[Jeff Higgins]

As I mentioned earlier, I discovered the use of Mobil 1 as a "gun oil" through my involvement with air guns. Air gunners appear to be the ones who first turned to it.

We've had a number of threads in which we have discussed air guns of all kinds. I think I started most of them... Anyway, one of the topics we have discussed is, of course, air gun velocities. Maybe it's worth reiterating here: be very, very leery of manufacturers' velocity claims. Many will use extremely light for caliber pellets to achieve those velocities, sacrificing real-world performance for some fantastic number they can advertise.

The two rifles discussed above are great examples of this. SIG used an extremely light pellet to achieve their "1200 fps" claim, whereas Beeman (and Weihrauch, who manufacturers Beeman's rifles) uses standard weight pellets to rate their rifles. The Beeman R9 is actually a far more powerful rifle than the SIG 522, generating a good deal more energy, albeit at lower velocity due to the much heavier pellet used. The use of the heavier pellet will also result in more retained energy downrange, where it counts. Granted, if you are just plinking, that probably doesn't matter. If you are using the rifle for pest control, well, that superior retained energy starts to matter. Gammo is by far the worst offender in this regard, making fantastic velocity claims for their cheap Chinese made rifles while using very light, mostly plastic pellets to achieve those velocities.

So, I guess while I'm at it, a word of caution is in order as well. Don't use those lightweight "lead free", or "composite" pellets in the really powerful springers - use of those pellets can actually, in time, damage those rifles. Those rifles require a certain amount of pellet weight, or inertia, to dampen and slow down the violent movement of the piston. Without that, the piston can be damaged when it reaches the end of its stroke and crashes into the front of the chamber. No one seems to care about that with the cheap ass Chinese junk, since it's essentially "throw away" anyway - when it quits working, just spend another hundred bucks and get another. Most owners don't shoot those enough to reach that point anyway. On the other hand, those who spent a good deal more on a quality German rifle such as a Weihrauch, RWS, or the like, tend to want them to last, and tend to shoot them a good deal more. It's worth treating them properly through the use of suitable pellets.