N.J. allows air guns for hunting

Look out, squirrels. Run for your holes, rabbits.

Hunting season for these animals starts Saturday, and New Jersey for the first time is permitting the use of air guns to shoot them.

The state joins Arizona and Alabama, which have also recently allowed compressed-air-powered pellet guns for hunting these small game.

Their use has grown in recent years, according to industry representatives, because they have grown quieter and lighter even as they become more powerful.

Dave Chanda, director of the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, called the new regulation "inspiring news for young hunters, and an opportunity for more 'seasoned' hunters like me, who haven't picked up a pellet gun in years, to revisit the pleasures of childhood and dust off some old memories."

Although they have long been popular with youngsters for target shooting and plinking at tin cans, today's pellet guns have muzzle velocities more than double those of previous generations, making them deadly at close range and more suitable for hunting, said Bob Considine, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Division.

"Here's what most people think of when they hear the term 'air gun,' " Bob Viden of Bob's Little Sports Shop in Glassboro said Friday, placing a Red Ryder BB gun on the counter.

Selling these days for about $40, the Red Ryder came to fame in the popular 1983 film A Christmas Story, in which 9-year-old Ralphie Parker begs his parents for one, only to be told, "You'll shoot your eye out."

But the Red Ryder is a toy, said Viden, producing an Optimus .177-caliber air rifle from a nearby rack.

Looking like a standard, scaled-down rifle, the Optimus also comes in a .22 caliber size. Both models have wooden stocks and a 4x scope, and are single-shot breech loaders.

"It's just like a real rifle," Viden said.

After firing, the user opens the breech, drops in a new pellet, and closes the breech, he explained. That action compresses and pumps a small amount of air into a chamber that propels the lead or alloy pellet when the trigger is pulled.

Both calibers are effective "in the hands of a skilled, patient hunter," according to the manufacturer's website, but "such species as squirrels are very tough, and they will come out of the tree much quicker when hit" with a .20 or .22 caliber pellet.

Wayne Viden, co-owner of Bob's Little Sports Shop with his brother and father, said the Optimus .22 had a muzzle velocity of about 1,000 feet-per-second, while more-expensive air rifles approach 1,600 feet-per-second.

Such rifles cost $150 to $400, he said.

BB guns, which have muzzle velocities of perhaps 400 feet per second, are not legal for hunting, he said.

Children 10 and older may hunt with air guns in New Jersey, but must take a safety course and be accompanied by an adult with a hunting license.

Purchasers of air rifles in New Jersey must be 18 or older and have a gun permit.