Feeding Your Airgun
Shooting CO2 powered BB pistols has never been more fun. There are fantastic revolvers, double action, single action, blowback, and non-blowback style pistols available to suit your fancy. Some of these are fairly easy to load. Some, however, are a little harder to load than others. In this blog entry, I’ll offer some insight on loading your magazines with as little hassle as possible.
Magazines
Double action and non-blowback pistols can operate just fine with a small amount of pressure on the BBs from the magazine spring since there is no slide bouncing back and forth. The first part of the trigger pull stages the BB in the chamber and the second part releases the hammer. It’s a pretty simple affair that a stiff magazine spring would only complicate. Blowback action pistols need to be able to deal with the recoil of the slide’s movement during shooting. While it’s “just a BB gun” it does generate quite a bit of recoil. Adding a stronger magazine spring helps prevent the BBs from moving until the probe on the slide picks up the next BB as it cycles back to the closed position. Most action pistols are semi-automatic, but, we’ve released several models that have fully automatic functions. These fully automatic CO2 pistols have a lot of vibration and recoil to deal with. The strong magazine springs on these type of guns helps to keep the BBs going down the barrel and not jamming the pistol.
Making it Easier
Since the magazine spring is really stiff and BBs are really small, the follower that presses against the BBs is, well, small. There’s just not much real-estate to grab onto with your fingernail. And if you do manage to get the follower down, it’s probably going to tear through your fingernail soon. Don’t bother. It’s just not worth it.
Start by laying the magazine on a flat surface. We like to use a table top if one is to be had, but sometimes you just have to use what you have. Whatever surface you use, it does help if it is not perfectly level. A surface that is slightly downhill will help the BBs roll into the magazine.
Use a tool
No need to re-invent the wheel here, just keep a small flat bladed screwdriver handy to assist with pulling the magazine follower down and/or holding it there. Some magazines will have a fill port that will appear above the follower as it is held down. Pour out a small quantity of BBs into the groove above the fill port. Most of those type magazines will also allow the follower to be turned slightly so that it will be held down for you. If the magazine does not have a provision for the follower to be locked down, you will need to maintain pressure on the follower to load. Only one BB will fit through the opening at a time, so don’t get in a hurry. Just use your off hand to move the BBs up to the port. Once they drop in they will roll back to the top.
Even folks like myself who aren’t overly blessed with coordination can master this technique in no time.
Mark Davis, avid outdoorsman and family man, is the Social Media Specialist at Umarex USA.