Rock77
Member
My wife decided that because it was so darn hot outside we would go through all our closets and clean out clothes we no longer wore or wanted and donate to some charities. She was working in the our spare bedroom and discovered a rifle leaning in the back corner of the closet, she brought it out and showed me, it turned out to be a Crossman 160 Pellet Rifle of the era 1955-1956 that had been given to me when I was a young kid. As I remember it someone in the family had given it to me as a Christmas gift.
The funny thing about it was I had already graduated to a nice .22 Remington the year before and really did not see much use for the pellet rifle. I did thank the relative and bought some pellets and gas powerlets, I fooled around with it some but the cost of shooting the pellet rifle cost more than the .22 cartridges so it found a place in a cheap case and stayed in the dark for many years.
When my son turned ten or so I dug it out and he received his formal training on the fine art of thinning out squirrels in our yard. We had a neighbor at the time that thought it was his sworn duty to feed any and all woodland creatures so all of us in the area had a plethora of unwanted squirrels, raccoons and any other varmint one could imagine. As I remember it, my wife was working with my son on the squirrel thinning as well, you have all heard of a women scorned, well let me tell you when varmints start digging up a ladies new flowers you have really crossed a hard line in the sand.
The rifle is in surprisingly good shape for its age, the metal work is good and the wood has only minor scratches from normal use. This air rifle was in .22 caliber and hit real hard for 15-20 shots on a set of powerlets, seem like I remember it going right through an old soup can in the old days.
Seems like I read somewhere in the last few years that these old airguns sell for a lot more than one would expect in decent shape. Think I will try to buy some powerlets and pellets and see if it still works, might be fun to fool around with a bit.
The funny thing about it was I had already graduated to a nice .22 Remington the year before and really did not see much use for the pellet rifle. I did thank the relative and bought some pellets and gas powerlets, I fooled around with it some but the cost of shooting the pellet rifle cost more than the .22 cartridges so it found a place in a cheap case and stayed in the dark for many years.
When my son turned ten or so I dug it out and he received his formal training on the fine art of thinning out squirrels in our yard. We had a neighbor at the time that thought it was his sworn duty to feed any and all woodland creatures so all of us in the area had a plethora of unwanted squirrels, raccoons and any other varmint one could imagine. As I remember it, my wife was working with my son on the squirrel thinning as well, you have all heard of a women scorned, well let me tell you when varmints start digging up a ladies new flowers you have really crossed a hard line in the sand.
The rifle is in surprisingly good shape for its age, the metal work is good and the wood has only minor scratches from normal use. This air rifle was in .22 caliber and hit real hard for 15-20 shots on a set of powerlets, seem like I remember it going right through an old soup can in the old days.
Seems like I read somewhere in the last few years that these old airguns sell for a lot more than one would expect in decent shape. Think I will try to buy some powerlets and pellets and see if it still works, might be fun to fool around with a bit.
