by B.B. Pelletier
Browning’s new Buck Mark air pistol has a lot going for it.
There’s lots of interest in the Browning Buck Mark URX. Some have already purchased it because they didn’t want to wait for the report, so that tells you what people are thinking about the gun.
There was some confusion about the advertised velocity in Part 1. I mentioned the velocity (320 f.p.s. with lead pellets and 360 f.p.s. with alloy pellets) that was printed on the package, but there’s a different number in the owner’s manual and still a third number on Umarex USA’s website. So, which is it? We’ll find out today.
The velocity is published for both lead pellets and lead-free alloy pellets, so that’s how I tested it — with three different lead pellets and with a lightweight alloy pellet.
I also mentioned that the bore is very dirty for some reason. So, I cleaned the barrel with J-B Bore Paste on a brass bore brush.
Lead pellets
The first pellet I tried was the RWS Hobby — that all-time standard lightweight lead pellet. This 7-grain lead pellet averaged 334 f.p.s. The slowest pellet went 319, and the other nine in the string ranged from 329 to 340 f.p.s.
After the first string I tried a second one with the same pellet seated deep into the breech, using the Air Venturi Pellet Pen and PellSet. Seated this way, they averaged just 320 f.p.s., so it wasn’t an improvement. Hobbys fit the breech a little tight; so when I seated them by hand, they popped into the barrel. But deep-seating just pushed them forward and didn’t improve on the terminal velocity, so the tight fit is important. The range with the deep-seated pellets was 316 to 322 f.p.s., so the velocity spread was tighter.
After the Hobbys came H&N Match Pistol pellets. They weigh over half a grain more than the Hobbys, so you’d think the velocity would be lower, and it was. But not that much!
The first shots were noticeably slower, then they increased and the range went from 314 to 322 f.p.s. The average was 319 f.p.s., so it wasn’t that much slower. These pellets fit the breech a little looser than the Hobbys, but were still a good fit.
I tried these with deep-seating, and once more the average velocity dropped to 312 f.p.s. The range this time went from 308 to 318 f.p.s. On the basis of velocity, alone, I wouldn’t deep-seat them.
The final lead pellet was also a surprise. The pellet was the JSB Exact RS that weighs 7.33 grains. You would expect them to be a little slower than the 7-grain Hobbys, but they were actually faster! They averaged 343 f.p.s., with a range from 339 to 346 f.p.s., so they were tight in the spread and also fast. I expect them to be accurate, as well. I didn’t deep-seat this pellet because it fit the breech a little loose.
Very clearly, then, the Buck Mark I’m testing shoots lightweight lead pellets even faster than advertised. That’s always welcome when the gun in question is a lower-powered example.
Lead-free pellet
This gun is distributed by Umarex, so it was a natural decision to select the RWS HyperMAX lead-free alloy pellet. Most of you know that Umarex USA is also RWS USA, so you can see the tie-in.
This time, it took three shots before the pellets came into their range, and it was such a big jump that I want you to see it. Shot one went 347 f.p.s., followed by shot two at 348 f.p.s. When shot three went 359 f.p.s. I thought the pellet had gotten into its range, but I was wrong.
Shot four went 370 f.p.s and they went slower than that only once in the next 9 shots. The average was 374 f.p.s., and the range was from 368 to 378 f.p.s. That’s a little faster than the 360 f.p.s advertised.
These pellets varied from just loose to falling into the breech a noticeable distance. I didn’t try to seat them deep since half of them were going in deeper than that, already.
Trigger-pull
The reviews of this gun mention the hard trigger. What I see on the test gun is a single-stage trigger that’s heavier than it could be. The test gun fires at 6 lbs., 14 oz. A 5-lb. pull would be better. With a single-stage trigger, you always notice the pull weight more than with a two-stage — as long as the second stage breaks cleanly.
Cocking effort
The Buck Mark cocks with just under 14 lbs. of effort. That makes this one of the lightest-cocking spring-piston air pistols I’ve ever tested. As previously noted, the barrel detent is not tight, though it keeps the barrel closed during firing. This will be an all-day shooter. The only small concern is that the front sight is right where you want to grab the barrel during cocking, so you have to choke up about an inch.
Possibility of modifications
The question of modifying this air pistol has already been raised by one reader. The gun is constructed (plastic shell housing, potmetal parts) will make any modifications very difficult and definitely not worth the effort. You’ll be better off buying this pistol to shoot as it comes and forget about modifying it in any way.
Opinion so far
So far, I remain impressed with this pistol. Of course, the lion’s share of the report comes during accuracy testing, but I already like the power, the ease of cocking, the ergonomic grip, the crisp adjustable sights and the low noise signature. If the Buck Mark is accurate, it’ll be a wonderful addition to a short list of great low-cost air pistols.
Thank you all guys on your massive support 🙂
dusk-neću odustati 😉 ! i will fight for my rights -but right now I must wait and see how my mother will be after op. then i need to get a license from my family doctor(she-my mother is my family doctor )and lots and lots of papers to be done ,if noting she may own my rifles i have a time until 01.06.2013.
Thing is this law is restrictive because we are about to be member of EU and frankly this law is a bit vague for anyone as i hear the other day guy bought an air rifle(Hatsan)and went to police to give them serial number of the rifle(initially they asked just that) and they confiscated his rifle because THEY DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH A RIFLE madness …
What?!!! Do I understand this correctly? Serbia is going to be a member of the EU? Oh dear! I hope that is a good move for you.
-Chuck
Chuck i live in Croatia and i am Serb by nationality 🙂 but i truly respect the state i live in and yeh yupi we gonna be a members soon and i am leaping from joy 🙁
I hope the EU membership works out for you.
It’s still a little early to consider it a success.
Les
Desert- Nothing to gain lots and lots and little more of restrictions and frankly i would prefer not to be in it-but it is just me …
As i said previously recently i bought Norica Atlantic 5,5 cal and overall i am satisfied (cheap ,good mechanical sights and fairly accurate ) one thing is bugging me though i can’t disassemble this rifle and i must disassemble every rifle i have it is just my thing,it is just you cant get the spring out if you don’t disassemble trigger mechanism so i gave up from that agenda ….
Who actually makes this nice looking little pistol? Is it a Turkish production once more? Or from elsewhere in the world?
Oliver,
The Buck Mark is made in Taiwan.
B.B.
Someone asked me a while back if there was any difference between the older RS pellets (black tin) and the newer ones (red/white tin) in .177. I told them that I thought the newer ones were slightly larger.
Yesterday I was pushing a lot of pellets, and compared the two. In the particular rifle, the older RS were very lightly engraved, and showed no extrusion from the rifling lands. The newer ones showed slightly deeper engraving, and there was a very small amount of extrusion at the skirt. So of the two kinds I have, the newer ones are slightly larger. These results could vary from batch to batch, so I doubt if the difference was intentional by JSB. It might make a difference if your gun is extremely touchy about pellets. If so, then you might have trouble with any other pellet as there will be slight differences from batch to batch.
twotalon
So i decided to in a future make my self a slingshot and shoot the bottle caps in my basement 10 m- it should be legal and fairly accurate 😉 i must use right kind of wood though –kidding 😉 🙂 but i don’t see anyone else on the blog so i decided to make a little bit of controversy 🙂
Use surgical tubing for that slingshot, Milan. Latex tubing comes in different sizes. Works great! That’s what I use on my folding wrist-rocket after wearing out the originals. Funny, you can do more damage with one of those than with most airguns…
/Dave
Dave thank you I man i will try that -bur really i am joking i will get my license it is just the stuff with my mom that is more relevant right now-but i remember that guy i posted from You Tube who was pliking cans and even hunted with a sling shoot, that rules 😉
Not to be mistaken i still can own air rifle below 10 J like Slavia 631 without hassle
I lived in the most restricted state in the country”New Jersey”Their laws are as bad as Europe
where even an air soft is considered a firearm and must have a permit to buy
I hope everyone regonizes which party wants to take away our rights.They will try
to do it.Don’t believe that they won’t.
I wonder how long they will take to go after air gus?That is next”
NNJ Mike,
Some places in NJ consider airsoft guns as firearms. When I spoke with the New Jersey State Police about airsoft restrictions, they said there was no state law regarding airsoft gun ownership and that individual towns may have restrictions. It’s up to the customer to determine if his location regulates airsoft gun ownership, as it’s impossible for me to contact every town & county every year to find out if their airsoft gun ownership laws have changed.
Edith
and Edith, it’s been my conclusion from observing various scenarios in this state that going to the Police for advice on gun control laws is not the best source of information. Far from it! I would recommend contacting an attorney who happens to specialize in this area or even better, asking the NRA.
The laws here are confusing and sometimes conflicting. For instance, you can shoot an animal causing property damage – either to your crops or house. However, it’s against the law to hunt with a rifle in this State. There is also a restriction on where you can discharge a firearm (I believe it’s something like 500′ within a home). There are also town laws against discharging a firearm. I question what the State Police told you because I believe that our State’s definition of a firearm is anything that discharges a projectile via chemical or air propulsion. Here, read this and tell me you would be comfortable:
“Firearm or firearms” means any handgun, rifle, shotgun, machine gun, automatic or semi-automatic rifle, or any gun, device or instrument in the nature of a weapon from which may be fired or ejected any solid projectable ball, slug, pellet, missile or bullet, or any gas, vapor or other noxious thing, by means of a cartridge or shell or by the action of an explosive or the igniting of flammable or explosive substances. It shall also include, without limitation, any firearm, which is in the nature of an air gun, spring gun or pistol or other weapon of a similar nature in which the propelling force is a spring, elastic band, carbon dioxide, compressed or other gas or vapor, air or compressed air, or is ignited by compressed air, and ejecting a bullet or missile smaller than three-eighths of an inch in diameter, with sufficient force to injure a person. NJ 2c:39.1f
Fred DPRoNJ
Fred,
It’s incredibly expensive to contact attorneys to get interpretations of every state, county & city law in the U.S. Just imagine how expensive airguns would be if we had to do that. We use the ATF’s latest info, and I also research the laws every 6 months — besides getting news alerts to changes in laws for guns and other items.
I have the names of every person I’ve spoken to in the NJ State Police dept and every other location where I’ve investigated restrictions on airguns, airsoft guns, ammo, slingshots, slingshot ammo, blank guns, blank ammo, knives, darts and more. Every time I call, I take down the name of that person along with the time & date. If I get any different answer to questions than I’ve gotten previously, I cite the previous person’s name along with the date & time of our conversation. This makes people sit up & take notice. They either have to cite the new law to me that supports their contradictory answer or they explain why the previous person was a bozo and didn’t understand anything. I have never gotten a conflicting answer from anyone at the New Jersey State Police office. I get the same answer every single time I’ve called. Unlike other states, they actually return calls. Everytime I’ve called, I’ve asked, “Does this include airsoft guns?” The answer has always been, “Airsoft guns are exempt from this law, but there are some towns that have restrictions on airsoft guns. I don’t know which ones, so you have to find those yourself.” NJ has a sterling reputation for consistency in their answers. I cannot say the same for Michigan. Or Philadelphia. Or Chicago.
In Florida, I was told to contact a local attorney who was counsel to the city that had anti-airgun legislation if I wanted an answer to my question about a local ordinance. I cited the law and asked the attorney if it meant what I thought it meant, and he said, “I never heard of that. It’s not important. We’re not going to stop people from having airguns.”
Edith
Edith,
I agree with you but given the definition of what a firearm is in this State and the confusion surrounding this, I think it ultimately comes down to whether one gets stuck with a real aggressive prosecutor as to whether one wold be charged or not with a violation of the law. Like I said, confusing.
Fred DPRoNJ
Interesting. Does this mean that the larger big-bore airguns, over .375 cal, are not covered by the NJ regs? Red Ryders not allowed, unless converted to .50???
-Jan
So it would seem. I believe that this exception was put in for paintball, but political idiocy being what it is…
That would be hilarious, if it weren’t so sad.
B.B., your blog is solid entrepreneurial gold. Last week, I was ready to make my fortune with a globule-of-mercury IOS/Andriod app. Now, it’s big-bore conversions for the NJ market. “Would you like your Daisy 880 in .458 or .50, ma’am?”
Of course, I’m all talk. But Vince, I bet you already have a working prototype!!!
-Jan
Sounds like a .50cal airgun is fair game… “.. smaller than three-eights of an inch…” is .375cal
Hey I don’t know if I should be asking this here, I figured since it was the most recent post it’d be the best place but I was wondering if there is any kind of clip/magazine for the crosman 1377?
Thanks
Adam,
Do you know the 1377 is a single-shot?
As far as I know, there is no way to convert a 1377 to a repeater, so no clip or magazine.
B.B.
Greetings …
The mailman dropped off my little impulse purchase yesterday afternoon. I got my Buck Mark, a tin of Hobbies and a couple other things. I spent the evening with my favorite niece and her dad grilling bratwurst. So, about 8:00pm we got out the Buck Mark to have a good look at it and knocked a soda can around the backyard for a few minutes.
My first impression had to do with the feel. It has some weight to it, the details are molded sharp and crisp and I actually wasn’t sure for a while what it was actually made from. It just felt and looked like it had to have some more metal in it somewhere.
Like yours, my bore was filthy. The first pass was a dry bore mop because I wanted to see just what was in there. A lot of “greasy” black goop came out. A drop or two of bore cleaner on the tip of the mop for two more passes and it was squeaky clean. I am glad you mentioned that or, in the rush to have some fun, I might of overlooked it.
Skip to the chase. This thing is fun. That’s what it is … just plain fun. It cocks so easy, feels good in the hand, and, with no crony or even a target to shoot at, all I can say is that none of us failed to hit the can. So, we cut the can in thirds. No misses on the end piece. I cut a flat piece from the center of the can that was about 2.5″ or 3″ square, folded it into a tent shape and we shot at that laying on the ground at up to 30′. Finally we all had some misses.
I have two concerns about this pistol. The first is that it is so easy that I will eventually get bored with it and it will wind up in a box somewhere. But, it is also so much fun, it’s hard to imagine that now.
The second is my concern for the strength and durability of the hinges in the arms of the cocking mechanism. The mechanism contains two square arms. One is stationary and that one locates the barrel and provides the pivot. The second is also square, operated by a piece of flat stock attached under the barrel, and as the barrel is broken open, it pivots on the end of the upper arm and pushes on the lower arm to provide the compression. My concern was that if the pivots wear, and there is slop in them, that the barrel will not line up when it gets closed and so on. But, if you look very closely, you can see where the receiver end of the barrel, where the pellet is inserted into the barrel, has a cast metal piece into which the barrel is pressed. This cast piece has a groove in the bottom that matches up exactly with the upper square arm. As the barrel is closed, the grove in the barrel fits down over the mounting arm and holds it in place nice and straight. So, do we need to worry about wear in that groove? I don’t think so, but I am thinking maybe there could be some lube in there.
Final rating: so far, 5 out of 5. And, when you consider that taking the 10% discount at PA brings the pistol in for less money than it would cost to take Herself out to dinner, that makes it 6 out of 5 for a 5+. Maybe you should think about getting another one for her and one for each of the kiddos too.
TheNewBuck-A-Roo
NRS
NewBuck-A-Roo,
Thanks for that quick evaluation. I will refer to it as I do part 3 of my report!
B.B.