Talk:BB gun

Merge with Air Gun
For or Oppose? Dudtz 8/25/05 5:29 PM EST


 * Oppose The article is a decent stub, is about an area in Wikipedia that is obviously underdeveloped; I can't speak for the rest of the world, but there's enough cultural history in 20th century America related to the BB guns to fill out an article by itself. VermillionBird 22:55, 1 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Oppose I agree, BB gun has a unique enough history that if fleshed out it could make a good sperate article. Ari 20:33, 3 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Oppose I also agree, this article has grown to the point where it deserves to be a unique article. Daler 05:04, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Merge with Airsoft
For or Oppose? VermillionBird 22:55, 1 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Oppose It's similar, yes, but a different thing. While they have been used  to shoot at other people recreationally, they certainly weren't manufactured for that purpose.  BB guns are a class of things with a history and are only tangentially related to a developing sport. VermillionBird 22:55, 1 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Oppose I agree again. BB guns shoot a steel or lead ball and not a plastic one.  They are also used similar to a pellet gun not an airsoft gun.  Some BB guns shoot at speeds that make them more dangerous than airsoft.  Ari 20:33, 3 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Oppose Though similar both BB and AirSoft weapons have different aspects. Generally BB guns are far powerful and can do considerably more damage then a AirSoft gun.. Simply different type of weapons and sports. --JE 13:56, 9 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Oppose I agree with the above users. I have not heard of individuals shooting others with BB guns for sport, as is done with Airsoft guns.  Also, to the best of my knowledge you cannot use a Airsoft pellet in a BB gun, or vice versa. --OmegaPaladin 17:00, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Pneumatic?
The article currently states: "A BB gun is a pneumatic gun usually powered by compressed gas, electric revolution, or a spring." First off, if the BB is fired by electric revolution or a spring, it's not pneumatic, is it? Secondly, I could use a little clarification on "electric revolution". Does that mean the BB is spun around inside a disk-shaped cylinder and fired via centrifugal force? I think those two points could be improved in the article. KarlBunker 15:47, 18 January 2006 (UTC)


 * I think I was able to clear that up, still could use a little work, though. Daler 05:04, 23 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Do any BB guns use the electro-pneumatic operation, like the airsoft AEGs and electric blowbacks? So far the only electric BB guns I've seen have been CO2 based ones with electric hammers.  scot 18:52, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

CO2 cartridge dimensions
What are the dimensions of the CO2 cartridges?--SeanMon 21:35, 20 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I'll try to remember to grab one tomorrow, take a picture, and get sizes. I have created a number of links to powerlet, so I might go ahead and create and article stub there for that data.  scot 18:49, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Replacing with on-topic content
The article previously contained way to much information, much of it completely irrelevant or downright wrong. I replaced this with historical information from the Daisy Museum website, plus personal experience with Daisy and Crosman BB guns. For the purpose of the article, I have restricted "BB gun" to mean an airgun with a BB sized bore, i.e. .175-180 inches, and intended to or capable of firing spherical steel shot. This implies a smoothbore barrel, or an oversized rifled barrel with a mechanism for retaining the steel BBs. The PCP big bore airguns from Korea don't fit the definition, nor does the Lewis and Clark gun. Those are air rifles, not BB guns.

Operating mechanisms are covered in air gun, which is a superset of BB guns, so I think details can be left for that article; I breifly mention the types of actions used on common airguns on the market now. The "spring rod" type of action described is just crap--the only way direct action works is when the projectile is MUCH heavier than the connector, such as with bows. Any direct action BB projector is a toy, not a BB gun. Legal issues are the same; BB guns are a subset of air guns, the only reasons BB guns would be more or less legal is due to power and operating mechanism issues.

If anyone feels I have removed too much, feel free to grab the data from the previous edit and add it back into the article, along with a justification, please. I'm going to think about ways to source some of my generalizations about BB guns, such as dual-use pneumatics, CO2 pistols, and spring piston guns. Probably the best way to back that up would be to provide examples of commonly available BB guns in each category, maybe in a chart. scot 18:49, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Ammunition
The pellets cannot be classed as 'Ammunition' for obvious reasons: they dont use any muntion- no explosive shot system. Jonomacdrones 18:47, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
 * From the first definition at dictionary.com: "the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon, as bombs or rockets, and esp. shot, shrapnel, bullets, or shells fired by guns." Seems to fit to me. --Eyrian 20:15, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Picture
IMHO we should add a better picture sonoricercatore 11:20, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

I've been shot close blank with a BB Gun and it did not penetrate my skin. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.58.4.231 (talk) 07:19, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

BB Gun as Plot Device
I vaguely remember watching TV shows from the 60's (in reruns in the 80's) where a child's first experience with death was accidentally-on-purpose killing or wounding a small animal (usually a bird) with a BB gun. Does anyone have specific examples? --75.161.84.72 15:09, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

The only film I recall having a BB gun as a central plot element was A Christmas Story. I think if you can find the name of the movie you're thinking of, as well as a few other examples of BB guns playing important roles in the arts, I'd support adding another section. Daler (talk) 08:05, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I recall from decades ago at a movie theater at Chanute AFB, Illinois, back in 1979, a Japanese,English-dubbed movie about a little boy (glasses, small, bully-bait) and a little girl who see another boy bring down a bird with a BB gun. The littler boy fights the older boy with the gun taking it from him, swinging it by the barrel, and breaking it on the ground while the little girl cries over the dead bird. Later on there is a scene of many birds flying as the little girl yells, "They're alive!" They're alive!. Yeah I didn't undestand it back when I first saw it either. Greenbomb101 (talk) 20:51, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

Teenagers with guns
Teenagers and yobs often use BB guns as fun, but if you are confronted by a teenager threatening to fire contact the police or run. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.141.160.145 (talk) 12:26, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

steel?
its usally plastic bbs isnt it ive never seen steel or copper Luke12345abcd (talk) 19:57, 24 July 2008 (UTC)


 * 'airsoft' guns normally use plastic balls but most of the guns labeled 'bb guns' use an alloy (normally copper or zinc) coated steel ball. -- Ari (talk) 20:09, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Warning about external link
The second external link to everything2.com about BB gun fights is pretty darn offensive. Can we replace it with a link that's more about BB gun fights, or provide a warning about the link and it's potentially offensive nature? Haqrefpber (talk) 15:08, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

0.177 or 0.171–0.173?
According to the lede, the balls used measure 0.171 to 0.173 inches in diameter, but in several spots in the article it is apparently assumed that they have a diameter of 0.177 inches ("standard 0.177 lead pellet" – what is standard about it?; "A 0.177 projectile fired above 350 ft/s ..."; "Air gun pellets of the correct diameter, .177 caliber, (4.5 mm) ...", "Note: 0.177-inch diam: 0.450 cm: (0.0151*PI) cm^3 times 7.8 g/cm^3 for steel"). Note that 0.173 inches is 4.4 mm.

The article Air gun, section BB also states: "A BB is a small ball, typically made of steel with a copper or zinc plating, of 4.5 mm/.177" diameter." However, Birdshot gives 0.180 inches (4.57 mm) as the "true" meaning of BB. I think the inconsistencies should be fixed by an editor who is knowledgeable about the topic; I don't have access to reliable references for any of this. --Lambiam 12:40, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Orange tip on BB guns
The last sentence on this page says "But in USA all real looking bb/airsoft guns needs to have a orange tip" This is not true of BB guns. Even the BB gun used as this article's picture has no orange tip. I have bought them at mainstream stores such as WalMart, Outdoor World, and Sports Authority without any orange tip. They all could be easily passed off as a real firearm.

Airsoft guns (6mm) must have this orange tip, but not BB guns (.177). I live in Florida, maybe the law is different in other states. I hesitate to change this because I am not sure it is correct. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jumboshrmp (talk • contribs) 13:08, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Difference between BB and Airsoft gun?
What's the difference? I've been told that BB gun's can be deadly (up close) while airsoft gun's are typically harmless. But if someone held one of these up to my head how do I know if it's a BB gun or an airsoft gun (let's pretend I'm aware it's a fake gun and not a real one). Or to put it another way, I've only ever encountered the pistol version of these guns, but I don't know whether they were BB or air? How to tell? I'm cofused about the whole thing, I hear one thing from someone then someone else contradicts it straight away.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.41.149.177 (talk) 19:16, 23 October 2009 (UTC)


 * For the most part, airsoft guns use plastic BB's. Generally, airsoft guns have a lower FPS.  Yes some BB guns can kill, but I've NEVER heard of an airsoft gun doing this.Halofanatic333 (talk) 12:14, 19 January 2010 (UTC)


 * The first paragraph needs some work. Airsoft is NOT the same as BB. Very few BB guns use a purely mechanical propulsion system. The very first BB guns used a spring and compressed air system. Many of the low end Airsoft guns are either single shot spring power or semi-auto or full auto electro-mechanical, firing the plastic balls by only mechanical means. They're cheap and low power/velocity. If it doesn't fire .171 ~ .180 METAL balls it's not a BB gun. Some companies use the letters BB on their gun and/or pellet packaging, but that doesn't make them BB guns. If the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company had thought to trademark "BB Gun", nobody would be incorrectly putting BB on Airsoft gun packaging. Bizzybody (talk) 07:02, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Neutrality Problem?
The article states, under Safety: "As with rocks, bricks, keys and other items, vandals have sometimes misused BB guns for the wrongful damage of property." The article is not about rocks, bricks or keys; and the section is titled "Safety", not "Vandalism".

Later, also under Safety: "The major manufacturers are Crosman and Daisy which are known for their quality. Most pellet gun manufacturing companies have a wide variety although some aren't as popular." This is misplaced, and definitely not NPOV.

I suggest deleting both paragraphs at the end of Safety. Husoski (talk) 18:42, 10 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Seconded. I was coming here to make the same comment about your first example, which sounds like it was written to defend the safety of BB guns. Fysidiko (talk) 18:16, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Agree. I'll see if I can do anything about it. /Julle (talk) 10:30, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Penetration
The penetration statement is unclear. "The effective penetrating range of a BB gun with a muzzle velocity of 400-600fps is +/- 60'/ 30mts." After the word "is", I'm reading a tolerance sign, 60 feet, slash, 30mts. No idea what "mts" is since meters are "m" and shouldn't be paired with feet. Please clarify. Thinktank33 (talk) 19:49, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 1 one external link on BB gun. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130507132336/http://www.daisy.com/node/63 to http://www.daisy.com/node/63

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 08:39, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on BB gun. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080321020849/http://www.i-kirk.info/misc/quickkill/qwikill.htm to http://www.i-kirk.info/misc/quickkill/qwikill.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 03:51, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

So why "Bb"?
What does the second "b" stand for? Why "Bb"? Strange that this isn't explained in the article... --Gaston76 (talk) 19:39, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

"B" stands for "buckshot" in shotgun terminology, and the number of "B"s used correlates to the size of each individual shot. so you can have B, BB, and BBB for instance. 98.178.191.34 (talk) 03:53, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

Readdition of Reference Link
Lord Belbury has brought to my attention that two links were removed- the one was a malfunciton of a copy/paste and the other is clearly a reference citation in APA format similar to the nature of pre-existing references, which Lord Belbury claims is "spam". A link contained in a reference tag cited in APA style is clearly NOT spam, though it may or may not meet Wikipedia policy with respect to references. Rather the proper thing to do is to cite appropriate wikipedia policy to support your contentions, NOT be "lazy" by making what are clearly baseless claims of so-called "spam". Therefore the reference was re-inserted for the time being. 98.178.191.34 (talk) 03:50, 30 June 2021 (UTC)


 * A "13 Best Air Rifles Review" blog on a commercial website full of newsletter popups and Amazon affiliate links to buy each gun looks like spam, even if you put reference tags around it. If you want some Wikipedia policies: check out the WP:REFSPAM section of the spam policy and "web pages that primarily exist to sell products or services, or to web pages with objectionable amounts of advertising" of WP:ELNO. The reference may also be unnecessary as the sentence it was added to was already sourced. --Lord Belbury (talk) 08:09, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

Sorry, but No. It doesn't matter what "affiliate links" are present so long as the link contains information useful to the topic matter. Here the link supports allegations of FPS (Feet Per Second) when taken in conjunction with the rest of the Wikipedia references at the same area. It, therefore, is not a violation of WP:REPSPAM or WP:ELNO. The idea that The reference may also be unnecessary as the sentence it was added to was already sourced is also not adequate to support reference removal because of WP:NPOV, which encourages using multiple sources. Rather properly understood, citation spam is understood to be citations added not to verify article content but rather to populate numerous articles with a particular citation. The keyword in that is "numerous articles" which hasn't happened here. 98.178.191.34 (talk) 20:13, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

"M16 BB gun" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect M16 BB gun and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 February 16 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Mdewman6 (talk) 01:29, 16 February 2022 (UTC)

requested edit
Please add the following line to the article:
 * Such a gun will be used, G-d willing, on Benjamin Netanyahu, former Crime Minister of Israel.
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Cannolis (talk) 10:51, 13 March 2022 (UTC)