The accurate airgun

By B.B. Pelletier

If you’re a shooter you know about accuracy. In fact, accuracy is probably one of the things you value most about your guns.

I have to admit when I was younger I liked style and flash almost as much as accuracy, but that changed as I grew up. A 4,000 f.p.s. bullet that misses its target isn’t half as impressive as a 1,200 f.p.s. bullet that connects!

Some day I hope to see a movie in which the bad guys are fighting with full-auto guns, sprayin’ and prayin’ as hard as they can. Then, the hero drops them with a single bullet each. The movie Quigley Down Under was something like that, wasn’t it?

So, what’s good in an airgun? Well, how about a BB gun that can group 10 shots on a pencil eraser at 16 feet? That’s with the shooter shooting in the offhand position! If you think it’s easy to do, try it some time.

I’m talking about a real BB gun, not some German gallery rifle, shooting precision lead balls through a rifled barrel. Well, for many years, Daisy made such a gun. The Avanti 499 is billed as “The World’s Most Accurate BB Gun,” and I haven’t seen anyone refute that claim.

Is it expensive? I don’t think so. Any time you can buy a precision target gun with a $100 and have enough left to take two adults to a matinee, I think that’s cheap! Daisy created this unique single-shot MUZZLELOADING BB gun for the national BB gun championship program that they co-sponsor with the Jaycees. Millions of young boys and girls have competed in this program and most of them used the identical 499 BB guns that you can purchase [WHEN THEY ARE AVAILABLE!] for less than one month’s gas money.

A competitor usually gets special equipment that the public can’t buy at any price. You didn’t think stock car racing was done with stock cars did you? But with the 499, you can own the same level of performance that this year’s U.S. champion will be shooting, and you can do it for a lot less money than you paid for last year’s cable or satellite television service.

You can have an accurate pellet gun cheap, too. Here are not one but two fantastic bargains in the lead-launcher category. Let’s begin with the Gamo Compact target pistol. It’s lightweight, super accurate and has great sights and a wonderful trigger. It’s a $500 pistol wrapped in a $200 package. As an added benefit, it is VERY light, so if weight is an issue, this is one to consider. On the downside, it takes a bit of muscle to cock, so consider that.

The other super bargain target pistol is the Russian IZH 46M target pistol. It is on the heavy side to hold at arm’s length, but the cocking effort is, I believe, the lightest in the world – at least as far as single-stroke pistols are concerned. Like the Gamo Compact, it has adjustable grips and world-class accuracy.

I’ve given you three excellent airguns to consider today. You may still want that super-magnum critter-gitter you’ve been saving for, but I’d be willing to bet you would shoot any one of these three about five times as often as your fancy-dude airgun. Isn’t more shooting what it’s all about?