My 1st Air gun

SIG Sauer MCX Virtus PCP .22cal pellets from AirGunDepot.com $299.99 on 4/5/2024

I saw this gun for $40 less on Amazon but they wouldn’t ship to my home address so I went to airgundepot.com and bought it.

This gun is for the birds
OK the bottom line is up front for this article now here is the story. We had a robin that kept flying into our picture window. It did this incessantly last year and not understanding why I stopped it by taping up the window last year. I know, it was a stupid way to fix the problem, but I didn’t know better. We figured that wierdo bird wouldn’t come back … this year it came back and sure enough its belting the window again to the point that my wife was going so crazy she allowed me to solve the problem.

So, I researched what I could get that would kill a small bird as removing this one from the gene pool seemed to be an ok thing to do. Turns out a pellet gun over 500fps with a 22 caliber and decent accuracy will do the trick. After researching and watching a few videos – I settled on the SIG Sauer MCX Virtus. You then can choose .17 or .22 caliber. I know 22 is a very popular caliber so I opted for that. You next can choose CO2 (Carbon dioxide) or PCP (compressed air). The benefit of PCP is that you can charge it yourself, but you need a compressor. Oh, joy this is getting expensive – haha.

OK so we have a SIG Sauer MCX Virtus, 22cal, PCP rifle. Found it on Amazon for $259 but they wouldn’t ship to my home address. I then found it on AirGunDepot for $300 and they will ship it to my address. The delivery via UPS took and extra 3 days from the original estimate (annoying).

Compressor
The air gun bottle comes empty. I needed a compressor to fill it. After some research it seems the parameters are 1) auto shutoff 2) noise 3) PSI limit and 4) HEAT dissipation. I found the following at Amazon for $180. Spritech PCP Air Compressor which meets all the requirements. You can even switch the Temp from Celsius (default) to Fahrenheit. Max temp is 70 C or 158 F, I put some tape under the Thermometer and wrote “Max 150” have switching to the Fahrenheit. The only issue is that you have to turn on the fan before the compressor – it’s possible to forget. They could improve this by having the fan go on automatically should you press the compressor.

Ammo
Lastly, I needed some ammo to put into the gun. Turns out there are many options here as well. This shooting UK article will help you choose. I bought the pointed tip ones but if I was to choose over, I’d get the slightly more accurate domed pellets. These pointed HAWKi were 250 for $20

Shooting
After the rifle arrived, I read the books for the rifle and compressor. Filled the PCP bottle to 2500psi. Screwed in the bottle till is “stopped” then rotated 1/4 turn more. Loaded the belt and fed it into the clip. Went outside to try it and … nothing. Oh geezo after all this nothing. Puling the trigger advances the clip but no air release. What the heck?
I went back and re-read everything, went through all the motions again – disconnected, filled a little more as it can take up to 3000psi, reconnected everything, reseated all the ammo in the belt just to be sure and …. Nothing. Did I get a lemon? Hit the customer support site for Sig Sauer, found blogs on in and it turns out there is a “charging handle”. Is it labeled in the book? NO Are there instruction on why / what it does? NO
However pulling back the charging handle once and pulling the trigger now releases air (I tried this without the clip inserted).
I added a reply to the blog write-up on the UK blog which helped me which you can see here.

First shot results
Went outside and tested on a paper napkin from 50′. The sites are a little low – which is expected as the ammo really only goes 550fps or so, not the reference 600fps. Even so lower speeds means a little more drop at range. You can see my shot results here. First two were the lower left ones – not bad for my first two shows the next three were higher.

I also tried on a clay pot – took 3 tries and hit it with the 3rd – the other two were low (of course).
The 3rd one hit the thicker upper band on the pot and cracked it but didn’t go through.

Whatever happened with that wierdo bird?
Before the airgun arrived, I had a thought that the bird was either attacking itself in the reflection or trying to have sex with itself. In either case there is a lamp behind the window that I turned on it remove the reflection and wha-la the bird stopped attacking the window.