Airgun ownership statistics?

[Phil Russell]

I found myself pondering if there are any stats regarding the type of airgun(s) people own or buy in the UK. In particular:
Are there any data on the type of air rifles owned / bought, especially segmenting the data into what might be called 'full power' models and those that would be judged as never achieving above say, 10ftlb? Are there data on what people do? My guess is that the majority of rifles are bought / used for plinking and that those used for HFT/FT and hunting are far less. And by 'hunting' I mean dedicated hunting not the odd rat control. I guess dedicated 10m rifles are fewer still.
I am not interested in data ordered by make or manufacturer, only broad categories. I seem to remember a broad statement from somewhere that said that the majority of rifles bought are low powered, cheap, plinkers ... maybe think of the B2 rifles sold at Game Fairs ....
A brief search via google produced nothing that is free although there seems to be a lot of data on 'certificated rifles/shotguns'.
Cheers, Phil

[Shed tuner]

I'll start.. I have a few

next....

[Phil Russell]

I'll start.. I have a few

next....

That's a 'yes' then. I will add you (anonymously) to the data set.
Cheers, Phil

[Shed tuner]

[WILBA]

I'll start.. I have a few

next....

Understatement if the century there jon

[WILBA]

If gun owner ship was measured in alcohol i have half a pint. Jon you are a full weekend rugby international alkie

[Shed tuner]

I'll have you know I'm a lot soberer that I used to be in terms of this particular addiction... (mostly because I spread my time more evenly accross my other vices - weight training, archery, metalworking)

[Phil Russell]

Understatement if the century there jon

I will change the database entry to '100'.
Cheers, Phil

This is getting silly now. OK ... it was a daft question to begin with but if it provides amusement it is for the common good.
Cheers, Phil

[Geezer]

The only figure I’ve seen over many years is that there are either 4 million airguns in the U.K., or 4 million airgun owners. Whichever, I don’t think that’s an actual statistic, as opposed to an informed guess by someone like BASC about twenty or more years ago.

Given that FAC+SGC holders equals around one million, four times that for airgun ownership does not sound wrong, and if anything feels conservative given the number of gats, B2s, Gamos, Meteors etc lurking unused in wardrobes, lifts and sheds.

Not turning this into a pro or anti BASC thread (please just let this comment hang here) I’d note in passing that BASC, like it or not the primary voice of the shooting sports in the U.K., has 155,000 members. I make that no more than one in five certificate holders.

[Murphy]

I read one in the air gun mags years ago said that yearly 80% of air guns sold where .22.

(This may be factually wrong but it was a huge margin .22 outsold .177)

[WILBA]

I read one in the air gun mags years ago said that yearly 80% of air guns sold where .22.

(This may be factually wrong but it was a huge margin .22 outsold .177)

Thats about right. As. 22cal was concidered the mans man hunting calibre

[BTDT]

I read one in the air gun mags years ago said that yearly 80% of air guns sold where .22.

(This may be factually wrong but it was a huge margin .22 outsold .177)

I ran a survey of Sporting Air Rifle readers in 1984, and 95% owned .22".

[Geezer]

I ran a survey of Sporting Air Rifle readers in 1984, and 95% owned .22".

Yes, but they would have done, wouldn’t they?

SAR was mostly read by serious (or aspirant serious) hunters, and we almost all used .22” back then. Readers kind of graduated to SAR from AGW or AG.

I don’t imagine that SAR was read that much by FT shooters (AGW catering better to them) or back garden plinkers (AG?) or the 10M match crowd.

It’s a bit (no disrespect) like asking Daily Mail readers about immigration. You know the answer before you ask the question.

[Phil Russell]

.22 vs .177 is somewhat immaterial here.
My guesstimate is that by far the greatest number of rifles are the 'low powered' ones e.g. B2, Meteor (way sub 12 early models), cheaper Gamo etc. Maybe these outnumber the full power models e.g AA, HW, Diana, Walther by, pick a number, lets say5 or 6. Not sure you can include pcp's here as they are still expensive compared to a cheap springer and most are 'full power' models even if the full power is around 10.5 or so (set by the maker).

Maybe I should rephrase the original question: Taking a cut off point of 10 ftlb, what proportion of rifles in use do you think are at or below this power point ... ? 70%??

Cheers, Phil

[angrybear]

Back when I bought Airgun world (at least I think it was AGW) the monthly sales figures used to be published, I'm talking 10+ years ago, but those figures should give some idea.

IIRC it was by PCP or Springer with the model listed, a member with the old mags could give some figures but I seem to remember the AA4** winning most months.