A few weeks ago my wife had a colleague come in from the UK. We took him to the shooting range to try a nice assortment of pistols and a .22LR rimfire. I was limited on rifles because the range was indoors. The largest caliber is .223. My wife demanded that I sell my old AR ages ago, so I did (my favorite target rifle ever). Because of this, I didn't have the AR to shoot.
Well, that made me realize how much I missed shooting. One problem with that, it gets expensive, QUICK. Yesterday I had some free time, so I took my spring-piston .177 break barrel air rifle to the range. This rifle is a challenge to shoot consistently. It takes a light grip on the rifle and to let it do what it wants when it shoots. You don't shoulder it like a deer rifle, or even an AR. VERY LIGHT.
I also recently acquired a Sig Sauer P226 CO2 .177 BB/Pellet pistol. THAT IS FUN. I had to break it in some, but once it did, it got addictive quick. Considering it runs $100 brand new, a steal for a solid blow back pistol. I also grabbed two spare mags for $15 and 50 CO2 cartridges for $30.
My rifle was $80 new when I got it ages ago (Remington Express .177), and I got a grouping in standing position of about 4 inches @ 25yds on iron sights (which are so far off it isn't even funny, I ran out of adjustments). I need a scope to get better accuracy, since the sights are useless. I have a scope on my newer Benjamin Trail NP2 ($150) break barrel gas-piston .22 pellet rifle. That scope will go on the Remington, and a new scope coming in will go on the NP2.
I'm sticking with air guns because if I shoot my non-CO2 rifles/pistols, I am only paying for ammo and whatever I use to clean them after. A tin of 500 pellets runs $10, which is WAAAY cheaper than 9mm ammo, or even .22LR.
Rather decent .177 pellets are about $0.02 per pellet. I can find cheaper at 1.2-cents ea.
.22LR in bulk is 6-cents ea
9mm bulk is about 30-cents ea
etc
The CO2 pistol comes out to about $2 to shoot 64rds. One 12g CO2 cylinder runs 4-mags. So that is $0.72 plus $1.28 for 64 pellets, which is $2 per 64 shots. Not bad for a little CO2 pistol. To shoot my .22 revolver would run me about $3.84 to shoot the same amount. So yeah, I'm sold on this air gun thing. Plus, I hope to hunt with it later on. Nothing big, maybe some Dove to eat for a single meal. Possibly some squirrel. I just need to renew my license. Still need a decent amount of range time first.
