New and bought a new rifle

[crisp]

Hi,

New to the forum and just wanted to say hello. I just bought a Gamo Whisper Air Rifle .22 Caliber w/ Noise Reducer 950 FPS, 3-9X40 after reading a ton of reviews and it hit the sweet spot in the price range.  Waiting for it to come in the mail. I just wanted to get your opinions on the rifle.  Good, Bad, and any suggestions you all may have.  From most of the reviews the biggest issue is the scope that comes along with the gun.  I also as a kid had a Benjamin-Sheridan Silver Series .20cal pump which was my best friend until I got a little older. We were squirrel killing machines.  Still have the ol girl, its just needs a little tlc after 17 years of abuse.

[Meann-Machine]

Welcome to the Forum Crisp! You will enjoy your Whisper. But I am going to turn the tables on you. Let US know what you think of the Whisper after you have a chance to put a tin of pellets through her. We'll be interested to here what you think of your re-introduction into the airgun world.

[crisp]

Meann-Machine - 3/7/2010  7:33 PM

Welcome to the Forum Crisp!  You will enjoy your Whisper.  But I am going to turn the tables on you.  Let US know what you think of the Whisper after you have a chance to put a tin of pellets through her.  We'll be interested to here what you think of your re-introduction into the airgun world.

As soon as she arrives in the mail my son and I are hitting the fields to take out some prairie dogs here in Montana.  Got him a Daisy Red Ryder and he has been bugging me every day to go out and shoot. Can't wait!

[Meann-Machine]

Have fun, but prairie dogs are tough critters to get close enough to cleanly kill with an air rifle.

[longislandhunter]

Welcome to GTA Chris, nice to have you with us

Congratulations on your new Whisper .22  , I don't own one but quite a few of the GTA members do so I'm sure they'll chime in and give you all the  info you may need on the rifle.  When you get your rifle check the trigger blade with a magnet.  If it's made of metal then you're in luck as that means that the GRT III trigger replacement will be a drop in fit for your rifle.  If the blade on your new rifle is plastic, which is the "newer" model, then the GRT won't work.  I have quite a few GAMO rifles and I like them very much and have served me well as hunters over the years, but one thing is almost always true with them..... the stock triggers are stiff and just overall lousy.  The GRT drop in replacement literally transforms your rifle, it truly is amazing.  All but one of my GAMO's have the GRT trigger and it's the best money I ever spent on my GAMO rifles.  The one rifle I have that still has the stock trigger is the only GAMO I have that actually had a real decent trigger from the box so I left it alone, but all the others were swapped out immediately.  

Anyway, again, welcome and I'll be looking forward to you posting the details and pics of you and your sons hunts in the "Hunting Gate"....

Oh yeah, I forgot,,,, do yourself a favor and order a pellet sampler from straightshooters so you can find out what pellets your rifle likes and what pellets it hates.  Each rifle has it's own pellet preferences and the sampler pack lets you identify the best pellet quickly and without having to just guess and order expensive amounts of pellets.  Once you find the right pellet then you can stock up on them.   Here's the link for their .22 caliber sampler...

http://straightshooters.com/straightshooters/samplercontent22.html

Jeff

[ezman604]

Hey Chris and welcome to the GTA International Forums family. Glad to have you aboard!!!!

We're looking forward to seeing and hearing about your adventures in airgunning. And seriously, we like photos!!!!

Again, WELCOME and Happy Shooting!!!!

Dave

[shadow]

Welcome to the GTA FAMILY Chris happy to have you here. We look forward to future post of your hunting adventure with your new shooter. Ed

[michael90t]

My pops has a whisper and it is a really good shooter... you mentioned they have some scope problems... well his litterally died after a couple hundred rounds put through the rifle... scope started not holding a zero and then the power adjustment litteraly locked up...... so ya crappy scope IMHO but its a sweet shooting rifle (first big boy pellet rifle either of us has owned and the first pellet gun I have seen go through a 2 litre filled with water at 20 meters... I find that amount of penetration damned impressive....)

[Wingman115]

Congrats on the new rig ... Let the addiction begin.. LOL  It always starts with one now I'm always looking for my next one...

[atchman2]

Welcome to the forum!   I've owned a Whisper for several months now and by far it is my most accurate gun.  Mine is .177 and is a flat shooting accurate gun.  

I bought a UTG mount with Picatinny rails for mine then mounted my Leapers 3 x 9 AO Mil Dot scope.  It also has the GRT III Trigger to make it even nicer.  

Somewhere in the Hunting Gate are my experiences Prairie Dog Hunting.  You may can search over there.  A PDawg isn't any tougher than a squirrel to take out, but they are hard to get into air gun range!  After my experiences, about 20-25 yards is the sweet spot for them.  Hitting them much beyond that is almost luck due to the usually windy conditions of the west.  

I took my Whisper out there, but never tried to take dawgs with it.  I used my RWS 350 for that.  I got six but that was about one a day.  I may have gotten more, but air rifles don't knock them down like powder guns so sometimes they slide back down in their holes even if you've hit them.

[atchman2]

Here is my Prairie Dog thread:  http://www.gatewaytoairguns.com/airguns/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=19955&posts=7&highlight=Prairie%20Dogs&highlightmode=1#M160312

[atchman2]

My first gun was a blue streak from 1971.  Just recently found some mounts for it and mounted a Simmons 3 x 9 scope.  It is still DEADLY accurate and a LOT easier to shoot than a spring air gun.  What is bizzare is I've spent a ton of money on air guns this last year, I almost feel bad because the Sheridan from 20-30 yards is every bit as accurate as the guns I've spent hundreds of dollars buying, trying to fix, etc.  

[leftcoast1]

Welcome!!! Always glad to see new people here. I'm not a gamo fan so I have no comment on your rifle purchase except the velocity numbers are very inflated as with most manufactures. Your probably going to find 700fps is about the max you will see out of that gun. Let us know how you like it. You may find that the Benji disco in .22 may suit your needs better when trying to reach out there the them hole digging dogs. Good luck glad to hear you are starting you son early.

[atchman2]

You are right about using the pre-charged guns for prairie dogs.  I'm just not sure that a springer can really take them well beyond 30 yards.  Folks that use powder burners can take them at 300 yards!  

My experience is you sneak up on the mounds and just wait them out.  That can be 20 minutes between shots.  When you are talking about Kansas in the early summer that could mean lying on your belly in the stickers, burrs, etc for that period of time. Have a matt to lie down on as you don't want to skyline yourself.  These guys have great eyes for seeing stuff.  

Another trick I found works is to hide behind cows! I shot one by ducking down under a cow and shooting it between her legs at 10 yards  I just followed the cows into the fields. The dogs aren't afraid of them.

[North Pack]

Welcome aboard Crisp, - I'm sure you're gonna really enjoy that Whisper. Remember, it's YOUR gun and doesn't have to please anyone except you. - I have a Whisper in .17 cal, - it's accurate all all h*ll, easy to cock, and a pleasure to shoot. One thing - give some thought to picking up/ordering a GRT-III trigger from Bob, you'll be glad you did & best of luck.