Remington Airmaster 77 - just right for Christmas!

A rifle that I have passed by for some time is the Remington Airmaster 77. It's pretty impressive when you hold it in your hands, and I think it represents a great value - especially when you take advantage of a deal Pyramyd Air is offering right now. More about that later!

Unusual looks!
This is a most unusual-looking air rifle. The stock and forearm are matte black plastic, and the receiver is matte black metal. The outer barrel is brushed nickel, which contrasts very nicely with the dark gun.

Nice open sights!
The gun comes with a scope, which I'll get to, but there is also a very nice set of open sights. The front is a fiber optic green bead, and the rear U-shaped notch fits it perfectly! Usually, there's a mismatch between front and rear with fiber optics, and I never know exactly where the bead should go when I sight. But, the sights on this Remington line up very naturally! The rear sight adjusts in both directions.

It shoots BBs and pellets!
Although the barrel is rifled steel, this gun is built to take BOTH BBs and pellets. The BBs are loaded 200 at a time through a port in the grip cap. Then, you load a smaller spring-loaded magazine on the left side of the receiver by inverting the gun and transferring BBs by gravity. DO NOT dump pellets into the BB reservoir - they will only jam the mechanism.

Pellets are loaded one at a time through a loading port on the right side of the receiver. It opens when you pull the bolt back to cock the gun. The port is made to accommodate your fingers, and I find this to be an easy gun to load. It makes little difference to the firing rate whether you choose a BB or a pellet. BBs are simply a little easier because they're stored inside the gun for automatic loading, while the pellets have to be inserted through the port. The rifle must have NO BBs in it when you want to shoot pellets. I would personally use the Airmaster 77 as a pellet rifle and forget the BBs.

Nicely sized!
Though this rifle is probably intended for a younger shooter, it is sized for an adult. The weight of 4-3/4 lbs. and the thick, solid-feeling stock and forearm make it feel substantial. A while back, I suggested guns to put behind the door or out in the shed for pest control. I'd like to add this one to the list as long as we aren't going after squirrels and rabbits. For grackles, starlings, pigeons, sparrows, and rats, this would be potent medicine!

It comes with a scope
The rifle is sold as a kit, which includes a 4x scope that has its own mounts. It's not a premium airgun scope by any means, but if you would like to try a scoped airgun, there aren't many priced like this. Since the mounts are on the scope when it comes, all you need to do is slide the ring bases on the receiver dovetails, tighten two screws and your rifle is scoped!

This is a Remington!
Crosman makes the rifle, but Remington puts their name on it. That will be important to collectors in the future, so hang on to that box and all the stuff inside.

It's a multi-pump pneumatic
You can put up to 10 pumps in the Airmaster, which means you can control how hard it shoots. For indoor target practice, three pumps are sufficient. For popping grackles at 25-30 yards, I'd take it up to the limit. Remington advertises a velocity of 725 f.p.s. with a 7.9-grain .177 lead pellet, which is a little faster than the Beeman R7. That is serious power, so this gun is to be taken seriously, by which I mean that you can use it for light hunting and pest elimination. The ability to vary the power by the number of pumps is a very handy feature.

And the REALLY good news...
If you'd like to save a bundle on one of these rifles and don't mind a remanufactured gun, Pyramyd is selling them for just $49.95! They include the scope and rings at that price, but not the BBs, pellets, targets or safety goggles. A remanufactured gun has been sent back to Crosman's repair department and repaired to shoot like new. Many times, however, the reason for the return wasn't the gun's fault - the customers simply return them, and company sends all of them back to Crosman. So, you could end up with a peach of an airgun for very little money. Other than getting a used gun, I don't know where there's another deal like this anywhere at this time.