On Wed, 12 Apr 2006 19:28:36 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:


"wayne mak" wrote in message
...
I know its not a real gun but it helps keep the pests out of the bird
feeder, I have a Crossman 760 from when I was just a little kid I am now
over 40 and it just doesn't have power (for a pellet gun) I went to walmart
to buy a new one but they are just a plastic POS with a metal barrol. I
like the heavy solid feel my old all metal and wood 760 has but its a real
dud these days. Can these things be brought back to live or is it just a
piece of my past.

Hang it up and admire it. Trying to rebuild it is like trying to restore a
55 year old woman to her former 19 year old glory. All the stuff is there,
you just can't get it back in the original configuration due to gravity,
rust, use, overuse, wear, tear, and drama.

Go buy a top of the line pellet gun at somewhere besides Walmart. Walmart
doesn't have top of the line pellet guns because no one will pay $500 for
one. They are available, they are just $500 now.

HTH

Steve

Match-grade air rifles are that pricey, but an air rifle having very
acceptable performance far superior to the rifles of yesteryear can be
had for about $200. Ig mentioned his Gamo. They make good air
rifles, definitely a cut or three above Crossman. I selected the
RWS Diana model 34 as "best value in good-enough air rifle" when I
was shopping two or three years ago. It's a one-pump break-barrel
in .22 that is nearly as accurate as my good old had-it-50-years
bolt-action clip-fed .22 rimfire carbine at ranges of 150 feet or
less. At one-pump muzzle velocity of about 800 fps in .22 it
definitely has ample power to drop varmints at ranges up to 150
feet.

I chose .22 because it's accurate out to the ranges I need for garden
defense, is in the dirt shortly thereafter -- gotta think about
what's behind the target too ya know. I use it to zap
garden-eatin' rabbits, with a low-power inexpensive Tasco scope
that is designed to cope with the unique push-pull recoil profile of
modern spring-powered air rifles. The Tasco is no Unertl but
it's really quite decent for a "consumer grade" scope, absolutely
sufficient for my purpose. Optics are as sharp as necessary,
light-gathering power is sufficient to use until after civil twilight,
it was easy to zero in and it has stayed that way over a couple of
years of occasional use.

I don't need magnification, but having sight picture focussed at
infinity is a great help for my older eyes. With scope or iron
sights, depending on your eyeballs, if your bird feeder is 100 ft or
less distant you should be able to consistently drop squirrels with
head shots. Those are best if any kids might see you doing it. The
squirrel just drops like a rock, no flopping or suffering. My
neighbor kids (and their gentle parents) thought it "right" when I
shot rabbits that ate the pretty flowers they enjoyed. Little girls
love to pick flowers, big girls do too. They'd even call me when
they saw a rabbit in Mary's garden out their back window. "Don, grab
your rifle, there's a rabbit in Mary's garden, not far from the Monet
arch!" They would not have been so sanguine about witnessing the
miserable struggles of an obviously-frantic wounded critter I'd
then have to go dispatch with a vertical shovel-stroke.

Rabbits shot with the Model 34 jump about 6" straight up and come
back down stone dead with hardly a quiver: squeeze off one round, set
rifle down and grab a shovel to aid completion of nature's cycle as
steward of the land: bad rabbit eats flowers, pow, dead rabbit
feeds new flowers. We all know PhD's for whom that's a bit
deep, but it makes perfect sense to the little girls I've known and
most of the big girls as well. The key is to effect a clean kill
every time.

When I first got the model 34 a couple of years ago, rabbit 1 was at
the far end of the garden about 150 feet. I held a bit high like I
always had with my old Benjamin after 10 pumps, squeezed one off.
Missed -- no suprise -- but then, thru the scope, I saw a hole in a
gladiolus leaf that was dead center in the sight picture I recalled
from when the rifle had popped. Hello! Rabbit1 was still
there, motionless, apparently hadn't heard or been worried about the
tic in the leaf just behind it from the subsonic pellet. Cool! Broke
barrel to pump and cock, reloaded, held right on Bre'r Rabbit,
squeezed. Up 6, down dead, rabbit1 was flowerfood waiting to be
planted which was accomplished forthwith.

Then Bre'r Owl moved into the neighborhood, so I don't get to shoot
hardly any rabbits anymore. Oh well, whatever works.

A friend of mine says he has shot maurauding raccoons with his model
34 at 75 feet. Raccoons are tough critters. He'd have to have shot
Bre'r Coon right thru they eye to drop him with an air rifle, probably
what he did. He is competent with rifle and shotgun.

The Model 34 is a bit heavy for enjoyable carrying for long periods as
in field plinking, but that weight definitely aids accuracy for
occasional varmint-dropping or target shooting. It's not as heavy
as a match .22 rimfire but noticably heavier than a .22 rimfire
carbine or an older no-plastic Crossman.