The Gander near me has several brands of air rifles: Benjamin, Crosman, Gammo, Winchester, Remmington and a couple more I think. My brain gets overloaded when I’m standing there looking at them and I can’t decide which would be the best to get.
The Gander near me has several brands of air rifles: Benjamin, Crosman, Gammo, Winchester, Remmington and a couple more I think. My brain gets overloaded when I’m standing there looking at them and I can’t decide which would be the best to get.
do like my wife does when there is a shoe sale,buy one of each. 
Buy some jsb exact pellets that are on the heavier side. Also the crosman hollow points. They are the ones I have had the best luck with. Maybe buy something CO2 for summertime use. It will be easier to shoot.
Will a .22 pellet rifle be inherently more accurate than a .177 due to the additional weight? I don’t have a .22 pellet gun so maybe I should narrow my Gander search to just those.
What are you going to use the gun for? Targets, hunting?
The .177 will likely deliver better consistent accuracy on paper once a good pellet is settled on. The .22 will deliver more energy but will travel slower, yet still deliver pretty good accuracy with the right pellets. Regardless of caliber you need to poke your way thru different pellets to land on the best accuracy. The new single stroke break action air rifles have their pros and cons in each caliber. For over-all critter control I’d look at a .22 caliber. If you are talking paper, chippers, squirrels and rabbits I’d probably look at a .177.
I have a .20 Sheridan, an old one, and have had that thing re-sealed three times. Its sort of the middle of the road in caliber between the .177 and the .22’s. The gun is super accurate and has power that even many of the .22 caliber breaks can’t match. The pellet selection is more limited, but being able to adjust the number of pumps aids in getting the accuracy that the gun is capable of. This gun has open sights and when a critter comes calling in the dark of night its this gun that gets the call.
If you really want to dig into the whats what with pellets, check out this site that just sells pellets…
Thanks for the link! I wrote down all the models Gander has on hand and the sale prices. Checked the GM sale prices against that site and confirmed they are still higher than online.
I recently bought my 10 yr old a Daisy 753s. Right out of box it shots 1 ragged hole at 10 meters. And that’s with cheap pellets.
He just started shooting with 4H. Haven’t started playing with different pellets yet. Can’t seem to find a retail store with any selection of match grade pellets.
It only shoots around 500 fps so don’t know if that’s enough for critter control. Staying under the sound barrier increases accuracy. The pellet doesn’t have to transition the turbulent air.
X2 on GM. I also bought him a cheaper air pistol. With the GM discount, it was still more than FF regular price.
For those considering a new air rifle, it seems to me that across the board the scopes that are coming on new rifles are pure junk.
I threw the scope away on my el cheapo Daisy 2 weeks ago. It worked fine for a year and then suddenly my pellets are all over the target. Can’t even hold a tennis ball size group. Took the scope off and the iron sights let me shoot a sub inch group at 30 feet multiple times.
Neighbor has rabbits all over his place, so he comes over to have me set up his new .22 Crossman air rifle because I have a basement target range. The scope shot the same place regardless of adjustment. It was like the adjustment turrets were not connected to an actual adjustment. Took scope off, used iron sights, shot 10 pellets inside of a 1 inch circle. Call ‘er good.
My father got a Gamo last year and it was the same story then. We couldn’t get it to hit the side of a cardboard box. Threw away scope, iron sights got him in business, put new 4x scope on and the thing shoots a ragged hole at 33 feet.
Basically, it looks to me like you’re doing yourself a favor if you either find a rifle without a scope, or simply throw the scope that comes with most rifles in the trash.
Grouse
The after market Winchester scope I put on one of my airguns has been flawless and I shoot a lot with it.
When I get another air rifle I am shopping for one without a scope and will find one on-line. I have suffered thru three scopes that came as a package and not again.
Be certain that you buy a scope specific to air rifles though. A friend put a 2X7 Redfield on an air rifle and the reticle was hammered to junk in less than 200 shots.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
