[steven gordon]

I have a very, very cheap Chinese springer that can put three pellets in the same hole at 18 yards (the length of my basement). It has a trigger that a John Deere tractor could love (It pulls hard), but the accuracy is fabulous. I'm using a cheap Walmart .22 scope and waiting for it to fall apart; it's not like me to treat my toys as disposable, but I bought this thing at a time when I had more time than I had money. It's a cheap gun that shoots expensive pellets well and cheap pellets poorly. It kills rabbits well. At one time I was sniping doves at 80+ yards (I will neglect to say where); it was excellent practice and gave me confidence when I had a standing shot at an elk at 200 yards (took out the boiler room).

Actually I've had several of them; the seals deteriorate after about ten years and your accuracy deteriorates; I don't think there's a way to replace them.

I also have a very expensive .22 springer that I got on close out from a prominent Iowa supplier of air rifles (no names mentioned because I don't remember them and I'm posting from work, so I can't get up and look at the rifle). The scope is expensive, too. The accuracy fabulous and the trigger is sweet, smooth, and crisp. It has plenty of power to kill...Hmmm... I'd better not say for sure...I would IMAGINE it has enough power to kill a turkey with a head shot. It has enough power to kill the 177 pellet trap I had been using. Then I got a beefed up pellet trap rated for 22 pellets but not rated for 1000 fps and it killed that one, too. It's doing OK with a .22 rifle bullet trap, but I had to put a piece of 1x10 at the back to quell the ricochet. Not that the ricochet endangered me but my wife complained about the pellets when she did the laundry barefoot and wanted me to sweep up my mess when I was done. Imagine that!

One rifle cost upwards of $500 and the other cost about $50 all put together. Neither one shoots cheap pellets well and I have close to a thousand of various cheep ones I don't even look at anymore but I can't bear to throw away. The good pellets evaporate.

Either way I can shoot in my basement all winter long and have a great time. I shoot the more expensive rifle more because it doesn't feel cheap when I pick it up.

Well, that's my two cents worth.