The Air Rifles & Pistols thread

Gents/Ladies, how's it going? Everything's well I hope. How about that lovely wife/husband and those kids/family pets, still playing happy families? Great, great.

So, pleasantries out of the way, I need some advice.

Since I was young I have had an interest in air guns, but was never allowed one as my mother considered them unsafe, but just recently I have been getting more and more interested in them and this thread sparked my interest even more.

Now living alone and being a 24 year old child adult I feel I can own a gun without somehow managing to kill myself with it and would like your advice. What sort of gear should I be looking to get and what would be a reasonable budget to start out with? I'm thinking in the £300-400 ballpark to get me going.

Also, does anyone know of any clubs or communities in and around the Bristol area? I've had a quick poke around online and I can't find anything which is disappointing, but perhaps I am not looking in the right places.

On the subject of firearms certificates, am I right in thinking I only need one if I own or intend to own a gun which packs a punch? 11 feet/lb is a figure I have seen, but I am not sure how that is measured as many of the rifles and pistols I have looked at don't state their power. Any information you could give on the FAC process would be great.

Any further advice you could give would be appreciated too, thanks.
 
Jegethy said:
Gents/Ladies, how's it going? Everything's well I hope. How about that lovely wife/husband and those kids/family pets, still playing happy families? Great, great.

So, pleasantries out of the way, I need some advice.

Since I was young I have had an interest in air guns, but was never allowed one as my mother considered them unsafe, but just recently I have been getting more and more interested in them and this thread sparked my interest even more.

Now living alone and being a 24 year old child adult I feel I can own a gun without somehow managing to kill myself with it and would like your advice. What sort of gear should I be looking to get and what would be a reasonable budget to start out with? I'm thinking in the £300-400 ballpark to get me going.

Also, does anyone know of any clubs or communities in and around the Bristol area? I've had a quick poke around online and I can't find anything which is disappointing, but perhaps I am not looking in the right places.

On the subject of firearms certificates, am I right in thinking I only need one if I own or intend to own a gun which packs a punch? 11 feet/lb is a figure I have seen, but I am not sure how that is measured as many of the rifles and pistols I have looked at don't state their power. Any information you could give on the FAC process would be great.

Any further advice you could give would be appreciated too, thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi, depends on what you want to use it for, If it's for vermin then I can't really help as I have no experience with killing vermin and not sure on what you can actually legally kill, I'm sure some one will be along to advise in this area.

If it's for target shooting then basically anything is fun, you can get fun pistols that replicate the real thing in almost every detail, for example you can get Beretta's, 1911's, Sigs and they all cycle and look just like the real thing, they have working slides, drop out magazines and even recoil due to the slide moving back and forth while some revolvers have swing out cylinders and even use brass shells, these are great if you're into replicas and a bit of tin can shooting in the garden.

If you want something with a little more accuracy pistol wise then I'd go for a pellet shooter with a rifled barrel, for example the Webley Alecto or a Weihrauch HW45, both these guns are excellent, powerful with good accuracy and are at the legal power limit. Here's a couple of vids..

HW45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaQ_Zdg_i2s

Webley Alecto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp9LZLH3Kwg

Here's a couple of replica vids..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdqBQ89WGWo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikCiN4NFbGY

If it's rifles you want then with your budget a Air Arms TX200 Mk3 is certainly within your reach, this being one of the best spring air rifles you can buy although the rifle is just under £400 you may have to go over budget a little if you want a scope, actually you will need a scope as this rifle has no open sights. Here's a review of the rifle..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmLoNqOEJnk

Check out some rifles and pistols here..

http://www.solware.co.uk/air-pistol-air-rifle/air-rifle-pellet-gun.shtml

Don't forget to check the law on Air guns with do's and don'ts. Hope this has been a little helpful for you and I'm sure someone will be along to give further advise who are more experienced than me.

Finally Bristol Gun club, will be able to give you all the advise you need.

http://www.bdrpc.org.uk/
 
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It depends on what kind of shooting you want to get into, but certainly a TX200 is well within budget if you start off second hand. This way, if the bug doesn't bite you, can can easily recover your initial outlay.

Any gun producing 12ft lbs of energy or more will need to be put on a Fire Arms Certificate (FAC). A gun under 12ft lbs of energy does not need a licence, and can be purchased by anyone over 18 years of age.

If you decide to shoot at your home, there are a few things to be wary of:

1 - You must have permission of the land owner to shoot there, so if it's your own place, fine, but if it's rented you will need permission form your landlord.
2 - Pellets must never, ever, ever leave the boundary of the property
3 - You must not shoot within 50 feet of a road if by doing so you would cause distress or alarm.
4 - your neighbours might not like you shooting in your garden. Whilst there is little they can do about it (as long as you adhere to the above points), neighbour disputes can turn ugly.

Your gun/s must be kept in such a way that those under 18 cannot access them. If you have kids, then lock them in a cabinet or cupboard. If you don't have kids, or regularly have kids come to visit, then stored out of sight would be fine.

Whilst transporting your gun it is a very good idea to keep it in a case or gunbag and if in a car, out of sight too.

I don't know of any clubs in your area.

What sort of shooting do you want to get into - there's plinking (tin cans etc), target (paper punching), FT, HFT (Both types of competition shooting) or hunting, or a mixture? Do you want to use a rifle or a pistol?

Hope that helps a bit - any more questions, feel free to ask :)
 
Re: Scottish Licensing - Just like the handgun ban this will only effect those law-abiding people who already use their weapons legally. If you're a scrote then you'll always have 2 options to continue being a scrote, either don't register what you've already got or buy/borrow a fellow scrotes weapon. In all cases the only "loser" is the general hobbyist who just plinks away in his back yard who will now have to make the choice of finding a club range to use (quite rare up north of the order) or sell everything for a massive loss just to get rid.

Anyway, it'll be very interesting to see the airgun crime rate fall to 0% after this highly effective license is in place :rolleyes:
 
spankingtexan said:
Hi, depends on what you want to use it for, If it's for vermin then I can't really help as I have no experience with killing vermin and not sure on what you can actually legally kill, I'm sure some one will be along to advise in this area.

If it's for target shooting then basically anything is fun, you can get fun pistols that replicate the real thing in almost every detail, for example you can get Beretta's, 1911's, Sigs and they all cycle and look just like the real thing, they have working slides, drop out magazines and even recoil due to the slide moving back and forth while some revolvers have swing out cylinders and even use brass shells, these are great if you're into replicas and a bit of tin can shooting in the garden.

If you want something with a little more accuracy pistol wise then I'd go for a pellet shooter with a rifled barrel, for example the Webley Alecto or a Weihrauch HW45, both these guns are excellent, powerful with good accuracy and are at the legal power limit. Here's a couple of vids..

HW45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaQ_Zdg_i2s

Webley Alecto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp9LZLH3Kwg

Here's a couple of replica vids..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdqBQ89WGWo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikCiN4NFbGY

If it's rifles you want then with your budget a Air Arms TX200 Mk3 is certainly within your reach, this being one of the best spring air rifles you can buy although the rifle is just under £400 you may have to go over budget a little if you want a scope, actually you will need a scope as this rifle has no open sights. Here's a review of the rifle..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmLoNqOEJnk

Check out some rifles and pistols here..

http://www.solware.co.uk/air-pistol-air-rifle/air-rifle-pellet-gun.shtml

Don't forget to check the law on Air guns with do's and don'ts. Hope this has been a little helpful for you and I'm sure someone will be along to give further advise who are more experienced than me.

Finally Bristol Gun club, will be able to give you all the advise you need.

http://www.bdrpc.org.uk/
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, I'll take a look at those links.
 
ianh said:
Re: Scottish Licensing - Just like the handgun ban this will only effect those law-abiding people who already use their weapons legally. If you're a scrote then you'll always have 2 options to continue being a scrote, either don't register what you've already got or buy/borrow a fellow scrotes weapon. In all cases the only "loser" is the general hobbyist who just plinks away in his back yard who will now have to make the choice of finding a club range to use (quite rare up north of the order) or sell everything for a massive loss just to get rid.

Anyway, it'll be very interesting to see the airgun crime rate fall to 0% after this highly effective license is in place :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Sums it up nicely. Law abiding people will go through the extra expense of registering and those who are already using them for illegal means will not register them. Doesn't take a genius to work it out, but then Kenny McCaskill has never been accused of that.
 
More aimed @Feek as he seems to have all the TAC guns that were ever made, but I was reading an old airgun magazine and it had the Brocock safari rifle in an article.

I was idly wondering if these can be used on normal airgun club ranges. Same question for the pistols actually.
 
SimonCHere said:
More aimed @feek as he seems to have all the TAC guns that were ever made, but I was reading an old airgun magazine and it had the Brocock safari rifle in an article.

I was idly wondering if these can be used on normal airgun club ranges. Same question for the pistols actually.
Click to expand...

You'll need a FAC to own a Brocock as they were classified as section 1's about 10 years ago mainly do to media hype and some gangs converting them to fire proper rounds. The air cartridges they use fall under section 5 too.

Correct me if Im wrong someone but as the pistols themselves fall under section 1 they can only be shot at large bore ranges and not at small bore or air rifle ranges?

Edit:

Have a gander if you're bored Home Office Guidance on Firearms 2013

i'm on 163/253 and have been reading it on and off while commuting, i find it interesting anyway. Plus i'm in the process of applying to a small bore club with the eventual aim of getting a FAC for .22lr rifles
 
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FYI as well for any Webley fans..... primarily of the Alecto pistol. they are going to stop making it soon and go back to "Single Charge Pneumatics".

Got that on an email from Webley as i was querying them about the .22 Alecto and if it has the threaded barrel (which it doesn't, only the .177)
 
I'm currently pondering over the AirArms S410 TDR simply because i want something i can target shoot and go pigeon/rabbit shooting with but doesn't obviously look like im walking around with an air weapon as its rather discreet.
 
So my father is giving me his 2 old air rifles. The last time i saw/shot them was about 15 years ago as teen and at the time they were in fairly good condition kept in a cupboard in my grandmothers house.

Anyway fast forward 15 or so years and my father went to pick them up from my grandmothers and some dire news :(

The Airsporter it turns out had been liberated by my braincell vacant cousin as well as the meteor. While the meteor doesn't look too bad the Airsporter looks like its been kept in a damp cellar :( Needless to say they weren't his to take and hes obviously mistreated them and as my fathers understandably angry. So here we are, I'll be picking them up in a fortnights time and taking them to my local range to run the chrono over them to see how bad they are.

They obviously need a service and damn good refurb. I'm willing to spend time and money on them as i consider them as part of my family history that i would like to pass on to my kids when i have them but obviously i don't want to end up spending a fortune.

Also can anyone identify is this a Mk1 or Mk2 Meteor.... I suspect Mk1

Sick Airsporter Mk1 :(

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Meteor Mk 1?

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I haven't read the thread so I apologise, but the previously deceased Theoben has now been resurrected as Impact Air guns.

Theoben were beautiful guns, just ferociously expensive, I have no idea what the quality or price of impacts products are.
 
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