Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Air Guns Best Air Rifle?

I've had good luck with the old style yellow box Sheridan cylindrical pellets in my Silver Streak. They weigh about 15 grains and seemed to penetrate better than the lighter ones. $50 is a great deal on your Blue Streak!

Pick up a pellet sampler and go from there.

After a couple of days off, and a few hours spent at the picnic table with this one, I wonder why I never owned one before.

And I also wonder how Americans got away from this kind of manufacturing quality and value.

This may be the ultimate solution for garden pests... Amazingly accurate and plenty hard hitting.

The forearm was a bit noisy while being pumped. I looked at the point of contact for the pump arm and it was obvious that there had been a rubber ring there to act as a pad, or bumper upon closing the forearm.

I pulled it out with needlenose pliers and it crumbled, but the remains looked like a hardened and cracked piece of automotive rubber hose. A short length of Dayco 5/32 i.d. looked just like it may have been original equipment, and effectively silenced my pumping efforts.

I ordered some more pellets online.

The so-called shortage of rimfire ammo seems less important, today...

If you ever get a chance, give one of the moderated PCPs a whirl...quieter than a Red Ryder & spittin pellets out in excess of 900 fps. If you have time, there's probably a club not too far from your area that holds field target matches...you'll probably walk away with a new appreciation of air guns...

Been shooting the sheridans since my first one in 1968, it was a 1960 version with the hold down safety. I've since bought up a few as I see them for sale.

Best American air rifle technology ever. I owned a dozen of the various springers and PCPs over the years. All are gone except the sheridans.

The service complexity and frequency of the springers just got to be too much. Plus I can leave them loaded and ready to shoot without setting the spring and weakening it.

The Sheridan is loud to pump, loud to shoot, and a bit of effort. However my oldest one is 60 years old, has been pumped a gazillion times and fired more times then you can imagine. With the peep sights I have skimmed the top of a blue tip match to light it at 20 yards, shot flys off the fence with my buddies for several summers as a kid. More birds and bullfrogs then could be imagined

These sheridans were built to be handed down for generations, my 12 year old son took one out today to shoot starlings in the orchard. It's 60 years old! The total cost for a valve rebuild is about 20 bucks and then it's as good as the day it was made for another 50 years.

I'm a fan of the Sheridan, it's 1/3 the weight of a springer, 1/4 the cost, effortless no recoil shooting and at least in my hands more accurate then any springer I have owned. Plus it will last many lifetimes. Oh yeah, equal in power to all but the most powerful, but the more wear prone and difficult to shoot springers.

From a bench I could shoot a springer, especially my AA pro elite as well. But from hunting in the woods positions that Sheridan beat the springers hands down

Spot on JJ...my sentiments exactly on the springers. As much as I love the old Sheridans, I've been won over by the new PCPs. Partly because of the availability of factory offerings that have shrouded barrels & attachable LDCs but also because they can be had as repeaters. My next will probably be a Kalibrgun Cricket in .25

I googled the kalibregun.

Thanks, but no...

And I briefly looked to see if there were any airgun leagues or competitions in my area. Came up empty handed on that...

I wish every $50 I spent made me feel as good as the purchase of the Sheridan...

My first pellet gun was a pump Sheridan - still have it.
This thread made me get it out and fondle it for a while.

Lots of great memories from years ago ; no telling how many pests I've disposed of with that thing......

I think you'll enjoy yours...

Juuuust missed one here on Craigslist for $50.....dang

My experience mirrors that of many here. My silver streak is 50 years old. I got it new for my 11th birthday. I had it in the closet awhile durning my 'springer' phase. Now it is back in use and the FWB 124 springer is in the closet. The primary use now is for squirrels that venture onto my house and feral cats in my wooded backyard. They are classics and probably one of the best tools for teaching kids the value of the first shot. Plus it builds young muscles in the process.

Some Sheridan information....

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...hrono_results_from_some_5mms#Post5312328

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=497476

http://sheridanguns.com/

Best pellet rifle for the money ever made...

Bob

Value grade Gamo up to 200 bucks will take care of stuff, and you don't need to worry too much about your investment.

Past that level of spend, it's managing regrets, aka - eliminate things that don't fit, or are better done by a 22. Plenty of marketing Bull out there, don't let it get to you.

I guess everybody has different tastes but there's no way I'd fork over $200 for a Gamo springer when a Benjamin pumper could be had for less.

Technology wise any spring air combo should be OK.... But the higher end Gamo's can be had on sale for ~125 so it's ok, if you pay upper end for one, I tend to agree.

But, I don't like pump jobs anymore, one cock and dead, OR go really high end like a marauder

I'm exact opposite, I haven't liked springers since I was a kid with an old Daisy model 25...first time I shot a pump up, I knew there were better options...

ETA: Even though the Marauder is a good gun, it's actually kind of "Low End" for a pcp...

More than a decade ago, Webley made a side lever spring-piston .25-caliber rifle; I believe it was called "Osprey." My understanding was/is that it was among the most satisfactory air rifles for small game - that is, powerful, accurate, well made, and its rigid barrel made consistent accuracy easy to maintain.

I have tried to obtain this rifle for years, but no one has made one available. . . . I wonder why "large bore" side lever spring-piston air rifles are not ubiquitous?

German airguns are very good Weihrauch/Beeman being no 1 and then Diana/RWS.
Both companies make many different kinds of airrifles and
pistol(s).
Look at their homepages and you will find a lot.

Brittish Air Arms are also very good, but very expensive too.

Saved my penny's and bought my first Blue Streak in January of 1964. Just had it rebuilt for the second time, shoots like new again.

I picked up a first or second year ( 1949 or 50) Silver Streak awhile back at a gun show. It is now rebuilt, broken parts fixed, and shooting good except some one has filed down the front sight, so now in the thought process of how best to fix it.

Sheridan's are hard to beat for all an all around fun or hunting pellet rifle.