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Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 3:41 pm
by SlartyBartFast
Is there anywhere that has a table or list of the velocity ranges of various air rifles and air pistols?

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 6:25 pm
by ChipEck
I am not aware but I have a Steyr LP50 and for 10 shots I average 465 fps. New to air pistols but I could not believe how consistent every shot was. I used my LabRadar to measure and it has proven to be accurate.

465
465
464
466
465
464
462
465
465
464

Chip

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 11:55 am
by sportex
I have Steyr LP5P, and these are average speeds for different pellets (as measured by ProChrono Pal):

RWS Basic 7.0.............................485 fps
RWS R10 8.2 (4.50).......................446 fps
H&N Match Heavy 8.2 (4.49)...........457 fps
JSB Exact 8.4 (4.50)..................... 464 fps

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 1:37 pm
by SlartyBartFast
Thanks for the individual reports.

But know of any resource that lists the range of velocities by make and model?

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 11:08 am
by TenMetrePeter
SlartyBartFast wrote:Thanks for the individual reports.

But know of any resource that lists the range of velocities by make and model?
Never seen one. Anyway it will depend on what pellets you will use and the rated power which may not be fixed.

As we are in the olympic section most air pistols and rifles used internationally will be F rated around 4 ft lbs using pellets around 7 grains. That kind of fixes the velocity range around the 450 - 500 fps range. But then they will mostly have power adjuster on the hammer spring. As there's a square law involved, power and pellet changes have a dimished effect on velocity.

If you know the pellets you will use and the manufacturers factory power rating use

Velocity = square root of (power in ftlbs x 450240 / pellet weight in grains)

so 4 ft lb rated pistol with 7 grain pellets gives 507 ft/sec
use 8 grain pellet it gives 474 ft/sec

I only have imperial units at hand.

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 4:05 pm
by william
SlartyBartFast wrote:Is there anywhere that has a table or list of the velocity ranges of various air rifles and air pistols?
Memorizing the table of natural logarithms is time better spent.

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 4:43 pm
by ChipEck
william wrote:
SlartyBartFast wrote:Is there anywhere that has a table or list of the velocity ranges of various air rifles and air pistols?
Memorizing the table of natural logarithms is time better spent.
:-)

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2016 11:46 am
by gwsb
William really?

"table of ln x"?

How old are you dude? Nobody uses tables anymore its all computers. No more searching through the damn CRC book and then interpolating and still getting the wrong answer.

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2016 2:18 pm
by william
How old?

Old enough
-to have done math with a slide rule;
-to have used printed log and trig tables;
-to have studied chem when there were well under 100 elements;
-to have majored in bio when there were only 2 kingdoms, plants and animals as they debated creating a 3rd for protists.

Mostly I'm old enough to remember when it didn't hurt my shoulder or elbow to hold a pistol.

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2016 5:33 pm
by ChipEck
william wrote:How old?

Old enough
-to have done math with a slide rule;
-to have used printed log and trig tables;
-to have studied chem when there were well under 100 elements;
-to have majored in bio when there were only 2 kingdoms, plants and animals as they debated creating a 3rd for protists.

Mostly I'm old enough to remember when it didn't hurt my shoulder or elbow to hold a pistol.
Yeah, and Pluto was a planet and our phones were not portable, in fact they were screwed to the wall in many cases. We had to wait until the other people on our party line were off the phone before we could make a call! (I am 61 so I am not making fun of you)

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 7:25 am
by SlartyBartFast
TenMetrePeter wrote:As we are in the olympic section most air pistols and rifles used internationally will be F rated
Some information that I came across in another thread.

https://www.usashooting.org/library/You ... SASCMP.pdf
National Three-Position Air Rifle Council rules and JROTC regulations limit air rifles to those with muzzle velocities of < 600 fps. Manufacturers of competition air rifles and pistols have confirmed through testing that velocities that produce optimum accuracy are in the 560-580 fps. range so muzzle velocities of <600 fps are standard for all commonly used target air rifles and air pistols.
That and the German standatds for the F classification gives me a scientifically/industry backed number for a definition of an air target pistol/rifle.

Re: Air Pistol and Air Rifle Velocities

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:55 am
by gwsb
William I am right there with you. I can tick off everyone of your items including the shoulder problems. However, there were 103 elements for me.