Hello, just signed up and this is my first post. First, a little about me: I'm definitely not new to firearms, been shooting and hunting pretty much my entire life. But, I am a newbie when it comes to what I call "real pellet guns"...meaning, something a bit above the cheap $40 pump BB guns from wallyworld. I do have an old Chinese pellet rifle (I can't even remember where I got it), that shoots pellets one at a time only and has a long cocking lever under the barrel. I assume this is a spring/piston type action. I will say it's darned accurate, but it's very old and has been sitting for a number of years. The seals around the breech/barrel are all rotted and it doesn't work any more.
My wife and I are considering a nice pellet rifle to deal with some critter nuisances around the homestead (we have a barn and acreage, etc, etc). I use my little Marlin 25 .22 bolt gun for ground hogs, but we have some very pesky birds the wife wants to make disappear. We can't just shoot the .22 in any old direction as, although we are in the country, there are others living within range of a .22. So, we're thinking a decent quality .177 pellet rifle will be the ticket.
I have done a little reading and I am familiar with the basic action types, spring/piston, air spring/piston (Crossman calls theirs "Nitro Piston"), and PCP. I guess the first question is, for the designated use, which type of action would you recommend? Any particular rifle? I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars, but something say, maybe $200 or less? I don't necessarily need the fastest shooting model (1200+ FPS is crazy for what I need anyway), my priority would be on accuracy.
Thanks!
My wife and I are considering a nice pellet rifle to deal with some critter nuisances around the homestead (we have a barn and acreage, etc, etc). I use my little Marlin 25 .22 bolt gun for ground hogs, but we have some very pesky birds the wife wants to make disappear. We can't just shoot the .22 in any old direction as, although we are in the country, there are others living within range of a .22. So, we're thinking a decent quality .177 pellet rifle will be the ticket.
I have done a little reading and I am familiar with the basic action types, spring/piston, air spring/piston (Crossman calls theirs "Nitro Piston"), and PCP. I guess the first question is, for the designated use, which type of action would you recommend? Any particular rifle? I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars, but something say, maybe $200 or less? I don't necessarily need the fastest shooting model (1200+ FPS is crazy for what I need anyway), my priority would be on accuracy.
Thanks!