[walkinman221]

Originally Posted by Neil

You have no idea if he has total disregard for gun safety from what he has said.



That is utter rubbish.
Air weapons are no more powerful now than when I had my first one at 15 ish.
They may or may not be more accurate now, that depends on how good a shot you are as pre-charged tend to require less skill to shoot with good repeatability.

The legal limit for air weapons has been 6 ft/lbs for pistols and 12 ft/lbs for air rifles since at least 1969 without a firearms certificate as you state. Why you mention many of them require a firearm certificate I dont know as that applies to other rifles, shotguns, hand guns etc

I didnt say many of them require a firearms cert , i said many modern air weapons are able to attain over the 12ftlb limit therefore making them subject to a firearms cert.Also modern air weapons can be more powerful than their older counterparts , due to better technology ie more air weapons using gas spring/rams. The advantages of the gas spring include the facility to keep the rifle cocked and ready to fire for long periods of time without harming the mechanism. Also, since there is no spring (and therefore a reduction in moving mass during firing) there is less although some say slightly sharper recoil. There is also an elimination of the associated problems of long-term spring fatigue and a faster "lock time" (the time between pulling the trigger and the pellet being discharged). The improvement in lock time makes for better accuracy since there is less time for the gun to move off target. Finally, gas springs are practically maintenance free and last longer than conventional metal springs. They can be tweaked or tuned, to up their power if you know whats what.Older or conventional spring powered air weapons have a practical upper limit of 1250 ft/s (380 m/s) for .177 cal (4.5 mm) pellets. Higher velocities cause unstable pellet flight and loss of accuracy. This is due to the shock wave generated as the super sonic pellet contacts the air. Shortly after leaving the barrel, the pellet falls below the speed of sound and the shock wave overtakes the pellet, causing it to tumble. And as for his disregard for gun safety any post with the words carefree and weapons in it makes me worry sorry.