The boy has expressed an interest in BB guns and to be honest I’m in agreement. Question is, where best to look? A quick Google brings up various “bbguns4less” sites, none of which work too well. Any advice gratefully received.

I think DAI sports sell them online.

As in airsoft or .177/.22 CO2 repeater?

My opinion, BBs are crap for anything other than back garden plinking and have a horrible tendency to ricochet which can be an offence if it left your boundary (gun platform dependent) not to mention the potential for damage, material or otherwise. I’d go for an air pistol or junior rifle and proper pellets, something small like a Weihrauch HW30 or a Diana 11 in spring or a 2250b ratcatcher in CO2. BSA make a junior pre-charge and Air Arms have the S200 but that’s getting expensive.

BB guns or airsoft guns for the good ones.

Fall under weird laws now where you cant buy ones that look like real guns, unless you have a valid reason. Member of an airsoft site/reenactment group, film company etc

The exception being ones painted red or blue or whatever so they are not “replica imitation firearms” IE dont look real enough are not covered by this.

Whereas airguns that are waaay more powerful are find and you can just buy what you want? 😕

Really depends what you want to use it for, going airsofting or just shooting at targets in the garden?

I have owned loads over the years costing £20-400 so have a bit of experience

That’s easy, air guns are firearms, airsoft aren’t (below 1J auto or 2.5J semi auto or something like that) so air guns aren’t imitations so therefore can’t be classed as RIF’s. Except the air guns that are modelled on real guns but since they are firearm imitations and not imitation firearms that’s okay.

Duh.

Makes total sense doesn’t it… you can buy a 16 J semi auto air rifle capable of serious injury/DEATH!! more easily than a spring single shot airsoft pistol that could maybe hurt your eye with a really close range shot 😆

steel 4.5mm bb’s or 6mm plastic airsoft bb’s is definitely the first bit to work out.

Some co2 pistols are available in either but as pointed out there are now some weird laws that cover air-soft. I think only if the power is less than 1 joule – which means it is an imitation firearm and not a real firearm – at which point the odd colours or air-soft membership comes into play… IANAL

Just remember if your lad is under 18 you need to make sure you know and follow the law correctly. The days of letting a 12 year old roam around with an air-weapon unsupervised are long gone. If you are in Scotland there are also additional license requirements as well.

There’s some good guidance here for air-weapons: https://basc.org.uk/firearms/airgun-guidance-and-fact-sheets/

…and my recommendation is to look at a Swiss Arms 1911 – the co2 and bb’s all get loaded into a magazine (buy an extra one) and the pistol works in a realistic fashion with blow-back etc. Great fun for knocking down cans and feeling like James Bond. I recommend safety specs with steel bb’s though, they can bounce around more than lead pellets.

If he wants to shoot proper targets then look for a pistol that fires pellets – a HW45 for a traditional spring powered gun or a Umarex Beretta 92FS for a Co2 powered gun that looks realistic but doesn’t quite work that way.

If you live anywhere near Berkhamstead there is a shop there with pistol & rifle ranges where you can hire Co2 bb pistols or even a PCP rifle. https://www.ronniesunshines.com/

Personally Id definately recomend an airsoft gun as much less dangerous and dont need more power if you arent going to kill stuff. Bbs are super cheap all you have to compromise on is having a bright colour painted on half the gun. £40-100 for something to start with

My lad has a collection of airsoft guns, ones a bolt action styled on a vsr 10 and the other is a lipo powered G&G M4, he also has a couple of pistols one gas and one electric, he’s had them a couple of years and they’ve been fine, I wouldn’t use bbguns4less, if you search for airsoft instead of bb you’ll get a better selection. You will be restricted to 2 tone paint unless you play regularly at an airsoft site and apply for UKARA membership.

On the other hand there are plenty of reasons for having decent power other than killing things. Please don’t perpetuate anti gun nonsense, you should know better.

Power equals range and in a rifle you get accuracy. 10m air rifle is limited to 6fpe, pointless you may think but the accuracy required is phenomenal. See also bell target, quite a few clubs seem to be popping up offering this.

HW45 would probably be a bit much depending on age, my missus struggles with my Black Star. If you are spending that sort of dosh an Artemis (SMK) PP700 variant would be better.

You can buy 0.5 joule bb guns ones from amazon.de – just right for dislodging the pigeons trying to roost under my solar panels when on full auto-useless for airsoft but great for arseing about

Please don’t perpetuate anti gun nonsense, you should know better.

🙄

Depends on the age of the kid surely and what they want to do? a 10 year old could happly mess about in the garden with a bb gun with a pair of glasses/goggles and there be very very little risk of them causing any trouble. But an air gun which undoubtedly has its advantages but they could cause a lot more trouble damage so would have to be supervised at all times.

FWIW, last time I looked (10+ years now) semi-auto air rifles (that’s the 16J or 12 ftlb) were not available on the UK market. No specific legislation to prevent it, but manufacturers didn’t want them home-modified to full auto. Only SA available are .22lr I think.

Pistols are <6ftlb for airguns.

FWIW, last time I looked (10+ years now) semi-auto air rifles (that’s the 16J or 12 ftlb) were not available on the UK market. No specific legislation to prevent it, but manufacturers didn’t want them home-modified to full auto. Only SA available are .22lr I think.

I think you are correct, there are some self-loading/double action air-rifles on the market but as far as I know they are co2 powered and are all sub 4 ftlb. There are plenty of multi-shot PCP’s and gamo have a springer, but all require manual re-cocking after each shot.

You all know an airsoft bb gun is a gateway gun, skip that and get the lad shooting proper air-pistols properly 8)

Re. air rifle/pistol v BB and differnces in purchasing:

When I was a kid we all had bb guns or air guns. We’d happily shoot each other in the body with BB guns but not air guns (for obvious reasons). Maybe its that perception that BB guns are toys/not dangerous that means they need a bit more regulation? Arse about face I know but just thinking..

Squirrelking speaks lots of sense.

I consider myself to be a bit of an expert on all things airgun and am happy to advise on this.

How old is “the boy?” and what does he want to do with a pistol?
What prompted his interest?

I consider myself to be a bit of an expert on all things

We’re all experts on STW 😀 😆

Depends on the age of the kid surely and what they want to do? a 10 year old could happly mess about in the garden with a bb gun with a pair of glasses/goggles and there be very very little risk of them causing any trouble. But an air gun which undoubtedly has its advantages but they could cause a lot more trouble damage so would have to be supervised at all times.

Apart from anything else the OP would have a legal duty to supervise any minor with a firearm at all times. I’d also be inclined to supervise them with an airsoft gun (let’s not muddy the waters, air pistols fire BB’s as well) as well as they could, either deliberately or not, still do something stupid like firing beyond the garden and hitting another house or shooting at an animal or person. The firearms laws on projectiles leaving your boundaries are as equally applicable to airsoft guns as any firearm (source). Even if that is wrong it would be irresponsible to allow anyone to shoot beyond your boundaires regardless, at 10 years old I would say you would be on shaky ground of you were to let your child play with any gun unsupervised.

Not sure what the rolling of eyes was for, I know plenty of people that have been shooting for years and still only hit paper, myself included. If you want to portray all firearms shooters as bloodthirsty killers be my guest but don’t expect me not to correct your nonsense nor be surprised when legislation hits us ALL if someone was to decide something “needed” done. Airsofters with above power guns already need an AWL up here, if you think the same isn’t being looked at down your way you are sadly mistaken.

I think you are correct, there are some self-loading/double action air-rifles on the market but as far as I know they are co2 powered and are all sub 4 ftlb. There are plenty of multi-shot PCP’s and gamo have a springer, but all require manual re-cocking after each shot.

The Steyr Hunting 5 SA PCP is “self indexing” which is a legally safe form of semi auto (it’s technically not semi-auto but performs much the same function). Also, Gamo are the Carrera of the airgun world. 😛

Typical STW fashion weve got to the point of arguing and quoting laws when all the op has said is his lad wants a toy gun to play with…

How about we wait until he says the age and use of the gun first…

My comment wasnt saying anything negative about using a gun to kill stuff just that an airsoft gun wont. Depends on as I said what he wants to do with it and how much space you have to use, as obviously you cant go running around the park with a RIF

Typical STW fashion weve got to the point of arguing and quoting laws when all the op has said is his lad wants a toy gun to play with…

👿

Guns are not toys. Air rifles or otherwise. It’s this blase attitude that leads to people doing stupid things with guns and all responsible owners getting the stick for it. Thanks to fannys that think guns are toys I now have to fork out for a licence to legally own a sub-12fpe firearm that costs the same as that of a Section 1 or 2 certificate.

I don’t really care what your other comment was supposed to mean, it was ill considered and very badly put:

Personally Id definately recomend an airsoft gun as much less dangerous and dont need more power if you arent going to kill stuff.

And in your example of a 10 year old you would be breaking the law as I linked to:

It is legal for anyone above the age of 14 to shoot an airgun, unsupervised, on private land where full permission to shoot has been given. Those below the age of 14 may shoot airguns only if closely supervised by someone over 21 years of age. The supervising adult is legally responsible for the actions of the junior shooter.

sub-12fpe

I’m assuming that means sub 12ft/lbs, but what does the e stand for?

I think you’re a lot better off letting kids learn to use guns/knives etc whilst under supervision and having all the safety rules drummed into them so they can come to respect the tool they’re using. It’s certainly better than them having a shot with a mate’s out in the street up to no good.

The OP doesn’t state the age of his kid but a local Airsoft site would be a good place to start. Most sites offer a “pay and play” type deal where you rent equipment and have a go a few times before you get your own kit. Our place starts at age 12 and they’re excellent at safety briefings and enforcing the rules very strictly during play.

If the OP wants any help i`ll be back. Clearly a touched a nerve so will stay away for now 😆

Sbob, fpe = ft/lbs energy. Just seems to be he accepted nomenclature in the UK as opposed to the US where people are more concerned with fpe. Personally I’d rather just work in SI and call it 16J (7.5J for a pistol) but that’s what we seem to be stuck with.

Coyote, depending what your boy is interested in depends what your next move is. Even if he just wants to try something out you can get started fairly cheaply (in air guns at least) especially second hand and there’s not much in the way of depreciation after the initial purchase provided you take care of it. There are clubs happy to cater to children especially bell target (was started for scouts back in the Baden Powell days) and it should be easy enough to find something for him to try out. Plinking in your garden is a lot easier down your way, obvious space and boundary issues aside it is perfectly safe so long as you contain it.

But as said ownership of any gun carries responsibilities and so long as you respect that fact you will have no problems.