What Is Your Favorite Plinker?

[MountainMan]

Over the years this stainless Ruger New Model Super Single Six with the .22 and .22 magnum cylinders have been a special part of my life.

We have been together for many, many, walks in the woods and fields - sometimes with the dog of the time - sometimes by myself to clear my head.  Very accurate and good for protection and plinking.  It recently dispatched an aggressive groundhog that I believe could have been rabit.

One of my fun plinking targets would be to go to the fields after they had been plowed and shot long distance at clogs of soil - neat to kick up dirt to mark your shot.

Even with all its use still looks almost new.

[flyandscuba]

Ruger Mark I 5.5" bull barrel 70's vintage -- electroless nickle finish applied in the early '80s.

[Seven]

My Mark I - same vintage - but with the 8" Bull.  Can play "tag" with cans out to about 100 yards...

[R9SCarry]

Dave - ditto on the Single Six and I'll include my Ruger 22/45 - which sees much use shooting bowling pins and steel.

I thinker ''plinkers'' will invariably be .22's of some flavor - good fun, real cheap and so comfortable to shoot too.

I have to include too my Marlin 60 which is a great rifle plinker - way too easy to empty the 15 round tube mag!!

Again .22 - but not a plinker per se as it sees more occasional and serious target use - a Pre K-22 - lovely to shoot.

Let me as often - decorate out bare walls with some pics

[Aglifter]

Hmm.... 1895 CB Marlin in 45-70...although my...well, my brother and I had to share it when we were little, so I guess it's still both of our's gun -- Model 94 Winchester.  Could use 22 CB, short, long, LR, anything pretty much.  Killed an awful lot of rabbits.

As for a pistol, my father's 22 single action Ruger, or his SAA Colt in 357.

[Richard S]

For pure "plinking," I've settled on this Colt Mod. Gold Cup CO[size=10]2[/size] Air Pistol, Cal. .177 (4.5 mm).  With it, I can sit in a rocking chair on the elevated front porch of the cabin at Critter Creek, plinking away at a cork floating in the pond below while waiting for the occasional slow-witted field mouse to show himself beneath the bird feeder.  My beloved little wife, with only a hint of condescension, tells me that on such occasions I am "getting in touch with my inner child."  

[MountainMan]

I have thought of getting a pellet rifle to plink off my back porch - haven't shot a pellet gun since I was a kid.  Will have to research them and see what is out there.

[bigyimmy]

Look at Beeman and RWS airguns.  Nice stuff.

[R9SCarry]

Nice CO2 Richard - I am sorta tempted

I do have three real old Webley air pistols - spring operated.  They are pretty meak but still fun at times and work well on flies and yellow jackets that decide to alight within range!!

These are very old - and not pritine but work OK - two in .177 and one in .22.

[bigyimmy]

Nice stuff Chris.  The .177 will shoot flatter of all the popular calibers.  The other calibers you will see besides .177 are .20, .22 and .25.  The .25 has the most nock down power do to its weight.  There are other calibers out there that are not very common.  You can safely hunt turkey, squirrel, rabbit, and other small critters.  There are several web sites and magazines devoted to this type of 'gun'.  In European countries air guns are more popular than here in the USA.  If you live in an area you can not shot normal firearms the high end pellet guns are a great option.  They also make great options for basement or garage gun ranges set up at your home.  Pellet guns are more accurate than their counterparts .22 cartridge firearms at shorter distances.  There are several shooting leagues devoted to air guns.  Once I placed first in the country in the United States Revolver Associations team shoot.  Please do not confuse these air guns with the old ten pump Crossman.  Most of these guns are spring or air tank powered.  Air rifles must have a scope mounted on them to derive the true accuracy from the rifle.  Normal gun scopes will not work on air rifles since air rifles have recoil in both directions.  Years ago I did not believe this and found out the hard way it is true a normal scope would not stay on the gun and if it does it will break (unbelievable but true).  A decent air gun will cost $300 and up.  An air gun scope will cost about $100.  Most of the better air guns are made in England and Germany.  China and Russia are starting to put out better products.  Some things may have changed in the last couple of years and I may not know about it since I have not been as involved with air guns as I was in the past.  I do remember they are tons of fun………….and cheap.  Happy shooting!
Respectfully,
Jim


UPDATE:  Looks like prices may have gone up somewhat.

Check out these sites-

http://www.beeman.com/

http://www.rwsairguns.com/

http://www.compasseco.com/

http://www.bit1.com/

Beware of the cheaper product lines of RWS and Beeman.

[R9SCarry]

Jim, Yes there are some good air weapons out there.

I still have my HW35 (Wierauch) rifle in .177 - it needs re-springing now but is a nice shooter - and also an old Webley MkIII under-lever and tap loader ..... in fact my very first air rifle back in 1962!!!  That is in .22.

I bought a modern one which I am certain is Chinese - labelled ''Eurolux" - excellent wood on it and sold as 1,000 fps - in fact when chrono'd it was 950 but not at all bad!  I put a red dot on it actually and that seems to be surviving (so far!).




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Way back when shooting .22 pistol bullseye, I did do a bit of air pistol bullseye too - forget the gun used but it was borrowed from another guy.  Most sophisticated beast with lovely grips and balance weight etc - way more accurate than I was and cheap shooting really - every bit as challenging as any other target discipline.

`

[bigyimmy]

Chris,
You must have one heck of a gun collection.
Respecfully,
Jim

[R9SCarry]

Jim - I have been known to accept the label ''enthusiast'' LOL!  Been into shooting on and off since a kid and that was uncomfortably long ago!  Certainly last 20 years have been very involved.

Some see my stuff and call it obscene - others who know me understand.  I call it investment - can't take anything with me but determined to enjoy while around.  Day will probably come when Ihave to prune it down to liquify assets but also am knowing my son will have a good choice when the time comes.

Everything I have is shootable and serviceable and gets shot, even if not often with some.  I am tho one of those that also enjoys possession of nice things - with me guns are high on the list!

[rtw]

Chris,

A better question for you is, what don't you own?

[R9SCarry]

Haha Dick - well the ''not-owned'' list would actually be quite long too ya know!

No Glocks (yet) - only one 1911 (yep - only one!).  I have no AR-15 - I have no high end ''sniper'' rifles and as yet still do not have even 20% of the Smith revo's I'd like.

Howver - hey, a man has gotta know his limitations (Clint speaks! ) - and Ido actually have enough - tho the occasional temptation may yet rear its ugly head.

I cannot stress tho that while every gun I have is a shooter - I do take immense pleasure from ownership too - the firearm is as a unit a thing of engineering beauty for me and so - I enjoy just having them.  Not ashamed to admit it!