.. people don't shoot them enough to smooth them out and start experiencing a more pleasurable shooting experience or some better accuracy. Plus with a scope (especially a full size Leapers 6-24x50 like the 350 posted 4sale here), the gun weighs 9.5+lbs perhaps much closer to 10lbs. The gun has a fair amount of recoil and some twang and torquing during the first 400-500 shots. Some get better sooner some closer to 1,000 shots and the gun keeps breaking in until about 2,000 shots.
I believe many of these 350's on sale are also people's 1st airgun or adult air rifle. The 350 is also fairly noisy and many people have this picture in their mind of a "BB gun" that is quiet and easy to handle and shoot. Like we have said before, this is not a gun for a beginner getting into airguns. Some think they are going to plink with a 350 all day long, not a good assumption.
These are the main reason people sell a 350. I have also seen a fair amount of 48's 4sale since November in just the airgun classifieds web site alone. I would say easily 4-5 48's. I would think they are selling them for the same reasons.
Actually there are a few other reasons I could go into.. ok here 's one but I 'll stop at that.
My brother in-law owned a Diana 52 .177 a couple of years ago which I had no idea until this past Christmas when we got together at my in-laws for the holidays. I had asked him if he still had groundhogs and racoons on his 2.5 acre property because I remember him telling me that his closest neighbor, an older lady, had called the cops on him a couple of years back when he shot a G-hog with his 12ga shotgun. He said he had bought this powerfull air rifle, etc. instead. To make a long story short he sold it because he shot a G-Hog and he ran down the hole. He also shot a squirrel, which seemed to have disappeared in the woods after it got knocked off the tree. He 's not sure, but thinks he shot them "somewhere in the body". I asked if it were possible they were hit in the hind quarters or butt, and he said "I don't know, I thought I was aiming at the center of the body..". So he sold the 52 because he thought it didn't have enough power and when the old lady died over a year ago. He 's now back at shooting his .22 and shotgun sometimes because the new neighbors don't complain or they are at work when he uses firearms.
This is one clueless brother-in-law I have.. he 's actually my wife's sister's husband.. so he 's my sister-in-law's husband (not brother-in-law.. I guess). So it's possible there are many out there like him perhaps selling a Magnum springer for that reason. The powder burners he uses where his dad's which he got after he passed away except for the 52 which a gun shop owner talked him into buying when he walked in looking for fishing lures. He had never shot a gun in his life up until he was 45yrs old, and knows absolutely NOTHING about firearms or any type of guns. He never had anyone advise him or tell him anything about guns. I asked him what shot# he uses with his shotgun and replied "I don't know, my dad had a couple of boxes..". I asked him if his .22 is short, LR, 22Mag, he doesn't know. He said he found 3 boxes in his dad's house.. I ask who makes the .22, he doesn't know!! I gave up.. well almost. He does have a lot of game on his property and a nice 70-80yd range so I promised to teach him a few things, cleaning the guns, shooting them properly, etc. if he would let me do some long range target shooting with my 350 and watch me use it to resolve his little groundhog (watch how it's done) problem in the summertime
He also shoots feral cats and just about anything that moves or crawls on his property, so I have a lot of educating and convincing to do when I go over there in another month or so when it warms up. To show you how bad he is, he shot a racoon a couple of months ago from just a few feet away on his deck with his "12ga". The racoon was wounded and ran away. It was around the beginning of the year. He called me to tell me about it and to ask me if there 's something he might be doing wrong because I had asked him to call me with any gun handling or hunting questions. I finally managed to learn after much conversing, that he has a 20ga. and not a 12ga and was using bird shot#7.5! Not only that, the gun apparently has a choke which seemed to be opened all the way causing the pellets to scatter all over his deck from 10-12ft away. So he damaged his deck as well. Totally clueless and very dangerous individual!
Sometimes these are the people that return or sell a gun.. you just never know. Hey if a shotgun can't bring down a racoon then they must sell it because it's not doing the job or they need a "better one". God only knows sometimes what their motive or justification is.
He said he 'll try it out for a while. He wants to use it for hunting too so I explained to him all about shot placement, and the limitations of the gun, distance, kinetic energy, etc. After I explained everything to him, he asked how many ft-lbs my 350 put out. I just said to him "don't worry about it, just a little more than yours". He wasn't paying attention a few weeks ago when he shot my 350 and I talked him into getting an adult air rifle and went over all those things with him.