Air Arms Owners Club

Good afternoon All,

Currently, all of the rifles used at our Scout Campsite and Target Shooting Club are Co2 powered (QB78D's & QB78 Matches). I'd like to give them some experience with a break barrelled spring powered rifle. Any suggestions?

It will need to be a maximum of 6ftlb to use at the Target Shooting Club, and suitable for 10 to 14 year olds.

I thought the SMK 1790/1798 was the standard scout rifle for plinking
http://www.airsoft-guns.co.uk/acatalog/ ... ainer.html
The power is probably around 6-8 ft lb but it doesn't say and for £30 or £60 its guesswork. Your maximum is presumably a target club requirement, as many like the BSA Meteor are around 8 and the law for teenagers is the same at 6 as it is for 12 ft lbs. These are all recoiling and therefore not as "targetty" as a CO2 rifle which I would recommend out of the two types.
Single Stroke Pneumatic is another possibility like Sharps Inova but long obsolete. .
Other end of the scale would be old german junior target recoil-less classic from the 1980s like Diana 72 break barrel but they are £300+ and very difficult to find as break barrels were never as popular as side levers.
I just wonder why you want break barrel springers for target work when you have a recoil-less CO2 target weapons already?

Thank you for that TMP,

The intention is not to use the spring powered rifle at the club when we have target specific recoil free rifles.

We are trying to give the youngsters an all round experience of Air Rifle shooting, and part of that, is giving them the opportunity to experience and manage recoil.

We are required to limit muzzle energy at the Target Shooting Club to 6ftlb, so using my legal limit ProSport or TX200 HC is out of the question. Apart from the weight of course.

My initial thoughts were something like the HW25, Hatsan Striker Junior, BSA Comet EVO or Webley Cub.

Ok. A bit like giving the bike racing team a go on Raleigh police bikes to show how crap bikes can be!
You'll have to check out that list for power (8 ft lb is quite likely), trigger pull weight and whether proper diopter target sights can be fitted. The HW25 with 3kg trigger pull and old iron sights on the barrel would be an experience alright!