Let's Talk About Air Guns

[Mortblanc]

That habit of TPTB to use their own pellets to get the velocities is perplexing. It appears that they have swallowed the advertising hype that speed equals total performance.

In the first place they are under the impression that velocity achieved using a lighter pellet makes that pellet the standard. Of course that puts a cap on the velocity that provides the with a feeling of control.

Your rifle is required to be weaker than the 12 pound limit due to the need to slow down that "test pellet" to the 12 pound limit.

It does not put a cap on the power because one might achieve more "usable" power, up to that 12 pound limit, using a heavier projectile.

Fortunately there is some math that comes into play. Just as 2x6=12, so does 6X2, 3x4, 4X3 and so on.

The more common 8 grain pellet gets just under 12 pounds at only 820 and the heavy pellets of 13 grains, nearly as heavy as the standard .22 hobby pellet, get their 12 pounds at only 634 FPS.

Add to the numbers the fact that the 8 grain and heavier pellets have better performance on target and the weight X speed calculation becomes a bit less limiting.

I have watched the films of British air gunners shooting rats and I see that most of them hold with their +- 8 grain pellets after testing the lightweight pellets on their quarry and finding them not adequate to anchor a good sized rat.

The limits of math are also what pushes the balance of favor to the .177 in GB. With the lighter 8 grain .177 pellets reaching their top limit at 850 their trajectory is flatter than the average .22 pellet at 600-625 fps. That naturally makes range estimation and sight in distance less critical with the .177.

That is another factor I find to be a constant, the inability of most people to estimate range even at very short distances. Even the experienced shooters will over estimate range, thinking that 20 yards is 25 and that 30-35 yards is 50. I have even seen an "experienced shooter" from one of the networks set up for ratting and saying that he is in the center of a 100 foot long building so his longest shot will be 50 yards. When did 100 divided by 3 become 50? and when did it become 50 from the center of the structure?

I also saw one of those shooters take out a laser range finder and take a reading, claim that could not be correct, and use is own incorrect estimations.

The next thing they do after guessing an incorrect range is to estimate a hold over or better yet a "hold under" for the sights that is absurd.

If one sights in their air gun properly and restricts shots to a proper air gun range then hold over is not even a consideration, and hold under is equally useless until the target is within arms reach.

The combination of guessing range at longer than reality, then holding over to compensate for drop that does not happen equals to a lot of shots going over the heads of game and training them to hide from the shooter at ever longer ranges.