AusVarmint

Travellin around and visiting gun shops and someone walks in and wants to purchase an AG, the salesman tries to sell them some second rate air rifle that you know full well is a POS.
It just amazes me how little most people chasing a new airgun will settle for the first thing they see and fall for the velocity sales pitch,dont worry about the shitty trigger or the horrid spring rattle , not to mention the woeful pellet selection.
There should be a full on AR shop front that just deals in air and should be well advertised so the shooting folk out there can get it right first time.
hell knows I learnt the hard way.
Regards.

native hunter wrote:Travellin around and visiting gun shops and someone walks in and wants to purchase an AG, the salesman tries to sell them some second rate air rifle that you know full well is a POS.
It just amazes me how little most people chasing a new airgun will settle for the first thing they see and fall for the velocity sales pitch,dont worry about the shitty trigger or the horrid spring rattle , not to mention the woeful pellet selection.
There should be a full on AR shop front that just deals in air and should be well advertised so the shooting folk out there can get it right first time.
hell knows I learnt the hard way.
Regards.

I found the same thing when I was Joe Public in gunshops.They often laughed me off and pointed me to the airgun rack.No one had any idea about anything airgun.I discovered ARH and Beeman's and the rest is history as they say.
I don't think there's ever been a bigger collection of junk airguns than now.Every one of them 'does 1000FPS,has an adjustable trigger and 3/8 dovetail'.
I tried to be a full on AR shop but it's getting harder to combat gunshop and internet misinformation.I find customers have to experience two not one junky airgun before they listen.They're a lot easier to handle then!

Thats why "we" have the next best thing

LEWIS

Thank goodness

Well, there is this song on the "wireless" that goes something like ......"When you're young, (or inexperienced) you gotta learn the hard way!"
I know I did.
Then I found Enlightenment, or as others know him, Lewis the AG Guru.
Confushus say.......
"Enlightenment cannot be found anywhere, it must be searched for and can only be attained by hard work and experience".
Or just by asking Lewis.
Moral of story....Never believe advertising and only believe about 10% of what you read on the inter-bloody-net!

Grasshopper (AKA, Dennis)

I can remember going into one of the most famous gun shops in George St. Sydney and enquiring about a beautiful German air rifle in the rack. The desk jocky took the cue, lifted the rifle, cocked it, aimed it at the ceiling and pulled the trigger and commented to the effect
"That's POWER for you". Even then fifty odd years ago I knew that wasn't a smart thing to do. Ah well, I couldn't afford it anyway, but someone got a goodness knows how many dry-fires air rifle.

Lewis, I'm so glad you are twenty years younger than me and hopefully I shall never need another bloke to look after my modest needs....... Kind regards, Harry.

Yrrah wrote:I can remember going into one of the most famous gun shops in George St. Sydney and enquiring about a beautiful German air rifle in the rack. The desk jocky took the cue, lifted the rifle, cocked it, aimed it at the ceiling and pulled the trigger and commented to the effect
"That's POWER for you". Even then fifty odd years ago I knew that wasn't a smart thing to do. Ah well, I couldn't afford it anyway, but someone got a goodness knows how many dry-fires air rifle.

Lewis, I'm so glad you are twenty years younger than me and hopefully I shall never need another bloke to look after my modest needs....... Kind regards, Harry.

Harry,
They still do it to this day!Some of the 'advice' coming from gunshops is appalling.
Thanks for the kind words.
Lewis

stinkitup wrote:Thats why "we" have the next best thing

LEWIS

Thank goodness

Thanks for the kind words and support!

Hilly wrote:Well, there is this song on the "wireless" that goes something like ......"When you're young, (or inexperienced) you gotta learn the hard way!"
I know I did.
Then I found Enlightenment, or as others know him, Lewis the AG Guru.
Confushus say.......
"Enlightenment cannot be found anywhere, it must be searched for and can only be attained by hard work and experience".
Or just by asking Lewis.
Moral of story....Never believe advertising and only believe about 10% of what you read on the inter-bloody-net!

Grasshopper (AKA, Dennis)

Ahhhhh.... gwasshopper etc.
I'm no guru.I just love airguns and have for the last 40 years or so.
I cringe when someone perpetually refers to them as a 'firearm'.Invariably,they have not the slightest idea what's inside,certainly could not fix it or give any useful advice whatsoever.
They are NOT firearms!

we get alot of people in the lgs in casino that want an air rifle for shooting rabbits, indian mynahs, etc brand new for under $500 with a scope and think that because thay are fast thay are the highest quality and the .177s must be better because they go faster than the .22s. they sell alot of gamos because thats all the people will pay for because "it's only an air rifle".
cheers

adonn223 wrote:we get alot of people in the lgs in casino that want an air rifle for shooting rabbits, indian mynahs, etc brand new for under $500 with a scope and think that because thay are fast thay are the highest quality and the .177s must be better because they go faster than the .22s. they sell alot of gamos because thats all the people will pay for because "it's only an air rifle".
cheers

So true adonn.The other very unfortunate aspect is the firm establishment of price points. Scoped budgets of 'under $500,$400 etc' will almost certainly disappoint.

It's kind of hard to convince people of the advantages of a quality air rifle when blokes like Nick Harvey put up 3.5 pages on airgun hunting based on the premise that you can use a cheap gun to do it with.

(snip)
unless you are a real airgun enthusiast there is no point laying out $2000-$3000 for an upmarket model when a more modestly priced one will also provide excellent results......can buy a magnum air rifle for $450-$600 which will proove very effective for hunting small game..
(endsnip)
Taken from the November 2004 Sporting shooter magazine- most of the article was a badly disgused advertisement for his Cometa 400 Fenix .22
one thing that I found a bit strange is he says dont spend good $$ on an ag but the pic of him with 2 dead foxes on pg 61 is with a high end AG (R1 or R9 I think) and the next page he has what looks like a R11 in his hands.

He completely blows off the .25 cals as unsuitable for hunting and isn't to kind to the .177's either.
He says the .20 is the prefered cal but as not avail in budget models
SO
don't buy one as it's not avail in budget and you shouldn't spend $$ on an AG.
In the section titled "pellet choice" he bags pumps and PCP's as too complex and then goes onto praise the Beeman silver jets by name but no other pellets get a mention.

I can be thank full of is that I found Lewis before making a major mistake on buying a shit AG first up and hating it and giving AG's away.

Most of my hunting fun over the last few years has been with AG's


later
P

I agree. Some of the s@#t I listen to about airguns in shops would probably give Lewis a coronary. Every time I'm In my local store I wait till they aren't looking and hide the KY (silicone oil) behind all the other stuff. Some of the airguns that I have seen people buy are little more than a modified bike pump stuck to a piece of wood!!!!
I was also glad when I first stumbled upon Lewis.....I think it was on the predecessor to this site, australian airgunner. With AG stuff I now deal with Lewis exclusively.
I, like everybody else on here I'm sure, Has made a 'learning' purchase. Mine isn't as bad as some and has even had the 'guru touch' and is as good as its gonna be and is not to bad at all. People would call most of us crazy spending $100+ on a spring but thats what we do. Once they see the results they are usually left scratching their heads.
The knowledge out there isn't as widespread as it could be. If it was we might have followings like UK & USA. The best we can do is be good ambassadors and educate the beginners so as to help them avoid bad experiences. I'm pretty sure we all end up putting them on to Lewis anyway!!!

zlugz wrote:I agree. Some of the s@#t I listen to about airguns in shops would probably give Lewis a coronary. Every time I'm In my local store I wait till they aren't looking and hide the KY (silicone oil) behind all the other stuff. Some of the airguns that I have seen people buy are little more than a modified bike pump stuck to a piece of wood!!!!
I was also glad when I first stumbled upon Lewis.....I think it was on the predecessor to this site, australian airgunner. With AG stuff I now deal with Lewis exclusively.
I, like everybody else on here I'm sure, Has made a 'learning' purchase. Mine isn't as bad as some and has even had the 'guru touch' and is as good as its gonna be and is not to bad at all. People would call most of us crazy spending $100+ on a spring but thats what we do. Once they see the results they are usually left scratching their heads.
The knowledge out there isn't as widespread as it could be. If it was we might have followings like UK & USA. The best we can do is be good ambassadors and educate the beginners so as to help them avoid bad experiences. I'm pretty sure we all end up putting them on to Lewis anyway!!!

I'm getting a swollen head!
Thanks P and Ben.
Lewis

I'm still talking to my next doors about getting and air rifle - he wants one but is kind of dazzled by the " 1000 FPS" numbers in the glossy ad mags from the local gunshops.

all the adds are for cheap chin crap.

I'm trying to get him to understand that a pellet weighing less than a flys left one going at 1000 fps isn't any where near as effective as a pellet over 1/3 the weight of a 22 cal projectile going at 700+FPS ( FTS or JSB E)

Let alone a 30 grain slug doing 840 FPS like my Rapid .25 does.

But the only time I have been able to get out and show him I had brain fart and left the rapids magazines behind (all of them)
and
I have yet to be able to pry my HW-90 out of another friends hands.
I lent it to him with a tin or so of FTS to clean up the rabbits on other mates 3-15 acre allotment blocks
Last night he rang and asked me to send him up some more pellets (FTS) as he's not using the 22lr anymore for any property under 50 acres now.

Later
P

ogre6br wrote:I'm still talking to my next doors about getting and air rifle - he wants one but is kind of dazzled by the " 1000 FPS" numbers in the glossy ad mags from the local gunshops.

all the adds are for cheap chin crap.

I'm trying to get him to understand that a pellet weighing less than a flys left one going at 1000 fps isn't any where near as effective as a pellet over 1/3 the weight of a 22 cal projectile going at 700+FPS ( FTS or JSB E)

Let alone a 30 grain slug doing 840 FPS like my Rapid .25 does.

But the only time I have been able to get out and show him I had brain fart and left the rapids magazines behind (all of them)
and
I have yet to be able to pry my HW-90 out of another friends hands.
I lent it to him with a tin or so of FTS to clean up the rabbits on other mates 3-15 acre allotment blocks
Last night he rang and asked me to send him up some more pellets (FTS) as he's not using the 22lr anymore for any property under 50 acres now.

Later
P

It's amazing how much a four figure velocity means.They need to be able to tick the '1000FPS' box.
Nobody wants to hear that most if not all the airguns sold as '1000FPS' go nowhere near the figure with what we regard as a light pellet eg Silver Bear at 7.1 gns.Figures much less than 900FPS are often recorded,some less than 800FPS!
If they do go close to 1000FPS,it's only the factory greases and oils burning causing dieselling which will burn the piston seal and ruin the spring leaving a less than potent airgun.
We all hear of cheap airguns going this way.