by B.B. Pelletier
Announcement: Tyrone Nerdin’ Daye is this week’s winner of Pyramyd Air’s Big Shot of the Week on their airgun facebook page. He’ll receive a $50 Pyramyd AIR gift card. Congratulations!
Tyrone Nerdin’ Daye is this week’s BSOTW. He says this about his winning image: “My beautiful daughter Kailee with her Ruger Mark I. I think she’s a big shot!”
Today I want to talk about the deals that exist in airgunning. I see them all the time and try to alert you whenever there are several guns of the same model to be had. I did that several weeks ago when I reported on the TS-45 sidelever rifle that Randy Mitchell was selling at the Malvern airgun show. That was a new-old-stock Chinese air rifle that Randy was selling for a mere $20.
I’ve been writing about airguns since 1994, and I’ve seen quite a few similar deals come and go. No doubt, there will be more in the future. The time to act is when the deal is available; because once I announce it, people swoop in.
Many years ago, when Edith and I were publishing The Airgun Letter, a pawn shop in South Carolina bought a container of East German air rifles. Among the thousands of guns they got were many Haenel models 310, 311 and 312 target rifles. They priced them to sell, and that’s what happened. I helped them spread the word about these beauties for several years, and today most of the thousands of these models that are circulating in the U.S. originated from this single source.
Buying used
When someone wants more gun than they have the money to buy, I’ll often suggest they consider buying used. Buying used is a tough call, because you don’t know what you don’t know. If you get to see and hold the gun, like at a garage sale or a gun show, then at least the general external condition can be assessed. But only at special events can you also shoot the gun. Even then, shooting doesn’t tell you everything. It may show the gun is accurate, but seldom do you have the benefits of a chronograph to tell you the real health of the powerplant.
Why am I talking about buying used? Several reasons, really. If you follow my recommendation, you won’t be exposed to very much risk at all and often will be protected better than by buying a brand new model.
Safety with certain private dealers
The No. 1 reason you can buy used airguns safely is that there are certain dealers whose reputations are sterling. They will never knowingly sell a gun without full disclosure, and they’ve been doing this so long that their disclosure sometimes sounds like an IRS audit report. They’re overly critical of their own guns, pointing out each and every flaw, including those so small you would miss them unless they drew your attention to them.
Sometimes, these people are the way they are because that’s how they were raised. Other times, they’ve become this way through many years of dealing in airguns. They’ve run into their share of overly picky customers who obsessed over the most minor flaws to the point that they never wanted to experience such post-sale criticism again. So, they became anal in their quest to point out flaws in the guns they sell.
If you’re new to airgunning, the best place to find this kind of dealer is by doing business on the Airgun Classified ads that are part of the Yellow Forum. They have a Board of Inquiry (BOI) that has an honest history of many transactions — both buying and selling — that each person has done on that website. Unlike eBay, where the Feedback Forum is structured to be politically correct and almost forces a top rating for every transaction, the Board of Inquiry is quite honest and the contents can be trusted. If you see a lot of great remarks, you can bet that seller is someone with whom you want to do business.
I buy on the Yellow Forum Classified ads with confidence, knowing that not only will the item be as good as described, the entire transaction will go smoothly. If for any reason there’s a problem, these top-rated dealers will bend over backwards to make things right. And if they tell me that the gun will shoot Crosman Premier Lites at 934 f.p.s., on average, that’s what it will do.
As you read more about airguns and start recognizing certain names as reliable private dealers, you can start to trade with them at any time. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that Vince, Jim in Pittsburgh, Kevin Lentz and Tom Strayhorn are all good guys you can trust. There are probably many others I haven’t named, as well; but if you read the comments, you’ll soon be able to draw your own conclusions.
Watch for closeout sales and refurbs
The next tip is to watch the websites of your favorite airgun retailers for closeout sales and refurbished guns. Here are several prime examples.
Many years ago, Pyramyd AIR sold HW55 rifles. They sold pretty quickly except for one model. The HW55 Champ had a short stock for youth shooters. Though the barreled action was exactly the same size as all the other HW55s, for some reason, buyers avoided the Champ. As a result, Pyramyd AIR had a couple Champs left over for a long time after the other 55s had all been sold.
When the FWB 124 finally closed out in the 1990s, many dealers had new-old-stock rifles they couldn’t sell. For a couple years, there was an ongoing sale of brand-new guns that are highly sought-after today; but at that tim, they were simply the end of a long and successful run. While that doesn’t qualify as a used gun, anymore than the HW55 Champs I just mentioned, both guns were incredible buys at the time.
From time to time, Pyramyd AIR has refurbished airguns for sale. You find a link to them on the home page in the left navigation column under the title Pre-owned products. Some of these are customer returns and others are just guns that the Pyramyd AIR photographer unpacked to take pictures for the website. Still others are special deals on refurbished guns that have gone through an overhaul process, either at Pyramyd AIR or at the original manufacturer’s plant. There are great savings on these pages, and they’re usually backed by the same warranty Pyramyd AIR offers with all new guns.
Watch for blems
When they first brought the rifle out, Pyramyd AIR inspected every Air Venturi Bronco they sold. As far as I know, they still do. So, when they found a number of guns that had blemishes from the stock finishing process, they passed incredible savings along to the customer.
What to avoid
The sad thing is that the advice I’m about to give will never be read by those who need it the most, because they don’t read this blog. Avoid buying guns from “dealers” who sell through airgun forums by continually touting their own guns and modifications — sometimes trashing similar guns and modifications by others. These guys are mostly hobby dealers who think they can make a killing with their wonderful work, and they’re turning out dangerous and substandard airguns left and right.
Some of these guys are predators and others are just stupid and don’t know the damage they’re doing. Either way, I would avoid doing business with them. If they were any good, they would have good reputations on major websites and wouldn’t have to toot their own horns in dark corners.
I would avoid a selloff of a recently “latest and greatest” model gun. This happens when someone who doesn’t know anything about airguns convinces an airgun manufacturer to make a certain model to their specifications. You’ll read about it in several places on the web, but never on this blog and probably never in print. The dealer is writing his own reviews or he’s getting his friends to write reviews for him, and the gun has flaws that aren’t obvious but they should be. The guns will all be delivering velocities that readers of this blog know are impossible to achieve. They’re almost always spring guns, though there have been a few CO2 guns that fit this description.
What to look for is an overly powerful airgun that delivers unbelievable accuracy. Invariably, the caliber will be .177, and the gun will be a breakbarrel. When you see this, walk away!
When the word of their true quality and performance spreads at the grassroots level (i.e., emails and chat forums), all sales will stop and the dealer will have to sell off the remainder of his inventory at reduced prices. This is almost never a bargain and should be avoided at all cost.
A variation on this theme is when an airgun manufacturer is bought out by an investment firm that, again, knows nothing about airguns. They will build the same overly powerful models described above, and they’ll do it in the cheapest possible way. Once the guns hit the market, the word will spread rapidly, and at some point there will have to be a grand closeout sale. Unless you buy one for a laugh, I wouldn’t waste the money, no matter what the savings. These guns often have barrels without rifling, or are missing key parts. In the end, when all the rats jump ship, what’s left to sell isn’t worth buying.
One last thing to avoid is when a manufacturer takes an airgun model that has earned a wonderful name over the years and they cheapen it to milk out the last few dollars. I was appalled when I saw this happen the first few times, until it dawned on me that this is a new way of doing business. It’s an actual and intentional plan some businesspeople use to make money. Now, I treat it like the deception it is, and I try to warn shooters if I can.
This has been a brief look at the underbelly of the airgun market. I doubt I’ve addressed every important issue, but that’s what the weekend is for.
BB,
COMPLETELY off topic. Need some scope advice. I have a Nitro Venom Dusk .177. The scope that comes with it eventually stopped keeping its zero. Bought an “anti shock” Gamo scope, it worked great for awhile, but now IT won’t hold a zero (probably after a couple thousand shots at most). I don’t need frills. I just need a value priced scope about 4x power and a scope that can take a beating from the gas piston shock.
Any advice?
se mn airgunner,
I too have the .177 Nitro Venom Dusk and had some problems with scopes when I first got it. The scope that came with the rifle did not hold up on mine either and I also broke 2 of the Leapers 4x32AO scopes. I bought a Barska 2-7X32AO scope and it now has well over 3500 shots on it with no problems at all. One other thing I noticed with this rifle is that shooting heavyweight pellets reduces the snap of the recoil a bit and might be easier on the scopes also. Hope this helps!!!
David
David,
Thanks for the advice. Could it be the heavier pellets are the reason, not the scope? I like my flat flying 7.4 grain Crosman pointed pellets. When I zero at 20 yards I find I can pretty much hold onto my target from 20 to 40 yards. Actually, the “flat” range might be a bit greater than that even. I’m terrible at holdovers, etc.
Thoughts?
BB,
I’ve seen some comments on the forums that the current version of the RWS 34 no longer has nearly the quality it once did. However, the conclusion the writers reach seems to be mostly based on their observation that the interior surface of the compression chamber is not nearly as polished as in years past. The other thing that often surfaces is that the stem on the piston is held on by a crimp rather than welded, and sometimes wobbles. This wobble is often assumed to be unsafe.
However, I could see how a cylinder with slight cross-hatching could be beneficial since it would hold lube better, and how the wobbling stem could be a benefit to help the piston track smoothly even if the cylinder wasn’t perfectly straight.
Do you think either of these issues are a problem ? ie: Do you think the RWS 34 may be a rifle that the manufacturer has cheapen-ed up and is trying milk the last bit of money out of ?
Thanks !
JohnG10,
I see it exactly the reverse. The 34 of today is light-years better than a 34 of the 1990s. The old guns were crude in comparison to what Diana makes today. Power is up, vibrations are less and the trigger is much better.
B.B.
Thanks BB. I think they are comparing RWS 34s from the last 2 years to 34’s from only 5-6 years ago. Ie: late T05 trigger it early T06 trigger.
If the cylinder is noticeably less polished, is this actually worse in your opinion? One question that came up was whether the piston actually moved more than an inch or two, and whether the cylinder was polished better at the ”working” end. Apparently, nobody could see the far end well enough to tell…
But, assuming the cylinder is honed uniformly, is polished better than cross hatched for synthetic seals? (I hear it is for old leather seals).
Also, do you think a crimp-attached piston stem with a wobble is worse than a welded stem?
Thanks,
John
JohnG10,
In my experience a mirror-polished compression cylinder is bad. The walls need texture to hold lubricant.
I don’t know the specifics of the discussion, so maybe I’m not the person to ask, but as far as I know, Diana quality hasn’t been this high since the 1970s.
B.B.
se nm airgunner,
I don’t think it’s just the heavier pellets because both of the Leapers scopes still broke on me while I was only shooting the heavy 10.5 gr. premiers. I just noticed that I have a lot less felt recoil with my rifle when shooting the heavier pellets vs. the lighter weights but might just be me too. Also, you will still get a pretty flat trajectory even with the heavier pellets in .177.
SE NM,
my experience with Leapers Scopes to date is 100%. I have them mounted on everything from RWS 350 to a 46 to HW’s. Never had a problem. Keep in mind they do stand behind their product and will replace them if they fail from other than maltreatment. I also have two Bushnell scopes on spring piston rifles and both are giving satisfactory performances (the Banner series, since discontinued). I have had two scopes go south on me, both were a “combo” package scope by the gun manufacturer. In one case, the Centerpointe scope was replaced without question by Crosman and the replacement scope has held up. It’s on one of the HW’s. No need to mention the other scope or manufacturer as they no longer have their own names put on the Chinese scopes plus I really don’t want to badmouth what could be a rare occurrence.
Hope this of some help.
Fred DPRoNJ
One practice I haven’t seen yet in the Airgun industry (excluding the Diana products made in the UK after WW II) is what has been going on in the electronics industry for some time. That is, the licensing of a well known name to an importer who brings in very low quality products. Several that come to mind are GE, RCA and Zenith branded products (now out of business) and so on. The products are not made or designed by or backed by these large corporations or former corporations. The importers have just licensed the names from the owners to add a bit of hype to their products. As airguns become more popular due to costs of ammunition for firearms, I can see this happening – how about an H & R spring piston rifle made in Pakistan?
Fred DRPoNJ
Fred,
I think this happens in almost all industries. A Webley pistol with “made in Turkey” on it, is not the one you might remember. It could be better, but generally it’s made to a (low) price and would never sell except for the glorious name engraved on it. I won’t list other examples, but we all can think of some. Indeed, when Apple brings in its sleek and slick iPad, that’s just a Chinese gadget made by Foxconn in a semi-sweat shop. Sometimes companies put their own brand on a product. Other times they license a manufacturer (happens all the time in the clothing business; you don’t think Ralph Lauren actually owns the factories that make “his” whole designer lines).
The question is how much value does the brand owner put into the product; on cheap electronics, it isn’t much!
A few years ago I was looking at a used BMW to replace one that had been totaled. For some reason I happened to glance at the serial number plate where all the manufacturing info was stamped. Plain as day the plate proclaimed the car was built in South Africa… That’s right: South Africa. Now I grant there’s a difference between the owners of the trademark to RCA licensing the mark to some fairly schlocky factory in the Far East and BMW actually building a factory in South Africa. BMW is standing behind the product. But it’s done because the car can be built more cheaply down South.
What Minox Camera did when it was trying to establish a line of compact 35mm cameras and to get itself out of bankruptcy for the 2nd or 3rd time was somewhere in between. They found an Asian manufacturer of cameras, a factory that built fairly stylish cameras of no particular distinction, and basically shipped them some packing boxes and name plates. The next year’s models came from still another factory. Did Minox do a quality check on these cameras? I don’t really know.
I think something of the sort is already happening in the air gun business… I won’t name names, but I’m not happy.
pete
It’s already going on with air guns. There are “Remington” and a “Ruger” air guns as I’m sure you know.
Both are made………….elsewhere.
Mike
Mike,
you are correct. The difference is that companies like Ruger, Remington, Winchester and so on are still ongoing concerns with a reputation to uphold. They don’t want (one would hope) to void their reputation for quality and reliability by allowing poorly made products with their name on it. Quality control would be a bit more intense so that the models they were shown and approved were being followed. The companies I listed, while still in business, no longer have consumer products or never had consumer products in that area. GE doesn’t make cameras anymore (if they ever did), Zenith is defunct and so on. The sale or lease of their names was strictly a monetary decision with no care what the product(s) reputation becomes.
Fred DPRoNJ
If you want scares… Look at the history of Pentax…
Asahi Pentax went bankrupt, the remains being bought up by Hoya and used to label products (many of the recent Pentax camera lenses are made by Tokina)… And now Hoya has sold the name to a maker of commercial copier/printers (not Konica though)
Concurrently (or some years prior), Minolta cameras merged with Konica (copiers), then exited the camera market selling their latest development to Sony (where it became the first Alpha model)
Leica’s P&S camera is made by Panasonic.
Aha, that explains why Panasonic’s cameras use Leica’s lenses. They are great cameras, by the way. I bought one for my son. Sony also surprised me and others with cameras that were very good right from the beginning. No wonder! I am a fan of Hoya filters and Tokina lenses but I still value my Tamron lenses.
Fred DPRoNJ
True. However, against my advise, a friend bought one of the “Remington” air rifle/scope packages. It was poor. He took it back and got the “Ruger” package. While not the best it was better.
By better I mean a better trigger and a better scope. Both scopes had a edge distortion and some curvature of field. Bottom feeders for sure. Neither will do much for the company names.
My Diana 34 while more expensive new is light years ahead of both. You tend to get what you pay for.
Mike
If you’ve been waiting for American Airgunner to air its new season, the first episode is shown tonight on the Pursuit Channel:
DirectTV, Ch. 608, 8:30 pm Eastern
DISH Network, Ch. 240, 8:30 pm Eastern
Edith
I watched this show. Hunting the wild boars with the .50 cal. was pretty impressive. One-shot kills.
I occasionally would see javelinas while I was working in New Mexico, and would wonder what (if any) air gun would be suitable for hunting them. I’m not sure what I would do with a dead javelina, but I’m told they are good in tamales. Might be good in chili.
The balance of the show was a shooting contest with a CO2 pistol and PCP rifle. Interesting targets: vases filled with hard candy and soda pop for the pistols; lollipops and explosive reactive target for the air rifle.
I’m glad they focused on the shooting and didn’t get into interpersonal junk like “Top Shot”.
I would like to see a shooting contest for air rifles at longer ranges.
Les
Top Shot looks like scripted drama….like the other “reality” series shows.
Turns me off.
twotalon
twotalon, I wrote back to you but there was a glitch and it came back as a delivery failure. I have resent my message to you. In brief, I am doing okay but not great. I have had a recurrence of “pins and needles”, but not as bad as before surgery. I am doing gentle P.T. exercises and that is helping. My primary doc is referring me for P.T. with (hopefully) professionals.
The neurosurgeon upped my limit to 15 pounds but that is less than half the cocking effort of my primary springers so I am still several months away from being able to safely cock them. I have no objection the extra gear to successfully shoot a PCP but I can’t justify the expense yet. I’ll keep adding to my PCP piggy bank. B.B.s writing about “real deals” is welcome information.
Best to you,
Ken
Ken,
Good to hear from you, my friend. We were getting worried.
Okay, so springers are out for now. Let’s think of something you can do — like sorting pellets for when you are shooting again?
B.B.
B.B., I had a rough patch and it wasn’t just from the cervical spine stuff. Doing better now. I am grateful I can still work and it is going reasonably well. Sorting pellets may be an exercise I do need to do. Although there are many PCP airguns to choose from, I find I am drawn to the Discovery and the Marauder. I will continue to research right up until it is time to act, though, and that will include looking at past reports here. Right now I kind of wish there was a PCP lite because I am not partial to CO2.
Ken
Ken,
Yes, the $100 PCP. I wish it existed, too.
B.B.
Even $200, B.B. But I suspect the cost of manufacture would make it impractical. I remember back when hard drives were still being measured in megabytes. Customers would complain that there weren’t lower capacity drives being sold for less money. I attempted to explain that the cost of manufacture of the lower capacity drives was the same, or nearly so, as the cost of manufacturing the newer larger capacity drives. I’m not sure is any believed or understood. So, I know I am merely engaging in wishful thinking.
I don’t know that for sure. Also, there may be no market for it. I know there is a place for CO2 but I’m not that customer (except perhaps in a pistol).
Ken
Ken,
you are easily in used Discovery territory plus you may find one that has some tuning done to it such as the trigger modification. I have a Disco and Marauder and have to say the Marauder is the more accurate air rifle but there are tons of modifications on the Yellow that probably would bring the Disco into parity. There is even a modification to make the Disco a repeater like the Marauder.
Fred DPRoNJ
Thanks, Fred. I’ll look into this.
Ken
Hi Edith .yes i was wondering why my dvr didnt record any new episodes. Seems like its been 12 months.I work in New York for 7 months (summer) and go to South Carolina for winter.I got Dish network American Airgunner came on Sportsman Channel 605 i think.But now I have to see what channel it is on Optimun Cablevision
I’m not handy enough with airguns to feel comfortable buying from a 3rd party individual.
Deals in airguns are also sometimes found at firearms importers such as Century Arms and Sarco. Look under non-firearm items on such sites. Century had the Walther mod LP-53 look alike Polish made Luznik pistols a couple of years ago. They were offered for less than $30 bucks apiece. Sarco had B-21 chinese sidelever clones of the diana mod 48 by the case very cheap three or four years ago. Some had minor issues ,but none that couldn’t be easily repaired.
BB
Your blog post today is a good one. My top piece of advice on the subject is to avoid any deal too good to be true. Back out of any deal where you are told to send your money quickly to beat buyer number two who is getting ready to buy the gun. Also don’t buy guns from pawn shops without seeing the gun in person. Pawn brokers see so many guns in bad shape that a pretty beat up airgun may look really good to them. These are the three traps that have bitten me. I think three bad deals out of a couple hundred purchases or more is pretty good. I would encourage anyone buying an airgun over the Internet to try to get a phone number and talk to the seller. Not only will you find out more about the gun you are interested in buying but you may spend an hour or so talking airguns and make a new friend.
David Enoch
My late model Diana 34 and my older model 52 were both bought used. The Diana 34 came from an estate. It looked like new and still had the box. The 52 came from a gun shop that wasn’t into airguns and wanted to move it. Both are in .22 cal. Both are great. My daughter’s boy friend is a new shooter and just loved the Diana 34. He was a quick learner and listened well. By the end of the first day, he had the basics down. I told him to call me first if he decides to buy an air gun. But I’ll bet it will be a 34.
Mike
Where are the real deals in airguns and avoiding pitfalls is a great topic since true airgunners know that there is no one airgun that can do everything. This means buying multiple guns for multiple uses. Every true airgunner should heed the advice in todays article. This advice for a first time airgun buyer is even more important since first time buyers seem to want more bang for their buck than the norm.
Buying used has pitfalls but if you read about the yellow classified, with link, in todays article along with the all important boi (feedback about buyers and sellers) this is a venue that IF the seller is a good guy can almost guarantee that you will get a good gun for a fraction of the cost of new. The “catch” is that the good gun deals usually sell within 30 minutes. This site also allows you to post a WTB (Want To Buy). Many of my best airgun purchases were consumated by posting a WTB ad since some of the older collectors want to pair down their collections but are too busy to post For Sale ads, to lazy, don’t know how to post pictures, don’t want to answer a lot of questions, etc. etc. but have what you want to buy. Don’t overlook this option.
B.B.,
Thanks for the acknowledgement. I still have almost 60 airguns that have been tagged for sale.
kevin
Hey Kevin,
have any TX 200’s for sale?
Fred DPRoNJ
Fred,
I don’t have any TX 200’s for sale. Sorry.
kevin
Looking for good airguns sounds like evaluating sources of information on the internet. My preferred quick and easy way is to use an intermediary that filters the stuff in advance like some respected database. If you are out Googling, you might win big but you are on your own. My intermediary for airguns is PA. Also, I have this thing about ownership. A new gun bought by myself is mine, mine, mine, mine, and mine again. I can enjoy them just lying in their cases for that reason. But one signal exception is my collection of surplus rifles. I guess in that case I’m buying the history; it’s not just a matter of functionality.
Cute pic of the week. She is a doll.
Edith, maybe for the international shooting contest, PA should keep a separate tab showing how Gene and Boris are doing against each other. The hardest part about trash talking is backing it up. >:-)
Matt61
Edith,
earlier you asked if anyone had heard from Ken Holmz. We also haven’t heard from Slinging Lead for a while and the Tour De France started today. I know he’s a bicycle rider and wonder if he’s watching?
Fred DPRoNJ
Fred,
You’re right. SL is also MIA. I’m sure there are other blog regulars who haven’t posted in a while. Maybe, they’re all on vacation.
Edith
It’s strange that this topic was discussed today because I just took advantage of a “too good to be true” airgun sale. I work at a gun store that also sells airguns. Someone stole the sling from a brand new .22 cal Benjamin Trail. The gun was marked down, but sat on the shelf. It was marked down again, but still sat there. Finally it was marked down yet again and I decided to take it home today. It ran me $79.93 and looks to be in perfect shape.
As for the rest of today’s article, I can relate. Selling both new and used firearms, I often see several gems that come through, but several pieces of junk as well. One that really frustrates me is the “new” Smith & Wesson SDVE line. They took the SWVE, aka Sigma, and refined it into the SD. Several real and much needed improvements were made, and a lower quality yet reliable gun was turned into a very good, yet well priced firearm. S&W then decided to turn SD into the SDVE, basically keeping the looks of the SD, but going back to the old cheap Sigma level of quality and complaints.
If you’re interested in getting more info about the guns, gear and ammo shown/used/featured in each episode of “American Airgunner,” click here to see them.
Edith
what model is this serial number for 9600645
Paul,
Can you be more explicit?
B.B.
Paul,
Huh? You provided a serial number for your TS 45 sidelever rifle. Now, you’re asking which model the serial number applies to. The serial number is for the gun it’s on. Are you thinking that there are several different variants of TS 45 sidelevers, and the serial number will be able to tell you which version/variant you have? If so, that’s not the case. There are no records, that I’m aware of, for this type of discovery.
Edith
There are at least two variations of the TS 45. I sold both types in the past. You are correct that the serial number won’t help in determining which one you have. The easiest way to tell is the quality of the rifle.
The earlier version is much, much better in quality of construction than the other. The one BB bought for $20.00 is the poor quality version, what I called Type II.
Mike
Mike, I’ve got one apparently made by EMEI which is an incredibly good shooter over moderate ranges. Were the good ones all from one factory, or were they sourced from several plants?
Several years ago, AARP was concerned that so many senior citizens in Florida were buying firearms. They said they would investigate to find out the reason older people needed to buy guns. This story must have them shivering in their boots:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/01/call-it-gunshine-state-florida-ladies-are-packin-heat/?test=latestnews
Edith
I just bought a Sam Yang 909bigbore. New to airgunning. Instructions state can be filled with air from hand pump or scuba tank. Looking for advice on economical way to fill tank, can I use an aircompressor in my shop???? I’m not simple minded, but guess I was somewhat naive when I read it could be filled with an air pump, was thinking that was a bicycle pump, but when I checked out hand pumps on the site I purchased gun from, they are $199.00.
Any advice is appreciated.
Standard industrial shop compressor won’t do enough to get a puff out of the gun… That compressor probably maxes out around 120PSI; most high-pressure airguns are considered “empty” at 2000PSI.
The cheapest non-hand compressor is probably http://www.shoeboxcompressor.com/ but note that it is not stand-alone — you need a good shop compressor to precompress the inlet air for this.
True high pressure compressors run over $3000 (I saw one price listed when checking a few sites — it was over $3000 for a “light duty” compressor; most makers are of the “contact dealer for quote” type).
Yukon59,
Wulfraed is right — you need a source of air pressurized to 3,000 psi. Most big bore shooters use a carbon fiber tank that holds a lot of air compressed to 4,500 psi. They fill their guns to 3,000 and get many fillings from one tank of air.
Buying an air compressor is an expensive way to get into the hobby. But with a big bore you will only get a few shots per fill, so using a hand pump is not the way to go.
Here is a link to a big bore article you might like to read:
/article/_50_Caliber_Dragon_Slayer_Air_Rifle_December_2007/45
B.B.