Just plinking around

Thinking about picking up a .177 plinker for fun and to start edjumating the kids on. Any recommendations or brands to stay away from? Any good sites with reviews, forums, etc.?

I assume you mean an airgun? How old are the rug rats? I would say that a good starter has always been the Daisy lever action, available at wally world and about everywhere else outside of NY/NJ where you need a gun permit to purchase a BB gun.

There are some really wild air guns out there, and the sky's the limit on price and performance. But for teaching gun safety and basic marksmanship, the old Daisy's are hard to beat. After a year or so, they may outgrow them, or the oldest may, and then you can start looking for something more powerful and pass the Daisy down to the next one.

And if you're talking about .17HMR, a 10/22 or 597 are good autoloaders, and the Savage 93R17 is a pretty sweet bolt gun.

I too have been thinking about getting an airgun lately. Mostly so I can do some quite plinking with out disturbing the neighbors.

For this reason I have been looking at the gamo "whisper" series but I don't know anything about the brand or the gun.

I also noticed that cabelas is carrying a Ruger !? air rifle at what seems to be a really reasonable price. I didn't realize Ruger made airguns. Any one have any experence with these ?

I've heard of the Ruger, but not seen a review of it yet. Shotgun News (SGN) has an airgun column that is very interesting. The guy knows his stuff, both old and new. From my reading of his columns, there are some pretty decent adult airguns out there if you shop carefully. Some of the Chineese stuff is very good. Some is pure junk. For the adult, you'll need to decide on how much you want to spend and the type of action, like pneumatic precharged, or one you pump up each time. The precharged ones have some amazing accuracy, but then you have to mess with scuba tanks. If you can find a collection of SGN's at the library, that would make some good research material for you.

beeman

I was a pretty big fan of my old Daisy 880 when I was a youngster. I have no idea if they still make the 880, but I'm sure there's something comparable.

I started out looking at Airsoft guns but decided a tricked out M5 is probably not best to start the kiddos out on!

What about Crosman?

Or this - http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2077732

I have a Benjamin Sheridan rifle that is beautifully made and very accurate. It will send .177 pellets deeper into wood than most .22's.

For a pistol, the Crosman 1377C is hard to beat for the price.

Benjamin has made some nice guns in the past...I assume they still do.

I have a red ryder for my son...easy, cheap, it works. I also have a cheap chinese single stroke pellet gun in adult size...it was worth the 25.00, for what is does.

If you really want to shoot for accuracy, open up your wallet...

Like the good Dr. says, the sky is the limit.

Woody wrote: I have a Benjamin Sheridan rifle that is beautifully made and very accurate. It will send .177 pellets deeper into wood than most .22's. For a pistol, the Crosman 1377C is hard to beat for the price.

Benjamin 392 (.22 caliber) is what I have.

http://www.crosman.com/site/listing/1053

3-4 pumps goes clean through a squirrel

Bolt Action

Multi-Pump (up to 8)

Fixed Barrel

Shoots nearly as fast as a .22LR with 1/20th of the noise. I have a 4x scope on mine, and I've taken squirrel and crow out to 50 yards with it pretty easy.

Can't beat the price (~$120) for a gun that will last 20 years (buddy has one that is 20 years old)

I assume we're talking rifles. It's easier to teach marksmanship with a rifle than a pistol. You also didn't say how young the kids are. If they're less than about 10, I'd go with a Daisy Red Rider type. Most multi-pump pneumatics and/or spring piston guns will be too hard for a smaller kid to cock.

If we're talking multi-pump pneumatic, for a rifle, I'd go with the Benjamin (I have the 392). If that's too steep, you can go with one of the better Crossmans (like the 1053 mentioned above). (I'm guessing there's not much price difference, but I've not shopped airguns in several years.) For a pistol, the Crossman 1377 mentioned above is an excellent choice, and, in fact, is what I learned to shoot a pistol with.

If you want to go spring piston, I can recommend the Beeman R6 or R9 from first hand experience. They may be a bit tricky for kids, depending on how old they are. There's a technique for shooting a spring piston gun accurately that isn't intuitive. Also, CZ used to make a very nice, inexpensive spring piston air rifle. I don't remember the name/number, but I have one. It's every bit as accurate as my dad's R6, was half the price, but isn't as pretty.

Buying quality will pay off. A quality air gun will last at least a lifetime. They're also handy for pest control (rats, crows, etc.).

Edit: Apparently the R6 isn't available any more. The R7 is also an excellent choice, though.

Daughter is 13, son is about a month away from being 7.

Man, where does the time go...

My Benjamin is is a 397, which is .177. I should add that it may be kind of heavy for small kids and it's not the easiest thing to pump. But it sure is accurate.

And more on the Crosman 1377C: You can get them for about $50 and they are a good first pistol. Not hard to pump and long enough barrel to be pretty accurate. I had to smooth out the cheap stamped steel trigger with a file to make it more comfortable. It's still a bargain, though.

I've got an old pump .177 bb rifle that can also shoot pellets. I got it when I was about 11 or 12. To show how old it is, it is a Sears El Dorado "Ted Williams brand". It still works great and is accurate. I think a rebranded Daisy. It's a great backyard plinker. With the pump you can vary how hard/fast to shoot.

I'll second the benjamin/sheridan rifle.. I have the .20 caliber.

it's the only air rifle I know that with 30 pumps will kick like a .22.

but, add a good scope and you can plink targets fairly accurately at 200+ yards

Rennie gave me a Daisy a few years ago. It shoots pellets and bbs. It will also take a CO2 cartridge, or you can pump it. It's not the newest, best gun, but it worked great. I put a little scope on it, too. My grandfather has an old crossman that he uses to shoot seagulls with in the keys, as the homeowner's association doesn't allow guns.

I bought my Daisy Red Ryder in NY and didn't need a permit, although the woman at the register mumbled something about putting out an eye. I always have my glasses on though so I should be alright.

I do have one of those cheap Chinese break action .177 pellet guns. Got it many years ago. It's quite powerfull and accurate. Did require my disassembling it to fix the leather piston, as well cleaning and polishing. Once that was done, it became a shooting rascal. Every bit as powerfull as a .22 short.

I've got/had a number of bb guns and bb/pellet combination guns. Not a one of them would I recommend for anyone who has thoughts of using it for more than a 10 foot basement shooting range. Weak and inaccurate describes every one of them.

Tommy Suddard wrote: Rennie gave me a Daisy a few years ago. It shoots pellets and bbs. It will also take a CO2 cartridge, or you can pump it. It's not the newest, best gun, but it worked great. I put a little scope on it, too. My grandfather has an old crossman that he uses to shoot seagulls with in the keys, as the homeowner's association doesn't allow guns.

Tell grandpa he is supposed to feed them alka seltzer.

...and once the kids get a little older: http://www.airgundepot.com/drozdreview.html

I have a Gamo Viper that I sent to a guy in Michigan to have tuned, (basically just like a car) The rifle was pretty good to start with, it is a Break action spring gun that is made in Spain, with decent quality. Most of the Chinese break action spring guns are actually knock offs of the various Gamo guns. Most of the Crossman variants fall into this catagory.
I got mine basically so I could plink in the back yard without disturbing anyone. The spring guns take some getting used to, as they require a light touch when holding them due to the double recoil action. (spring slams forward then the gun recoils) This is also why you need an Airgun spacific scope for these rifles, they will destroy a regular gun scope in short order.

The positives for a spring gun are, one cock and shoot action, massive power for a gun you don't have to pump up.

Negatives, are cost, effort (can be hard to cock for kids) not as accurate as a Pnematic (due to double recoil)

I think for an adult, a decent spring gun is a great choice and the gamos are very good middle of the range guns.

For a kid, I'd recomend starting out with a single cock bb gun like a red rider and moving up to a daisy 880 or crosman 760 when they are a bit older. The daisys are easier for a kid to shoot, way cheaper and you can adjust how powerful the gun is by how many pumps you give it.

Even the more advanced daisys like the 880 are really light these days, I got a new 880 to tide me over while my gamo was being tuned. and side by side with my 880 from the 80's it is almost all plastic and doesn't weigh anything.

Even the most basic spring guns can be really heavy especially for kids, the Gamo extreme is over 8lbs.

.177 guns have a flater tragectory over short range and much better penitration then .22 and .20 and .25 guns it is also the most common size for an air gun. However for serious hunting a .22 or .20 is probably the better size due to the increase in energy transfer of the heavier pellet.

Any pellet rifle is a great way to stay sharp by shooting in the back yard. Chris Rummel

If you decide you want to step up to a .22 Revolver, these are great. I shoot them indoors without ear protection and they make make more noise hitting the bullet trap than the do out of the barrel. They don't have the energy to cycle the action of a semi-auto, though.

http://www.aguilaammo.com/supercolibri.htm

"Colibri" = "Hummingbird"

Might consider a paintball gun and some frozen paintballs. I couldn't tell you how many squirrels and bunnies I've knocked off with mine.

^Maybe that would finally give me an edge over the green team!