Another New Guy

I was the only bidder and won the auction yesterday for $90 for a Ruger Blackhawk springer rifle with less than 50 pellets through it. Paid online with the assurance the rifle would shipped today. I got a call this morning from the seller that he took the rifle to UPS and they refused to ship a firearm from a non FFL holder. He would have to take it to his FFL tomorrow for shipment. Heavy sigh.
Amazingly the Ruger arrived this afternoon in like new condition. Unfortunately we are in the middle of a severe thunderstorm so I can't go outside to test fire it.
 
I posted this in the Springer subforum with limited replies. I thought I would share with everyone.

New guy here. I have been shooting since the mid 1950s and was around firearms for a 38 year law enforcement career, so I am not a newby to shooting. A very dear friend passed away in April and I inherited his Winchester model 1000 pellet rifle. Concurrently we are experiencing a surge of pocket gophers on our couple of acres, so I am quickly being inserted into the springer world. My 73 year old eyes don't work very well with iron sights so I ordered the attached Winchester 4x scope which arrived today. I did a quick sight-in in the back yard this afternoon and will take it to the range tomorrow and refine the zero.

I did manage to score two gophers with the iron sights by sitting in my Polaris Ranger and using a shooting stick, but I was extremely limited with the distance I was comfortable shooting. I am looking forward to having an extended range of operations with the scope. Unfortunately the Ranger quit on me today so I will need to trailer it to the shop to get it fixed. I am working on how to engage the gophers without inciting the neighbors.

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Welcome
 
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So I got the portable shooting blind back today. Bad ECU (Engine control unit/ computer). Only $450 for the replacement part, plus labor. I have zeroed the scope for 25 yards and need to work on where to park the Ranger to engage the most targets. Today I think I parked too close to the action. Next time I will move further away. I missed a very close shot but connected with a longer one.
 
We are all prisoners of our experiences. My first air rifle was a springer Winchester/Daisy model 1000. I inherited it from a dear friend who passed away from cancer this spring. I put a scope on it and it is working well. I then purchased a Ruger Blackhawk/Umarex springer. The scope didn't work so I put a Hawke 2 X 7 scope on it and it is coming along. Last night I found another Winchester model 1100 on Gunbroker for $50.00. It was shipped today from St Louis so I should get it by Tuesday. The original Winchester has a wood stock and the Ruger has a composite stock. The incoming Winchester has a composite stock. I also found a Ruger with a wood stock for about $120 that I have not bid on yet. I don't know enough about pellet rifles to expand to additional brands or models.

The weather has been too wet to spend any time in the portable shooting blind so far this week so my shooting has been at the range where I RSO two days a week at a county operated shooting range.
 
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We are all prisoners of our experiences. My first air rifle was a springer Winchester/Daisy model 1000. I inherited it from a dear friend who passed away from cancer this spring. I put a scope on it and it is working well. I then purchased a Ruger Blackhawk/Umarex springer. The scope didn't work so I put a Hawke 2 X 7 scope on it and it is coming along. Last night I found another Winchester model 1100 on Gunbroker for $50.00. It was shipped today from St Louis so I should get it by Tuesday. The original Winchester has a wood stock and the Ruger has a composite stock. The incoming Winchester has a composite stock. I also found a Ruger with a wood stock for about $120 that I have not bid on yet. I don't know enough about pellet rifles to expand to additional brands or models.

The weather has been too wet to spend any time in the portable shooting blind so far this week so my shooting has been at the range where I RSO two days a week at a county operated shooting range.

Amazingly the new Winchester arrived today. It is in new condition. Now I have to decide what scope to add to it. I put a 4x Winchester branded
Winchester Pellet 2.jpg
scope on my first Winchester and a Hawke 2 x 7 on the Ruger. Both are working well.
 
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