Hello all.
This is my first association with Indians for guns officially. Felt the need to get some advice/suggestions and throw in some, on few of the following general points, if someone's still listening to this post, since its a lil' old. So when I decided to go have some serious fun I knew I had to invest somewhat heavily . In my choices and budget somewhere between 13k to 37k
. (Benjamin, Crossman, Beeman, Diana 350 magnum)
. But that would mean a little more research and price budgeting and pending decisions. To continue with this hobby I decided to go for a home grown brand economical model for the interim. I just happened to purchase an SDB 150 in Lucknow a few days back for 2800/- (a discontinued model of the SDB kolkata unit, I guess the latest are 200, 300 with under lever and a probable 500, not sure about the 500 though). Was happy to buy in the price range of 'kolkata' since all other models seemed to be prefixed at prices of 4k and above, even when the true value is/was much lower. But then that is the story in India generally speaking other than kolkata and probably delhi.
Of all the guns I saw, in the 20-25 odd shops that are present here, found none that kind of impressed me, as is the case with all those who have had a brush with any imported ones(My personal experience with a neighbour's Remington). So I picked what looked to be the heaviest meanest looking steel n wood combo, near real rifle like feel, with all the quasi pride generating feelings .
. and shot my own foot there off.
. Though this did not happen in the beginning, it started troubling only after the first 200 shots.
I am now having trouble with the poor zeroing capability of the gun. For some reason, ranging from either poor quality make to ill-way'd long time storage in the shop n miss handling, poor rear sight, bent barrel, or may be cheap quality pellets, the problem seems to manifest itself by hitting 6 inches to the left of the bulls eye at 20 meter distance (65ft approx), when aimed at bulls eye, every time. And it is very frustrating to move the aim 6 inches right in the hope that some of the 30 / 50 shots I hit at a time, hit bulls eye. So have decided to cut out the rear sight and order for a custom built, hopefully cheap, rear sight which allows me to shift the sight a little more to the left than the current sight, so that when shots are fired at the bulls eye they start bearing down on the bulls eye.I have shot around 300 pellets by now and the surprising thing is the grouping is Ok within 2-3 inches from that distance. Also I am getting my barrel checked at the armourer shop of the forces. hope that doesn't turn out to be bent. Un Lucky me would mean I lose 2800/- Rs.
. I don't think all SDB rifles are this way, I am guessing I just had a run of bad luck with a bad piece. Love the models of SDB, look and feel, wood stock, trigger( felt like pulling a SLR trigger), though specially SDB 200 will definitely buy that for my collection, if I can lay my hands on one here in Lucknow. Or guess will buy when I get it from Kolkata itself
As far as buying a National 35 (600 fps .177) or Precishole(800 fps .177) is concerned, wont do that kind of investment yet. Got to save for the big gun in the near future hopefully plus the Indian guns fps is way below my standard requirements so...
Guns checked and fired Daws models, GI models, ESA Models, National, Commando, Precishole .22 orion & DTE (17-20K /-
) Checked not fired. Wanted to check canon(kolkata make) which seems pretty popular but couldn't find it.
Will get back to my Blah blah blah story with you guys who ever's listening ........
Cheers and -----
-----------Happy Plinking !
Joywarrior signing off.