Airguns: air rifle or air pistol, and what both need
An air rifle is shouldered and held with both hands; an air pistol is held in one, at arm’s length. That one difference decides most of the rest: the rifle is the easier gun to hold still and the usual first airgun, the pistol the harder hold and the way into pistol shooting. Each has its own guide here: air rifles and air pistols. Whether either needs a licence where you live is in the licence guides.
What the two share is below: the pellets and how to test them, what the power figures mean and why more is not better, how to train at home, and how to clean the gun and how often. Each post names both guns where they differ.
Air rifle and air pistol pellets: 4.5 or 5.5 mm, and which shape
How to choose the calibre, shape, head size and weight of your pellets, and how to test them from a rest until your groups close up.Air rifle and air pistol power: joules, ft-lb and accuracy
How to work out muzzle energy from a pellet’s weight and speed, convert joules, ft-lb, grains and fps, and why a more powerful rifle is not a more accurate one.Training at home with an air rifle or air pistol
Dry fire and hold where your gun’s maker allows it; shoot live only where the law allows, into a rated trap with safety glasses on; log what you trained.Cleaning and maintaining an air rifle or air pistol
An airgun needs little: wipe it after shooting, clean the barrel from the breech when groups open or on the maker’s interval, oil almost nothing and never with a petroleum oil, take the CO2 capsule out, and treat the PCP cylinder as the manual says.
By gun
Air rifles: from the garden to the 10 m range
Everything a hobby shooter needs to go from cans in the garden to a first 10 m air rifle competition.Air pistol: from the first evening at the club to the 10 m match
Everything a hobby shooter needs to go from a first evening at the club to a first 10 m air pistol match.