A present for my little brother.

[Deimos]

Good evening everyone.
When I was a kid, I didn't have a proper gun so I did some crazy redneck stuff like building homemade and very unsafe guns. I want to avoid this same fate for my brother.
My brother just turned 16 and I already gave him a crossbow last year. He proved himself a very prudent shooter and a good hunter, but he avoid hunting because the bolts are expensive for his pocket money and he is quite shy about asking me for new bolts or even things that he needs in general.
But now I want to give him a proper gun, so he can hunt small game with me. My parents don't have the budget to buy this kind of stuf for him but they liked the idea and they already gave me a thumbs up.
My question is: Should I give him a pellet gun or a bb gun? Which one will be cheaper for him to maintaing and buy ammo? And last question, should I give him a PCP and a hand pump or a springer? He is fairly strong and I think that he can handle the effort of cocking even a magnum springer.
It's for bunny sized prey only. Maybe some birds here and there.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

When I was 10, my dad gave me a Benjamin 22 cal pellet rifle. I hesitate to guess how many thousands of pellets I have saturated the Earth with. It is now 57 years old and it will hold five pumps just fine. That is enough power to knock a tree rat out of a 40' Pecan tree all day long. It remains accurate as well. All they require is cleaning with a lightly oiled rag and the "proper"amount of oil in the tiny hole marked "oil" on the pump barrel. Too much and it'll lock up and that's that (I had bought a 177 Benjamin pump pistol and found this out the hard way). They require very little oiling. Of course a drop or two on the pins doesn't hurt either.

I don't know anything about any other air guns. I did buy a Crossman 177 pistol but it didn't hold up like the Benjamin.

Something to consider if you're not going to go with a proper firearm.


Alan

[Deimos]

I can't give him a firearm yet. You must be 25 years old or older to own one here. He is only 16.
I think that his first gun will be a pellet gun.

[kyratshooter]

In the situation you describe I would vote for the pellet rifle. I would also recommend a .177/4.5mm caliber. The ammo is almost universally available.

The most important consideration is the quality of that rifle. I own PCP rifles in .22 that will kill small game efficiently. They put their shots in tiny little groups that are almost scary. My Diana Stormrider is both light and accurate but it does require that irritating pump thing, but it will hold 20 or more shots per fill up. I took the easy way out and bought a high barr compressor that shakes the entire shop nearly off the foundation.

I also own several springers and the one thing they have in common is that the cheap powerful ones will not shoot accurately. When you spend the big bucks you get magnificent accuracy. I have an HW30 that hits 2.5cm spinners at 25m all day.

My last purchase was a Benjamin pump, which I paid a small fortune for, and it will not keep its shots on the wall of a barn from the inside!

I do not really know of a BB gun that will efficiently take small game. I have a couple but they are reserved for things I want to shoot and don't want to kill. I can shoot the critters and run them away with out fearing the wrath of the neighbors. I once accidently killed someone's cat and that did not go over well at all. Long story there, best left untold.

BTW Alan, Crossman now owns Benjamin. That might be why mine won't shoot worth crap!

Umirex and Hatsan are the big names world wide now. Most everything made is built by one of them with whatever name that is paying for it stamped on the side. Umirex makes the Ruger air guns.

[Deimos]

Thanks for the info.
I resisted the urge of giving him a springer for old time's sake and ordered a cheap but accurate PCP, the Beeman Chief II - .22 caliber.
I went for the .22 caliber because the pelets are also cheap and we have lots of places selling them at our small town. Aaaaand also because I don't think that he could kill a buny with a .177 pellet yet, he's not that good
The package with this rifle + the manual air pump + a basic scope will arrive next week and if everything goes smoothly we will go hunting more often.beeman-1335-rifle-and-targets.jpg

[Rick]

I'm sure he will be thrilled. Moreso because it came from you.

[VnVet]

Deimos,
He will love it. Beeman is a very good brand. Giving a young man his first gun is something he will remember forever.

I have a RWS Diana M-48 .22 caliber with a Leaper's 3-9. It has dropped raccoons at 100'. It's a springer and over 15 years old. I have extra springs, tar (spring grease) and built a spring compressor. I upgraded the trigger group; so I have a spare.
I have a Benjamin Trail NP XL in .177 with a UTG Bug Buster 3-9x32. It is gas piston design and they claim it's 70% quieter than most break barrels. IMO, that is pure baloney. The Bug Buster scope is a lot of fun as it focuses from 9 feet to infinity with parallax adjustment. What good is a 9 foot focus? As the name Bug Buster implies, it can shoot bugs from carpenter bees to horn worms off tomato plants.

[Deimos]

Deimos,
He will love it. Beeman is a very good brand. Giving a young man his first gun is something he will remember forever.

I have a RWS Diana M-48 .22 caliber with a Leaper's 3-9. It has dropped raccoons at 100'. It's a springer and over 15 years old. I have extra springs, tar (spring grease) and built a spring compressor. I upgraded the trigger group; so I have a spare.
I have a Benjamin Trail NP XL in .177 with a UTG Bug Buster 3-9x32. It is gas piston design and they claim it's 70% quieter than most break barrels. IMO, that is pure baloney. The Bug Buster scope is a lot of fun as it focuses from 9 feet to infinity with parallax adjustment. What good is a 9 foot focus? As the name Bug Buster implies, it can shoot bugs from carpenter bees to horn worms off tomato plants.

VnVet, I still have my first springer. It's incredible that even after 10 years it will drop any small game. I still use it for pest control, small game hunting and backyard shooting, since it's dangerous to shoot with my .22LR at home. I'm slacking off instead of buying good sigths, mine is an standart 4x32. I also have some laser sigths. I can shoot at a quarter, but I can't hit a bug even with high-end optics.
It's good to know that you are into hunting, both with airguns and firearms. If I lived at the Georgia Mountains I wolud do the same. And of couse, go fishing.
For me, fishing is an even bigger passion than hunting.

[Rick]

I still have my first pump BB gun. It still works. That rascal is older than most of the folks on this forum...plus some.

[Deimos]

I still have my first pump BB gun. It still works. That rascal is older than most of the folks on this forum...plus some.

But can it kill small game like starlings and squirrels? I know that it isn't nearly as accurate our deadly as a pellet gun, but did you ever managed to hunt SOMETHING as a kid?

[Rick]

All the time. I was the scourge of starlings as a young lad. I inherited a 12 gauge Nitro Hunter from an uncle that I used on squirrels. I might as well have been setting off a bazooka at that age but did manage to kill my fair share of those as well.

[Deimos]

All the time. I was the scourge of starlings as a young lad. I inherited a 12 gauge Nitro Hunter from an uncle that I used on squirrels. I might as well have been setting off a bazooka at that age but did manage to kill my fair share of those as well.

Looks like you have/had a great family.
About your 12 gauge Nitro Hunter, do you still have it? That gun is a total classic. I'm a fan.

[VnVet]

VnVet, I still have my first springer. It's incredible that even after 10 years it will drop any small game. I still use it for pest control, small game hunting and backyard shooting, since it's dangerous to shoot with my .22LR at home. I'm slacking off instead of buying good sigths, mine is an standart 4x32. I also have some laser sigths. I can shoot at a quarter, but I can't hit a bug even with high-end optics.
It's good to know that you are into hunting, both with airguns and firearms. If I lived at the Georgia Mountains I wolud do the same. And of couse, go fishing.
For me, fishing is an even bigger passion than hunting.

We shoot center fire and rimfire in the backyard. We don't have a berm as firearm's ranges do; OTOH, we do have a mountainside. LOL

I don't actually hunt with the air rifles; I shoot raiding raccoons or squirrels etc. who are destructive.

I can't shoot bugs with high end optics either; however, because the bug buster scope's parallax adjustment is capable of focusing from 9' feet to infinity. The one I have can focus or adjust parallax a little more

Fishing is also a passion here, meaning both of us fish and a lot.

[Deimos]

We shoot center fire and rimfire in the backyard. We don't have a berm as firearm's ranges do; OTOH, we do have a mountainside. LOL

I don't actually hunt with the air rifles; I shoot raiding raccoons or squirrels etc. who are destructive.

I can't shoot bugs with high end optics either; however, because the bug buster scope's parallax adjustment is capable of focusing from 9' feet to infinity. The one I have can focus or adjust parallax a little more

Fishing is also a passion here, meaning both of us fish and a lot.

I hunt small game with my airguns since my childhood. But now that a have a firearm I hunt more often with it than I hunt with my airguns.
And there is something that I like as much as I like fishing: Eating my fresh caught fish!

[VnVet]

I hunt small game with my airguns since my childhood. But now that a have a firearm I hunt more often with it than I hunt with my airguns.
And there is something that I like as much as I like fishing: Eating my fresh caught fish!

We freeze some of the fish we catch. It is hard to believe but, according to my wife the fish we freeze tastes better than store bought frozen fish..
LOL

[Rick]

Yes. The only weapon I have ever parted with was a Browning Belgium. I traded it for a Remington 1100. I wish I had the cash at the time to buy the 1100 outright but I didn't. I would so love to have the Belgium back.

[crashdive123]

Yes. The only weapon I have ever parted with was a Browning Belgium. I traded it for a Remington 1100. I wish I had the cash at the time to buy the 1100 outright but I didn't. I would so love to have the Belgium back.

I traded some hand guns for some knife making equipment. While I miss those hand guns, I still think it was a good trade.

[VnVet]

I've been very lucky as I've never sold or traded a firearm. I still have my first shotgun, a bolt action Stevens .410. In its day, it harvested a lot of small game. Too many moves and the magazine was misplaced. A single 30" barrel Iver Johnson with an external hammer 12 gauge. It lived on the porch and dispatched any predators raiding the chickens. An early 1950s Ithaca pump 12 gauge with a variable choke and a Cutts style compensator that was installed in the late 1950s.. It can't use post 1954(?) barrels.

[Rick]

Oh, Palease. Don't get Randy started on what he has. We'll be here all night and you'll have to go to Google to look half of them up. The man has weapons that weren't even invented.

[VnVet]

Oh, Palease. Don't get Randy started on what he has. We'll be here all night and you'll have to go to Google to look half of them up. The man has weapons that weren't even invented.

I have a very understanding wife; however, I'll take your advice and thank you for the warning.