Pellet Rifles

Shot a Coyote out the front door of the house a couple days ago with the .22 mag, went to shoot a red squirrel off the bird feeder yesterday and my wife let me know she doesn't care for gunfire from the house, something about the noise.

Hoping someone on here knows a thing or two about Pellet Rifles, information seems hard to sort though now that every website is trying to sell you something and facebook doesn't allow much in the way of firearm discussions.

I bought a Benjamin Marauder in .177, it is shipping here. I need a way to fill it, I was thinking a hand pump, should I spring for a $200 one or do the cheaper $50ish-100 dollar ones work okay?

What is recommended for scopes on Air Rifles? I've seen claims saying you need "airgun" scopes, any truth to that or can I throw on one of my extra scopes meant for centerfires?

I've never had a decent pellet rifle, anything I should buy or know about before it gets here?

Not sure about the ones with the air reservoir, but a "springer" type airgun will, within a short time / few shots, absolutely destroy a scope that would spend years happily atop a 30-06. Definitely need an air gun rated scope for that type.

That's odd, good to know, Thanks!

You can buy a decent gamo in either .177 or .22 at walmarts

I had a bunch of Cabelas Points saved up, decided to get a new gun with it. Got them to price match Walmart on the Marauder for $400, not cheap but I'm hoping it is as good as all the claims.

The marauder is a great gun. I use one in .22 cal. I have a hose that fits the mako air compressor at our firestation and can be used with a scba tank. I have a buddy that uses a hand pump and he says it takes forever to fill. Any scope will work since there is no kick like a springer gun.

The first fill is a doozy. After that, it's not too bad. The Benjamins fill to 2500psi instead of 3000. That helps.

Thank you, seems like many of the scopes I would like are out of stock so I may as well throw on what I have for now.

Should have got that stuff straightened out before you let her move in.

Yup. I've been told a Leupold will hold up for a while, but I've not tried it. It will break reticles loose, loosen lenses and even crack lens. It is the reverse recoil of a spring piston air rifle, they recoil forward instead of back against your shoulder and centerfire scopes are not designed to withstand that. I have a Beeman Kodiak in 25 caliber, and it even breaks airgun scopes after a few hundred rounds. Haven't used it in a while, scope is broken and needs sent in and it managed to rattle the rear sight loose and I lost it, got a new iron sight for it but haven't sighted it in. Is a fun gun to shoot but heavy to pack around, nice heavy walnut stock on it and plenty of steel in its makeup. Killed a lot of bobcats with it years ago though, absolutely deadly.

I had a Marauder in .25 for while, and I used a hand pump to charge it.

In the end I was glad I just used the hand pump. Mine was around a $200 pump, they didnt come much cheaper when I bought mine. It was stand alone and needed no electricity, and the pumping was not easy but also not too hard.
After giving it a good trial on squirrel safari for two seasons, I decided that the .22 LR with subsonic hollow points and a can screwed on the end was still the best squirrel plucker I have ever used. Still is. I do keep wanting to try a .30 PCP with some real bullets instead of skirted pellets. It seemed like the skirted pellets did not like wind, and they tended to disintegrate into tiny pieces of lead that contaminated more meat than the good old .22

I would definitely look into whether a .177 will reliably kill a coyote and at what distance. I have my doubts, but no experience with that.

Not so on a PCP just springers. The springers have a harsh "reverse" type recoil that take apart scope innards.

PCPs and pumps don't have the moving spring piston so lack the recoil.

I would recommend an airgun specific scope though. One with a reticle set up for airgun range finding and holdover. While modern PCPs are quite powerful, reach out there flat shooting they are not. So if you plan to maximize distance you'll need to learn the dope.

She's 24 weeks pregnant, she said the sudden loud noise upset the baby and made him move around, hard to argue against that. Add to the fact it's getting crowded around here, seems safer shooting pellets at Starlings and squirrels up in trees rather than the .22

It's more for pest at the bird feeder, the occasional Coyote will still get the .22 mag. I would love to just put a can on a .22 and call it good but I don't want to invite more Govt into my life.

JMO, but serious work starts with the 25 to approximate 22short. 30 gets you into mid size critters with 357 being the minimum for game.

The 177, 20 and 22 are sparrow and squirrel guns.

Lol....exactly

I've had a .25 Marauder for about 5 years now. I've only ever used the Benjamin hand pump I bought at the same time and its never given me problems. I have had to replace some seals on the rifle over the years, though.

Get the pcp gun and a good pump. You will not regret it. I have a umarex gauntlet with a hill hand pump. Love it. The accuracy is great. No springer gun I’ve seen will even come close I don’t shoot for good groups. This gun will put the pellet in the same hole. Got a bushnell rimfire scope on mine. Killed 34 starlings in a row before with the other day. No misses.

some of those cheap harbor freight ear muffs

when it's time to shoot toss a pair at her

I bet she gets the hint

and if your still married in the morning she's a Keeper

she probably wouldn't care much if you use CCI Quite from the longest barrel 22lr you have

I have louder pelet guns than the CCI Quite form the 26 in barrel , the 21 inch barrel is not as quiet but about the same as most spring air guns

This link will give you a few scope options to think about.

https://thegunzone.com/best-air-rifle-scopes/

You will be very happy with the Marauder. Super accurate. Very quiet. But you might have to try a number of different pellets to find the most accurate one. Usually the heavier ones shoot better. You can pick up used scuba tanks very cheap and can get alot of fills on a tank. I have a carbon fiber tank that is 4000 psi for filling mine. I have never used a pump but have been told it is kind of tiring. If you are not going to shoot it a ton it should be good. I have several PCP guns but the Marauder gets the most use by far.

Shot a lot of rabbits in years gone by with a pump pellet rifle.

Air guns can be as loud as a rifle. I recommend getting a suppressor and shooting subsonic ammo. The cci segmented hp sv are very quiet suppressed and really hard hitting game stopper.

Can legally suppress an airgun without a tax stamp and atf approval

Yep, I have a hand full of airguns at the farm. 2 .22 cal benjamin maximus for the boys and an old Sheridan pump I had Mac one put his steroid kit in it. I'm really pro air gun. Used them for the trapping the last few years.

But no matter how great they are a 14.6gr pellet can't preform like a 40gr slug especially those segmented cci when your talking coyote size critters at more than 15 yards with a perfect shot.

The nfa process is not as bad as you think just an irritating infringement .

Gamo sucks Had the same issue but squirrel and starlings Bought whisper cat Wouldn’t stay lined up every time I use it it was off. Called game and lady said run 200 RDS barrel break in sent me to tins of ammo. Shot 250 approximately still same thing With the barrel break design it can’t be very accurate. Scope and barrel disconnect every shot
Oh yes called them back had 90 days to return it but took longer to shot past break in
Oh yes it’s fir sale !!!!

I'll still use the .22 mag on the big stuff. Getting the air gun for English sparrows, starlings and red squirrels.

Skip the hand pump and get a water cooled compressor.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Techtong...r-Compressor-YONG-HENG-Genuine/414692838

Looking for one myself and following this thread closely. Read some of the reviews on Gamos and find they do not have replacement parts. Lots of problems with consistency. Even the more top end ones have a fair amount of negative reviews but then nothing is perfect.

The marauder is internally suppressed. It's a whisper when you shoot

The Marauder is a great airgun. Very quiet from what I hear. Have a Benjamin discovery. Good squirrel gun. I have two pumps. One is a Benjamin that presently needs a rebuild. The other is a Chinese (?) knock off that I bought a backup and it has worked just as well as the Benjamin. So far.

I would recommend that you be sure to get a scope with an adjustable objective. Called an AO. Other wise your target may not be clear at close ranges.

Got ya, then I would go with a pcp. The maximus I bought the boys are long and loud add a moderator will add more length. But we are not in town so the noise is not a problem. I picked them up off midway around black Friday for $135 each a few years back. Bought a Chinese hand pump off Amazon for $69 & been good to go. Takes about 70 pumps to go from 1k pst to 2k psi and they get around 25 shots before dropping off. Well the front sight fell off and rear sights attach not well so I scoped them with cheap 4x Simmons . Had little expectation on the cheap scopes but they have held zero.

I could never get spring piston air guns to group very well and they require air gun scopes. Pop or pump guns shoot one ragged hole and cane use any scope.

From what I have seen of pellet rifles, break barrel or PCPs, I would much rather have a .22 cal than a .20 or .177. From what I have seen a larger caliber has much more knock down. I have shot a .25 cal some and think that is what I want for my next one. I even though about skipping up to a 30 or 35. With the PCPs you get less shots per fill with a larger caliber, but I feel the gain in knock down would be worth the refill requirement. I have though about getting a Gauntlet 2 in .25 or .30

The deal with scopes on springer powered air rifles........they have a two way recoil. Once when spring is released.....but the worst one is when it slams to a stop. The 2nd one is what does the damage.....in two ways. Damages the scope......and moves the scope. They walk off the back.

Beeman springers have a recess for a stopper pin built into some bases. That will fix it in place. But you still need an scope built for the 2 way recoil. All of mine are Hawke.

Been many a sucker fell for the velocity hype of the Gammos and such. Get a good rifle......Beeman, R7, HW 50, HW 97, etc or an Air Arms TX200......and they too can be one hole wonders. Single shot hand cockeed springers. Plugged a lot of starlings with mine.

Always thought it would be fun to get a Feinwerkbau 300..........not for any practical reason........more like just because.

If just plinking or plugging starlings.......the real benefit of an air rifle is cost. One tin of 500 pellets equal to one brick of 22 LR. Pellets about $15 for 500.

Get yourself a suppressor can for your 22 mag

As previously mentioned the airgun scope issue is from springer airgun not pcp airguns. Any scope you use for a traditional firearm will work on your pcp airgun. Also as mentioned avoid the cheap $50 pcp pump, they will last you a few pump ups before breaking, buy once, cry once. Spend the money and get a better pump. Also a word of advice buy around a dozen different pellets to shoot through your pcp airgun, each and every airgun likes different pellets and you need to experiment to find which pellet is the most accurate through your airgun. Good luck.

Once you get the pellet dialed in, or in the process of, there's dozens of other tweaks that can be used in fine tuning such as playing with max fill pressure, noting velocity curves if you have a chrono. With PCPs there is a sweet spot as you drain the tank with each shot, usually not the first shot but a three to five shot cluster in the first ten.

And then there's mods, a whole industry has arisen just for that such as polishing internals, playing with spring rates, polishing and adjusting ports, regulators, depingers, baffles, etc.

Shot my fill of squirrels with a sheridan .177 ...consistent shots with the pumps. wish there was more of them around.

Same, but with more and more areas going no chemical burn and less hunting and trapping in those same areas populated by citiots with money there has been huge growth in air power.

Strangely enough initially spurred on by our cousins across the pond in Her Majesty's realm. But those poor blokes are restricted to only 12 ftlbs so us yanks said hold my pint.

I have a Gamo crack barrel 177 1250 fps I use for dispatching coyotes,coon and skunks it's like a 22 short lung shots on all,if you don't hit a rib it will zip threw a coyote.I've been real happy with the results I use the pellets with a BB in the front.

Yea that's fine for that . But a squirrels head or a starlings body is quite smaller than a coyote at point blank range. You need a back up I know where theres one for sale CHEAP!!!!!

Thanks for all the info guys, I'm super excited to get this. I started looking into the .30 cal Pellet Rifles, they look interesting. I have kind of fell out of love with shooting, the cost and inability to replace ammo has been a major turn off. I'm hoping that the pellet rifle will be something fun to tinker with.

At pyramidair.com, you can get sampler packs of various pellets. Can really help narrow down the type your gun prefers, without having to buy a whole tin of one just to try it. I'm sure other places also have these, maybe in other brands.

My hunting partner loves them. He has an air rifle worth more than any firearm in my safe. Now he's building them himself. I think he's on number 4.
He could buy a truck with the dough he's got tied up in scuba tanks, compressors and rifles.