Inexpensive Pumper weekend

[sandman20]

Well, I just had to see for myself how much air gun a little money would purchase. I ordered a Crosman 2100 from Wally World online $49.00 and picked up a Daisy 880 at my local Walmart for $39 and change. I do not have any way to measure pellet velocity other than how I perceive the hit on my target face (A wine box hanging from my bird feeder with a target taped to it) or my ghetto fabulous tin can silhouette gallery.

First up was the Crosman B2100.

The good
*This gun has decent heft and feels more like an adult air gun.
*The receiver is metal and gives the appearance of quality.
*Dead on accurate right out of the box. (Without adjusting the sight! Maybe just lucky on this one)
*The trigger isn't all that bad.
*It appears to hit pretty hard with 6 pumps. Shoots though both sides of a tin can at 25 yards.
 
The bad
*This thing was almost impossible to pull the bolt back right out of the box without using two fingers. I thought the bolt was going to break off it bent back so much. I wound up loosening the receiver screws then just snugging them back up. To me, they were way to tight. This made a fairly significant difference and now I can pull it back with one finger although it is still fairly stiff.
* Fairly stiff pumping which increases in resistance with the number of pumps. Not really an issue for adults but for younger shooters it could be a deal breaker.

Daisy 880

The good
* This gun cocks very easy.
* Extremely easy pumping. (At first I thought there was something wrong with it)
* Light weight, completely toylike (But so is an AR15...could be good or bad depending on what camp your from)
* Very accurate right out of the box (Once you get used to the trigger)
* Hits suprisingly hard (My perception) (6 pumps)

The bad
* The trigger really takes some getting used to.
* Loading the pellets with a scope mounted is a bit fiddly. I found that pushing the bolt forward a bit helped as it would not allow a pellet to fall back into the cavity where the BB's are picked up from.
*Plastic receiver looks and feels cheap.

Overall and much to my own surprise, the Daisy 880 became my favorite. As mention above, I wound up mounting a 4x32 centerpoint scope to it and it is extremely accurate once you come to terms with the aweful trigger. For all its toylike looks and feel this air gun is no joke. I may warm up to the crosman after fiddling with it some more as it is accurate and the trigger is a bit more crisp than the Daisy. I really wish crosman could improve a bit with the 2100 mechanicals (Mostly the bolt) as I feel this gun has a lot of potential. For just air guns under $50.00 it is really hard to go wrong. This is not a very technical review but I sure had a good time playing with my new toys over the weekend. BTW my better half can't figure out why I'd even bother with these since I have a room full of much more expensive air toys. I guess I'm just sick like that ;-))

[Tater]

Did you put a bit of Pelgunoil on the bolt that was sticking?

[sandman20]

I'll give that a try but it appears to be more spring pressure than mechanical binding. If the bolt was sturdier I think that would help.

[cwlongshot]

Welcome Sandman!

Thank you for the reviews!!  Many here like the 880 too so your in very good company!

CW