The Goose
NES Member
I love to shoot. I used to be one of those guys who shot outdoors all winter. Many times my footprints in the snow were the first out to the 200 yard berm. However, I have developed arthritic hips and knees and I also take a blood thinner. The cold is a lot harder to deal with now. So this fall I thought I would set up a range in my basement and get one if those cheap break barrel air rifles with a scope on it and give that a try. I picked up a Gamo .22 and made a silent pellet trap out of a plastic storage bin filled with rubber mulch.
Right away I was hooked. Every day I would go down and shoot off 40 - 50 shots. And I did not have to leave the house. Of course this made me curious about what else was out there. A quick search on line and like everything these days I discovered this massive culture of air gun enthusiasts. Had I just stopped there I would have had an inexpensive hobby. Of course I could not stop there. Turns out that although spring loaded break barrels (springers) have a following the state of the art is the PCP or Pre Charged Pneumatic air rifle. These guns use an external high pressure air source such as a hand pump, scuba tank or compressor to charge a reservoir on the rifle which then delivers a certain number of shots before needing to be re-charged. Not so simple or inexpensive any more. An entry level rifle starts at around $400 and can then run easily to $2000 or more and that is without scopes, bipods, moderators, regulators and a host of other doodads. That being said, many of these rifles are flipping amazing. These things are not your childhood Red Ryder BB guns. Enthusiasts have extremely high expectations of accuracy. Single holes at 50 yards is common as are 1" groups at 100 yards. The other surprise for me was the power that these rifles generate. At the low end you are taking about an 18gr .22 pellet moving at 900 - 1100 fps and at the higher end a 405 gr. .457 bullet moving at 900+ fps. Some states have made big bore air rifles legal for deer hunting and in Texas they are very popular for wild pigs. At any rate what started as a cold weather hobby has become a passion for me that has gone beyond basement plinking. I still shoot every day, but I have a couple of big bores that are way too big for the basement or backyard. I invested in my own compressor with a carbon fiber tank that I can take anywhere. I also have a small compressor for just filling a rifle directly.
So are there any other NES airgunners? Any good places to shoot? I know about New England air guns in Hudson. Anyone have a secluded back yard and want to do some plinking?
a
Right away I was hooked. Every day I would go down and shoot off 40 - 50 shots. And I did not have to leave the house. Of course this made me curious about what else was out there. A quick search on line and like everything these days I discovered this massive culture of air gun enthusiasts. Had I just stopped there I would have had an inexpensive hobby. Of course I could not stop there. Turns out that although spring loaded break barrels (springers) have a following the state of the art is the PCP or Pre Charged Pneumatic air rifle. These guns use an external high pressure air source such as a hand pump, scuba tank or compressor to charge a reservoir on the rifle which then delivers a certain number of shots before needing to be re-charged. Not so simple or inexpensive any more. An entry level rifle starts at around $400 and can then run easily to $2000 or more and that is without scopes, bipods, moderators, regulators and a host of other doodads. That being said, many of these rifles are flipping amazing. These things are not your childhood Red Ryder BB guns. Enthusiasts have extremely high expectations of accuracy. Single holes at 50 yards is common as are 1" groups at 100 yards. The other surprise for me was the power that these rifles generate. At the low end you are taking about an 18gr .22 pellet moving at 900 - 1100 fps and at the higher end a 405 gr. .457 bullet moving at 900+ fps. Some states have made big bore air rifles legal for deer hunting and in Texas they are very popular for wild pigs. At any rate what started as a cold weather hobby has become a passion for me that has gone beyond basement plinking. I still shoot every day, but I have a couple of big bores that are way too big for the basement or backyard. I invested in my own compressor with a carbon fiber tank that I can take anywhere. I also have a small compressor for just filling a rifle directly.
So are there any other NES airgunners? Any good places to shoot? I know about New England air guns in Hudson. Anyone have a secluded back yard and want to do some plinking?
a