Air Rifles Overview Part III- Pneumatic (Pump) Air Rifles
Pneumatic (pump) Air Rifles- These air rifles are powered by a pumping lever that pumps air into a chamber. You have to manually pump the rife 5 - 10 times after each shot. These types of air rifles usually are able to shoot both bb's and pellets.
PROS- Pump air rifles are inexpensive and great for plinking or target shooting. You can even do some small pest hunting with them because most of them shoot pellets and have the power to take down small pests. Another advantage to a pump air rifle is the ability to vary the FPS. You can pump the rifle less for a slower FPS or more for a higher FPS. Some people like this feature if they just want to scare an animal away rather than kill or injure it. You can pump it one or two times to give a deer for example a good sting in the butt to scare it off your property. This type of air rifle is also good to train youngsters on how to shoot safely. Since they only get one shot before they have to pump it up again they are safer than a semi automatic rifle. Many of our customers use this type of rifle as a beginner air rifle for their kids.
CONS- The biggest con to this type of air rifle is that you have to pump it up for each and every shot. This can make for a sore arm and can be tedious at times. They also tend to be on the inexpensive side so the quality of these rifles is not as good as some of the more expensive springers available but this is to be expected.
RECOMMENDATIONS- If you are looking for an inexpensive starter air rifle than you may want to consider a pump rifle. Two of our more popular rifles are the Crosman 664SB and the Daisy 5880 Air rifle kit. Both of these shoot bb's and pellets and are a good starter gun for a youngster or a good plinker for the backyard. If you want to do any hunting with a pump air rifle we would recommend the Remington Airmaster 77 or the Crosman 2100B. Both of these rifles are well made and have the power and accuracy required for hunting.
