Are you kidding me?! Air guns ARE REAL GUNS!!!

[Mike6294]

I fianally talked my buddy who owns a ranch in northern California that is over run with squirrels to try my FX Crown .25. He had made fun of my "toys" for years, but after taking over 100 squirrels in 2 days, when the best he had ever done with his rimfire "real" guns is 15 (because the sound scared them all into the ground). Guess who was on the phone with Utah Airguns that afternoon.

 

[Dingfelder]

Okay here is how I define a “toy vs a tool”, and to me air guns are tools, not toys. So maybe I can change your mind.

Toys are meant for amusement and educate and tools are where you combined former in to real world application, in air rifle application they are designed for target shooting and hunting. This is toy vs tool applies from the .177 Daisy Rider to a Air Force .45 cal Texan. The former can be used for target or hunting, depending on your reality of scope and rationality, toys can not.

So did I change your mind????

I guess you don't know the real meaning of toy. A toy can be anything that a person enjoy playing with. My 500 s&w is my favorite toy to play with.

I would marry my toy if she didn't lose air so quickly.

 

[Dingfelder]

I think you might be surrounded by some crazy people there my friend. I’m only person in my family who has any interest in these things but at least they don’t give me the hard time they’re giving you!


I definitely emphasize safety and ways in which pallets are different from bullets in the much lower velocities and pressures that are associated with them if it ever does come up. It’s interesting to explain to people how the Diablo pellet is basically the result of an attempt to make a “safer” bullet because of its low ballistic coefficient, etc. Well it may not have been intended for that (?) but that’s what it works out to be.

Displaced city folk, like myself. Unless you're a crook or a cop or military, most big city people don't have much knowledge of or interest in guns, so the only exposure they get to guns never normalizes them. Just makes them frightening. Scary crime stories, anti-gun propaganda, etc. When I was in college, even decades ago, roommates and others in Los Angeles were amazed I had a .22 rifle. They could hardly fit their heads around owning a gun at all. It just seemed freaky and weird.

Those folks are still the same people, just older, like me. My dad took me shooting starting young, though, so I never developed the fear and misunderstanding, just the appreciation.

FWIW, I've found that almost everyone I took to the range wound up really enjoying the experience. Even those very reluctant to go and who started off literally trembling and forcing themselves into it just to see if they could master the panic or whatever. Shooting is fun if you know what it is. And all kinds of weird and terrifying if you didn't grow up with it and have no idea.

Also FWIW, these same folks in my little community are very fearful of anyone unfamiliar in these covid days. They're just fearful in general. And always kvetching. I'm hoping nobody catches on that I'll be pesting around the house, so I'll do my part by keeping mum and using a moderator.

 

[Greenarrow]

I don't have any desire for them to be "real guns". I don't want all the bullpoop that goes along with "real guns" to deal with. If I did id have bought a "real gun".

People these days seem to be hell bent on making airguns as close to "real guns" as they can get, and they will be whining when they come to be treated as "real guns". 

All this high power, fully auto, big bore shooting nonsense is gonna screw us all in the end, and especially the people who have been content for years using airguns for what they are and enjoying that. 

Maybe when we have to have a background check, pay a tax, buy from a licensed dealer and so on people will finally be satisfied that they are "real guns" and nobody will want one anymore. 

Personally, the biggest thing I like about airguns is that they are a welcome diversion from real guns. I can shoot in the backyard, hunt about anywhere, and I don't have to go to the range and squeeze in between all the GI Joe dickheads with AR15s trying to hit a man sized target at 15 yards. 

There's my rant. 

Don't hold back Chase.

 

[Greenarrow]

My $.02

Im into pellet/air guns just for what they are, not what they could be. It refreshing to just chill at peace in my yard plinking away. It's the right tool for the right job.

I'm all about innovation and improvement and even upping power but it just not what attracted me to air power or what I'm particularly interested in. For me. I'm into flying low and slow baby. I do consider airguns to be real guns that's why I handle them as potentially dangerous tools.