I too thought of them as toys, as well as my friend. He got it from a guy that was needing some money, he claimed he had several hundred dollars in it. Has a nice Redfield 3X9 on it. It is a copy of an Accuracy International arctic warfare sniper rifle. This thing is all steel and looks like the real thing, weighs around 8-9 lbs. It shoots 6mm plastic BB's that come in weights around .20, .25, & .30 grams. He shoots the .25's. My calculations say that is 3.8581 grains. Not very heavy. But he swears it shoots 1 inch groups at 30 yards. I shot it at night out the back door of his house just to see what it was like. It has no recoil, is very quiet, but sounds like the little plastic BB was wacking the tree pretty hard! It is a bolt action, takes about 25 lbs to pull the bolt back, cocking a spring and piston inside of the bolt housing, much like an air rifle, just not as strong or as long of a spring. 30 round magazine. Really neat gun, and very well made. They sell for only a little over a $100 now. Would be nice if it was powerful enough to hunt with. They even make a copy of a Remington 700 with the same air cylinder.