We had a big garden, over half an acre, and, for my eighth birthday I was given a Milbro 45  English made .177 firing a pellet at a blistering 450fps, according to the package it came in.  Not true.   On a foggy day, you could see the pellet flying.

My job with that was to keep the seed eating birds off any freshly sown grass and off the garden, plus keep the rats and mice under control  inn the feed house, the chicken/duck and pigeon house and away from the water troughs.

We had rabbits on the property too, and shortly after I got it, I very proudly supplied dinner with a bunny shot right through the eye, which Mum and Dad made a big fuss over. 

Got good enough at that and then, when we moved to Central Otago, Ii was gifted a BSA Meteor.  That really changed the game.

The next upgrade was to a Winchester Model 1896 .22 pump action and that pretty much finished my days with air rifles as, within short order I also had a Mk4 Number 1 .303, a Baikal under/over 12g followed by a Tikka .222 then the same make in a .270, the latter of which I used for 34 years while I hunted everything edible up and down the country.

Did some pest control work with those rimfires and centrefires, including .17hmr and .204, a sensational varmint cartridge, plus a Hatsan .177 that was spitting them out at 1100fps and deadly on the 50 odd vineyards I was working on.

And, now, at 66, back to my past with a Gamo Swarm Magnum .22.   Couple of hundred pellets in to that and I really can't believe the difference in punch, though so far I've only shot targets.

Such cheap fun, especially now I no longer have and shotties, rim or centrefires.

Now there's a plan!   With open sights of course!   Now that I've got my little Chinese 177 serviced, once the weather is better, 'll have a practice with one of my plinking targets that has 4 30mm circles. Don't want to waste good liquorice LOL!

Maybe we should start a new topic in the target shooting forum?

You know those Liquorice Allsorts sweets in the supermarkets - well, how about making the target one of those round ones with a black liquorice centre?!!!!

Or three of 'em in a row?  3 shots to get 'em all down is best!  4 shots second best, etc.....

What a hoot!  Yum Yum.....!

The first "air" gun I ever shot was a C02 revolver a neighbour had when I was quite young - under 10 I think.  Don't remember much, other than I couldn't hit anything with it.  Don't recall if my father and older brother did any better.

I do recall unsuccessfully trying to shoot sparrows with another neighbours air rifle around the same time.   In my early teens, a good friend had air rifles I had a similar lack of success with.   Don't recall the make of his first gun but I remember the BSA Meteor he replaced it with - this would have been late 60s.

Didn't touch another air gun until late last year when I purchased my first air rifle - a 2nd hand .22 Gamo Wildcat Whisper on TradeMe. I paid $260 for it, including a basic 4x23 scope and almost 4 tins of pellets which I think was a fair price.  

These sell new for $549 including the scope at Hunting and fishing.  I paid less than that for my new .30 Hatsan Carnivore.   Also paid less for my 2nd hand Diana 31 both of which I feel are better guns.

I do like the Gamo - it is accurate when I do my part so I think I will keep it a while yet.

It's certainly worth a try and with a bit of care you might just be able to sort it.  I personally would find it hugely satisfying to fix something like this.

At the end of the day you should be able to source a replacement barrel if you don't succeed.

Good luck - and keep us updated on your progress.