Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ucbvax!jade!jkh From: jkh@jade.UUCP Newsgroups: mod.rec.guns Subject: Pellet Guns Message-ID: <2417@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Tue, 3-Feb-87 16:57:59 EST Article-I.D.: jade.2417 Posted: Tue Feb 3 16:57:59 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 5-Feb-87 03:37:52 EST Organization: U.C. Berkeley Lines: 80 Approved: jkh@ucbjade Author: Will Martin -- AMXAL-RI Article: 2:5 Anyway, I would like to second the recommendation of the Beeman catalog as a source for information about all varieties of airguns. I've been buying from Beeman and getting their catalog for some years now. The catalog is not only a guide to their line, but also a good general introduction to the field of pneumatic/air-powered arms. I own several books on the subject, but the free (*) Beeman catalog is as good or better an introductory text than anything you can buy. I used to keep a spare back issue in my desk, but I think I gave it away; I'll bring in the address and post it tomorrow. (Though you can find Beeman ads in many gun magazines, so you might actually have the address at home already. Also it is in standard references like Gun Digest.) [(*) I say "free" because I haven't paid for any; they have cover prices, and sometimes the ads ask for a dollar or two, but usually you can get one just by asking for it with a postcard.] I'm not going to say that Beeman is the best source to buy from; if you know what you want, you can find the same airguns without the Beeman name on them at lower prices in Shotgun News ads. There are some Beeman dealers that will sell the Beeman-brand airguns at a discount, too. However, you do get good warranty and backup service from Beeman. I've bought most of my airguns from Beeman, and, on the whole, I've been satisfied. Note also that Beeman has a "used gun" list (which you DO have to pay for to get) and also sends out periodic "sale bulletins", which contain cosmetic blemished, new models, and closed-out airguns for reduced prices, plus special sales on pellets and accessories. I bought most of my stuff from such discount offers. What Beeman does is to go to the major European airgun manufacturers and have them make guns with the Beeman logo on them, meeting certain specs and having certain features. In many cases these are just the same as the makers' regular models, but they do go through an extra level of inspection and quality assurance to be sold by Beeman, plus they have warranty and repair-policy support here from Beeman. Companies doing this are firms like RWS and FWB (Feinwerkbau). Of course, there have been other mail-order airgun houses, most notably a place called "Air Rifle Headquarters", which went out of business some years back. (I think Beeman bought them out, but am not positive.) There are a couple other, newer mailorder airgun houses now, but I have no experience with them. Beeman is the biggest and has been operating the longest. So, what airguns are best? Well, it depends what you want to do. The original inquiry was for "backyard plinking". For this, a relatively low-powered spring-piston break-barrel-cocking .177 can be bought for well under $100 and give better accuracy than any firearm costing less than $500 (within the limited range of 33 feet or so). It can be an excellent training aid and something to keep your shooting skills honed when it is inconvenient or too expensive to go somewhere to shoot a firearm. If you want to practice formal target shooting, you may want to get a more expensive match-style gun, with better sights and adjustable buttplate and hand support features, probably sidelever action and recoilless (here you are talking $400 and up). If you are a hunter, you may prefer a higher-powered and scoped barrel-cocking model, some of which can shove a .177 pellet at 900+ fps and can be used for limited types of small-game hunting or pest control ($200 and up, plus scope). Note that all the above are spring-piston models. The common American airgun has been either the Daisy-type spring-action BB gun, or the Crosman/Benjamin/Sheridan style pump-up pneumatic. The pump-up guns have the capability of high power (there was a Japanese model called the Sharp Innova that could push a .177 pellet 1000+ fps some years ago, a level spring-piston guns only reached recently, and the 19th-century military and hunting airguns were pneumatic types), but they have certain inherent disadvantages. First off, they have to be pumped. This gets tiring after only a few shots. It takes about as much effort to make a single pumping stroke as it does to cock a spring-piston gun; for each shot of a pump-up model, you have to pump 6 or more times. (And the pumps get more difficult as you increase their number to get higher power.) This rapidly gets tiresome; for the same effort you could have fired the spring-piston model 6 times as many shots. Also, the amount of air compressed with each pump varies slightly, so you are always firing with a slightly different propellant pressure. This causes shot-to-shot variations which result in lower levels of accuracy. The spring-piston compresses identical amounts of air for each shot. I could go on but better stop here. I'll get Beeman's address and send it in ASAP. Regards, Will Martin wmartin@ALMSA-1.ARPA (on USENET try ...!seismo!wmartin@ALMSA-1.ARPA )