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cvame · New Member

Hello everyone,
Very new to the sport of air rifle. Been shooting air guns sine I was a kid of course but decided to buy one of those higher dollar pellet rifles that has like 1200frps etc etc. My question is that i was told that the scope that came with the gun will never stay true. I've found that to be the case as I can sight it in perfect and two shots later be as mush as 4" off. What is a good scope that will not lose its settings with the recoil from an air gun? I was also told the regular rifle scopes will not work on airguns, is this true?
Or are there any tips or tricks anyone out there has to help me?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

fritz · Silver Status Member

First and foremost: What are gun are you shooting?

What do you plan to use it for?

What distances for said intended target?

Budget?

Without knowing any of those, I bet a cheap GAMO scope would do fine, finer quality can be bought in the Air Force scopes, or Centerpoint, which are good scopes and won't break your bank.

cvame · New Member

Sorry about that, I didnt even think to list that info....
Its a "Beeman Dual caliber air rifle model 1073" (supposedly 1000fps @.177cal and 850fps @.22cal)
Its a spring rifle that breaks in half to load/cock.
The scope is a Beeman 4x32, that came with it.
I will use it for hunting small game, mostly birds and to get my boys learning how to shoot correctly.
Im assumming that the distances will be in the 30-40 yard shots, 50+ would be nice but i dont see that comming from this gun...

One problem i did notice was that we never could get the open sites dialed in, it would range in shot patterns. The front site seemed way too tall. I was using cheap loads, but changed to the "PBR" ammo....with small improvements noted.
I have used many of the sighting tricks used for big rifles ie.. the bags, gun vice, laser bore sight, etc etc... with no difference.
the gun is only 1 month old.
I realize that i didnt buy the "creme de la creme" of air rifles here, but is this gun an innacurate cheapo? At $150. i didnt think it would be...

fritz · Silver Status Member

Ok, read my next sentence very carefully. PBA AMMO IS *PROFANITY*, DO NOT USE IT. Got that?

For now, let's just use the .177, because .177 is cheaper and more available, hunt with .22.

www.pyramydair.com << that site will be your good friend.

I suggest trying a tin of Crosman hunter/wadcutter pellets, Beeman HN match, Beeman coated wadcutters (the cheap ones), Crosman Premier wadcutter/pointed, Gamo hunter and match, JSB exact dome, RWS superdome. Remember that these are good .177 choices, with that gun .22 will not work as well because of it's lower power. Try those .22 versions though if you do use .22.

Yeah, that's a long list, but use the 3 for 4 deal, and yes, it will cost you a bit on some of those. It is of the utmost importance that you find pellets your gun will shoot well. For example my Diana 34 shoots 3/8" groups at 11 yards with Beeman HN match, 5/8" with RWS superdome and about 1" with Crosman hunter.

Try the cheap Gamo scope, if it doesn't work, return it. If you have the budget go right on to a half decent scope. Most ones in the $75 range will do you just fine. Don't forget mounts if they don't come with the scope.

Don't go past 40 yards with either caliber if you plan to take anything bigger than a small squirrel, 30 if it's a larger one. .177 will give you a flat trajectory, .22 will give you more power, but a more pronounced curvature, so chose carefully.

.177 AND .22 will take those damned tree rats, so don't believe that .22 is a magical pellet. PBA ammo promises high velocity, at a general lack of accuracy and knockdown power (and I think they cost a ton).

Spring air rifles are hold sensitive, meaning that when the spring is released, it moves the position of the muzzle, resulting in loss of accuracy. This is more pronounced from a bench or rest of sorts. The only way to find out the best way to learn the most accurate hold is to shoot! Try different holds and check your groups.

If you can weld, I suggest making a pellet trap of atleast 1/8" steel that's about the size of a piece of paper, if not just buy one from Crosman, Gamo, or a .22lr trap maker. You can have ricochet pellets land in your lap at 15 yards, so wear your glasses closer than 20 yards (I have personally had a pellet come back and land in my lap). A cardboard box filled with old clothes, phone books, rocks (will make it heavy), styrofoam packing, and other available, semi-dense, materials. Don't do anything stupid.

I'll think of more for you later.

cvame · New Member

Thank you very much for the tips fritz.
Sighting in this gun is becomming more of a quest than enjoyment.
So I will have no prob with dropping $75. for a decent scope.
Question; is there a difference with the scope? Meaning the guy at the store said to make sure I get a scope designed for these rifles. Or will leupold off my 30-06 do?
I did notice that the scope i have on it does turn considerably after an hour or so of shooting....
Thanks again

branz95 · Member

cvame- Possible scope creep? Does your mounts have a stop pin or a scope stop on the reciever? Might be causing the shift in zero.

Eatamoose · Member

I have the same rifle.

The scope on mine isn't the best, but it's been holding it's zero so far. I had terrible accuracy problems for a while, then I started adding Loctite to the barrel screw and that helped. It didn't seem like it was getting loose, but I guess it was. Anyway, the only pellets I could find in .22 were some Daisy wadcutters, and they shoot horribly out of my gun. The pellets aren't very uniform, and it was obvious that they didn't fit well. It was the same thing you described, for two or three shots it would hit in the same hole and then be off by 3-4". I thought it was the scope too, until I switched to the .177 barrel.

I've been hunting with the .177 barrel on it because it's easier to get quality pellets in that caliber. I settled on the Gamo Rockets, which are very uniform and accurate out of mine. At 20 yards I'm getting dime sized groups. I have all the confidence in the world that this combo will work just fine for squirrel out to 40 yards.

My advice would be to switch barrels and try some good pellets before you give up on that scope.

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

Hi cvame

One thing I didn’t see mentioned was that if you get a new scope make sure it is spring gun rated, as a springer will kick both ways and scopes off powder burners etc will be destroyed by the double kick.

BTW Welcome to AirGunHome

Al

fritz · Silver Status Member

That's right, forgot about that. Try to stick to Leapers, Centerpoint, Air Force, Swiss Arms, BSA, RWS (cost a bit more, can't vouch for quality), Walther, Winchester.

That about covers all of the scopes. Pyramyd sells all of them (as I got that list from the site).

You may want to get better mounts, ones with numerous screws and a stop pin. This will truly lock down your scope well. The mounts on my Centerpoint 4-16x40AO IR have 3 lock screws and a stop pin, they hold on like a pitbull even with it mounted on the super streak.

oddtodd · Silver Status Member

I've got 2 centerpoint scopes and one powerline. I wouldn't advise a powerline because it isn't that high quality. Both my centerpoints are used a lot and one of them is hanging on a springer with no problems so far and after 1000 rounds it's holding up quite nicely. One of them, which is hanging on my CO2 rifle has light up cross hairs in red and green. It come in really handy in my basement target range.

super6 · Member

Add Bushnell Banners, Leapers, and Barska airgun scopes to the list also. Look for models with an AO.

Mike I · New Member

I had your gun/scope combo recently. Mine was junk out of the box. After recrowning the barrel, standard deburring/lube and getting rid of the Daisy wad cutters the gun became fun.
The scope is not likely the issue.
That gun has alot of recoil which makes it hold sensitive. I learned how to hold the gun to improve the shot. Keeping the barrel screw loc-tited will be necessary as well.
My brother now owns the gun, he is shooting with the scope it came with and is 95% as accurate as my tuned B-26 with a Centerpoint 4x16x40 AO IR scope. The hold sensitivity is the only difference. We have shot 10yd, 30yd, 60yd and 100yds with great success with Crossman field hunting pellets in .22.

abbastuzlu · Member

i have bought an bsa swf 8-32x44 30 mm tube an mildot reticle
it's very good an sharp

cvame · New Member

Slavia · Moderator