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Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 11:36 am
by SqHunter
Both my wife and I have back problems and can't handle the weight of either the TX200 or the HW 97. Are either the R9 or R7 accurate or consistant enough for rams? Would you recommend the R7 over the R9 for a small lady? Thanks!

Re: Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 2:11 pm
by atomicbrh
As we have stated many times if you have problems with cocking or holding the 99, 77, tx type Springers, go for the Berman R7. Julie has used one for many years. Buy the R7 without the sights and without the scope. She prefers a UTG scope in a BKL one piece mount. The best grouping pellet for her R7 is the Crosman Premier Light 7.9 grain pellet lightly lubed with FP10. Velocity is the same as a 10 meter pcp target rifle. Nothing on her R7 has ever been touched. It is factory stock. We tried leupolds on this rifle and she shot better scores with the utg. Do not waste money on tunes. If the pellet touches the 45 yard ram it will go down. We have shot with you and your wife at the AR smallbore regional. Your wife will have difficulty cocking the R9.

Re: Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 2:24 pm
by atomicbrh
I have another suggestion. Forget the rifles altogether if you have back problems. Buy air pistols instead. We have noticed a lot of people switch from rifle to pistol after developing severe back problems. Use the taco hold and it is great fun. Ram is at 18 yards. Most people buy a used izh 46m or a new crosman 1701P.

Re: Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 6:50 am
by SqHunter
atomicbrh wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2019 2:11 pm As we have stated many times if you have problems with cocking or holding the 99, 77, tx type Springers, go for the Berman R7. Julie has used one for many years. Buy the R7 without the sights and without the scope. She prefers a UTG scope in a BKL one piece mount. The best grouping pellet for her R7 is the Crosman Premier Light 7.9 grain pellet lightly lubed with FP10. Velocity is the same as a 10 meter pcp target rifle. Nothing on her R7 has ever been touched. It is factory stock. We tried leupolds on this rifle and she shot better scores with the utg. Do not waste money on tunes. If the pellet touches the 45 yard ram it will go down. We have shot with you and your wife at the AR smallbore regional. Your wife will have difficulty cocking the R9.
Thanks.I thought I remembered you saying you were going to try a R7, but I must have missed the results. I was hoping to get confirmation of the precision capabilities of the R7 with this post, I have looked in vain elsewhere for such. There is a lot of general information on the subject but very little concrete evidence. We only have experience with one RWS springer and it was pretty much a disaster.

Re: Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 6:52 am
by SqHunter
atomicbrh wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2019 2:24 pm I have another suggestion. Forget the rifles altogether if you have back problems. Buy air pistols instead. We have noticed a lot of people switch from rifle to pistol after developing severe back problems. Use the taco hold and it is great fun. Ram is at 18 yards. Most people buy a used izh 46m or a new crosman 1701P.
I would have already done this but there are not any air pistol matches in our state that II am aware of. We do have a small air rifle match though.

Re: Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:28 am
by richard
I will respectfully disagree with some of the posts. I had a R-7 and an R-8 and although they were lovely guns for plinking, I could never get them to shoot anywhere near well out past the pigs. I have had an R-9, a HW-77, an R-10, and several TX-200s. They all shot well and ,yes, they were harder to cock. Having a gun tuned will help a lot and aftermnarket springs are available from both Vortex and Jim Maccari. Generally I think the break barrel guns are easier to cock for the same power level and a 12 foot pound rated spring will help even more.

Air pistol silhouette is a great suggestion but unfortunately it is not shot in many places. Useable pistols are fairly inexpensive and distances are so short matches can be run in limited space, even indoors (we shot a match indoors last night). We run our outdoor matches for both air rifle and air pistol concurrently. It helps with attendance overall. Air pistol is easy to run so when matches are not run in your area you should consider running some yourself.

The last thing you might consider is going to PCP rifles. They are a bit of a pain with air tanks and so forth but you can get some quality guns for about what a good springer costs and they are really a dream to shoot compared to spring guns. The final thing I would suggest would be an older single stroke peumatic 10 meter target rifle. They are also fantastic to shoot and can hit the rams pretty well if there is not too much breeze. My Anschutz 2002(PCP) was the very best silhouette rifle I ever had, bar none. I also had a Walther SSP before that that was really nice but just a bit wimpy on rams. Remember in target class you are shooting against only target rifles.

Good luck
Rick Bassett

Re: Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:36 am
by atomicbrh
I am guessing you have 18 yards to shoot air pistol at home. You do not need somebody to host air pistol matches for you. Form a club. Pay the NRA $35 per year. The NRA will send you a club number. Buy one set of targets. Decide which days you want to shoot matches. Send the approved match request form in to the NRA. They will approve your matches. They will list the matches on NRA coming events. If you do not have a firing line cover for 4 people, put a pop-up canopy up on match day. Shoot matches at home without driving anywhere. Live happily every after. Air Pistol has been done like this many times in many locations over the years.

Re: Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:44 am
by atomicbrh
The 10 meter PCP rifles are too heavy for people with severe back problems. We have experience with all the PCP rifles. The Anschutz 8001 Club is the lightest available. It will be so small that it will fit your wife but you will not be able to shoot it well. Even your right hand will be too big for the trigger to grip distance. Then you have to move the scuba tank around with a bad back. How close it the nearest scuba shop?

Re: Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:26 am
by SqHunter
atomicbrh wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:36 am I am guessing you have 18 yards to shoot air pistol at home. You do not need somebody to host air pistol matches for you. Form a club. Pay the NRA $35 per year. The NRA will send you a club number. Buy one set of targets. Decide which days you want to shoot matches. Send the approved match request form in to the NRA. They will approve your matches. They will list the matches on NRA coming events. If you do not have a firing line cover for 4 people, put a pop-up canopy up on match day. Shoot matches at home without driving anywhere. Live happily every after. Air Pistol has been done like this many times in many locations over the years.
You have read my mind, we have been looking for rural property to do something like that for some time.

Re: Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:28 am
by SqHunter
atomicbrh wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:44 am The 10 meter PCP rifles are too heavy for people with severe back problems. We have experience with all the PCP rifles. The Anschutz 8001 Club is the lightest available. It will be so small that it will fit your wife but you will not be able to shoot it well. Even your right hand will be too big for the trigger to grip distance. Then you have to move the scuba tank around with a bad back. How close it the nearest scuba shop?
We have several shops in the general area, one in the town I work in.

We also have a tank and an Air Arms S410 MPR, but it is too dang heavy. We just got it and hope to compete starting next months match. I am worried though, I may not be able to support it for a whole 40 round match without strong medication.

Re: Lighter Springer alternative

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:33 am
by SqHunter
richard wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:28 am I will respectfully disagree with some of the posts. I had a R-7 and an R-8 and although they were lovely guns for plinking, I could never get them to shoot anywhere near well out past the pigs. I have had an R-9, a HW-77, an R-10, and several TX-200s. They all shot well and ,yes, they were harder to cock. Having a gun tuned will help a lot and aftermnarket springs are available from both Vortex and Jim Maccari. Generally I think the break barrel guns are easier to cock for the same power level and a 12 foot pound rated spring will help even more.

Air pistol silhouette is a great suggestion but unfortunately it is not shot in many places. Useable pistols are fairly inexpensive and distances are so short matches can be run in limited space, even indoors (we shot a match indoors last night). We run our outdoor matches for both air rifle and air pistol concurrently. It helps with attendance overall. Air pistol is easy to run so when matches are not run in your area you should consider running some yourself.

The last thing you might consider is going to PCP rifles. They are a bit of a pain with air tanks and so forth but you can get some quality guns for about what a good springer costs and they are really a dream to shoot compared to spring guns. The final thing I would suggest would be an older single stroke peumatic 10 meter target rifle. They are also fantastic to shoot and can hit the rams pretty well if there is not too much breeze. My Anschutz 2002(PCP) was the very best silhouette rifle I ever had, bar none. I also had a Walther SSP before that that was really nice but just a bit wimpy on rams. Remember in target class you are shooting against only target rifles.

Good luck
Rick Bassett
Thanks for your post. I have a little experience that mirrors some of yours. We tried to use an RWS 48 a couple of years ago but found both the accuracy at rams dissappointing and the weight/balance to be difficult to deal with physically. The reason we are investigating the tuned R series of rifles is to get less mass and hopefully better precision, but it does not seem that they go together. There is a fellow at our club that uses at 12 fpe R9 for similar reasons, but he has never said what performance at rams was like. My internet search for such details bring up a whole lot of vague statements with very little objective evidence.