Beginners Guide

We're frequently asked what the best first air rifle is. However, unfortunately, there is often no general answer to this question. The main reason is a genuinely nice one: there are many different ways to practice our common hobby! Therefore, you can basically ask yourself the following questions first:

• Do I just want to knock over a few cans at home?
• Do I want to shoot accurately at longer distances?
• Do I want to participate in competitions?
• What is my budget?

Depending on your needs, our recommendation can range from an 80€ entry-level air rifle for plinking to a 2500€ match rifle for competitions.

A simple break-barrel air rifle or a CO2 rifle is sufficient for plinking cans. While you have to reload after each shot with a break-barrel air rifle, there are CO2 air rifles available for a small price that allow you to fire several shots in succession. The disadvantage of CO2 guns, however, is the “cooldown effect”. The faster you shoot in succession, the lower the power of the gun. Therefore, CO2 guns unfortunately don’t show great consistency, which affects the shot grouping.
With inexpensive break-barrel air rifles, on the other hand, you can achieve decent accuracy with very consistent performance - but they’re single shot.

Buying an air rifle for up to 500€:

If you have 400€-500€ at your disposal, you are faced with a choice: Are you investing the money in a very high-quality spring-piston air rifle or a gas-piston air rifle? Or will you opt for an entry-level pneumatic rifle? 

While you can get a spring-piston air rifle for competitions at this budget, you're still relatively far down the quality scale in the pneumatic rifle range. If you then want to compete with such a pneumatic air rifle in any kind of competition, you will be competing against many top PCP rifles in this class and have no chance. However, if you're into plinking, a pneumatic air rifle in that price range is a good option. 

But you should always be aware of the fact that with a pneumatic air rifle you continue to have expenses for a compressed air cylinder, a pump or compressor. The reason for this is that while with a spring-piston air rifle you build up the pressure per shot through your muscle power, with compressed air rifles the pressure for many shots must be built up in advance in a cylinder.

Buying an air rifle for up to 1000€:

With upscale recreational pneumatic air rifles in this category, you can try your hand at your first competitions. Here you are in the range of 1000€, +/- 300€ depending on the design and stock. Many air rifles in this category are the goal and dream of every amateur shooter. Those air rifles then have a precision that is already difficult for an amateur shooter to fully reach. 

Normally, those PCP rifles then have a magazine, and you can load one shot at a time into the magazine by means of the cocking lever.

Buying an air rifle for up to 1500€:

In the higher price range, you will find single-shot PCP match rifles. Well-known brands are, for example, Anschütz and Steyr Sport. These rifles are perfectly suitable for competitions and are on a world championship level. 

At the same time, you'll also find the ultimate fun machines: semi-automatic pneumatic air rifles. With those multi-shot air rifles, you can send many pellets towards the target with high precision in a short time. 

In our store, you'll find a selection of guns ranging from entry-level rifles for plinkers to competition-grade pneumatic air rifles through to semi-automatic fun machines - always with the premise that the price-performance is right.

Have fun browsing!