Article

Using Airguns

This is all about air rifles or more importantly safe shooting with these fun weapons. If you shoot in your own back garden you should remember that it is illegal for your pellets to leave your property i.e. go over your wall or fence. The other thing to remember though is that the pellet also must not go above 200 feet in the air, which is a point a lot of people don’t realise.

You should also make yourself a very secure backstop for your pellets, as rebounding slugs can still be very dangerous. I personally use two pieces of chipboard about ½ inch thick each with a small gap between of a few millimetres covered in old carpet or any similar material (at the moment I’m using an old leather jacket that was going to be thrown out). Even with all this I still put this up against a brick wall so no pellets can carry on they’re journey and the carpet stops the slugs bouncing back out.

It is very important to check your gun regularly as any problems could cause slugs to go places you didn’t aim them to go (not good). I’ve been lucky with mine, my HW90k is nearly maintenance free with its gas strut system and almost recoil free making it very easy to shoot and look after, yet I still shoot 3 warm up shots into soft mud or something like to make sure trigger and safety system are in working order also you should try and check your barrel is clean from dust or any unwanted materials. With my latest gun the GUNPOWER STEALTH there are more checks to make.

This gun is run from a large supply of compressed air from a tank that has to be screwed in the rear before use, it then acts as the rear stock and butt of the gun so must be checked but only after checking the barrel and silencer is fine. You then have to check the outlet valve is ok by dry firing (shooting without a pellet) at the mud as before, then fire a few pellets at the soil to check barrel and safety and your off to shoot.

If you are shooting on someone else’s land you need complete permission to shoot there and remember not to shoot closer than 50 feet to land boarders or public right of way. You should also know what you can and cannot shoot; Corvids (the crow family, crows, magpies, jays, rooks etc), rabbits and hares, grey squirrels, pigeons (wood pigeons, feral pigeons but not racing or doves), rats and other small rodents and some other small creatures but shooting most birds is completely illegal so check first. If your shooting with a gun that’s not up to the legal limit (10-12 f/p) you should not be shooting live targets at all. You should also make sure you can hit the bloody thing first as injured animals are no good to anybody and chances are you will not find them leaving them to die painfully.

Now that your ready you need good kit which could include; Good cammo gear as animals are much more alert than you or I, a good pair of boots as you may need to walk through mud and water to get your required position, a good gun as accuracy and handling are more important than power, permission to shoot where you want to and finally practice.
To help you practice here are some targets to shoot at. (Not at the screen you understand - print them off first - Coagulus)

(please realise that this is the way things are in the U.K and you should check with your own laws before you shoot one pellet from your air rifle.)

Thermite.