DIY shooting rest and a Blue Wonder followup report - Part 3

by B.B. Pelletier

Today we have a short guest blog and a followup report on the Blue Wonder cold blue project I've been working on. First the guest blog.

Guest blogger
This is Mike's first guest blog. He needed a rifle rest, so he decided to make one instead of buy something ready-made. His uses simple, everyday items that are inexpensive and readily available. Even if you have to buy some of these things, it's an economical project.

If you'd like to write a guest post for this blog, please email me.

Bloggers must be proficient in the simple html that Blogger software uses, know how to take clear photos and size them for the internet (if their post requires them) and they must use proper English. We will edit each submission, but we won't work on any submission that contains gross misspellings and/or grammatical errors.

by Mike S.


My Gamo CFX resting on my homemade shooting rest.

Some history
Every year I go on a trip where a group of us target shoot for the weekend. I use my .22 Gamo CFX, and the rest of the crew shoots .22 rimfires. The range is about 75-90 yards, and we all shoot from a benchrest position. For years, I couldn't come close to matching the accuracy of the rimfires. In fact, I couldn't consistently hit a 5-gallon bucket at 75 yards.

I knew my gun was capable of better accuracy. After doing hours of online research, I learned that firing a springer from any hard surface will completely ruin accuracy. The vibrations caused by the mainspring will shift your aim before the pellet leaves the barrel.

So, I made cushions on which I could rest my rifle. They're designed to absorb the vibrations. My accuracy improved to where I was up to par, and--in some cases--out-shooting the rimfires. The cushions are very cheap and easy to make from stuff around the house. They're weatherproof and can be built in less than 20 minutes.


It's not a showcase item, but it's functional and does the job!

Materials Needed

Plastic bag (a grocery sack or Ziplock bag will do)

5" strip of fiberglass insulation

1"x6" board cut 6.5" in length

Almighty duct tape

Just assemble a few inexpensive, ordinary items from around the house to make your rifle rest.

Procedure
Climb into your attic or crawlspace and cut a 5" strip of fiberglass insulation. Most insulation is about 16" wide. I used R13, but whatever you have should be fine. Cut the insulation in half so you have two 8"x5" pieces. Place one half on top of the other half.


A chunk of fiberglass insulation...yours may be pink or some other color.

Slide the inslation into the bag. Take the slack out of the bag and tape it on the bottom. Don't pull the bag too tight. You want the fiberglass to be uncompressed.


Assembly is a cinch!

Tape the bag to the piece of wood, taking up any additional slack in the bag. I cut a few additional pieces of wood so I could change the height of my rest. Now, lay your rifle on the bag and fire away!

[Editor's note: When handling fiberglass insulation, be sure to breathe through a half-face respirator with replaceable HEPA filters. A paper dust filter is not considered adequate filtration for fiberglass particles. Brief exposure is not likely to cause any damage, but handling and cutting the fiberglass batts may expose you to particles that have been shed into the air you breathe. If any part of the fiberglass in your shooting bag becomes exposed, re-cover it right away. Prolonged exposure to fiberglass insulation can cause nosebleeds and other respiratory problems.]

Blue Wonder update report - Part 3

Part 1
Part 2

Well, I thought I was going to have to eat some crow on this one. In Part 2, I blued a new barrel for a .17 HM2 rifle a friend put together for me, and the job turned out so beautiful that I raved about it. Then the comments came in. Some shooters were concerned about the job rusting fast and one person asked about matching the old blue. I answered the matching question to the best of my ability, but today I will shed some new light on both topics (rusting and matching).

About four days after I did the barrel, I happened to pick up the gun in my closet and was astounded to see that it had rusted almost 100 percent! The rust was extremely fine and even over the surface. When I picked up the gun and held the barrel my hands turned dark brown.

I was very disheartened by this. I knew I had to tell all of you, especially after recommending the product so highly in Part 2, but I wanted to think about it for a few days. I had also bragged on the job to my friend who rebarrelled the rifle for me. And now he wanted to see it shoot, so I had to show the rusty blue job to him also.

Then it hit me. Blue Wonder couldn't possibly have remained in business for all these years if their product always rusted. Surely, by now, there would be a great hue and cry about it and the internet would be full of warnings not to use it. I did find some warnings, but you can find warnings about almost anything if you look. There weren't the number of warnings I would expect if this product were pure snake oil (no slight meant to the oil by that name), so I reckoned I must have done something wrong.

Let's see. I cleaned the surface with acetone that several of you said wasn't good. That might be it. So, I read the Blue Wonder instructions online once more and found that they made no mention whatsoever of de-greasing the metal after cleaning it with Blue Wonder gun cleaner. Okay, so that step was unnecessary and wrong.

They also cautioned you about which oil to use after the job is finished. They said to use Break Free. I used Ballistol. So, that was point of departure number two. On the next go-round, I would not use acetone and I would finish with Break Free.

I removed the action from the stock and went to work removing the rust with 0000 steel wool. It came off immediately (1-2 minutes) and left the gun looking almost as it did after the initial bluing job. I toyed with the idea of stopping right there, but decided to go on and redo the whole barrel because I wanted to report on the entire application, not just a patch job.

After the steel wool treatment, the metal surface was free from all rust. I then cleaned the entire surface with Blue Wonder gun cleaner, just like the directions said. Then, I heated the barrel with a propane torch, again following the directions. Like before, it was hard to get the entire barrel up to the same temperature, but I got it all very warm to the touch. Speaking of touch, you are cautioned in the directions not to touch the metal with your hands at this point, so I had plenty of paper towels to use when I held things.

Next, the Blue Wonder bluing solution was applied. I remembered to shake the bottle before every application. Although the barrel did not seem to get any darker this time, some of the imperfections close to the muzzle around the front sight went away as I applied the solution. The last step was to apply the developer. Then, the metal parts were set aside for a couple hours to fully develop. Remember--this is a chemical process related to photography.

When it had developed, I wiped down the whole surface with Break Free and set the still-wet barreled action aside for the rest of the evening. The next morning, I dried the barrel and installed the action in the stock. I took the rifle out to the range, where I shot a 3/4" five-shot group at 50 yards using peep sights. Yeah--this rifle can shoot!

The guy who installed the barrel got to see the job and was very impressed. So was I. This was the first time I'd seen the job in bright daylight, and it was even better than I had reported before--though some of that was undoubtedly because of the second application.

I noticed in the sunlight that Blue Wonder has a bronze undertone to it. That must be due to the gold in the solution. The color doesn't match any blue job I've ever seen. But back under incandescent or fluorescent lighting (normal house lights) it does match. So you have to make a choice. If you plan to re-blue the entire gun, it will stand up even outdoors; but if you're doing a spot job, there will surely be a color difference in the sun. With indoor lighting, I cannot see any difference, but I'm colorblind, so proceed at your own risk.


This photo shows the bronze or gold undertone of the Blue Wonder blue. Compare the color of the barrel to that of the front sight that was blued by a hot salt bath black oxide process. Any uneveness that you see in this picture is the result of fingerprints--not the blue job, which is remarkably even.

As I write this, it's been four full days since I did the second job, and the gun still shows no signs of rusting. The blue is still dark, even and very shiny. I'm still very thrilled with the results. However, the one thing we still don't know is how well the blue will hold up to handling. The best test for this might be a revolver carried in a leather holster. Nothing wears blue faster than a leather holster. But since I don't carry holstered guns, this isn't going to work for me. Besides, I don't have anything to compare it to, so any report would simply be conjecture. I guess I need a cowboy action shooter to test this for me.

Speaking of cowboy action shooters, a friend from 40 years ago when I was a gunfighter at Frontier Village in San Jose recently contacted me with a request. Seems I sold him a Colt single-action for $150 and it recently lettered at Colt! That means Colt has a record of the gun in their files and can tell when it was sold, who it was sold to, the barrel length, caliber and original finish of the gun. It might be worth $3,000-3,500 today. He sent me a copy of the letter of authenticity, asking me for the details of how and where I came by the gun.

Here is a lesson in gun etiquette. When you find that a gun you acquired is better than you thought, do not have the insensitivity to ask the person you bought it from any questions about it, and for gosh sakes don't tell him what it may be worth. That's like taking a trophy wife to your high school reunion and introducing her to the girl who turned down your proposal 40 years ago.

Unless, of course, that is your intention. I wonder?

The Daisy 499B versus the Haenel 310 - a shoot-off!

by B.B. Pelletier

This test was requested by some of our readers after I made a few remarks in the recent Haenel 310 report. They wanted to see the Haenel 310 pitted against the Daisy Avanti Champion 499 with the human error taken out. So, I got to shoot at 5 meters (16.4 feet) from a rest on a bench. I tell you, it doesn't get much lazier than that!

Problems, problems!
Would you believe that both guns acted up and refused to shoot? Or at least that's how it seemed to me. In the end I think I figured it out, but I went through lots of shots getting there.

For starters, I have three types of lead balls for the Haenel but didn't know which was the best. The copper-coated balls I bought for my other 310 were too tight for the bore of this rifle. I got several jams that took time to clear. That left two types of unplated lead balls, one of which was 100 f.p.s. faster than the other in this gun. In the end, the slower balls proved to be the best.

But try though I might, I couldn't get the rifle to group off a rest. My "groups" were more like patterns and far larger than the groups I shot offhand in Parts 2 & 3 of the 310 report. That may be hard for you to believe, but that's what happened. One thing that disconcerted me was the fact that the rifle was shooting to the right. Finally, after about seven groups, I tapped the front sight to the right to correct it (when adjusting open sights, the front sight should always be moved in the direction opposite of where you want the pellet to go), but I went too far. Even though I moved the sight just a couple hundredths of an inch, the groups were now landing to the left of the aim point. I decided that was it--I wasn't going to chase the zero and conduct this test, or I would never finish it.

However, while doing this I did discover what was apparently causing my guns to misbehave. I had been shooting them alternately, switching from one to the other after every group. I didn't allow myself to get familiar with either gun. I tend to do that at the firearms range as well--taking five to ten different guns and running through them as fast as my interest wanes, which is pretty quick. But you never get used to one gun that way and I know it, so as soon as I recognized what I was doing, I stopped.

Once I did that and settled on just one type of lead ball, the groups started to come together. I finally got what I think are two representative groups, though they are not any better than what I shot offhand with this same rifle. By the way, the 310 likes a good artillery hold with plenty of follow-through.


310 group was left of center, but I didn't bother correcting it.


Another almost identical group with the Haenel 310.

Okay, so the 310 can shoot. What about the Daisy 499? At first I was switching it off with the Haenel, as I have told you, so I had to figure that out before I could get the gun to shoot. I also started the test shooting regular Daisy zinc-plated BBs, so the first group had to be thrown out. The 499 is hyper-accurate, but only with the special Avanti Precision Ground Shot made expressly for it. The use of standard BBs will increase the group size for sure.

Once I started grouping, I discovered that the sights on this gun were also off. So, I took a couple groups to sight it in. In that endeavor, I re-learned that the directions molded right on the Daisy 5899 rear aperture sight are on backwards. If you want the BB to strike higher, you dial the sight LOWER and the same with left and right. This confused me for a group or two, but once I figured it out I was back on track.

I also learned that the 499 doesn't need an artillery hold. I had been using that hold all along, but when I grasped the forearm tightly, the groups shrank right away. Shooting from a bench is therefore not that different from shooting offhand.

By this time, I had invested several hours with this test, so I shot only a single good group, but it's representative of what a 499 can do. The 499 group is smaller than either of the 310 groups, but not by that much. The reason I'm not giving any measurements for these groups is because they tore through the target paper in such a way that taking measurements is very difficult. You don't know where the hole ends.


Daisy 499 group was smaller than either group from the Haenel.

Well, this test turned out like I had imagined. The day before, I went to the range and allowed a .44 Magnum to chew chunks of flesh out of my off hand, so using the artillery hold was particularly painful on this day. However, I did follow through after every shot, and I'm sure I couldn't have shot the 310 any better than I did.

The 499 was a surprise, though. It's been almost 10 years since I shot it off a rest, and I forgot everything I may have known about shooting it that way.

Peeping Tom - Part 2

by B.B. Pelletier

This is the second part of Vince's guest blog. Based on the comments for the first part, I know you'll enjoy reading and seeing more of Vince's unique and clever handiwork.

If you'd like to write a guest post for this blog, please email me.

Bloggers must be proficient in the simple html that Blogger software uses, know how to take clear photos and size them for the internet (if their post requires them), and they must use proper English. We'll edit each submission, but we won't work on any submission that contains gross misspellings and/or grammatical errors.

Take it away, Vince!

Peeping Tom - Part 1

by Vince

Peeping Tom - Part 2

After the successful completion of Wayne's rear peep sight mount, I had to give some thought to the front. The original sight is a dovetail mount that's about a half-inch too low. For reasons previously explained, I'm not willing to modify the original part.


The original sight is a simple blade that's far too low.

Suddenly, it hit me! The perfect solution! Simple, elegant and, above all, cheap! I whip out some electrical tape and presto! I've got a front sight!


Simple, light, adjustable, and flexible! It even tells you which way the wind is blowing. What's not to like?

Then it hit me: the flaw with this design! It gives a new meaning to the term windage when your front sight flaps around in the breeze like this one would. So ,I nix that idea as a permanent solution, but I DO use it to determine how high the new front sight will need to be. I test fired the gun using the tape as a front sight, and trimmed it down until the elevation was about right at 10 yards. That told me what I needed to know. In all honesty, it really was the only reason I did this to begin with. Honest. Anyway, it turns out that the front needed to be just about 1.04" above the centerline of the barrel bore.

I was kicking around how to best make a permanent sight while browsing around Home Depot, just looking at various things and trying to visualize how to do this. When I spied a piece of 3/8" key stock, I decided I would be best off--gasp!--buying one and making something out of that. Wayne, you now owe me an additional $2.09 + tax, and I DON'T WANNA HEAR ANY GUFF ABOUT IT!

The hard part is hand-cutting the proper dovetail, which really isn't that bad if you exercise a little patience, judgement and care. Which means that I had a devil of time of it. No matter, I managed to do it without overdoing it and got a set of very decent dovetails ground out of the key stock.


It took about 30-45 minutes to get the dovetail cuts just right.

After a lot of careful measuring, calculating and double-checking, I trimmed the keystock to length and ground out a "smile" on the end opposite the dovetail.


The curved cut-out will hold the hood.


I was really careful about measuring the overall length of this assembly. Remember that.

For the hood, I reverted back to one of my favorite materials--old copper water pipe. I sliced off a piece about 3/8" long and bore a single hole in it so that it sat nicely on top of the other piece.


The hole lets the hood fit over the pin.


This is how it goes together.

Since this isn't a highly stressed joint and there's lots of surface area, I'm just soldered the hood onto the mount. So, I slopped up everything with soldering paste, mounted it (gently) in my vise and had at it.


Don't laugh at my vise. It was $10 on Ebay. I got two of them.

The ever-so-carefully-crafted dovetail was a snug fit, but it went on.


I'm beginning to think this is gonna work....


Perfect!

I hate to say it, but I really like how this piece turned out. It's very solid and gives a good sight picture with the Mendoza peep. And all that careful measuring and re-measuring I did? Phooey! I still got the height wrong by about 1/8" or so. But I got it wrong in the right direction; it's a little higher than I wanted, but the Mendoza peep has LOTS of vertical adjustment. So, it's still well within the usable range. Besides, if Wayne goes shootin' those light Hobby pellets, he may very well need more room for downward adjustment.

All that's left is to finish the sight. I cold-blued the steel base and painted the copper hood to make it look half-way presentable.


Due to flash photography, it doesn't look black. But it is.


The completed rifle. I think Wayne's gonna like it.

That about wraps it up. Peeping Wayne can now peep to his heart's content. I think he'll find that it works well enough and gives him a good sight picture. And, perhaps best of all, he got his peep on the cheap, and it's one I think he'll keep.

The Benjamin Katana - Part 1

by B.B. Pelletier

First, an announcement. Pyramyd Air's 2009 Gift Guide is now online. Besides the usual price-related categories, they've added a "Young shooters" category for those who are looking for those types of gifts. Visit the gift guide regularly, as they'll be adding more products over the holiday season. Now, on to today's blog.


Benjamin Katana is the latest PCP from East Bloomfield.

The Benjamin Katana is a strange new PCP. Strange because of how it came to be--not because of its design, which is straightforward, for the most part.

Earlier this year when I was at the Crosman plant in East Bloomfield, I was shown a rifle they were working on in the back room. It wasn't a new technology, in the same way that both the Discovery and the Marauder have new PCP technologies. Instead, the rifle they showed me was a blend of both of those airguns, taking features from each and putting them into one new rifle. Crosman engineers didn't even have a name for the new gun, but at the time they were leaning toward the Discovery II.

That changed during the summer, and the company approached Pyramyd Air, who is their largest dealer. They wondered if Pyramyd would be interested in a PCP they could call their own--with the Benjamin brand name, of course. They could retail it and also sell it to their dealers. Pyramyd Air owner Josh Ungier was interested and he selected the model name, "Katana," which is the proper name for a samurai sword.

As word of a new Benjamin PCP slowly leaked out in September and October, some in the airgun community made up their minds what it would be. There was the camp who felt the new rifle would finally break through the price "barrier" and Crosman would be offering the world the first PCP rifle to retail for less than $5. Lord knows, we're all breaking under the strain of the $259 Discovery that can only be afforded by Daddy Warbucks and his Hollywood cronies! Compare it to fine European guns with target triggers, choked barrels and fine stocks selling for $400. Whoops! There aren't any.

A second group thought the new gun would have all the features of the Marauder plus those they felt had been erroneously left off the big M. Things like a regulator, 100-shots per fill, 40 foot-pound power level, .25 caliber and probably some others. This crowd was certain the new rifle would be cheaper than the Marauder, which everyone knows can only be afforded by the idle rich.

In truth, the Katana is its own model, but that will be difficult for some to see because they're overlaying it against the Discovery and the Marauder. I choose to look at it differently.

What if the Disco and the Marauder were not in the world? Then the Katana would be a kick-ass single-shot PCP retailing for $400 instead of $600-800 like its European equivalents. Of course, I haven't tested it yet, so my remark about its potential for quality still have to be proven, but given that Crosman knows how to rifle barrels as well as Lothar Walther, and given that they already build some remarkable PCPs, I'm believing the Katana will be more of the same with its own special set of features.

Description
The Katana is a single-shot, precharged pneumatic rifle that comes in .22 caliber, only. When the Benjamin Marauder first came out, Crosman conducted a survey of which calibers shooters wanted in a PCP and the .22 was selected by 78 percent of those responding. It would be easy for them to also offer it in .177 down the road, but at present .22 is the caliber.

The styling of the rifle is the European look that most shooters seem to prefer. The wood stock appears to be beech and isn't as over-the-top as the Marauder stock but is styled along more conservative sporting lines. At the rear is a thick, black rubber recoil pad. The wood is finished a smooth matte that appears similar to an oil finish. The stock comes with sling swivel studs installed. There's no checkering, but there is a palm swell on both sides of the pistol grip, and the cheekpiece is on both sides of the buttstock, making this rifle very ambidextrous.

One very interesting point Edith made when I handed her the rifle is that it's very light! The sample I'm reviewing weighs 5 lbs., 12 ozs. without a scope. Of course, there are no open sights, so a scope or other optical sight will be required. The receiver has plenty of room for the scope rings, but two-piece rings will be preferred because of the loading trough.

One reason for the lightness is the inletting of the action and reservoir. There's a generous clearance on both sides of the metal parts before the stock begins. It's a look I've not seen before.


Lotsa space between the wood and metal.

The triggerguard has received a lot of criticism thus far. The angular shape appears to contrast oddly with the smooth shape of the rest of the rifle. It's a good place for the aftermarket customizers to begin.

The Katana trigger is borrowed from the Marauder, which means it's world-class. I will look at it in greater detail in a future report; but for now, know that it's adjustable to a light, crisp pull.

What pressure?
There's a pressure gauge built in, of course, and the question everyone, including me, is waiting to hear answered is just what pressure is this rifle set up to take? The answer is 2,000 psi. No, the fill pressure is not adjustable, as it is on the Marauder. That's not bad at all. The Marauder causes some confusion with newer shooters who still think air pressure relates to the velocity the gun can achieve instead of the number of shots it gets per fill. They know that putting extra gas in a Corvette doesn't make it go any faster, but when it comes to an airgun they get confused.

Speaking of confusion...
The manual that comes with the rifle needs some work. It talks about filling the rifle to somewhere between 1000 psi and 2000 psi "depending on your desired tune." The tune has nothing to do with the pressure. The pressure determines the number of shots. As long as the pressure is within limits, it has zero to do with how fast the pellet goes. Those words probably came from the Marauder manual, but someone at Crosman needs to correct them.

In paragraph 3.D., the manual also talks about using the degassing tool if you over-pressurize the gun and refers you to manual section 4.B. Unfortunately, there was no degassing tool packed with my test gun and section 4.B. of the manual talks about something else.

The barrel
I pushed several pellets from muzzle to breech, and the 24" barrel certainly seems to be choked at the muzzle. One shooter became confused by the mention of a choked barrel on a rifle in the Marauder description and argued that if the barrel was really choked then it couldn't be rifled as the description also states. Well, choked rifle barrels have been around about as long as choked smoothbores. The choke helps bring everything into alignment just before the pellet leaves the muzzle, and it is a proven benefit for accuracy.

The barrel is not shrouded, so the rifle will have a normal discharge sound. That's probably the biggest difference between the Katana and the Marauder, though doubtless many will feel the repeating function is even greater. Also, the barrel isn't free-floated. There's contact at the barrel band and at the muzzle. However, I'll be testing accuracy, so these features needn't worry you. We'll know for sure how accurate this rifle is.

Overall initial impression
I like the Katana. I'm more comfortable with a single-shot than I am with a repeater, so in my eyes, the Katana is ahead of the Marauder. However, the Katana is not shrouded, and I know some people are going to complain about that.

Just hefting it, I like the light weight and slimmer stock profile that feels quick for hunting. The trigger gives you every opportunity for great accuracy. So, instead of seeing the Katana as sandwiched in between the Discovery and the Marauder, I choose to see it as another wonderful PCP from Benjamin at a fraction of the price of any European equivalent. The rest of this report and test should determine if I'm right.

Relum Supertornado - Part 1

by B.B. Pellitier

This report comes to you courtesy of reader Jim Grossman, who generously shipped his Relum Supertornado to me to test. The last rifle I tested that Jim had worked on was the Haenel Model 1, which I bought earlier this year from an internet ad. You can read about it here.

I may have mentioned in that report that Jim is a careful airgun packer. I'm sure I did, because his packaging impressed me a lot. So, this time, I captured the details of the packing for you--as well as making a visual record for when I have to send the gun back.

The first step in airgun packing is when Jim selects the box he's going to fashion into an airgun shipping box. Usually, the little box is so thrilled that he runs out to the playground to tell all the other little boxes that he's going to be one of Jim's airgun shipping boxes. They all then share what stories they have heard about Jim's boxes before the bell rings and they have to come in for their afternoon nap.

Some boxes, however, don't receive the news with joy. These are the delinquent boxes. Some of them smoke, and most of them curse. They all wear leather jackets and black boots. They don't care that they could end up on the floors of garages, under cars soaking up dirty motor oil or be cut into pieces and used to light fires on cold winter evenings. They just don't want anyone telling them what they are going to do.

Jim has a program for these obstinate boxes. He doesn't give them Ritalin or send them to "Scared Straight" encounters. No, he simply starts fashioning them into the containers he needs. They complain loudly, but what else can they do? They're boxes, after all. Most of the time, before he's halfway through the box-making task, the box starts to transform after seeing that it's about to become a very useful member of society. Almost 98 percent of the boxes Jim works with go on to achieve self-actualization, which for a box is pretty hard to do. Their new owners are so impressed with them that as many as 79 percent of them are stored away in a dark, cool, dry space, awaiting the day they may be called into service again. Perhaps future archaeologists will examine these boxes and try to reconstruct what they might have held.


Outer box (although, at this point, I didn't know there was an inner box) awaits opening.


Inner box says "Open other side." You bet I will!

It's a wonderful, if somewhat humbling thing, to receive an airgun packed by Jim Grossman. On the other hand, if you're expected to return the gun to Jim, and there's no documented instance where this has ever happened before now, then it's downright scary. You feel exactly like a private pilot student at the moment their first solo flight begins. As you unpack the box, you feel like, "Oh, my gosh! The wheels just left the ground! I'm now flying. There's nothing I can do except land the airplane by myself, because I'm the only one in this cockpit!"

As each braced part of the gun is removed from its carefully fitted cushioned cutout and you see that is is actually cross-braced in its center on both sides and on the bottom, as well, you feel like you'll never be able to remember where everything goes. "Let's see, the head bone is connected to the...to the....Oh my gosh, Spock! I don't remember how it goes!"

Inside the second inner box that was braced inside the outer first box and annotated on the outside to instruct me which side I should open, I discovered a letter. Letters in airgun boxes are a lot like socks at Christmas. Yes, you'll eventually get to them; and yes, you probably need them--but they shouldn't get in the way of your fun! However, after carefully deconstructing this double-boxed bank vault to this point, I was hardly going to ignore a set of instructions from the maker! They might begin with, "If the large part begins to tick when you lift it from the foam, quickly retire from the room and seek shelter."


Flip side of inner box says "Open this side." We're getting closer!


Inside the inner box, a letter laid on top of everything. I read it first. Each part has a form-fitted compartment in the dense foam, with shims and cushions on all sides. The stock screws are pressed into the foam and taped in place. Large parts, such as the stock, are inside sacks made from nylons (kinky) to prevent rubbing from the padding. I'm sure there's a radiological dosimeter in here; I just didn't find it.

Thankfully, it wasn't anything like that. It provided the background of the gun, which I will slip into the report as I feel you need it.

Yes, this is an airgun blog, and, no, I'm not just wasting your time. We've got the Michaelangelo of airgun packers here, and it's worth turning aside for a moment to appreciate a masterpiece. Now, drink your coffee, and I'll get on with the report!


Relum Supertornado is an odd-looking underlever.

The Relum Supertornado is a spring-piston underlever that loads through a tap. It was made in Hungary at a time before the fall of the Iron Curtain. So, it has a lot of Communist in it and looks a bit crude. It probably works like a champ--kind of like that Mosin Nagant rifle that seems to set me off whenever anybody criticizes it.

The overall form of the rifle is boxy and a bit on the cobby side. Things that would be neatly tucked away in other air rifles stick out on the Supertornado. The angles of the stock and the triggerguard are too sharp, and the forearm feels just like a two-by-four. The beechwood stock is stained an uneven, muddy dark brown. The metal parts are evenly covered with black oxide over a surface that's about on par with what China was putting out in the 1990s.

It sounds like I'm setting you up for a poor report, but that's not my intention. From what Jim has told me, I sense that there's a silk purse inside this hog's ear. Jim made some repairs and modifications to the rifle, so let's look at those.

The trigger housing was welded onto the spring tube on a slight cant, which caused the trigger bar to contact the sear on an angle. Eventually, it let go, and Jim was the lucky owner when it happened. He tried to source a replacement, but Relums aren't exactly mainstream, so he wound up having a machinist make the part by examining the broken pieces and the hole it left in the trigger housing. What had been a stamped steel part is now machined from solid stock and should prove many times stronger and more reliable.


Silver part at the top of the trigger housing is the part made to replace the trigger bar. Silver at the bottom is a piece of feeler gauge cut to fit the trigger and held in place with JB Weld. The pivot pin hole broke out of the trigger, but the hard feeler gauge provides a new place for the hole to be drilled.
When he assembled the trigger again, he broke out a pivot hole on the sheetmetal trigger blade, but a piece of feeler gauge held on by JB Weld has fixed it. The trigger had an adjustment screw, but Jim opted to leave it out because it changed the depth of sear engagement. He felt that with all the trigger had been through, a little erring on the side of safety was appropriate.

The original front sight was a hooded post on a dovetailed base held fast with a setscrew. Jim replaced it with a Diana model 28 front sight that accepts inserts. He installed a clear aperture that would be found on a target rifle.

The rear sight was a crude but complex folded-metal unit that Jim replaced with a Beeman Sport aperture rear sight. He cleverly uses a rubber fender cushion washer as a disk to enlarge the small Beeman eyepiece for light reduction.


Rubber fender washer makes a nice light shield for the Beeman Sport Aperture sight.

That's all for today. Next time, I'll complete the tour and we'll get to know the rifle.

Peeping Tom - Part 1

by B.B. Pelletier

Earlier this week, we discovered an unpublished two-part guest blog that Vince wrote...last March! He's been busy with personal things and hopes to get back to this blog some time soon. This guest blog has all the neat things we've come to expect from Vince's handiwork of fixing and working on vintage airguns.

If you'd like to write a guest post for this blog, please email me.

Bloggers must be proficient in the simple html that Blogger software uses, know how to take clear photos and size them for the internet (if their post requires them) and they must use proper English. We will edit each submission, but we won't work on any submission that contains gross misspellings and/or grammatical errors.

Peeping Tom - Part 1

by Vince

Well, I had to think of a catchy name for this one, and "Peeping Diana" or "Peeping Wayne" didn't quite cut it. And writing about "Peeping Wayne" might not have the, uh, best impact on the poor man's reputation. So, since this is Tom's blog, this is my title and I'm sticking with it.

OK. Enough filler. Wayne likes peeping... er, I mean peep sights. So, naturally, he wanted a peep mounted on a gun that has absolutely no provision for it whatsoever. And on a gun that has some gen-u-wine collector's value, a prewar Diana 27, which means that I can't (well, don't want to) do anything that can't be easily undone and leave the gun relatively unscathed.

When Wayne first asked me about mounting a peep on this thing, I automatically thought of copying Diana's later method of putting a scope rail on a gun, which would then give us something to mount the peep sight to. I'd get a rail and fasten it to the top of the tube with small machine screws, grind down the protruding threads on the inside, and be done with it. But a PRE-WAR Diana? Naaaahhhhhh....I briefly kicked around the idea of soldering a rail onto it, but that would have required buffing the top of the tube clean, thus removing any finish that remained. Even though that's not as invasive as drilling holes in the tube, I still didn't like that idea, so out it went.

The next idea was to glue on the scope rail on. After all, we used to use Goop (or something similar) to secure the laughably mounted rails on the old B4-2 series Chinese underlever, and this 27 is probably in the same general power range. But on the Chinese rifle, the glue served merely to keep the rail from shifting from side to side; on this gun, it would be expected to do all the work of holding it on. This idea fell further out of favor when I thought about the glue possibly damaging the remainder of the finish if the rail was ever removed.

Finally, I concluded that the best idea might be an adapter that wraps around the tube like a hose clamp. I could go really simple and have the peep sight base clamp actually hold the whole thing together, and there's no way it oughta come apart during use. This is what I'm figuring on when Wayne's gun shows up.

Wayne warned me that it was gonna be a bit rough, and he was right. Mechanically, it was pretty good. Apparently, it had been overhauled shortly before he got it, but the finish is almost non-existent on the tube. No matter. First, I've got to figure out if my idea is even gonna work. I'll need some space along the tube near the rear where I can position the strap, so I pop the action out of the stock.


Perfect spot for positioning the strap.

Bingo! I've got just about 1" behind the cocking slot to work with.

Essentially, I'm going to be making a very short strap-on dovetail mount. The first thing I did was make the actual dovetail pieces. The old table saw I got from my dad allows me to angle the blade at 60 deg. from horizontal, which matches the angle on the Mendoza peep sight clamp.


This saw is older than me, but not older than Tom or Wayne. 'Nuff said.

I cut some .75"x.1" bar stock at the required angle. I ground the plating from what will be the bottom side of the end piece and cut it to a length of about .22".


The angle is cut.


The bottom side plating is ground off.


And the piece cut off.

I repeated the above steps, and now I've got the two halves of my mount.


Short for a dovetail mount, but it'll work.


Like it was made for it! Well, actually, it was.

And they fit very nicely into the Mendoza peep.

Next step is to make the strap that's going to hold the whole thing together. At first, I was going to make it out of brass, but I decided against that for two reasons. First, because that would force me to solder the end pieces onto it instead of brazing them, and I wasn't sure that soldering would be as strong as I wanted. Second, I didn't have any brass, and the one store I checked didn't have any either. Instead, Wayne is getting his adapter made from the highest grade of coffee can stock.

I figure on making the strap .75" wide to match the dovetail length, so I dug out a coffee can and started cutting.


I couldn't use a decaf can, it wouldn't be strong enough!

Turns out that the .010" thickness of the coffee can works out about perfect. I wrapped the metal strip around the action and popped it back into the stock.


Test-fitting the strap.

The metal is snug without unduly impacting the fit between the stock and the action. Which is, of course, just what I wanted. Now, I can proceed as planned.


The metal strap with one of the end pieces.

I used part of a tri-square to make sure I positioned the end piece perpendicular to the strap and used a small (Chinese knockoff) vise-grip to clamp it in place.


Chinese vise-grips, Chinese tri-square, nothing but the cheapest!

The end piece is brazed on, I did some careful measuring and marking (the details of which I will spare you), cut the strap and brazed the second piece in place. Wrapping it around the tube again shows that I seem to have measured and cut pretty accurately, and (I think!) it's good to go!


Looks pretty much like what I had in mind all along.

It's a bit of a hassle, but I finally got the whole thing wrapped around the tube AND the sight clamped over it. The base clamp on the sight pulls the end pieces together and tightens the strap just as I had planned.


Yep, it fits like a glove.

Since this is steel, I've still got some concerns about damaging the gun, so I take it apart and put a layer of cellophane tape on the inside of the strap where it contacts the surface of the gun.


Cellophane tape is very thin--less than .002"--so it won't interfere with the fit.

I remount the adapter with the sight and reassemble the gun.


The mount works just as it should!

After cleaning up the outside of the strap with my cheap Dremel knock-off, I noticed something unexpected. After brazing, the strap metal took on a yellowish patina that doesn't look terribly out of place on the aged finish of the rest of the gun. The photograph shows a bit more contrast than is apparent to the naked eye, and it might stand out more if I blacken it. So, I'm leaving it as is.

Wayne's old 27 now has a rear peep sight mounted. Of course, the stock front sight is so low that it'd shoot about a yard high at 10 yards if I tried using it with the relatively high peep. So, I've gotta do something about the front. And I've gotta do it with old toilet paper tubes, broken shoe laces, used gum wrappers and anything else I've got laying around...because I'm cheap and don't like spending Wayne's money!

Haenel 310 - Parts 2 & 3

by B.B. Pelletier

Parts 1 & 2

That's right, Parts 2 and 3. I reserve the right to go back and revisit velocity, though I'm going to focus on the accuracy of the Haenel 310. I also want to add a little more background on the rifle.


Haenel 310 is an upscale BB gun that shoots lead balls. It's also a rifle.

It's a rifle!
You don't expect airguns that shoot round balls to be rifled--at least I don't. And there is the precedent of at least two smoothbore guns that are incredibly accurate. The Daisy 499B, which is now called the Avanti Champion, is a single-shot BB gun that has a smooth bore. What keeps the BB on track is the precision of the bore, plus the fact that 5 meters or 16.4 feet is about the greatest distance this gun is expected to perform. While the 499's bore is a simple piece of tube, it is very precisely sized inside, and, when coupled with Daisy's number 515 precision ground steel shot, it provides all the guidance the shot requires for extremely careful shooting. In international competition, the 499 in the hands of a champion can keep all of its shots on an aspirin at the given range.

The other super-accurate gun most airgunners know about is the Diana model 30 arcade gun. Its accuracy is due to both a precise barrel and ammunition that is even more precise than Daisy's 515 shot. Apparently, the Diana shoots balls that are as good as ball bearings. I have heard tales of this gun being as accurate as the 499, which is to say nearly flawless.


Diana model 30 gallery gun was used in public shooting galleries in Europe. There are two shot counters on the left side--one for the lifetime total count and the other for the gallery operator. Accurate gun and also a smoothbore.

There are other ball-shooters that are rifled, but I don't want to turn this into a huge history lesson. However, to complete the circle, the Czech Vz 35 and Vz 47 are both rifled and both shoot 4.4mm balls. They're accurate, as well, though not quite up to the 499.

Having said that, I've thrown down the gauntlet for the 310. We know what a 499 can do, and I know that the Czech rifles will group about half an inch at 5 meters. So, the question is, where does the 310 fit? There's only one way to find out.

The acid test!
This one is a toughie for me because I do it offhand. I'm not a good offhand rifle shot, and this light little rifle waves back and forth like amber waves of grain as I try to maintain my balance. Actually, more like a hippo on a pogo stick.

What I'm about to show you isn't the best test of just the rifle by itself. There is a lot of me on these targets, too.


A good group for me, but not quite as good as a 499 at the same distance.


Another good group.


Modesty demands that I also show this group to you. It is as representative as the first two targets of how well I shot.

So, the 310 is about as good as the two Czech rifles, but not quite up to the Daisy 499. That's still pretty impressive, and I don't think anyone would be dissatisfied with this rifle.

Velocity
I wanted to check velocity again, now that the piston seal had a week to absorb the oil and distribute it. Also, I shot the rifle many times in the accuracy test, so things should be well-mixed in the compression chamber by this time.


This recovered ball is almost a perfect hemisphere, so we should be able to apply splatology to learn how fast it was going when it hit the backstop.

Remember splatology? It's the science of determining how fast a lead ball is traveling when it hits a steel plate by examining the deformation. I did a report on it back in September. If you try to read this ball, it looks like it was traveling 250-275 f.p.s. when it hit the backstop. A couple things to take into account are the backstop in the bullet trap is on a slant, so it robs the ball of some energy when it hits, and also the fact that the ball had to travel 16.4 feet plus go through target paper before it hit. That's going to subtract a little more of the velocity. Let's see what the chronograph says.

Well, surprise, surprise! The balls were averaging 250 f.p.s. at the muzzle. That's egg on my pompous face from three different directions. First, the fact that spatology predicted the terminal velocity EXACTLY, and I didn't have to temporize with all the reasons it might not.

Second, the piston seal was dry after all and the velocity did increase after oiling. Initially the balls were going only about 200 f.p.s., until I oiled the piston seal and let it sit for half an hour. Then, the velocity jumped up to 250. So much for what I think I know about the frequency of oiling airguns!

And finally, you may not remember, but in Parts 1 & 2, I said, "And a certain sized sphere made of pure lead tends to be pretty much the same from brand to brand." Well, they aren't! The balls I had not yet tested were the ones that shot in the 250s or the 280s after oiling. But the bulk balls I used in the velocity test generated an average of 355 f.p.s.--very close to what they did in Parts 1 & 2 (351 f.p.s.).

We live and learn...
So, shut my mouth! You do have to oil the leather piston seal before shooting every time, and round lead balls are not all the same and splatology does work exactly as we said.

It's a lotta fun, this little gun. If you ever had a notion you wanted to shoot accurately in a short space, a Haenel 310 might be the gun for you. And for you apartment dwellers, I'm reminded of the u-boat captain who was found with a Haenel model 2 pistol in his cabin on board a captured submarine. I doubt your efficiency flat is any smaller than than a cabin on a sub.