With ammo prices and scarcity, I have not been shooting as much as I want lately. I have switched over to my airguns for practice and trigger Time. After reading on several forums about it I ordered a Beeman p17 pellet pistol. It is a single shot single pump pneumatic shoots it about 400 ft per second so it is low powered enough to shoot inside or in tight areas. This cost $33 on Amazon, I also ordered a set of 1/10 size silhouette targets. My garage is in the basement facing towards the rear of the property. I set up a couple bow targets as back stops. I set the silhouette targets empty pill bottles empty CO2 cartridges out there and in front of the bow targets at about 10 m out and I can shoot for an hour for about 50 cents worth of pellets. Move those bow targets over to the side I have another couple set out at about 25 yards where I can shoot my pellet rifles that have a little more power. My Benjamin Trail mp2 is actually silenced this one will throw a 14 green pellet at 900 ft per second and shoots sub one in. groups if I do my part at 25 yards. I have been lately shooting 15-20 rounds out of a rifle . And 40 or 50 rounds out of the pistol most evenings. It satisfies my urge to go shooting gives me some trigger Time and I don't have to even get into the car to go to the range.
I have a friend in northwest Arkansas that shoots his pellet rifle frequently for the same reason. I'm thinking you and him might have "flung a craving on me", I'm gonna have to get me one!
If you want something just to plink with, do a search on Beeman p17 it is accurate it is low powered and quiet enough to shoot inside. The sky's the limit on airguns though. I have five air guns that I consider a serious part of my survival prep. I have a RWS model 34 in177 caliber. This gun will get close to 900 ft per second with lead pellets and is seriously accurate. I have a Benjamin Trail np2 and 22 caliber this gun is capable of hitting 900 ft per second with 22 caliber pellets and it is quite accurate too. I have Benjamin multi-pump guns in both 177 and 22 caliber the 22 will do a bit over 600 ft per second the 177 will do a bit over 700 fps. Both these guns have Williams peep sights on them. They are light accurate and easy to carry. Benjamin pump pellet guns are easy to work on, the main things that go bad are O-rings and pump cups I can get two complete sets of O-rings for $14 off Amazon and pump cups are six bucks a piece from pyramyd Air. I keep these in stock so that if I ever do have to I have the stuff to repair them. I also just had a vintage Sheridan Blue streak 5 mm air gun drop into my lap in the last week. Besides these I have a Crosman 1377 with a buttstock and scope this will take game close but it is not powerful enough to be considered a serious survival tool I have a Crosman 2260 CO2 rifle this gun will take game but due to not being able to restock the CO2 in a survival situation I do not consider the survival tool and then I have the pistol listed above that's just a fun plinker. Even pellets are not easy as usual to come by but you can still get them online I have been finding some 177 caliber pellets in the stores. You can store 2000 to 3000 pellets in the area 500 22 shells take up. If you find them in the stores decent Crosman pellets run $6 to $8 for $500 they're about $10 for 500 online, but pyramid Air almost always has buy three get one tin free sales on pellets
I'm a big fan of pump pellet rifles, but for cheap plinking and training kids you can't beat a Daisy BB gun. If you use care in trapping the fired BB's they can be reused indefinitely. Springs and seals may wear out in a few decades. That's why you just buy a couple more BB guns as spares.
I have a Benjamin.177 pump with Williams peep sight and it is good enough for snap shooting, squirrels and rabbits. I would prefer shooting real rifles, but the current ammo situation precludes that. jim
Do you have some way to trap he spent lead pellets. They are pretty soft, pure lead? Enough of them could be used to make muzzle loader bullets.
I do most of my USPSA match practice with a pair of blow-back airsoft guns. I have an Open and a single-stack division practice guns. They hit hard, weigh what my match pistols weigh and run on propane.
I've had an RWS Diana .22 cal spring piston pellet rifle for years. Used to shoot ground squirrels with it. Kicked butt and have no issues with popping cottontails if I need meat badly enough. Almost silent and really effective.
I pick them up out of the pellet trap to clean up. I don't worry about the lead I have close to a 1000 lbs of medical grade pure lead laying around.
Gamo here. The backstop is open country, so reclaim isn't going to happen. FWIW, this is NOT one of the breakbarrel models, it has a separate lever. That way, the sights are not disturbed on cocking.
Have got a few i keep around as well ,, slingshots to. Ive got a CO2 BB pistol for plinking in the house . Made a target to reclaim the BBs. I haven't hit the mouse that runs thru the house occasionally yet ,, but ive gotten pretty close.
I like the laser trainers. They can be pretty cheap if you use a laser chamber insert and free phone app targeting system. You can use your own pistol with the chamber insert, but you have to keep resetting the trigger if you have a Glock or single action. There is also the top end laser training pistols that use CO2 to operate the slide while projecting a laser dot on target. The only thing you are missing is the full recoil and sound. I have an SIRT 110 (Glock) pistol that I use in conjunction with a PC based laser target scoring system called LASR. You can tape a target to a wall, point a webcam at it, and the program will count the laser hits and score it for you. My Sirt uses a green laser, and I have a .22lr chamber insert with a red laser. The LASR app can distinguish between the different color lasers and score accordingly, allowing a contest. This system does have it's down sides. You can get into the habit of following the dot instead of using the front sight properly. You have to notice that you are doing that and put all your concentration back onto the front sight. The LASR app can be used with an infra-red camera, and the SIRT pistols can be modified to use an infrared laser module. That way you can project laser dots but not see where you hit until you check the computer screen, much like walking up to your target at an outdoor range, and eliminate that particular bad habit.
I felt shooting skills were rusty during last years hunting season after a fire and shooting ban all spring and summer. So I just got a Benjamin trail. Hopefully we will be able to shoot some real bullets this summer, but this should help me stay sharp in the mean time. Does anyone else find the recoil very strange on a air rifle?
Spring gun recoil is nostalgic for me. The iron and copper content of the soil in Southeastern Michigan increased from all the BB's I shot as a kid. Air rifles have less wiggle but are more work.
Bought a couple of these types and they are very nice. Swarm Maxxim .177 caliber 10-shot break barrel air rifle - GAMO
Air guns are a great way to keep your shooting skills sharp. I have 3 a .177 Benjamin NP. A 5mm Beeman r10 and a .22 Benjamin NP all are scoped and very accurate a pop can at 100 yds is doable. Food on the table is easy and quite.
Sounds like me and my old air rifle is from when I was a kid. So when I first shot this thing it knocked my socks off. It does not seam to be grouping as good as it should but I have been told I should give it a good cleaning and also it takes a few hundred shots to settle down.
Don't forget to give those air guns a drink of oil. Hit all the pivot points and trigger assembly. Also does not hurt to clean the bore if you don't have a cleaning rod for .177 you can just take a patch with cleaner or oil and put into barrel and shoot it through just be careful what it will hit.
Shooting a patch through multi pump pnumatics or PCP guns is fine DON'T do it on spring powered guns it can damage them ,it is the same effect as dry firing a bow
Yes you are correct. I thought about that later. If you have access to an air compressor you can also blow a patch through the barrel if needed.
