Which air rifle for garden pests?

[Okanagan]

With strawberries getting ripe, cherries next and then blueberries, my son would like me to get an air rifle and protect the crop.  We'd hoped to stay under $250 with scope.

Been researching for about two days and am getting brain fatigue.  I liked what I read about a Stoeger XM1, then began to understand what it means that it is a PCP rifle.  PCP apparently means the rifle has a high pressure air tank that you fill with a scuba tank or high pressure compressor, or an exhausting, slooow, expensive hand pump.  I don't want to buy the compressor nor the scuba tank.  What happened to a simple pump up?  My old ten pump Crosman 1077 pistol is super accurate and I'd like a rifle version of it.  So far that has not showed up, but surely they make such a thing.  I'd prefer simple and self contained that does not need Co2 or other external cartridges, trips to town to fill, etc.

I'm wary of the one pump break barrel and can't see how the scope on the receiver could possibly remain accurate over time with a hinge between action and barrel. 

School me.  What does it cost to have a PCP filled and where would you get that done?  If I could esily and cheaply charge it with pressure, the Stoeger XM1 has a lot going for it.

[slagmaker]

Getting an air tank is cheep and easy. You should have a fire department or even a local scuba shop that can get you filled if you want to go compressed air. Or you could go CO2 and get filled at your local Praxair or even some home brewing supply houses. Lots of options with CO2.

I have a cheep Chinese spring fired that is pretty dang accurate. Had a cheep scope on it and ended up taking it off and am now looking for a decent piece of glass to put on top.

With a PCP you get a lot faster followup shots than any pump or spring rifle.

[nastygunz]

Ohhhhh so many choices!  I've had a Benjamin discovery .22 caliber PCP for years with a hand pump and works fine for me I use it for hunting all the time.  You can get the Crossman 1322 or 1377 pump up pistol  and put a carbine stock on it and a scope making it into a short super handy carbine very inexpensively.  Then there is the classic Benjamin 397 pump Up rifle.  Another good choice is a smoothbore .22 Long rifle with rat shot. Or,  A 9mm Flobert shotgun.  Also just use a .22 rifle that shoots 22 shorts or CB caps which are pretty much the same thing as a pellet gun.  And last but not least the classic pest defensive caliber in many shapes and formats, the .410 !  I own and use most of the above listed.

[nastygunz]

https://www.crosman.com/custom-shoulder-stock

[nastygunz]

https://www.americanairgunners.com/product/benjamin-392-pump-air-rifle/

[nastygunz]

 I have owned one of these for probably about eight years now never had a problem with it is my favorite rifle for a squirrel hunting and small game hunting seriously accurate and I don't think it's too hard to pump up with the hand pump. :
https://www.airgundepot.com/benjamin-discovery-air-rifle-combo.html

[Hawks Feather]

     You probably know all of this, but here it goes anyway.  I have had a pellet gun or two since the mid 60s and they have changed â€" so have my eyes.  Which means that just like my powder rifles, I need a scope if I plan to hit anything other than a wall if shooting in a small room.  Like everything in life scopes come in an assortment of prices.  When I bought my first Beeman (as they called them Adult Air Rifle) I put a cheap Tasco 3x9 scope on it and was good to go.  That scope lasted about 20 shots and the crosshairs were floating.  No problem, I had another cheap scope that I mounted and that one lasted under 50 shots.  That is when I learned that Springer (spring powered, usually single cock) air rifles have both a forward and rearward recoil and it takes a special scope to withstand those two recoils.  So, it was time for a scope that was designed for Springer air guns.  Those scopes worked, but again they were not cheap like the Tasco.  There are Springers of various power and the scopes for the lower power are not all that expensive, but if you get one of the newer high powered Springer  you will need one of the higher priced scopes.  So, if your eyes are like mine, make sure that you can mount a scope on the one you get.

     Then there is the which is better .177 or .22 (or now included .20 which has been around for the Blue Streak, .25, .30, .357, and up) caliber.  I have the .177 in Springers and .22 and .25 in PCP.  The birds and small critters (say up to squirrel) can be easily dispatched with the .177 and the .22 (in medium power) will work on ground hog/marmot sized critters.  The advantage of the .177 is that it is flatter shooting and the advantage of the .22 is that you can get a heavier pellet.  Like rimfire ammo, there are also more ‘weights’ of pellets for the .22 which allows a shooter to find a pellet that shoots best with their air rifle.  I have picked up a part time job which has allowed me to have a little extra ‘fun’ money and while I am thinking of an additional air rifle, I am torn between the .177 and .22. 

     I bought a beautifully stocked Webley PCP about 20 years ago and while I loved the rifle, I hated trying to pump it up to full pressure and that was using more of a top end pump.  Of your $250 limit you will spend about half of that for a pump and all most all of it for one of the top end models.  Then about three years ago I had some money that was burning a hole in my pocket and bought another PCP and an air tank.  The air tank is great as long as you can VERY slowly open the valve so that you don’t release too much air and blow up the air rifle tank.  Obviously that has not happened or I probably would not be making this post.  I take the take about an hour from here to a dive shop to have it filled which runs about $15.  While there are several fire stations in the county that could fill it, none will do it because of liability issues.  When I was looking for a tank I looked at eBay and was about ready to get one when I learned that they have to be checked every few years and most of the ones for sale would need that check which was another cost on top of the used tank, so I went with a carbon fiber new one for lighter weight.  I do live the fact that all I need to do is open the bolt and put in a pellet and the rifle is ready to go, but that does come at a price.  Many of the PCP are very accurate and depending on the model you get you can bring down about anything.  Since I have everything to fill PCP air guns any of my future purchases will be PCP.

     Springers will have a break barrel or some type of cocking lever.  There is a little ‘felt’ recoil with the Springer and there is more movement when firing it when compared to the PCP.  It is really more rifle movement than recoil, but it makes it a little more difficult if you are firing for groups or planning on head shots of sparrows at 30 yards.  While possibly not needed, I would suggest that you get a ‘scope stop’ in addition to any scoped Springer where you will be using the scope rail like a .22LR has.  I added them to my Springers and it definitely helped keep the scope from ‘walking’.

     Pumpers (Benjamin or Daisy) are also an option.  They pump up relatively easily and you can vary the power by the number of pumps.  The biggest down side to them is that after your first shot there is some noisy pumping before the next shot. 

     There are also CO2 cartridge models and as long as you don’t mind the extra expense of the CO2 cartridges they aren’t bad.  I have a small CO2 pistol and when the grandkids come they will run through a couple of CO2 cartridges in a hurry.  Since it is outdoors at paper targets I have moved them to a youth .22 LR that is less expensive to shoot.

     While I don’t know if noise would be a problem where you would be shooting, but you might consider a model with a modifier (silencer) attached.  Since it is an airgun you don’t need the tax stamp to own one or have it on your rifle.  While I only have them on my PCPs they do make a nice reduction when firing. 

     I don’t know about Walmart stores in your area, but I have seen posts on airgun sites that they have been having some decent sales on some models.  I have also seen where there has been a ‘run on guns including air guns’ in many areas and they are sold out.  If you don’t know much about the model that you see in a store, Pyramyd Air has reviews for many models that you can check.

Enjoy whatever you get. 

[nastygunz]

"introduced by Crosman is the Nitro Piston® power plant in which cocking the rifle moves a piston to the rear, but instead of compressing a spring, a gas (nitrogen) in a cylinder is compressed."

[Okanagan]

Wow!  Lots of excellent info.  Thank you and keep it coming!

I am leaning toward Nasty's Benjamin Discovery with hand pump.  It's a little more pricey than I had hoped.  That's a PCP with much easier refill because it operates at lower pressure than the European rifles, only 2000 lbs. of pressure.

I like a lot about the PCP rifles but am wary of being dependent on a dive shop etc. for refills.

A Nitro piston rifle with a side lever to cock it could be a good combo but haven't found anything with that mechanism yet.

FWIW I don't think any rifle is legal in this zoning area, and maybe no shotguns. Need to check that.   My grandkids have killed several deer around here with bows.

My son has big frame screen covers for some of the strawberry beds and nets on some of the blueberries but the birds get a lot.  The big cherry trees are beyond our capacity to net, and he discovered that shooting a few birds really scares them and cuts down on the raids.

[nastygunz]

 They have some pretty low price Chinese air rifle pumps if you look around :

https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=139392.0

[nastygunz]

 If you want to go stealth mode on it check out a TKO muzzle brake :

http://www.tko22.com

[Hawks Feather]

I have never held the Discovery nor have I held the one in this YouTube video, but I will toss this on out to just muddy the waters since the two rifles have the same price.        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzTgyRmhdE&feature=emb_logo. The air gunner doing the review sure seems to love it.

[nastygunz]

PCP  prices have dropped dramatically in the last few years. I paid 350 for mine with a pump but that was about eight years ago you can definitely get one a lot cheaper than that now.

[Okanagan]

I appreciate all of the help re an air rifle.  My brain hurts from learning so much the past few days.  I may have also talked myself out of buying one at the moment.

Sometimes after researching info I decide that I won't settle for less than a certain level of performance â€" and am not willing to spend what it takes to get that.  Ie. It is all or nothing and nothing prevails, at least for the time being.  I'm not quite there but close.

Several rifles would do but each nudges me higher than I want by the time I have scope, pump etc.  The PCP rifles seem to be the best at the moment of the shot, but are a nuisance to pressurize.  If I run across a deal on a Benjamin Maximus or Discovery with pump and scope, as well as a few other rifles, I will jump on it.

Many years ago I decided that the ideal predator rifle for me at that time was a 6mm Remington cartridge in a long action (not offered by Remington), with a heavy barrel... and I would not spend what it took to get such a rifle.  Then one day I stopped at Kesselring's gun shop off I-5 and on the shelf was a gorgeous custom Mauser in 6mm Rem with a 26 inch Douglas Premium varmint weight barrel-- for $175.  The consigner had stopped in minutes before, needed money, so had drastically reduced the price.  I pooled money with a friend with me and bought it on the spot. 

Meanwhile, in my current dilemma, I bought a Mauser M18 30-06. 

[Hawks Feather]

I think the 30-06 will take care of any of the birds that might be stealing fruit.

[nastygunz]

Get a Cold Steel big bore blowgun

[nastygunz]