Why choose the Shoebox?

First, let me introduce myself: I'm disabled. Not so much that I can't do little everyday things, but, it is true, some everyday things are now beyond what I could do in my younger years. But this is precisely why I want to post this message to share with others.

I love Air Guns period. But I'm a guy that tends to look at the trees before the forest so that I CAN see the forest. What I mean by this is that, in my 51 years, I've come to know that luck, as Abraham Lincoln put it, is where preparation meets opportunity and applying that concept has helped me immensely as I first pondered the idea of Air Guns as a hobby.

The reason I chose Air Guns is that I was ORDERED to take up a hobby by my doctor. (Translate "hobby" into threapy here) It's hard for me to get around sometimes and, because of this, l sometimes, if not most of the time, will not even WANT to challenge myself in a way that will bring on pain or discomfort. But when in this situation, as I'm learning, one has to keep up the good fight not let the body drive the mind to apathy and keep those challenges that make us the humans that we are. If you don't use it, you lose it would be an easy way to get this point across.

Of course, woodworking, painting, and a lot of other more sedentary type hobbies were suggested, but, I'm ex-military, led a VERY active and hardworking life and ever since introduced to guns, hunting and just guns in general since a young lad, I've always enjoyed the great outdoors in such settings and I miss it *SO* very much now. I'm glad I *did* choose Air Guns because I think I'd never have pushed myself with anything else as much, and still, push myself even now, the way I do with it as I would something else that doesn’t get my blood pumping as much as the adrenaline going through my veins as I hit my target no matter be it paper or varmint---or the excitement I get at the anticipation of shooting for a day as I get my gear squared away for such a purpose.

But how could I get into Air Guns if I were forced to use a hand pump? I CAN”T use a hand pump for a PCP Air Gun. I’d get started and then have to stop well before I really got started. I just couldn’t do it. So a mechanical solution was warranted: But what? How much did a compressor that can pump up an Air Gun cost?

Therefore, one of the trees that make up the forest now comes to sharp focus as I tried to look ahead at prerequisites of my then proposed direction at a hobby: Enter the world where we all live, regardless if you are disabled or not, or why you would choose Air Guns as your hobby the way I have: The world of no cash or income that isn't exactly supportive of high dollar hobbies. Not that these Air Guns are high dollar, but they can be and just like other hobbies, it depends on how far you want to go into it.

So, taking enjoyment, purpose and cost into all things considered back before I even made my first purchase of any Air Gun, I, very happily, stumbled across the Shoebox compressor in my quest for a compressor I seemingly couldn’t afford. I won’t post links to the kinds of compressors that can reach pressures of 3,000 PSI or even higher. But I *will* post that almost all of them, those that I could find that would support my new goal for a hobby, were around and upwards of $4,000. . . and beyond. Now, when you take in consideration that I’m forced retired Blue Collar, live on a limited income handed out by the VA and Social Security Disability that amounts to probably 1/3 of most young adults income now days, there can no doubt that such equipment was far outside my reach, as it probably is as for most of the general populous out there in the Good Old USA, was, is, completely out of financial reach.

But the Shoebox Compressor was not.

Prices may very by the time of this posting but mine cost me $450.00 and I made that purchase before I even bought my first Air gun! This is cost at 10 TIMES L-E-S-S the cost of most good diver’s compressors that will reach the HPA (High Pressure Air) levels needed to pump up most Air Guns that are, from what I can tell, around 3,000 PSI on average!

Small and compact, the Shoebox is, to me, a miracle of ingenuity and engineering. Simple in design, efficient in purpose and meets the needs, to a “T” the purpose of which I sought: The ability to be able to be self sufficient in a hobby of Air Guns.

See, people like me? We don’t find it easy to load up an electric wheelchair on a lift for a vehicle, if we even have one, that weighs over 400 Lbs with me in it, go WAY across town to a diver’s shop, if we can find one, and pay the small fee to have a scuba tank filled---and only to about 3,000 PSI as well. My Air Hog Tank will take *4,500* PSI(Pounds Per Square Inch) and, there ARE some Air Guns that will take MORE than 3,000 PSI and there haven’t been, to my knowledge, a diver’s shop or compressed air place that will be able to reach those pressures.

So now we have several contributing factors as to why I choose the Shoebox, and I’m glad I did.

End part one.