Air guns for practice???


S

Silvercliff_46

New member
I am thinking about buying a S&W M&P45 pellet gun. With the difficulty in obtaining .22 ammo for my S&W M&P, and the expense of .45 and .380, I still want to practice. We got fed up yesterday and pumped out a couple of hundred bucks worth of ammo. FUN, but we will be eating rice and noodles for the next couple of weeks. Does anyone here use an air gun for practice? How well does it work? Is there a real carry over to your other handguns????
 

I use air soft guns for practice both in the house and in the yard. It's easy to set up cardboard cut out silhouettes through the house (best is if someone else sets them up so you don't know where they are) or to set up any kind of scenario you want in your back yard or garage. Wife and I often practice together working as a team.

A word of warning... be careful where you set those silhouettes in the house because those plastic air soft pellets WILL dent dry wall.

The air soft guns that work without cocking for every shot are best. And you can get one for around $150 or less. There are some that are the spitting image of many real guns.

Link Removed

(I have no financial interest in any air soft businesses)
 
I have used a Beeman P1 for years. Good for target acquisition and first shot placement. I even use the same grips that are on my Commander.
 
Silvercliff_46 said:
I am thinking about buying a S&W M&P45 pellet gun. With the difficulty in obtaining .22 ammo for my S&W M&P, and the expense of .45 and .380, I still want to practice. We got fed up yesterday and pumped out a couple of hundred bucks worth of ammo. FUN, but we will be eating rice and noodles for the next couple of weeks. Does anyone here use an air gun for practice? How well does it work? Is there a real carry over to your other handguns????
Click to expand...

I know a couple of folks that practice with airsoft for steel plate challenge matches. Search airsoft idpa on youtube and you'll come up with a hit or two.
I'd be doing it myself but I don't want to spend a couple of hundred on a good airsoft pistol right now.

I have used my buddy's and it would be good practice for sight picture and target acquisition running plate racks.
You won't get the same recoil obviously although you can get pistols where the slide works.

Edited to say: The good airsoft pistols are very close to the weight of the real thing

ymmv
 
Silvercliff_46 said:
I am thinking about buying a S&W M&P45 pellet gun. With the difficulty in obtaining .22 ammo for my S&W M&P, and the expense of .45 and .380, I still want to practice. We got fed up yesterday and pumped out a couple of hundred bucks worth of ammo. FUN, but we will be eating rice and noodles for the next couple of weeks. Does anyone here use an air gun for practice? How well does it work? Is there a real carry over to your other handguns????
Click to expand...

Fairly common question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoHA-rhGeG4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I like this answer ^^^^
 
Nope. I use the real thing. Just doesn't make sense to have to adjust for the slightest wind blowing your little plastic bb around so you can hit your target and then have a bad habit carry over to your carry gun.

Maybe if you have a CO2 gun or something and practice making that first shot count. I have a little $35 crossman for those stupid annoying birds that keep building nests right outside my bedroom window. No matter how many I kill, new ones show up every couple of days and wake me up at 5 am. Hitting those little 3 inch tall bastards while half asleep from 25 feet below is a challenge! Especially when the first one falls and they all fly around frantically.
 
tricolordad said:
Nope. I use the real thing. Just doesn't make sense to have to adjust for the slightest wind blowing your little plastic bb around so you can hit your target and then have a bad habit carry over to your carry gun.

Maybe if you have a CO2 gun or something and practice making that first shot count. I have a little $35 crossman for those stupid annoying birds that keep building nests right outside my bedroom window. No matter how many I kill, new ones show up every couple of days and wake me up at 5 am. Hitting those little 3 inch tall bastards while half asleep from 25 feet below is a challenge! Especially when the first one falls and they all fly around frantically.
Click to expand...
If you have access to a range, public or private, that allows safely practicing live fire scenarios that include responding to threats in up to 360 degrees... or inside a home type environment.... well Sir... I deeply envy you! No joke or sarcasm intended in my comment at all!

But I don't have the luxury of being able to practice the types of scenarios that the real world could possibly present me with (like inside my house or multiple attackers some of which are beside/behind me) so, despite the fact that air soft isn't the real thing, it's still better than not practicing.
 
I have to admit I am pretty lucky in the range department. I live in the National forest and have about 7 acres that's bordered by a trout stream. While that sounds like I got major bucks I don't, me and the wife get by on our property that we scrimped for, for years. Anyway our range is about twenty yards from our front door. I think somehow I mislead you guys. I'm NOT talking about an Air Soft, I a talking about a co2 replica .177 pellet gun made by Smith & Wesson (at least their name is on it) to look and feel like it's M&P .22 cal pistol (which I also own). It's a real "You can put your eye out" pellet/bb gun. Not having shot a pellet/bb gun in 60 years (never a hand gun) I am just wondering if the accuracy would be sufficient to keep my aim up instead of using my regular guns so much. By the way if I ever shot my wife in the @$$ with it, I am sure I would have one of her .380's coming back.
 
Bikenut said:
If you have access to a range, public or private, that allows safely practicing live fire scenarios that include responding to threats in up to 360 degrees... or inside a home type environment.... well Sir... I deeply envy you! No joke or sarcasm intended in my comment at all!

But I don't have the luxury of being able to practice the types of scenarios that the real world could possibly present me with (like inside my house or multiple attackers some of which are beside/behind me) so, despite the fact that air soft isn't the real thing, it's still better than not practicing.
Click to expand...
Well, if you call killing annoying birds that start screeching 35 minutes before sunrise 360 degree practice...i wont argue .lol. It does do wonders for my first shot though. Since the shortage, i have found that not being in constant practice puts my first shot an inch low left of where i want it. It's not much considering i practice at ranges between 5 and 25 feet, but it could be a potential problem with an adrenaline dump were i to need to fire at a BG. Those birds keep me in practice! This morning, two were fighting. I missed them both and gave up after emptying all 11 bbs from the mag. Sleeping on the couch hurts my neck but its better than listening to a few birds fight at 80 decibals.
 
I don't see how airsoft guns will give you anything that dry firing won't. And using the actual gun is always better than a mock-up. If you want accuracy practice use a laser trainer.
 
I've heard of competitive shooters dry firing over a million times in a year for practice. Here's an article about not using ammo but still practicing with your firearm.

Link Removed
 
I know what the hell an Air Gun is, I also know what an Air SOFT Gun is. If anyone took the time to READ what I wrote, they would see that from the beginning I said a PELLET gun, not a plastic play gun, one of which I own. To hell with it forget it, I talked to a trainer from NRA who seemed to understand the difference between a pellet gun and an Air Soft. If you looked at the second post you will clearly see that I hand held and walked completely through what I meant. I doubt that a link would do it any better.
 
Silvercliff_46 said:
I know what the hell an Air Gun is, I also know what an Air SOFT Gun is. If anyone took the time to READ what I wrote, they would see that from the beginning I said a PELLET gun, not a plastic play gun, one of which I own. To hell with it forget it, I talked to a trainer from NRA who seemed to understand the difference between a pellet gun and an Air Soft. If you looked at the second post you will clearly see that I hand held and walked completely through what I meant. I doubt that a link would do it any better.
Click to expand...

I think before you train with a pellet gun, bb gun, or air soft you should practice controlling your temper. Toy pellet guns, unless a revolver, are the least realistic. Good luck with that.
 
wolf_fire said:
I've heard of competitive shooters dry firing over a million times in a year for practice. Here's an article about not using ammo but still practicing with your firearm.

Link Removed
Click to expand...

I've heard that stated before. too and I don't believe it for a second. Even the most hardcore pro shooters can't manage to dry-fire over 2,700 times a day, without missing a day.
 
jcreek said:
I've heard that stated before. too and I don't believe it for a second. Even the most hardcore pro shooters can't manage to dry-fire over 2,700 times a day, without missing a day.
Click to expand...

Excellent point. I've heard this by several people in similar circles and never thought to challenge it, but the math does seem outlandish.
 
Silvercliff_46 said:
I know what the hell an Air Gun is, I also know what an Air SOFT Gun is. If anyone took the time to READ what I wrote, they would see that from the beginning I said a PELLET gun, not a plastic play gun, one of which I own. To hell with it forget it, I talked to a trainer from NRA who seemed to understand the difference between a pellet gun and an Air Soft. If you looked at the second post you will clearly see that I hand held and walked completely through what I meant. I doubt that a link would do it any better.
Click to expand...

Wow... only 15 posts, and you have (I'm not counting to be sure) at least three of them... and you are this upset already. Maybe you should put down the firearm, take a few deep breaths, go to your happy place and calm down. Most people equate (your terminology) air gun to mean an air soft. Yes, there are other air guns out there, and yes you did use the term pellet. My question to you though, if you are using anything other than your EDC for practice, then what difference does it make if they made their point against using anything else using an air soft or a pellet gun? Or wait... maybe they were just giving you an alternative method for practice using an air soft instead of a pellet gun. Wow, people on a forum actually being considerate and offering you other ideas.

I'm going in the corner and sitting down now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 184 (members: 0, guests: 184)

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
49,544
Messages
611,260
Members
74,959
Latest member
defcon

Share this page

Back
Top