Where can I shoot airguns in Oregon ? (Part 1)

Prepairing this post was something I thought would be easy, I'd done similar reasearch a couple of years ago and other than some cities and a few counties there we're not allow of restrictions on Oregonians and visitors looking for a place to shoot their pellet guns (airguns).


The good news is that there are still a number of great places, both organized and informal to shoot. Also I was surprised to see that impressive number of organized clubs that now list airguns on their list of "What can be shot here.

Outside of State & National Parks our remote area's simply have a shoot safely rule (Examples: don't shoot across roads, no damaging property, taking game out of season, and generaly operating in a safe manner.)

With regards to county or cities the State of Oregun tells us that those entities have limitations on the reguation of the discharge of firearms in there borders, and I'm currently operating under the assumption if we can shoot firearms legaly, airguns will be okay as well. (This is something that needs to be confirmed.)

Here is part of the state language that supports firearms.


166.171 Authority of county to regulate discharge of firearms. (1) A county may adopt ordinances to regulate, restrict or prohibit the discharge of firearms within their boundaries.
(2) Ordinances adopted under subsection (1) of this section may not apply to or affect:
(a) A person discharging a firearm in the lawful defense of person or property.
(b) A person discharging a firearm in the course of lawful hunting.
(c) A landowner and guests of the landowner discharging a firearm, when the discharge will not endanger adjacent persons or property.
(d) A person discharging a firearm on a public or private shooting range, shooting gallery or other area designed and built for the purpose of target shooting.
(e) A person discharging a firearm in the course of target shooting on public land that is not inside an urban growth boundary or the boundary of a city, if the discharge will not endanger persons or property. [1995 s.s. c.1 §2]

166.172 Authority of city to regulate discharge of firearms. (1) A city may adopt ordinances to regulate, restrict or prohibit the discharge of firearms within the city’s boundaries.
(2) Ordinances adopted under subsection (1) of this section may not apply to or affect:
(a) A person discharging a firearm in the lawful defense of person or property.
(b) A person discharging a firearm on a public or private shooting range, shooting gallery or other area designed and built for the purpose of target shooting. [1995 s.s. c.1 §3]



I intend to put together a concise table of the shootin areas part two or three of this series. I need to get some official guidance on a few of the updated ordinance's.

A point of concern of all airgunners.


It seems that many municipalities have rewritten their ordinances regarding the use of pellet guns to incorporate the current air soft craze. As most readers of this blog will know airsofts (as they are commonly referred to) which propel a harmless polystyrene "bb" to short ranges. Originating in Japan, these non-guns (prior to recent legislation - "toy guns") bear resemblances to actual firearms. These resemblances vary from cartoon like mini-guns to guns that almost duplicate the originals they were based on.

Part II will be an example of how Beaverton, OR substantially amended the ordinances in response to airsofts and caught pellet gun shooters in the cross-fire.

Also, as you seen in the State Code above (any designated shooting range/target area public and private) may be used to safely discharge these devices. We even have a local school that turned part of their gym in to a shooting range for target practice. As such it may be possible for a group of Oregonians to construct an informal target course on private land and be free from ordinance violations.

Part III will include a table of gun clubs and ranges which are now supporting airgun shooting.

More to follow soon.

Cork Guns and Pop Guns - Air guns remembered

I'm really looking for help on this one. I have many early memories of a child of being presented with a cork gun or pop gun for my shooting pleasure. These shaped like a rifle or Daisy BB gun. However the bore end was left a large opening where corks (much like wine corks) could be pushed in. The rifle was cocked and BANG, the cork zipped forward, while the satisfying bang or POP rang out. Many of these rifles fastened the cork to the rifle with a lenght of lightweight cord, but it did not seem to remain connected long.

I'm guessing that these devices were indeed airguns, and wondering if anyone can confirm this for me.

These rifles seemed quite harmless (I assume the cork was moving 30Fps or so) and we were allowed to play with them inside, an area where bb guns were never allowed.

Thanks for reading this.

Loneshooter

Which Gamo Rifle Reviews? Whisper, Recon, Viper?

Last year we'd made a commitment to review the popular Gamo Air Rifles (Airguns) that were not getting much attention form alot of the related blogs. Well it was a busy year at Gamo product wise including the introduction of the .177 cal., Gamo Whisper with integral sound dampening at the muzzel. That product into did spur interest in Gamo who's Shadow 1000 (S1k) has strong support in the forums.

Anyway, I digress, I did purpose and test the Whisper at length in order for the reviews to contain a complete overview. This pushed things back a bit.

Complete Testing has been done on the following:

Gamo Recon
Gamo Shadow 1000
Gamo Viper
Gamo Whisper

The Viper Express and Gamo Extremes have been well covered in Pyramyds Blog which ocourse includes outstanding coverage for the Shadow too, but my intention here was to use it to provide a comparative base line that many shooters have some familiarity with.

Are there any that generate particular interest or priority?

LS

Crosman Airguns Limitted Edition and Factory Custom Options like Colt's or Remmington

"Outdoorsman 2250XE" Some of the most exciting things happening in the US air guns market this year are being brought about by a single company. Crosman. One of these is giving the cusomer a part in the design of their own rifle to suit their tastes and needs. This tradition was carried on by Colt's and other fine american gunmakers, I am pleased to say is carried on by Crosman today.

For at least a year or more the Crosman factory custom shop has been allowing customer to create their own custom rifle or carbine with features ranging from a camo finish, 0r choice 14", 18", and "20 inch barrels with with or whithout muzzle weights and rigger shoes. The number of options are staggering.

You tuly can have your way and you can see what it looks like and will cost in advance. Their websites lets you build your gun visually expermenting with sight and stock choices (including some very attractive wood ones) as well as the trigger shoe, brach length or custom laser inscriptions and purchase online when the details are set. It really is a lot of fub.

Crosman is dispplaying this "Outdoorsman 2250XE" as a standard model both let me know that they beem listening to some of their customers, and having my eye for a future purchase.



OR Air Guns.

Where can we shoot our airguns and soft air in Oregon (OR)

I've done a little bit of research in to this topic with out alot of clear success. Accoring to one "informed" individual all or the non-clear Crosman Soft Air products are "illegal" in one nearby township.



Oregon state parks offer opportunity, but please remember not all parks are open to airgunners.



One can also join one of the fine shooting clubs that have embrassed airgun shooting and shooters.



But still. I look for a designated outdoor venue that might support competition and getting together for those aroung Portland, OR.



Also interested in any one that is curretly offering dipatch by air rifle as a means for certain enterprises to mantain cleanliness standards.



Hope to hear from you.

OR Airguns