Choosing the best air rifle under $100 for a beginner is no easy task.
You are on a budget, the buying options are limitless and you don’t want to waste your hard-earned money on cheap, poorly made toy guns.
But don’t you worry; this top 5 list brings you the best cheap rifles on the market.
These are quality guns that can last for years, offer solid basic features and are excellent for beginner adults.
They are awesome for target shooting and plinking.
Some of them can help you get rid of nasty pests in your property.
The Daisy Red Ryder 1938 75th Anniversary Special Edition – Best Beginner BB gun
Pop quiz:
What’s a classic gun that American kids and adults love altogether?
A Daisy Red Ryder .
Correct. And what’s even better than a Daisy Red Ryder?
A Daisy Red Ryder 75th Anniversary Edition. Oh yeah .
This special edition got a huge update with an aluminum cocking lever, solid maple wood stock with the golden band on the forearm, laser-engraved graphics in the stock.
It’s eye-catching, lightweight, and well-constructed. This classic rifle makes you fall in love at first sight
Additional features include:
- Caliber: .177
- Velocity: 350 FPS
- Loudness: 1-low
- Shot capacity: 650
- Cocking Effort: 13 lbs.
- Barrel: smoothbore
- Powerplant: Spring- piston
- Function: repeater
- Weight: 2.2 lbs
Crosman Vantage – Best Beginner Air rifle Under $100
It’s the only gun in this list powered by nitro piston technology so the Vantage inherits smoother cocking, discrete noise, and ease of use.
This one is probably the cheapest gun on the market with an NP power plant .
Build on solid hardwood stock, this rifle comes with shiny fiber optic sights, high velocity, and lethal knockdown power.
Additional features include:
- Caliber .177
- Maximum velocity: 1200 FPS
- Loudness: 3 –medium
- Capacity: single shot
- Barrel: Rifled
- Front sight: fiber optic
- Rear sight: fiber optic, fully adjustable for windage and elevation
- Buttplate: rubber
- Action: break barrel
- Safety: manual
- Powerplant: gas-piston
- Weight: 7.1 lbs
Diana Chaser Air Rifle/Pistol
If versatility is what you’re after, the Diana Chaser is one of the most clever CO2 airguns on the market. Rather than being locked into a single format, the Chaser ships as a modular kit that converts between a compact pistol, a micro-carbine, and a full-length rifle — all using the same core action and just a few tool-free (or nearly tool-free) swaps. For shooters who want one gun that can do several jobs, or families who want a platform that grows with a new shooter’s skill level, the Chaser is hard to match at its price point.
Build and Design
The Chaser is built with metal where it counts: the receiver, CO2 chamber, barrel, and trigger mechanism are all metal, while the grip is a textured composite. In pistol form it weighs a mere 1.9 pounds, and even fully dressed as a scoped rifle it tips the scales at under 5 pounds — genuinely light enough for younger or smaller-framed shooters to handle comfortably. The rifle conversion swaps in a 17.7-inch rifled steel barrel, while the compact pistol barrel stays threaded for an aftermarket silencer if you want to quiet things down even further.
Power and Performance
A single 12-gram CO2 cartridge powers the Chaser, delivering up to 525 fps in .177 caliber (a bit less in .22), and testers have gotten as many as 50 to 60 shots out of one cartridge before needing a refill. That’s respectable efficiency for a gun in this class, and it means a single CO2 cartridge can carry you through a solid backyard session without constant reloading.
Calibers and Ammo Handling
The Chaser comes in both .177 and .22, with indexing magazines holding 9 rounds in .177 and 7 in .22, plus a single-shot tray included for those who prefer loading one pellet at a time. This flexibility makes it equally suited to casual plinking and more deliberate target work.
Noise
This is arguably the Chaser’s standout feature. The rifle barrel includes a built-in, non-removable silencer, and combined with its modest power output, the report is remarkably quiet — genuinely one of the most backyard-friendly airguns available. Even in the unsilenced pistol configuration, it’s still relatively soft-spoken compared to most CO2 guns.
Accuracy
Reviewers have consistently found the Chaser accurate enough to justify mounting a scope, with velocities ranging from around 605 fps with lead pellets up to 676 fps with lighter alloy pellets in testing. One quirk worth knowing: since the stock was designed with open sights in mind, adding a scope raises your eye line enough that you get more of a chin weld than a true cheek weld — a minor ergonomic tradeoff for the added precision.
Who It’s For
At a street price around $140–$150, the Diana Chaser kit is an easy recommendation for beginners, families, or anyone who wants a quiet, accurate, and endlessly adaptable CO2 platform without buying three separate guns to get there.
Ruger Black Hawk – Cheap Air Rifle for Youth
This rifle is what you need if you want a clean, humane kill of rodents .
Well-built, accurate, and hard-hitting, the Black Hawk is a solid small-game gun that you can get for only under 100 bucks.
Additional features include:
- Spring piston
- Single shot
- Break barrel
- Composite stock
- Fiber optic sights (fully adjustable rear)
- 4×32 scope with ¼ MOA, duplex reticle
- Caliber: .177
- Max velocity: 1000 FPS
- Cocking effort: 30 lbs
- Safety: automatic
- Suggested for: small game hunting/plinking
Ruger Air hawk – Best Affordable Air rifle for Beginners
Enter the squirrel’s worst nightmare with the Ruger Air Hawk.
Available in .177 only, this rifle is made of solid hardwood stock.
(For more on the in-depth comparison between synthetic and wood stock, see this post.)
Shooting consistently out of the box with extremely high velocity (supersonic included) and superb knock-down power, the Air hawk shoots and feels like the legendary RWS 34 but at 1/2 of the price:
It’s hard to beat this rifle in its price range and that’s why the Ruger Air Hawk deserves a place in the top 5 rifle list.
Additional features include:
- Caliber: .177
- Max velocity: 1100 FPS
- Loudness: 3 –medium
- Cocking effort: 30 lbs
- Barrel rifled
- Fiber optic front sight and rear sight
- 4×32 scope
- Trigger pull: 1 lbs 15.5 oz
- Action break barrel
- Powerplant: spring piston
- Safety: automatic
- Function: single-shot
The purpose of this list, obviously, is to save you time and effort by not going through the hassle of digging into each model among the hundred choices of air rifles in this price range.
All of these rifles are affordable, convenient, and have impressive features worth more than the price you pay for them.
Also, an air rifle under 100$ is not just an air rifle.
The skills you practice with them will directly transfer to the firearm.
(For more on the best air rifle on the market, see this post)
