One thing that can’t be denied by any air gun enthusiast: there are a lot of air rifles out on the market. Whether you get them from a gun show, a local store, or off the internet, the power of choice is with the consumer. While this has made it a buyer’s market, and the prices have come down a fair bit, it can be difficult to determine which are the best, and which are best left alone. Of course, some of this depends on the individual, but there are some objective considerations. Let’s take the popular CO2 powered rifles and look at some of the pros and cons.
The CO2 powered air rifles use compressed gas cartridges as ammo. This goes for all of the semi automatic air rifles you see on the market, although things change when you move into the single shot category. Of course, one big advantage to this type of gun is that fact that you never have to pause to pump the gun between shots. This can make a big difference if you’re hunting, or simply for conveniences sake when target shooting. One of the larger cartridges will let you get off about fifty shots before you need another one, with this number varying from gun to gun. There are even some new rifles that use up to 88 gram cartridges that allow the user to go through about four hundred shots.
On the other hand, these air rifles are usually not as powerful as their differently powered brethren. The spring powered rifles and the pump powered ones typically give you a little more bang for the buck, and some have even said there is increased accuracy. Even the most powerful CO2 rifles typically shoot at the lower end of the range of power as measured by feet per second and compared to the springs and the pumps. Another check in the con column is the money involved. The cartridges aren’t expensive by any means, but you may go through a lot, and that is money you wouldn’t have to spend with one of the other rifles.
As with any air rifles, it mostly comes down to personal preference. If you tire of having to pump the gun each shot, you might indeed find what you want in the CO2 rifles. If you are looking for power over convenience, however, you’ll be better off looking at a spring powered rifle, or one powered on a pump system.
