What is your story?

[kingsqueak]

I've always enjoyed anything that can shoot, slingshots, bows, guns. The zen and discipline of mastering something in order to get on target was always there but I grew up in a horrific blue state and had parents that were anti anything to do with "weapons". I just used whatever my friends had available growing up.

A bunch of years later I got a job as an armed guard where I was trained in firearms and eventually became an assistant range master. I had constant access to arms, ammo and ranges without needing to be a member in a private club. I was completely hooked at that point. Still living in a tyrannical blue state, I found an online dealer that didn't know any better and shipped me out a Diana springer pistol in .177 and that was my first step. Rabbits were my quarry for a long while.

Fast forward and I finally made my escape to a free state and now I can sit on the front porch and shoot whatever I want in my own yard.
I got into PCP rifles very recently as I've always been curious about them. The precision, the convenience of no hearing protection, the relative safety of lower power and the lower cost of ammo all drove the decision.

I'm just hooked now. I have a rural property chock full of pest critters to keep me busy and it's the most fun I've had in years. In my 50s and having a second, more proper childhood .

 

[Trunion]

I've always enjoyed anything that can shoot, slingshots, bows, guns. The zen and discipline of mastering something in order to get on target was always there but I grew up in a horrific blue state and had parents that were anti anything to do with "weapons". I just used whatever my friends had available growing up.

A bunch of years later I got a job as an armed guard where I was trained in firearms and eventually became an assistant range master. I had constant access to arms, ammo and ranges without needing to be a member in a private club. I was completely hooked at that point. Still living in a tyrannical blue state, I found an online dealer that didn't know any better and shipped me out a Diana springer pistol in .177 and that was my first step. Rabbits were my quarry for a long while.

Fast forward and I finally made my escape to a free state and now I can sit on the front porch and shoot whatever I want in my own yard.
I got into PCP rifles very recently as I've always been curious about them. The precision, the convenience of no hearing protection, the relative safety of lower power and the lower cost of ammo all drove the decision.

I'm just hooked now. I have a rural property chock full of pest critters to keep me busy and it's the most fun I've had in years. In my 50s and having a second, more proper childhood .

Your story is amazingly similar to mine. Although I still live in a blue state but I found a cabin on 2 acres in a pretty rural area in a neighboring state that is airgun friendly. I'm some 20 years your senior and can now spend a decent amount of my time in my little heaven.

 

[MrP]

are there “air gun unfriendly” states? In the suburb where I live (and am getting out of ASAP) a local / city law says discharging airguns is illegal but if I moved to a different town that would change.

I am relocating to the east coast to help my father and NY, MA, VT are all within range of his home. I don’t hunt so laws regarding that aren’t an issue but I wonder if any of these are less friendly to the the hobby than others. I don’t care if blue or red or any other nonsense - just curious about air gun laws or limitations.

I thought it was pretty much all the same state wise and it was the town ordinances you had to look at.

 

[Trunion]

The state I have my cabin in is NY state, my place is northwest of the Catskills. Don't get me wrong it doesn't rank high on anyones list of gun friendly states but I haven't made use of my powder burners in many years. I can shoot my airguns quite freely. The road I'm on there are four houses, mine included. Those four houses encompass 22 acres that is heavily wooded. There are more small game and pesting opportunities than I can shake a stick at. There are no such ordinances in our town.

 

[Numb]

My dad wasn't really a shooter though he had a nice collection but my grandfather was a sass shooter amongst many other things.
Started hunting at 10, skinned my first rabbit at that age too.

 

[Struckat]

As a kid my Dad bought me a Daisy Safari. I quickly realized the sights were for looks only, but I could see the BB, so I began point shooting.

By age 12 I was turned loose in the far Nort with Remington model 34 22lr which my youngest son has now. This really kept me out of airgun except for a Crosman 760, 1972-73 ish.

In 1986 I bought a 1377, still have it now, never been touched and shoots as good as when it was new. Killed a few chippy with that one.
Everything else was about burning powder.

Fast forward to early 2000s, I had a skunk issue and decided to buy a springer without doing any research. Never got a shot at a skunk and resigned myself to fate...that is washing the cattle dog after every skunk she killed. They simply had no defense against her.
I shot some 13 stripe gophers with the springer, but hated it and didn’t touch it again.

That brings us to the bird incident.
The wife and I were out in the front yard and heard a pecking noise. A Robin was beating its brains out on the drivers door window. I shooed it away but it just kept coming back. Soon the new black truck was covered in poo, looked like a zebra.
So I wash it and moved it to the backyard. The darn bird followed and was now pecking the paint!

I dug the crappy springer with its junk scope out of the closet, practiced a little, set up in the basement with the window open. By now I had harassed the bird enough that it would fly at the first sight of me, usually to the other side of the truck.

Over the next three weeks I played cat and bird and got maybe four shots, but only feathers. I couldn’t go outside and shoot, or I would have ended up like Tank Johnson with the news helicopters overhead.
The wife was not happy with me trying to shoot the bird off the truck!

Finally after missing a shot as it sat on the mirror, it landed on the ground at the fence line. A lucky wadcutter to the head ended the terror.

Then I started doing research and because I loved my 1377, I bought a 1300kt with a Walther barrel from the custom shop. Well they don’t make them like they used to and I quickly wore out all the linkage. My 1986 has a million times more pumps and it still tight.

Then I was advised to step up and pay more if I wanted something nice.
Enter my most prized possession, the HW30 deluxe. Wow, it was nicer than I could imagine. Later in 2020 I added a HW95, all while keeping an eye on pcp.
Last week I bought an AA S500 .22

I did build a hide under my deck and shoot 25 yards on occasion. But there must be no one around. The plan is to one day leave this horrible state, but it will be a while.

 

[cjtamu]

Grew up in E. Texas. Slightly before electricity was invented ha! Learned to shoot at probably 5 years old? (adult supervised, of course) with a Remington Model 74 in .22 short that I still have to this day. So, more than 50 years of shooting powder burners and bows but never really did air guns except for a Brazilian-made Winchester Model 600 I used to teach my youngest daughter to shoot. We'd moved to the big city by then and it was much easier.

Moved back to the country a few years ago. About 3 years ago we had an armadillo tearing up our lawn and gardens. We'd see him about 3-4 AM. Couldn't shoot him with a rifle, there are houses too close and cattle in the pasture behind the house. 12 Ga would be fine, and it's legal here, but pull the trigger on that at 03:00 and someone is going to come looking! Then I remembered my daughter's old air rifle. Got it out, cocked and loaded next time I saw the 'dillo, brew a bead and POW! He just stared at me and ran off. Gun had been sitting for 15+ years, seals were bad. My wife, being very angry with the armadillo, gifted me with a Benjamin NP Trail Elite .177. Used it to dispatch the armadillo and put it away for a couple years. Fast forward a couple years and teh world has gone crazy. Told my Canadian wife I want her to carry so she needs to learn to shoot. Great with a bow but never shot firearms. Got a couple CO2 air pistols for her to practice and get over the fear and we had a blast. She was looking for more power so I broke out the Benji and was amazed how accurate it was. Don't know about anyone else's experience with that gun but I took it out and checked to see if the scope was still zeroed and shot a 4-shot group at 20 yards I could cover with a dime. I was shocked. She of course wanted her own, and down the rabbit hole we went! I recently purchased a HW95 and love it. She did too so her HW50 should be here today. Looking forward to getting to know people here and getting up to speed on air guns.

 

[badger5th]

Was really only powder burners for me from when I turned 18 and could legally buy a long gun. At the time I had a Crosman 760 multi-pump. I live in Massachusetts and at that time you needed an FID card for airguns (not any more since 1998) and a pistol permit for air pistols. The 760 was fun because I could shoot in the back yard with barely any noise. Eventually the seals on the 760 died which followed by a PB only interlude that lasted decades. Into other hobbys during that interlude, ham radio, reenacting, flying, etc. Got back into air gunning in 2016 with a Benjamin Trail Nitro piston and Crosman 1077 CO2 but still shot overwhelmingly PB's.

It really wasn't until about 5 months ago that the airgun bug bit me hard for some reason. Right now have a 22 M-rod, still have the Benji Trail Nitro. Add to that a Crosman 2240 barbie dolled into a ratcatcher 2250 configuration and a bunch of replica single pump pneumatic and CO2 pistols (up to 5 of those right now). Picked up a 9L SCBA tank and just got my Yong Heng compressor today from Amazon. Oil and Tuxing filter to follow.

A really big selling point for me as a lifelong shooter regarding air guns is you can scratch your "NFA-itch" with full auto, moderators, and SBR's without worrying about the three-letter bois and $200 tax stamps. Further if you live in an AW ban state you can scratch the tacti-cool itch with airguns as well.

 

[CoyoteGod]

Crossman 760 wood version when I was 10, 1988. Accidentally dropped it off a dock on the Siuslaw river where I grew up in Oregon about a year later. Saved up mowing laws and bought another one when I was about 12, still own it. Graduated to air force Airguns Talon in 2003. Still have that child enjoyment with Airguns even now every time I pick one up.

 

[Basher]

I’ve been a gun guy all my life!

Started as a kid with a cork pop gun and a few cap guns (remember the old paper reels of caps??). Got a little older and got to shoot Dad’s beer cans in the back yard with an old Daisy Red Ryder. A little later and I upgraded to Dad’s AIR17 SSP pellet rifle.

After a few more years, I discovered paintball and got into that pretty deep. Worked at a field as a ref and at the Pro Shop after school for a year until we moved, and amassed a nice collection of custom paintball guns. But then airsoft got big, and I realized it was cheaper and less messy, so I moved to that. The next logical step was to powder burners at 18.

I’ve almost always had an airgun of some form. I still dabble with paintball and airsoft stuff as a throw back to my youth and for indoor dry fire practice, but we recently moved to Indiana and the opportunities for small game hunting are much better here.

A forum member here who’s also on a local board posted a Marauder .25 at a good price and I caved. I’d heard a lot about the Marauder being a great first PCP, so I couldn’t help myself. Then I picked up a Winchester 850XS22 from someone on GTA for a decent deal, and here we are.

I’m completely hooked. I’ve now got over 20,000 pellets in .22 and .25 stocked up, and I love the idea of it costing me about 1.5¢ per shot with the .22 and maybe 5~6¢ with the .25. I have plenty of .22LR stashed, but I can’t use that in a backyard and even crappy bulk .22LR cost more than pellets.

Thanks to you all and the folks on GTA, I’m now on the hunt for a few other rifles as the funds allow. I needed another hobby like a hole in my head, but it’s too late for me now!

 

[Csbrown5]

I’ve been a gun guy all my life!

Started as a kid with a cork pop gun and a few cap guns (remember the old paper reels of caps??). Got a little older and got to shoot Dad’s beer cans in the back yard with an old Daisy Red Ryder. A little later and I upgraded to Dad’s AIR17 SSP pellet rifle.

After a few more years, I discovered paintball and got into that pretty deep. Worked at a field as a ref and at the Pro Shop after school for a year until we moved, and amassed a nice collection of custom paintball guns. But then airsoft got big, and I realized it was cheaper and less messy, so I moved to that. The next logical step was to powder burners at 18.

I’ve almost always had an airgun of some form. I still dabble with paintball and airsoft stuff as a throw back to my youth and for indoor dry fire practice, but we recently moved to Indiana and the opportunities for small game hunting are much better here.

A forum member here who’s also on a local board posted a Marauder .25 at a good price and I caved. I’d heard a lot about the Marauder being a great first PCP, so I couldn’t help myself. Then I picked up a Winchester 850XS22 from someone on GTA for a decent deal, and here we are.

I’m completely hooked. I’ve now got over 20,000 pellets in .22 and .25 stocked up, and I love the idea of it costing me about 1.5¢ per shot with the .22 and maybe 5~6¢ with the .25. I have plenty of .22LR stashed, but I can’t use that in a backyard and even crappy bulk .22LR cost more than pellets.

Thanks to you all and the folks on GTA, I’m now on the hunt for a few other rifles as the funds allow. I needed another hobby like a hole in my head, but it’s too late for me now!

Some of you don’t remember the cap guns you could buy the rolls for them here is a picture, hit like button if you remember

 

[Butchr2]

For me I started of with a Daisy when I was a youngster. A little later on I graduated a Crosman Pump. I would hang out near the neighbors Chicken Coup and take care of all the Misc. birds that were eating all the feed. I would hunt rabbits at night with a 22 single shot using ratshot for ammo. After I graduated High School I bought a Benjamin Pump that I still have today.
I was watching YT Videos and saw a Dragon Claw which got me interested in a PCP I'm looking at an FX Impact or Wildcat both are great guns just have not made up my mind yet. I am retired so I have plenty of time to research