Grumpian

Genuinely impressed with the response from everyone, it's quite a community you've got going on here. Not sure my local rabbit population will be quite so pleased..... G.

Thanks to everyone for the info - that's significantly longer than I was anticipating, which will make things a lot easier. webster - I'm up near not so sunny New Deer, mostly shotgun territory for the local farmers, but I was looking for something with a bit more subtlety.

I've recently taken up air rifle shooting for pest control. After a lot of practice on paper targets etc I've finally got my groupings down to suitable size for hunting. However, although I can get sufficiently close to quarry I find that the movement/noise/delay associated with loading my springer often means I miss the opportunity. Ideally I'd like to load a pellet in advance so that I'm ready but I've read that you should never keep a springer cocked for too long as this will cause damage. How long is too long though? 5 minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour? The rifle manual offers no advic