Reddit reviews Benjamin BP9M22GP Discovery .22-Caliber PCP-Powered And Pump Air Rifle

Let me start off by addressing the fact that I'm nowhere near an expert and I'm sure I'll get a correction or two ;)

If you're looking for squirrel and rabbit the lowest caliber you'd be looking at would be .22. Depending on the gun you may even want to look at something in .25 cal. I'm not sure if there are any .25 cal springers out there, but if you wanted to stay under $200 .22 would be your best bet.

If the $200 is your hard limit, then you're definitely going to be looking at what we lovingly call a "springer". That just means that the power plant for the weapon is run by a coiled spring, or newer (and better) weapons have a nitro piston (like the pistons that keep a rear hatch open on a car). Typically this style would be a "break barrel" where you cock the gun by pulling down on the barrel until the spring is locked into the cocked position. The nitro piston has much less vibration after the shot than its spring powered counterpart, which increases accuracy.

Still, you WILL want to learn the artillery hold. It will help keep the frustration down a lot. The main issue is all that vibration after the shot goes off, but before the pellet leaves the barrel. The key is to let the barrel do its thing, and always hold the gun in the same position. That way the vibration pattern is always the same which leaves you with a much more accurate shot. All that vibration also means you'll want to look for an air rifle rated scope. Springers will kill a regular powder scope. I've had reticules come loose on me, and scopes not able to hold a zero.

I'm not super knowledgeable on what a good break barrel would be. Ted has a good video on very entry level multi-pump guns and what they're good for. I doubt that that would suit your purposes though. Ted also reviews a Benjamin Trail NP that would be right around your budget from Amazon, but I have no direct experience with it. I've used a Gamo Bull Whisper and it's alright, but I don't have any other break barrel to compare it to. Gamos can sometimes have QC issues.

A situation I ran into is that I started to really like air rifles, and the next step up is a pre-charged pneumatic rifle. Amazon has a pretty good sale going on with the Benjamin Discovery right now. It has the air pump included and the Disco comes with open sights. You can also put a scope on there. PCP has near 0 recoil, so you can put any scope on there you'd want. Ted, from Ted's Holdover, has a great video about the Benjamin Discovery and why it's a great starter gun.