There are a lot of new Airguns and owners out there, and, believe it or not, there has been a noticeable increase year on year since 2020. If you find yourself in the new airgun owner category, a few things are vitally important to consider in taking care of your new air pistol so you can enjoy it for as long as possible. So let’s look at a few key things to being an air pistol owner.
NEW AIR GUN BOX OPENING!
Box opening videos used to be all the rage on YouTube. While they are still a thing, the thrill is kind of gone from that video craze. But who doesn’t like to open their gear when the delivery driver drops it off? Once you’ve got the outer box opened, the good part is next, but don’t do it in a hurry. Getting in a hurry can cause you to lose essential parts like the Allen key wrench for the CO2 magazine.
After you’ve got over the initial excitement of receiving your new air pistol, dive into the owner’s manual. Trust me, just about everything you need to know will be found in the manual. Of course, for some, the text is never big enough, and some illustrations might not be 100% clear to you, but do hang in there and study the manual from start to finish.
GEARING UP FOR THE FIRST TIME
Your new air pistol isn’t going to shoot itself! So you want to make sure you have the correct airgun ammo and Co2 capsules. This may seem obvious to many people, but the question is often asked through the Q&A section of our website, “What does this shoot?” For shooters who’ve been around airguns for a while, we tune in on little details that many people just miss, and therefore we might see these questions as silly. But if a new shooter purchased the wrong products for their new air pistol, that can lead to a bad experience. We don’t want that to happen. The manual, the box, and even our website should specify exactly the type of ammo needed. While there will likely be several brands that will work, a general rule of thumb is to avoid products that are different from what is recommended. Odd-ball products tend to perform sub-par and might even damage your new air pistol. Stick with what is recommended, and that will keep things popping downrange.
The same thing is true of CO2. Getting the right product is crucial for function and the shooter’s general happiness. What may not be evident to everyone is that there are many different size single-use CO2 products on the market. We’ve seen more than a few occasions where a customer ended up with the wrong size CO2. Most CO2 powered Air Pistols use 12-gram non-threaded CO2 cartridges.
THE MOST ESSENTIAL AIRGUN ACCESSORY
This one item is essential for all Airguns, especially CO2 powered pistols! It’s a good quality chamber lube such as RWS or ABBEY. Before I explain what it is and where to apply it, I need to explain how CO2 guns work. In order to get a whole lotta pew pew out of a relatively small container, a lot of propellant needs to fit in it. CO2 fits this bill better than anything. However, when you stuff a lot of CO2 into a small place, it gets really cold and turns into a liquid. When you shoot a CO2 powered air pistol, a little bit of CO2 is released. As this burst of CO2 travels through the valve, it expands as it warms up. This expansion maximizes the propellant effect of the gas as it launches a BB or pellet. You do need to keep in mind that the CO2 propelling the projectile is really cold!
The valve goes through an extreme temperature change. This extreme cooling effect can freeze the valve if the air gun is shot too rapidly. Also, it should be stated that this will happen sooner in cooler weather. Chamber lube helps keep the seals in the valve soft even when they go through a harsh freeze and thaw cycle.
But even before that happens, the drop of chamber lube placed on the tip of the new CO2 cartridge provides some help to puncture the seal and stop Co2 from leaking. This is important because a dry CO2 cartridge tightened down on a dry CO2 seal can cause the seal to gall (pit or distort); this is the number one cause of leaks in CO2 powered air pistols.
SHOOTER READY?
Once you’ve got the chamber lube, ammo, and fuel for your new air pistol situated, you are ready to hit the range. But before you can shoot, you have to load the magazine.
Loading BBs into an airgun magazine is an excellent way to get frustrated. It doesn’t have to, though – setting up a table to use as a platform for magazine loading will help. Otherwise, you may end up dropping more BBs on the ground than make it into the magazine! The magazine will have a loading port for the BBs. Depending on the model, this port can be on the front, side, or back of the pistol’s magazine. Pull the follower down so that the tip of the follower is below this loading port and insert the BBs one at a time into the magazine. Some fast loading tools called speed loaders can help make this job a bit easier, but pinching a few BBs at a time will get the job done.
If you have an air pistol that takes a rotary magazine, just remember “Gears to the Rear”. Whether it is a rotary BB or pellet pistol rotary mag, the projectile should be loaded from the rear where the gear is located. When installing the magazine in the air gun, make sure the gear is pointed toward the rear of the gun, hence ‘gears to the rear’.
INSTALLING CO2 CARTRIDGES IN AIRGUNS
With the magazine full of BBs, you can install the CO2 in the air pistol. Some models will take the CO2 in a compartment in the grip, and others will store the CO2 in a drop-free magazine. In either case, loosen the CO2 piercing screw so that the cartridge with its drop of Air Chamber Lube on the tip will fall into the appropriate position. With the cartridge in place, you can begin to tighten the screw. Keep an eye on the cartridge to ensure that it doesn’t fall out of place. Yes, the cartridge can fall out of place and be secured improperly. The curved bottom end of the cartridge will be sitting in the centre of the dished CO2 seat, and it will be straight in line with the grip sides.
Another crucial part of this process is not to overtighten the cartridge. Especially if you neglect to obtain some chamber lube. Just tighten the puncture screw until you hear the seal break and turn the screw until the CO2 stops leaking. A huge mistake is to overtighten the CO2 screw, which can ruin the seal and cause problems right away.
Air pistol replicas are such a refreshing and enjoyable way to get in some trigger time for very little money. Air Guns are a way to get the whole family shooting in a low pressure, low noise environment. Taking care to follow these basic guidelines and always following gun safety rules will help you keep the trigger time going strong for a long, long time.
ABOUT JUST AIR GUNS
We were the first to offer home delivery of airguns in the UK, and today we have the largest number of our own drivers and vans on the road delivering to your door seven days a week. Simply place items into the cart to see the actual delivery price you will pay to have the latest airguns delivered to you. If you have any questions about our airguns delivery service, please contact us via this website or call us on 0330 999 5224.
Shop Address: Just Air Guns, Trimex House, Pier Road, Feltham, TW14 0TW
Website: www.justairguns.co.uk
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0330 999 5224