What KevinB said.

Also while you can spend many hundreds, or thousands if you wish, of dollars buying a high end pellet rifle there are perfectly serviceable rifles out there for $120 to $150. Add $20 in pellets, 1000 to 2000 rounds, and your set for a long time.

The best value for money IMO is in the 'single-shot break-barrel spring guns'. Your using the barrel as a lever, no worries the barrel is plenty strong enough not to be damaged, to compress a large and very powerful spring. When released the spring drives a piston that compresses the air behind the pellet and pushes it to a consistent muzzle velocity. The advantage of this system is that it is robust, durability measured in the hundreds of thousands of shots, and very consistent.

IMO it is far better to buy a package that comes with a scope. First, your usually getting a decent scope for cheap and it will be one that is engineered for the abusive forces a spring gun puts on scopes. A spring gun recoils back as the spring and piston race forward when released. But then the gun jolts forward as the piston comes to a stop. This can destroy even an expensive rifle scope if it is not specifically designed to take these forces. DO NOT mount your prized $3000 scope on a spring gun. Unless you want it converted into a scope-shaped paper weight. Most scope manufacturers make a specific line that is built for these rifles.

A couple of suggestions:
http://www.airgunsbbguns.com/Daisy_Winchester_1000SB_p/day1000sb.htm

This is a simple workhorse pellet rifle with a nothing-special plastic stock. Funny thing is that squirrels, birds and bunnies don't seem to feel insulted about being shot by such a down market weapon. Might have something to do with being skinned, cleaned, cubed and surrounded by a rich gravy in the stew pot when asked.

For traditionalists there is the:
http://www.airgunsbbguns.com/Daisy_Winchester_1000SX_p/day1000sx.htm

Same gun but with a wood stock. I must say the stock has a better feel. The warmth and heft of the wood are IMHO well worth the extra $5.

Note: I have no financial interest in or connection to the manufacturer or retailer cited. I am familiar with this particular rifle and in comparison consider it to be head and shoulders above many more expensive makes and models as a practical weapon for small game hunting, training, practice and plinking.

I identified the retailer simply by inserting the make and model into a search engine and selecting the cheapest price it produced. This wasn't meant as an endorsement of the company. You may find either rifle for less elsewhere.

Seems to me that with a bow you could spend a lot of time searching for arrows that missed or completly penetrated the critter. And getting one back that is stuck in a tree 30 ft up could be real interesting. But those are just guesses, Robin Hood I am not...

Many air rifles will definitely do the job of humanely dispatching small game and birds and perhaps medium game (under near perfect conditions). However, depending on just an air rifle for a survival situation would be as short-sighted as planning and preparing only one means of starting a fire.

The supplies needed to set traps and snares for small game, birds and even large game are less expensive, lighter in weight, store more compactly and are much more productive than alternatives (firearms and bows) in almost any survival situation lasting more than a few days unless you are forced to stay on the move.

Air rifles are a viable addition to add depth to a survival battery and for inexpensive practice, pest eradication and recreation but their limitations eliminate them as a viable choice for a primary survival hunting weapon IMO.

Dagnabit... now you all have me wanting a pellet rifle and I don't even need one!!!

With a couple of nice .22s and a mess of .22 ammunition on hand a pellet rifle would be >90% toy for my $$$.

That R9 with the Beeman scope does look pretty nice.

What do you think of the Beeman RS2 SS1000-H Dual-Caliber Air Rifle Combo?
It lists 1000fps with its .177 barrel and 850 fps with the .22
That at <$200 seems like a good deal.

Hi 7point82

Here is a nice review for the Webley Patriot .25 air rifle.

http://www.americanairgunhunter.com/patriot.html

They go for around $400.

I had one of those when I was a kid. There was a stray cat that would come around and fight our cats and I would shoot the stray with it. Popped it between the eyes once.

Go back and get one, they are a ball to shoot. I can not count the number of "sparrows" and other deadly game that fell to mine long long ago. Not to mention the beer cans (steel then), and other targets of opportunity I "killed"...

It's a Chinese-made copy of a Spanish-made airgun imported by Beeman which was bought out by S/R Industries back in the mid-90's. It gets fairly decent reviews for its price. Figure 800-900 fps in .177 and 600-700 fps in .22. Apparently the trigger and the supplied scope are less than great. Here is a five part review that goes into great detail.

SS1000 Review

I'm spoiled since I have the German Weirauch-made R9 with the Rekord trigger. I probably wouldn't like the SS1000. OTOH, this one wouldn't deflate your wallet nearly as much as the R9 did mine. Definitely worth a try if you just want to smack some soda cans and get a feel for airguns.

Kevin B.

That looks like a really nice rifle too!

I hadn't thought about what these things weigh though; >9 lbs! Wow! My air gun experience has been limited to my old Daisy BB and pellet guns from when I was very young. I had no idea the nice pellet rifles got that heavy. They make my Ruger 10/22s look like featherweights.