Newbie could use some help and advice
I’ve never owned a real modern air rifle. When I was in elementary school my grandmother was cleaning out my uncles room as he had just moved out and was getting married. That’s how I got my RedRyder, from then on guns were an important part of my life and with my father being a policeman I was indoctrinated in the safety end of it. When I hit 12 for my birthday I got a 22 rifle, believe it or not back then I brought it in to school for show and tell, today a kid would be in jail for just drawing a picture of a gun.
I am now retired and target shooting both pistols and rifles are some of my favorite things to do.
I have decided to get a PCP type air rifle, I’m not sure which one yet but in a week of looking around I seem to like the FX impact, Royale 400 and Wildcat. I like the bull pup look as well as the look of the Royale I think I want to start wth a 22 caliber but open to others for the right reason.
Getting an air rifle will allow me to practice in my yard as currently I have a 40 minute ride to my gun club. I have to travel even further to shoot at distances greater than 200 yards, with a air rifle I will be able to experience the thrill of a long distance target shooting on a smaller scale. To me the mental challenge of doing the ballistics for the air rifle is giving me goosebumps, I love thinking about the challenges that air rifle shooting will bring.
I now have a few decisions to make , first I need to pick a rifle that is accurate, not too loud and is from a company that offers a support network in the USA. I do most of the work on my guns myself I only use a gunsmith when the job requires a tool I don’t have. What seems to be a bigger challenge is figuring out how to handle the air for the rifle. The nearest scuba shop is almost an hour away and they can only supply 3500 pounds there are no paint ball stores within 2 hours from me. So it looks like I need to be my own source for air, I don’t want to use that bicycle pump on steroids I’m too old for that. If I buy the rifle I like with the accessories that are needed I won’t have enough fee money left to get a compressor. I have just began to read up on some inexpensive Chinese compressors as well as pressure boosting devices used with your existing shop compressor I really don’t want to be a new gadget guinea pig but at least going with something others have been successful with.
I haven’t yet read all the posts on this site that interest me but I’m a fast study and would like to hear from any of you on exactly what you think I need to get along with the rifle , then I can see how much I will have to work with towards the compressor.
So far I was thinking I need to buy
1- Rifle plus extra magazine
2- Scope + rings(what power)
3- air tank for refilling rifle when away from house.(what size tank)
4- different ammo to try out
I’m sure I’ve left some important things out so I need to hear from you your suggestions.
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Things moved fast today. I found a paint ball store in another state that’s only a 40 minute drive. I can fill my tank there. Since I didn’t have enough free money to buy the tank filter and compressor I just bought a 72 CF tank from Joe Brancatos company in Cali maybe I spent a bit more on the tank from him but I felt I was buying quality made in USA were I wasn’t sure about the other vendors I looked at. I didn’t want a crap shoot. I spoke to the paint ball place and was told the 4500 lb. fills were not a problem. They said to fill a 72 would cost $20 -$25 dollars and depending on the frequency they have a discount card. If this works out I may put off getting a compressor for a while, if I fill the tank 12 times a year that’s around $250 give or take a bit. The compressor and filter would be close to $2000. The way I like toys I’ll probably keep my eyes open on what develops in the compressor wars and possibly get one down the road. By the end of next week I will be shooting and getting into a new branch of the most enjoyable pastime I’ve recently done. I also ordered my new Sightron scope I’m getting the S-Tac 4-20×50 with the MOA 2 reticle. I will use FX no limit rings which lets you adjust the pitch of the scope so you keep the crosshairs in the scopes sweet spot and gives you more of height adjustment which I used to run out of. I’ll be mounting it on a new Hatsan Gladius in 22. I know it’s only another week till I’m shooting air and I can’t wait. Thanks to all for the advice you shared.
I’m going to go the compressor route. The shoebox seems to be decent quality but a pain in the A. With real compressors I see 3 of them on various web sights. The Omega Air Charger $1395, Alpha Carette 25 $1399 and the Air Venturi $1299. In looking at the three I seem to like the Alpha best. Venturi the least that’s based on what I read on various site and YouTube. The company behind the Alpha seems to be knowledgeable and they have a good rep. The others were mixed reviews. I will really be stretching my wallet on this purchase I’m old school I won’t spend what I don’t have available. The 74cf tank goes from 500 to almost 700 and a dryer is 179 to 400 if I go with the company that has the alpha the total is around $2500 for compressor tank and filter I only have around 1800. I may have to hold off on filter for a month or 2. Would that be doable or am I taking a big chance on running my rifle. If I go with the Omega I can get the compressor tank and filter for $2000 the Venturi is about the same as a combo. Should I mix and match? Maybe I’ll call the alpha company and see if I can work out something were I can get it now and pay the 700 short fall next month.if not I’ll just get the compressor and tank maybe mix and match then filter in April
Yessir, nitrogen is expensive unless you have some major components already for what you need… A small tank, and a good compressor like so many use on here is the ticket. Lots of good options there. For instance, one of my compressors for nitrogen to fill a standard K bottle to 6K will run close to $10,000.00 plus you have to have an air compressor to run it that can output 90 SCFM at 100 PSI… That’s not your Sears special either. A new empty K bottle is almost a grand… It goes on and on. If I weren’t already in that business, no way I’d be doing that.
Sounds like doing nitrogen is a costly proposition. I can get nitrogen but I think is only sold locally in 2200 tanks so from what I read I would need to get a 6k storage tank and a high pressure pump to fill it. I have know idea what this would cost me but it sounds more expensive than just getting one of the smaller compressors and a 75 cu ft tank. I’m also A NRA instructor and when. I was talking to the director of my veterans group about a recreation program for veterans were we would go shooting, politically they have stayed away from it but hopefully air rifle will be more acceptable to the liberals who contoll the program hopefully Donald will fire the old help.
If your gas supplier can supply 6000 psi nitrogen bottles, you can shoot a LOT off one of those. Trouble is, once you use it down to about 3200 psi, you’ll either have to have it topped off or trade it in and get another full one… You’re only getting to use about 1/2 of the gas that’s in the bottle before you get below its usable pressure for your guns. Don’t know how it is in your area, but the gas facilities won’t “top a bottle off”, they’ll only swap ’em out or rent you another one. In the long run, it proves in most cases to be too expensive to do it this way unless you have a source for nitrogen and a compressor. My business manufactures and sells/rents nitrogen compressors for very high pressures so I have a good supply of gas and compressors to top off my tanks. What I did was purchase a “K” bottle for 6,000 psi, that’s a 1.5 cubic foot tank and when it is pumped to 6,000 psi it will have about 614 standard cubic feet of gas in it. I got a regulator and a smaller carbon fiber tank and I fill the smaller tank to 4500 psi from the 6,000 psi tank. I then use that to fill my guns. I can get over 40 fills/top off’s from the CF tank before I have to top it off again. When the 6,000 psi bottle gets below 4500 psi, I use a standard 2400 psi nitrogen bottle and one of my compressor stations to top off my personal bottle…
All of that to say that if you could get yourself one of the small compressors that are designed to pump air to high pressure, you could rig up a regulator on a standard nitrogen bottle and top off a small tank to 4500 psi too. That would still be better than using air. It’s cleaner and no moisture issues like those associated with air, and it would be a lot faster.
Im aware of parallax adjustment i have scopes that can go down to 9 yards. I will be going to gas store to check it out. I think im going to get a Hatsan gladius in 22 its under $700 and it leaves me money to get other things ill need.
CO2 is not an option for HPA guns.
I was going to mention Nitrogen tanks, but didn’t know how comfortable you are w gases. There are a couple guys on here or yellow that have the big 6k PSI nitrogen largewelding tanks delivered once a year and shoot a bunch. you will need a 6k to 3k reg setup and I have no experience with these which is why I didn’t mention it.
One thing to be aware of is parallax adjustment for the ranges we shoot. Alot of powderburner optics do not allow parallax adjustment below 50yds, just something to check.
Thank for getting back to me with some ideas. I knew it would be Texas coming to my rescue, the last 15 years I worked everywhere in Texas if my wife would leave her baby I would live there no problem.
I will go by my fire house to check on the air tanks and to find out about finding a place for fills. In my town we do have a commercial company that sells gasses they supply CO2 to restaurants, welding gases etc. if I can buy or lease a tank to keep in my garage of 6000 lb. pressure nitrogen what size tank should I get and what volume. Again at the gas company is CO2 a gas you can use in air rifles?
I understand the advice on quality glass being a Veteran I have been taking advantage of the discounts that some companies have offered. I have some scopes already that I could possibly use as well as rings. The ones I have are a 10-50×60 Sightron, 3-12×40 AO Vortex, 6-24×50 ViperPST and a 4-20×50 Sightron. My backyard shooting will be 50 yards or less. But I do small game hunting in the fall, I need to check if air rifles are allowed in NY.
Welcome Brian
This is an addicting sport that is filled w/ alot of great guys. as far as your questions, a lot of them are personal preference.
1 Rifle – depending on stalking/hunting vs bench shooting. I found personally that bullpups, lightweight rifles are the ones i grab and shoot more often. I can second the Mutant comment above, great gun and lots of support in this forum. Vulcan, Edgun and Warp are
2 Scopes/Rings – get best you can afford. March or bust :biggrinn: seriously though, depends on range you are shooting. inside 100yds, 3-9, 4-16. Wingman has a great writeup on the Tac Vector 2-12 FFP Gladiator.
3 Air Tank – multiple options here. If you are mostly bench, you could get a large tank and make the hr trip to a 4500 source worthwhile. You can check local fire departments and see if they will do fills, or have extra tanks. Another option is get a smaller bottle and a home compressor to fill for the day of shooting. Someone on here posted about a 1.1 liter bottle from China they bought and had good success with. You can go China compressor, or get a used Shoebox if a local filler isn’t available. Shoebox is/was very popular and has great support on their forum.
4 JSB! in all seriousness, depending on the rifle you choose, there will be posts on one of the forums about what pellets typically perform best, but experimenting is always fun too.
Other stuff
5 You’ll probably want a chronograph to measure and monitor shot strings, performance, tuning, etc
6 good set of hex wrenches
7 download Chairgun from Hawke
8 Spare O-rings for your chosen gun
9 Hoses and fittings for your air setup
10 If you fill at home with a compressor, an air dryer may be something worth investigating.
Hope this helps and makes sense.
Hook, line and sinker, We got you. 😛 😛
If you like shooting you are in the sport, after you buy the gun, compressor, and scope , It will pay for itself in the first year, Even if you reload your own shells,
Oh, do not skimp on the scope.
Pellets are cheap,
Find you a Mutant standard, I like the short myself, There all in 22 cal as of now,
You can not go wrong buying this gun! Just look around.
Oh yea, your going to need a tank also, Get with your local fire, Dept and see if you can pick up a good 4500 PSI tank,
If not, suck it up and buy you a new one ready to go.
Mike
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Sounds like you should be set! Good luck. Post up some pics when you get everything all set up.