[raventree78]

I had a Ruger AirHawk that greatly benefited from a good barrel polishing and a trigger up grade. I used a non embedding bore paste to polish the bore. I used a trigger from Charlie da Tuna on mine. I used heavier pellets to keep the velocity down and smooth the shot cycle. Artillery hold helps a lot. check out anything by Tom Gaylord he has great tips and info on airgunning in general. Keep your screws snug. Hope this helps.

Oh yeah have fun and shoot a lot

 

[MikeyLikesIt]

Hey Mike,

Great advise from all the other guys. I have a bit of experience with airguns (About 40 years and a few state field target championships.). Guns like the Ruger, Gamo, etc. are made for the mass market and produced accordingly. Every once in a while you get one that surprises you with outstanding accuracy, but in general they are meant to be in the hands of people that want a pellet to go as fast as possible and are happy to hit a soda can at 30 yards. One of the first things to do is remove the stock screws (usually two up front and one in or near the trigger guard). Clean them with a good degreaser and re-install them with Locktite (or similar non-permanent thread lock). Do not over tighten! If you can find a lock washer that fits the front screws, that's a bonus. Springers vibrate a lot and are notorious for becoming loose.

Next, ditch that scope! Look at the Leapers/UTG brand. I suggest the Bug Buster range. They are very well made and will focus down to under 7 yards (some even closer). You want a scope with an adjustable objective. Parallax errors with give you fits with cheap scopes, or regular firearm scopes. Springers destroy even well made scopes, so the cheap freebies really don't stand up well. Get a good set of mounts as well.

These consumer grade airguns come with lawyer proof triggers, so getting the most out of them can be tough. Really pay attention to trigger control. Be careful with adjusting it. They usually don't make a huge difference and you can easily make it unsafe or even worse than the factory setting.

As for pellets, I HIGHLY recommend either JSB or Air Arms (Made by JSB). There is a reason why pretty much every single winning competitive shooter uses them. There are other very good brands, but if you can't make it work with JSB I would be very surprised. Added benefit of JSB is they are available in several different weights. as well as head diameters. Once you find one that works, you can order from the same lot number. I would suggest 8.4 grain JSB in a small diameter (sounds like you have a tight barrel).

I'm really not getting down on your selection. They are affordable and readily available. If you get a good one, they can be a lot of fun and a decent hunting tool. If you can keep your groups under 2 inches at 30 yards with one of these, you are about at it's limit. I started with the lower end airguns and worked my way up to very high end customs.

I've been shooting mostly .22, but I may have some .177 JSB pellets. I will go through my stuff and if I have some I will send them your way. I may be able to help you with a scope too. One thing to seriously consider is to keep the Ruger as a fun soda can plinker and then get yourself a decent springer that you will be happy with. If you PM me with a comfortable price range for you, I could probably steer you in the right direction. I will PM you later!

Hey StringSlap! Thanks for the tips and the offers! I know some of these airguns are capable of amazing accuracy, but for a $100 price range I'm not expecting too much from this one. Just enough to take squirrels/rabbits at 15-25yds. I'll certainly send you a PM.

 

[Pebble Shooter]

There are very good spring piston air rifle brands on the market, but many rather second rate ones too.

From my personal experience, German-made Weihrauch air rifles are probably the best spring-piston air rifles money can buy, as even the high powered versions are made according to very demanding tolerances. All the essential mechanical components are solidly engineered using high quality steel, and the woodwork of the stocks is excellent. You will not find plastic triggers on this brand.

Weihrauch airguns were sold under the "Beeman" brand name for a long time in the US, and are now sold by Arizona Airguns, among other.

Quality always makes a difference: Unlike many manufacturers, who simply place a metal or plastic end cap at the back of the spring-piston compression tube, Weihrauch actually uses solid steel threaded units that are screwed inside the the compression tube (see the Weihrauch 77, 97, and 80 series, among other). A weak point of some air rifles is the barrel hinge, which if it is either not properly made or comes loose after years of use will affect accuracy on break barrel air rifles: not a problem with Weihrauch.

Here the Weihrauch website: https://www.weihrauch-sport.de/spring-piston-break-barrel?lang=en

Another excellent brand is the UK-based "Air Arms", both in terms of spring-piston air rifles and PCP's.

Here the Air Arms website: https://www.air-arms.co.uk/spring-rifles.html

Forget about brands such as "Stoeger" or "Gamo"...terrible quality, too much plastic....a waste of money.

A final note about the recoil on spring-piston air rifles: the problem is the double rebound of the spring inside the compression chamber after the shot is fired. This is what makes such air rifles harder to shoot, not to mention the necessity of scopes made to resist such forces. NB - A standard scope that is fine on a 30-06 hunting rifle may not resist the double rebound motion and related vibrations of a powerful spring-piston air rifle.

OK...back to slingshots...

 

[SJAaz]

Hey Mike,
Great advise from all the other guys. I have a bit of experience with airguns (About 40 years and a few state field target championships.). Guns like the Ruger, Gamo, etc. are made for the mass market and produced accordingly. Every once in a while you get one that surprises you with outstanding accuracy, but in general they are meant to be in the hands of people that want a pellet to go as fast as possible and are happy to hit a soda can at 30 yards. One of the first things to do is remove the stock screws (usually two up front and one in or near the trigger guard). Clean them with a good degreaser and re-install them with Locktite (or similar non-permanent thread lock). Do not over tighten! If you can find a lock washer that fits the front screws, that's a bonus. Springers vibrate a lot and are notorious for becoming loose.

Next, ditch that scope! Look at the Leapers/UTG brand. I suggest the Bug Buster range. They are very well made and will focus down to under 7 yards (some even closer). You want a scope with an adjustable objective. Parallax errors with give you fits with cheap scopes, or regular firearm scopes. Springers destroy even well made scopes, so the cheap freebies really don't stand up well. Get a good set of mounts as well.

These consumer grade airguns come with lawyer proof triggers, so getting the most out of them can be tough. Really pay attention to trigger control. Be careful with adjusting it. They usually don't make a huge difference and you can easily make it unsafe or even worse than the factory setting.

As for pellets, I HIGHLY recommend either JSB or Air Arms (Made by JSB). There is a reason why pretty much every single winning competitive shooter uses them. There are other very good brands, but if you can't make it work with JSB I would be very surprised. Added benefit of JSB is they are available in several different weights. as well as head diameters. Once you find one that works, you can order from the same lot number. I would suggest 8.4 grain JSB in a small diameter (sounds like you have a tight barrel).

I'm really not getting down on your selection. They are affordable and readily available. If you get a good one, they can be a lot of fun and a decent hunting tool. If you can keep your groups under 2 inches at 30 yards with one of these, you are about at it's limit. I started with the lower end airguns and worked my way up to very high end customs.

I've been shooting mostly .22, but I may have some .177 JSB pellets. I will go through my stuff and if I have some I will send them your way. I may be able to help you with a scope too. One thing to seriously consider is to keep the Ruger as a fun soda can plinker and then get yourself a decent springer that you will be happy with. If you PM me with a comfortable price range for you, I could probably steer you in the right direction. I will PM you later!

very good post Stringslap. Should be a lot of help to Mike.