Air Arms Owners Club

just how did this figure get to be defined as the legal limit for un-licenced air rifles?
Gary.

Just a guess but I assume it's pre-metric and looking on the bright side a dozens better than ten

the british airgun manufacturers were worried about more powerful imports taking over the market, so got the government to impose a limit.
not 100% sure, but the best british guns at the time were around 10ish ft/lbs, so the limit was proposed to be set at 10.5 ft/lbs. however they realised that different pellets/pellet weights caused the power level to fluctuate, so they allowed a ''safety'' margin to prevent people falling foul of the law, and set it at 12 ft/lbs.
this is why the law regarding 12ft/lbs is absolute, even if your gun is just a fraction over, because they had already allowed for any fluctuations in power levels when they set the limit at 12.
one good thing about the 12 limit is that guns like the hw77 were designed to run at around 16, so when the power was reduced to 12 the recoil was greatly reduced and they were much smoother to shoot.
well, thats what a mate down the pub, who had a neighbour, who's brother in law worked with a bloke, who's sister was going out with a lad who knew about these sort of things told me

BBF

It must be true then steve

Not an expert but for what most people do with an airgun 12 seems ok. If it was set at 20 people would want 25. They wouldn't control the recoil but they would probably feel good.

This is my take on it ...

At sensible ranges, 12 ft.lbs is more than enough to knock over a target or pest species we are allowed to shoot in the UK with an air rifle. Why have any more?

Secondly, at power levels like 22 ft.lbs or 22 ft.lbs, the accuracy suffers anyway due to tumbling when approaching the sound barrier in .177.

Why take your kids to school in a hummer when you can do it just as well in your Smart car?

Raj wrote:This is my take on it ...

At sensible ranges, 12 ft.lbs is more than enough to knock over a target or pest species we are allowed to shoot in the UK with an air rifle. Why have any more?

Secondly, at power levels like 22 ft.lbs or 22 ft.lbs, the accuracy suffers anyway due to tumbling when approaching the sound barrier in .177.

Why take your kids to school in a hummer when you can do it just as well in your Smart car?

i dont dis agree, i just wondered how the figure 12ft/lbs was chosen. what would have made government come up with that figure? leathality? subtract a percentage?

Raj wrote:This is my take on it ...

At sensible ranges, 12 ft.lbs is more than enough to knock over a target or pest species we are allowed to shoot in the UK with an air rifle. Why have any more?

Secondly, at power levels like 22 ft.lbs or 22 ft.lbs, the accuracy suffers anyway due to tumbling when approaching the sound barrier in .177.

Why take your kids to school in a hummer when you can do it just as well in your Smart car?

aye up Raj me owd duck, at owe reyt ??
anything over 10 ft/lbs will do for hunting, though obviously it helps trajectory if its doin 11.5
one of my brothers had a webley eclipse that killed everything he pointed it at with no problems at all when i checked it for him it was doing 9.4 ft/lbs
i had a falcon that was very pellet fussy, and would only group with the old ''waisted'' rws superdomes set at 11 and a bit it did 5p groups @ 35 yds, but set under 11 the groups were tighter, so i set it at 10.5 and left it at that

A mate of mine has a Rapid .177, he was well happy for 10 years until he bought a chronograph, when he saw it was running at 9 he freaked out and turned it to 11. After that he got fliers and called me in, we ended up polishing the choke which helped a lot, then he went the whole hog and lathed the choke off.