Interview with Peter Staddon of AirGun Forums

Airgun World (AW): Who is Peter Staddon?
Peter Staddon (PS): I am the owner of Airgun Forums (AGF). I am happy to say I am also an ambassador for AirMaks Arms.

I have a son (now almost 30 years of age) who was brought up shooting with me, and my 23-year-old nephew, whom I also used to take shooting.
All of my grandchildren, both boys and girls, who are old enough to hold a gun, are into shooting. It’s a great age to start teaching them about gun safety.

AW: What is your background in airgunning and who had the biggest influence on you when you first started shooting?
PS: I started shooting in the late 1980s. Most of my friends had air rifles/pistols. In my opinion, it was more mainstream back then.

I joined the sea cadets, so we used to train with guns, disassembling and reassembling at the club, which is where I probably got my biggest interest in shooting. I ended up going to Whale Island (home of HMS Excellent) and doing gunnery training in 1994. It was a bit strange as it officially stopped being a gunnery training base about 20 years prior to that.

AW: When did you set up AirGun Forums and why? Did you see it solely as a place for people to share their airgunning passions, or was there more to it than that, perhaps from a social angle?
PS: I didn’t set up the original AGF, that was a man called Andy, who passed away a few years ago.

The main aim of AGF is for people to share their airgunning passion and knowledge while also having sections for other shooting sports. It has also expanded to include a wide range of topics and hobbies too, so it’s a community and a social hub where like-minded people converse.

I was an administrator on the original forum for many years and one of the only people who knew the software and how to make changes and so on. When Andy passed away, due to data protection rules and so on, I had to rebuild the forum, but luckily the old hosting company allowed me access to the old version to recover some history and data. Of the present staff members, Nivea (Andy), The Robin (Simon) and Seamaster (Chris) all came over with me from the old forum to start the new one, with Joey (Joey) and Shoto1 (Anthony) joining the team shortly afterwards.

AW: How many members do you have and what are the biggest challenges you face managing AirGun Forums — the amount of time involved, for example?
PS: As of last November, we have just over 20,000 members. Some are less active than others, but on average we have around 5,000 active members posting each week, with many more viewing and reading content.

Generally, we don’t have much trouble or many challenges. Most members are very sensible as you would hope being firearms owners.

We did recently ban discussion on non-gun related politics as that’s been a very contentious subject over the last couple of years that causes too much bickering. Sometimes it’s nice to have somewhere to get away from all that doom and gloom.

I guess the sales section makes up the majority of the moderation work. We try to ensure sales on the site are as secure as possible by making members prove ownership of the item for sale and not allowing new members to access that section until they are established.

The team of Nivea, The Robin, Seamaster, Joey and Shoto1 is very efficient at dealing with any issues regarding the main site itself, and I generally deal with anything behind the scenes.

Time-wise, I can only speak for myself, but the forum is generally the first thing I do in the morning and last thing I do at night; logging in and checking on things. Obviously, through the day I do things there too but, fortunately, I’m self-employed as a landscaper so my boss (me) lets me get away with it.

AW: What are the most popular topics on AirGun Forums, and what does what’s posted on AGF tell you about the current state of the airgun world?
PS: Generally, the most popular threads seem to be people wanting advice, be it what scope for their desired discipline or what mounts or pellets do people suggest.

We also get lots of people discussing potential purchases that they fancy and if there are any known issues/niggles; also people asking about what upgrades are good and so on.

The main thing I’ve noticed of late is lots of people want to discuss lower-priced airguns and how they are doing. I can only assume this is caused by having to be a little more careful with spending lately.

AW: Which posts are the most likely to garner passionate responses — and how do you maintain order among your members?
PS: A lot of the “which manufacturers do you recommend?” can get very passionate responses (I avoid these due to my ties to AirMaks Arms). They often fall into comments about poor customer service or problematic guns with faults and leaks. Normally it’s regarding three mainstream brands (which I won’t name).

Luckily, maintaining order is fairly easy. We have strict rules on abusive language, and we have many members that will report to us (via an inbuilt report button) to let us know of any issues that they have seen that may need dealing with.

AW: What would you miss most about AirGun Forums if you had to step down from your current position?
PS: This is a situation I hope would never happen as I would probably worry every day about whether everything is OK, but I would really miss organising things. I enjoy organising the monthly giveaways and posting out goody bags (the most time-consuming job). Another main highlight for me is the forum meet where we do fundraising for various charitable organisations and run multiple competitions. The last one at Throckmorton Gun Club a couple of months ago raised over £1,750 for Blind Veterans UK.

The forum was also a sponsor for the 2025 World Field Target Championships in Northern Ireland and gave everyone a goody bag. We hope to help and promote more things like this going forward.

AW: When did you become an AirMaks Arms ambassador, how did this relationship come about and what does the role involve?
PS: I officially became an ambassador in July 2025, although most people I know would probably say it was well before that.

Chris Roberts, who I know via the forum, was its distributor (CDR Guns) and invited me along to The British Shooting Show to help on its stand and also advertise the forum. This was at the NEC and as a forum we could never afford to have a stand there, so it was a great opportunity for us to have a presence there.

I can only assume I was helpful on the stand as I was invited along as part of the team to future shows to be there in dual responsibilities. I think it helped as I already owned an AirMaks rifle so I was passionate about the brand. I was a good fit.

It also meant I had some inside knowledge and when I heard there was a new gun coming that I really wanted to buy I managed to buy and get the first production model in the country of my chosen calibre (I’m sure Airgun World’s Russ Douglas remembers this as I might have rubbed it in a bit).

After that, I’ve ended up going to the Shot Show in Vegas with them and I’m going to IWA in February.

AW: What does your current airgun setup consist of — and how many air rifles, scopes and other pieces of kit do you keep handy at home “just in case I need it”?
PS: I have a few AirMaks Arms which I have bought over time. These were my competition guns before I became an ambassador for them.

I have Kraits and Katrans but my competition guns are both Katrans; my FT gun is a Katran Pro with its adjustable hamster and rear hook while I have a Katran compact for HFT activities.

I have various other guns too, but I’ve recently slimmed my collection down a little. I have had some rare-ish guns over the years including a blue Ripley, a BSA Cambridge and a HW77 Dominator. I also have quite a few pistols, mostly CO₂, but a few PCPs, too.

AW: How often will you change your kit — and what kind of customisations, tuning and so on do you carry out?
PS: I try to not change my kit so much nowadays. I did keep count one year on new gun acquisitions and after 29 weeks I was at 30 so thought I best stop counting.
Unfortunately, a few years ago I developed a back injury and couldn’t work for about a year, so I sold a lot of my guns to pay my bills and so on.

I am well known for customising guns. We do end of year awards on the forum for various categories such as most helpful member, best poster, best thread and so on. There was a category called “gear tart” that I won about 10 years in a row, so I removed the category.

As for tuning them, I think a lot of my guns spend as much time in pieces as they do built, as I love tinkering with them.

AW: Is there a particular piece of airgunning equipment you wish you owned — perhaps a first edition of a particular air rifle, for example?
PS: I often wish I still had my blue Ripley. I’m past the old collectors’ rifles (I used to collect old mint rifles) but I would love to have an old Girandoni so when people comment about the new fan-dangled PCPs and say they would rather have an old-fashioned springer I can point out their springer is the modern gun.

AW: What developments in airgun equipment technology interest you the most?
PS: Gun-wise, I really like seeing how economical in air use companies can make their guns.

Equipment-wise, I think going forward the thermal technology for night-time shooting will be great as it becomes more affordable to the masses. Until a few years ago they were way out of reach for most people, but as technology improves, lower-end stuff becomes much cheaper and more affordable.

Also, compressors are now becoming more affordable as the technology to make parts comes down so people can have one at home, which is a massive bonus.

AW: What within airgun shooting gives you great optimism for the future, and is there anything, perhaps from without, that gives you cause for concern?
PS: For the future, I’m optimistic that good quality guns and equipment will become available at lower price points so we can get more youngsters interested in the sport.

There’s always the concern that there aren’t enough youngsters getting into the hobby, so we must look at the best way of enticing them away from their screens or the sport will die out.

AW: What is the one thing that the airgunning community could easily do more of, and what could it easily do less of, in order to thrive?
PS: I think we could promote the hobby as a safe and enjoyable way to get out into the open and enjoy the countryside, be it hunting, competition shooting or going to your local club, possibly in a woodland, plinking a few targets and enjoying the fresh air surrounded by nature. In terms of what we could easily do less of, it would just be to watch out for people doing unsafe practices giving us a bad image and try to help educate them to be safer.

AW: Do you have any ambitions in airgun shooting, or a particular achievement that gives you the most pleasure?
PS: My pleasure is the competitions I shoot, and my ambition is to be able to attend a lot more shoots, but also to try and be involved in promoting shooting. I’m in discussions to sponsor/ advertise more competitions so we can try and get more people into the sport. My main ambition is to team up with someone to create a new national or major event that tries to be more inclusive and have people from various categories competing against each other on an equal footing.

AW: Where do you see yourself, AGF and indeed airgun shooting (including the trade) in, say, 10 years’ time?
PS: Hopefully in 10 years’ time AGF will be bigger than ever and a major player in promoting the hobby and the industry.

I have noticed trade-wise the gun shows seem to have dropped dramatically regarding airgun presence compared to previous years, which is a worry.

I think in 10 years the guns will need to be coming down as there are so many guns coming out at high price points costing £2,000+ at a time when disposable income seems to be shrinking. I see more of the big competitions not being so big and the people that used to buy their expensive guns for them also declining.

I worry that if prices keep going up then we will stagnate and have less chance of getting new people into the sport.

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