Alright airgun guys, I need some input and advice.

Life and economics are getting between me and serious range time, so I am thinking about setting up small air gun ranges in my backyard and basement to help keep up shooting skills and where I can start teaching my son in a few years.

My goal is marksmanship fundamentals, not precision air gun shooting.

I want to start with a pistol first, and am primarily interested in something that is very analogous to my defensive pistols.

I primarily carry and shoot SIG's and my interests have been peaked by the new Sig ASP air guns, but I have heard mixed reviews of their accuracy.

The umarex p30 clone also sounds interesting and seems like it is good enough for my uses.

What other options are out there in the "training aid" category, and what are your opinions and expirenses with the Sig and umarex pistols?

Here are some SIGs. I'm not experienced in them but there are many reviews on each and I'm not sure exactly of your type. Seems most are BB but you'll find pellets to be more accurate with a rifled barrel.

Flip through the site to see if there are others that may fit your needs.

http://www.pyramydair.com/a/Air_guns/Air_pistols/162/brands_129

I get that you want something that mimics your firearms. Unfortunately, most of the firearm clone air pistols are basically toys. Having said that, I must confess that mine is largely an uninformed opinion since I haven't actually owned, shot or even handled any of the various firearms clone air pistols. I could easily be wrong . . .

I have used a variety of single-shot air pistols -- spring, single-stroke pneumatic and Co2 -- ranging from 1950s-era Crosman bulk-fill Co2 guns all the way to German-made match pistols. Some were quite satisfying, some not so much. The best ones (not necessarily the most expensive ones) really do satisfy your basic purpose of providing useful shooting/marksmanship practice. Even a single-shot pistol will improve your firearms pistol shooting as you work on stance, sight picture, trigger control, follow-through, etc. It doesn't have to look like or operate like a firearm to transfer into better shooting.

I would avoid spring pistols unless they operate recoilless in some way. Single-stroke pneumatics have a much more agreeable firing behavior but the cocking effort is often unpleasant. Co2 is nice but often noisy. Plus there's the hassle and expense of Co2 powerlets. Bulk fill works well though once you're set up for it.

Off the top of my head I'd look at the Beeman/Markman P17 which is a $40 copy of the Beeman P3. Decent trigger and accurate but I don't care for the cocking effort required. The various Crosman Co2 single-shots are good guns. I forget the model numbers (2240 is one, I think) but Crosman has offered a bunch of different pistols that are all descendants of the Model 150 which was introduced in the 1950s or 60s. There are even custom shop versions and there's a whole cottage industry set up to provide aftermarket mods and various improvements. Decent guns that can be made a whole lot better.

Personally, I own a couple of old-school Feinwerkbau match pistols and a few Crosman Co2 pistols. The match guns are the only ones I shoot regularly. One (a Co2 fueled FWB C10) has a dry fire feature that allows you to operate the trigger without expelling any gas or shooting pellets. I've read that master air pistol shooters run about a 100:1 ratio of dry firing to actual shooting. I know I should dry fire more but I rarely do it. I prefer the feedback of seeing where my shots go. But if you're serious about developing your skills, a dry-fire function is pretty important, I'm told.

BTW, Tom Gaylord has written a bunch of blog posts on shooting air pistols. Dig around the Pyramyd Airguns blog and you'll find a wealth of information (tip: Google advanced search works better than the blog's own search feature):

www.pyramydair.com/blog

There is some cool and interesting stuff in there.

I had been trying to stay away from the retailer sites just because I wanted solid information before I started seeing too much advertising propaganda.




I'm not married to the idea of a clone gun, but I do want something that correlates to defensive pistols well, which is why I want to steer clear of the target style and single shot models, and because they are ugly.

The only real benefit I see to the target style guns is that I could actually stretch out and shoot farther distances for more fun.

Yeah, not really. True target pistols are relatively low-powered and intended for 10 meter use.

Tom is a straight shooter. He generally tells it like it is.

While it bears no resemblance at all to any defensive pistol, the Crosman 1377 is tough to beat for the money. You can generally find them at Wallyworld for $50. They're more accurate than most shooters, require no CO2, hit hard and last forever. If you  or your son are into tinkering, there is a mind-bending variety of aftermarket parts available. I probably learned more about pistol shooting from the 1377 than I did from all my other pistols combined. Having to pump up the dang thing between shots enforces making each shot count.