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Jun
08
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Pellet guns are usually any kind of air gun capable of shooting pellets. Therefore, BB guns and airsoft guns qualify. However, because of their different uses, these two guns use different ammunition. BB guns are usually used to hunt small game or in military training exercises, while air soft guns are used mainly for sport. Therefore, while air soft guns use plastic pellets, BB guns use metal pellets.
BB guns usually have smooth bore barrels with a uniform diameter of 4.5mm. Their pellets come in a size a bit smaller than this (mostly 4.39mm) and are made of steel. The steel pellets are coated with zinc or copper to make them resistant to corrosion. BB rifles can also use lead pellets of slightly larger diameters.
These pellets can cause harm because of their weight and because they are metal. Steel pellets can ricochet with about the same energy as that with which it was fired. Therefore, eye protection is advised when shooting with them.
For air soft guns, the pellets are made of plastics or other non-metallic materials. They are spherical and larger (6mm) than BB pellets. There are different varieties of these, but the ones that are gaining in use for outdoor activity are the biodegradable pellets.
Since conventional pellets are made of plastics that are non-biodegradable and can, therefore, stay in the environment for a long time, the use of biodegradable pellets is advised, even enforced in certain places. These pellets are made of resin that can be degraded by soil microbes and sunlight. There is often a noticeable seam in these pellets. They are not used in high-end guns because they can damage them and their use severely affects the accuracy of rifles.
Yet another type of pellets is tracer ammunition. They glow in the dark and, when combined with a device that makes them luminescent even in flight, they are very useful for nocturnal air soft play.
There are also paint-filled pellets, which should not be used with some models of air soft guns, since they can break in the barrel and soil the mechanical parts with paint. Markers are a new kind of pellets. These are made of a powder that leaves a mark when the pellets strike a target.
The ammunition available for pellet guns is divided according to type, weight and the guns that can use it. Deciding on which to buy will depend on how you use your guns.