I’ve Just Been To A Parallel Airgun Universe

A parallel airgun universe. What? Have I (finally) lost it?

Well, no I’ve not lost it – or at least I hope not. But it’s true, there is a parallel airgun universe. I was there at the weekend and it was alive and well.

What am I talking about? Please bear with me and read on…

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A Little Background​

Surprisingly for an ex-pat Brit, I never got into airguns until moving to the USA nearly 30 years ago. (I was shooting Lee Enfield and Mauser 98 firearms back in the old country). The credit for initiating me into airguns belongs firmly to a certain James Kitching.

James – now sadly long departed – was the owner of the improbably-named “Fun Supply” airgun website. From there, I purchased my first air rifle. It was a QB78. It didn’t work. So I fixed it and that was my first step into airguns.

I hope that others also remember James Kitching. He was a great innovator in the airgun universe. He, it was, who started the original “Fun Supply Yellow Airgun Forum”, the original online airgun Forum (so far as I know). Over the years, this morphed into the once-dominant “Yellow Forum” and then to the current “Airgun Warriors” version.

Looking around the local gun shops and big box sporting goods stores back in the late 90s, I found few airguns and certainly nothing like my QB78s!

So, as a new airgun owner, I was firmly locked-in to the online Fun Supply store and Forum as my source of airguns and information.

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The Local Airgun Environment​

Over the years, the friendly, traditional gun shop has – sadly – become an endangered species around here in upstate New York. Those wonderful, huge, quarterly local Gun Shows withered away, too. But neither was ever a compelling source for airguns.

Then, it has to be said, that neither my wife nor I are “big box store” or mall shoppers. We absolutely prefer to buy from local, bricks-and-mortar specialist stores where we can. If not we will buy from specialist vendors online.

Sure, I make occasional visits to big box stores. I’ve watched the airgun selection at our local WalMart change from acceptable, to restricted, to – now – nearly non-existent. There’s a Dick’s Sporting Goods location near us, but that gave-up on airguns (or any guns) completely.

Gander Mountain flared-up with a big branch locally – with plenty of airguns – but then disappeared as rapidly as it arrived. The trend goes on…

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Finally – The Parallel Airgun Universe​

So it was a HUGE surprise when I visited the local Sportsman’s Warehouse this weekend. It was surprising for three reasons. One that I went there! Second, it had airguns. Thirdly it had lots of them – great stock in a wide profusion of models.

That’s where I found my parallel airgun universe!!!

So what makes it a parallel universe?

Well, it was a completely PCP-free zone!

In Hard Air Magazine, the HAM Community and other specialist online airgun stores and media, the vast majority of the talk is about PCP air rifles. Sure, break barrel air rifles are popular – there’s still a ton of Weihrauchs being sold. Dianas, too.

But basically “my”, and possibly “our” airgun universe has become dominated by PCPs in recent years. Just look at the ratio of “piston” shooters compared to those running PCPs at the recent, local, Finger Lakes Field Target shoot, for example.

If you examine the top-selling airguns lists published annually by Pyramyd Air, the traditional, single-shot, “Zillion FPS” break barrel air rifles have disappeared from sight. They’ve been replaced by PCPs.

Yet here at Sportsman’s Warehouse, that alternative, parallel airgun universe was very much alive!

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The Shopping Experience​

Although I’m guessing that the shoppers there have access to the Internet – they all had mobile phones – they were examining the brightly-colored airgun boxes with enormous interest.

“Wow, this is great! It does 1,100 FPS,” said one customer. “No this is better,” said another. “It shoots 1,250 FPS”.

As you can see from these photographs, Sportsmans Warehouse had a ton of airguns in stock. Crosman, Benjamin, Gamo and Umarex were all represented in strength. There was a Stoeger Airguns model, too.

True, there were some multi-pump Crosman 362s. Plus the inevitable 760s and Daisy Red Ryders.

Then there were the CO2-powered airguns. A few lonely full-auto Crosman boxes remained, although it looked as though most had been sold. The store website shows some Umarex Legends full-autos, but they were out of stock when I visited.

Umarex had locked-up the prestigious “end cap” location with a stack of CO-powered Ruger 10/22 air rifles, too.

But the overwhelming majority of airgun SKUs were for “traditional” single-shot break barrel air rifles. Plus a few of those newfangled multi-shot spring/piston models. There was not a PCP in sight. They just didn’t exist in this parallel airgun universe.

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Why No PCPs?​

Well I’m guessing that price is a major factor. The most expensive airgun I saw was selling for $299.99. The majority for much less. $99.99 was still a popular price.

Then it seems that many big box sporting goods stores have never come to grips with the charging requirement for PCPs.

At least a couple of companies have made brave efforts to combine PCP charging with the gun in one box. I believe that was to appeal to the big box stores.

One was the American Tactical Nova Freedom with it’s built-in hand pump. Another is the Umarex Origin combo, where the PCP air rifle and pump are separate but bundled together in the same retail box. There may be more…

But essentially, PCPs do not exist in this parallel airgun universe. Maybe they never will.

So when you observe the airgun industry introducing apparently-endless “new” single-shot break barrel air rifles and – like me – wonder why, here’s the answer.

Maybe those enthusiastic customers I observed will – one day – move on to higher-end airguns like PCPs. Maybe they will tire of the heavy cocking effort and mysterious lack of accuracy of the springers (because they are not told the hold requirements). Maybe the inevitable 
“pinch point” blisters from the pumpers will hurt too much. Maybe the heavy trigger pull and limited range of the CO2-powered multi-shot pellet guns will grow old.

But maybe not. Just possibly they will be happy with their airguns and love them for what they are. I hope so.

At any event I was reminded that a “non PCP” parallel airgun universe exists. That’s a good thing as I had long forgotten it. Had you?


The post I’ve Just Been To A Parallel Airgun Universe appeared first on Hard Air Magazine.

 

[RidgeRunner]

Some very interesting comments here, however here in the UK most Gun shops are predominantly PCP sales, with a "smattering" of Springers, not forgetting the generally awful Gas Ram Rifles, these tend to be more of the cheaper end of Rfle sales.

Of course the premium "springers" Air Arms & Weihrauch are still well represented. Weihrauch are still selling strongly, Air Arms have supply issues & are getting very expensive, a Walnut stock Prosport is nudging £1000 a Beech stock TX200 £700!!! & there's barely any Diana Air Rifles anywhere, which is a shame, in my opinion Diana are as good as Weihrauch.

Then of course there is the plethora of budget "springers" all made in China of course, so, that leads us back to PCP, of which I am a confirmed convert, FX & Daystate

I wish I could afford FX and Daystate. I have to settle for AirForce on this side of the pond. I do have some superb sproingers that were made in the UK many, many years ago. Air Arms does indeed make some superb sproingers, but I am afraid the prices are getting to be a bit ridiculous. Fortunately, Weihrauch are still reasonable.

 

[hameditor]

Some very interesting comments here, however here in the UK most Gun shops are predominantly PCP sales, with a "smattering" of Springers, not forgetting the generally awful Gas Ram Rifles, these tend to be more of the cheaper end of Rfle sales.

Of course the premium "springers" Air Arms & Weihrauch are still well represented. Weihrauch are still selling strongly, Air Arms have supply issues & are getting very expensive, a Walnut stock Prosport is nudging £1000 a Beech stock TX200 £700!!! & there's barely any Diana Air Rifles anywhere, which is a shame, in my opinion Diana are as good as Weihrauch.

Then of course there is the plethora of budget "springers" all made in China of course, so, that leads us back to PCP, of which I am a confirmed convert, FX & Daystate

Thanks for providing an UK perspective on this! Can some of our other international members chime-in with their experience of airgun retail stores in other countries?

That would be very interesting, I'm sure.

 

[MikeK]

It appears the Airgun industry world wide is huge. Much larger than I ever suspected. Anybody have an estimate of yearly sales world wide?

 

[Alan]

I've wondered this myself. If I had to speculate (or WAG!), I'd bet the total sales including ammo and other accessories, would be approaching $1billion. In fact it may be more than that, as these sales are not required to be recorded in most countries where airguns are legal.

 

[MikeK]

Might be an idea for a HAM article...

 

[Madhatter]

I was in cal ranch in Prescott valley a few weeks ago and they had a hatsan bull pup pcp. Don't remember what model but the sales man had no idea about it. I know cal ranch isn't a big box store but there is in AZ, NV,ID and UT. It's like a bigger tractor supply that actually caters to farms and ranches

 

[jps2486]

To the neophyte, PCPs are intimidating. When I first got into airguns (thanks Dr. Beeman), I bought an R8 and shot it for years. When I retired, I wanted more and had more disposable income to play with PCPs. Then came the Marauder. Now, scads of others including a few more springers. I must say, I did not, and still don't, like the crappy style of the cheaper airguns. For years, Crosman had the ugliest stocks that looked cheap because they were. I recontoured my Mrod stock and made it much more eye appealing. Interest, competition, and dedication does lead us into more sophisticated and costly products. You get what you pay for. While I now prefer shooting PCPs, I still drag out my R7 just for fun. I did buy a Corcoran stock for it so, it's not a cheap gun anymore.

 

[Doc Holiday]

Never seen a PCP for sale around here...ever...
Only see them online for me.

Mostly the same here. Very few pcp

 

[Sound Tribe]

Funny is I started out by seeing my first air rifle in a store. It was at Cabela's, and I picked one of the Benjamin breakbarrels... once I had realized how insanely annoying it was to cock it each time, I thankfully, had the luxury of going online and found the amazing Pyramyd Air.

I was still uninitiated as I went right towards the co2 powered stuff, mostly the replica guns...

But I was hooked... and went to every Walmart in my state it felt like, which ALL had a pretty decent section of air guns and many many accessories. From there I kept buying (and due to their policy) exchanging the ones I didn't like out for others. They had no PCPs at all, mostly replica pistols and other breakbarrels from Crosman, Gamo, etc.

This didn't last very long, within a year or two almost every walmart no longer had any airguns and barely any accessories and recently I had returned to Cabelas and found nothing resembling airguns.

But thankfully by then I had already discovered the yellow forums and PCP airguns, but it still had made me sad to see that. No one in my area even knew what I was talking about or that airguns existed!

It seemed like it all happened in a flash...and the crazy part is, this all happened around the estimated years of 2012 to 2014! I'm surprised I found stuff even that recently, I bet at first you thought my story's setting was much earlier than that. Right?

 

[Alan]

We (the rest of us) realize, that you're just one of now millions who have traveled the same path. We're all diminished, at least money-wise!

 

[PasadenaMike]

Guess this is an older thread but I’ll contribute because it’s interesting and I remembered the days when I had no idea what a pcp was and this is all I knew. I remember buying these $99 specials from Big 5 only to keep getting disappointed because I couldn’t hit anything until one day I said “I’m buying a Diana 34” I ordered from PA. This gun showed me airguns are accurate. That was the beginning of the journey to the dark side. I returned the Diana because it got crunchy in a month and bought a Marauder Pistol and it began.

 

[BeemanHW100]

I too started out with the cheaper break barrels and gas rams, and yes the accuracy was horrible. Met some people who knew what they were talking about and eventually bought my first PCP which was a marauder and then never looked back. I am not anti-springer, have a HW 97 that I love, just not as good shooting with it as my PCP’S. Personally I am glad that there are not PCP guns in the big box stores. The average person that shops in those is probably not knowledgeable enough or has not learned enough about them to use them safely. I am not talking about shooting as much as I am about them filling the gun. I have explained about PCP’S to people that I meet or know and after I am done they still ask if I fill with my 120 psi shop compressor. People don’t understand 3,000-5,000 psi. I am waiting for someone to do something stupid with an airgun that will make headlines and cause the powers that be to make more regulations that will restrict the sport that I love.

 

[Alandaledaniel]

I've written on this forum and others for my love of springers and pumpers. I resent even the thought of having to lug the various accruements necessary for shooting pcps. I can hardly lift my friend's compressor, much less lug it out to the range. Not going to happen! Springers and pumpers are all I need or desire. Just my opinion. . . yours may surely be different. Orv.

Good points Doc. Today’s PCPs are hitting the stratosphere for performance. They are extremely accurate, hard hitting, and can now shoot far more than 30 pellets per fill - especially with the large bottles. The new FX Impact 4 is outright amazing with its flexibility, bottle capacity, magazine capacity, power, and more. The price is also in line with these amazing features and well beyond anything I can pay. Nonetheless, the machine is impressive, at least on paper. Some of the more powerful PCPs can launch a 45 caliber slug and blast through a cement 8 block or kill a deer. Or, let’s face it, a person. As a target shooter I like the PCPs because of the amazing accuracy. They can also be extremely quiet [thank goodness]. You may have noticed that regulations on air guns has been turned over to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, which is VERY BAD for air gunners IMO. The performance of PCPs will draw the attention of the regulators who have zero laws to guide them and the knowledge that air guns will not have the Constitutional protections of firearms. The anti-gun crowd will lobby against allowing any form of airgun because they sorely dislike all guns, even toy guns, much less something that could significantly harm someone. And there’s the rub. We are in a golden age of air gunning, but the CPSC is going to end it with new regulations which will be issued [I think] before the end of Biden’s term of office even if he loses in Nov of ‘24. I wish it wasn’t true, but I’ve seen this before. When the regulators start to run amuck they destroy everything they touch. Some springers may be exempt, but I doubt it. IMO, the 12 pounds of energy UK limit will be the starting point for restricting our airguns. AD2

 

[Farmplinker2]

Good points Doc. Today’s PCPs are hitting the stratosphere for performance. They are extremely accurate, hard hitting, and can now shoot far more than 30 pellets per fill - especially with the large bottles. The new FX Impact 4 is outright amazing with its flexibility, bottle capacity, magazine capacity, power, and more. The price is also in line with these amazing features and well beyond anything I can pay. Nonetheless, the machine is impressive, at least on paper. Some of the more powerful PCPs can launch a 45 caliber slug and blast through a cement 8 block or kill a deer. Or, let’s face it, a person. As a target shooter I like the PCPs because of the amazing accuracy. They can also be extremely quiet [thank goodness]. You may have noticed that regulations on air guns has been turned over to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, which is VERY BAD for air gunners IMO. The performance of PCPs will draw the attention of the regulators who have zero laws to guide them and the knowledge that air guns will not have the Constitutional protections of firearms. The anti-gun crowd will lobby against allowing any form of airgun because they sorely dislike all guns, even toy guns, much less something that could significantly harm someone. And there’s the rub. We are in a golden age of air gunning, but the CPSC is going to end it with new regulations which will be issued [I think] before the end of Biden’s term of office even if he loses in Nov of ‘24. I wish it wasn’t true, but I’ve seen this before. When the regulators start to run amuck they destroy everything they touch. Some springers may be exempt, but I doubt it. IMO, the 12 pounds of energy UK limit will be the starting point for restricting our airguns. AD2

If there are restrictions, I suspect they will be on PCP airguns. Most springers are <20 ft-lbs, so not much power. More powerful ones are difficult to cock. But a repeater PCP with .22 LR ballistics might be restricted. Even that will be iffy.

 

[Alan]

It appear we're on the verge of a change in administrations. If that occurs, the outlook will certainly change, but predicting how the flow will go, is as astute as herding cats!

 

[MountainSportAirguns]

If any restrictions come into play it will be most likely due to these clickbait morons promoting Airguns for self defense. These people are a plague who have no care at all for the community, just in it purely for the the Amazon affiliate money.

 

[Farmplinker2]

If any restrictions come into play it will be most likely due to these clickbait morons promoting Airguns for self defense. These people are a plague who have no care at all for the community, just in it purely for the the Amazon affiliate money.

Or too lazy/cheap to get their rights restored.