Yeah... I bet if everyone here were magically turned back to ages 18-24 air guns would be among the last things on your mind 
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Other Sad stats for springers
- Thread starter PaulK62
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That depends on context.Yeah... I bet if everyone here were magically turned back to ages 18-24 air guns would be among the last things on your mind
I’ve already been there and done that and shooting was always a facet of our things to do during all of my seasonal changes of life.
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I'm experiencing the same thing on my channel which deals primarily in springers. Here's a screen shot of my audience percentages. It gives a pretty pessimistic outlook for the future of springers. However, I believe that the Walmart brands will continue to see good sales numbers...
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I think it will come back around eventually. Good design, quality, and ease of use are hard to just forget about. As a record collector, people said the same about vinyl records not too long ago...
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Shooting was on my mind back then......but it wasn't airgunsYeah... I bet if everyone here were magically turned back to ages 18-24 air guns would be among the last things on your mind
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The issue isn't so much as "can they do it" its more of "can they do it 30 times in 15 minutes and score well" during a benchrest match, and then repeat that 3-4x. These guys are also in their 70s and I think one is in his 80s. PCP and a compressor is just that much easier for them.
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76 here and I shoot my .177 under levers in the “back garden” every day. I also shoot hunter piston in our monthly FT matches. The guns range from 11 to 14fpe and so far shooting at the: range, cock, load, aim & shoot pace for 2 hours has not been a problem. I do however own a couple of nice FT pcp’s to use when I get old. Uj
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Imagine you haven't been shooting break barrels for however long you have been. You're in your 70s and just now getting into air rifles after shooting powder for 50+ years. Do you think you'd still be attracted to all of the effort needed compared to the simplicity of a multi shot PCP? The patience needed to shoot a springer well? Probably not so much. Its a learning curve that these guys don't feel like dealing with.
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I have always been active and blessed with a good body that I try to keep in shape.I use a springer to test myself in that respect; I have about all the good springers made, and the hardest one to cock is my RWS 52 side cocker; still not hard, but not all that easy either.
I find cocking a powerful springer pistol harder,less leverage.
I can agree with Sqwirl57,if you do not stay strong, it is too much of a problem for many older guys to cock a springer =no fun and fun and enjoyment is what we want,right?
ps,I noticed that many newbes lack technique in the springer cocking routine
I find cocking a powerful springer pistol harder,less leverage.
I can agree with Sqwirl57,if you do not stay strong, it is too much of a problem for many older guys to cock a springer =no fun and fun and enjoyment is what we want,right?
ps,I noticed that many newbes lack technique in the springer cocking routine
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In a similar situation myself and the only rifle I've found to be actually difficult to cock for a plinking session is a Gamo Swarm Magnum. Those things have some serious cocking effort and I find myself having to use both hands. There's definitely an element of technique involved though. I remember when I got my first break barrel, (RWS34), as a teenager and initially finding it to be very difficult to cock, but within a week I was shooting 200 shots in a sitting and wasn't even noticing the effort involved. I hadn't gotten stronger. I had simply learned how to cock it efficiently and that had become muscle memory. There is a point where cocking effort does start to become a problem though and if you're used to cocking springers you don't even notice it until it becomes a problem. I can sit around and plink for hours with my Hatsan 130 without even really noticing the cocking effort, (assuming I can afford the .30 pellets), but when I switch to that Gamo Magnum, which is actually a little less powerful, all of a sudden the cocking effort becomes very apparent.
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Something like that. I think it might require an aluminum cylinder with a liner inside and maybe a bullpup configuration as well. One of the biggest problems with the super magnum springers is their weight and size.
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25 years ago I bought a Hoyt 70 lb. bow. The UPS driver dropped it off after a couple weeks of waiting. I was excited to say the least. I was ready to shoot some arrows.
Took it out back and put an arrow in it. Couldn't draw that bow no matter how hard I tried. Spent the next hour cussing and pulling. No dice.
The next day I spent brewing about the bow. I was pissed by the time I got home. I jumped out of the truck, grabbed that bow and jerked it back to full draw. I thought I'd dislocated my shoulder blade.
By the next evening I was shooting that bow like a Comanche warrior. Once I figured out what muscles to use it was much easier. Within a week I was shooting 100 arrows a day. They were harder to pull out of the target than they were to draw.
The springers are a lot like that. The first few times you are figuring out how to get your body behind it. Once you get a routine going its easier.
Cocking a springer sitting down can be risky. Standing it's easy and you have your whole body into it. Sitting at a bench it's much different and a slip is (IMHO) a lot more likely. Prone is difficult. Every gun and every position presents a whole new way of doing it.
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My first serious compound bow was an 88 lb Pearson Spoiler. I had been pulling a 50 lb bow without issue for some time when I got it, but when I tried that 88 pounder I was just like you and simply could not do it. Over the next week I managed it by drawing with my left arm pointed towards the sky and I slowly got better, but that bow had a ridiculously high draw weight and being a teenager with magnumitus the last thing I wanted to do was adjust it downward. Years later I set it down closer to 70 lbs and then wondered why I hadn't done so on day one.
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OUCH!!! Might get off 15 in 15 and hope I even hit the paper. Not a game I want to play.
Bill
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I own 10 springers and 4 pcp. Plus a variety of older crosmans and daisys. BB and pellet guns were all the rage when I was a small child. I’m 63 now. I think the problem is the kids are just not interested in Airguns. An actually there not interested in anything that requires any effort. Video games are a lot easier to play with. I’ll never understand it. But then again I didn’t grow up in the 2000 th. I grew up in the 60’s. Times and things change. I remember vividly saving my money to buy a Fwb 124. i can’t see that happening to teenage boys today
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Young men shoot. If they have the opportunity they will shoot any rifle they can get their hands on.
The problem is not lack of interest. It is lack of exposure to responsible adults that have the time to teach them.
We can't blame technology, progress or young people for our shortcomings. Our reality is what we ourselves have created.
A rifle is the perfect antidote for a tic tok coma. Sadly there are no doctors to prescribe it. All the doctors are grumpy old men that exist in a different galaxy from the young roosters hungry for knowledge.
The problem is not lack of interest. It is lack of exposure to responsible adults that have the time to teach them.
We can't blame technology, progress or young people for our shortcomings. Our reality is what we ourselves have created.
A rifle is the perfect antidote for a tic tok coma. Sadly there are no doctors to prescribe it. All the doctors are grumpy old men that exist in a different galaxy from the young roosters hungry for knowledge.
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I don't disagree with this...
at the same time, some (maybe most?) boys/young men just lack attention span. In my limited experience (with my nephew, godson and eventually my own son) they want to shoot for a bit but then get bored or distracted quickly. Girls/young women tend to have somewhat longer attention spans, and while they generally have less enthusiasm about shooting, they tend take to instruction better... Just an observation, might not be the case in all situations. Not trying to make this about genders, Lol. Youths in general tend to have other things on their minds. For me, it wasn't until my mid to late 20's to take serious interest in recreational shooting, although I had gone through the basics at a much younger age.
I guess this is a long winded way of saying the age stats posted by the OP and others make sense, although I wouldn't say it's not looking good for springers or any other type of airguns, just it takes people time to gain interest in recreational airgun shooting.
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