Pellet Rifles anyone?

[Browning]

I went to a gun show yesterday and picked up a $20 Chinese .177 pellet rifle and they gave me two hundred pellets and threw in a can of 10% pepper spray to boot. I spent all day yesterday messing around with it. I like it quite a bit as it's a fun way to shoot in the back yard without bothering or alarming the neighbors. I put up a large back stop made out of several pieces of thick plywood and shot a couple targets set up on phone books to pieces, it was a blast.

My wifes always bugging me to come sit out in the back yard and enjoy it, well she finally found a way to get me in the backyard, just not in the way she thought. She likes it as well and at one point almost had to wrestle her to get my turn with it. She's pretty good with it too. On a several hundred page phone book, it'll go through about 150 pages and dent about 50 more pages behind it.

This is really my first pellet rifle (I had a Crossman .177 pellet pistol and a couple BB guns when I was a kid, but no pellet rifles) as I'm much more into actual firearms, but it's actually kind of fun since I can't go to the range every day of the week. I figured that in this thread we could talk about the various models of pellet rifles and pistols that are out there and what performance someone could expect out of them and what pellets are best for a specific purpose.

Anybody else like them and think that they're a good way to practice on the cheap?

 

[PTK]

If you want to pick up another I would guess it came from Cummins tools.

 

[Kingcreek]

I've got a 35year old Sheridan "Blue Streak" pellet rifle and I use the 5mm lead pellets to limit the starlings around the bird feeders. It is still pretty loud tho. Luckily, where I live I could shoot them with a 12g and nobody would care.
a single cocking stroke would be nice, instead of up to 8 on the sheridan.

 

[Browning]

Kingcreek, I hadn't ever heard that air rifles came in 5mm, I thought that they only really came in .177 or .22.

Is that some special type of air rifle that only a very limited number were made? Or is it pretty common?

 

[gunlore]

5mm is .22
they also come in .177 .22 .20 .25

 

[ABTOMAT]

All Sheridan Streaks have been 5mm, which is .20, for the past 40 years or so. It's a fairly common multi-pump hunter rifle that's long been an affordable yet high quality choice.

I'm a big fan of air rifle shooting. At a minimum it's good training, at most it can be a better option for small game hunting than firearms. If you really like shooting it, I'd see about upgrading pretty soon. Chinese pellets are awful, and the guns themselves are rather agricultural. There're a lot of quality rifles in the $100-200 range.

I have a 10-meter competitive air rifle on the way. Not much power, but I have a short range in my basement I plan on working on my accuracy in.

 

[TheOld Man]

I got TWO of those. One is a .22 and the other is a regular .177. The .22 put a hole through my Cedar fence. Sounds like Browning and I got the same deal. Might be the same guy. Browning, was it a short guy with a Mexican wife? He might be traveling the gun show circuit. I know there are guys that do.

 

[alucard0822]

I love plinking around with air rifles. I live in a MD community on 2.5 acres with a berm as a backstop, and a cornfield on the other side, Most of my neighbors are gunshy, and MD isn't exactly understanding when it comes to shooting firearms in your yard. I also like to play around with those colbri 22 shells, and x-ring rubber bullets, either only uses a primer and are quiet. I am not that picky when it comes to air guns, I have a red ryder, gamo one pump, 5mm sheridan and a couple crossman pistols. I like to make reactive targets out of plaster in different shape ice cube trays, paint them and set them on boards, or set peices of wood skewers in them and prop them up on a section of pegboard for a little competition (red vs blue first to blow all 20 of their targets) anyway, a lot of fun on the cheap, Ive had my eye on the drodz for a while http://www.airgundepot.com/eaa-drozd.html

 

[Plink]

I hadn't ever heard that air rifles came in 5mm, I thought that they only really came in .177 or .22.

5mm is .20. Airguns come in all sizes from mild to wild. There are even airguns in .35, .45, .50 and larger! The larger ones can take big game.

I love airguns for many reasons. I can target practice in the city. I can shoot indoors. And I can eliminate pests quietly. The higher end models have stunning accuracy also. Makes for good marksmanship practice.

 

[Sniper X]

I bought a Gamo Powerline 1000 or whatever they call it at Wally, nice rifle. Accurate and a ton of fun to shoot! I live on 10acres, and my neibors have 60 so it is perfect for me to hunt rabbits, ground hogs and prairie dogs around here. plus it scares the Coyotes off my land. My .22 Marlin or 10-22 are quieter with subsonic ammo but are still firsamrs if you get caught shooting them in the county. So a pelletgun is a great alternative.

 

[Browning]

Huh? I hadn't ever heard of the .20 Cal, but then again I haven't really ever gotten into pellet rifles before this. Is there really any reason to stray from the plentiful .177 and the .22 caliber pellets though? Or is it kind of like with the caliber game with actual firearms, just another one that's out there to be different?

Old Man, no, it was a older tall White guy with grey hair and his good looking brunette daughter from a shop here in Texas. The Mexican lady that you bought yours from must have been from a different company. I'm in Texas, so I doubt that someone doing a gun show in Texas would make it to Washington State, then again I could be wrong.

 

[FXWG]

Is there really any reason to stray from the plentiful .177 and the .22 caliber pellets though?

Right now, I have cleared out several Sports Authority stores here.
They have their .20 (5mm) pellets marked down to $1.47 per 500.
I have one more store to clean out.

 

[ABTOMAT]

The .20 size originally was designed for Sheridan Streaks using a special can-shaped pellet. These days some other brands have adopted .20 with the standard waisted pellet because it's a good compromise in size.

 

[Mannix]

I have a Crosman 1077. They're pretty cheap, reasonably accurate for an co2 air rifle, and since it's powered by co2, there's no pumping. Some of the off brand co2 cartridges cost about $.20 per and whether they're off brand or not you get about 40-50 shots out of them. They also sell one that accept airsource 88g cartidges, which are supposed to be good for 450-500 shots. I've also seen some adapters out there that let you run it off of a normal paintball tank(way overkill, IMO). If you get one of those, a remote coil, and a 12 or 20 oz tank, it will take thousands of shots to empty it(plus it's just 2-3 bucks to refill again at a sports authority).

 

[jkingrph]

I have two, an old barrel cocking Fienwerkbau (sp) M 124 sporter and a slightly newer recoilless mod 300 match rifle. I need to pull them out and shoot a bit.

 

[RockRifle]

Why not .177 or .22?

Back in the BB gun days, a 5mm Sheridan would take small game while my .177 wasn't much use for anything but scaring it away. The small crossmans and daisies were no comparison. I vowed to get a sheridan when I got older.

And I did. I used it to thin the pigeons that came to roost in the machine shop with great efficiency. My son has my sheridan now, and I have a .22 Beeman. We used .20 because back then there was no .22...but I can see using it because it is faster than .22 and hits harder than .177. You can tune your speed with a sheridan so that you don't make holes in the roof!!

If you want a challenge, try shooting a .22lr trail course with a .22 air rifle. Not all shots are possible, but within 60yds is a lot of fun.

 

[bender]

I want one of those Gamo "Extreme Hunters" or whatever they are called. They do 1600 fps, which I guess is close to a .22LR...?? But I would hate to pay as much for one as for a "real" rifle...

 

[ABTOMAT]

Gamos are middling quality guns targeted at the newbie beginner crowd. Their advertising is a good part hype.

 

[coelacanth]

+ 1 Plink!

check these out . . . www.glbarnes.com or, www.quackenbushairguns.com

 

[Valkman]

I have a Crossman 760 Pumpmaster and it's .177 or BB. Never have used it much, as I bought it for a stray cat that was coming around at my old house but everytime I'd run out with it ready all I'd see is the cat's butt going over the fence.

Now we have a pigeon problem and I broke it out today to try. I have pellets and BB's and am not really wanting to kill them - driving them off would be fine. They tend to just walk up the roof when I look at them so hopefully I'll get some shots!

Me, I'll take pump over CO2 anytime. Never run out and have to go to the store!

 

[Mike U.]

I have a Gamo Shadow 1000. The best air/spring rifle for the money I've ever seen. Sure there are better guns, but, those get VERY expensive very quickly. I'm not ready to pony up $400.00 on a pellet rifle so the Gamo works for me.
Gamo has a new line of real Gold coated, alloy pellets, called "Raptors". Those babies come out at 1250 FPS from the Shadow and there is an accompanying supersonic CRACK! It's sudden death to tree rats and other pests. It's so loud though, my neighbors have mistaken it for a .22, so I have to temper my use of them. Regular .177 pellets do the job very well out of this very accurate rifle, too. I just got a box of wadcutters and this weekend I'll sight'em in and see what kind of results they give.
I haven't used the Shadow 1000 much recently as I've been using CCI CB Shorts out of my old .22 Winchester model 150 levergun for pest control. Oddly enough, the CB's are quieter than the pellet rifle. I flatten the tip of the .22 CB's and it takes the varmints right off their branch out to 20+ yards with a nice little THWACK. Advertised velocity is 710 FPS and I can consistently put that little round right thru a squirrel's brain pan at 15-20 yards with them. I have a decent scope on that levergun and it really helps these middle aged eyes zero in on the target. And, it's fun using a .22 here in the 'burbs without freakin' out the neighbors.
One day I may have to look into silencers to really up the fun factor.