# Pellet Rifles



## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

After a nice long weekend looking for deer and elk on a friends ranch property along with popping off a few pot guts, ground squirrels or what ever you want to call them I am thinking of picking up a pellet rifle. Now we didn't have any problems with the ground rats since we were using .22 long rifles along with 3x9 power scopes and started to call our shots just to make thing a little bit more interesting. I then started to think about using a .17 or .22 caliber pellet rifle on them along with the Eurasian doves that were hanging out around their feed sheds.

So I can answer just about any question about a high power rifle, shotgun, or .22 out there but I have no idea on a pellet rifle. 
So here are my questions about them:

.17 or .22 caliber and why?
A good brand of rifle without breaking the bank. 
Maximum effective range, I'm thinking 50 yards
Anyone else use them for hunting vermin?


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

There are quite a few very good pellet rifles out on the market today. I like my 20 cal. (5mm) Sheridan Blue Streak. Benjamin bought them out and so to day they are called Benjamin Sheridan and they run around $250.

The Crossman brands are pretty good as well, but I think for what you want to do with it, you will want to have control of the power and no matter what brand or caliber you buy, you will want a pump action. That way you can put a little air behind the pellet, or a lot of air behind it.


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

I'm not to knowledgable about pellet guns other than just the crossmans; they always seemed pretty good priced for how good they are. I know "Rusty shackleford" and "Mavis13" have posted previously about pellet guns. You should get all the info you need within a couple hours.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

If you get a springer, you need to google up "artillery hold" and air rifle on youtube. There is kind of a specific way to hold them to get the best accuracy. My boy has a Rugar Air Hawk which is ok, we had to replace the scope mounts with something massive as the springer recoil litterally tore the old mounts off (they dont seat deep in the dovetail and being aluminum just ground off as they would slip). Bought a heavy solid scope mount with 3 bolts and it hasnt moved since.

Edit: you will want to use a mount like these: http://www.airgundepot.com/onepi11mdomo.html

-DallanC


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## Mavis13 (Oct 29, 2007)

What kind of distance are you expecting to shoot? If you want to hunt I'd not use a .177. .20 is good .22 is also good and much easier to find ammo for. If you're keeping it under 30yards about any gun will do. You can start with a cheep multi pump and get a lot of fun from it. My son hunts with a daisy power line that cost us $60. It is a .177 and it's great under 20yards but doves are hard to get that close to (at least here) and don't go down if you don't hit them right. .22 has more knock down at distance. +1 on the artillery hold. Springers are a great way to get the power at less price but need some technique to be accurate. RWS is my preferred sprig gun but I had a gammo big cat for a very long time and it was great up to about 50yrds. I did upgrade several things on it over the years.
+50 yards you are getting into PCP territory. Though a few magnum springers can do it. The RWS 460 and 470 magnums comes to mind. But they start to get costly.
What's your budget, perhaps we can give you some suggestions?
If you like airgun eye candy check these guys out.
http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I was thinking that the longest shots with a air rifle will be 50 yards and looking at the .20 caliber looks interesting but it also looks like there are only a few styles of pellets for it and if you happen to get a rifle that doesn't like what you find then you are out of luck. 
I also know that the sky is the limit for what you can spend on them but I am going to try to keep my budget around $300.00 and if I can find a rifle/scope combination for that price that I like I'll be happy. I also figure that I want a pump just so that I can vary the velocity at different ranges. The largest target that I plan on shooting with it is a pot gut or similarity sized animal. The Eurasian doves will be about 30 yards away at the furthest. They love the feed shed at the ranch for all the grain that is around it. 

The Sheridan Blue Streak looks like it fits the bill of what I might want but I am still open to suggestions.


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## massmanute (Apr 23, 2012)

For very economical entry into airguns consider a Crosman 2100 or comparable Daisy model. The Remington AirMaster 77 is the same gun as the Crosman 2100, but with a different nameplate. These are multi-pump airguns and can be quite accurate. The triggers aren't great. Recoil is practically non-existent, and you can use any conventional scope with them. Noise is not too bad, especially if you don't pump them up very much, e.g. for practice shooting.

There are some multi-pump guns with an adjustable stock... good for youth shooters.

If you want to get the most power per unit dollar spent get a springer air gun. However, the are not as nice to shoot. As someone already mentioned, you will need to master a different hold on the rifle. Otherwise accuracy will suffer. They also have a strange recoil pattern that some find a bit irritating, and the strange recoil of a springer will tear up a conventional scope in short order unless the scope is rated for a springer airgun. They are quite loud when they fire. There are too many manufacturers and models to list them all here.

Benjamin (owned by Crosman) makes a very nice multi-pump line that includes the 397 (17 caliber) and 392 (22 caliber). The Sheridan Blue Streak is similar, but in 0.20 caliber. These are much nicer than the Crosman 2100, but also about twice the price. I wish I had one. Recoil is practically non-existent, so a scope does not have to be airgun rated.

At the high end consider a PCP airgun. These are probably the Cadillacs among the airguns. They use a high pressure air reservoir that is filled from a separate high pressure air source, such as a scuba tank or a high pressure air pump. You fill them and then go hunting. You get multiple shots from one fill. Crosman makes some very nice ones in various calibers, including one in .357 caliber if you want something that can be used for medium game (not legal in Utah). These can be quite powerful and do not have the annoying recoil characteristics of the springer airguns, but they also tend to be more expensive.

I have mentioned annoying recoil and special hold requirements. Those comments apply only to the springer airguns.

There are also some CO2 powered guns. They are convenient, but the consumable power source (CO2 cartridges) is more expensive, and they are not as powerful as the other technologies.

I have mainly mentioned Crosman in this post, but here are other manufacturers that make good airguns as well. I just happen to know a little more about the Crosman line than the others.

I suggest not getting a regular BB gun. Stick with a pellet gun. Some guns can fire both, but it has been suggested that BBs are not good for the bore of those guns, so if you get one it is better to just shoot pellets.

You will find that different pellets vary in accuracy when shot out of different guns. I am lucky. So far an inexpensive Crosman pointed pellet has worked the best in my Remington AirMaster 77.

Suggestion: When you shoot wear glasses. On at least one occasion I had a pellet bounce back at me. Fortunately, it missed me by several feet.


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## brookieguy1 (Oct 14, 2008)

About 35 years ago I got the .20 Sheridan "Silver Streak" for Christmas. Chrome plated. Been a fun little rifle. Nowhere near the power of the single pump springers, but quite accurate.


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

massmanute said:


> Suggestion: When you shoot wear glasses. On at least one occasion I had a pellet bounce back at me. Fortunately, it missed me by several feet.


I've had BB's bounce back at me multiple times. One even hit me in my leg; good thing it wasn't a powerful gun shooting 'em, it was a Daisy buck.


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## Rusty Shacklford (Oct 24, 2008)

Lots of good knowledge being shared in these replies. I have several different types of air rifles and they all have pros and cons. My PCP (pre charged pneumatic) guns are powerful and deadly accurate but manually filling them to 2,500 psi can be a pain. Springers make up the biggest part of my arsenal and several of them in the .177 caliber have more than enough power for taking ECDs. Any out of the box springer will benefit greatly with a lube tune. It takes a lot of the harshness out of the firing cycle and makes them a little less hold sensitive. Whatever you get come back and tell us about and post some pictures of some hunts with it.


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## massmanute (Apr 23, 2012)

Rusty Shacklford said:


> ... Any out of the box springer will benefit greatly with a lube tune. It takes a lot of the harshness out of the firing cycle and makes them a little less hold sensitive...


Rusty,

Can you tell us how to do a lube tune?

Also, are there any tricks to accurizing a springer gun? I have two springer guns. One is reasonably accurate, though not quite as good as my cheapo AirMaster 77 multi pump airgun. The accuracy of the other springer gun is terrible.


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## utahtim (Aug 29, 2012)

one thing I found with my springers is that they get much more accurate after 500 rounds and an artillery hold


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