Answer about shooting competitions. No one knows for certain when the first air gun was invented or by whom. However, historic reference places the creation of the air gun somewhere between the 15th and 16th Centuries. By the late 1500s, air guns were becoming known throughout Europe. The first air guns utilized a leather bellows attached to a hollow buttstock as a power source. A detachable hand crank "charged" the apparatus, which powered tufted darts at modest velocities using a trigger-activated spring mechanism to release a burst of compressed air. The ornate design and craftsmanship exhibited by these early air guns suggested their use was limited to the wealthy and mainly for indoor recreational target shooting. By the mid-1800s, spring-piston and pneumatic type air guns had replaced the expensive, less efficient bellows designs. Pneumatic air guns provided sufficient velocities for use as legitimate hunting arms, while the spring- piston variety found their way to America by way of immigrant German air gun craftsmen and became common in many northeastern cities as the forerunners of today's "gallery air guns". In the early 1870s, those air guns became obsolete with Henry Marcus Quackenbush's invention of a simpler, mass-produced air gun. His design replaced the cumbersome crank-ratchet device used to cock the spring- piston, with a push-barrel method that paved the way for European development of the adult spring-piston gun, as well as the American BB gun. While Americans considered these inexpensive "BB guns" as nothing more than toys due to their lack of power and questionable accuracy, European advances in spring-piston and pneumatic air guns around the turn of the century created a market for serious target shooters. The carbon dioxide (CO2) powered air gun was invented in 1889 by Frenchman Paul Giffard and came in either 6mm or 8mm calibers with rifled barrels. Despite European advances, the consensus in the U.S. maintained that air guns were nothing more than training devices to be used primarily for introducing newcomers to shooting, especially youngsters. Not until the mid-'60s, when quality spring-piston air guns capable of extreme accuracy began surfacing did the concept of an "adult air gun" take hold. These advances in air gun technology led to a berth as an official event in the 1984 Olympic Games, further attesting to air gunning's acceptance as a bona fide shooting sport. For example, in the 1988 Olympic Games, American air rifle champion Robert J. Foth scored a 591 out of a possible 600 points-placing all but nine of his 60 shots at a distance of 10 meters from the off hand position in a bullseye circle the relative size of a dime. While that type accuracy comes from extensive training and a precision air gun that may cost several thousands of dollars, the average shooter can expect surprising results from models starting at around $30. The Phoenix Club in Southern California has a Shooting Club with competition from other clubs. Alan Rossing, Monterey, California, USA