The "buying your first .25 calibre air rifle" experience...

[GunnerAl]

I see quite a few .25 calibre spring type air rifles now being bought and used within this complete forum, and especially in the Hatsan community. I've been there for a few years now and I was just rememberring how the .25 cal krept up and bit me. I wonder if it happened like this for you guys...

Picture this,,

You're a spring type airgunner who has a few .177 cal rifles and maybe even a .22 cal or 2.. Life's pretty good as far as airgunning goes. You hit a fair percentage of what you aim at and there's no real reason to buck the system or mess with nature (as far as airguns are concerned)...

Then one day you think "I wonder what a .25 calibre air rifle would shoot like"... You toy with the idea in mind that you'd like to try a .25 cal - one day anyway. Then about two days later, you are just sitting there contemplating your navel and for no apparent reason your heart rate goes up by a noticable amount. You don't immediately know why but in the back of your mind you know there's a reason...

You see,, two days ago you bore in mind the idea of trying a .25 cal air rifle,, the seed was planted. It grew and grew. Now it's presence is felt and the actuality is about to hit you - "You Must Have A .25 Calibre Air Rifle". You just have to realize this idea. It wont go away and you can't suppress the urge. It will get the better of you. The harder you try to forget it, the worse it gnaws at you...

Eventually, you give in to the urge and begin to get serious on the idea. You wonder which one it could possibly be. You skim through the websites looking for the available guns, with heartbeat at its near maximum. You make your choice. Pick up the phone and call the shop,, ask,, and they say "YES sir, we have one left". You reply - "Don't you dare sell it, I'll be there first thing tomorrow, my name is XYZ, hold the rifle for me"... That night is murder on you, not being able to wait. No, or little sleep through the night, but tomorrow is finally here. You get to the shop, see you gun and it's like having an orgasm - there it is...!!! There's a sudden gush of "It's Mine" that hits you...

The deal is done. You now own a .25 cal air rifle. BUT, the best part is yet to come...

The first time you fire a pellet in one of these is the true realization of just how different the .25 calibre is compared to the other smaller calibres. The visible size of the pellets as you load them is almost mind blowing as you anticipate the event, but that's just the beginning. You aim,, pull the trigger and you immediately feel how different firing the .25 really is. If you got a super duper powerful job, you know, in the 1250fps class (.177 rated of course), then recoil becomes part of the deal and there's lots of it for an airgun, but you don't mind because this just serves to remind you "You're firing the big stuff now"... You get it sighted in and can't wait to either hit your first target or drop your first quarry with it. This eventually happens and it's an event like with no other airgun you own. The whole experience is different. You've put a couple of hundred rounds through it  and now you want to find just how well it's shooting velocity-wise, so to the chrony it goes. The figures aren't anyhwere near what they were with the smaller calibres but you realize this is just the surface characteristic of the big heavy .25 calibre. The real power is when that pellet is on its way toward the intended target, where all that stored energy is held and about to be released on the target... Lord help anything that gets in the way. WHAMMMM. Knock'em down power on tap...

After that initial days shooting, you have a smile from ear to ear. You sit that rifle in its new spot. The next day you take out one of the other rifles, which by now sound very tame. You still enjoy the shoot because you can now cock, aim and fire this rifle with relative ease compared to the new .25'er. You can't wait to take the .25 out again though... Tomorrow for sure...!!!

You now have the .25 calibre, ummm, disease, blood in your veins, love of, syndrome - call it want you want.. You've got it...!!!

[Mpac]

This 5/8 plywood at 30 yards got in the way.Complete pass thru with 20.06 grain FTT .25 cal.

[TleVta]

Ideally, I'd like to have a TalonP in .25. But I don't really need one since I can't buy a Shoebox right now.

[devdem]

Thanks Al.  Or rather my wife thanks you for pushing me over yet another threshold 

I know it's going to happen, sure as death and taxes.  Hopefully sooner than both.

[GunnerAl]

Hey, I didn't mean to cause any family riots - GULP..!!

To me it just seems the correct way to go. That, and once you get there, you wonder why you didn't go there much sooner. Over here in New Zealand, we don't really see too many .25's but every now and then they show up. Just a matter of being in the right place at the wrong time - Hahahaha...

[rockgrabber]

Your post confirmed what I thought to be true........ the .25 is all rainbows and unicorns. Thanks.
My inner voice was right, "I don't want, I need a .25."

[Nomadic Pirate]

.25s that shoot 30 FPE (therefore a pretty good fps) are a total blast,...love them

[Ahab]

GunnerA1 you pretty much hit the nail on the head. That's how I got my first .25, only I went with the HW90.

[Steve B]

You wrote that up like a reporter. I had almost purchased a .25 on line was in the process of checking out and it hit me, I have no .25 pellets, and that means ordering 3-4 diffrent types for a start to see what the gun likes. That's when I wimped out. I keep my eyes open for a .25 maybe one of the manufacturers will get a nice package ready in .25(caugh,caugh)

[GunnerAl]

Guys, I actually bought my first spring .25 calibre air rifle under similar circumstances and I'm always on the lookout for them. As I said above, you don't really see that many of them over here - what a pity, or I'd probably own a few more, and who really cares how powerful they are or aren't. I would actually enjoy trying a lesser powerful one, most likely rated at about 15 - 16 ft-lb which is the equivalent of about a 24 gr pellet hitting 550fps, but that's an awful lot of weight to move so it would still be fun, and, the recoil would be quite light just like the average air rifle. Even when a .25 cal pellet hits a timber target, the sound is so much louder and I've seen all sorts of desciptive words used to portray the sound of 25 calibre hitting home and they all seem to convey the exact same exciting emotion it gives to you...

If any of you end up buying one, I really hope you have the same gut feeling I have had ever since I first touched the calibre...

[daddy b]

Yeah, .25 30+ fts is awesome, humane, and fun to plink at cans, army men, bottle caps.  Yes, I'm buying another...........soon, plus I'm going to turn my Benji trail np xl into one for kicks, but I'll have 2 barrels.  I enjoyed your story..!!!!!

[airkrazy]

There is nothing like that audible pop when you strike a live target. It is truly addictive....

[Bryan Heimann]

Where my duct seal pellet trap is set up in the closet of our room, leaned against the wall, my wife could hear the whump of the .25 pellets smacking it from outside the house .