What was it that got everyone into Air rifles?

Having an awesome late 70's 80's childhood. I was never bought an air rifle or pistol, but somehow always managed to have one and then have it taken off me. All the rifles were break barrel type and the pistols were mainly the Gat and G10. Back then between our groups of friends air guns were passed around just as much as stickers and toys. I joined Army Cadets at 13 and then the Army at 16. Needless to say, I have always loved shooting, in any form and long may it last :D
 
I guess it was about what wasn’t available when I was a kid in the eighties than the availability of air rifles. Xbox, sky telly and the interwebs hadn’t been invented yet, so I had a fishing rod, skateboard and an air rifle.

Some smart arse will no doubt point out that actually the internet had been invented then but let’s be honest, it wasn’t what we see today
 
My son.

He shot some air rifles at scouts, and really kept on about it. Then I saw through eventbrite there was an 'Introduction to Air Rifle' event by Target Shooting School, which we both went to. He absolutely loved it, so we enrolled him in the school and he attends that once a week doing 6m and 10m olympic style air rifle shooting.

The school uses the facilities at our local shooting club (which I never knew was there 10 mins from my house, even though we've lived there for near 20 years!), and my son then kept asking if it was something we could do together. Seeing as the school don't accept 45 year old men into their friday classes with the kids ( :ROFLMAO: ) we applied to join our local club, and i've been spending all my freetime shooting ever since :P

Now i'm building my own 50m range in a field we rent of the council next door to our house, and I get to spend some time with my 9 year old doing something we both really enjoy... I just need to get my 13 yo daughter involved now :P
 
When the travelling fair came to the village I lived in as a youngster there were shooting stalls. When I was old enough to ho on my own thats where I went. Spent all my saved up pocket money on shooting an ASI Paratrooper at mothballs.
Was pretty much hooked. Teenage mates had them. Then through handguns, shotguns and now all of them on SGC and FAC.
Do I still love air rifles tho’? Yup sure do!
😍
 
Years of playing with toy guns of every conceivable design, some of which shot actual projectiles, culminating in the great Airfix FN-FAL.
Shooting air rifles at fairgrounds, along with every kind of shooting game they had, until finally having the money from my first job (£26 a week!) to buy a brand new Webley Victor from the sports shop in Gants Hill, topped with a 6x32 scope from Sussex Armoury at Charing Cross.
 
Andyshoots said:
Dad, both uncles and grandad all shooting men so I didn’t have to ask.
I was gifted a bsa meteor and a Swiss Army knife aged 9.
First thing I shot after I was able to hit pebbles comfortably in my grandads rose beds at about 15yds was a rat.
Couple of years later it was taken away and replaced with a full length scoped HW77, it was almost bigger than me.
Still have it 30yrs later.
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Class i eventually came proud owner of a hw77k mk1 loved it and an ex of mine launched it into the lake never spoke to her again 🫣
 
A culmination of things, my best mate had 1 late 70s, we grew up on farmland, Action man, A team , Rambo and generally wanting to be snipers 😆. And so it was decided........the end.
 
Wing Commander said:
School.

The school I was sent to (early 1960s) at the age of 8 did shooting as the compulsory alternative for boys who didn't want to play football.
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I would have LOVED to attend a school like that! We got no options at all, other than in cases of physically disabling illness, where you could read in the library. That meant actual broken, or at least fractured, limbs. Projectile vomiting or explosive diarrhoea didn't count.
 
Poverty, basically. When I was about 10 years old my pocket money was 2 shillings (10p) a week. Not too shabby at the time, but the local council payed 6d for every rat you killed - proved by cutting off their tails and presenting them at the council office 😧 - so I could earn a week's pocket money by bagging just 4 rats on the poultry farms that surrounded my village or on the local tip. Having a half-decent air rifle was a ticket to riches beyond my wildest dreams ! :giggle:

The first step was to hang around with the older lads who'd already got rifles and might let you have a shot or two if you weren't a nuisance, or occasionally borrowing a BSA Cadet Major (too heavy for me, but who cares !) that belonged to a mate's older brother. I think I swapped a bike for the first I owned outright - a smallish Webley that wasn't very powerful but was just about good enough at the sub-15 yard ranges we were usually shooting at. It taught me to "get good" quickly because a missed shot was lost money !
 
Eeyore said:
Poverty, basically. When I was about 10 years old my pocket money was 2 shillings (10p) a week. Not too shabby at the time, but the local council payed 6d for every rat you killed - proved by cutting off their tails and presenting them at the council office 😧 - so I could earn a week's pocket money by bagging just 4 rats on the poultry farms that surrounded my village or on the local tip. Having a half-decent air rifle was a ticket to riches beyond my wildest dreams ! :giggle:

The first step was to hang around with the older lads who'd already got rifles and might let you have a shot or two if you weren't a nuisance, or occasionally borrowing a BSA Cadet Major (too heavy for me, but who cares !) that belonged to a mate's older brother. I think I swapped a bike for the first I owned outright - a smallish Webley that wasn't very powerful but was just about good enough at the sub-15 yard ranges we were usually shooting at. It taught me to "get good" quickly because a missed shot was lost money !
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If councils did that these days they would be bankrupt within a week.
 
crissdee said:
I would have LOVED to attend a school like that! We got no options at all, other than in cases of physically disabling illness, where you could read in the library. That meant actual broken, or at least fractured, limbs. Projectile vomiting or explosive diarrhoea didn't count.
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Projectile vomiting or explosive diarrhoea didn't count. What about doing both at the same time?
 
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