Thanks, Bob. I spent an hour or more looking around tonight, and it looks like a used 410 might be easier to find for a good price than a 400. I'll have to see how the money looks to see what I can spend, but I'm tempted to just put the "wanted to buy" out there on a few sights and keep saving until I find good deals on the gun/tank/fittings/etc. I'm sure I'll be temped to just go ahead and buy a Maurader setup and be shooting quickly, though.

Jason, A few other things to keep in mind if you haven't already run across them.
1) Scuba tanks need to be Hydro tested every so often so a used tank may need to be Hydro tested before the dive shop can fill. Not sure of the cost on this as mine hasn't been done yet... but is due on it's next trip for a fill.

2) Carbon Fiber tanks, while are lighter and hold more air but come with a shelf life. At their expiration date (usually 10-15 years), there is no hydro testing or refilling allowed, they must be replaced after that date. This is an expensive replacement anymore, mine was $475 and I see they are quite a bit more expensive now, $650. http://www.airhog.com/cf_tanks.htm. The do come with the valve and whip hose and your fill end just screws in. On the whip hose get a longer one, it makes filling much easier.


I too have the S400 and love it and feel the Air Arms are a better choice, but either way you go to start it will get you shooting with a nice rifle.

A few more sites with air rifles and equipment to look at, if you haven't already:
http://www.straightshooters.com/index.html (Good guys and test & report on all their rifles)
http://www.pyramydair.com/

Prices of hydro appear to vary by demand. In FL it is around $8 to $35 (depending on which shooter you know in the business), El Paso the prices start at $45. Same types of range in purchasing a used tank ($50 UP), which there are some floating around, remember the tank can not be hydro'd if it is older than 20 years. Carbon Fiber are neat, but they are expensive.

Mary

frog5215 wrote:The AA 400 won't be quiet, unless the previous owner has added a barrel shroud.
Better barrel, MUCH better trigger, better stock conformation.

The AA400/410 has many upgrades and versions over the years. Some models and years have shrouds and some don't. I have two factory AA400s with the long barrel and long air reservoir with the side lever. Both have factory shrouds, and they are very quiet. Additional moderators can be bought on the yellow forum if you want them to be even quieter. I also have an aftermarket magazine on my 22 caliber, and it works really well.

After giving this much thought and doing 10+ hours of research, I calculated up how much the whole setup would cost and the AA S410 would just stretch the budget too much, especially for what I plan to do with the gun. Even the extra magazines for the s410 were three or four times the price of the ones for the Marauder. I happened to be checking the MidwayUSA site for some other stuff and saw that they had the .177 caliber Marauder on sale for $389.50 and I grabbed it. I also ordered three extra magazines, a 177 caliber Boresnake (airgun version with no brushes), and a 500-count tin of the Premier 10.5 pellets. To be honest, I'm not sure if the 10.5gr Premiers that Midway sells are the same as the ones that come in the 1250-count box. I still have to pick up more pellets, a tank, and hoses/adapters to go with the gun, so I'll probably find out.

Summary: I have a gun on the way, so I'm one step closer.

I have been looking for a place to refill a scuba tank. fire dept. didn't like the idea. Sports authority said $25.00 even to do a top off. Where do you guys get it done, and what does it cost. Has anyone looked into the cost of having the machine to do your own air. Thanks

Congrats Jason, I hope you enjoy it and get hooked on PCPs. You will be wanting a high end rig soon enough lol. Oh and you will need a lot more pellets.

Hawk- The cost for a compressor is at least a few grand for a decent one so unless you are shooting a lot or big bore airguns it is kind of pricey. I am forunate that a club member has an airgun addiction and bought one My neighbor recently became a Fireman so I need to see if he can do it for me as well and save me the trip

Where are you located? I used to get my tank filled at one of the local Fire and Safety shops that refills and tests the breathing air tanks for all the industrial plants etc. Check into these if you have any around you and of course Dive Shops. Or just tell the Fire Dept they don't have to like the idea they just need to do it! really though there is a waiver form out their some folks have managed to use to get local places to fill them up. They even have stickers with airguns only air on them for the tanks if needed. Check welding shops I never tried but I used to get the big steel tank rental with compressed air for my airbrush @5000 psi so if they have the connector they can probably do it as well just thought of them.


Dee

The best place to refill a scuba tank is at a scuba shop. When I bought my tank (about $180) it came with a card good for 20 refills. Otherwise it is $5 a refill. The cylinder on a 10 meter gun will go about 100 shots without topping off and I can get at least 10 and maybe even 20 refills (don't keep track) from a scuba tank before it needs to be recharged. Even at $15 a tank refill it would still be cheap. From the shooters at my club who shoot Marauders, they have to recharge the cylinder between 40 shot matches so they will be using air at about 2 1/2 times the rate that I do.

After making the decision, I have to say that I'm in awe of the community that has sprung up around the Marauder airguns. Everything from tuning guides from the "A Team" guys who helped design it to cottage industries that looks to be turning it into the PCP airgun version of the 10/22, with aftermarket stocks and tweaks galore. It's true that I might end up getting a higher-end airgun also, but if I do it will be a 10m target gun. I just wish we had more matches close. The only matches that I know of within driving distance are on the third Sunday of the month, the same day that we have the smallbore matches at my local club that I help with setup and takedown for. The odd thing is that another club a little over an hour south of here also has their smallbore matches that day, so I'm not sure how many people show up for air rifle silhouette matches.

Hi Jason,

in terms of pellets - we have found that either H&N Barracuda or field target specials (or the Beeman equivalents) and JSB Exact or heavy are normally the best first choices. They are all normally at least good and generally better than good or excellent performers. I have used barracudas for many years in HW80, Theoben PPC, HW100 and Anschutz 2025 all with great success - expect 1 hole at 20m and a bit more out to rams. However I have gone to FT specials lately for the 2025 - I think it likes the slightly lighter weight, although the difference is slight.

regards,
Nigel.

Where are you guys getting all of these pellets? Is there somewhere with good pictures of all of the different kinds so I can learn all of this a bit faster? I'm pretty well set on trying to get a 4500psi setup, but don't really care if it's the lightweight carbon fiber or heavier metal (steel for 4500psi, right?) tanks. I figure it will probably take me at least another couple weeks to get the air setup together, so I have plenty of time to accumulate pellets and such to try. I think I'll run the Weaver T24 on the rifle for a while, but would like something variable that will focus closer without adapters eventually.

Several places but Pyramid Air had the best prices the last time I bought them
http://www.pyramydair.com/

If anyone is interested. I got my s400 for $780 and I picked up in Arizona and my JSB Exact pellets to my door for $87 for a sleeve from that was the best prices by far when I bought I don't know what prices have done in the past several months. Sports Chalet filled my carbon tank to 4500 psi for $5 bucks

http://www.topgun-airguns.com/index.html

600 shipped. I don't know the seller, just reporting a rifle in the budget.\

http://www.network54.com/Forum/79574/me ... .22cal+FAC

Thanks, Ter. I ordered a Marauder that should be here on Tuesday. I decided to go ahead with that after examinining my budget and hearing some not-so-positive feedback about the forward slope of the cheekpiece on the Air Arms guns and that even the 410 wouldn't be as quiet as the marauder. I hadn't noticed that comb wasn't parallel to the bore until I heard. With the $250 to $300 I saved, I might spring for a custom stock in the future. I've got a couple gunsmiths that I'm considering doing some website design and hosting work for, so I might offer to trade them hour-for-hour for work and just have my marauder put into an RTS stock, since copying the feel of my smallbore and highpower rifles is the goal anyway.