I can not give you an absolute reason why. But this past 6 months or so i have Bought Three air pistols and Two air rifles.
Ok had air rifles since i was a kid used them now and again , and have had a few pistols over the years, but its decades since i bought one let alone four in about six months.
I think it started with me wanting a Rat shooting set up that killed them decisively without drilling holes in them and was not too pellet fussy.
I never did the handgun thing here in the Uk , i was all rifles and shotguns , the paper punching handguns when legal to own here just never appealed to me.
But as a youngster i had a BSA scorpion .22 air pistol and became prety accurate with it and could hit rats with it to 10/ 15 yards and i liked the instinctive type of accuracy aspect for want of a better term it was kind of wingshooting with a shotgun in nature to my way of thinking.
The BSA went in the early 80s in some complicated swap / hybrid deal for a Diesel engine if i remember rightly.
Had a few air pistols still had an old Predom/ walther type target pistol , But nothing that proficient at 15 yard Rats. so i first got a cfrossman 2240 CO2 pistol, it is good for money and works is simple and lots of mods available, i have plans steel breach a silencer etc. But i found the fact the co2s should not be left in long term and the drop in velocity in low temperatures a bit faffy. And i wanted a simple break barrel pistol or pump up pistol.
I Looked online and found a few candidates not as well known as the Crosmans but similar in size power and style to my old childhood BSA. ( I think the childhood thing could be driving my reborn air gun thing).
Gun i first got was Hatsan supercharger in .22 , a reasonably low cost but competent pistol with a good adjustable trigger and with enough poke to dispatch a rat at 10/ 15 possibly 20 yards if i could ever master it at rat sized targets at 20 yards that is.
it works well for me i am reliably killing to 10 yards and a bit more and though hitting targets at 20yards i dont think i am quite there yet on reliable accuracy its a work in progress i am afraid.
Likeing my time with these air pistols , i decided to get a pump up crossman 1377 or 1322, to cure the co2 faffing and yet get the known crossman deal with the mods etc.
Called at the local gun shop and They were out of stock of the crosman 1377s, but i ended up buying a Umarex Trevox .177. a cheap gas ram break barrel thats decent enough apart from the trigger thats basic and a bit draggy and takes some getting used too. But its accurate and Kills to 10 yards so far on rats and even shot and cleanly killed a carrion crow off a grain silo at around 15 yards so its go what it takes if i do my part.
I Decided i had never owned a .25 air rifle, so i purchased a Hatsan 1000x wood stock spring break barrel air rufle. And again on rats to 20/ 25 yards its derisive on rats no drilling holes in them like the .177s and it seems i get barely a kick out of them just dead.
I have too many intrests in the shooting world waterfowling foxing deer stalking pigeon shooting etc to be spending much more time or money on air guns. But I am planning on one more purchase in my recent air gun shooting resurgence and thats a pre charged phnumatic rifle in .177. I intend to use this for of course Rats a little low cost Pigeon and who knows crow decoying activity .
I have undertaked crow control with the .22 rimfires before and that was a intresting challenge and i see the idea of decoying pigeons with an air rifle as cheap given the price of shotshells thesse days and enjoyable too. Not sure it will be that productive on the numbers game but we will see. I am enjoying my time with air rifles at the moment its ... Well.... Different sort of basic and grass roots nostalgic for me anyway.
