'Adult' Air Rifles
 

I just bought this. Seems to be very nice quality for the price. I like the look, the feel, everything except....I can't get consistant grouping of shots at 50 yards. I've been fooling with it for a couple of hours. Maybe 100 shots.
It's my first 'adult' air rifle and while I'm not a BIG gun enthusiast, I'm not anywhere new to shooting squirrel guns. I generally hit what I'm aiming at or get pretty darned close.
The biggest difference to me...outside of the fact that it's a .22 air rifle as opposed to an actual firearm...is that it has no iron sights. Just a scope and that's something I'm not accustomed to. I'm wondering if the scope is the issue.
Anyone here experienced similar problems with air rifles?

What ammo? At 50yds you'll some pretty good pellets. I've found that most pellets vary considerably.
I have my Dad's old RWS that shoots very well @35 yds, but I've not shot it any further than that. I also have a cheap Chinese sks style air rifle that will hit quarters at 25 yards all day, with the right ammo.

Most of the precision-ish type small caliber rifles Ive seen dont have iron sights anymore. My bull Barrel .17 hmr doesnt.

I thought about the quality of the pellets. They are Daisy 'Precision Max' pointed pellets. The only .22s they had. I'll look for some better ones.
Maybe 50 yards is unreasonable but I thought I could at least get them grouped within 5 or 6 inches using a rest and a scope.
Guess I'll have to sneak up on the squirrels 'ver-wy, ver-wy quietly'.....

EDIT- I did notice that someone took their's into Dick's and had them boresight it. That's where I bought mine and I've got to go right by there today so why not?
Thanks guys.

Greg,
I have a Gammo .177 pellet gun-Big Cat 1400. The provided scope is junk but even with that, on a rest I can group within a dime at 15 yrds. Only issue has been the occassional "flyer." Haven't had a need to shoot much farther than that. There are definately performance differences between ammo. I have one shot kills on a large number of squirrels as well as a few possums and a raccoon.

Is the scattering left to right or up and down?

My 12 year old has a couple of the cheapie .177 pellet rifles.
I've fired them enough to adjust the cheapie scopes on them.
All I know is the squirrels, grackles, and crows are scarce around my house now. ;)

The pointed pellets fly far more accurately than the blunted ones.

The optical sight is rapidly replacing the open "iron sight". I have a few years under my belt so to speak and have not given in to bifocals yet. The optical (1X power) with the red or green aiming dot makes my .22 rifle shooting a lot more fun and maintains the challenge of shooting with no magnification but with better.

I also have a 22 and HMR17 (50-100 yard range shooters) that have scopes and my so-called open-sight rifle (Ruger 1022 Carbine) has an optical sight for plinking.

They make the optical sights for Airsoft also.

Try various pellets. And verify the scope is able to tolerate the harsh harmonics of a spring air air rifle. I have an El Gamo 300 that I bought in 1974 (when they were still called El Gamo and still made in Spain) with an old Weaver D6 cheapie scope, and it's a tack driver with the obsolete Silver Jet pellets. Not as accurate with some others. You'll need to find the ones the gun 'likes'. As a youth, I put a bunch of squirrels in the pot with cleanly executed head shots at reasonable ranges (less than 30 yards).

Both, all and neither...that's the problem. I couldn't get a grouping that demostrated any kind of consistant error for me to correct. That made me suspect either the scope or the ammo.
I took it to Dick's and the guy centered it as well as he could for an air rifle. He mentioned that some of these cheapo scopes drift and he bumped it gently after making the adjustment. It did move a hair so it may be the scope.
I also bought some higher quality pellets (=more $$).
Just briefly testing on a 16oz plastic bottle (about the size of a squirrel) at about 50 yards, I hit it 3 out of 5 shots, free standing. That's much better than what I was seeing yesterday and acceptable for me if it maintains that. It may have been the cheap Daisy ammo.

If its a 22 with 975 fps I could imagine that its sensitive about the ammo. I've got an old AirArms EX88 cal 22 spring rifle with 199 M/S that its very picky with the ammo. Cheap crow magnum type wont do while Ealy Wasp 5,56 works better. This is a sportster type rifle with a short barrel though

How 'bout trying the 'ol slingshot for squirrel huntin? And it's silent so the little varmints can't hear ya if they don't see ya. LOL Pellet guns and BB guns are too easy. ;)

I went in to Harbor Freight before Thanksgiving and bought a Daisey Slingshot for $5.98. Ammo is salvaged ball bearings from torched bearings and anything else that has ball bearings that are no longer needed, so there's no cost for ammo. Takes ya back to the old days where your roughin is and have learn to shoot all over again.

Indeed. Few things more fun than a slingshot, a bucket of old ball bearings, and a row of cans.

I've got a decent slingshot. Had it for years and yes it's pretty fun...but I'm not looking for a challenge, I'm looking to eliminate some varmits.
I'm thinking more and more that the problem was the ammo. I'll try it out tomorrow (if I have the time) with all three types that I have to see if the problem follows the cheap pellets.

Yeah, probably the ammo. I have taken out rabbits in my garden at over 100 yards with an old 20-cal Sheridan and Beeman ammo.

That's pretty impressive.

Yeah, we were shocked. Those old Blue Streaks are real tack drivers. Got it in the cross hair then aimed a foot or so above. Have to say though, that old rabbit didn't taste too good. Ended up giving it to the dog. :gag:

Well, it's still got problems. I'm going to contact the manufacturer. I just took a few shots with it and it's shooting about 8" high at 40 yards. That's after shooting pretty accurately yesterday and no shots between then and now. Same ammo.
Unless the rifle itself is defective in some way, it has to be the scope.

Maybe a bit to much power?

Too much power? Not sure what you mean....but then again, I don't know that much about air rifles except that I've had a few but never owned one that I couldn't hit what I was aiming at at that distance.
I shot a hovering carpenter bee out of the air from about 8 feet with my son's Red Ryder once...lol. I was standing on my elevated deck and shot a small snake with the same gun from about 30 feet. I shot a squirrel with the same gun about 2 weeks ago from about 50 feet and it really pi$$ed him off!...lol

I wrote to GAMO...we'll see what they say. I've read that they have good customer service.