Just received my first adult air gun

S

Shann

Joined
Sep 2, 2004
Messages
5,249
I just got my Beeman R7 from a company called Straight Shooters from Minn. I had them mount a Leapers 3-12X44 scope on it. Might be too much scope but it does sure make it fun to shoot. I spent the night with my son "killing" little plastic army men at 10 yards.

The neatest things about it are that we were able to shoot right in the back yard, no packing up the truck and driving off to the gun range and we shot about 100 of the more "expensive" pellets which set me back about 2 bucks.

The package was not cheap though. I'm kind of amazed how much I spent. I could have gotten a nice deer rifle for that price. On the other hand, I shoot my deer rifle about twice a year, I can shoot this thing every night after work.

Tomorrow night, I'm going on an animal cracker safari.
 
It might seem expensive considering you can't use it for a lot of practical things, but plinking in the back yard (or safely in an unfinished basement away from plumbing/electrical ;)) is worth it. Like you said, you can use it all the time without all the hassle and pellets are a lot cheaper to shoot!

I'm hoping to get a nice pellet rifle at some point. One of my friends got a pretty nice package from WallyWorld at a good price, scope included.
 
Hey Shann...

Welcome to the wonderful world of Air rifles...

The scope you put on your rifle is Not by any means over doing it...

I use 6 X 20 X 50mm AO scopes All the time..I have high power scopes on at least 3 of my air rifles

fwb600b.jpg


These are two of my favorite air rifles..

The rifle up front is a RWS Diana 350 Magnum in 5.5mm with a 1 piece Hawk Air Base and Hawk air 6X18x44AO scope..

The rifle in the back is a Feinwerbau 600 ex Olympic 10 Meter rifle in 4.5mm with a BLK high rise mount and Hawk Air 6X20X50mm AO scope...

No killing power with the FWB 600,, but will knock match heads off at 20 yards..

One thing I would like to point out..

Use the Best pellets you can get..

Cheap pellets, although cheap don't always fly well..different pellets fly better than others,, so try different ones and see which gives you a better grouping...

Lets see a picture of your new rifle..

congrats

Eric
O/ST
 
I'm using Beeman FTS pellets, which according to my research work well in all Beeman spring guns. They are about 10 bucks per 500, which is cheap to me, coming from shooting centerfire handguns. Quite a bit more expensive than the Beeman coated wadcutters that I got from Dick's for my cheapie pellet gun, which were 3.95 for a tin of 500.

I'm thinking of getting a sampler pack from Straight Shooters, which is 25 pellets each of a bunch of different brands, weights and shapes, to see what works well.

I've gotten away from shooting in the past several years, because it got to be too much like work, too few places to shoot, etc., but maybe this will get me shooting more of everything.
 
I have a nice collection of airguns (mostly bought from Straight Shooters). I'd recommend the sample pack after you get some practice with the gun. Since there aren't many of each pellet, you need to be ready to compare groupings.

I have an R7 that I really like. :) It's sooo much easier to shoot accurately than more powerful guns, I usually use it.

SS seem to be good people to deal with. When I ordered an Air Arms TX200 from them, they took the time to call to tell me the pellets I ordered with it didn't shoot well with it. They tried others and found one that did shoot well. Obviously I told them to change the order. It's not common to find people who will expend that much energy anymore. :thumbup:

Good shooting,
David
 
wvdavidr said:
I have a nice collection of airguns (mostly bought from Straight Shooters). I'd recommend the sample pack after you get some practice with the gun. Since there aren't many of each pellet, you need to be ready to compare groupings.

I have an R7 that I really like. :) It's sooo much easier to shoot accurately than more powerful guns, I usually use it.

SS seem to be good people to deal with. When I ordered an Air Arms TX200 from them, they took the time to call to tell me the pellets I ordered with it didn't shoot well with it. They tried others and found one that did shoot well. Obviously I told them to change the order. It's not common to find people who will expend that much energy anymore. :thumbup:

Good shooting,
David
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I also found the Straight Shooters guys to be good to work with. They listened to my criteria and made good recommendations. I had them mount the scope for me, since I'm all thumbs, and the gun arrived ready to shoot way better than I can.
 
Shann said:
I just got my Beeman R7 from a company called Straight Shooters from Minn. I had them mount a Leapers 3-12X44 scope on it.
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Congrats - the Beeman R7 has near legendary status - being one of the sweetest shooting break-barrel springers.

It is actually the Weihrauch HW35 customized -
and the Rekord trigger (standard on almost all Weihrauch/Beemans) is one of the finest on a springer airgun.

see this link for more interesting info on the Beeman R7

http://www.recguns.com/Sources/IIIG4a3.html

As for suitable pellets - I'm assuming you got the .177 version -
Straight Shooteres where your bought the R7 from has their Our Take test of the gun - and the link there is Velocity Test Results where they tested with several different pellets.

The Beeman Kodiak would seem the most efficient along with the CP (Crosman Premier) Heavy (these are both domed/round head pellets).

The JSB Exact (Heavy) also has a very good rep.

However the regular Crosman pellets one can get at WalMart etc. are very similar to the premium priced Premier (field target match) pellets (sold in the cardboard boxes) -
the regular Crosman Wadcutters
lm77cu0.jpg

are dirt cheap shoot very well in most airguns - and are great for backyard plinking as their shape punches nice neat holes in paper, and are limited in range - buy a small sample and try grouping them first before committing to larger quantities.

The Domed (round head) pellets are more efficient for longer ranges -
but that might not be so desirable for backyard plinking.

The Crosman Premier Hollow Points are good for pest/rodent control,
lhp77ip5.jpg

as are the Beeman Crow Magnum
bee3000gv1.jpg


and RWS (now UMAREX) Super-H(ollow) Points.
rws2315046uq0.jpg


With the R7 this really should be limited to under 30 yards.

Hope some of this helps.

--
Vincent
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Thanks for the info. It is a sweet little gun. I wish the triggers on my firearms were as nice as the one on the R7. (Then again, I think the scope is nicer than anything I've got on my rifles too).
 
Boy, I can remember back when I was in grade school and middle school and shooting the airguns every day. I remember what a big deal it was when I was in 8th grade and purchased my first 'adult' airgun, a Sheridan Blue Streak. Airgunnig is tons of fun and inexpensive even if you get the higher-end pellets. My Sheridan loved the Beeman Silver Jets. i don't even know if those pellets are still made anymore.

My two favorite airguns (sort of cruddy pics). I actually shot the pistol a few weeks ago:
RWSDiana01.jpg

RWSDiana03.jpg


Rifle: RWS Diana 100th anniversary model 34 with a 4x Simmons
Pistol: RWS C225
 
My two boys and I have been shooting airsoft guns from tokyo marui for a couple of years now in our backyard. Pretty safe (as far as air guns go) for pets, people and houses and inexpensive to operate. Good way for us to learn some gun safety rules too
 
Now I've got the bug to get an airgun. What would be a high quality, quite long gun that could be used in a fairly densely populated area to shoot rodents in the backyard and not be heard?
 
rt014 said:
Now I've got the bug to get an airgun. What would be a high quality, quite long gun that could be used in a fairly densely populated area to shoot rodents in the backyard and not be heard?
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My Beeman R7 seems to be about the quietest high quality air gun out there with the oomph to cleanly kill pests (I'm talking small, squirrels, mice, etc) out to 25 yards or so. It runs about 300 bucks but unless you have very great vision, you'll want a good scope too. The nice thing about it is that it is a "real" rifle with a decent beech stock and a great rekord trigger.

There is some good information at straightshooters.com that got me started.
 
Thanks for creating this thread, Shann. I went to an indoor range this afternoon, and I brought along my RWS model 34. I bet it has been at least 15 years since I last fired that gun. I started off with the 34, and ran my target all the way down range (about 65', although the range claims it is 75'). Sure enough, she was dead-nuts on after all these years. What a pleasure to shoot! My off-hand rifle shooting needs a little work, but the groups weren't too bad.

And I don't know if warming up with the 34 helped or not, but I shot my handguns pretty well (for me) today, too. Good times! I think I'll take the 34 out more often!
 
Shann said:
My Beeman R7 seems to be about the quietest high quality air gun out there with the oomph to cleanly kill pests (I'm talking small, squirrels, mice, etc) out to 25 yards or so. It runs about 300 bucks but unless you have very great vision, you'll want a good scope too. The nice thing about it is that it is a "real" rifle with a decent beech stock and a great rekord trigger.

There is some good information at straightshooters.com that got me started.
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What's a good caliber for taking out squirrels? .177 or .22 or does it matter?
 
mauiblue said:
.22 cal is good for hunting small game.
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I'd agree that .22 is better for hunting. You need a more powerful air gun than an R7 to shoot .22 at reasonable speeds. I don't think that Beeman makes\imports the R7 in .22.
 
rt014 said:
What's a good caliber for taking out squirrels? .177 or .22 or does it matter?
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There's an old British airgunners' saying - .177 for feathers and .22 for fur.

Having said that squirrels are very tough and require a reasonable amount of power to stop them.

For hunting & pest control a medium powered air-rifle in the range of 10-15 ft-lb energy is good (note: British law limits to under 12 ft-lb for air-rifles). Note although more may seem better - high powered springers become more difficult to shoot with more jar and recoil.

The R-7 is low powered (that's why it shoots so well) -
but a well placed shot (brain or heart) at under about 30 yards will still do the job - so it's accuracy and shot placement that counts here -
all the power in the world with a badly placed shot is just going to miss or only wound the animal.

Beeman back in the days for whatever reason went against .22 and really pushed .177 which was the more popular caliber anyway. So many of their air-rifles do NOT come in .22 - they tried pushing .20 but that is an awkward caliber - with much less easily obtainable ammo.

.20 is supposed to have the best of both worlds between .177 and .22 - but to most airgunners in reality it's more like a compromise - or worst of both worlds - but that's just IMHO, and YMMV.


The Beeman R9 (Weihrauch HW95) is about the right power and reasonably sweet shooting (once broken-in or tuned) - has the fabulous Rekord trigger - BUT only comes in .177 or .20 -
Beeman really missed the boat on this model not making it available in .22.

However the Weihrauch HW95 is popular over the rest of the world and is available in .22 - in the USA it is available from PyramydAir.com

http://pyramydair.com/cgi-bin/model.pl?model_id=121

Other .22 worth looking at are Webley and BSA both Brit airguns but these are much harder to find in the USA -

Webley Stingray .22 (discontinued but still available)

Webley Xocet .22 (compact and lower priced)

BSA SuperSport .22 (I don't think this is being imported to the USA any more)

For hunting the .22 RWS (now UMAREX) Super-H(ollow) Points has a very good reputation.

Hope some of this helps.

--
Vincent
http://clik.to/UnknownVT2007
http://clik.to/UnknownVT2006
http://clik.to/UnknownVT2005
http://clik.to/UnknownVT2004
http://clik.to/UnknownVincent
 
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