Reply With QuoteI like the design of pumpers but I imagine most people don't find them that practical in comparison with modern stuff. I have 3 older pump air rifles Benjamin 342, 397 and a Sheridan c-series.
Is your magnum 2200 wood or plastic stock version?
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Hi back a couple of years back there were loads of pumpers about, I have found memories of a crossman 2200 magnum I had back in the very late 70s / early 80s, Bought another years later but regrettably sold it to a chap who bought another gun off me, The chap seemed so excited but sold it really without thinking, Anyway I picked up a 2200w a while back ( on here I think ) Anyway although I've been meaning to cut down and not looking to purchase I just don't see many advertised for sale lately, Again with the SA/AA jackals , They were like buses a while back but even they don't pop up like they used to, I'm not a lover of most new guns, So the ones I've got makes it harder to let go as once they've gone the chances are you won't get similar back, Are people just holding onto the older ones,
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I like the design of pumpers but I imagine most people don't find them that practical in comparison with modern stuff. I have 3 older pump air rifles Benjamin 342, 397 and a Sheridan c-series.
Is your magnum 2200 wood or plastic stock version?
Registered User
Originally Posted by madcarlos
W = wood IIRC
I have a couple of plastic stocked 2200s - one a proper nickel version and the other a bitsa nickel... Also have a 2289 pumper. I have a soft spot for them, but as stated above they are not very practical. Whilst they will all take 10-12 pumps, inevitably when shooting I put in the absolute minimum that results in an usable trajectory, so normally 5 or 6.
Wished I hadn't got rid of my daystate sportsman - 2 pumps for full 12 FP. I do have my PH Dragon (one pump for 11 FP), and Mohawks and other full power SSPs are interesting too..
So I guess where I'm at with (multi) pumpers is that anything more than 3 or 4 pumps is just too much hassle ! Compare with a PCP - carry the pump seperately if you don't want a bottle - job done.
Last edited by Shed tuner; 06-03-2021 at 12:52 PM.
Always looking for any cheap, interesting, knackered "project" guns. Thanks, JB.
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The one I got now is the wood one, Believe to be walnut, Its one of my favourite guns,
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Yes your right with having to many , I had the ace and innova but for some reason the 2200 is my favourite, I had one years ago when I was a kid, I suppose it brings back happy memories, They are a fun gun, I will take it out in the summer but after 20 / 30 pellets you soon loose intrest, Hey in all fairness though they are very accurate and not a bit of recoil and will shoot with today's guns, I remember being amazed how well that plastic gun shot compared to the webley, bsa and the rest back then, I have a couple from the early 80s but apart from my jackals due to the looks this 2200 is one of my favourites,
Dodgy Diana User
I think we always misunderstood them a bit in the U.K. In the U.K., in the 80s they were priced to compete with fashionable springer sporters. So a 2200 cost about the same as a Meteor, the Innova a bit more than a Vulcan and almost exactly the same as an Original 45, and the Ace was more expensive even than an FWB Sport, and a lot more than an HW80.
Whereas in the states, you could get two Sheridan Blue Streaks and change for one FWB Sport, or a Crosman 766/2200 for half the price of a Diana 27.
We’ve always compared the pumpers rather unfairly to the better springer sporters.
If you want to shoot an FT/HFT course, or do bulk pest control like lamping bunnies, the pumper is a terrible choice.
But there is a niche for a light handy carbine that can do quiet indoor target practice on 1 or 2 pumps, outdoor plinking out to 20-25 metres on 3-5, and can still be wound up to 11+ for an occasional rat or squirrel at short to medium ranges. That’s not a bad package.
At an emotional level, there’s also the nostalgia thing, whether a classic Americana one, or a 70s/early 80s one.
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back in the day, before I switched to an FN8 PCP pistol, I used a 1377 for pistol HFT, quite sucessfully too. But a certain John M always took the P out of me frantically pumping, when he was using his new fangled CO2 pistola
Then I realised you need recoil, so used either an HW45 or a BSA scorpion. Those two may have been seperated by decades of technological development, and could not look and feel more dissimilar, they both did the job very well.
Always looking for any cheap, interesting, knackered "project" guns. Thanks, JB.
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Could one of the problems be the higher number of wearing parts in a multipump compared to a springer ?
I'm not knocking multipumps I was just wondering if a lot had ended up being scrapped due to worn out linkages, pins and pump seals ?
I used to hunt with a Setra in the early 1980s and still have it along with a few other multipumps I've picked up along the way, including, Bluestreak, Silverstreak, 3 Crosman 140s, Titan Mohawk single stroke, Titan Mohawk 2 stroke, Daystate Sportsman MK 2, 2 Crosman 1300s, about 12 Crosman 1322/77s and a Chinese multipump thingy.
All the best Mick
Dodgy Diana User
They definitely do wear out if you decide that if the recommended max 8 or 10 pumps are good, then 12 or more must be better. Many did/do.
Equally if lateral pressure is applied during cocking.
And while the old school Sheridans etc are pretty bomb-proof, the clamshell Crosmans and the plastic-receiver Innovas are quite fragile.
Neatly trimmed is best
I always wanted the crossman triple strike as the idea of smashing a rat at 20yards with 3 bbs was very appealing in my teens around the cattle sheds. Then after I had a go with a bb pistol, bbs and concrete do not mix and I was very glad I didn't chance 3 coming back at me 😅
I did have a smk b45-3 (custom) in 22. Me and a farmer mate bought one, and easily I have the fondest memories of using that bendy, cracked mag, bit of Chinese junk of any of my airguns before or since. I loved that gun, until a bit of vigorous pumping bent the arm.
I've looked for years to buy another but only ever find 177, which only produced about 9ftlb. I can guarantee this thing was not legal but back when I was 15, I didn't give a stuff about what it produced, as next to my airsporter it was a tack driver, Tho a very loud, badly made tack driver.
Super soaker 3000 (water), nerf fang (foam), noisy cricket (energy), m41a pulse rifle (10x24), Gat gun (.177)
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I would never lend mine out for the fact people would have the urge to over pump and pump with poor technique. I also think very few people lubricated them
which would drastically increase wear.
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Think its the 70s / 80s thing for me, I started off with a relum, in all fairness it was a cracking little gun, easy to work on and could even be made better than some today, The newer ones for some reason just dont appeal to me,
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May be right , not long ago they were appearing for sale quite often but now seem quite scarce, A lot of people sit on guns and will never use them, I know one chap who has over 100 guns and never shoots them, he has guns I've never heard of, Even crossbows, Horton, if I remember rightly made in merthyr tydfil, south Wales, I have some here I've never shot, I'm quite happy on times to wipe them over, my sons not into them unfortunately, sooner or later I'll have to sort them out, I say that but put it off, I'm just glad I ain't in to the new stuff as they ain't cheap no more , not even better either ,
Dodgy Diana User
The pumpers were controversial in the 60s, seen as (in the tabloids) the new extra-dangerous high-power US guns. Leading directly to the 12ft-lbs limit.
In the 70s, they came back, modified (often crudely) to stay below 12. But they had a strong air of “forbidden fruit”.
I’m looking at a 1981 Sussex Armoury advert for the Sheridan - “power...just within the 12 ft-lbs limit”, “until now this rifle has been a listed firearm” etc.
It said you were getting max power in the power-focussed days of old, and implied that you could get it over the limit if you had the right spanner. (Which you could, metaphorically speaking, and cognisant of the rules here.)
As I’ve said above, if you compare even a Sheridan to an HW35/80, FWB Sport or even a Webley Vulcan it doesn’t come off that well as a general hunting/pesting tool. But a good pumper can fill a slightly different niche very well.
There's nothing cushy about life in the Women's Auxiliary Balloon Corps!
Can anyone identify a pumper rifle that was around in the 60s, I saw it in it's box and it was a 'Pelican'. My friend's older brother owned it.
As young-'uns I remember us playing on the waste ground opposite his house. I remeber a whizz-pop sound a few times. After a while Andrew heard it too. Eventually I worked out what this sound was.
Andrew sort of inherited it after a few years and was similarly disrespectful of it. All the same it was an impressive piece of kit and I still wonder what it actually was.
Does anyone remember any details of a 'Pelican' pumper?
P1V1overT1=P2V2overT2
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