N00b question!

[Khaledra]

Hi all,

I'm about to buy my first air rifle and have been doing lots of reading. However, there's something I don't understand and I was hoping someone would enlighten me.

From my reading, I understand that the legal limit for an air rifle is 16.3 joules or 12 foot pounds. Now, take the BSA Supersport for example, on the BSA website it says that its velocity in .177 is 1000 feet per second. So, I put that figure into this calculator here: http://extorian.co.uk/shooting/pellets.html and discover that (if I'm understanding things correctly) that, to keep it legal, I can only shoot pellets weighing no more than 5.4 grains. Who makes pellets weighing 5,4 grains?? I know that the Supersport is a pretty popular rifle and I can only assume that either a) every bugger is breaking the law, or b) I'm an idiot. Can someone please tell me which it is?!

[tim s]

The muzzle velocity quoted is the Maximum . I'd read this as meaning the highest MV the design is capable of, bearing in mind that the 12ftlb limit does not apply everywhere in the world, not that it's the standard MV supplied to the UK Market.

[Chandlers]

A Supersport running at 1000fps ! Jumpy enough at 750.

[Wadhill1]

Its not a noob question, but a pretty valid one, and it reinforces the fact of the need for a Chronograph if you are going to experiment with different combinations of pellets and various types of propulsion systems!

As an aside seeing as you posted this in the target section, some of the top flight target rifles run a quite low power, down around the 5-7ft pounds.I myself shoot 20 meters bench rest with a FWB 300s doing 5.8 ft pounds.

HTH
Charles

[Hemmers]

I think 6 ft-lbs is a power limit in Germany between no regulation and a licence or between two types of licence, and seeing as most serious target air rifles hail from Germany, that's how they come out the factory. Also, you don't need anymore than 6ftlb indoors at 10m.

All you achieve by winding it up is to lower the life of your pellet catchers.