$100 Springer at Big 5

A few years ago I got interested in an air rifle for back yard pinking. I saw an ad for a "1,000 fps" air rifle at Big 5.
I went by and looked and for $100+ tx bucks I got a Beeman "Sportsman RS101 Series" and a Beeman 4X scope with rings! It has neat-o Fiber optic Irons too.

It doesn't do 1,000 fps with the pellets I bought but an honest 850 fps with, I think, good accuracy. It is heavier than my Krag carbine and the trigger is way worse but if I concentrate I can hit with it. I never really looked had hard at it, just shot it and liked it, but reading these posts about cheap air guns made me take another look. I had thought it was a no-name Chinese brand but realized it was a Beeman today! Now it is probably made in China but, hey what isn't these days?

After my cancer surgery last June I've lost a lot of strength and need to work out some to build back up. So I'll dig up my air rifle gallery target trap and do some off hand shooting with it. I've got a bunch of pellets left., I bought a pellet sample pack with five or six 200 cans of pellets so I don't need ot shoot primers or cast boolets or powder to build up my strength. Or drive 34 miles RT to the range.

Now that the weather has warmed up I can shoot off the patio and watch the sun rise again while "working out"!

Cranking that springer will be good for my weak left arm.:grin:

Went looking to see what this would sell for now and found that the closest was an RS 2 or Teton .177 Air Rifle Combo on Amazon was only $129. Looks that same as my sportsman and notice that the 1,000 fps was "with Alloy" pellets, by whch they probably mean tin. The RS 2 appears to have an adjustable trigger which makes me think about buying one just for that!

Looks just like the Ruger/Umarex which was $139 and no adj trigger. Still 8.25 Lbs is a lot of weight!

I would do some google fu on how to solve your trigger issues.

One of the reasons I continue to buy Hatsan rifles in spit of the higher price point is they have an easily adjusted trigger. But with a bunch of them out there, there should be a solution of some sort.

I took your advice and goggled but couldn't find yet any thing about my rifle. I'll keep looking but in the meanwhile, I'll work on my trigger skills.

So I figured I'd clean out the dust in my Beeman and after priming a bunch of .44's I took it out on the patio and cranked it up. I had some Gamo 7.45 gr pellets left and had a heck of a time cocking it with my left arm. Took a shot and hit pretty close using the ~16# trigger, breaks clean but man is it hard. It'll be good for strengthening my double action revolver muscles. Cocked it again and fired another round, good hit, but man was it hard on my weak left arm. I put it aside for a while and enjoied the warm day and view, listening to the Doves cooing in the palm tree next door.
I figured I should keep working out so tried to cock it again, but needed both hands to get it cocked! Again, right on target and the trigger was a bit easier to gage, still hard to pull but I got the drill down.

Tomorrow I'll dig up another can of pellets and work out some more.

Word to the wise, don't get old, or if you do, don't get cancer, the treatment ia almost as bad as the tumor!

I wouldn't get too optimistic about trigger tuning on a budget springer. I have two and this is what I have found....
There is a hole in the trigger guard you can insert a screwdriver through to a screw behind the trigger. Turning the screw
gives you a choice of compromises. One direction gives a shorter length of trigger pull with a heavier break to the sear,
The other direction gives a lighter break to the sear but with a long pull of the trigger that for me is difficult to predict
when it will break. What I've done is lightened the break to where it's not uncomfortably heavy and while shooting control
the trigger like I would a double action revolver or striker fired pistol.
I can empathize with your difficulty cocking the thing. After a badly broken arm was mended I had to really work hard to
get full use of that arm again. Was in my twenties then so sure you will have a longer row to hoe. Hope it works out well for you.

I hear you about budget springers, this Beeman seems to be pretty well made and is accurate, near as I can tell. Don't think I'll be taking it apart as air rifles are complicated and need jigs and such to contain the springs, etc.

Arm strength is a limiting factor now and I need to work it out. When I was a young lad, I could climb the 20' rope in Jump school with out using my legs at all, but it took me about two months of PT to even begin to play my Ukulele after they cut a hunk of bone out of my arm and replaced it with a 14 inch titanium plate and five screws. They needed the bone to replace the hunk they had to cut out of my skull. Now four months after the radiation treatments, I'm just now getting over it. Doc says in another five months my body should be over most of the side effects. :drinks:

Thank God for the Krag and the Beeman which are motivating me out of the house now to reload and soon shoot at the range. Next month the VA will fix my right eyebrow which droops due to having a nerve cut during the surgery making it hard to see the scopes and sights on my rifles and hope I can see the sights on my pistols again. I have to use my left eye for pistol sighting now.

Don't get me wrong, I'm pushing thru this crap, You can't keep this old paratrooper down!

Excuse me for not realizing I was speaking to another airborne comrade. Some while back I accepted I was no longer 10 feet tall and bulletproof
but the not quitting they put in me has stuck