My old spring-powered pellet gun that I've used for pest control for 20 + years finally gave it up. The seals wouldn't hold a charge and my chronograph indicated that it was only producing 488fps with lead pellets. I'd read about the "nitro piston" guns, and while wandering through WalMart the other day I came across this Crossman F4. It was under 90 bucks, with a "scope," so I went ahead and bought it. So far, I've been quite pleased with the gun; the scope is pure garbage. Wouldn't even work as an anchor since it's so cheaply made it would probably float; couldn't get it to focus at ANY range. So I slapped an old fixed 4 Weaver on the little rifle and have it tuned up pretty well. According to Crossman, I need to get at least 250 pellets through it before it will settle down and become more accurate and quieter. I've found that it likes Crossman pellets better than any of the other brands I've tried so far. At 25 yards, from a rest, I'm able to hit a small coffee can 5 out of 5 times. Groups of around silver dollar size at that range. Chrony says I'm getting about 970fps with lead pellets; I'll try some alloys when I get a chance.

Pellet types I've tried so far:



The scope from hell:

make sure you put your hand under the forend while shooting your springer

those things are addictive

I have been told a spring gun will wreck a regular rifle scope

This new gun of mine is not a springer, it is a "Nitro Piston" powered air gun. Very different technology from the old springer I shot for so many years.

Here's a quote from a blogger from Arizona Airguns:

“When you are using a mechanical spring in an airgun, you are just doing bad things to the spring,” Schultz adds. “A rule of thumb in engineering is that you don’t want to stress a spring past 50% compression to maintain reliability, but that doesn’t work in a spring gun. Instead, you compress the spring almost 100%. You take up almost all the gap between the spring coils to get ultimate performance, and that tends to weaken the spring.  And if you leave it cocked, you’re taking some life out of the spring. So you use special materials and do special heat treatments to deal with that, but you’re basically fighting a losing battle.”
“But a gas ram, Nitro Piston, powerplant eliminates the weak link in the system. The gas doesn’t care if it is compressed, it’s not going to degrade the life of the powerplant,” he says. “A life of 5,000 shots is probably a good rule for estimating spring life in an average spring-piston powerplant. The life of a Nitro Piston powerplant is easily twice that, and at the end of that time, it will shoot close to the original numbers. It’s either working completely fine, or it’s not working at all.”
Schultz adds that a Nitro Piston powerplant has few moving parts, there is no spring torque, no vibration, no need for spring guides. “To make a spring powerplant really quiet and vibration free, you have to custom fit inner and outer spring guides because every spring is slightly different,” he says. “You don’t have to do that with a Nitro piston powerplant. There are billions of gas springs in use throughout the world. Automobile manufactures have adopted them because of their reliability, and we know how to make them with high precision. With a Nitro Piston gas spring powerplant in your airgun, you get a lot of the advantages of an expensive, custom-tuned powerplant at a more affordable price.”

I know about how springers can eat up a scope in a very short period of time, but I'm not sure if a nitro piston powered gun will do the same. I should be finding out shortly! Another feature that I do like about the nitro piston guns is that you can [censored] them and load them and not worry about the spring taking a set. I've got lots to learn. . .

Right, springers can beat up scopes BAD! But with that Nitro Piston you are good; air drives the ram which shoots the pellet. Some of those air rifles can get really expensive, more than actual rifles, and they are very accurate.

Have fun! I want one of those things bad, when I get a house I'll have to get one.

Today the wind had laid down and it was kinda warm so I did some target work with the new toy. I was impressed with how it performed, even though I've not yet reached the "250 shot" mark that Crossman suggests. At 30 feet, the rifle put all 5 pellets in the same hole; at 50 feet, it opened a bit. (I used a dime to show the relative size of the groups and my iPhone to take the picture.) Certainly minute of cowbird at 30 feet; should make life miserable for the squirrels and feral cats even out to 50 feet.

Is it fairly quiet?

It's a lot quieter than my springer, and Crossman states in their user's manual:
"1) During the first 250 shots accuracy may be inconsistent and the gun may seem loud"
"2) This will improve as the gun breaks in after 250 shots"

I have got about 150 shots through it so far, and I can tell a definite improvement in accuracy, but am not sure if it has gotten any quieter. For what it's worth (not much, I'd say) Crossman has printed on the box that this rifle is "70% quieter!" And in small print, it says it's quieter than a spring powered gun. I'll do a comparison once I get to the magic 250 shots and see if I can detect any difference in the loudness of the two types of air-powered rifles and let everyone know.

I just looked at this rifle on line from Walmart.........Reg.$184 On sale $123
F4 Nitro Piston .177cal. 689 FPS
You got a great deal.....

Weigh Master, this is the one I purchased:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Crosman-F4-NP-.177cal-with-Scope-Synthetic/44377326

As you can see from this ad, it's about $90.00.

Here's the packing box to look for:

A gas piston gun only replaces the mechanical coil spring with a compressed air cylinder. There is still a large and relatively heavy piston that slams forward on pulling the trigger (see below). That "reverse recoil" is what kills scopes not rated for air guns. My Hatsan 125 Sniper Vortex is gas piston and recoils less violently than an equivalent magnum spring piston gun, but it still kicks like a mule.

If you scope is holding zero over many shots, you may be okay.

Volfy, so far, through 150+ shots, my old Weaver has held up to the recoil of the nitro-piston in this F4. Time will tell if it can stand more beatings. Once I have it all tuned up and the suggested 250 shots run through it, I will not be using it very frequently. It will sit by my back door, waiting quietly for the next "opportunity" that presents itself.

I did some chrono work with the F4 using 10 different pellet types I had on hand. The heaviest pellet was 11.8 grains; the lightest, an alloy, was 5.5 grains. Velocity ranged from 735fps to 1138fps. 5 shot strings with the 'graph set 8 feet from the muzzle.

From slowest to fastest:

Beeman Silver Arrow, 11.8 grains, 735fps
"Mystery" pellet, 10.5 grains, 802fps (Mystery because the label had come off the container and I couldn't remember!)
Beeman Kodiak Xtra Heavy, 10.0 grains, 805fps
Beeman Trophy, 8.3 grains, 847fps
Meisterkugeln, 8.2 grains, 900fps
Beeman H&N Match, 8.3 grains, 900fps
Superdome, 8.3 grains, 902fps
Crossman Copperhead, 8.3 grains, 931fps (most accurate load)
Gamo Hunter, 7.7 grains, 959fps
Gamo Raptor (alloy) 5.5 grains, 1138fps
The highest Extreme Spread was only 11fps, and that was with the alloy pellet. Most of the rest were in the 4-8fps range. The most accurate is the Crossman Copperhead, and it also had one of the best ES's at 4fps.