Ten Gotchas about Air Guns that No One Will Tell You!
If you own an air gun or you are considering buying a pellet gun or bb gun, take this quiz to test your knowledge to See how Much you Really Know about Air Guns!
About the Author: Dirt E. Harry
If you struggle a bit with the test, you can zig and zag back to the Answers Page, and take the quiz until you score 100%… Once finished you are welcome to send me an email with your completed quiz.
1. The definition of a “magic pellet” is:
a. A pellet that has had a magic spell cast on it by a Fortune Teller
b. A pellet fired by an air gun that goes through the same hole over and over
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2. Which of these statements is true:
a. Before testing take the time to clean the barrel.
b. To find the magic pellet you will only need to buy the right tin of pellets.
c. To find the magic pellet, always start the testing sequence with the heaviest pellet first.
d. None of the above.
e. All of the above.
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3. Parallax is:
a. Properly adjusted when your target looks like it has the Cross-Hairs painted on it no matter where you move your head.
b. A fictional comic book supervillain in the DC Comics universe.
c. An adjustable objective (AO) scope is not capable of correcting parallax error.
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4. It is perfectly okay to fill a PCP air gun with a hand pump if:
a. You live on the Coast
b. You live in a humid climate
c. You live in a dry climate
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5. To achieve accuracy with any air gun:
a. You must balance the weight of your pellet to the air pressure that your air gun is capable of producing.
b. If the pellet is too light for the air pressure, you will not be able to hit anything.
c. If the pellet is too heavy for the air pressure, you will still not be able to hit anything.
d. All you need is a chronograph
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6. A spring-piston or nitro/gas piston air gun:
a. In .30 caliber is more powerful than a .25 caliber
b. In .25 caliber is more powerful than a .22 caliber
c. In .22 caliber is more powerful than a .177 caliber
d. In .177 caliber is the least powerful
e. All have the same power.
f. All are equally as accurate and can produce the magic pellet.
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7. A CO2 powered air gun:
a. Is perfect for plinking and killing tin cans.
b. In some situations, it just the ticket for self defense.
c. It is a good back up air gun for hunting coyotes.
d. All of the above.
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8. The best way to zero a scope:
a. To take your gun out of the gun vise.
b. Fiddle with the elevation and windage turrets.
c. Leave your gun in the gun vise after you fire one shot.
d. Zero your scope to the hole created by the magic pellet after performing step c.
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9. To determine foot/pounds of energy (fpe):
a. You have to use a complicated mathematical formula.
b. All you need to know is the velocity (feet per second or fps).
c. You don’t need a chronograph.
d. There are “muzzle energy” calculators online that you can use.
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10. It is best to fill a PCP air gun with:
a. Dry ambient air.
b. Clean breathable dry air.
c. Nitrogen gas.
d. Air directly from a shop compressor.
e. Oxygen from an oxygen welding tank.
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11. Bonus Question… the Question you have to ask yourself (when dealing with anyone else) is:
a. Do I feel lucky?
b. Is it likely that I could wind up like the Punk that forgot his Fortune Cookie?
c. Dirt E. Harry is not as dumb as he looks.
You would be surprised (or maybe you wouldn’t be) about how many people there are out there that don’t have a clue when it comes to having useful information about an air gun and what makes an air gun tick. At the same time, you would be amazed at how many people there are selling pellet guns and bb guns online that don’t have a clue either… Sad situation!
Like many of you, when I first started out with airguns, I was dumb as a box of rocks about air guns and that is why I built that sliding gun vise so I could get down to the nitty gritty with hands on experience and figure out these neat and fun pellet guns and bb guns. After several years of testing, I have emerged to the point where I think that maybe I am now a little smarter than the average dummy about air guns and learning more everyday.
When I was looking around the internet for information to set up this air gun knowledge test page I found virtually nothing that was useable. I found an “air gun buyer’s guide” or two and a few blogs that were mainly promoting this pellet gun or that bb gun- but nothing really usable about air guns. There is a lot of blurbs about air gun accuracy, big bore air guns, air gun effective distance (approximately 50 yards) and hunting air guns- but nothing about what makes these pellet guns and bb guns really work.
I hope you will take a pro-active serious approach to the air gun quiz that I have concocted and really look at the answers- these are questions I get every-single-day. Maybe the theme should be “Ten Gotchas about Air Guns that No One (except me) can tell you!