Here are some things I learned in my first year of airgunning with Marauders:
My airgunning obsession started out with a buddy who renewed my interest in some powder burners I have. I got charged up about shooting again, but carving out time to get to the range became such a project, and ammo is so expensive, I soon started looking for alternatives.
That's when some trolling on YouTube taught me that the airguns I played with as a kid had grown up in a big way. I was persuaded that all I needed was a little patch of suburbia to safely shoot any time I wanted. "Cool, I'm in!", I thought.
Even so, I resisted the price tag on high end guns and carbon tanks. I made the beginner's mistake of buying a magnum break-barrel. I was immediately dissapointed that I couldn't hit bottle caps at 50 yards, or reliably knock starlings off utility poles at ridiculous ranges (see delusional above). Also it was too loud and recoiled so much screws would come loose with heavy use. These are common, normal disspointments I learned. I sold it at a loss and went PCP.
Again, resisting high price tags, I settled on a Gen 2 .22 synthetic Marauder. Quiet was a top priority, and the Marauder fit that bill. I splurged for a good Hill MK4 pump because carbon fiber bottles were so expensive (and who wants to deal with a dive shop, anyway?) With an affordable UTG 4X9X40 mil dot scope, rings, pellets, etc, I still managed to spend the better part of a grand $$$.
While the experienced reader knows where this is going, a noob doing research may be thinking "its not worth it". I'm here to tell you that if you're a land-limited surburbanite like me, and you like precision and power, and you truly enjoy shooting sports without all the hassle of driving to the range, it's completely worth it. But you still have a ways to go. You might even might want to consider getting it over with and throwing in at the high end to start with.
Here's why: By the time of this writing, I now own that original Marauder (modified), and for grins I got a P-Rod as well. The PRod can be carried broken down in a backpack which makes jaunts in the woods less complicated when leaving a parking area populated by dog walkers and stroller-pushers. The Prod got modified too.
I'll cover some of the fails I went through in a moment, but first here are the guns and mods as they stand now:
M-Rod Gen 2 Synthetic .22 with a Primary Arms 4X14X44 FFP R-Grid reticle scope: (photo)
P-Rod with UTG 4X9X40 AO mil dot scope: (photo)
Endorsements: I can highly recommend products from Tim Hill at http://hillairgun.com/. The kits he sold me performed better than expected. I was able to install them without being a machinist and Hill has solved all the physics problems that I would pefer not to do.
In addition the Marmot Militia hammer forged barrels do up your game significantly. It takes Mr. Gaska a little time to get them out, but add me to the chorus of customers who say its worth it if you are into hitting what you aimed at. http://marmotmilitia.com/index.html
The Alchemy Airwerks stock adapter for the PRod is 3D printed plastic and much cheaper than the other option out there. If you're not going into combat in Afghanistan with your PRod, it works fine.
Fails and lessons learned along the way:
PS: On the subject of killing things. If you watch enough YouTube, you can become convinced that any Schmuck with an underpowered 12-ft lb. gun can run around Merry 'Ol England (or the state of your choice) popping bunnies, squirrels and crows at exceptional ranges to his heart's delight. This is not to mention guys killing wild hogs with a .177 to the brain. Yes, they were able to do these thing. But in the real world, this is called "INHUMANE" because there were undoubtedly plenty of gruesome woundings and maimings you didn't see on camera.
I'm as thrilled by live targets as the next guy. But my experience so far has been that anything less than a clean head shot on small game mammals with appropriate power and correct mushrooming pellet (H&N Hunter Extreme in my case) is ethically off limits. Lets just say I learned this the hard way, and it was not fun or thrilling.
If this is why you're getting in the game, suck it up and buy a .25 right off the bat.
Also, I don't know about other states, but where I live there is a legal season for squirrels, crows, mourning doves, etc. With the exception of legitimate invasive species pests such as English House Sparrows, Starlings, feral pigeons, Norway rats, and the like, YouTube would have you beleive pellet pushers are out there killing regulated game like madmen year round. Please do us all a favor and don't kill stuff out of season if you live in a regulated state.
My personal ethic is that all non-pest kills should be eaten. That limits me pretty much to squirrels and cottontails anyway.
Happy Airgunning.
- YouTube can make you delusional. If you think you're going to shoot like BWalton, Ted's Holdover or Matt Dubber with the stock Marauder you just bought from PyramidAir, get a hold of yourself. You have a lot more time and money to spend.
- Reading forums and DIY tinkering can leave you thinking airgunning is Voodoo. Actually, it's science (physics). Most people got Cs in physics. You probably have a lot to learn. I did.
- Forums are incredibly helpful, and confusing, all at the same time. (This is a good one).
- Forum members are generally awsome people, and some will even PM you their phone numbers to help you either achieve what you're after, or help you realize you are delusional.
- There's power and there's accuracy. Frequently, they don't get along.
- If you're into killing stuff get a .25 to start.
- Just get a chronograph. Yes its another $100+, but you are blind without one.
My airgunning obsession started out with a buddy who renewed my interest in some powder burners I have. I got charged up about shooting again, but carving out time to get to the range became such a project, and ammo is so expensive, I soon started looking for alternatives.
That's when some trolling on YouTube taught me that the airguns I played with as a kid had grown up in a big way. I was persuaded that all I needed was a little patch of suburbia to safely shoot any time I wanted. "Cool, I'm in!", I thought.
Even so, I resisted the price tag on high end guns and carbon tanks. I made the beginner's mistake of buying a magnum break-barrel. I was immediately dissapointed that I couldn't hit bottle caps at 50 yards, or reliably knock starlings off utility poles at ridiculous ranges (see delusional above). Also it was too loud and recoiled so much screws would come loose with heavy use. These are common, normal disspointments I learned. I sold it at a loss and went PCP.
Again, resisting high price tags, I settled on a Gen 2 .22 synthetic Marauder. Quiet was a top priority, and the Marauder fit that bill. I splurged for a good Hill MK4 pump because carbon fiber bottles were so expensive (and who wants to deal with a dive shop, anyway?) With an affordable UTG 4X9X40 mil dot scope, rings, pellets, etc, I still managed to spend the better part of a grand $$$.
While the experienced reader knows where this is going, a noob doing research may be thinking "its not worth it". I'm here to tell you that if you're a land-limited surburbanite like me, and you like precision and power, and you truly enjoy shooting sports without all the hassle of driving to the range, it's completely worth it. But you still have a ways to go. You might even might want to consider getting it over with and throwing in at the high end to start with.
Here's why: By the time of this writing, I now own that original Marauder (modified), and for grins I got a P-Rod as well. The PRod can be carried broken down in a backpack which makes jaunts in the woods less complicated when leaving a parking area populated by dog walkers and stroller-pushers. The Prod got modified too.
I'll cover some of the fails I went through in a moment, but first here are the guns and mods as they stand now:
M-Rod Gen 2 Synthetic .22 with a Primary Arms 4X14X44 FFP R-Grid reticle scope: (photo)
- Marmot Militia Hammer Forged Barrel
- HUMA regulator set to 2100 psi
- Hill Marauder Kit: (Custom hammer, spring, port, and valve. Recommended by users here in a previous FlexWagtail thread)
- UTG bipod
P-Rod with UTG 4X9X40 AO mil dot scope: (photo)
- Marmot Militia Hammer Forged Barrel
- Hill PRod valve kit (custom valve, spring, and port)
- BStaley O-ring tune
- TKO moderator
- Alchemy Airwerks P-Rod AR/M4 Rear Stock Adapter and Mounting Kit
- cheap Knock-off M4 stock
- cheap CVLife bipod
Endorsements: I can highly recommend products from Tim Hill at http://hillairgun.com/. The kits he sold me performed better than expected. I was able to install them without being a machinist and Hill has solved all the physics problems that I would pefer not to do.
In addition the Marmot Militia hammer forged barrels do up your game significantly. It takes Mr. Gaska a little time to get them out, but add me to the chorus of customers who say its worth it if you are into hitting what you aimed at. http://marmotmilitia.com/index.html
The Alchemy Airwerks stock adapter for the PRod is 3D printed plastic and much cheaper than the other option out there. If you're not going into combat in Afghanistan with your PRod, it works fine.
Fails and lessons learned along the way:
- No doubt, many of you have already noted that if I wanted all this performance I should have bought at .25 cal to start with. You would be correct. I was a noob.
- Many of you also may have done some rough math and realized I could have bought an FX Impact with all the bells and whistles for what I've spent here. You would also be correct. Honestly however, I've really enjoyed this process and the learning it took to achieve results.
- Based on YouTube advice early on, I became convinced that merely buying and installing a Free Flight Hammer Debouncer would have me shooting that stock MRod like Matt Dubber with an FX Royale in South Africa. I was wrong. Even had I sprung for a more expensive SGG, I would have wanted more.
- In the quest for accuracy, I found out after the fact that the Marmot Militia barrel has a pretty tight choke, which slowed down pellets and knocked a couple of foot pounds off the gun's potential. (Ooops. Time to spend more money.) Thus, the Hill valve kit upgrades, which bought me the power I wanted.
- I'm so broke now, I'm still hand pumping my guns more than a year after getting into this. LOL. I'll get around to a cabon fiber bottle and a Nitrogen fill station as soon as I save up another $1K.
- So called "pellet fussiness" is real. This part of the game IS actual Voodoo. No one can explain it. For instance, after fiddling with a valve port, my stock Prod barrel went from shooting cheap 14.3 Crossman Premiers in nice little groups, to spraying them all over the page overnight. No amount of cleaning, tinkering, going back to the old port, etc fixed it. Whatever, it went on to shoot more expensive (naturally) JSB 18.1s like the proverbial "tack-driver" everybody talks about. I eventually upgraded to the Marmot Militia barrel anyway. The 14.3's still mysteriously shoot like crap.
- Beware the quest for power. Going over 950 fps with just about any pellet causes it to uncontrollably spiral, tumble, make 90-degree turns, etc. If you want to humanely kill things and you want power, start with a higher caliber and a heavier pellet. Do not waste brain cells thinking you can make a .22 pellet gun shoot sort of like a .22 powder-burner by magically jacking up the FPS. Its a fools errand. Don't believe the BS printed on boxes in stores.
PS: On the subject of killing things. If you watch enough YouTube, you can become convinced that any Schmuck with an underpowered 12-ft lb. gun can run around Merry 'Ol England (or the state of your choice) popping bunnies, squirrels and crows at exceptional ranges to his heart's delight. This is not to mention guys killing wild hogs with a .177 to the brain. Yes, they were able to do these thing. But in the real world, this is called "INHUMANE" because there were undoubtedly plenty of gruesome woundings and maimings you didn't see on camera.
I'm as thrilled by live targets as the next guy. But my experience so far has been that anything less than a clean head shot on small game mammals with appropriate power and correct mushrooming pellet (H&N Hunter Extreme in my case) is ethically off limits. Lets just say I learned this the hard way, and it was not fun or thrilling.
If this is why you're getting in the game, suck it up and buy a .25 right off the bat.
Also, I don't know about other states, but where I live there is a legal season for squirrels, crows, mourning doves, etc. With the exception of legitimate invasive species pests such as English House Sparrows, Starlings, feral pigeons, Norway rats, and the like, YouTube would have you beleive pellet pushers are out there killing regulated game like madmen year round. Please do us all a favor and don't kill stuff out of season if you live in a regulated state.
My personal ethic is that all non-pest kills should be eaten. That limits me pretty much to squirrels and cottontails anyway.
Happy Airgunning.
