school me on air rifles

[James Morse]

Daystate Huntsman Regal XL - that looks like the one - supposed to be the quietest and super accurate. But by the time you get it and an air tank, you're talking a ton of money. Not sure if it's regulated pressure, I think some are and some aren't. I would assume you want it regulated.
Sorry for all the posts... I think I reached the end of the rabbit hole for now. Ah, one other thing. Some ebay won't ship to Virginia, but if you happen to be in VA, check this: https://monachuslex.com/?p=1162 it looks like as long as it's not an actual firearm, there's no restrictions on ownership or concealment. You can't brandish it, or threaten with it, or take to school or court or airport. That's all.
Now that I know what I can't afford, on to the next research project of things I can't afford.
https://www.airgunsofarizona.com/Daystate/RegalXL.htm#tab-1

 

[James Morse]

This is very confusing to me. In this vid

they are showing the Huntsman, it has no silencer on the end of the barrel, then in other pictures it does have what I assume is a silencer. I don't get it. Do you have to add that to make it quiet? Can't tell if it's an add-on, sure looks like it. Waiting to win megabucks for that one.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I have no doubt Daystate is great, but I'm not into quite that of an investment in one thing... I'd rather have more toys than one nice one, kinda blew that thought when I bought a PCP compressor a while ago, which I should probably pull out of the box tomorrow and see if it works... I was kinda pushing myself when I got that .25 Marauder, but he threw in the SCUBA tank, turns out filling it around me isn't all that convenient... part of why I got the compressor I got...

I've always liked Crosman who owns Benjamin, and Sheridan for that matter... their cheaper stuff is more fixable than Daisy, and every time I've talked to Crosman on the phone has been helpful, I've talked to Daisy too but they don't support their older stuff anymore.

What the barrel looks like isn't too important for quietness, most PCP rifles have shrouded barrels, they have some baffles at the end then the rest is a volume to take up the shock of the pellet leaving the barrel, so if the barrel looks like a bigger diameter it's shrouded, almost all of them have aftermarket parts to add onto them to make them even quieter... The barrel inside the shroud is normally only about 7/16" diameter... the front barrel band on a Marauder doesn't actually touch the shroud, it's just there to keep the barrel from bending if it gets bumped or stored against a wall...

The Marauder has been the staple and what things are held against for a long time, they were one of the first models at a somewhat affordable price... with everything out there the fact they still make them isn't a bad sign... I have no doubt it will take care of some critters...

 

[scotts90ranger]

Just realized I never ended up posting any teaser pics in this thread... I don't have everything in the pics anymore but more than I should lol , lets just say I have an excel spreadsheet to keep track of things...

First pic is a modified Crosman 2240 with a .177 barrel and shoulder stock, barrel is long enough that it's almost silent.

Second and third pic are the Craigslist pellet guns that kinda started the collecting...

Fourth is some old Crosman 101 and 102 rifles, bottom one is different, I don't remember off the top of my head

Fifth and 6th was just my Crosmans at one point, things have morphed since then... my .22 Marauder is in the middle of the 6th, I have a better scope on it now...

Seventh is a musk rat I took with a Beeman .22 break barrel years ago

Last is just a couple custom Crosman pistols, one pumper and one CO2...

 

[James Morse]

Crosman 2240 looks nice, where are you getting the long barrel (and other custom parts) and how hard is it to change out barrel? Edit: OK found it, is this the one? 14-1/2". https://www.pyramydair.com/product/crosman-barrel-22-14-6-long?a=6844

 

[pjtoledo]

how big was that rabbit hole?

 

[James Morse]

Crosman 2250XL - seems like it has the upgrades - longer barrel, shoulder stock... unless I'm mixed up. If you add these things to 2240 then you have made a 2250XL? Scope might not be needed... have to compare cost of each way of doing it. Pump pistols look not horrible. Basic pistol (CO2) is affordable! Edit: check this, if you're willing to pump, advantage is you never run out of CO2. Disadvantage is obvious. https://www.crosman.com/product/crosman-drifter-kit

 

[scotts90ranger]

Oh, the rabbit hole is deep...

If you want to play with a 2240 or 13XX (forum speak for the 1377, 1322 and 1389 pump pistols) check out crosmanairpistolsownersfurum.com I think is the place, I can link when I get home, and I have part numbers at home... if you look into crosman.com there's EVP's (parts breakdowns) of most of their stuff, if there's something that looks similar like for a Benjamin Discovery, Benjamin Maximus and all sorts of other models it likely works as far as barrels go, you can piece together steel breech kits for cheaper than the "kit" available from them or elsewhere and there's a part number for the shoulder stock that's like $11. Once you get the part numbers in front of you you just call into Crosman and order, they take cards over the phone and flat $4 shipping other than barrels that are usually I think $11 shipping but are only like $20 for the longest one... You can hop up the pump pistols too with flat top pistons and stuff that helps... I made my own on my lathe...

 

[James Morse]

Cool, thanks. What is advantage of steel breech, it implies the stock breeches are... aluminum? I'll check out forums. It seems to me you can get a pretty good gun much cheaper than a lot of them plus I like the ability to break them down and have different configurations. Awesome, thanks again.
Edit: it's https://www.crosman-air-pistol-owners-forum.com/

 

[scotts90ranger]

Stock breech is plastic and only has the stock rear sight as an option which is either a normal open notch or flip it over and it's a peep, no option for optics, the steel breech has a 11mm scope rail and a spot for a target sight along with a set screw for the barrel which the plastic one doesn't have... there's aftermarket aluminum breeches that do all sorts of stuff like flip the bolt handle to the left side or add a Marauder magazine and so forth...

I knew I was close, once you sign up for there which apparently can get confusing (trying to get rid of bots that make a mess) it's a small community, not as active as it used to be but there's a LOT of info in there... I'm rangerfredbob over there... you have to sign in to see most of the stuff, not signed in you can only see like 3 of the sections...

 

[James Morse]

Here's a 'good' plan: get the 2240 ($85), breech (43), barrel (23), and stock (31) and sight (60). I think that covers it - so figure all told maybe 250 for a nicely upgraded 2240. Add scope later if you want (Leopold VW, lol). Could go wild and get 24" barrel ($70 - Maverick). And you have the option then of, basically, a rifle, or, a pistol. Sweet.

Could get Drifter later as backup (no cartridges needed). Some upgrade parts are same as for 2240 fwiw.

Don't know what happened to 2250 series, I guess they made them, but I don't see on Crosman site. Other models I also don't see, but that tells me 2240 is the tried and true of the CO2 and 2289 is probably decent.

I think I'm done the research, because there is always something more expensive out there, but I think for $250-300 + cartridges/pellets you could have something really nice, and versatile, and not be kicking yourself about it later.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I don't know what happened with the "Crosman Custom Shop" but it has been down for a while, I've been out of the game for the whole Rona timeframe... you could have gotten what you are going for for much less...

The 2250 is a european model, never offered in the states... they called it the "ratcatcher" over there...

The 2240 is $69 at Amazon

For some reason my parts part number file is on on a work computer? I think I was bored on a business trip... I can get part numbers for the parts department tomorrow, likely save almost $100 off that list...

Before spending that much on a 2240, would probably make sense to look into a , there's some mods for those too... I have the synthetic stock version floating around and it's not bad... That's a link to a Beeman QB78

don't ask me what happened to make half a sentence a link, I have no idea...

 

[Snoranger]

Here’s everything you need to know:

 

[pjtoledo]

lot more going on than I thought.

 

[James Morse]

Thanks scotts90ranger, that Beeman is a nice looking gun and not expensive. Kind of reminds me of old Winchester .22 with tube mag I had as a kid. Might be an ideal one to start with. Pistols are cool but I did indeed have subsequent doubts about making a 2240 into a rifle, kind of falls under trying to make one thing do several things an usually then it does none of them well.

Wondering what would be upgrade to the Beeman? Looks pretty good out of the box... scope maybe... what else?

Yeah that's right my prices were on the high side on the 2240&parts for sure, I found other sources quite a bit less like you said.

One thing confuses me: you can get the 2240XL which already has the steel breech, but no sights on it. So you'd have to add at minimum the rear sight - readily do-able - but what about the front sight? I saw some posts in airgun forums about this very issue. Weird they would sell a pistol with no sights on it. https://www.pyramydair.com/product/crosman-2240xl-co2-air-pistol-22-cal-steel-breech?m=5117 in description they say "no provision for a front sight" but seems like you wouldn't want -only- a rear sight.

Question for you about the flat top piston for pump pistols: what does that do? Nice you can make them.