Australian Air Rifle Dealers — recommendations

Rimfire bolt action rifles, lever action, pump action and self loading rifles. Air rifles.

Re: Australian Air Rifle Dealers — recommendations

Post by ramshackle » 02 Aug 2019, 10:28 am

I wrote to Weapons Branch on QLD to amend my PTA to reflect the new gun. I hope an email will suffice, but maybe I should call instead?
User avatar
ramshackle
Lance Corporal
Lance Corporal
 
Posts: 135
Queensland

Re: Australian Air Rifle Dealers — recommendations

Post by bladeracer » 04 Aug 2019, 1:16 pm

bladeracer wrote:This is the scope I'm currently running on the Crosman.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1X-3-9x40-Air-Rifle-Gun-Optics-Sight-Hunting-Scope-Sight-Black-P3F1/292787968634?hash=item442b85da7a:g:X2sAAOSwvhxb0jpA&frcectupt=true
Cost me $30.61 delivered.
It has capped turrets which I normally hate, but I don't expect to have to alter these once it's zeroed.
I haven't tried to work out what the reticle graduations are as I hadn't planned on using it past about 30m, and the .177 shoots pretty much dead flat to that distance so holdover marks really aren't required. If I remember to take it up with me sometime I'll put it onto an A4 sheet at 100m to measure the graduations.
For a rough guestimate, that post is at 18m, and the cuphead bolts are 22mm diameter. Scaling the photo would indicate the hash marks are at 100mm at 100m, so mils rather than minutes. You can see in the photo how far I had to wind out the ocular to get it focused, which was a worry.

Just got the call that my PtA finally came through, so into town to pick up the 10/22 air-rifle now :-)


I had a play with this scope again as I was going to swap it onto the Ruger air-rifle. It was in dovetail rings on the Crosman so I decided to toss an old 6-24x50 Chinese Bushnell on it instead, so I could shoot both air-rifles together.

I've been using the Crosman to plink tenth-scale silhouettes (in their general direction at least, they're tiny targets!). After 160-odd shots with the Ruger of the bench at 12.5m, I switched to the Crosman for a play. I was shooting reasonably well initially, but noticed the groups starting to throw some really wide fliers, so wide I was assuming I'd inadvertently aimed at the wrong dot on the page. I wound the scope up from three-power to nine-power and then noticed how much parallax error I was seeing. The target dots are 14mm, and moving my head around, I was seeing the reticle moving around an area of about 30mm...at 12.5m, something like 8 minutes of parallax error - possibly the most I've ever seen. I wound it back down to three-power, and wound the focus ring back in until focus was acceptable rather than good. I don't know if the focus has any effect, but to focus the targets I'd had the ocular wound out about 10mm. The groups still seemed to be vertically elongated though, so I swapped on the Bushnell from the Ruger. I think the $60 Bushnell is a significantly better scope than this $30 one, at least for close-range air-rifle shooting. I'll have to take it out one day on a .22LR and see how it performs at longer ranges.

I think the $8 ebay 4x20 is better than this 3-9x40 for close-range.
https://enoughgun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11226#p185766
Practice Strict Gun Control - Precision Counts!
User avatar
bladeracer
Field Marshal
Field Marshal
 
Posts: 12656
Victoria

Re: Australian Air Rifle Dealers — recommendations

Post by Member-Deleted » 14 Aug 2019, 2:58 pm

bladeracer wrote:
ramshackle wrote:I'm aiming to buy an air rifle / airgun soon. I'm struck by the fact that there are few dedicated air rifle dealers in Australia, and prices are incredibly high compared to the US.

Most Australian firearm dealers have air rifles tacked on as an afterthought to their main range of powder burners, and the airguns they do offer are mostly break-barrel springers, not PCPs.

If you have an air rifle or if you are considering buying one, what is your opinion of the online offerings in Australia, the prices, the after sales service, etc?


Regarding prices, don't be thinking we're that badly off compared to the US. We earn double their minimum wage, we have free (from our taxes) healthcare, are not required to pay for health insurance, free (from our taxes) third-party motor vehicle accident insurance, and we're not required by law to have car insurance. Even if you're paying double what the US pays, you're still way in front.


I shoot solely the FX range of PCP's which are available from the importer direct being Herman's Sporting goods in Victoria, the performance service and warranty is next to non, but the FX is an expensive range (I believe it is on the top of the list) unfortunately that is about it there are a few gun shops around that carry various units but non actually put any great effort into them, they use it as a complimentary range to support their main stock, powder burners as you mentioned. Shops specialising in Air Rifle is one that is missing from an otherwise reasonable range of products.
Member-Deleted
 

Previous

Back to top
 
Return to Rimfire rifles, and air rifles