Jeff’s Purty Sheridan Pellet Gun
I always say it’s pretty, but you tell me…
How I Got the Sheridan
When I was a teenager my pal Gus and I used to wander the fields many a day and plink at birdies and things with our bb-guns. Well, I had a bb-gun.
He had a Sheridan.
(Actually, my bb-gun was a fine one. A Daisy M99 with wood stock and peep sights and sling. It was quite powerful. I won it at a Turkey Shoot in the then-new Meridian Mall. I think it was the first thing I ever won.
Sadly, we wrecked it with further teenage hijinks which I may relate someday.
Something about shotgun shells.)
Anyway, we both loved that Sheridan and ate quite a few big bullfrogs that we shot with it. We could knock down a starling at 50 paces with it.
It was the best. And it was gorgeous. It had a stock on it better than a Weatherby. It had the best wood in both our houses, put it that way. When Gus was in college he needed cash at some point and so I bought the Sheridan
from him, to keep it in the family. (He keeps privileges.)
So it’s been around for almost 30 years now.
Upgrade!
A few years ago I thought I should get it tuned or maintained or something. I started looking into air guns in more detail and learned more than I thought possible. There sure are some nice ones out there. It’s a great, cheap field
to do fun plinking in. You can shoot all day for pennies. You can fool around with loads and ammo and find just the right pellet that you gun likes the best.
A longtime OYB subscriber, Mike Edelman told me about Mac1 (and many other cool airgun things) and now I have a Steroid Sheridan! –Getting a Steroid job usually also involves tuning up and freshening the gun in other
ways, so my gun is happier now all around. It’s also much faster. Or, I don’t have to pump it as much to get the same speed, which is how it usually plays out. Actually, to pump it to max (14 big ones) is a max workout, so one doesn’t do it all the time. It’s cool, tho, how it can blast thru a thick pine board.
I have a scope for it. I suppose it would be best for hunting. But I prefer the peeps. And they’re so accurate I don’t really need the scope.
Why hunt with a pellet gun?
I would hunt with a pellet gun in an area where you don’t want to be making noise. Some airguns are pretty loud but they’re all subsonic and so much quieter than even a .22 short. (Is that right? Man, a .22 LR, even, from a long-barrel is darn quiet.) In particular, I think an airgun would make a nice gun for hunting squirrels from a canoe in a river that has houses somewhat nearby. Probably 40 yards is the range limit. I suggest camo you and a camo boat and a quiet paddle. But I haven’t tried it yet.
What’s up with airguns anyway?
Of course this deserves its own story. But to start, you can get a fine barrel-break springer airgun for $200 about. A pneumatic (pump-up) Sheridan is about $100. Both kinds are fine values. However, a springer has recoil and makes a weird “CHUNG!” sound and shooting it well involves a certain technique. The triggers tend to be…interesting. They’re their own thing. A Sheridan has a gentle trigger, no recoil, and shoots with a rather mild “splat.” Springers also usually have one power level.
Now, they’re often powerful and that is attractive: they commonly shoot 1000 fps. Cool. A Sheridan out of the box shoots, what, 700 fps. But a Steroid job boosts them to 900 fps. And you can pump them how you like. I mostly use 3 pumps. Easy and fast and quiet and perfect for target shooting in the backyard. I don’t need 1000 fps for my paper work.
Another cool thing about airguns is how accurate they are. Daisy makes one bb-gun which is accurate to 15 feet: the Jaycee M99. It’s cool. It uses special round bb’s. But in general bb-guns and discount store pellet guns aren’t accurate. A real airgun is VERY accurate. I shoot my Sheridan at 50 yds with 3 pumps into a 2″ circle all the time. And I’m only a fair airgun shot. 1″ is what the good guys are after. They do these events called Field Shoots (I think) where they shoot little metal silhouette targets of critters and many other fun shapes. Creative target making is something they’re WAY into. They shoot at small things at 50 yards all day long. And of course they are addicted to their hobby. Sounds fun to me!
Once you start dabbling in this, you can quickly get in over your head. For instance, after much digging and studying the “common” brands of RWS and Beeman, I learned that the British BSA SuperSport is a fine starter airgun. Well, a starter that’s good for life. Very high quality, with character.
No airgun could be called common, but the BSA offers even more class. But I’m still a bit fuzzy on the calibers question. Which size pellet to shoot is a tricky call. You might think that .177 is best for target and .22 or .25 best for hunting, but it might not always play that way. Offhand, it seems like a fair approach, though.
Here are two websites that can probably take real good care of you:
