Air Gun Home :: View topic - Looking for the best possible Air rifle for under $200

alazar14 · New Member

Currently I own a Ruger Airhawk Air rifle I bought at Walmart about 5 days ago I have about 2 more days to return it if I find something better. I am willing to go as high as $200 but I do have a few requirements that I want the rifle to have.

#1 It has to have sights, preferably made out of a strong material and not cheap plastic. The sights have to be reliable and preferably with a good reputation. Sights are more important to me than a scope.

#2 I would prefer a wooden stock...although I could do a synthetic stock...reluctantly.

#3 Brake barrel rifle with either .177 or .22 cal.

#4 1000+ FPS with .177 cal or 950 FPS+ with .22 cal.

#5 Reliable or at least partially reliable spring and build quality. It doesn't have to be an RWS quality rifle but something solid that will last a very long time if I take care of it.

These are my requirements. I'm in your hands you air gun fanatics you!

I will be doing my own research on the side as well but so far the only choice I have run into is the Gamo Big cat...which again stock is meh for me and no sights is an absolute NO.

rsterne · Moderator

Typically a rifle rated at 1000 fps in .177 cal will shoot about 850ish with standard weight lead pellets.... The same rifle in .22 cal will typically shoot about 700 fps with standard weight lead pellets.... The good news is that rifles of that power tend to shoot quite well.... whereas "magnum" powered springers are difficult to get used to and tend to destroy scopes....

Bob

firemandivi · Member

You have come to the right place for airgun advice I can tell you that. Lots of people here love the RWS and for good reason, they are a good airgun.

You gave a nice list of what your looking for in a airgun, but what do you want to do with it? If you just want to plink or small birds 0.177 would be better due to its flatter trajectory, if you want to hunt small game 0.22 would be better due to more fpe delivered on target.

Why did you pick those velocities and how flexible are you on them?

by the way, welcome to AirGunHome.com

oddtodd · Silver Status Member

There is the crosman storm, the crosman quest, and even though it doesn't have iron sights, the crosman TitanGP. All of these are available at walmart, and they are all good rifles. Personally I like both my TitanGP and my storm. Both the storm and the quest are the same rifle, the quest just comes with a different stain and a nicer scope. They are nice, accurate rifles. I am a crosman fan, can you tell? lol I don't know of a single non-magnum air rifle that goes above 1000 fps in .177, or 800 fps in .22. more accurate numbers are going to be 800-850 fps in .177 and 700-600fps in .22 THe box doesn't mean much when you are talking real velocities. The big cat isn't a very good rifle in my opinion. I had one and Gamo wouldn't stand behind the warranty. I won't go into the whole story here. Suffice it to say that I won't recommend them to anyone. Stick with crosman and you won't go wrong.

alazar14 · New Member

I ended up buying a RWS 350P Magnum .22 Cal 1000fps rifle for a lot more than what I wanted to spend.

That being said, you can't beat a life time warranty and the pure quality, worksmanship, and pride that comes in owning a wonderful RWS rifle. I just can't allow myself to use cheap Chinese clones. I returned my Ruger Airhawk. For the record though, that Ruger Airhawk was a awesome gun for the price, and I would probably buy it again if I ever got extra cash as a backup rifle in case a friend wanted to come hunting with me.