Jumped in with both feet! (Texan SS 457)

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X-Wrestler

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Feb 26, 2022
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Colorado (USA), United States
Let me start by saying that this is my first real air gun. I saw a video of a big bore air gun taking down a 400+ pound hog and started looking into them. I was hooked almost immediately.

About 30 minutes later I was trying to figure out how I was going to explain to my wife what I was about to spend on a rifle that wasn't technically a rifle. 

I'm hoping to turn this into a new hobby, so I'm really trying not to doing anything monumentally stupid right from the start. 

I've been reading and watching a lot, but I'm hoping to get some of the "lessons learned the hard way" experiences from you guys so that I might be able to avoid them.

I think I have the pre-shooting set up pretty well in hand, but I'm always open to advice. 

If there are any products out there that you consider "must have's" I'd really like to know. On the other side of that, if there are products out there to stay away from, that would be good info too. 

I bought a few different kinds of slugs and balls so that I can see what this rifle likes and I'm going to buy a bigger tank to take to the range with me for refills (could use some suggestions on which tank is right too). 

I really have no idea what I'm doing and none of my friends have any experience with air guns so anything you guys can offer would be awesome!

Thanks!
 
First advice is. Never tell the wife. Getting into pcp is expensive. Ive spend over $5000 just on guns, $1300 on compressor, $200 on filters $1000 on scope, and don't forget ammo, bipod, other accessories.. easily well over $10k.

All big bore are HPA pcp. High pressure aint nothing to mess with if you don't know what you are doing. I would suggest starting with small bore and google and YouTube into HPA before getting into it. Dont want to make any mistakes. These HPA when they go off is like a bomb, no kidding.

Jumping into a big bore with no knowledge of how HPA works is dangerous. 
 
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Welcome to the dark side! I have been a member here for 4 years and the big bore rifles were what brought me back to airguns. I started with a benjamin bulldog but sold it and went with an airforce condor instead. Been buying and selling guns ever since. A couple of days ago I received my 457 airforce Texan lss CF from fed ex. I have done extensive research on this topic. You went with the right gun! Now as far as the tank. I highly suggest airtanksforsale.Com. Get the great white tank which is the biggest and most expensive tank he has. Don't skimp on this. You bought a fire breathing dragon. You will not be able to do any real amount of shooting with a pony bottle or even a 30 min tank or medium sized bottle. Honestly you probably need to invest in a compressor of some type and a bottle but the great white should be able to fill your tank a dozen times or more depending on if you got the 3000 psi metal tank or the 3625psi carbon fiber tank.... Not really sure on that math just spit balling here. The great white comes with microbore hoses that allow you to slowly fill your tank to avoid overfill issues and they are rated to 10,000psi. This is way more important than you might think. Paintball hoses fail con
 
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Constantly at higher than 2800psi in my experience. Basically I am saying that although it seems like alot of money it's well worth it and money well spent. Also if you decide to go with a cheap compressor I would recommend a Yong heng off Amazon and get the insurance for 45 extra bucks. All of my Yong heng died before 3 years and they ended up sending me a check for 80 percent of the cost of the unit. Honestly if you do the math I got air for 2 years for 50 bucks and the inconvenience of the machine not working was more of an issue than the money. I use an air venturi compressor now that cost about 1500 and I like it because it never fails me but if I was doing this on the cheap the Yong heng and square insurance would be the way I would go. God bless and I hope you have a great experience with your airgun. Airforce is a honest company with great customer service. Don't cheap out on that air tank. Cheap out on a compressor but get insurance but don't cheap out on that tank. Hard lessons learned here. Ninja tanks suck or at least thier connections do and by the time you upgrade them you might as well have bought it from airtanksforsale.Com. 
 
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Thanks guys this is exactly the information I was looking for!



It's too late to start with a smaller gun, the Texan is already bought. So I'll just have to baby step my way into this. 



My plan was to start with a tank instead of a compressor since I won't be shooting at home, I need a portable option. I looked at those traveling compressors that you can hook to your truck battery, but they don't get great reviews. 



I know I'll end up getting a compressor eventually, but a large tank seems like where I should start. 



Do most people cast their own ammo or buy it? 


 
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I would recommend getting a used 60 minute scba tank off eBay or even two of them. If you have to take them to a shop to get them filled, then you will need a current hydro on the tank. 


Lots of guys recommend a new tank but they are so expensive that I’ve only bought used tanks off eBay. If you look long enough you can find great deals.



You will probably want a compressor, sooner rather than later. Yong hengs can be decent as long as you take care of them, but eventually you will probably want a better compressor. I went through 5 or 6 different options till I ended up buying a scuba compressor. Big bores use a lot of air.
 
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 I went with a 9L tank and a larger Tuxing compressor from Amazon with a 4 year warranty. 

Im sure I can rebuild it myself, but hopefully I won't have to worry about that for 4 years. 

I've ordered several different types of rounds from some of the more well known names. 

I'm currently searching for targets. 

Anyone have any recommendations for a portable shooting table? I'm leaning towards the Birchwood Casey. 

Thanks for all the advice everyone! 




 
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Nice first step. I cast and size for everything in my rack. Here is my Big Bottle SS...

20220423_120052.jpg
 
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