page_title: BB gun
section_title: Safety
hierarchical_section_title: BB gun / Safety
caption_attribution_description: English: Steel BB pellet injury: 4.5 mm bullet hit a bone of left hand.
context_page_description: BB guns are air guns designed to fire metallic ball projectiles called BBs, which are approximately the same size as BB size lead birdshot — 0.180 inches diameter. Modern BB guns usually have a barrel with a bore caliber of 4.5 mm, though many other varieties are available. These guns usually use steel BBs, either zinc- or copper-plated to resist corrosion, that measure 4.3 to 4.4 mm in diameter and 0.33 to 0.35 g in weight. Some manufacturers still make the larger-diameter traditional lead balls that weigh around 0.48 to 0.50 g, which are generally intended for use in rifled barrels.
  The term "BB gun" is often incorrectly used to describe a pellet gun, which fires non-spherical projectiles. Although in many cases steel BBs can be fired from a pellet gun, the reverse situation is not true: pellets usually cannot be fired from a gun specifically designed for BBs. Similarly, the term is also often used incorrectly to describe airsoft guns, which shoot plastic balls that are larger but much less dense than metal BBs, and have significantly lower ballistic performance.
context_section_description: Most BB-firing airguns can shoot faster than 60 m/s (200 ft/s). Some airguns have the ability to fire considerably faster, even beyond 170 m/s (560 ft/s). Although claims are often exaggerated, a few airguns can actually fire a standard 0.177 caliber lead pellet faster than 320 m/s (1,000 ft/s), but these are generally not BB-firing guns.
  A BB with a velocity of 45 m/s (150 ft/s) has skin-piercing capability, and a velocity reaching 60 m/s (200 ft/s) can fracture bone. The potential exists for killing someone; this potential increases with velocity, but also rapidly decreases with distance. The effective penetrating range of a BB gun with a muzzle velocity of 120 to 180 m/s (390 to 590 ft/s) is approximately 18 m (60 ft). A person wearing jeans at this distance would not sustain serious injury. However, even at this distance a BB still might penetrate bare skin, and even if not, could leave a severe and painful bruise. The maximum range of a BB gun in the 120 to 180 m/s (390 to 590 ft/s) range is 220 to 330 m (240 to 360 yd), provided the muzzle is elevated to the optimum angle.
  Steel BBs are also notably prone to ricochet off hard surfaces such as brick, concrete, metal, or wood end grain. Eye protection is essential when shooting BBs at these materials, more so than when shooting lead pellets, since a BB bouncing off a hard surface can retain a large portion of its initial energy (pellets usually flatten and absorb energy), and could easily cause serious eye damage.
caption: BB gun injury showing how a 4.5 mm steel BB can penetrate the middle finger on the left hand
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