The Appeal of an Air Rifle

[Cgchad]

Honestly I am getting involved with airguns out of necessity.  It started with a pest problem, and the old Benjamin 20 caliber I have is showing wear, plus my eyes are now not so cooperative with the iron sights on it.
I'm still of the mentality that if I can get away with using a powder burner,  I'll do that, but the problem I've been working on,  and where I'm working on it, it's not practical.

After all is said and done though, I'm getting more trigger time with the airgun than any other lately.

[Nomadic Pirate]

I could hunt Hogs with my Henry .357 MAG but I find it more exciting with my .25 cal PCPs


I can check my zero before going hunting,.... in my Backyard,
I can have all the trigger time I ever want,...in my Backyard, ...with Big Bores too, and those things I can't do with firearms.

As for how people perceive airguns ? Yes most don't even know PCPs even exist but I tell you what,....I was forced to sell several of my PCPs after going to the range and let hardcore Firearms guys shoot them (ho boy how wide those eyes get ), heck, this guy would not let me leave and ended up giving me 1800 bucks for one of my Rainstorms .357

[longhunter]

I can get trigger time, any time I want, right in my basement. no need to spend hundreds on range dues/fees. it can be 40 below, outside, but, it's a balmy 65 down there. as far as hunting, I think it makes me a better hunter. I have to get a little closer to my target. now that I think about it, the ranges aren't all that different. 30-35 yards is still shotgun range, and, that's about as far as I've ever shot anything with a .22, as well.
ammunition cost is another factor. if I shot my pb's as much as I shoot my airguns, I'd need a second job, just to buy ammo.

I'm just a big kid. my airguns help me remember a time when things were different, less hectic. when I was a kid, we didn't have a schedule. we'd call each other up, " hey, let's go fishin ", or whatever tickled our fancy, at that particular moment. carpe diem, ya know ? I NEED that in my life. even if it's only for an hour or two, when I'm home.

[avator]

Scott..... we might be related...

[Sfttailrdr46]

  Off the top of my head all 3 of us are probably related in some fashion even if not by genetics

[jus Tom]

Yah,, we're all related, one way or another.  I've only been around here a short while and got back into air guns to tackle a chipmunk population explosion.  I now own 5 rifles, they all do what I need them to do, but find myself wanting new challenges after becoming proficient with each one..... will it ever end ?

In reading and communicating with some of the members, I've become more knowledgeable in shooting and modification to make my experience better, THANKS GTA.

[Tater]

I can get trigger time, any time I want, right in my basement. no need to spend hundreds on range dues/fees. it can be 40 below, outside, but, it's a balmy 65 down there. as far as hunting, I think it makes me a better hunter. I have to get a little closer to my target. now that I think about it, the ranges aren't all that different. 30-35 yards is still shotgun range, and, that's about as far as I've ever shot anything with a .22, as well.
ammunition cost is another factor. if I shot my pb's as much as I shoot my airguns, I'd need a second job, just to buy ammo.

I'm just a big kid. my airguns help me remember a time when things were different, less hectic. when I was a kid, we didn't have a schedule. we'd call each other up, " hey, let's go fishin ", or whatever tickled our fancy, at that particular moment. carpe diem, ya know ? I NEED that in my life. even if it's only for an hour or two, when I'm home.

Beautiful said, especially the last sentence. I gotta admit that it does bum me out that I can only shoot indoors though. Being outside in the woods, even just plinking is what really miss.My wife has gotten into shooting the last year or too and I hate that we can't just go out for a walk and shoot away.

[longhunter]

I'm fortunate enough to still be able to get around. I do hunt quite a bit, I just don't post about it. although, I'm getting soft, in my old age. I don't like to be out and about, when it's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. hunting, for me, is another form of relaxation, not an exercise in winter survival. ( at least not unless it has to be ). most of the time, I only have enough time home to get caught up on the "honey-do" list, and, get in a little trigger time, here and there. then, back on the road, for a week or two.

[Sfttailrdr46]

  My eclectic collection is all about options I like having them whenever I do things whether hunting, fishing, camping or whatever so my AG's reflect that mind set

[longhunter]

Scott..... we might be related...

scary thought  .

[avator]

Scott..... we might be related...

scary thought  .

awww... c'mon buddy.. 

[SpiralGroove]

Yeah Guys,
I still remember sitting down with my Dad and shooting his CO2 pistol when I was about 5 or 6.  It was the coolest thing I could think of and some great Dad time.  Now, there is nothing more relaxing than just sitting, in my 12 yard range, slowly shooting and making minor tweaks to my stable of air guns.  It's a reality FIX that resets your brain    It must be the German wiring I got from my Dad.
You go through all the same process working on (stock/metal work), adjusting and constantly tweaking as you do a powder burner - you just don't have the bang or expense.

I was the neighbor kid who was always hunting in our backyard ravine and learned how to use my Dad's tools at a young age. 
Right now, I've shot too much stuff and just enjoy the challenge of the Bullseye.

If people don't get it, I smile and just think WHATEVER

[Minuteman]

At first, the appeal was strong. Especially when 22LR ammo became scarce. Honestly, I'd rather shoot 22 than pellets. But pellets are more plentiful and a lot cheaper. I went through the usual progression with air rifles, going from cheap to more expensive, but then my economic situation turned bleak, and so I had to sell off the higher dollar guns. Now I am back to cheap guns and that's probably where I will stay. I am seriously considering selling even those off and moving on to a cheaper hobby or just buying a few replica handguns, which I find more fun to shoot than rifles. I don't mind shooting BBs at all. That's where I started out in the first place. So I guess you could say the appeal of air rifles is wearing off for me.

[avator]

MEDIC !!!!

[scrane]

Shooters are generally a pretty conservative part of the population and not especially open to new things.

[SpiralGroove]

Sorry scrane........... ,
Now that just sounds ridiculous
My Two Cents............... and Avator --------> my wife does feel I need some counseling!!

[Airjason]

These days some people would balk at spending so much money for an airgun. Prices have gone up since my beginning days. There still are cheap airguns that look like Euoropean counterparts, but they are not the same in quality. The appeal for me was being able to shoot as much as I wanted to at various small targets out in the backyard or fields. More freedom than shooting a rimfire rifle. It also helped my interest in airguns greatly when I looked through the offerings in the ARH and Beeman catalogs. It was like "Wow", and this was over 30 years ago.

[Sfttailrdr46]

  I count my blessings every day. For my age I am in good to excellent health, can afford to indulge in most anything I want to do and AG's fill an important niche in the life I live along with a couple other hobbies. As far as what I choose to own for me personally my preference is to buy the very best possible whatever and use it until it is worn out and needs to be rebuilt. That being said if I end up with 8 or 10 keeper AG's in whatever flavor they may be I would just rather have 10 $500 dollar guns than 20 $200 guns but that is just me some people have a different perspective or different priority's doesn't make them wrong or me right just different. At the end we all love the AG's and shooting them for the tightest groups or the highest possible FT or HFT score they can achieve or whatever it is that puts that silly 10 year old kid smile back on their face   

[stonykill]

  Like all of us I had a Red Rider as a kid. My parents were dirt poor, so I was jealous of my friends pellet rifles. Most of the years in between were filled with Pb's and archery. Still do the archery. My Pb's sit. In the last 12 months I shot a PB exactly twice. The 2 shots in the vitals of a buck with my Savage 99 .308. But I have shot thousands of pellets in that 12 months.
   I hunt and pest a LOT. Last year, just the mammals I kept track of were approaching 200 with Ag's . I stopped keep track and taking pictures. I take a few now and then, but not many anymore.

   For YEARS , heck most of my life I fought a pull and flinch. As my bio dad ( my real dad, but not the guy who raised me)  thought it was funny to hand me a 12 gauge to shoot when I was far too young to shoot one. But shooting AG's has fixed that. AG's have vastly improved both my shooting ability and my ability's as a hunter.

   I try to spend at least a few minutes each day shooting or at the very least working on an AG. My down time.

   There is a lot i love about AG's, the flight of the pellet reminds me so of the mystical flight of the arrow. I just love it.

[sk73]

Like many of you, I shot BB guns as a boy and graduated to firearms.  The challenge of shooting is what I like.  With firearms, I handloaded and dealt with the challenges of noise and recoil.  But, alas, the challenges of  finding a place to shoot and finding time to get to that place, finally got me.  I love being able to shoot in my back yard or in my garage whenever I want.  As was said above, it fills a need I have.  I guess all of us who shoot airguns or firearms have that need.  Airguns equal convenience now and I don't shoot firearms much now.