by Tom Gaylord, a.k.a. B.B. Pelletier
And who can I ask? That’s today’s topic. It comes from a sense of frustration I’m having about airguns.
When a question comes in about an airgun, I try my best to answer it. Sometimes, the answer involves a lot of information the person asking probably doesn’t want to know — or doesn’t know they needed to know.
Let me give you an example without pointing any fingers, but based on actual events. We got a question about using a certain precharged pneumatic air rifle for the sport of field target. This person wants to buy a certain PCP in .25 caliber that’s rated to 40+ foot-pounds. He has already checked with the distributor, whose technical people assured him it will be fine for field target.
No, it won’t! Let me tell you why. First, nobody but a fool shoots field target with any caliber except .177. The reason for that is the .177 pellet, being so small, has less chance of hitting the face of the target and locking it in the upright position as it passes through the kill zone to hit the paddle that knocks it down. Since knocking down the target is the only way to get a point, anything that jeopardizes that for any reason is avoided.
Second, nearly all field target matches have a power limit on the guns. This is both to protect the targets and to exclude the ultra-powerful airguns that just bulldoze the targets. When I competed, I once used a .22-caliber Career 707 that developed 26 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. When it hit the target, it vibrated the face so hard that it tripped the trigger and dropped the target. Even I could see that it wasn’t just accuracy dropping all those targets. So, I suggested a top energy limit of 20 foot-pounds at matches held by our club and the other club officers agreed. Soon after that, other clubs started using 20 foot-pounds as their upper limit. Today, there are international rules that limit the output of the gun to 12 foot-pounds, and American rules that go up to 20 foot-pounds.
Third, the particular air rifle that was recommended to this customer is not especially accurate. It was as if he had discovered that a Lamborghini tractor is much more affordable than a Lamborghini sports car, and he wondered if it would do all the same things. Sure! And you also get that 3-point hydraulic hitch that holds so many farm implements. Bet a Countach can’t do that!
Once I say it — it becomes the truth
Here is something I really detest. I will make a certain remark about something, and someone will pick up on it and turn it into something else entirely. Let me give you an example.
I write the following:
“The pistol I shot did not develop the power the manufacturer promised. I did discover some dirt in the inlet valve, and I wonder if some of it might have been blown into the innards when I filled the gun, gumming them up.”
A week later I read this on the Yellow Forum:
“Tom Gaylord said his pistol was delivered with dirt inside the reservoir which gummed up the action.”
A year later I read:
“This pistol never had a chance. All of them were full of dirt and never developed anywhere near the advertised power.”
What goes around…
Then this happens. A person writes in to Pyramyd AIR with some off-the-wall question that no one can answer. Edith emails the manufacturer in the hopes they’ll have an answer. As she waits, I get a call from the manufacturer asking the same question. I provide the answer, they email Edith and she writes up an answer to be sent to the customer.
But when I have a question about airguns, where can I go? Believe it on not, I do have sources.
I have to break my questions down to their components, then ask my sources about those specific things. For instance, I might get a question from someone who is acting as an expert witness in a lawsuit about an airgun that blew up, injuring the owner. So, he asks me why the airgun might have blown up.
I know a few things, so I ask him to find out the schedule of tubing that was used to make the reservoir, and whether it’s seamless or not. Then, I call Dennis Quackenbush and he tells me to check to see where the tubing was made. If it came from China, it may be irregular enough to have failed, even though the spec sheet says it should have been strong enough. Or it might have been rusty when the maker installed it on his gun and the rust continued after the gun was assembled until the reservoir failed. Or the threads that held the tube to the receiver might have been too coarse for that kind of connection. Or they may have been made with a die instead of cut on a lathe and may be the wrong angle for the joint strength required. Or any of a hundred other things.
Torpenhow Hill
I love this one! There is a place in the UK called Torpenhow Hill. When the first Saxon settlers got there, they noticed the large hill nearby, so they named the place Hill, which in their language was the word Tor. The Celtic people (early English folks, not basketball players) who came to Tor noticed that it had a very large hill, which was obviously Tor Hill. Their word for hill was Pen. The Scandinavians following them arrived at Torpen and noticed a large hill that was called Torpen Hill. Their word for hill was pronounced How. Then came the final Middle English settlers, who decided to call the place Torpenhow Hill, for the prominent hill in the vicinity. And that his how Torpenhow Hill (literally hillhillhill hill) got its name. True story.
[Editor’s note: There is a report on the internet that debunks the Torpenhow Hill story, but it has been shown to be incorrect.]
Many years ago, I knew an airgun maker who was highly regarded. But he wasn’t a shooter. By that, I mean he wasn’t a person who was interested in shooting until he started making and selling airguns. So, he never learned the terminology that goes with guns. Consequently, he referred to the cartridges that are put into firearms as bullets. Lotta that happening on television, these days. So, when he started making molds to produce projectiles for his airguns, what was he going to call those projectiles? Why, bullet heads, of course.
Edith and I have heard all manner of names for the projectiles that guns launch — bullet heads, bullet tips, bullet noses. Sometimes, when we find an airgun website that gets almost everything wrong, we’ll just blurt out a combination of these names — bullet head nose tips! Torpenhow Hill.
So, when somebody in the marketing department of an airgun company decided that their new airsoft rifle with a 300-rd magazine is a single-shot because it fires only one time with each pull of the trigger — then the bolt has to be worked to cock the gun and load the next BB from the magazine — we correct them. Or when a 30-something web designer lists a Monte Carlo stock as having a raised cheekpiece, when they’re referring to the 2-level profile of the comb on the butt — we correct them. Or when they insist that double-action means single-action and vice-versa.
For most of these people, airguns are just a job, the same as real estate or banking. For us, it’s a passion.
I like the passion part.
I think it is more obsession. ;o)
I wish i could obsess more about my passion. 🙂
No good deed goes unpunished! 🙂
Mike
BB,
Is your frustration really about airguns, or about people?
Fred,
Oh, it’s people.
B.B.
B.B.,
“Sahara” is Old Arabic for “desert.” ‘Nuff said about that. :^) Nope. I have one more. Anyone here remember Mystery Science Theater 3000? They once watched a C movie called “Manos: Hands of Fate.” “Manos” is Spanish for “hands.” So the movie’s title actually was “Hands: Hands of Fate.”
And it seems to me that once energy limits were established in FT, .177 also became desirable because one can shoot it at higher speeds and, presumably, at flatter trajectories, right?
Off-topic, but B.B. used a name I hadn’t heard in years: Countach. When I was 17 years old, in 1981, I briefly (she dumped me quickly) dated a girl who lived in a ritzy suburb called Barrington Hills here in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. Me, I’m just a middle-class stiff from modest Elgin, a dozen miles away.
Anyway, one day we were on the back patio of her house, sipping lemonade. I looked through the trees that lined the rear of her father and mother’s backyard and saw a white Lamborghini Countach. I exclaimed, “That’s a Lamborghini Countach!”
She replied, “Yeah.”
Stunned, I replied, “That’s something like a quarter of a million dollars! What does your neighbor do for a living?”
“He’s a football player.”
“Um, as in he is a Chicago Bears football player?” I asked.
“Yes, he’s a Chicago Bear,” she replied.
“What’s his name?” I asked, my heart pounding.
“Mr. Payton.”
Michael
Pretty cool. One of the most amazing things about Walter Payton was that he was not only a superstar but almost universally well-liked in a game of extreme contact. How do you pull that off?
Matt61
Walter Payton is revered here more than Michael Jordan, in my opinion. People speak his name in hushed tones. The day after Sweetness announced his retirement, Mike Ditka said “Walter Payton is the greatest all-around football player I’ve ever seen. He could have made it in the NFL at any position. Well, maybe not tackle — he’s only 5’10.”
Walter Payton put as much effort into every block he ever made as he put into every rush he ever made. In a 13 year career, he missed only one game. He was 5’10”, but he could dunk a basketball with one hand clean. He could walk over 100 yards on his hands, and, get this, much of his career he had the strongest arm in the NFL, able to throw the ball around 105 yards, from one end zone into the other.
And yes, he was universally respected by defensive players on other teams, despite that they feared him. Not just because he never gave up until the whistle blew and might break through a tackle and get to the end zone, either. They dreaded tackling him.
Walter decided early in his career that if defenders hated tackling him because of the pain involved (he had a VICIOUS straight-arm) it might make a difference of a dozen or so yards a game. Clean play, but he would explode on the tackler at the last second. 205-210 pounds of coiled, solid muscle exploding on you as you hit him.
Simply the best player ever, regardless of position. (And note: probably not the best running back — just the best player.)
Michael
Lamborghini also made a large SUV… Mostly owned by arab sheiks to run over the desert sands (no doubt more comfortable than a camel).
That SUV was (and still is) highly unreliable. Not a lot of them where sold so they stopped making them.
If they came out today the 20 inch+ crowd would go crazy for them and they would sell like hot cakes.
J-F
I always admired your patience but I guess we have no idea of the extent of just how patient you truly are and I’m talking about both you and Edith.
You have to be patient when testing guns (how often did you just wanted to put it back in the box and send the piece of crap back to the company?) or wanted to just yell at someone that wouldn’t listen?
Thank you,
J-F
J-F,
Oh, Edith and I yell a lot! People just don’t hear it. But who do you yell at when a manufacturer gets something terribly wrong, than admits it was a conscious decision?
B.B.
Oh you guys are good. I don’t know how you can do it. I guess the manufacturers who actually care and take time to ask for advice and make quality products kinda make up for it a little bit.
We had something similar happening on the CAF recently where someone started bashing the 30$ plastic 1911 that Crosman makes stating that his Umarex 1911 was made a lot better… really?
Wow who could have guessed that a 100$+ gun made in Germany would be better made than a plastic one made in China!?!
Then people started confusing the plastic 1911 with the all metal blowback GI 1911 that Crosman makes and then it went in general Crosman bashing… it was insane. Some admitted to their mistake but the OP went on and on about how Crosman made only crap but the only other Crosman gun he had experienced was the C11!!
I love Crosman, their not perfect and they could offer better support for the Canadian customers but I think they make nice products.
J-F,
Coincidently, Crosman is one of the few companies that listen — not just to us but to all their customers.
But you knew that.
B.B.
Yes, it’s making other people understand it that’s hard.
But you knew that 😉
J-F
As per B.B “Coincidently, Crosman is one of the few companies that listen — not just to us but to all their customers.” They might listen.. but only to an extent, because, if they really, truly listen they would by now have done something about their “springers/gas ram” rifles; horrible, horrible triggers, and their hit or miss quality control with them. The most heard about ( in my experience) complains in any forum is the Benjamin trail NP. A true hit or miss air gun.
I do yell at the target range not to people but the target papers
boltaction,
Primal screaming is excellent therapy!
When I was very young and living in Elizabeth, New Jersey, my mother took me with her when she went grocery shopping at the A&P on Elmora Avenue. When we were done, she’d take me next door to the White Castle for lunch. Between the grocery store and the restaurant, there was a large stone train bridge (it’s still there). As we walked under the stone bridge, I would let out a scream at the top of my lungs and just let ‘er rip for quite some time. I was a pretty darned good screamer even at that age! We usually weren’t the only ones walking under the bridge when I screamed, and most people froze in horror when I screamed. My mother and I thought it was funny 🙂
Edith
The White Castle is still there, Edith 🙂
So is the supermarket.
Fred DPRoNJ
BB,
What’s this that I hear about you filling PCP pistols with dirty bubble gum?
Derrick,
It wasn’t dirty when I put it in! 😉
B.B.
B.B.,
Could you do a painstaking study of the effect of bore size and fill pressures on the size of the gum-bubbles produced and the velocity at which they inflate?
Also, if I were to buy a Gamo Super-Duper Fast-Shooter Bubble Gum Hunter Extreme in .177 caliber bubble gum, would that be enough to humanely kill a wild hog?
Would it be a reasonable self-defense weapon to protect my home?
Thanks as always,
Michael
Michael,
If you can find a way to shoot the hog in the brain from inside the skull — perhaps while he is under anesthesia? — they, yes, your choice of rifles will do the job.
B.B.
B.B.,
As a high schooler I recall some of the gum under desks was pretty hard, maybe as hard as PBA pellets. Hmmm. If I can just figure out how to get into a wild hog’s head . . . hey, your blog today is kinda about getting into the heads of some pretty simple thinkers!
Michael
I’ve been thinking that if 3-D printers using metal chemistry become cheap enough, we could all “print” our own experimental pellet designs for testing (hey! if GE can use 3-D printers to make one-piece fuel injectors for jet engines, rather than an assembly of 20-odd machined parts, making a pellet should be easy)
Wonder how sturdy the compound in the common (laser-hardened polymer) 3-D printer is… We could probably create light-weight pellets now if the compound doesn’t shatter under the forces…
Wulfraed,
My wife designed two elaborate pendants about the size of two silver dollars on top of each other and had them fabricated by sending the 3-D design to a 3-D printing business. They made them up in aluminum, but they also can do silver, gold, stainless steel, ceramics, sandstone, and a number of different plastics.
My wife’s pendants (identical to each other) were $35 a piece.
The company she used was shapeways.com. Another is kraftwurx.com.
If I were the CEO of an ammo maker, my company would invest in one of these machines and the requisite software.
One of the very first shapes I’d try would be Gary Barnes’ dumbell shaped bullet.
Michael
Michael,
The dumbbell-shaped bullet was not an invention by Gary Barnes. In the 1990s, Tom loaned Gary a book about balle Blondeau, and Gary was intrigued. Here’s some more info:
Pyramyd Air’s balle Blondeau
Balle Blondeau slugs for shotguns
History of balle Blondeau
Balle Blondeau on wikipedia (see section about steel slugs)
Edith
Edith,
Ah! OK. Thanks for the correction/clarification.
I guess for the moment I’m the dumbbell! LOL
Michael
How about a pellet designed to shatter on firing, to produce a very short-range shotgun effect.
Probably completely worthless, but a pretty good gimmick for shallow thinkers.
Might be OK for wing-shooting bugs.
Les
Google bug-a-salt
It’s a salt shotgun made to shoot down bugs.
PA should carry it.
J-F
And Gamo will pay you for your endorsement!
Pete
Don’t know how humane it would be… but getting a plug of gum seated deep in each nostril might lead toward suffocation if it doesn’t learn to become a mouth breather…
If we’re talking traditional bubble gum, then the stock should be a shade of pink too, shouldn’t it?
Wulfraed,
As far as mouth-breathers, some of them who have an initial interest in airguns should do a bit of rudimentary homework before plunging into something as demanding as field target.
Michael
Hi, folks. I’m having a real good airgunning week! Last weekend, I was “camping” (er, staying in a hunting lodge) by the wonderful Cacapon River in WVa. The cabin has a nice 60-odd yard range. We had four kids ages 7..11, plus several overgrown kids like me; Marauder, Discovery, Red Ryder, Crosman 760, some Umarex CO2 BB repeater; spinners, swingers, cans galore. Good times.
Then, the day after I returned from the woods, my “new” Walther LGR Universal arrived. This is my first match rifle, vintage or otherwise. Many folks around here speak very kindly of the vintage match rifles, so I had high expectations. But wow, this thing has exceeded these by a mile! I grab it every chance I get for some 8 yd. offhand practice in the basement, and I can’t help grinning the whole time. I’m amazed – maybe shocked – at how much better I shoot offhand with the LGR than, say, my top-heavy, Field Target rigged Marauder. I’m not a particularly skilled shooter, but this old LGR makes me look good!
PS, all this fun with the LGR strengthens my already high opinion of Pyramyd’s Air Venturi A.G.E. Quiet Pellet Trap. Love the way it’s designed so you can easily slide in a standard 12-bull 10m target. Luxury!
-Jan
Jan,
Congratulations on the LGR. Wonderful gun.
If you decide to stretch the legs on that gun and mount a scope don’t overlook the air arms falcon and/or jsb rs pellets for longer range shooting in the LGR.
kevin
Thanks, Kevin. In fact, the AA Falcons are the only pellets I’ve bothered trying in the LGR so far! I don’t have any wadcutters on hand, so I just grabbed the lightest pellet on my shelf. FWIW given the short basement distances, I’ve seen NO need to try anything else! The few times I’ve rested the LGR, it has made cartoonishly tiny groups (10-shot groups, of course, B.B.!). This despite my hamfistedness, utter lack of experience with match sights, a probably-suboptimal post-type insert at the front, poor target lighting, and a not-so-stable rest.
It’s inevitable that I will scope the thing and see how it does out to 55 yd. I love it when folks shoot Field Target with pea-shooting vintage match rifles, and I MUST try it someday.
Any advice on scopes for the LGR? Kevin, I think you’ve spoken highly of the Burris Timberline 4.5-14×32. Is that still one of your faves? I reckon some of the Signature rings would help stretch the elevation adjustments for longer ranges, eh? Though I should do the Chairgun math on whether that combination would have enough elevation adjustment for FT’s 10-55yd ranges…
Thanks,
Jan
PS, Kevin, I had a belated crack at purchasing your LGR almost a year ago. I’m embarrassed that it took me this long to actually pick on up. Would’ve been a more-fun winter with one!
Jan,
Yes, I still like the burris timberline 4.5-14x ballistic plex reticle with AO scope.
Never mounted one on an lgr. My concern would be the necessity for mounting the burris timberline so far forward (because of its’ extended eye relief) that it might interfere with the flip up loading port.
Having said that, I had an lgr universal (perhaps the one you’re referring to?) that allowed the cheek piece to be adjusted almost infinitly. I mounted a bushnell 7-21×40 on that gun with tall mounts stacked on risers and could light matches at 20 yards with that gun. Won lots of bets with that gun and that scope. Oh, by the way I used air arms falcon pellets that were unweighed.
kevin
Thanks, Kevin. I can’t wait to stretch the LGR’s legs. Matches, eh?
Thanks for reminding me of the Timberline’s long eye relief.
The LGR manual (available for download from Walther!) shows the RT model with a surprisingly large scope, mounted very high with a big honking riser. The scope goes well past the loading port. I have the Universal model like you had. Its cheek piece adjusts to four different heights. It’ll go pretty high, though perhaps not as high as the continuously-adjusting RT model seems to go. Should be fine for a pretty high scope if I want to go that way.
I am loving this rifle so much, I think I might actually shoot the next DIFTA FT match with the thing using the match sights. I picked up an assortment of clear plastic inserts, and it seems that the might work well with the round killzones on FT targets. Now, I just need to get some range time to figure out how much elevation adjustment is in the rear sight, and how big its clicks are. What could go wrong?
Thanks,
Jan
My only comment about todays article is that I’m thankful that B.B. is so beloved here.
If I asked a group of people “Where do I go?” I would be afraid of the answers.
kevin
Yeah, me too….. Except that I usually don’t have to ask……
/Dave,
LOL!
kevin
This has always been one of the things I dislike about the ‘net.
Someone says…’I think this (or that)’…and within hours it is been quotes as gospel.
I’ve come to rely on a very few websites to get my info.
SnipersHide (for precision long range shooting)
DPReview (for photo equipment)
And of course Airgun Academy 😉
And it is great when your vocation is one of your passions. After shooting (and for many years ahead of shooting) photography has been a passion of mine. Not to pat myself on the back but for quite a few years I was very successful as a photographer file:///C:/Users/btodrick/Desktop/photo/The%20Alberta%20Society%20of%20Artists%20-%20Current%20Members.htm (WARNING…there is some nudity…tasteful).
Unfortunately the digital revolution took a lot of enjoyment out of the medium (for me) and shooting is now my ‘passion’.
But every job has it’s drawbacks…or does it 😉
I recently spent the day with our local police dept’s tactical team. A practice day on the range for their snipers. They pulled up in two black Suburbans…right out of NCIS. One of them was pulling a utility trailer. They opened the door to the trailer and my knees when weak. On the walls were a number of sniper rifles, 308’s and a .338 Lapua. About 15 tricked out M4 carbines.
I thought…just give me 60 seconds to grab whatever I can and I’d be a happy camper 🙂
I asked one of the snipers if it ever became ‘just a job’
His response…’well, sometimes there’s too much paperwork, but in reality it amounts to being a great big kid every day of the week and getting paid for it’.
Beats digging ditches (no offense to ditch diggers…my dad was one).
For anyone who wants to look the above link doesn’t work http://www.artists-society.ab.ca/artists-and-their-works/current-members/bob-todrick.aspx
Just how does one get a day with the local tactical team? 🙂 Pretty cool. I wonder how often police snipers actually work and how often they take a shot. I was reading a work by Navy Seal Garry Stubblefield. He actually said that most of SEAL training is kind of fun for a certain kind of physically active person what with scuba diving, target shooting, and parachuting. But among those who can complete the training, there are actually not a lot who are really up for taking people out. It’s hard to predict.
As a related point, it’s interesting how military elites keep evolving. It used to be that a United States Marine was the best fighting man in the world. Then that was superseded by a Green Beret, Special Forces soldier. Then being a Navy Seal was the ultimate soldier. Then it was Seal Team 6 as the best of the Navy Seals. Now, there’s something called Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) which integrates Delta Force, Seal Team 6 and certain supporting unit into a new entity. On it goes.
Matt61
One of the benefits of my work. Years ago I gave up life as a working photographer and now sell photographic equipment to industrial and government agencies. I sell a lot of spotting scopes, binos and cameras to our local police force (in a city of 1 million).
I’ve built up a 15 year relationship and get invited to a lot of stuff that the normal civilian doesn’t get to see.
I actually asked them how often they were used…thinking it would be pretty infrequent.
The answer somewhat surprised me. Though he said they didn’t actually take a shot all that often, they are called out nearly daily. If there is any kind of a ‘disturbance’…(he says often domestic violence) where there is any possibility of a hostage scenario the tac/snipers are called on.
B.B.
I think RidgeRunner may have it right. The love of the sport goes from passion to obsession at about 200 miles per hour. I wonder what kind of F.P.E. that generates? I know it hits hard.
G & G
Interesting about the names. Some British place names with their long history can be pretty weird. There was a location on a map called Weston Super Mare. That must come from Roman times since it means Weston Over the Sea in Latin. And then, there was a place identified as “Dorking”….
That is a good question about who is in really in charge. I’m told that for reasons of economy, technical support such as you commonly get on the phone is arranged in layers. The first line handles the easy stuff and refers the more difficult questions to the next level and so on in a process of distillation. At the very end of this process are a very few people who really know what is going on. Or are there? Maybe no one knows what’s going on! A few years ago, I read that there was a handful of people, less than 10, who singlehandedly had the knowledge and capability to bring down the entire Internet and change life as we know it. Good thing they did not exercise their power. But the Internet has expanded so fast that I don’t if anyone could bring it down now.
Wulfraed, God is in the details as the saying goes and I will defer to you in matters of locking an action which I believe is how you would ultimately define the various designs.
Warning for people who have not heard already, there is a new scam out for people who want to steal your guns. A man and a woman showed up at a guy’s door with a request for the woman to skinny dip in his pool. The owner said yes, and the man of the pair said that he would go off to get cigarettes. Then while the owner was playing lifeguard, the guy doubles back to house, grabs everything he can lay his hands on and leaves. Maybe that was when the owner was giving the lady a towel after her swim and inviting her to church!? She declined. He found that he had been robbed of over a thousand dollars of valuables in the form of jewelry as well as a his handgun. He had been a deputy and was hoping to pass on the gun as an heirloom. As the investigating officer said, “Just when you think you’ve seen everything.” Well, if you ever encounter the old swimming pool ploy you’ll know what to do.
Last night, my tennis court was taken but I watched some tennis lessons with interest. There was a young fellow getting balls hit to him by a pro and practicing his backhand with great style and power. He was spraying the shots all over and outside the court. Now here was a guy paying big money for personal attention to have individual balls hit at him and get critiqued for each shot. Why not let a backboard hit the ball to you for free? And the critique was always the same stuff about not getting too close to the ball and to lean into your shot by placing your weight on your front foot, stuff you can read about in any number of places. And while there was lots of attention to detail, there was nothing about the fact that this guy could barely hit the tennis court–although he did look stylish I admit. It was just like shooting centerfire guns as opposed to airguns! Here’s a guy paying big money to take a relatively few lusty shots with the tennis racquet. But there’s no way, he can compare to the hundreds and thousands of shots I’ll take in comparison against the wall. And from the beginning I will be working on accuracy by starting at a short distance. I guess it was this other guy’s intention to work on hitting a target at some future point after he gets his technique just right. Here is another example of how the love of power is the root of all evil. Anyway, I think a big vindication of my airgunning is right around the corner.
Off to Hawaii for a couple of weeks to shoot my SW 686 for the first time. The only .357 magnum ammo I could find is a fairly heavy load of 158 gr. Isn’t the standard 125? Anyway, I’ll tell you all about it.
Matt61
Matt, actually, the “standard” for the .358Mag should be 158 grainers… 125 grain loads came on vogue on the 1970s.
I call anything on the 160 to 180 to be heavyweights.
125gr?
That’s a light .38Special or moderate heavy 9mm Parabellum (I think most of my 9mm stuff is 115 to 124gr — and some of my .30 M-1 carbine is 110gr).
The original load for the .40S&W was 180gr; the people that prefer high velocity shoot 155-165gr loads. (Since many defensive pistols have relatively fixed sights, and my eyesight leads to shooting low [on bullseye 6o’clock holds] I’ll stick with the 180gr — being in the barrel for a longer period of time means it shoots higher given the same sight settings).
“Just when you think you’ve seen everything.”
Really? Have you ever seen a man swallow his own Head?
Ha-ha-ha!!!
the beauty of airgunning goes with passion!
Reminds me of my friend, Dan. I introduced him to airgunning. At the time I had two different calibers. I had .177 and .22 cal. I explained that .22 wasn’t such a speedy pellet compared to the .177 but it had more mass so hit harder. From there he had to keep going larger and larger caliber until he was using .50 cal to hunt squirrels because he wanted to kill squirrels for amusement. He’d also go after turtles, frogs, and just about anything that moved even though I tried to explain to him that we do not go after animals that aren’t doing any harm. He never got it. He eventually moved to Arizona and had grand plans to go out on coyote killing expeditions.
BB and Edith. I bet you two are pretty busy in the correcting department. But do the manufacturers really listen when you advise them?
BB what was you involved with at Airforce guns? I don’t think I recall of you mentioning that before. I heard you talk about when you were in the military. But not Airforce guns. Just curious.
Gunfun1,
I was Technical Director at AirForce from 2003 through 2005.
B.B.
So that means you had input in the development of the AirForce guns during that time period. Right?
And if so what was the big project at that time? And did you get to help with the development?
I know. I always got too many questions but just always interested in the behind the scene stuff.
GF1,
I tell anecdotes about my time at AirForce from time to time. Maybe I will remember where some of those are, or maybe I’ll tell a couple in the near future.
B.B.
Good answer BB.
No telling how somebody could of took your answer. Rumors could of started flying.
I know what you mean with this article. (Where do I go)
See it all the time. Even at work the (he said) stuff goes on.
But you will drive yourself crazy trying to correct everything. I bet you know what I mean though.
Einstein once said 2 things are a definite, human stupidity and the universe . and he wasn’t sure about the universe
Don’t count on me for anything tomorrow, the 14th. My new iMac is arriving at the Apple Srore a FULL week earlier than promised. Nice to know some companies can still pull off a pro-customer surprise!
pz
PeteZ.
It would be party time for me if something showed up sooner than expected.
It’s been party time from Sunday at 11:00 when I could pick it up until half an hour ago when I was sent to bed w/o my new toy.
The machine is gorgeous, and by my obsleriatric standards blindingly fast. Load a 10 mp barely compressed pic in an eye blink. I’m getting spoiled. Manipulate said photo in LESS time than an eye blink. OK, some things have changed a wee (or Whee!)!bit in their operation. But fast it is.
pz
I’ll try to put up some Flickr pics of our Swedish trip tomorrow.
G’nite.