Eric R Snow wrote:
I usta have a nice, accurate pump pellet rifle. I can't be sure, but I
think it was a Sheridan. Anyway, it took several pumps for full
velocity and fired .177 cal pellets (I think). It was quite accurate
and would put pellets right through a 2x4 when pumped enough. On the
other hand, just a couple pumps would send pellets out slow enough
that they wouldn't go through heavy paper at about 40 feet away. Is
there a pellet rifle available today that matches my old one? I have
looked and can only find the ones that take just one pump and it's the
barrel that's the pump lever, not the fore stock like my old one. I
want the variable velocity.
Thanks,
eric

As others have pointed out, Sheridans are still made, although probably
not as well as the old ones. By today's standards, they're not
particularly powerful. The ones you've see that use the barrel for
cocking are spring-air rifles and probably get more velocity from that
one cocking movement than 10 pumps on the Sheridan. Most will be more
accurate as well. There's also sidelever cockers and underlever
cockers in spring-air guns, those will have fixed barrels, tend to be
more accurate and handle scoping better. For real power, precharged
pneumatics that use scuba tanks for air pressure are top of the heap
for power and cost.

One site that has a lot of info is www.airgunexpress.com, there's also
www.beeman.com.

In my experience, you need pellet velocities of at least 650-700 fps to
reliably kill vermin like pigeons, the pump-ups generally land on the
lower edge of this. You can get some lucky shots that will take them
out with lesser velocities, but anything below this isn't going to be
that reliable. There's some import spring air guns that will exceed
this velocity and don't cost and arm and a leg to own. You just don't
leave them cocked.

Stan