3 Best Uses For Your Bb Gun And Airgun Shooting

BB gun and air gun shooting give many a boy and man a great way to spend time. But are these activities doing all they could to deliver the most benefits for the hours given over to them? Here are some ideas to increase your fun, sharpen your shooting skills and get you thinking in a new way.

1. Target Shooting

Everyone with a BB gun will be engaging in simple target shooting. Popping cans or bottles can occupy an afternoon. How about rearranging your shooting challenges to add interesting variety and at the same time make you a better shot? Make up a game, where you advance in the competition as you go.

You might set up a variety of targets in a large circular pattern, each target becoming progressively smaller as you move around the circle. Assign points to each target, the value of each rising as the targets grow smaller. Appoint a scorekeeper to follow each competitor and record points as they accumulate. Determine how many shots may be allowed per target, and determine the penalty for misses..

A game such as this, designed ahead of time and talked through, can be a lot of fun for a group of friends to engage in.

Another way to add variety to target shooting is to vary the distance at which a target is placed. How does the BB gun or air gun perform at ten yards? Fifteen yards? 20 yards or more? Here you get a good idea how well your gun will perform at specified intervals. Do you want to use an improvised bench rest, or shoot free hand? Test your results with each and see what difference it makes.

Suspending a target from a tree may make it possible to watch the BB in flight as it travels against the sky, giving the shooter an immediate understanding of how to angle the barrel to compensate for greater distances.

Probably best done after leaves have fallen? Make sure there
are no houses or people on the other side of your tree.

With a multi pump airgun, you can experiment with the various levels of pumping and see how your bbs or pellets print on a paper target. This can give you a better understanding of how your gun will perform in the field.

2. Pest Shooting.

In the US especially, we have lots of birds that are genuine pests. The English sparrow and the European starling come to mind immediately. As a boy, I used to hang out by a feed and seed establishment, which had a grain elevator also. Grain spills were common, and so were the sparrows which enjoyed free meals. The proprietor hated the birds, because they liked to roost at night under the eves of the various metal buildings, leaving their droppings everywhere.

My offer to dispose of the pests with my trusty Daisy model 25 was readily accepted. An English sparrow is a pretty small target, so I really had to become a much better shot than I might normally have become. In addition, those little buggers wised up to me fast, so I had to get creative in how I stalked the birds. All this amounted to great training for the day I graduated to a more powerful weapon, a pellet gun for small game like rabbits and squirrels.

The starling is another widespread pest. They can congregate in huge flocks and do major agricultural damage. The starling is also a vicious bird that will raid other bird nests, destroying the eggs and eating the young of cavity dwelling songbirds. They will even attack and kill the parents if they are resisted. With that kind of reputation, it lends extra satisfaction when you plunk a starling and know you are helping the environment.

If you live on the edge of town or in the country, you can set up a feeding station that will attract starlings, and you can pot shoot them from a window or patio door in your house. Be sure to design a plywood backstop so your shots are stopped cold and dont carry over into a neighbors property. Fatty stuffs like suet and peanut butter will attract plenty of starlings, Other baits will work also.

3. Small Game Hunting

Spring air BB guns are generally too weak for use on small game, but many other BB and pellet guns do have sufficient power. The best advice is to stalk your rabbit or squirrel close enough that you can reliably do head shots. A clean kill and no suffering for the animal should be your goal. Small game hunting with an air gun is a nice challenge and can really sharpen your stalking and shooting skills if you decide you want someday to go after deer and other big game.

Some multi-pump airguns will shoot both bbs and pellets. It is best to use pellets for small game. They are more accurate and more lethal, and so more humane.