Now THAT is cool!
I wished I had one of those when I was a kid. To my mother's horror I had been shooting paper targets in my bedroom and shot a few pellets into my headboard after a rubber mat backdrop inadvertently slipped out of place.

Les

Just kidding! I bagged a couple rabbits with a Benjamin air rifle when I was a kid. It required head shots but those old classics are pretty accurate. I don't have anything now that I'd hunt small game with but I know what some of the higher velocity air rifles are capable of. Of course even my pistols will easily take out the field mice that sneak into the garage

I have one of those that I use with my Gamo Whisper. It works great.

The Wisper is a fine gun. Geez it is accurate and powerful. I have had mine charged for a wekk or better, and it still have a lot of power. I use the gold pellets for taking care of critters around here. I have found there is a real differance between the regular pellet and the gold ones. I popped several starlings at 100 feet. Clean kills, no flopping around. I have one of those laser sights on it. It is good for about 3 or 4 shots, than it has to be sighted. I have a Gamo 9x40 scope on it and it works fine for me.

Don't know if any of you have seen Outdoor Guide on Verses. Here is a small segment of a program he did. The first part is a .177 and than a new .22 that Gamo is making.

http://www.versuscountry.com/hunting-and-fishing-videos/More-Than-Hot-Air.aspx

That's not something I would be willing to try. May end up getting hurt.

J.

He had another show hunting feral hogs. It got nasty. They were in the woods, one thing led to another, and the guide wound up holding a mad wild hog by it head. It was about a 150 pound hog. He was to close to it for the other guys to shoot it. The guide was pretty messed up for awhile. They were hunting with revolvers.

Hard to go wrong with a Beeman R9. Nice gun for sure.

J.

Jerry,
Magnum spring guns are kind of loud both at the muzzle and in the compression tube. Pretty much all springers have a good bit of twang out of the box. Most could use a good spring tune. Since there are gas ram pistons out now, I'm not quite sure why they haven't phased out springs, the gas rams are a superior power plant.

If you want a lower power springer that you could still shoot in the house, and even take game up to squirrels, the HW30 (Beeman imports these as the R7) is really hard to beat.
http://www.pyramydair.com/p/beeman-HW30-air-rifle.shtml
http://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Beeman_R7_Air_Rifle/572

The HW30/Beeman R7 have a really good following (cult like) and are said to be really accurate, and very quiet. The only real difference between the two is cosmetic. Weihrauch makes both guns. I'd like to have one if these myself one day. If I was in the market for a new springer, I'd get the HW30 hands down.

As for the Ruger, it's a Chinese made import that is a Gamo clone. The Crosman is a clone too, but I've been told they are actually made by Crosman. Any Gamo and clone is gonna have a crappy trigger, and the only fix is a drop in replacement that isn't that expensive. They all need a good spring tune as well, or a gas ram replacement.

Benjamin guns on the other hand are American classics. You can't really go wrong there.

J.

Yeah, but the problem with Gamo and clones is that the triggers suck pretty darn bad. It's a real challenge to shoot tight groups, and you'll never realize the full potential of the gun until you get a trigger upgrade. The fact that a spring gun has dual recoil forces only compounds the accuracy issue. Getting a spring tune helps a bit with the recoil impulse, but a trigger job goes a long way.

The drop in triggers for the Gamo is something I'll need to get for mine if I plan to continue using it for the next 5-10 years. I'd rather have something a bit nicer though, like the HW30.

Here's the link for the GRT drop in trigger. http://charliedatuna.com/GRT-III%20Trigger%20New.htm This drops in the Crosman, and other clones. I just looked at the Ruger on Pyramid and, after looking closer, they don't appear to be exact clones of the Gamo, and it isn't listed on the GRT trigger page. If you get a Crosman, and ever have issues, then you know you'll get good service.

J.

Benjamins are good stuff. You may be able to do a minor trigger job on one yourself just by polishing some of the trigger parts a bit. Never shoot alloy pellets out of the Benjamin, lead only since it has a brass barrel.

J.