TargetTalk

Hello all,

Can anyone recommend a good quality, beginner air rifle that is suitable for shooters who are either completely new to the sport and/or are very young? I have a friend who wants a recommendation. The only thing he is sure of is he wants it to be compressed air. No cocking on a pneumatic.

TIA

Stan

P70 jr if you can find one. Walther in the jr wood stock. Both have worked well for us

Actually any of the quality German match rifles in the Junior option will do just fine. If you are looking at a secondhand rifle then the Walther LG300 XT Junior is a really good option, my daughter's club lent her one when she started, and she now shoots an LG400 Alutec, so that is our preference. Any of the others will be fine though. Actually as most of the Junior variants come in a woodstock, the differences between them when it comes to fit and feel are actually quite minor. The stock shape/dimensions are pretty much defined by the rules.

The main "issue" with the German guns is cost, I would expect that in the US you would be looking at over $1000 for a decent secondhand match PCP. With juniors, especially in the US you also have the option of Sporter Class. These rifles are built down to a price. Although the inherent accuracy is still pretty good, the real problem with the sporter class rifles is that the triggers are, in comparison with the German 10m guns, useless.

So it really depends on what they want to shoot. Precision 10m with all of the kit, which can be a sport for life. Or Sporter class, as a junior until age 21.

Alan

Al brings up sporter and 3P air. Most dont seem to realize that they are dead end sports that end when highschool ends. Too many good shooters realize that too late.

I'll amend my recomendations as being only useful guns for shooters under 5'5" or so. A new shooter thats 6' will find them useless. My 5'2" 13 year girl old complains the gun is too light, even with 3lbs wt added, so they are also easily outgrown 'as is' out of the box.

redschietti wrote:Al brings up sporter and 3P air. Most dont seem to realize that they are dead end sports that end when highschool ends. Too many good shooters realize that too late.

I'll amend my recomendations as being only useful guns for shooters under 5'5" or so. A new shooter thats 6' will find them useless. My 5'2" 13 year girl old complains the gun is too light, even with 3lbs wt added, so they are also easily outgrown 'as is' out of the box.

Over here sporter is pretty much limited to the Scout movement, which is something I am not involved in. She started with 10m precision mostly as I used to be a 3P shooter myself, and it seemed natural for her to start with prone and air, as we do not have any ranges locally (within a comfortable 2 hr drive) where she could shoot standing and kneeling. Personally I would always recommend precision over Sporter. I do not think that Sporter is a good feeder for precision either, as making the change pretty much requires the shooter to replace all of their kit in one go. Rosie was about 14 when she started shooting prone and air and the first AR she used at the club was actually a Walther LGR, which she managed to operate without any problems. Cocking one is actually not that difficult if you have someone who can teach the correct procedure. It needs technique rather than strength. The club was then able to acquire several reasonable PCPs, and she moved on through a FWB P70 and then the LG300, before her Grandma bought her a LG400 for her 16th birthday.

So I like Redschietti I would recommend looking at Precision not Sporter if the interest is in competitive shooting. Otherwise if you just want an air rifle to use to teach basic shooting skills then there is the Air Arms/CZ 200 as well as cheaper rifles from Crosman/Benjamin which unfortunately over here would be more expensive than the Air Arms S200, so I know very little about them from a practical point of view. The Gamo Coyote is also a relatively small sized rifle, although a sporting rifle, rather than a match rifle, but AFAIK it is made in Birmingham by BSA, not in the Spanish Gamo factory. It really depends on what you want to do.

Alan

I live in Poland, here ven the least expensive German air rifle is byond the means of most shooters. I shoot an Anschütz 2001 SSP, but for my wife the weight and the fit were wrong. Since Czech is close by, I decided to investigate. Ended up buying a CZ200S, which is a nice air rifle. I fitted it with some used Anschütz sights and bought and fitted an Earnest Shooting Product aluminum front sight tube (standard one is plastic), which also increased the sight radius by about 4 inches, but still made the rifle within the total length requirements for 10M competiton. It was still a little light on the front end, so I added a weight (30 gram) from one of my pistols (Walther CP2) which clamps on to the air cylinder. I did some work on the trigger (polishing of sear surfaces) and adjusted it to 550 gram relase pressure.

This little rifle is accurate, and my wife regularly out shoots many of our club members with more fancied equipment. All in all she has less than $500 invested.

Thanks to everyone for the replies. They've been a big help.

Are there any opinions about the Crosman Challenger PCP or a similar rifle from a USA company?

The Challenger 2009 is a good rifle for new shooters, and is very budget friendly. However being a sporter class rifle, it is very light, and has a heavy trigger (per sporter class rules).

IPshooter wrote:Thanks to everyone for the replies. They've been a big help.

Are there any opinions about the Crosman Challenger PCP or a similar rifle from a USA company?

They are OK for shooting Sporter class, which was an event practically invented for them, although as they cost more than the better (IMO) AA/CZ 200 do here I have no practical experience of them. They would also make a good rifle to learn marksmanship I would think. The real problem they have from a 10m match perspective is that compared to the competitive rifles the triggers on them are junk. The thing is that for the money that one of these rifles will cost, you can get a good second hand German SSP or Spring match rifle, with a superb trigger, and probably the same level of accuracy as the current PCP rifles.

I know that a PCP has been requested, but the cheap ones still work out rather expensive once you add in the charging kit. An old FWB 300 Junior or Original 75 in the Junior stock would still be a manageable rifle, even though it requires cocking. cocking the rifles is a matter of technique, not strength, and should be possible for a junior who is of a stature where the rifle fits them reasonably. A girl of around 11 should be comfortably able to manage either of the two above old recoilless springers.

Alan

I have owned 2 crosman 2009 rifles, and they were mechanically capable of shooting good scores. The trigger as shipped to comply with sporter rules is unworkable for precision. Fortunately the trigger can be dramatically improved by modifying just one spring, and its easy to do. As to the light weight, wheel weights can easily fix that. With used models going for under $400 with sights, its easy to shoot for a while, save money towards a nicer rifle, then sell it and recoup almost all of that value.
Would I trade my Walther LG300XT ALUTEC for one? Nope... but a 2009 in the hands of a beginning shooter is certainly no handicap.