Sorta OT-advice please for pellet rifles

Is it just my recollection (been a while), or would it be safe to say that the pumps are also lot quieter than the springs?

Not usually. The pumpers usually have a fairly sharp snap to the report compared to a springer.

Cheers Trevor Jones

You guys really have to take a look at Dennis Quackenbush's site

I still have an old Benjamin BB gun that I had when I was a kid. No longer pumps up, and I'm sure the barrel is now really worn. I bet I put 2000 BB's down that barrel. When I was in high school I took it down to the 50' rifle range and found that I couldn't keep a group on the paper, never mind the target in the center. I think BB's roll in the barrel and then curve like a baseball. I always wished that it had a rifled barrel and was the .177 cal pellet version. I've thought about taking it apart and seeing what's wrong, but I probably never will. It's just not worth it. Nicely made, though. All brass, including (I think) the barrel.

The Austrian army had a brigade of pneumatic riflemen. As I understand it, they were considered quite unsporting as they could kill you very well at considerable distance from hiding, never leaving that pesky cloud of smoke to show your position

Gunner

Those would have been the Girandoni repeaters. For those interested, there are a couple books around that detail the making of a working replica. Not sure if it's still in print but a search would find it for the interested.

They were not extremely high powered,in the scheme of things, though powerful enough, but were capable of several shots in very quick (for the time) succession, and did not leave a great honking cloud of white smoke to mark the shooters location.

Much info here

Cheers Trevor Jones