Airgun Safety
This is the most important page in Hard Air Magazine!
Air guns are not toys and should be treated with the same respect as if they were firearms. Learn about them, understand them and care for them. Remember, gun control is hitting what you aim at!
Pellet guns, air rifles, airguns, pellet rifles, BB guns – call them what you will – are NOT paintball guns or Airsoft guns. Never shoot them at any person as they can cause serious injury, even death.
Inevitably our airgun safety rules are a list of “do nots” But really they’re just basic common sense. Please learn and apply them. We all have more fun shooting safely.
Here’s our “Top Ten” pellet gun safety rules:
- Always assume a pellet gun is loaded until proven otherwise.
- Never point a pellet gun at anyone – even if it’s unloaded.
- Always check for a safe backdrop behind the target.
- Don’t load until just before you’re going to shoot.
- Keep the safety applied until you’re ready to shoot.
- Never touch the trigger until the last moment before you fire.
- Remember pellets can travel hundreds of yards. Don’t fire unless you know what will be hit if you miss the target.
- Learn how to load your pellet rifle safely. Never let go of the barrel or cocking lever when loading a spring-powered pellet gun.
- Don’t talk to or distract another person when they’re shooting.
- Don’t try to modify or fix your pellet gun. If there’s problem, contact the experts.
Hard Air Magazine strongly recommends that you attend a shooting club or other organization that teaches shooting safety. Learn from safe, experienced shooters and always do what they teach you. That’s how HAM’s staff learned and they still apply those lessons every day. Safety is never just an option!
Note that our “Top Ten” DOES NOT include every safety tip. For more great safety information check out the NRA’s Gun Safety Rules.
Also make a Google search for “shooting safety”, you’ll find many more links to read.
Have fun but shoot safe!
