[BeastOfBurden]

Due to the ammo shortage and price increases I want to buy an air gun and set up a range at home. I've never used an air gun before and am open to any advice you have. Some questions I have for starters are:

1. What air guns would you recommend to someone buying their first, and where would you recommend buying them from?

2. I want to make sure I don't do any damage to my house, so if you use your air gun at home where do you use it and what do you do to prevent damage to your property?

3. Besides the air gun itself, what else do you recommend I buy for use with it?

 

[Workaholic]

I'm not familiar with any of the Air guns available on today's market. But, I would use a bb/pellet trap target.

 

[5lima30ret]

I use a Crossman 2240 .22 Co2 pellet pistol and a Beeman QB 78 Co2 .22 pellet rifle. Both are very easy and pretty consistent to shoot. They work fine for squirrels and water moccasins that I occasionally have to dispatch. I would avoid the spring piston guns they tend to be louder and are rough on optics and IMO harder to shoot accurately vs Co2 or PCP.

I target shoot with both of them in my garage. I just made simple box out of scrap lumber lined with commercial rubber backed carpet. I had to double the 1/2" plywood on the back because the pointed pellet were just about completely penetrating it.

 

[jacob jump]

Go to a air gun forum and ask the same questions

 

[oldbadger]

Do net search on Stoeger arms. You might try more than one type of projectile since a given rifle may well perform better wsith a particular pellet. Golod luck. The BB pellet trap is a good idea.

 

[gasmitty]

Are you looking for an air rifle, or air pistol? Will you be shooting mostly indoors or outdoors? How big is your budget?
Space-wise, 10 yards/meters is a good distance if you have the space.

My advice is to avoid the marketing noise and go for quality construction and avoid the numbers race of velocity. 500-700 ft/sec is plenty for target shooting and small pest elimination. For short-range shooting (under 35 yards or so), .177 cal will probably be more accurate than .22, and with a flatter trajectory, but the extra weight of the .22 makes it a better choice for hunting and at greater distances.

I started with a Crosman pump-up for garden pest elimination, and with its rifled barrel and a superb pellet it served its purpose well. I literally shot that gun apart! Its successors are two spring-piston rifles, RWS 34 and Beeman R9 (Weihrauch HW95), both quite accurate. However, springers are sensitive to how they are held if ultimate accuracy is the goal. The pre-charged pneumatics take the accuracy prize, but a full setup with gun and pump gets pricey - well into 4 digits.

If you can swing it, for starting out with either pistol or rifle, I'd look in the $500 range and start comparing specs. Again, be wary of a manufacturer hyping velocity numbers. I'd be looking for and adjustable trigger, good open sights
and/or a solid means to mount a scope.

Indoors, you want a a noise-absorbing backstop/bullet trap. Bare wood will get chewed up quickly, but electrician's putty, layers of carpeting or firehose or similar material will hold noise to a minimum.

Two very reliable sources of information:

Airguns of Arizona

Our Take Why & How - Straight Shooters Precision Airguns

 

[G26Raven]

BeastofBurden, there are two main types of air guns, Airsoft (which fires plastic pellets) and pellet guns (which fire lead pellets). I would search for the an air gun that is as close to the type of firearm you normally shoot as possible. I have Glock airsoft guns and a Sig P226 pellet gun. The airsoft guns are closer in design to the Glock than the Sig pellet gun. The Glock airsoft guns I own have magazines that have the same look, weight, shape and feel as a Glock 19. The Sig pellet gun matches the weight, shape, and manual of arms of the Sig P226 but the magazines are nothing like an actual Sig magazine.

The Sig pellet gun fires a lead pellet that can probably penetrate the skin pretty deeply as they have a higher velocity than the airsoft pellets. The report from the Sig pellet gun is also a bit louder. Further, the Sig pellet gun will fire more shots with a single CO2 cartridge than the Glock airsoft guns with a charge from a green gas cylinder. Both the Glock airsoft gun and the Sig pellet gun can use off the shelf holsters for their firearm counterparts.

There are many different types of air gun bullet traps that are commercially available. I built one that I use in my garage. There's a thread with pictures here:

Airsoft pellet trap

I was thinking about it the other day and realized that I have two Airsoft G19 replicas that have been sitting in the closet unused for quite awhile (since I took my force-on-force class two years ago). I decided now was the time to build a pellet trap for them so I could practice without making...

www.defensivecarry.com

You might want to look at the website, Evike.com for a good selection of air guns. Amazon also has airsoft guns and supplies on their site.

 

[BeastOfBurden]

Thank you for the advice and information! I would mostly or maybe even completely be doing my shooting indoors, most likely in the garage. I suppose it's an air pistol that I'm looking for more than an air rifle at this moment. When it comes to real firearms I have both pistols and rifles, but when going to the range I practice with my pistols more because that's what I use when I conceal carry. I'm not opposed to getting both an air pistol and air rifle, but will probably go with one at first since I'm new to this.

As far as budget goes I have to show my ignorance here because I have no clue what I can expect a good quality air pistol to cost. On the one hand I don't want to break the bank, but on the other hand if a certain air pistol is cheap in price but will soon be broken then that's a bargain I don't want.

One that I was considering was the Umarex Legends M712, because I have wanted a real Mauser but never bought one due to the price and the ammo definitely not being the sort I'd usually buy. However, despite good reviews on Amazon, it may be garbage for all I know, and I don't know if $109.99 is a good price or not. Any thoughts on that are welcome.

A Glock air pistol does seem like something I'd be interested in since I have several real Glocks.

 

[gasmitty]

I don't associate the name Umarex with quality airguns. Not trying to break your budget, but $100 range is at the low end of entry level. "Buy cheap, buy twice" comes to mind, but it depends on your level of satisfaction.

I'd be looking for reviews on airgun websites long before I'd give credence to reviews on Amazon.

 

[G26Raven]

Thank you for the advice and information! I would mostly or maybe even completely be doing my shooting indoors, most likely in the garage. I suppose it's an air pistol that I'm looking for more than an air rifle at this moment. When it comes to real firearms I have both pistols and rifles, but when going to the range I practice with my pistols more because that's what I use when I conceal carry. I'm not opposed to getting both an air pistol and air rifle, but will probably go with one at first since I'm new to this.

As far as budget goes I have to show my ignorance here because I have no clue what I can expect a good quality air pistol to cost. On the one hand I don't want to break the bank, but on the other hand if a certain air pistol is cheap in price but will soon be broken then that's a bargain I don't want.

One that I was considering was the Umarex Legends M712, because I have wanted a real Mauser but never bought one due to the price and the ammo definitely not being the sort I'd usually buy. However, despite good reviews on Amazon, it may be garbage for all I know, and I don't know if $109.99 is a good price or not. Any thoughts on that are welcome.

A Glock air pistol does seem like something I'd be interested in since I have several real Glocks.

I suspect that no air gun is going to have the long term reliability of an actual firearm. That said, my gut feeling is that pellet guns will outlast airsoft guns, but I don't have enough time on either to be certain of that. The Glock airsoft guns I have I bought for a 3 day force-on-force class and they worked well in that environment. They sat on the shelf for awhile before I broke them out and used them again. They seem to be reasonably reliable. If I recall correctly, there were a couple different types of Glock airsoft pistols when I bought mine. This was the model I bought.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CGHGK8W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Sig pellet gun I purchased I bought directly from Sig Sauer.

 

[5lima30ret]

I don't associate the name Umarex with quality airguns. Not trying to break your budget, but $100 range is at the low end of entry level. "Buy cheap, buy twice" comes to mind, but it depends on your level of satisfaction.

I'd be looking for reviews on airgun websites long before I'd give credence to reviews on Amazon.

^^^This very wise advice!^^^

 

[BeastOfBurden]

Thanks again everyone! This was all new to me so I'm glad to know what to look for and what to avoid.

 

[10thmtn]

Take a look at my thread on the American Classic air pistol. For indoors you really want a pump-up, so you can adjust the velocity...not a CO2 gun. Plus, no need to buy CO2 cartridges.

I got the Academy credit card ($15 off) so my net cost was $35.

 

[Nod]

I've owned several different pellet pistols and rifles for the last 20+ years. If you're looking for a good solid pump pistol in either .177 or .22 it's hard to beat the Crosman American Classic P1377. I've never owned one of these but I belong to several air gun sites and everyone swears by it. I would stay away from CO2 only because you have to keep buying the cartridges and they don't have the fps. I'm down to just 2 rifles now , a Diana 34 in .22 cal and a Benjiman Marauder PCP in .25 cal. I use them for pest control but I do some target shooting in my basement. I've got a 55' range down there.

 

[elmacgyver0]

I really can't imagine anyone in this country who didn't have a BB gun growing up.
What a sad place indeed this country has become.

 

[Geezer]

I've owned several different pellet pistols and rifles for the last 20+ years. If you're looking for a good solid pump pistol in either .177 or .22 it's hard to beat the Crosman American Classic P1377. I've never owned one of these but I belong to several air gun sites and everyone swears by it. I would stay away from CO2 only because you have to keep buying the cartridges and they don't have the fps. I'm down to just 2 rifles now , a Diana 34 in .22 cal and a Benjiman Marauder PCP in .25 cal. I use them for pest control but I do some target shooting in my basement. I've got a 55' range down there.

Agree. I'm in the process of breaking a new American Classic that I got a few days ago. At first, I didn't like it because it was too hard to pump it more than three times. My opinion has changed, it's getting easier to pump every day, and is very potent at four pumps. I'm going to order another one because the future doesn't look too bright right now.

 

[5lima30ret]

Agree. I'm in the process of breaking a new American Classic that I got a few days ago. At first, I didn't like it because it was too hard to pump it more than three times. My opinion has changed, it's getting easier to pump every day, and is very potent at four pumps. I'm going to order another one because the future doesn't look too bright right now.

You might want to consider a 1322 to compliment your 1377. They are much better at pest control!