With the ammo shortage, I figured I'd save whittling away at my stockpiles of ammo by dusting off the old West German made (yes, you read that right) Beeman R8 .177 caliber spring-piston pellet rifle. I found four boxes of ammo for it, too.

I bought this rifle back in the late 1980s, but it's been over 20 years since I've shot it. Still more than squirrel worthy, I'd say, even with open sights.

Funny thing is, a squirrel meandered through the brush just above my target as I was shooting. It would have been a pretty easy shot.



Here's the 15 yard group. The target is an old galvanized steel chicken feeder with a ShootNSee sticker on it.

That’ll work nicely!

Squirrelmaggedon coming..

3shotcloverleaf worth a squirrel in the bush.

Now, if I can only catch a squirrel so I can put one of those stickers on his head, I'll be all set.

Shoulda went for the 4 leaf clover! Good shooting otherwise.

I have some match PCPs and they are same hole all the time at 10 meters. Amazing shooting experience. Walther , Anschutz, and Air Arms.

Have one of these I picked up in early 90's. 25yd squirrel getter. Can with 2 barrel's a .177 and a .22.

Do you use the Artillery Hold since that R8 is a Springer?

That's a nice air rifle.

I have a Beeman R-8 that I bought about the same time, shoot it frequently . Has a Beeman scope and mounts. I only shoot paper targets with it, I have a 10 meter range in my basement. They are great rifles IMHO, never did figure out why they quit making them, maybe too much production expense making an air rifle that actually looks like a high quality rifle.

Thanks.

That's a beauty that needs to come out to play more often!
Post pics in the Air Gun forum down the page a bit.

Pssshhh, everyone knows 3 round groups tell you nothing. 10 round minimum required on the Fire, “all day”. Nice plinker you have.

Very nice.

Used to have a nice vintage barrel break down target model. Just the other day I was thinking how nice it would be to have it for the same reason Hawkeye.
It's a shame they took it in the second to last break in.

LOL. Yeah, because we know that as that barrel heats up from the air it's going to change POI.

That sucks. Get one of these. Link They're high quality too.

Thanks to all for the kind remarks.

Nice. I'm going to buy a springer 22 cal next month. No 22 ammo, so at least I can take my son plinking. Pellets and bb's are still available...

Yeah, that's practical.

Yep, you can buy pellets online, no problem. No shortage, apparently.

We shoot a lot of 22... and apparently all the 22 shells are hiding in some guy's closet who doesn't even shoot.

Oh, man. Why didn't you buy a case or two back in 2019?

They still make R7's and R9's which are just as precise and finely finished. These rifles are made for Beeman by Weihrauch in Germany.

Right, but I can't get my RWS 34 to shoot any other way. It's a PITA.

I had a Beeman R1 back in the day. What a beast. Used to glue aspirin to cardboard for targets. Fun schit.

I had like 1500, but we shot them all. They were readily available so didn't think about it until it was too late. I have like 600 rounds left...

Did they explode in a cloud of aspirin dust when you hit them?

Here’s an oldie but a goodie from 1984 and why bought the Beeman. Wish I’d had a SWFA back then!

http://www.minisniping.org/articles_petercapstick.html

I dug my old Benjamin out a few days ago for the same purpose.

I used to put a corn cob out, then a piece of a log with a shoot and see right beside the corn cob, new exactly where the point of impact was...you can extend the range this way for neck and head shots!

That sucks. After they came back to being cheap (after the Sandy Hook shortage), I bought a case of ten thousand to add to the approximately ten thousand that I already had on hand, so I'm sitting pretty for rimfire. Still would rather not go overboard shooting it, though, till the shortage is over (if it ever will be), which is why I'm getting back into black powder and airguns.

Yeah, there's all sorts of ways to have fun with these things, if you enjoy rifle shooting.

I'm worried there will never be reasonably priced ammo again. People are dumb enough to pay $.70 a round for 9mm now, I don't see anyone lowering their prices even if its abundant. Sad that pre 2020 will be known as "the good old days."

I'm a fan of German firearms.
👍

I never thought id see the day that lead would be considered a precious metal.

Thanks for posting that. I'm having a heck of a time getting my Daina RSW to group better than 1" at 25 yds.

Seems easier said than done

My BB gun is more accurate. -snort-



2 shots per target, 50' offhand

Blackballed

I remember selling Benjamins when I worked the gun counter at Hermann's Sporting Goods back in the early 1980s. I never liked the looks of them, but they were popular. Weird caliber, as I recall. Halfway between .177 and .22, no?

Can you elaborate? What are we looking at. Lead BBs, and musket caps. What kind of gun?

Get expanding pellets for hunting.

full flat nose should do the trick.

Was being a smartass mostly. Old Zimmerstutzen gun built many, many moons ago in Munderkingen, Germany.






Not obvious from the pics but it has a dual trigger. Forward cocks the action and the rear....well, you just gotta exhale and it goes pop! .177" diameter lead round balls and a rimfire case that does the heavy lifting. The barrel uses an insert of proper caliber, about 8" in length. 7" twist, why I have no idea. The ammo looks like the .22 BB caps when loaded, only they are .17 caliber. .22s pictured below....don't get all confused by the 6mm reference, that is the case length. Only God knows why the Yurps reference it like that.

Interesting. I have some CB caps. I used to, anyway. Not sure if I used them all up. Same brand and container, too.

Yep, found them. Just one container left. It's likely 40 years old. I used to use these in my basement through my S&W K-22 and Charter Arms Pathfinder back in the 1980s.

Come to think of it, the container says Made in Germany rather than Made in West Germany, so this container has to be post 1990, so closer to 30 years old. Maybe even a good bit newer, but I did use these a lot in the 1980s.

Sez mine were made in Germany also. Purchased in 1984. Yours are CB caps, loaded with conical bullets. The BB caps kill squill, coons and armadillos better for reasons I can’t fathom. Chrony velocity with my .17 BBs runs ballpark 850 FPS, dunno about the .22 caliber stuff.

Huh. So maybe my box is from the 80s, then, since yours says Germany and was purchased in 1984. The only time I remember buying them was in the 1980s for use in my basement where I had a rimfire range set up.

PS Back around then, I killed a cottontail with them using my K-22 S&W. First shot (from about twenty yards) caused the rabbit to jump six feet straight in the air and flip over 360 degrees, landing on its feet. It then darted away. It went deep into the brush, where I pumped five more into it at close range, killing it. Ruined much of it for meat. I don't recommend CB caps for cottontails.

Those with experience, back in the day, claimed that lead round balls for .36 and .44 caliber percussion revolvers were effective on human beings way out of proportion to what one would expect, even more so than conicals.

My backyard gallery.

My own

Nice. I might build one like that, too.