AusVarmint

Ok, so thinking that the young bloke (6) and I might get a bit of good practice in with an air rifle.

Springers or PCP ?

Side Lever Vs Break Barrel?

Caliber - possible uses include rats/pigeons/paper/one day maybe rabbits. so .177 - .22 - or .25?

Scopes - the young bloke WILL learn open sights first, but I have heard that the vibrations can cause problems with scopes - is this true and generally what scope brands are better?


Cheers for any info you care to share,

Mick

Just my 2c worth.

For learning how to shoot a springer is the best bet as you really have to get a consistent and good technique to shoot them well.
Some springers are better than others but Lewis Reinhardt (I hope I spelt that right) would be the best man for advice. My advice (and I bet his) for a young bloke would be to have a look at a Beeman R7.

PCP's are much more useful for hunting though as they have virtually no recoil and are very accurate. More complicated to run and more expensive.

Side/break barrel I would leave to Lewis but IMO it's not something to make too important in the decision.

I advise .22 as the best all round calibre but others may well differ. .177 has a flatter trajectory but I've always found that whatever you shoot you have to become familiar with it and it's trajectories by practicing a lot. Super cheap with air-guns which is part of their beauty.

You need to get a scope specifically designed to withstand the springer recoil. It will destroy normal scopes quickly. There are plenty around.

I have a springer with iron sights and a PCP with a good scope on it. They are both out of the safe regularly. I'm lucky enough to have a 20m+ range down my hallway and no kids so can shoot any time the wife is out (and the doors are locked).

There are not all that many really small springers on the market, suitable for young kids. And most PCP's will be on the larger side too.

Diana just released a new kid's model:

http://www.diana-airguns.de/index.php?i ... eight=1050

The Norica 56 is also one of the smaller, decent your rifles.

Cheaper is the small Gamo Delta Fox.


Cheapest, easiest and simplest are the break barrel springers. They will also be lighter than equivalent side or underlevers.

.177 will work OK for plinking and is cheapest to run.

On a larger rifle you get more energy downrange and bigger holes in game from .22 calibre. That said, shot placement on game like bunnies is paramount.

If it's just for the young'en, then perhaps one of the Gamo gas ram models might be a go, they're a bit lighter than the Diana's and Weihrachs, which really are adult sized/weight guns. Also, gas ram guns (I think Gamo call their system Inert Gas Technology.........same shit different smell) limit the type of two way recoil you get on a springer, as there is no spring to bounce back after the shot has been fired.
PCP's are serious bits of kit and highly addictive, but a quality one isn't cheap plus you have to take into account the cost of either a pump ($350 for the good ones) or a dive cylinder setup (at least $400), however, when it comes to serious hunting you can't really beat them, might be a bit of overkill for a 6 year old though, and I don't think I've seen one yet that had open sights.

Size wise i an not too worried - geez we all learnt on "real" sized rifles too remember, not too hard to put a bag under the fore stock for him.

Cheers for the info, it wont happen for a little while - gotta get home first and talk to the missus etc. Maybe Easter present

Cheers Tezza, for "serious" hunting i have plenty of center fires and realistically there is not much up in the NT to kill with an air rifle.
Not in any way diminishing the air rifle hunting - just not real easy to kill a pig etc with one - (oh geez here we go again with the whole "ethical hunting thingy hahaha)

Mick

Just let him loose with the .22 then mate

Tezza wrote:Just let him loose with the .22 then mate

Have thought about it mate, but an air rifle we can use in the back yard.
As the government wont allow us to have a hush puppy on the end of the barrel - makes it a bit noisy in town

Some air rifles(pcp) are as loud if not louder than a 22. Z ammo or 22long Z is pretty quiet stuff if you only want to shoot about 25m and have some fun.

In general springers are much quieter than PCP's.

mick_762 wrote:

Tezza wrote:Just let him loose with the .22 then mate

Have thought about it mate, but an air rifle we can use in the back yard.

Are you sure about that?

Gamo gas rams - be careful of the cheap gas ram guns and it will be hard to get one repaired if / when it has problems.

A springer can be fixed much easier and is more reliable.

I would suggest you try and find a good second hand sheridan blue streak (don't know if you can still get them new).
The only problem is they are .20, and I don't want to crank up yet another 20cal debate on the forum!!

The beauty of the Sheridan is you can vary the power by pumping it less.

Just another opinion.....

curan wrote:I would suggest you try and find a good second hand sheridan blue streak (don't know if you can still get them new).
The only problem is they are .20, and I don't want to crank up yet another 20cal debate on the forum!!

The beauty of the Sheridan is you can vary the power by pumping it less.

Just another opinion.....

I agree with this suggestion. My lesson learnt the hard way, has been was I am the one doing all the pumping whilst they do the shooting.

I have an old Norica 61 with the old man so will probably get it off him for my boys, as I remember it being pretty small.

From time to time the Benjamin 342 / 347 pumpers show up and they are even smaller than the Sheridan.

Cheers guys, i will keep an eye out.

Hey mate I bought an r9 from lewis when he was still in business. It has a maccarri kit to smooth it out and a scope designed for a springer.

I love it! Mynahs do too will chasing some bunnies with it hopefully in a few weeks too. Very accurate but it is def not a light weight. Heavier than the brno 22 but there is a lot to them.

I remember as I am sure most of us do dad cocking the air rifle for me while shooting out the back or in the shed at home.

I think the pcps a louder from reports but the springer isn't really a gun sound either. Anyway let us know what ya find. I would also live a fwb 300 for home.

Ryan