What got you into Airguns

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What got me into PCP's into particular was a neighbor a few years back, he upgraded from a springer to a PCP, and I was around when he first started shooting it and I was set-back by its accuracy (AA S510) doing rag holes at 20 yards all day... after researching a bit, I set out down my own personal journey into PCP's which lead me down one of the biggest rabbit holes of research of knowledge pertaining to them and their operation.

So what started as an amazement of PCP's capable accuracy, turned into an obsession of accumulating knowledge and applying it to my own rifle. If my rifle had versions, it would be on version 20 by now with all the changes its gone through over the 2 years, and although near completion..its still yet to be where I envision it to be in another 2 years.
 
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My Daisy Red Ryder of course and years later ( 1983 ) my Beeman C1 carbine, that is what really got me started. That was a great springer, 800+ fps in .177. My father in Law also gave me a beautiful book that is packed with useful info, it's a treasure. I read those Beeman catalogs cover to cover, over and over. I still have them and the book too.

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My grandson. I shot the usual bb and pellet guns as a kid but not since. My grandson was shooting 10m stuff and as his parents both worked I was recruited to take him to his practice's. 

After awhile I started to think that looked like fun and picked up a cheap gamo air rifle for plinking and then another and another after that. 

He has since moved on to other things but I'm still blasting away albeit with a little more substantial equipment.

I wish I had realized the joy of air gunning years ago when my body and eyesight where both a little less seasoned. 
 
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I wasn't allowed bb guns either. I got my fid at 15 and had .22lr, 12 and 16 gauge shotguns. About 20 years ago I was waiting for my ltc renewal/upgrade and I bought a 760 and a Gamo 220. I started watching Ted about the time he got his FX Revolution. I had wanted to get into pcps and last fall a coworker had a .25 Marauder with a hand pump. When I realized the potential of pcps, I decided it was time for the Impact I'd wanted since first seeing it on Ted's channel. Ordered it the day before the Power Plenum was available, and it's been downhill ever since.

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When I was a child, I had a pump up BB gun as well as a .22 rimfire. Around the time I got 8 or 9, I had decided that I was mature enough to go out on my own with the .22. I already could go out unsupervised with the BB gun so of course I could be trusted with a .22. :)

I pled my case to my dad and he said no, that I wasnt old enough. I tried to argue my point and he stifled the conversation by saying 'You can go out with any BB gun you want, but you're not taking the .22 out until you are older'.

Sooo... I set my mind to get the biggest and baddest 'BB gun' I could find.... and that happened to be an RWS model 36 I'd found in the back of a Field and Stream catalog. I picked beans that summer and sold coon hides that winter to save up for this 'BB gun'. I still remember counting out my money to my mom to write the check and send it in... that '6 to 8 weeks for delivery' seemed like an eternity. 

When it came, I was totally unprepared for it. I was too small to cock it and had to put the butt on the ground and grab with both hands to break the barrel to cock. Looking back, it's fortunate that I got the 36, opposed to the 34 with no buttpad. I threw on my 4x15 rimfire scope with cheap mounts and of course that went over like a fart in church. It was heavy and unweildy, but it shot '1000fps' close to a .22 rimfire! (yes, I know...but I was 9 or 10 by then)

I went through a series of cheaper Chinese guns over those years and every time I smell a deiseling airgun, I'm reminded of those days. 

I sold that RWS 36 when I was 16 and needed some cash...cars and girls had taken over and so away it went. Was an older fellow who was quite big and came from around Hendersonville answering my ad in the local sale paper. Years later after I had gotten out of the Army and back into airguns, I ran into that fellow again. He was Cecil Whiteside. I got to shoot my old 36 again and tried to buy it off him, but he resisted. When he passed away some years back, I went to the estate auction with the intent of buying that gun. I was on call for work and ended up getting a page and having to step out to log into my laptop to help a nurse get logged in...grrr... and of course, I missed buying back that gun. 

I've since picked up another 36 for nostalgic purposes and I'd love to know who ended up with 'my' gun so I could tell them this story. 

Currently, I live in an area where I can literally stand outside butt nekkid and fire my AR15 all day long but I still choose the majority of my shooting to be done with airguns.


 
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Shot my bb gun till it wore out. Got a Ruger 10/22 and nearly shot the rifling out. Got married, moved to an area where shooting wasn't nearly as easy, and eventually took 30 year vacation from shooting. Still had 5,000 rounds .22 LR. Then my kids got into shooting. Funny, that 5,000 rounds disappeared. Then I wanted to get back into shooting and had no ammo, and about the same time, Sandy Hook hit. Nothing available. I was unemployed at the time, so a high end anything was out of the question.

Found Ted's Holdover and saw this guy shooting starlings at 100 yards with a PELLET GUN! I was hooked. Figured an Edgun was a bit much to start with so started with a Marauder. Fantastic choice. Moved up to an Impact later. Another fantastic choice. I still shoot powder burners from time to time, but the majority of shooting is now with PCP's. If the range ever opens back up, I'll be back as soon as I can.

Really miss shooting. Can't really do it in the back yard, too many kids in the neighborhood. Got my compressor running again tonight (at least I hope it's running again), been down waiting for parts till today. With air, I can start tuning the Marauder again. Love this sport.
 
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Been shooting all manner of projectile weapons since I was old enough to load a .22 and shoot rats at the town dump. One day I wanted to write some ballistics software. I had a copy of the Hornady reloading manual. It had a lot of information about ballistics in the back. I wanted to test the software I was writing and needed something that I could shoot out into the desert in my back yard (was in El Paso at the time). I bought the D48 (which I still have). That was 1992. I spent a lot of spare time writing a program to figure out which pellets available at the time had the best BC. The Crossman Premier won that title in both 0.177 and 0.22 (also had an R10 in 0.177). I remember being surprised that heavier and pointer pellets did not fly as well.

Years later I ran across GTA and decided to start shooting the rifles again. I don't have a long list of guns but I do enjoy a well tuned spring rifle.
 
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Every kid had an airgun in my neighborhood in the 1970's. We had two woodlots. The older kids did their hunting in one and the younger kids did their thing in the other. You would be shocked at the things that were brought to my dad, he was a taxidermist, that fell victim to a Crosman 760 or Sheridan pump. Yes some us got in trouble with our guns but it was just different times back then. No lawsuits, just parents visiting another parents house to work it out. Made friends with other guys who had airguns through playing baseball and would go hunt their favorite little woodlot miles away. Dad would drop me off at a buddies house with my Webley Vulcan and a tin of pellets many times. Good time to be a kid. Never lost interest in them for 40+ years except when I was in the military. Once I was back home, I was airgunning again.
 
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Started shooting IPSC in my teens and couldn’t afford the ammo cost very quickly, so I got a job and put competitive shooting on the back burner for 30 years. Then one day I wanted to shoot long range and while I could afford the ammo I couldn’t afford the 2 mile range costs/travel/time to do it properly as I wanted to do it everyday...

So I started doing some research and stumbled across Ted, FX and Kalibrgun. The rest is a 6 year journey of shooting almost everyday at 50 and 100 yards.

I lost count of the rounds I have sent at 50K, and it’s still fun so I figure I am not missing too much by not having gone down the WSM or Lapua route!
 
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Really enjoyable stories!

My brothers and I were not allowed bb guns as kids. Dad had a 22 single and a sporterized 303 but we were a bit wild... so not much shooting. While in the Air Force in '75, a pack of dogs started tearing up my flower bush, so I bought a 760 to deal with them. Terrible rifle. Couldn't hit a can at 5 yds consistently. Later found some Benjamin's at a Yelllow Front and was really impressed and shot a fair amount. THEN a co-worker told me about a Beeman ad in the back of the American Rifleman mag circa 1978. THAT'S what started it all for me. Blame Beeman.... master marketer.

Funny story about that though. Ordered an FWB 124 and it came right before going back to visit my folks in Tx. I took it along but didn't have time to shoot hardly at all before. Stopped to visit my sister and husband and we sat on his porch and plinked at stuff. He outshot me with his $20 Crosman and made a lot of fun of my "expensive " rifle. Went on to visit my mom and younger brother was there .... same thing. He could hit cigarette butts at 20 yds with BBs consistently while I was struggling to hit them at all. Well..... you al know why.... between the springer shooting and stock screws, etc., there was a lot of education to be had. I still have that 124 and it's a VERY good shooter.

Bob
 
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Shot my first airgun in the late 70's as a kid, it was a Gamo 68 that my uncle had, then in the 80's i met a new friend that had an airgun and I asked my uncle if i could borrow his gun, sure he said and showed me his new pistol, a Daisy 747, so i had some fun with those and after some time my parents bought me a Gamo hunter, then after some time i wanted something better and bought a Diana 52, then a .25 cal bsa, didn't shoot much with that and then we had to move so i sold it very cheap, fast forward to about 9-10 years ago i met my gf, and got access to a cabin, then i burned myself out and needed something to focus at, so i bought some airguns to help me with the stress, just sit down, you, an airgun and the target to focus at, you cant let the thoughts wander away, then you miss, you need to focus, and you cant just have one, so i bought a hole bunch of them, and pistols... 
 
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When i was young every kid had a bb and pellet gun. The bbs were for fun and your pellet gun was for hunting. Nothing was out of season and every thing was fair game. Very diffrent times. We built and jumped ramps on our bikes. Played with fireworks and shot our guns all day every day. I am just now realizing how lucky i was to be born when and where i was. Lucky to survive it all and lucky to manage to never have to grow up.
 
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They sling a projectile toward an object i have chosen, I like any thing that will do that ! Always have guess always will.

Have enjoyed air power projectile pitchers for most of my life, but got much more involved with them when I was unable to replenish my reloading supplies during the Clinton administration. Then during the Obma administration when .22lr and most reloading components were unavailable I dived into airguns whole hog. About the only powder burners I mess with any more are short range low energy guns and calibers that are less powerful that my big bore airguns. 

Hairsmith
 
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My dad bought me my first BB gun while I was elementary school which is how he taught me how to hunt. I was taking pigeons and crows at about 25yds. We went hunting every year and as the trips became a little less frequent I found some break barrels a few years ago to get into another backyard/ short outing hobby. We found something easy to maintain and something to practice when we’re not going for squirrels or other pests. 
 
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I enjoy shooting. That's all the motivation I needed. For years (starting when I was 9, I'm now 66) I shot in the backyard.

We moved 13 years ago and I set up a 50' range in the basement.

My first air gun was a Daisy model 25 BB rifle. Later a couple of inexpensive pellet rifles were added.

Most recently, over the past 5 or so years, I've been competing at local clubs and have upgraded my rifle to a HW30s and pistol to a Daisy 747.

At my age I don't see myself getting into PCP, but you never know. 😁
 
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