A Year in... Pellet Tins

[Jeff Higgins]

As some of you may recall, I kind of got into the air guns in a big way in the last year or so. Driven by the dearth of .22 LR ammo along with the ability to shoot at home, I really went after this. So, below, I present my collection of empty pellet tins amassed over the course of the last year. I've been doing a bit of shooting...



These are all tins of 500, save for the smaller JSB tin (200), the green Benjamin tin (250), and the two Crossman .177 caliber tins on the far right (175 each). I am very pleased with the improvement made in my shooting through burning up so many "rounds". Plus, it has been one hell of a lot of cheap fun. You shooters owe it to yourselves to look into quality adult air guns. You won't be disappointed.

[Hydrocket]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

You shooters owe it to yourselves to look into quality adult air guns. You won't be disappointed.

Agree 100%. Long time airgunner. Can do it all with these....hunting small game, plinking, etc..

And nothing better (or cheaper) for practicing .

I think my record for one week was 4 tins...

[Bill Douglas]

The (legally) shooting at home is quite appealing.

The guys at the pistol club have quite an active air pistol nights thing happening once a week. I had a go with a feinwerkbau. Kind of pricey but very accurate. They had sourced out some nice Russian made air pistols for a lot less $ and were still accurate and had nice ergonomic grips.

[Adam]

As a young kid, I went thru plenty of those every summer too.

Thing is, I wish I'd kept the empties over the years instead of shooting the tins up too.

[1990C4S]

The nice thing about pellet guns: I can talk on my cell phone while I use it.

[berettafan]

22lr is back and cheap!

heck even .223 is back in supply. was at cabelas recently and they had PMC .223 for $7.69 and some large bulk boxes of 22lr for cheap as well.

[Rot 911]

Jeff, what rifle/scopes you using? Been thinking of getting a nice air rifle and perhaps pistol, but don't know enough about them. Not looking for an uber expensive gun, just one for plinking in the back yard.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by Rot 911

Jeff, what rifle/scopes you using? Been thinking of getting a nice air rifle and perhaps pistol, but don't know enough about them. Not looking for an uber expensive gun, just one for plinking in the back yard.

My rifles are an RWS Model 34 TO6 Classic and an RWS Model 48 for the springers. Both wear Williams peep sights, having destroyed a couple of scopes on both of them. My pneumatic rifles include two Sheridan Blue Streaks, one dating from 1963 and the other from 1978 (both with Williams peeps), and a 2013 model Benjamin in .22 caliber with a Weaver 3-9x muzzle loader scope (for the close range parallax correction). All three pneumatics have been modified by Mac1 Airguns to deliver over 20 ft lbs of energy.

My pistols include a Webley Tempest in .22 (spring air), a Weirauch HW 40 in .177 (single stroke pneumatic), two early '70's Benjamim pneumatics (one in .177 and one in .22), a late '70's Sheridan, and a 2013 Benjamin HB22.

The one I shoot the most, by far, is the RWS 34 rifle. It's really a joy to shoot, and is about the quietest of the bunch. The Model 48 doubles its power, as do the pneumatics when fully charged, but I rarely need that. Only when shooting rats off the fence rail or cell phones out of drivers' hands.

[craigster59]

I almost traded a black powder rifle for an old Belgian made gallery gun from the local gun shop years ago. It broke like a single shot shotgun and fired small pellet type bullets. In Victorian England it was quite the rage to target shoot in the home, should have made the trade but the ammo seemed to be expensive and hard to find.

It looked a bit like this.. Item:6041171 unknown antique Belgian GALLERY GUN 9MM Smoothbore Rifle For Sale at GunAuction.com

[lane912]

so Jeff what distance's are you setting targets at?
20yds?, 50yds?, 100yds?

I like the 100 yard range with a .22lr what is a equivalent range for a pellet rifle?

[vash]

hahaha..that is a lot!!

timely thread. i have my turkey ground blind set up in my backyard. comfy chair.

Benjamin blue streak. i am defending my tomatoes from what i can tell..about a million ground squirrels. sat in it yesterday for 3 hours. nothing..those things are about as smart as a big whitetail. i need to shoot straighter as well. missed 3 times.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by lane912

so Jeff what distance's are you setting targets at?
20yds?, 50yds?, 100yds?

I like the 100 yard range with a .22lr what is a equivalent range for a pellet rifle?

The max I can get in my back yard is about 30 yards. My shooting is strictly offhand, unless I'm zeroing a rifle or pistol. If the target is small enough, it's pretty darn challenging.

The velocities of which these rifles are capable (500 to 800 fps with standard weight pellets) and the extremely low ballistic coefficient of airgun pellets makes them far more susceptible to wind drift, and results in far more arching trajectories, than a .22 LR. It makes shooting at 30 yards in any kind of a breeze a real challenge, and it makes shooting random targets at unknown ranges out to 30 yards a challenge as well.

[gr8fl4porsche]

Cabela's has 22lr online right now. $ .06 ( including tax ) if you can pick up at a store near you. Of course there is a 1 box limit but you can keep ordering with different credit card numbers.

Federal Auto Match .22 LR Ammunition : Cabela's


Sold Out

[Jeff Higgins]

We are actually starting to see .22 LR on the shelves around here again, albeit at $50-$70 for a brick of "bargain" ammo. Still can't shoot them in my back yard or basement, though. Plus, we can buy 5,000 pellets for the price of 500 .22 LR's.

Don't get me wrong, I still love my .22's. I have far too many of them that have sat silent for far too long, so I'm as excited as the next guy to see things potentially getting back to normal. That said, I would have never gotten so seriously into the air guns if it had not been for the disappearance of .22 ammo. I will be forever grateful for that.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

You shooters owe it to yourselves to look into quality adult air guns. You won't be disappointed.

I purchased two Urmarex Octanes, one in .177 and one in .22

They shoot nice!

[red-beard]

Umarex Octane .177 Cal