This ain't your grandfather's BB gun...

I remember the BB gun my grandfather used to let me shoot once in a while at rabbits that invaded his garden when I was 10 or 11 years old. It was a lever action gun with no safety and when you shot it you had to aim high to make sure the BB would reach its target. More often than not you could see the BB leave the barrel and fly through the air toward the target…the velocity of the BB was pretty slow.

Fast forward to last week - watching my Addicted to the Outdoors teammates consistently knock squirrels out of the tops of trees with the GAMO air rifles we had all been issued at the Squirrel Masters Classic in Alabama, brought one thought to my mind: "This ain't my grandfather's BB gun."

Indeed it wasn't.

I knew air rifles had changed - for the better - since those days shooting at rabbits in my grandfather's garden. I just didn't realize how much they had changed and how much for the better until last week.

The GAMO Whisper Fusion Pro assigned to me and most of the other hunt participants was a far cry from the BB and pellet guns of my youth - and thank goodness for that! The GAMO was quiet, very quiet. It was also very accurate much to the despair of the squirrels we bagged with the .177 caliber rifles during the hunt.

How accurate? I was able to shoot a three-shot group at 25 yards from a rest you could cover with a nickel. For me, that's pretty accurate. I saw others using the same model air rifle shoot even tighter groups. One of my fellow outdoor writers shot a three-shot group that touched!

Technically speaking, the single shot Whisper Fusion Pro in .177 caliber sends pellets downrange at 1400 feet per second. It features a break-action barrel cocking system with an automatic cocking safety. That means when you break open the barrel to cock the rifle, the safety automatically goes on. I don't know about you, but I find that comforting.

I was expecting to have to jerk the trigger, but was pleasantly pleased to find the two-stage adjustable SAT (Smooth Action Trigger) easy on the finger with a less than 4 lb. pull which accounted for some of the rifle's accuracy. The rifle comes with a synthetic stock and easily accommodates both right and left hand shooters.

At eight pounds, it weighs no more than many whitetail rifles I'm used to carrying through the woods. The 18-inch steel barrel has a fluted polymer jacket and Whisper Fusion technology (re: silencer) built in. The rifle even features a recoil pad that adsorbs nearly 75 percent of the rifles' recoil…not that you'd feel it anyway.

It comes with TruGlo sights, but better than that, the rifle comes equipped with a 3-9 x 40 air rifle scope with an adjustable objective. The scope comes mounted and bore sighted right from the factory.

So much for the technical side of things.

From a hunter's perspective, this rifle is accurate, quiet, economical and just down right fun to shoot. I plan to use mine to keep squirrels out of my attic and unwanted starlings away from my bird feeders…and, of course, plink some cans and targets now and then. I've already got one of my neighbors wanting to borrow it for the same purposes, though I think he just likes the idea having fun with it, too.

Can't say I blame him.

For additional information about GAMO air rifles and pistols, check out their website at www.gamousa.com or drop an email to Fedor Palacios, their marketing communications manager at fpalacios@gamousa.com.

Squirrels + Air Rifles + Friends = FUN!

I went small game hunting last week and had fun - more fun than I've had in a long while on any hunting trip.

I spent a day and half near Montgomery, AL, at Southern Sportsman Lodge as part of the inaugural Squirrel Masters Classic (SMC). OK, go ahead and laugh if you want, but I still had fun and so did the 35 to 40 other participants in the event and many of those are names you will recognize if you pay any attention to the outdoors.

The SMC was a team event and was hosted by Buckmasters' Jackie Bushman, the fine folks at GAMO USA (http://www.GAMOUSA.com) and included popular outdoor television show hosts from Buckmasters, Bone Collectors, McMillen River Adventures, The High Road and Addicted to the Outdoors. Participants also included several members of the national outdoor press, a local guide, a dog handler complete with champion squirrel dog (more on that in another blog) and local 4-H members who qualified to hunt with the teams. Very few of the 4-H members had ever hunted and some had never shot any type of gun before. I must say those 4-H folks were fast learners.

The winning team of the one-day event was determined by the weight of the squirrels brought to the scales at the end of the morning hunt, and, again, after the evening hunt. Each hunt lasted about three hours. 

Each team member was provided with one of GAMO's Whisper Fusion Pro rifles complete with scope in .177 caliber, though one member of each team was provided with one of the same rifles in .22 caliber. Each of these superb rifles was a single shot and team members were supplied with plenty of GAMO pellets in the proper caliber. Participants spent the afternoon prior to the hunt sighting-in their rifles and even that proved to be quite a bit of fun. "You're going to put your eye out," was a popular remark throughout the first afternoon, but don't worry, safety was paramount with everyone there and there were no incidents, just a ton of fun.

You don't need to be bored with the details of the hunt. Suffice to say Team Buckmasters took top honors and deservedly so as the six members of that team brought in a combined total of nearly 40 squirrels - tops among all teams.

I was part of the Addicted to the Outdoors team led by show hosts Jon and Gina Brunson that also included fellow outdoor writer and all-round good guy Tom Claycomb III, 4-H member Justin Scroggins, squirrel dog handler Keith Landrum, GAMO Marketing Communications Manager Fedor Palacios, our guide Glen Johnson (he donated his time that day away from work and family) and three Addicted to the Outdoors cameramen there to record the hunt for a show to air on Addicted to the Outdoors sometime later this year. One of the cameramen, Steve Finch, utilized a radio-controlled flying camera that buzzed around us from time-to-time - quite an experience. 

I've said all of that to let you know how the event was set up (kudos to Fedor Palacios and Jackie Bushman for putting a quality event together at the last minute and thanks to both of them for participating as actual hunters).

But more than anything else, this event was just downright fun. Story after story was told of when we were all pre-teens and had our first BB guns and pellet rifles - nothing near the quality of the GAMOs we used for this event. I can't divulge the stories since most of us probably did things with those early BB guns we don't want folks to know about, but it has been a long time since I've laughed so hard on a hunt. It was that enjoyable. 

I was able to renew some old acquaintances, made several new friends and got to meet some really fine folks who appreciate having fun while hunting. Hunting should be fun and a hunter couldn't ask for anything better.

If you need more information about the SMC or GAMO products, contact Fedor Palacios via email at fpalacios@gamousa.com.