Club badge.

York Jubilee Air Rifle & Pistol Club


Equipment

 

Air rifle and pistol target shooting is a national, international and Olympic sport.


Features :

- Suitable for able bodied and for people with disabilities
- Suitable for young and old alike
- You don’t need perfect vision, as long as your sight is ok with glasses
- Men and women can compete on equal terms
- You can practice at home
- You don’t need a Firearms Certificate
- There is no recoil and very little noise on firing
- A great family sport
- Ammunition is cheap, about 1p a shot
- Participate for fun or get Olympic ambitions!


The targets used in the 10 metre events are shown below. To hit a score of ten on the air rifle target, one edge of the pellet must hit a spot in the centre which is only half a millimetre across. For air pistol, the ten ring is about the same diameter as an aspirin (and trying to hit it consistently can give you a headache!).


It is a technical sport. Modern airguns are highly sophisticated pieces of equipment capable of pin point accuracy. Most target airguns are now powered by pre-compressed air (pre-charged pneumatic, or PCP) and have on-board reservoirs which are filled up from a high pressure air source such as a scuba diving bottle. The club maintains two such bottles for members to use for refilling their air guns at minimal cost.


Other airguns may be powered by levers to compress the air internally for one shot at a time, but are no less accurate. Some of the older ones are very accurate indeed and on a par with modern PCP ones, just a little more awkward to use. Most of the club airguns are of this type.


There are also springer air rifles, where the air is compressed via a large internal spring by breaking the barrel down and up again as the lever. These tend to be not so accurate, although it could just be that your arms get tired more quickly from the effort required to compress the spring for each shot!