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BB guns - .177 and others

Toothpick

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
I'm in the middle of cleaning up some junk drawers and ran across some BB's and .177 pellets. Kinda pointless to own ammo but nothing to shoot it with.

So school me on some BB guns.

Could I buy one that shoots both BB and .177 pellets?

Let's say I want a nice air riffle for plinking - something with a scope perhaps. What's on the market?

This won't be competition. This will be boredom backyard can shooting paper destroying fun. So perhaps a nice rifle that's sub $300? $200 even better. But a step up from the Daisy forearm workout pump air in it and shoot 10 yards type of rifle.

Thanks!
 
Jay21

Jay21

Collecting wife bonus parts
Don’t go for a gun that shoots both BBs and pellets. They are good at neither.

For fun BB plinking, get a Daisy Red Ryder or model 25 pump. Seriously. They are fun. If you are super serious about BBs, the Daisy Avanti 499.

For pellets, anything under $300 will be made in China and not very good. For quality, get a made in Germany Diana or Beeman (be careful though as they license their name to made in China stuff).
 
Last edited:
Toothpick

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Jay21 said:
Don’t go for a gun that shoots both BBs and pellets. They are good at neither.

For fun BB plinking, get a Daisy Red Ryder or model 45 pump. Seriously. They are fun. If you are super serious about BBs, the Daisy Avanti 499.

For pellets, anything under $300 will be made in China and not very good. For quality, get a made in Germany Diana or Beeman (be careful though as they license their name to made in China stuff).
Click to expand...

I never considered a BB pistol. That does sound pretty fun. CO2 I gather?
 
Lightcs1776

Lightcs1776

I agree with Jay, don’t get one that shoots both. Figure out what you want to use it for and buy something for that goal. My .177 rifle was purchased to take out chipmunks and it does exactly that.
 
Old Hippie

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
Crosman makes BB pistols. I have one that was the Major's. It's a pump style, which I prefer for BB guns. Also have my old Crosman 760 Powermaster. Still works.

Beeman used to have some nice pellet pistols, mostly spring-piston style. I have a Webley Tempest and a Beeman P1. The P1 is sized like a Colt 1911. Also packs quite a wallop in .177. I converted it to .22 for a while, but finding .22 pellets light enough for an air pistol was hard so I converted it back.

I was looking the other day at some "PCP" or pre-charged pneumatic shotguns. Yeah! Air shotguns. Intriguing. Of course there are PCP air rifles on the market up to .50 calibre.

So your choices are pump, CO2, spring-piston or pre-charged pneumatic. Pump is a little erratic because you're compressing gas (air) and once you've quit pumping the air starts to cool in the reservoir and pressure begins to drop. CO2 is convenient but it always seems like the dang cartridge is empty when you need it. Spring piston is quite stable, as the air in the reservoir is not under pressure until the trigger releases the piston. PCP carries up to 4,000 psi in a rechargeable reservoir, but A) it's a small bottle and B) you don't get many shots.

Many PCP guns come with or can be accessorized with a bicycle pump for putting more pressure in as needed. You won't hit 4,000 psi with it, but you'll get a nice workout and it'll sure teach you to make every shot count. :)

I recall Beeman had an "air spring" rifle, too, with velocity over 1200 fps in .177. The "spring" was a reservoir of compressed air. Cocking the rifle further compressed the "air spring" and when the sear released that was the force that drove the piston to shoot the arm. Not sure if that idea's still current, though.

O.H.
 
Toothpick

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
I don't want to have to buy big bottles and fill with air via a pump or whatever. CO2 would be fine because I've seen a 8pk or 12pk of the cartridges. Just load up and go, toss em when empty.
Air pump or CO2 I'm thinking.
 
Scruff

Scruff

CO2 does not work well when it's cold. Works much better when the weather is warm. A good break barrel spring piston rifle is a good beginner air rifle. I went down the rabbit hole with the pre-charge pneumatics (PCP) years ago. They are pretty darn accurate at longer distances and easy to shoot accurately, but can be pretty pricey for a good one. There are some airgun forums out there with lots of info. Pyramyd air is a pretty good online vendor.
 
C

ColtRevolver

45 years ago I was a terror with my Crosman 760 pump pellet rifle. I got it for my 10th birthday. It was quite a step up from my Red Ryder. It shot BBs and pellets. Later I got a Crosman 1377 pump pistol . Both are still in production.

I have a couple of springer pellet rifles. Learning to shoot them accurately can be a challenge due to the recoil of the spring. You often have to learn an "artillery hold" to get consistency with a springer.
 
P-51G t

P-51G t

For cheap backyard plinking with bb and pellet though a rifled barrel, you would hard pressed to find anything better than a daisy 880. They are not the most powerful or accurate plinkers on the market but, at around $50 at wallys, not bad either.
 
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