A few years ago I bought a Colt M4 in .22LR. It was on sale at my local sports store, and I thought it would be a fun gun for plinking and target shooting at the range where I shoot. (Actually it is not a real range–just an area my friend Peter has set up on his 60 acre property.) I added a red dot sight and started shooting. It really is a neat gun, accurate and fun. I had a blast blowing away old computers, ski boots, DVDs, even real targets.
And then it happened.
Almost overnight .22LR ammunition disappeared from sight at all my local sources as well as online. While I had the foresight to buy thousands of rounds of other calibers, foreseeing that the zombie apocalypse was just around the corner, I had neglected to include .22s in my purchases until it was too late. I did have a box of 600 rounds, but I was afraid of shooting them because I didn’t know if they were ever going to become available again, or whether our government had some evil plan to remove all ammunition from the country one size at a time.
And so my great little Colt M4 sat in my gun safe for well over a year. Every time I opened the safe door it would look at me and say “Shoot me” in a pitiful whining voice, but alas, I had to just caress it gently and close the door again.
Time moves forward and I’m sick and tired of not being able to mess around with small caliber rifles. I have other guns so I spent my weekend hours shooting handguns of various types, I bought a new shotgun and went skeet shooting, I even considered making a slingshot from that old tree out back.
Then I happened to get an email from my contact at Pyramyd Air on a business matter. In case you aren’t familiar with them, Pyramyd Air is probably the largest and best resource in the United States for all types of air guns including “adult” air rifles, pistols, and airsoft guns. It didn’t take long for the lightbulb to click on (admittedly it’s only 20 watts) and for me to figure out that this would be a great way for me to start small caliber shooting again.
After much consideration, watching dozens of reviews, figuring out how much my wife would let me spend, and looking at all the options I finally pulled the trigger (pun intended) and bought an RWS 34 Breakbarrel rifle. I matched it with a nice Hawke scope, some good scope rings, and 4 tins of pellets (I opted for the .177 model, though a .22 model is also available.) The nice thing about buying an air rifle is there is none of the government red tape, background checks, or waiting periods that come with buying a “real” firearm.
It was delivered within a week by my friendly local FedEx guy, well packaged and ready to shoot. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
I mounted the scope and spent the next hour getting it close to zeroed in. The groups are still a little bigger than I would like, but I figure it will probably take a couple of hundred pellets to get it settled in. One nice thing is that I can shoot in my own backyard and don’t have to travel to my friend’s range. I did check first with my local sheriff’s department and was told that as long as I don’t point it towards any houses, cars, dogs etc. and have a safe backstop, I was OK.
Why not give air guns a try yourself?
Have you given air guns any serious thought? I was recently watching an episode of American Airgunner on TV and they were having a round table discussion about switching from firearms to air guns. The host asked the other members was there anything you cannot do with an air gun that you can with a “real” firearm. Well, you can hunt small game, you can shoot in many more places than with a firearm, you can shoot all day very cheaply, it’s a great way to introduce “newbies” and children to target shooting, and generally the guns themselves are cheaper to buy and easier to obtain because of the lack of “red tape”. About the only thing an air gun is no good for is self defense. Although I bet a close range shot would hurt like heck!
So now I am back plinking again, and at very little cost–a tin of pellets doesn’t cost much, and because they have to be loaded one at a time, you can’t blow through them that fast.
And then it happened.
Suddenly things changed and Cabela’s, MidwayUSA and Brownell’s all have .22LR ammo for sale at reasonable prices. I bought 2,500 rounds, dusted the cobwebs of the M4 and went shooting at my friend’s place. Oh well–now I can shoot at home and at the range.
Haven’t shot my Ruger .308 in a while. Hmmm…
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