My wife has come to understand my "need" to shoot. Whenever I pack up and head to the range on the coldest of days she never bothers to ask why, only when should she expect me back. Even at that she knows to add at least one hour because I'll always be late. During the past winter, about the middle deer season, she strolled into my reloading room to find me stuffing a box with old rags and magazines. This time she did ask of my intentions and I muttered something about getting ready to shoot. Being the wise woman she is, Cindy just shook her head and walked away probably concluding that burned powder fumes had finally gotten to me. But there was a method to my madness. During the winter months I don't get to the range as much as I like to. That time of the year is also hunting season so I spend as much daylight as possible after whatever game is in season. To keep in practice I rely on something I did a lot as a child, shooting an air gun.

Shooting an air gun (or pistol in this case) is a great way to maintain good trigger control and practice sight alignment when range time is limited. But how can you practice with an air gun when not outside? If you have a basement, attic, or garage you can easily get some indoor range time to maintain your shooting proficiency. Just make sure that any doors into the area are blocked so that no one can walk into the line of fire. I shoot in my reloading room that only has one entrance. I place my target box at the far end of my room which allows me to get about twenty feet of practice range. Remember the box I was stuffing earlier, well I have found that a box stuffed with rags and old magazines is more than adequate to stop a BB or pellet from an air gun. As a target, I use a red marker to color dime-sized dots on a sheet of paper and tape it to the box.

The first pistol given to me was a Daisy single shot that had to be pumped to shoot and fired BB's as well as pellets. This was a very accurate pistol that I learned a good deal from. I had started shooting with BB's but could not get the consistency with them that I had hoped. Switching to pellets gave much better groups; I guess you could say that this was my first real experiment in "load development". With consistent practice I became proficient enough to knock over empty 12 gauge shotgun casings at twenty yards and often went through a 250-count box of pellets in a day or two. I don't spend that much time on the trigger now but will still shoot ten to twenty shots per night if time allows.

Airguns are rather inexpensive and ammo is cheap which equals hours of fun. I was never much on the airguns that utilized a CO2 charged cylinder to propel ammo. These seemed to loose accuracy as the cylinder pressure decreased. Buying the CO2 was also an added expense. My preference is toward airguns that have to be pumped to create the pressure for projectile propulsions. With this system you can pump the gun as many times as you like for the purpose at hand. The airguns I have used in the past usually have a ten-pump limit. For shooting inside I'll usually pump those about five times. When shooting outside to control garden vermin I'll use the full ten pumps.

BB guns are not just for kids! During the time of year that darkness takes more hours of the day than light, indoor airgunning is a good way to maintain sharp and comfortable on the trigger.

Good shooting,
Dan B.