By Jock Elliott

Want to shoot your air rifle more accurately? Here are some pointers that can help.

 Let’s assume that you are shooting a pump-up, CO2-powered, or pre-charged pneumatic air rifle. Those three powerplants are inherently easier for a beginner to shoot well than a spring-piston air rifle (We’ll get to springers at the end of this column.).

Start by shooting from a rest. The rest doesn’t have to be fancy; it can be a toolbox on a picnic table padded with a jacket. What’s important is that you can comfortably rest your rifle, pull the stock to your shoulder, see through the sights and hold your position.

Now, all that follows is based on the assumption that you have (a) sighted in your air rifle and (b) attempted to discover which pellets work best in your particular air rifle. If you haven’t done either of these things, please read my column on “What to do before you shoot,” which covers sighting-in, and my column on “Airguns, pellets and accuracy,” which addresses how pellet choice can have a very big effect on accuracy. These will help you to get properly set up. (This column also assumes that you are also following the rules of airgunning safety such as shooting at a safe backstop, and so forth.)

Shooting an air rifle accurately is really about two key things: sight picture and trigger control. Sight picture is (surprise, surprise!) the picture you see through the sights. If you’re using a scope, it’s the crosshairs resting on the bull’s-eye. If you’re shooting with iron sights, align the sights so that the front post is the same height as the rear blade and there is equal space on either side of the front sight as it floats in the notch in the rear sight. The top of the front post should be over the center of your target. (Note: some iron sight shooters use the “six o’clock” hold in which the entire bull’s-eye floats above the front sight. Whichever sight picture you use, pick one and stick with it.)

Once you’ve got the sight picture you want, you want to squeeze the trigger without disturbing the sight picture. So relax behind your air rifle. Breathe normally. Watch the sight picture. Notice that the sight picture moves slightly as you breathe. As you get ready for your shot, take a deep breath, let half of it out, and hold your breath. Squeeeeeeeeeze the trigger. Don’t jerk it. Just pull your trigger finger gently back into your hand. Very often, I lay my trigger-hand thumb on top of the gun so that it points down the barrel, so it feels like I am pulling my trigger finger toward my thumb.

Try five shots like that at ten yards and see if you get a group you can cover with a quarter, a nickel or a dime. If your shots are all over the place, shoot five more, but this time pay special attention to what happens to the sight picture at the instant the shot is triggered. Sometimes shooters ruin a perfectly good shot by yanking the gun to one side or another at the very last instant. Shoot a few shots concentrating just on smooth trigger control. Then shoot a few concentrating solely on sight picture. Over time, you’ll find that maintaining the sight picture and controlling the trigger will work together to make you a more accurate shooter.

Special note for spring-piston air rifle shooters: the powerplant of a “springer” is unique. A lever (usually the barrel or a lever under the gun) is used to cock a spring and piston. When the trigger is pulled, the spring is released, pushing the piston forward. The air rifle tends to recoil backwards. As the piston nears the end of its stroke, it recoils in the opposite direction. The result is a whiplash recoil requires special attention to shoot accurately. In addition to sight picture and trigger control, to shoot a springer accurately you must (a) hold the rifle loosely so that it is free to recoil, (b) never shoot while resting the rifle on a hard surface (always use a resilient rest such as a cushion or your hand), and (c) always maintaining the same spot where the rifle touches the rest (for many springers, this seems to be a point just about an inch ahead of the trigger guard, but you may have to experiment to find the “sweet spot” for your springer.)

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