By: Randy Parker, PSC Rifle Director
I wasn’t around back in 1906, but I was probably around when your grandpa was a kid. Back when I was a kid when you thought about an “air gun” you were thinking about a Red Rider BB gun or a Benjamin pump-up pellet gun. These were used mainly by kids to have fun and maybe kill a sparrow or maybe a rat if you were lucky. Back then you wanted a .22 to do real shooting, and a box of .22 ammo was about $0.50 to $0.60 per box of .22 Long Rifle. Yes, and gasoline was $0.20 per gallon. We have come a long way since then, and “air gun” technology has also come a long way.
Back in 1800 there was the Girardoni air rifle and one or several of these were taken along with the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1803. The Girardoni air rifle was a .46 caliber air gun producing a 1,000 ft per second muzzle velocity and could penetrate a 1” pine board at 100 yards. This rapid-fire rifle could shoot 22 times in less than one minute with high accuracy! Way better performance than the muzzle loading muskets of the time. Some of these air guns were used in European battles around 1790 to 1800. It is kind of amazing that there was not any investment in further development of air guns as a battlefield weapon. Anyway, after the Lewis and Clark Expedition air guns pretty much disappeared and we were left with the Red Rider BB gun.
Now in 2025, air gun technology, precision, and manufacturing technics have made air guns available and popular everywhere. Whether CO2, spring, or compressed air (PCP) propelled air guns, these are commonly available and may be anywhere between .177 caliber to .62 caliber. Air guns of .25 caliber approach the muzzle energy of a .22 Long Rifle rimfire and larger calibers can be comparable to .44 Magnum muzzle energy.
With air guns becoming more popular and are more in use at PSC, it has become necessary to make some rules to control air guns use at PSC. The new rules are needed to protect PSC Club property and prevent damage to both the stationery and swinger steel targets on club ranges. Therefore, the following are the new rules for the use of air guns at PSC.
- Air Gun Range: Limited to .22 caliber or smaller
- Range 3: Limited to .25 caliber or smaller
- Range 2: Air Pistol only
- Air Guns larger than .25 caliber must be used on Range 1 or Range 4 only.
So, there you are, now in 2025 there are changes needed since the way things were back in ’06.