The Springer Revoloution

[moxy 617]

Bad day at the office mate

 

Darryl

[pianoman 3,584]

Ph

[Buster321c 1,010]

Ph

 

I was gonna say that ........

[pianoman 3,584]

Bloody i-phone Craig!

[pianoman 3,584]

So, in the real world, it really boils down to what is the most effective rifle shooters find, for particular jobs or pleasures. There is no getting away from the fact that if a chap has a huge number of rabbits to clear, a multi-shot PCP is the really sensible option. Fast, silent reload, 14-shot magazines or whatever they are, silent and deadly accurate. The perfect hunting rifle where culling in large numbers is needed.

 

Contrast and compare with a single-shot spring rifle, however accurate, is not as stealthy, it makes clicks and cracks whenever it is cocked, loaded and closed up. It makes a crack report on firing that silencers do little to lessen. There is more shuffling movement involved with a spring rifle to load it and get back onto aim...

 

No. The pcp has definite, unquestionable advantages here.

 

But what if that's not the impetus with a chap who has a permission and only wants to shoot for the pot. Who cannot perhaps afford a pcp with all that is needed to charge it? What about a rifle he can afford to maintain and shoot with on equal terms with equal, decisive accuracy; ready and waiting whenever he just wants to get out a few hours and get a bit of hunting in?

 

Perhaps the best truth of this thread, is there is finally, an emerging acknowledgement of the enduring myth and false-belief that PCPs are more accurate than spring rifles.

 

The springer may be archaic by comparison and not be as stealthy; there is certainly more work involving shooter's skills as a marksman in making the shot happen -or not! another reason why we devotees to spring rifles love them. But it cannot be denied that the good old springer has got more people into shooting sports across the board than any other type of gun and they still continue to get more people out into the fields with something like a proper air rifle and get them started in shooting sports.

 

Also consider the current economic climate. Could it not be, there hasn't been a time since the 1920s where more people are returning to hunting for the pot? Are there any statistics for hunting for food as an economic necessity? Because I've known more than one chap who has to do this in order to feed his family a bit better than what the supermarkets can.

 

And there's the old fashioned sods like me who've never shot with anything but spring rifles and knows no other type.

 

I have shot with a few PCPs and the thing I found is, thanks to decades of controlling and managing recoil and sensitive hold technique being second nature to me, I found the whole, absolute absence of any felt-recoil, of any sensation to be very off-putting. Certainly a factor that would take some getting used-to I imagine. It's as if the shooter has been kept out of the firing cycle except aim and release the trigger. None of the PCPs I have shot with have any "conversation" with me as I bring the rifle into aim and release the shot. Very clinical but, without the sensations of my finger feeling the curl of a trigger moving the sear, locking a spring under tension....just a fraction before you know it's going to slip! That is the really satisfying part of shooting a spring rifle at your shoulder. You can sense its every tiny, fractional little move as the trigger is about to slip under your finger. Its "conversation" talking to you as you slip the shot and let her make that tiny little shudder as you follow through.

 

Truth is, they both are fantastic guns for anyone who wants to get into shooting. Both have their wonderful bags of goodies and advantages if you enjoy being out in beautiful summer's and shooting with them. No matter what the reasons!

 

Best regards, no matter what you shoot with.

Simon

Edited June 13, 2013 by pianoman

[Buster321c 1,010]

[stealthy1 3,964]

I don't think its a choice between springer or PCP, PCP's are labour saving guns and make us lazy, unless you have to pump one up, in which case I'd get a springer Rabbits heads have not got any smaller over the years, so even before PCP's you still needed a good head shot to knock one over or it did one To me the popularity of springers has never wained, always had one, probably always will, plus the modern tuning of springers to take out the recoil has put the springer on a level playing field with PCP's, so there's not a lot in it these days, but even now, if I see an old unloved springer on a car boot sale, I pick it up, look at it, and check how much change I have in the bottom of my pockets, and if the price matches the jingle, it goes home with me, I've lost count of the number of BSA Meteors I've bought and given away as garden guns to folk to get them started, so for me personally, I like to shoot, so it makes no difference to me whether its a PCP or a springer, but my first choice is the springer if I'm having a walk round with the dogs to have a plink

[fry 209]

good thread this. i am hanging on to my 410 as it is a great tool! i have permission to shoot on my allotment from the allotment society chairman but would not want to be heard or seen doing it by the bulk of others down there. when i build my deluxe shed i intend to kip there and bait and shoot rats and woodys at dawn. so i need a quiet rifle. but for the 2 or 3 rabbits on a sunny evening on my proper perms its the pro all day long.

[thursodog 353]

I've become completely obssessed with Weihrauch springers.

I'm looking at my just now sitting on the kitchen table after an evening of targets.

Its old and heavy and its well used and makes the most sublime click when i close it up ready to take a shot, i sometimes just sit for a minute or 2 just cocking and uncocking it to hear the lovely sound that this well used gun makes.

Yep i'm sad and loving it

I've promised to take a mate seatrout fishing tomorrow night and all i can think is ' I wish i hadn't offered so that i can get out again tomorrow with both my 80s and some new pellets i'm buying tomorrow'

 

Atb

 

Chris.

[fry 209]

I've become completely obssessed with Weihrauch springers.

I'm looking at my just now sitting on the kitchen table after an evening of targets.

Its old and heavy and its well used and makes the most sublime click when i close it up ready to take a shot, i sometimes just sit for a minute or 2 just cocking and uncocking it to hear the lovely sound that this well used gun makes.

Yep i'm sad and loving it

I've promised to take a mate seatrout fishing tomorrow night and all i can think is ' I wish i hadn't offered so that i can get out again tomorrow with both my 80s and some new pellets i'm buying tomorrow'

 

Atb

 

Chris

would love a crack at sea trout in a river! have hooked a couple spinning off hopes nose in devon on 40 gram wedges and 10 pound line but never landed one! they spend more time in the air than the water! exciting though!

[thursodog 353]

 

I've become completely obssessed with Weihrauch springers.

I'm looking at my just now sitting on the kitchen table after an evening of targets.

Its old and heavy and its well used and makes the most sublime click when i close it up ready to take a shot, i sometimes just sit for a minute or 2 just cocking and uncocking it to hear the lovely sound that this well used gun makes.

Yep i'm sad and loving it

I've promised to take a mate seatrout fishing tomorrow night and all i can think is ' I wish i hadn't offered so that i can get out again tomorrow with both my 80s and some new pellets i'm buying tomorrow'

 

Atb

 

Chris

would love a crack at sea trout in a river! have hooked a couple spinning off hopes nose in devon on 40 gram wedges and 10 pound line but never landed one! they spend more time in the air than the water! exciting though!

 

Lol, yer spot on mate they are alot stronger and athletic than Salmon i reckon. My fave fishing, a 10 foot 8 weight rod with a slow sink line and a Falkus sunk lure, hair raising stuff, i've had 2 pounders hitting so hard that they almost take the rod out of your hand.

I landed a 6 pounder about 5 years ago that left me shaking like a leaf.

It took like nothing i've felt before, i can only compare it to hooking a speed boat and i could see this big solid bar of solid silver muscle sparkling in the dead of night as it crashed about on the surface tearing line of my reel and shreaded my nervous system.

Bloody good fun i must admit but those nights are very rare now.

Yeah they do come off the hook rather easily with their soft mouths.

 

C

[fry 209]

you know it ! hooking a speedboat is the exact words i have used to describe them! funny how its best at night in fresh an i have all ways hooked em in daylight in salt! i have had em right in dangling in the air after a 20 min scrap ! and you can see the elongated hole in the scissor of the jaw just before the shake when they drop off!