How accurate are your Air Guns

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hawk-i

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How accurate are most air guns...I've read the pcp guns are more accurate than the break barrel guns.

I recently bought a Stoeger S8000-tac 22 caliber break barrel gun, came with a scope that lasted like zero rounds (don't know how they get away with crap optics).

Andrew from Stoeger says he'll send me a new one once he gets mine back, what a joke!!! picture of it cut in half and a new one in the mail yesterday would be service but these jokers want to see you dance first!!!

Anyways being the impatient consumer I am I put a Vortex Viper 3-9x40 BDC on it and shot at least 200-300 hundred pellets through it in the first day.

What I noticed is it hates the Gamo 21.8 gr whisper pellets (2-3 inches at 30 yards) but it shoots 1/2 inch at the same distance with Crossman hollow point 14.3 gr pellets. This is resting the rifle on my deck railing, so supported but not from a bench.

Is this normally what one would expect for accuracy from a gun like this?

The gun has enough power to cleanly take gophers with complete pass throughs nose to tail at 25 yards.

All in all its a nice little acreage pest reducer that I like other than the "scope and dance".
 
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A couple of things...

First- do you have a chrony? if so, aim for the 800-ish fps range pellet. Those 21.8gr are likely too heavy for the power plant, but the 14gn is more appropriate. Going too high is no good for accuracy either. 700-850fps is where a lot of people find joy... YMMV. 1200fps is for marketing only.

Springers are quite difficult to shoot accurately. There is a lot of action going on before the pellet leaves the barrel. The "hold" has a major influence on the POI- to test this try shooting a few shots with a firm hold and then another with a very loose hold (free recoil/artilery hold). You can expect the POI to be quite different.

Taking care I can sometimes get my #1 springer around 1/2" at 50yrds, but if the wind is blowing or I'm not pulling the trigger well forget it. 1/2" at 30 yards is doing pretty good. I know most people don't get the airgun thing but ammo is cheap, the challenge to achieve accuracy is high. Find yourself some steel field target knock-down targets- most fun you can have with an airgun IMHO...
 
I have knock downs set up at 15,30, and 50 yards with different sized kill zones. At the 30 yard target I set up a piece of cardboard with little dots of jam or honey. I’ll shoot for a while and get board of the knockdowns and by that time the flies and wasps have found the sweets. Defines bughole groups. Lol
 
Air guns can be very accurate. PCPs have a better chance of greater accuracy over springers because they have negligible recoil. Springers are often more challenging to shoot well because they have a heavy piston that causes considerable two-way recoil when it's released and a short moment later comes to a sudden stop.

Like any rifle, accuracy will depend a great deal on the barrel and the ammo. Not all barrels are equal and certainly not all ammo is equal. The name Stoeger on an air rifle is not usually a hallmark of quality nor is the name Gamo on pellets. Cheaper brands of pellets will have more head size variation within the same tin than better pellets. This will contribute to inaccuracy.
 
Along with the two way recoil and your scope choice, most optics not designed for spring powered air rifles will suffer under the reverse recoil. That being said, this style of air rifle is very accurate but requires different technique.
 
Thanks guys, this gun has what Stoeger calls a "Gas Ram Piston" being new to this, I'm not sure if that is the same as a "Springer".

They claim 800fps with lead pellets and 1000 with alloy pellets.

What brand of pellets are normally the most consistent in construction?
 
hawk-i said:
Thanks guys, this gun has what Stoeger calls a "Gas Ram Piston" being new to this, I'm not sure if that is the same as a "Springer".

They claim 800fps with lead pellets and 1000 with alloy pellets.

What brand of pellets are normally the most consistent in construction?
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Your gun has no spring. Instead, it uses a gas cylinder, similar to the type you see on cars to hold the hood or deck lid up.
 
For H&N, look up nikkonosuser on Ebay.
- He's a good guy to deal with, and had some "sampler" packs available

FOR JSB
- Canadian Forum Airgun Store (you have to write to him for an actual shipping quote)
- airgunarcheryfun is also a good vendor

DL Airgun and Airgun Source also are well respected vendors
 
J.Hancock said:
Along with the two way recoil and your scope choice, most optics not designed for spring powered air rifles will suffer under the reverse recoil. That being said, this style of air rifle is very accurate but requires different technique.
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This is what I had been told, a spring powered air rifle will eventually destroy a regular optics not designed for the two direction recoil.

Interested to know if the secondary recoil on a gas piston is also a destroyer of scopes?
 
hawk-i said:
I'm pretty limited to shopping options here, only store in town now is Canadian Tire that carries anything related to guns regular or air.

Which online stores are the best to check out?
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Many local gunshops which are sponsors of CGN carry pellets. Here's a quick sample:

https://www.gotenda.com/product-category/firearms/airguns/ammopellets/

https://www.nordicmarksman.com/AMMUNITION-177.html

https://ellwoodepps.com/catalogsear...&limit=100&order=relevance&q=pellets&x=0&y=0]

https://tillsonburggunshop.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=170_184

https://www.bullseyenorth.com/ammunition-airguns-pellets-bb

https://store.prophetriver.com/air-gun/
 
cartwheel said:
A couple of things...

First- do you have a chrony? if so, aim for the 800-ish fps range pellet. Those 21.8gr are likely too heavy for the power plant, but the 14gn is more appropriate. Going too high is no good for accuracy either. 700-850fps is where a lot of people find joy... YMMV. 1200fps is for marketing only.

Springers are quite difficult to shoot accurately. There is a lot of action going on before the pellet leaves the barrel. The "hold" has a major influence on the POI- to test this try shooting a few shots with a firm hold and then another with a very loose hold (free recoil/artilery hold). You can expect the POI to be quite different.

Taking care I can sometimes get my #1 springer around 1/2" at 50yrds, but if the wind is blowing or I'm not pulling the trigger well forget it. 1/2" at 30 yards is doing pretty good. I know most people don't get the airgun thing but ammo is cheap, the challenge to achieve accuracy is high. Find yourself some steel field target knock-down targets- most fun you can have with an airgun IMHO...
Click to expand...

What is your trigger weight.thanks.
 
Get to know your trigger. Among others I shoot HW97K, TX200MK3, DIANA,48,54,34,24,350, Learn to adjust your trigger, try many different pellets, keep notes, use small stickers and put them on your stock, cause you will forget. Cronies are helpful, but holes in paper are more helpful. As stated above 800 fps is the speed that achieves.
 
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