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Recommend a starter air rifle


chesterjester
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I have a shotgun licence only, but now fancy getting an air rifle for shooting vermin. I do not want to get a FAC at this stage. I know very little about air rifles, and only have a small budget (£200). From a little research, I guess I need something just under 12ft/lb and 0.22 cal? I have no knowledge of scopes however?

 

Could you please advise me on what type of rifle I should go for, and advise me on what scopes to look for?

 

Any help gratefully received!!

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bsa supersport in .22 with a simple hawke 3-9x40 scope :good:

Good taste HotShot. Nice, simple, accurate and dead easy to use. I miss my supersport :yp:

 

 

If CJ is a big chap though an HW95K might be more suitable though as my only gripe with the Supersport was it was a tad small for me, and I'm only 6ft 0. I found also I get on with slightly heavier rifles.

Still an easy-to-use break barrel with no bottle or pump requirement.

 

ATB

 

Duncan

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Best bet is a second hand spring-powered rifle from a decent maker, ie Weihrauch, Air Arms etc Also BSA Lightning is very good.

 

If you go for a Pre-charged pnumatic rifle it will be more accurate and quieter (with a supressor) but you'll need to get a pump or divers bottle to fill it up.

 

Probably try to avoid Hawke and SMK scopes as the quality varies alot from scope to scope.

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Also BSA Lightning is very good.

BSA lightenings wont let you down, only two faults are that makes a good bang when you fire it even though it has the moderator, also you can still pull the trigger with the barrel down, but neither of them caused me any probs when I had one.

Overall very good reliable gun :good:

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Keep an eye on Guntrader and Gunstar-the trader is advertising a couple of scoped BSA Mercurys and a HW99 in your price range-the Mercury may be getting on a bit but they were a very good gun and easy to shoot well with.You can allways make a dealer an offer on a gun slightly over your price limit-you might get lucky if the guns been hanging around a while-keep an eye out for TX200,s and Original 45,s as well -both underated and sometimes priced accordingly.Dont be afraid to buy blind over the phone from a dealer because you are covered by the "distance selling law"-you can return the gun and get a full refund if ,for any reason, you dont like the gun.Dont rush in and you should be o.k.

Edited by bruno22rf
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anything with hw in front of it should do you well. hw95ks and hw80s being my personal favourites. also bsa supersport. i bought a lightning xl and was dissapointed with the quality of it. saftey catch fell off within a few weeks of buying it, and it made quite a twang wehn you fired it. i found it not accurate enough to hunt past 25yrds where as with hw97k and hw95k i can get good enough groups out to 35yrds.

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don't discount CO2 rifles. I have an Crossman AS392T and is surpridingly accurate up to 40yd.

There are good springers out there but require more practice to shoot them acurately as they can be hold sensitive. I have 2 springers, 2 CO2 guns and 3PCPs.

My advice is to save for a multishot pcp as they have no recoil and are silent if silencer is fitted. bsa ultra, AA S200 are good guns and they will save lots of grief in the long run.

Hope it helps.

Sorin

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look for an older HW80 or HW77, big heavy guns built like tanks but perform as good or better than the springers of today. Good quality spring guns like air arms TX200 and the newer more fashonable HW range will generally stetch that budjet, but a well used but totally functional older gun could come into that range

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look for an older HW80 or HW77, big heavy guns built like tanks but perform as good or better than the springers of today. Good quality spring guns like air arms TX200 and the newer more fashonable HW range will generally stetch that budjet, but a well used but totally functional older gun could come into that range

HW's Quality that lasts for years! The sweetest shooting springer I ever had was a HW97K in.22, the bluing was so worn as to be non-existant, but @ 35 yards when I was doing my job right, it was pellet on top of pellet.

Pee'd off many on the FT circuit at the time :lol:

Edited by The Duncan
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No one but me seems to own a HW99S :blink:

Superb and lightweight, mine gives 11.38 ftlbs on H&N FTT 14.66 grain, fitted with simple Hawke 3-9 X 50 scope, genuine HW99 silencer (£60!) its a perfect break barrel in my mind :good:

Not bad considering the HW99 was Weihrauch's 'budget' gun!

Most Weihrauchs I've had love FT Trophys - my current HW100s is the exception to the rule - AA field 4.52 pips them to the accuracy post.

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Hi Agree with the above re HWs & LXLs got one of each, HW90 in .22 & a lightning XL in .177 Both with Nikko Stirling 4-12x50AO

 

You could have look on the trading post gun sales on here or put an ad in the wanted section.

Here's my Lightening setup & what it does at 15 yards - the longest part of my garden.

post-24209-0-64074200-1294093412.jpg

post-24209-0-52346400-1294093430.jpg

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This topic is filled with HW and AirArms adherents. If you are looking at brand spankers then you could do worse than looking at Gamo and other "budget" brands. however, cannot fault the advice of the HW fraternity. At the end of the day it is your call, but above all make sure the beast fits in both dimension and weight. Then try a variety of pellets to see what suits you and off you go. Get some instruction and read up on shooting and air weapons. Next thing you know your first live target will be in the cross hairs.

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As has been said before, buying something with HW in the model number is the way to go for a good all-round air rifle suitable for shooting vermin, plinking and occaisional field target shooting. If the weight is not an issue (and HW's are all heavy when compared to a cheap and nasty) then go for an underlever such as the HW77. If weight is an issue get a break barrel such as a HW80.

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This topic is filled with HW and AirArms adherents. If you are looking at brand spankers then you could do worse than looking at Gamo and other "budget" brands. however, cannot fault the advice of the HW fraternity. At the end of the day it is your call, but above all make sure the beast fits in both dimension and weight. Then try a variety of pellets to see what suits you and off you go. Get some instruction and read up on shooting and air weapons. Next thing you know your first live target will be in the cross hairs.

To be fair, I had some good experiences with Gamo springers so +1 from me :good:

Lighter than HW's too.

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