about where the money is going.
Take the high road man, save a couple hundred more bucks and buy a springer and don’t join us poor lost souls that have became pcp addicts.

 

[Raden1942]

Well I hate to disagree with everyone here but I didn't have alot of money getting into the airgun game and spent years hunting with a Gamo hornet I picked up for 100 bucks at big 5. Now it is nowhere near the power or accuracy as some of my pcps but as long as you hunt within your capabilities of accuracy I think you could do ok. For that gun it was 30 yards and under. I agree that if you go with a springer you should go for a low to medium power gun. I recommend going with either the cheapest springer you can find or buy an HW or Diana for top end. I've never seen much advantage in paying for the top of the line Gamo or Benjamin. One option that might be an exception would be to call flying dragon air rifles and talk to Mike mellick. He sells guns for like 150 dollars but he will tune them for you for an extra 100 bucks or something like that. I highly recommend you do this. He will go in to that gun and smooth everything out and he will make sure that gun is shooting great! Otherwise just go to Walmart or big5 or some box store and buy the cheapest one you like. When you get home put toilet paper over the seal that connects the barrel to the breech. If it flies off you have a leaky seal. This is where buying from a box store comes in handy. No extra shipping cost or trouble, just exchange it for another one. Sometimes it can take a couple times to find a gun that seals correctly at that price but once you do it should work for quite awhile. If you want to get the cheapest gun possible just order the refurb hatsan airtact off hatsans website. It's 40 bucks! Mine had a bad seal but I called hatsan and they sent me 5 more to fix it. It worked fine after that and was accurate with it's open sights. I do think eventually you will want to buy a PCP or high end springer but I see nothing wrong with getting something cheap to see if you want to upgrade to a better springer or PCP. I also wanted to tell you that one huge benefit of a gas piston is that you can cock your gun and carry it around for hours or days and it won't lose power. Now a spring will be fine if it stays compressed for an hour every now and again but you could cock a gas ram and leave it loaded behind the kitchen door for that quick moment when you see a rabbit in the garden.....don't do this if you have kids or other people around but I used to do that all the time as a bachelor. I do think some of those packages like the origin or avenger would be much more effective hunting tools compared to a springer. They aren't top of the line but they work. I don't subscribe to the idea that you have to spend a ton of money. I do think that if you get into airguns you will catch the bug and want to upgrade but it's not nessisary to get repeatable hunting accuracy. Good luck to you man. I really hope you find what you need man. Welcome to the community.

 

[Raden1942]

Oh and do yourself a favor and buy a patchworm barrel cleaner or similar product. Safest and easiest way to clean airgun barrels if you go with a PCP you can PM me and I'll recommend some items that really help. You don't need to buy a package deal with gun and airpump. There are several options out there and I know them all. Just don't want to write an essay right now. 

 

[romanlynch]

Okay so what is a decent budget for a springer/gas piston?

What is a decent budget for a PCP?

What brands should I be looking at? So far I have Gamo, Air Venturi, Hatsan, Kral, Umarex, Weihrauch, Diana. Is there one of those that has quality springer/gas piston and pcp that I can look at to narrow this down, should I exclude any of those choices? 

These will be my last questions for a while, I don't want to beat a dead horse as I'm sure all of you get these type of questions every day.

 

[elh0102]

IMO, $600 for the springer, ex, HW97.

For the PCP, twice that, plus fill equipment. HW100, Daystate Revere, AA S510, FX Royale 400. You can get by for less, but it would not be a rifle that I would keep very long.

If you're hunting is all in an acceptable location, you might be better off buying a decent.22 RF, but I realize that wasn't your question. A lot of folks seem to think that getting into air rifles is a low budget hobby, and it's not.

 

[pnwairgunner]

I started off with multi-pumps and did very well with using them for small game hunting. The Benjamin 392 is a great rifle, it is well worth considering. I think shooter 1721 did a review of the new synthetic stock version so you could check that video out on YT if you wanted to.
Also Crosman is coming out with a more budget minded 362 model this year that is another multi pump .22. 
I still get my multi-pumps out and use them years later.

 

[romanlynch]

If you're hunting is all in an acceptable location, you might be better off buying a decent.22 RF, but I realize that wasn't your question. A lot of folks seem to think that getting into air rifles is a low budget hobby, and it's not.

I have some real steel pewpew's, was just looking for a quieter option. I could get a suppressor for my Marlin but then I'd have to get a threaded barrel etc.

 

[romanlynch]

Someone had mentioned Kral, is the NP-03, Punch Breaker Silent or the Mega Puncher Marine good? They are sub $500, the mega one has a 330ci tank, even the np-03 has a 180cc tank.

 

[Sqwirl57]

Someone had mentioned Kral, is the NP-03, Punch Breaker Silent or the Mega Puncher Marine good? They are sub $500, the mega one has a 330ci tank, even the np-03 has a 180cc tank.

Don't go PCP unless you plan on buying a compressor. Hand pumping sucks (even with a high end hand pump) and anyone who says differently is full of hot air. That being said, both of those guns only have a fill pressure of 2900psi so thats easier (still not fun) than many guns. Obviosly the smaller tank will be easier to fill. If you're a big guy that helps too. If you're only 150lbs, expect to have sore arms every 30-60 shots.