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How to Become an Airgun Marksman

Open sights on a CO2 plinking pistol are about the simplest sighting system you can get. They are all I had on my first CO2 pistol, the CP88, and then we began to see lasers and smaller red dot sights come to the market. There is nothing wrong with open sights. In fact, I use them now in my three gun competitions. Most open sights on BB guns are fixed and nonadjustable, but as long as you know where they are shooting, most fixed open sights are close to the mark. A lot come with white dots on them now for faster alignment; one dot on the front post and one dot either side of the rear notch. Some even have fiber-optic elements, but that is mainly on CO2 pellet-firing pistols and not the faster-firing BB guns.

EYES OPEN

The standard technique with air pistol shooting is to close the eye you are not using to line up the sights. This is the way I was taught, and it’s only in the past few years that I’ve changed to having both eyes open. It’s mainly due to the three gun comps I shoot, where we double tap on steel plates and speed is the key. It felt wrong at first, but with practice, you can master it and become very proficient.

The secret is to look at the target and not the sights. I was taught that lining up the sights perfectly and then focusing on the front sight was the right thing to do, and for match shooting on paper, it has its merits, but for rapid shooting it is not the way to go about it. If you focus on the target, the pistol sights will look blurred, no doubt about that, and not to mention the ‘P’ word again, but with practice you will be amazed how accurately you can shoot open sights with both eyes open. The dominant eye lines up the sights as normal, but the other eye sees much more of the target.


Red dot sights are designed to use with both eyes open, and for pistols, they make a whole lot of sense. They come in many forms, and on pistols, the smaller reflex type are ideal. A red dot is projected upon a see-through glass screen, and when you look at the target through the screen, you see the red dot on the target, simple. You can fit a scope, but for CO2 BB pistols, I don’t really recommend it. For a bit of long-range plinking its fine but they are of no use in fast-fire competitions.

LASERS & LIGHTS

I love lasers for a bit of CO2 plinking. Either they fit clamped to the front of the trigger guard, or if your BB gun has an accessory rail, they’re fastened onto that. Some guns even have built-in lasers, and the best ones have a remote on/off switch that you can attach, with sticky Velcro pads, onto the grip of the pistol, positioned under your thumb. This brings us on to gun lights and torches; I would never recommend shooting in the dark in any back garden because you can’t see enough of your surroundings to ensure that nothing is encroaching the shooting area, although I have used a CO2 pistol light in my six-yard loft range and it does work. Some lights even have built-in lasers, but of course, you must never shine a powerful laser on a BB pistol at any living thing.

GET COMPETITIVE

Apart from plinking with your CO2 pistol, which is fun, you can shoot competitively, either with fellow shooters or via a postal system against shooters from all over the world. The Umarex Boys Club has a vast range of competitions you can try. Their speed challenge competition is awesome and a fantastic way to improve your skills as well as rating yourself against others, which is the point of competition shooting for me.

A Completely NEW WORLD

I use CO2 BB pistols as part of rifle mini-competitions at my rim-fire club, and I don’t always win, but it’s good to gain a victory now and then. Magazine changes are always part of the courses of fire, so wheel guns (revolvers) are out, and most of us shoot non-blowback guns that give more shots per 12-gram CO2 bulb, with the BBs and CO2 housed in the magazine with at least two magazines per gun.

Open sights are the only things we use because we have to holster the guns at all times when not shooting the stage. There is a whole world of BB shooting out there. Just take a dip into it, and I am sure you will love it.

IT WORKS FOR ME

Learning to shoot pistol open sights with both eyes open was the best thing I ever did. It is hard at first but persevere.

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