Best products from r/airguns

I'm new at this, but I just bought what I think is the Compact version of the same UTG 3-12x44 AO scope:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004KRA4YG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8

I like it so far. It's a little heavier than I was expecting, adding noticeably to the weight of the rifle. And it would be helpful if I could mount it further back, closer to my eye. I bought a 1-piece mount, so I can't slide it further back (the mount really only fits in 1 position on the scope).

The non-Compact version probably extends closer to your eye, so might be easier for mounting comfortably.

I am wondering if that 3-9x32 BugBuster might be a better fit for my needs. It's lighter, at least, and I don't think I need the 12x magnification. I was more interested in the larger objective, figuring that would let in more light, and I thought it provides benefits for eye relief as well.

Hmm. I don't know that people really scope match rifles so I wouldn't recommend it personally. I guess it depends what you're planning to do with them but I'd scope the hw55 if they were mine. Even with in .177 you should be able to easily reach out to ~50 yards without heavy winds. For me it's still a toss up between the 3-9 and the 4-12, I have both and love them both. I really like my 4-12 though - even at close distances of 10-15 yards - because I like being able to zoom in and pick out my target. The 3-9 is more than enough for casual plinking though.

[3-9 Leapers UTG AO] (https://www.amazon.com/UTG-3-12X44-Compact-36-color-Mil-dot/dp/B004KRA4YG)
This is by far the best value with many premium features for about $100.

[Hawke 3-9 AO] (http://www.pyramydair.com/s/a/Hawke_Sport_Optics_3_9x40_AO_Sport_HD_Rifle_Scope_30_30_Duplex_Reticle_1_4_MOA_1_Tube/4405)
People swear by Hawke and this is a good entry level one. They have some really great scopes in the 200 - 300 range too.

No problem. I always consider it better to write too much and send someone off with too much information, than write too little and send someone off uninformed.

I don't know if you can "improve" the gun. The iron sights are great - the rear sight is adjustable and the posts are large and easy to see, although you may want to dip some paint on the sights for better target acquisition. For optics, you could get a cheap underbarrel laser, or a red dot sight. Or both if you want, I suppose. I have a Daisy Electronic Point Sight that I have mounted on it once but never actually fired. That sight is cheap but functions well, and is perfectly suitable for backyard plinking. Just don't bash it into anything because it feels as cheap as it costs. It's my opinion, though, that any optic you put on it is really just a sidegrade rather than an improvement, as the gun is fantastic on its own.

As for the trigger, I don't think anyone offers any upgrades. But I don't think it's necessary either. I love the 357's trigger, and I feel that any aftermarket parts you could add to the trigger wouldn't make enough of a difference to be worth the money or time.

I bought an Umarex Air Magnum 850 for the same reasons as OP is considering - laziness.

First, a potato picture of mine: http://i.imgur.com/l29kUoi.jpg

Now, some thoughts on it...

With the CO2 you'll get a couple hundred shots out of the .22 caliber... that's pretty nice. The CO2 cannisters cost under $10 apiece, which is reasonable.

The gun is fun to shoot, simple, bolt operated, and holds 8 pellets in a magazine.

The gun is super quiet too, which is nice if you have neighbors or need to be surreptitious. If you examine the picture of mine, you'll see I added the compensator on the end of it. In reality this compensator does nothing to "compensate" for felt recoil (not existent already!), but maybe makes it look a little meaner... more importantly (and worth considering any legal ramifications), if you wrap it in some gaffer tape or something like that, it makes the gun so quiet you'll doubt it even shot anything. Kind of sounds like shooting a spitball through a straw.

There is a reasonable community of owners that have modded this gun in any variety of ways from custom stocks to switching to compressed air instead of CO2, if you decide to go that route.

All in all, everyone loves shooting this little rifle... I think it comes in somewhere around 10-12 FPE, and is plenty powerful to kill birds or squirrels (I've done it).

After owning it for a little while I wanted something a little more powerful so ultimately switched up to a benjamin marauder, and just let people I know borrow the Hammerli 850 indefinitely to shoot with their kids.

That said, I've shot doves with my .25 marauder and blown a hole nearly the size of a quarter into its breast... not great if you want to eat the meat... so the hammerli definitely seemed like a better gun for taking birds.

And again, honestly... the hammerli is almost unimaginably quiet. With the above mentioned modification it reaches a level of quietness I never thought these guns could reach.

https://www.amazon.com/Hammers-3-9x40AO-Magnum-Spring-Rifle/dp/B0099XIJKC

I got this one for a springer (Well nitro piston) and I love it. I actually moved it onto my .25 marauder which it is a bit underpowered for it at 100 yards but I can still do decently with.

If you're just planning on 50 yards thid is well worth it. spend that little bit extra on a bit better glass so you don't have to buy another because a cheaper one breaks, or deal with blurry not sharp optics or crappy adjustments not holding zero. I have had mine for 3 years about and i have dialed it back and forth and all around and still holds shot 10k rounds through it easy and still good. Nice magnification, good yardage adjustment. You won't regret this scope for your purposes

One of the other commenters mentioned the Athlon Talos SFP 4-16x44 which is pretty good for the price as well. Not sure how much you are going to get into the sport itself but if you feel like you'll enjoy it and you want to spend on some good quality scopes I would recommend checking out the Aztec Emerald 3-18×50.

It's a little more but I am a big fan.

Scrap the scope and get something like this:

Hammers 3-9x40AO Magnum Spring Air Gun Rifle Scope with One Piece Mount https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0099XIJKC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_rs.1AbY2GKJR0

The one piece scope mount is key.

Then, get something like this:

H&N Hunting Sampler, 6 Different Pellets .177 Caliber / Assorted Grains (215 Count) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004MYWCGA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Ws.1AbKN0GF23

Spend an afternoon plinking and patterning and finding which round your rig likes best!

I have Gamo Hornet and love it. I also have a Fusion Elite Pro and love it as well.

Let me start off by addressing the fact that I'm nowhere near an expert and I'm sure I'll get a correction or two ;)

If you're looking for squirrel and rabbit the lowest caliber you'd be looking at would be .22. Depending on the gun you may even want to look at something in .25 cal. I'm not sure if there are any .25 cal springers out there, but if you wanted to stay under $200 .22 would be your best bet.

If the $200 is your hard limit, then you're definitely going to be looking at what we lovingly call a "springer". That just means that the power plant for the weapon is run by a coiled spring, or newer (and better) weapons have a nitro piston (like the pistons that keep a rear hatch open on a car). Typically this style would be a "break barrel" where you cock the gun by pulling down on the barrel until the spring is locked into the cocked position. The nitro piston has much less vibration after the shot than its spring powered counterpart, which increases accuracy.

Still, you WILL want to learn the artillery hold. It will help keep the frustration down a lot. The main issue is all that vibration after the shot goes off, but before the pellet leaves the barrel. The key is to let the barrel do its thing, and always hold the gun in the same position. That way the vibration pattern is always the same which leaves you with a much more accurate shot. All that vibration also means you'll want to look for an air rifle rated scope. Springers will kill a regular powder scope. I've had reticules come loose on me, and scopes not able to hold a zero.

I'm not super knowledgeable on what a good break barrel would be. Ted has a good video on very entry level multi-pump guns and what they're good for. I doubt that that would suit your purposes though. Ted also reviews a Benjamin Trail NP that would be right around your budget from Amazon, but I have no direct experience with it. I've used a Gamo Bull Whisper and it's alright, but I don't have any other break barrel to compare it to. Gamos can sometimes have QC issues.

A situation I ran into is that I started to really like air rifles, and the next step up is a pre-charged pneumatic rifle. Amazon has a pretty good sale going on with the Benjamin Discovery right now. It has the air pump included and the Disco comes with open sights. You can also put a scope on there. PCP has near 0 recoil, so you can put any scope on there you'd want. Ted, from Ted's Holdover, has a great video about the Benjamin Discovery and why it's a great starter gun.

Well, you don't have to hold it just in front of the trigger, you just have to hold it the same way every time.

I recently started shooting a springer as well, and I found that getting a chair and table with a small shooting bag like this http://www.solware.co.uk/air-pistol-air-rifle/caldwell_deadshot_rear_front_bags.jpg (just the front one, you still want to support the butt) and, holding the fore stock, rest your hand on the bag. This will get you acquainted with a hold that you can do consistently, and then move on from there.

Personally, I shoot best in a low chair with this http://www.amazon.com/Hammers-bungee-corded-collapsible-shooting/dp/B001BXVUN6 and using the checkering on the fore stock, I can rest it in the exact same place every time, very easily.

I can get .3" groups at 25 yards pretty consistently. This is with a Beeman R9, which should be similar in power and weight to your Hatsan 95.

Hatsan makes plenty of gas piston or spinger .25 cals; but not at that price of course.

http://www.amazon.com/Hatsan-Rifle-Combo-Walnut-Stock/dp/B008DZHN1I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419431684&sr=8-1&keywords=hatsan

There's one with Turkish walnut stock and "decent" 3-9x32 scope for $141 with free shipping.

Mod 95 with Vortex gas piston:

http://www.amazon.com/Hatsan-Rifle-Combo-Vortex-Spring/dp/B00K6PPLYE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419431777&sr=8-1&keywords=hatsan+vortex

.25 Hatsan for $113 with Free shipping (this is missing the nice Quatro trigger the better Hatsans come with):

http://www.amazon.com/Hatsan-Striker-Rifle-Combo-Black/dp/B00CSAAT2O/ref=sr_1_6?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1419431908&sr=1-6&keywords=hatsan+vortex

But MY next purchase is going to be the Mod 85 Sniper Vortex while I'm waiting for the AT44 in .30 cal:

http://www.amazon.com/Hatsan-Sniper-Vortex-Rifle-rifle/dp/B00DBECEEC/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1419432083&sr=1-1&keywords=hatsan+85+sniper+vortex

https://www.amazon.com/Hatsan-Rifle-Combo-Walnut-Stock/dp/B008DZHN1I/ref=sr_1_1?s=hunting-fishing&ie=UTF8&qid=1498279305&sr=1-1&refinements=p_36%3A-16000%2Cp_89%3AHatsan&th=1&psc=1

its 20 dollars more expensive than your budget, but has scope, and comparing to some of your suggested choices hatsan 95 is a much better league. It has excellent trigger and with a little bit of tuning it will give you great results.

Edit: OP's original question was, "I plan on hunting squirrels. I need something that will last me a couple years and that the scope is decent out the box. Any suggestions?"

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You might look at Crosman's Benjamin Titan NP .22, currently priced at $126.57 on Amazon. It's well made, relatively quiet, has a surprisingly nice hardwood stock and a two-stage adjustable trigger, and the included scope and rings are quite useable. As you might expect, it performs very well with Crosman Premier pellets.

(Note: Whether the rifle has NP (nitro piston) or GP (gas piston) on the box, I'm told they're identical.)

How did we go from "I feel a .22 would be too loud and could potentially end up in someone's backyard" to "go get a .50 cal, man!"? :-)

​

You do not say what your range will be. If you are sub 30 yards, you might look at the Crosman Custom Shop. A 2400KT CO2 Air Rifle with a 14.6" Lothar Walther barrel in .22 Caliber will run you about $150.00. (Order on Friday for free shipping). A simple moderator off Ebay will run another $30.00. You can put the balance in a scope and you will have a nice, quiet gun that will be deadly for squirrel and rat size game and smaller.

I have this exact gun with a cheaper scope. It is fun to shoot and gets about 25 shots at an average of 491 fps (8.4 fpe) per CO2 cartridge with JSB Exact Jumbo Diablo 15.89 pellets. Groups are 5/8" to 3/4" at 20 yards.

Good Luck,

Traqker

You definitely need a chrono. Can’t know what effect any tuning had without one. I have one of these, works great.

Competition Electronics 538002-SSI ProChrono Digital Chronograph https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0028MTBJ4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_1tR3CbNHVEKQ6

As for additional mods and tuning. Check out hillairgun.com. Good selection, reasonable prices, and good descriptions to give you ideas.

I purchased a few scopes since I started shooting airguns about a year ago and I've found that some manufacturers do while others don't. The ones that do, however, make it very easy to mount the scope level. An inexpensive Hammers scope with that feature can be had for about $60 on Amazon. I've had excellent success with it mounted on a Benjamin Trail NP2. Here's a link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0099XIJKC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_l557AbEWCM2SV

Oh, good to know.

In that case I think I'll start saving for this. It's still more money than I was expecting to spend walking into this, but I suppose it's worth it because I need the power of the nitro piston without the price that comes with a PCP or a CO2 rifle.

Thanks a lot for your help.

I don't have that exact scope, but I do prefer the 6-24 x50 for long range plinking and have several cheap scopes in that size.

That being said, I personally prefer the sidewheel focus and seriously wish all my scopes had it. I'll probably go with this scope next: https://www.amazon.com/UTG-4-16X44-Scope-36-color-Mil-dot/dp/B005NHA122

Wish it was 24x but I can't have it all in my current hobby budget. Lol

Try H&N barracuda hunter extreme pellets. They're fantastic in my 177 piston rifle.

Also, I went through hell finding a scope that actually held its accuracy. First take a pencil and mark the scope around your mounts to make sure it isn't moving at all. If it is, peel off the little tape under your mounts and add a super thin layer of rubber cement to the rings and let it dry before re mounting.

It's probably just going to be your scope, or the way you're holding your rifle. Remember, hold your rifle as loosely as possible and keep your scope on target until you see the target hit.

After trying several scopes and a few brands I wound up finally finding a great scope with a utg 10x50. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CHJBLCI/ref=sxts_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526174911&sr=1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65

*changed the word table to tape.

Thanks! I didn't know what AO was. And I do notice the crosshairs shift when I move my head. So it must be the parallax. You saved me $115. Is this the scope you recommend?
https://www.amazon.com/UTG-3-9X32-BugBuster-Scope-Mil-dot/product-reviews/B005UGIMNQ/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_btm?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews

Does anyone know if the Competition Electronics ProChrono Digital Chronograph is any good? Seems to have a lot of positive reviews on Amazon.

Amazon.ca has a decent air rifle scope selection. UTG are lower end but air rifle rated scopes with decent ratings. http://www.amazon.ca/UTG-SCP-M392AOLWQ-Compact-Picatinny-Sunshade/dp/B005UGIMNQ

I just bought a UTG hunting air rifle scope from amazon.ca for a Benjamin Discovery it works great.

This scope and ensure you’ve got good mounts. I prefer BKL.

Bushnell Trophy is another version with optics that are a bit clearer.

For those still looking, the Bug Buster is on sale at Amazon for $65
Fantastic deal.

https://www.amazon.com/UTG-3-9X32-BugBuster-Scope-Mil-dot/dp/B005UGIMNQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482073174&sr=8-1&keywords=bug+buster

Ah sorry man. Its a daisy powerline 340. Looks like a beretta 92. Heres the link. Hopefully it works
https://www.amazon.com/daisy-powerline-340-pistol-Airsoft/dp/B00BSR2QPG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=daisy+powerline+340+bb+pistol&qid=1565373416&s=gateway&sprefix=daisy+powerline&sr=8-1

The one I see is a nitro pump. My only great concern about .22 over .17 is that the .17 has better short range accuracy than the .22, but if I can't learn my rifle's eccentricities and compensate, I don't need to be shooting, do I?

Both the Titan and the 95 are great guns and are the guns I generally suggest to anyone looking at a $150 air rifle. The Titan is lighter and quieter, and the 95 has a nicer trigger. The scopes that come with both are complete rubbish.

The other rifle I would suggest in your price ranges is the Beeman RS2. I think walmart sells it as the Grizzly now...it'll be the two barrel combo. There's a synthetic stock version that's a little lighter and less hurtful to your ego when it gets dinged. Either way, though, it's a loud and heavy gun (heavier than the Titan or 95), and simply bigger. But it's got a very nice trigger, it is a solid tack driver, and dead reliable. The benefit here is that for $100 it leaves enough of your budget left over to get a decent scope.

UTG Bugbuster is popular. Comes with rings which is something you don't get when you get into scopes approaching $200. Everything is custom and pricey up there.

OK I see. I did a little reading on it after replying to your comment last night and must have missed the point of the adjustable parallax. After searching through scopes on Amazon, I decided to go with this

Is this the one you recommended: http://www.amazon.com/Beeman-RS2-Air-Rifle-Combo/dp/B001BS5OFG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367847638&sr=8-2&keywords=beeman+rs2

He asked for advice. The Daisy 340, while certainly inexpensive, is about the last gun I would advise someone to buy. With steel bbs travelling at a blistering 240 fps out of that smoothbore barrel, I'll be betting on the cans.

I think he should, at least, read the reviews people have posted on Amazon before buying this gun.

It's the same price on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Daisy-Powerline-340-Repeater-Pistol/dp/B00BSR2QPG

If you want something cheaper than the Bug Buster, this is a great scope!

https://www.amazon.com/UTG-Hunter-Scope-Mil-dot-Airgun/dp/B00ATCTZLY

http://www.amazon.com/Crosman-BW8M22NP-Benjamin-Titan/dp/B005NH9QEG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419418325&sr=8-1&keywords=benjamin+titan

OR

http://www.amazon.com/Gamo-Caliber-Rifle-Scope-Platinum/dp/B0062KAQYW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1419418537&sr=8-3&keywords=gamo+big+cat