Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Air Guns First pellet rifle for 8 yr old dude

Just depends on the gun for me. I have a pretty wide array of pellets I use for testing in new guns, then bigger stockpiles of ones I've dialed rifles in with. H&N, RWS, Norma (which are made by RWS iirc) Apolo, and even the lowly Crosman have all worked for me in some. Not a fan of the newer Crosmans, though. They changed alloy or coating a year or two ago and none of the newer dark colored ones have shot worth a hoot in anything for me.

I do stay away from Daisy pellets like they're plagued. Those things are just straight crap... inconsistent diameter/weight, terrible flash lines, and too soft.

I’m learning as I go and am amazed by the marked variation in pellet performance. I had no idea.

DF

Air guns are kinda like rimfires or slug guns in the regard that they can be really ammo finicky if you're wanting to wring accuracy from them.

The upside is there's a huge variety of pellets out there. That's also bit of a double edged sword as far as the wallet goes 😂

Told you!

And even with the best pellets on the market, the barrel on your grandson's rifle will prefer one over the other, no different than any hunting rifle.

Also, some are more lethal on birds, squirrels, cats, etc than others. As mentioned the best pellet I have found for accuracy and lethality is Air Arms Diabolo Field Heavy 10.3 g.

PS: Give your grandson the wrong pellets, he will develop a complex, rather than enjoy his new beautiful rifle lol

Hey DF and zcm82,

Isn't it a blast shooting these pellets rifles, takes me back to when I was a kid, and that was a long time ago!

Can't even imagine what being a kid without a pellet rifle would be like, just like I can not even imagine what it would have been like growing up with a dog by your side.

I swear all the shooting I did as a kid with my pellet rifle, trained me very well. I am an exceptional shot on big game and I owe that to my pellet rifle and the thousands upon thousands of shots I took with it.

When I was a kid, my father was the President of the Skeet Club, so we shot skeet and trap every weekend, and we loaded our own shotgun shells.

When I was a kid I used to go to the local garbage dump, to shoot seagulls. I would drop a few (4 or 5) #9 shot into the front of the barrel with the pellet loaded and shoot seagulls on the wing with my pellet rifle. That also turned me into an exceptional shot on ducks and geese. Talk about taking a walk down Memory Lane.

DT, in 50 years from now your grandson will be talking about his first rifle, the one his Grandfather gave him for Christmas in 2023.

KB

I'm not a hardcore airgunner by any means, I just really got back into them a few years ago when my son first started taking an interest in shooting. I only have 6 or 7 air rifles right now, but they've turned out to be a blast for backyard plinking. I've sold a few in that period, too. Set up a little airgun range with spinners from 5-35 yards out back behind the house.

I do most of my airgun shooting in the spring, between the end of ice fishing, and before the rivers warm up enough to start chasing redhorse, carp, and catfish.

When I was a kid, we lived way out in the sticks, so I actually did a lot more shooting with 22s than I ever did airguns. Now I much prefer the air guns... quieter and cheaper to plink with. I've barely touched my rimfires since I started messing with the air rifles.

Lots of good info.

Thanks.

DF

You are going to laugh but I fish for Sturgeon in a river close to my home and there are a lot of Redhorse Suckers, are they a blast to catch or what?

People say Smallmouth fight the hardest fighting fish 1lb. for lb. I think that title goes to the Redhorse! Carp aren't sloughs either.

I fish for Lake Sturgeon, way smaller they the White Sturgeon in the Snake, Columbia, and Fraser Rivers, but man are they ever fun to catch! Here ias a decent Lake Sturgeon I caught a few years ago, 54 lbs.

What is your favorite Pellet?

Nothing beats Hunting and Fishing lol

Merry Christmas

Nice fish there, KB.

So far no fav pellet. I have a few contenders. We’ll see how it plays out.

DF

Thanks buddy!

Which is your favorite thus far?

PS: DF Are you having fun "Blinking"? lol

Very cool 👍 I've never caught a sturgeon. Accidentally snagged a paddlefish once a long time ago in MN and had no idea wtf it was at the time 🤣

For me carp are the most fun fighters. Hook into one that's 15-20# and it will pull my little 12' boat around if I don't have the anchor down 😂

As for pellets, it just depends on the gun. I know one of my 901s loves the Norma Superpoints. The other one is the H&N Spitzkugel. The 880 I got for my boy likes the H&N Spikes. My Dragonfly 22 likes the H&N Silver Tips. Crosman 362 shoots the Crosman Premier pointed best. The 1977XS loves Apolo Heavy Domes.

The Beeman Chief and Hatsan Striker I sold both liked RWS Superdomes a lot.

The old Smoothbore 760 shoots Winchester HPs pretty well... for a smoothbore. Those seem to shoot ok in all of my 177s, but usually at low speed, like 4-5 pumps. They get pretty erratic with velocity. The Crosman Premier pointed 177 pellets act similarly... good at low speeds, not so great at you push them faster.

Never had much luck in any rifle with a few like the H&N Crow, Apolo Pointed, or H&N Hammers. I don't even futz around with wadcutter/target pellets since I do most of my shooting at 20-30yds.

This is all new to me; I’m learning.

Thanks for the help. You guys are great.

Hope y’all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas.

DF

With a low powered break barrel one thing that might come into play is the fairly slow velocity translates into longer barrel-time.

Between all the motion of the piston, and the somewhat heavy trigger, both might be adding to the challenge of getting the good consistent accuracy.

I'll bet the young lad will be excited to handle and shoot his first rifle regardless. If it's pop can accurate at 10 or 20 yards, it will be lots of fun.

MM, he and his Dad were shooting it. They both did pretty well. Even my daughter shot it.

They’ve warmed up to it, may even take it back to Old Metairie. That’s a big improvement from previous attitude of no guns at their house.

I had given my S-I-L a M-1100 20 ga. He was invited to a dove hunt by well healed client, had never shot a gun. We shot some skeet over the pond, he hit a few. He brought it this trip to shoot some more skeet. I was pleasantly surprised.

I had posted a few years ago about us returning at night from a wedding. SIL saw a coon and pointed out the tree it had climbed. Wife hates coons, they crap on her porches, they gotta go. So, I went in the house, got my 8 3/8” K-22 and a light, shined and killed that coon. Daughter and SIL were standing on the front porch, 30 yds from the tree, watching the whole thing. His comment, “Wow this is my first hunting trip”. Yeah.

So you see where we’re coming from.

Progress is gradual but positive. So, we had a very good shooting experience.

DF

Yeah I kinda got the gist of the situation from your earlier posts. But it looks like there is some measurable progress happening, so that's a good thing.

Hi DF, so is he a "Natural"?

Wishing all a great Christmas with your families and friends

God Bless

I think he has the makings.

I think naturals are made not born. But, inbred ability helps. He has promise.

DF

I did not realize you were from Rabun County, Georgia. I was under the impression you were from Louisiana 😂

"Practice Makes Perfect"!

Central Louisiana, Alexandria.

We had an eventful shoot. Gun does back with them. Both parents warmed up to the idea, GS really took to it, shot it pretty well for a beginner.

Well, my electric skeet thrower puked, we had to use a hand thrower. I let them shoot my Merkel 28 ga. They said the 28 kicked more than the M-1100 20 ga, a real testament to how well the gas gun reduces recoil.

Pictures tell the story. I adjusted the sights to the right after this target.

Dad is bought in and helping his son with the Ruger while Mom watches. And, a big thanks to Paps.

DF

Well, that led to this.

Now, I've got to figure out what went wrong with the electric skeet thrower.

Don't ya know a dude needs more projects....

BTW, pond is lower than since it was built in 1996. Drought has been pretty bad.

All in all, we had a great time. They've gone back home for Christmas with family down there.

DF