The RateAGun Score Calculator in Use

For those of you interested in choosing an air rifle that will give the most shooting fun at your own experience level, check out our site at http://www.rateagun.com There you will be able to compare a wide range of air rifles - with and without scopes - to see how they match your skill and experience level.

The screen grab above shows how the calculator looks in use. It confirms that (for example) the Marauder/scope combination will be significantly easier to shoot than either of the Gamo or Stoeger combos, even though it's a more powerful gun, because it uses PCP rather than spring/piston power. Make your own comparisons and see what you think!

Our RateAGun calculator is easy to use and we have a huge range of guns there for you to see. And when you find that "perfect" air rifle, you can visit our ArcherPelletGuns store for more details and buy - if you wish.

Have fun!

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The Archer Airguns Late Summer Sale Begins!

The Archer Airguns 2011 "Late Summer Sale" begins today!

If you visit our "Specials" page, you will see a range of great offers on QB78-family products and more. We have a few JRA products - yes we actually have them in stock for immediate shipment! Also there is a range of second-quality stocks that would be ideal for re-finishing projects.

More products will be added in the next few days, including some rarely-available parts for the QB36-2 air rifle and some "project guns" - air rifles that need a loving home and some care and attention to make them work properly.

We're offering the lowest prices we can on all of these sale items. And in every case, only limited numbers are available. When they're gone, they're gone!

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Using Holdover or Aiming Off With Leapers Scopes

Mil-dot scopes are very popular with air rifle shooters, but normally we do not use them in the way that the manufacturer originally intended.

Mil-dot reticles are intended by manufacturers for estimating the distance from shooter to target. Leapers scopes, for example, have the reticle arranged at the second image plane, therefore as the magnification changes the size of the reticle does not change as the image zooms.

But, of course, air rifle shooters normally use mil-dots for holdover, aiming off or Kentucky windage - all different names for the same thing: estimating a correction for windage or elevation without making alterations to the scope's turret settings.

As all Leapers scopes have their mil-dot reticles calibrated for 10 x magnification (even if a particular scope cannot actually be set to 10x magnification), the mil-dots can be used quite consistently and simply for holdover sighting.

At 4 x magnification with Leapers scopes, 1 mil-dot separation equals approximately 1-inch on the target at 10 yards, 2-inches at 20 yards or 4-inches at 40 yards.

At 8 x magnification, 1 mil-dot separation equals approximately 1/2-inch on the target at 10 yards, 1-inch at 20 yards or 2-inches at 40 yards.

So that's it! For example, if you're shooting your air rifle with any Leapers scope at 40 yards, with the magnification set to 8x and you want to holdover or aim off by 1 inch at the target, that's a holdover of half a mil-dot. And so on...


Our photograph shows the Leapers 4 - 16 x 50 AO scope mounted on an AR2078 air rifle.

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Archer Airguns Introduces Spare Parts Kits for Beeman Sportsman Series Air Rifles

As a result of customer demand, Archer Airguns has worked with our friends at Beeman Precision Airguns and Shanghai Airguns to introduce a range of spare parts kits for Beeman Sportsman Series air rifles.

These parts kits are suitable for the Beeman Sportsman series, including the Beeman 1073 series - also known as the Beeman RS2 series - that is widely available from Wal-Mart stores around the country. As always, these Beeman parts kits are available on-line from our Archer Airguns store and we have them in stock for immediate delivery.

So far, we have kits for hard-to-find replacement parts such as the barrel O ring breech seals, stocks and complete RS2 trigger assemblies.


And we'll be introducing more kits in future so that a complete range of replacement parts is available.

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Quiet Stoeger X20 Suppressor .177 Caliber Test Results.

Yes, it's true! The Stoeger X20 Suppressor IS quiet in .177 caliber once dieseling has begun to subside.

The test target above shows the results from a dry (-ish) .177 caliber gun. As you can see, the muzzle velocity was below 1,100 fps (the speed of sound) and the noise level from shooting was - subjectively - about the same as for the .22 caliber version. That is, very quiet.

The recorded muzzle velocity of 972 fps for the .177 caliber gun can be expected to stabilize at around the 920 - 950 fps typically achieved by "non Suppressor" X20s when the oil and grease from manufacturing has completely burned out of the chamber. This is what I've long suspected, but not been able to prove until now.

The target below shows the results from a .22 caliber X20 Suppressor that stopped dieseling from the second shot. This gives us the chance to compare muzzle velocities for the two calibers shooting the same pellet type.


Any yes, my shooting could have been better on that lower test target...

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