What gun, what criteria?

What do you plan to do with it? If you don't know, U-tube it.

I am one that investagates as much as I can about an interest.Doing that gives me an idea that I can use to expand the interest or knowledge by asking others more specific questions or at least I have an idea what to ask....pointing one in the right direction is easier the more information you can give them and that helps when they take the time to do some researching themselves.
So you are right ,but that questionairre is indiviidual even if it does help many others.
We do not want to make it too simple,plus everyone can have their own take on what is what.

IMO... anyone that comes in and asks what ag they should by without any further criteria is not likely to listen to much advice anyways.

For airgun:
1) Rifle/pistol
2) PCP/springer
3) Intended uses ordered by primary / secondary / etc
4) Intended budget
5) Accuracy requirements
6) Slug vs. pellet and preferred caliber/pellet type/pellet weight
7) Other important items (carry weight, offhand shooting, bipod mount, etc)
8) Size/age/experience of shooter
9) Power level (how many shots per fill, cocking effort, etc).

Avator said:

IMO... anyone that comes in and asks what ag they should by without any further criteria is not likely to listen to much advice anyways.

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there are a lot of firearm shooters who simply don't know and have no concept of how many options exist. If the first response isn't aggressive and obnoxious there usually is a useful conversation.

If the OP doesn't want to respond at all or gets defensive, then I block them.

dgeesaman said:

there are a lot of firearm shooters who simply don't know and have no concept of how many options exist. If the first response isn't aggressive and obnoxious there usually is a useful conversation.

If the OP doesn't want to respond at all or gets defensive, then I block them.

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Well, fortunately we don't see many come in and ask the question so simply and vague. Most give a little info at least. Most also leave important info out.

After reading many requests for help and making suggestions I agree that a template of questions might be useful.

I've thought about making some sort of "Purchasing Guide" flow chart (if this, then that) to help people find the type of airgun that they might want to consider but gave it up as having too many options to be practical without AI programming

Even then, you need to know how to ask the right questions and many people don't have a clear understanding of what they really need. The constant turnover in the classified adds are a good indicator of that. LOL!

I often am asked what's "the best airgun" and it takes several minutes of questioning before I can find out what the person wants the airgun for and then another couple of minutes to get them to be reasonable about their real needs and expectations.

It usually takes a couple of hours on the shooting range, trying my guns before we can get a good match.

Guess that a list of questions might be a good starting point and hopefully a full list can be compiled and pinned for reference.

To the list from dgeesaman above, I'd add...

10) Shooting Environment (indoors, backyard, urban, rural, wilderness)

11) Legal Restrictions (caliber, power, silencer/moderator - illegal in Canada)

Cheers!

I've been using a template to answer the "What gun should I get?" question with Spanish speaking Peruvians.

Let me look over that....


For now, here is an unusual decision aid, because many shooters want the following:
● Powerful guns (don't we all?)
● Quiet guns (backyard!)
● Short, light guns (to stow easy, manover inside vehicles, and for walking hunts)


This one-page diagram below makes potential buyers aware of the diametrically opposed relationships between these common characteristics.
As the Stones said it: You can't always get what you want — you can get 2 of the 3 characteristics, but not all 3.

And it gives tips on how to compensate for the lack of each one of these characteristics.


Preparing this diagram taught me a lot for my own gun shopping!

Matthias

What I don't understand...
WHY don't people just start a search program...ON THEIR OWN ?

It ISN"T difficult. Do some Google searching for the more popular on-line shops. We all know who they are, after a 2 hours search !
This way, they get a good "visual" of the gun types on the market.
THEN...after deciding on a particular style, then dig deeper into the particulars of that / those guns.
Weights, caliber's, lengths, how to fill the gun, etc., etc.

THAT should take the question count down to just a couple.
AND...that way, the new prospective buyer ACTUALLY, chooses their OWN gun...rather than having the internet based gun freaks choose FOR them.

Hmm, seems to me that I did just this, (the above) about five+ years ago. I actually chose...my own first gun, what a freaking concept !!! An Edgun, Lelya 2, in .22 cal.

Another thing, the "search" function on this site works fairly well. Another...source of information, BEFORE...RE-ASKING the same old questions, over and over again.

Mike

MikeVV said:

What I don't understand...
WHY don't people just start a search program...ON THEIR OWN ?

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I dunno words like "best powerful airgun for hunting" will land you thousands of hits. And your search words have to align with the right jargon words to even get that.

I've tried searching for stuff and we forget how much we already know when we're surfing through results to know how to narrow them and deliver the relevant stuff. I remember getting a MkII Crown a few years ago after several years away from airgunning, and it was really tough to find accurate/relevant tuning information. The information was out there but my searching efforts still left me with hours of content to pick through and never being sure if it was the right information, or close enough for my purposes, or just not relevant at all. And tuning a Crown is considered by many here to be common knowledge.

I think that many new to the forum people have heard about airguns and want to get into them but really have very little of an idea of what they want. It’s a cool new thing that’s popular now with shooter’s and many have no clue how vast the choices are.
I was lead into the pcp airguns world by a friend that has many guns and the reason was ground squirrels. So hence forth I have been drawn deep into the rabbit hole and quite happy about it.
Anyway it probably seems like a good idea for some to ask which airguns should I get thinking it may be that simple.

dgeesaman said:

there are a lot of firearm shooters who simply don't know and have no concept of how many options exist. If the first response isn't aggressive and obnoxious there usually is a useful conversation.

If the OP doesn't want to respond at all or gets defensive, then I block them.

Click to expand...

I'd have to disagree, it is a choice not to know and that says a lot about the person in my book. That was me in 1995, the part of wanting an air rifle, not the rest. I probably already had 30+ firearms, most high end and I could not use any for what I wanted to accomplish. I knew what was out there in air rifle land, terribly simple even in 1995 internet times. It is just sheer laziness and personal choice to be stupid for people that ask dumb ass know nothing questions. There is no excuse. While I knew pcp's would accomplish what I wanted, I also knew I wasn't going there. So springer it was, I got a used rws 48 in .22, learned how to shoot it decently with help from internet searches, and accomplished the killing I got it for. I never asked anyone a dumb ass question, only question I ever asked an individual was a retired gentleman that shot springers religiously, he told me what pellet worked best for accuracy in his rws 22, so I tried them. Sixteen years later I bought my home and land in the country and finally stepped up to pcp and compressor. Just so much easier going to war with squirrels in my pecan trees vs springer.

I think most newcomers are like I was 4-5 years ago. I’d had airguns for years but while I was away from it, airguns grew tremendously with capabilities I never dreamed of in an airgun platform. I didn’t know what I didn’t know and had no idea what questions to ask. We need to work with new shooters to keep this activity going and talking down to them won’t help at all.

Rick H.

Normkel said:

Can we construct a questionairre for airgun selection, that can help in streamlining selection and avoiding going down the wrong road?

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➠ Yupp, I wrote up a Decision Tool for "What gun should I buy"
(link below).

Matthias



Link:

Normkel said:

We often see questions regarding advice for a gun, scope, compressor, or other equipment, but often the criteria isn't clear.

What questions should one ask, and information should one include in an inquiry?

Asking something like, "What would be a good air gun for me to buy?", seems more likely to receive bad/inaccurate answers than correct ones.

A kid's first pellet gun for indoors target shooting is a very different question than what 35 cal PCP is best for commercial hog culling from helicopter.

Can we construct a questionairre for air gun, scope/sight, and compressor selection, that can help in streamlining selection and avoiding going down the wrong road?

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A .35 cal PCP from a helicopter for commercial hog culling?

Pretty simple answer to the vague question if you ask me...

What are you planning to use it for and what is your budget?

I feel like if a new user knew enough to answer all the questions in a template he could probably narrow it down for himself.
The fact remains... even with the template he will get a plethora of options/suggestions by fans of the many offering and most likely walk away more confused than he was before asking.
Online reviews are ok to just get in person eyes on a gun but, to be honest, I won't even watch the ones the begin with "Click here to subscribe".

A lot of people outside this forum have little to no knowledge of modern "pellet guns" so I try not to get offended or uppity when a newer member asks a question in a manner that sounds vague. A simple response like what do you plan on using it for and your budget is a question to start with. I wrote this befor I read Avator's post....oops!

Ezana4CE said:

A .35 cal PCP from a helicopter for commercial hog culling?

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I would recommend a Crossman 760 pumper

coastal drifter said:

I would recommend a Crossman 760 pumper**

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But only if Manny* is behind the open sights....!

Matthias


* @Nomadic Pirate 66 Nomadic


** https://www.crosman.com/product/crosman-760-pumpmaster-177-pellet-bb-pneumatic-pump-air-rifle-brown/