Airgun Shooting Tips
To begin airgun shooting, cock and load the airgun. Then you’re ready to aim and fire.
Never dry fire your Stoeger Airgun. Dry firing can cause serious damage to the spring and piston.
How to Hold the Airgun
The secret to accurate airgun shooting is the light hold, or artillery hold.
For best accuracy…
- Hold the rifle gently with your trigger hand and pull back lightly against your shoulder
- Lay the forend of the air rifle on your open palm
- Don’t grasp the forend tightly
This hold allows the spring-piston gun to recoil around your front hand. It may not feel natural at first, but the technique produces good results and will rapidly become second nature.
How to Aim
Your Stoeger Airgun is equipped with a front and rear sight. The front sight is a post. The rear sight is a notch; it is adjustable for elevation (up and down) and windage (left and right).
The contrasting fiber colors of the front and rear sights helps make sighting quick and accurate in any lighting condition.
Elevation settings are marked on the elevation knob. To control them, turn elevation screw 1.
- Turn the screw clockwise to make the airgun shoot lower.
- Turn the screw counterclockwise to make the airgun shoot higher.
Left and right windage settings are marked on the sliding scale. Control them by turning windage screw 2.
- Turn the screw clockwise to make the pellet hit to the right.
- Turn the screw counterclockwise to make the pellet hit to the left.
The scale and numbers are for reference only, and do not represent a specific distance to the target.
Tips for Choosing & Using a Scope
Any quality airgun scope (also called an optic) can be used with Stoeger Airguns. We recommend Stoeger Airguns scopes.
The bases on Stoeger Airguns rifles are 3/8 inch or 11 mm wide.
The notch on the top of the receiver is a scope stop. It is used for added scope support and to stop scope slippage.
How to Fire a Stoeger Airgun
Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until the gun is on target. Push the safety button fully forward.
After releasing the safety, the gun is ready to fire.
Squeeze the trigger slowly. Pulling the trigger allows the spring and piston to shoot forward rapidly. The air in the compression chamber is expelled with great force behind the pellet, which is then expelled forward out of the barrel.
As it flies forward, the pellet is forced into the grooves that are cut into the rifle barrel. This rifling puts a spin on the pellet, which stabilizes it for accuracy as it flies forward toward the target.
Airguns can be very loud. When used with alloy ammunition, they will break the sound barrier, resulting in a loud crack.
The safety can be put back to the on or safe position at any time by pulling fully rearward until the white dot is visible.
To shoot again, cock, load, push off the safety and pull the trigger.
For an explanation of why airguns are louder when they are new, see How Airguns Work.
Visit the Airgun Safety page for airgun shooting safety information.