Good evening,
Thanks for setting matters straight on beginning airgun velocity, Mr. Pete.. I do think that if you lose all of the CO2 propellant at two inches with a snubbie type pistol, the pellet or shot will travel less of a distance with less accuracy than it would in a longer barrel. I am also thinking that the projectile spends such a fraction of a moment within any handgun type length of barrel that accumulated friction has much less of an effect than the propellant being instantly lost to outside of the barrel volume of space at 2 inches versus 6 or 7.5 inches. Airguns should have the same set of physics apply as gunpowder weapons. Bullets fired from a conventional pistol start out at the same velocity just like projectiles from an airgun. Gunpowder gases expand in the barrel the same way that CO2 going from a liquid to a gas upon release do. Velocity and rate of expansion are different, of course. Unburned gunpowder in a short barreled powder weapon is the same as wasted CO2 in a short barreled airgun weapon. I have no experience with spring compressed airguns and so must stand aside at this point.. I will gladly stand corrected here on all points I have made if wrong.
regards!
EDIT: Having made such lofty statements, I thought it might behoove me to doublecheck ( I wanted to have ketchup ready in case I had to eat my words )
It turns out that I was wrong on longer barrel airguns being more accurate but
right on them having more velocity than shorter barreled airguns. The following is a write up on this subject by B.B. Pelletier, a well known and widely accepted fellow when it comes to airguns and what they will or will not do.
https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2005/04/is-airgun-barrel-length-important/
