"bwaber"I am thinking about buying a good airgun.
Does anyone have experience with the "gas piston" types versus the spring types?
Which is better? Does the gas leak out of the gas piston eventually?
I need to pick off a few pesky squirrels and possibly a rabbit or 2.
Which is better, a .177 or a .22?
The Gamo Mach 1 and the Benjamin "nitro piston" I see advertised..
Which is the best?
Thanks for any advice....
Taken in order...
1. a "good" airgun is an airgun that meets or exceeds your expectations
given your original goals and constraints. A $150 break barrel that is quiet enough to be shot in your neighborhood without disturbing neighbors and which provides you with 1" accuracy out to 30 yards is likely a "good airgun" if your goal is mostly pesting around gardens, trash bins, and landscaping. A $460 German springer that, with practice, will give you dime-sized groups at 50 yards is a terrible airgun if your intent is to use it to get down and dirty with pest birds and rats in the dung piles and briar patches at a local farm.
2. Gas Pistons have a long track record (far longer than their use in airguns) of reliability, ease of use, ultra-low maintenance needs, and consistent performance across many temperature gradients. Modern steel springs are worlds better than steel springs of even 30 years ago...at least in the high-end models where premium manufacture is the norm. No matter the grade of the steel, though, no traditional metal spring will outcompete a sealed gas spring of the same or similar performance metrics.
3. .177 for feathers, .22 for fur. A very old saying among British vermin hunters and sportsmen in the UK, where air guns have been used for hundreds of years to eliminate pests and harvest prey species. Long-cherished wisdom argues you need to look at the .22 guns to solve your problems.
4. Gamo has their IGT (inert gas technology), Crosman its Nitro Piston gen1 and gen2, Hatsan its vortex qe gas ram system. The technology employed by each of these companies has been leveraged from, first and foremost, the automotive industry where gas springs were pioneered. Each air gun manufacturer has their own tweaks to make on the pistons but, by and large, it's much like buying modern tires.
