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Odds ‘n’ ends

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

This report covers:

  • The artillery hold
  • Who makes it?
  • Does it have a Lothar Walther barrel?
  • Strange questions
  • Passion
  • More in me

Today, I’m taking time to address some of the many things that I want to talk about that don’t add up to a whole report by themselves. I’ve wanted to do this for several years and never took the time to do it, but today I’m just going to do it.

The artillery hold

If you don’t know what the artillery hold is, please read this and watch the short video. Blog reader Chris USA asked me how I approach shooting spring guns. He assumed I started with a firm hold and then went to the artillery hold when that didn’t work. I don’t. I start with the artillery hold first; because over the past 20 years, I’ve leaned that most recoiling spring guns need it.

But in recent years, I’ve also discovered that the number of springers that don’t have to be held that way is larger than I had assumed. I think I can boil it down for you this way. When a spring gun seems to scatter its shots unless you pay careful attention to the hold, you have to use the artillery hold. But when a spring gun seems to want to put all the pellets in the same place, that’s one that can probably be rested directly on a bag.

Until I shot the Diana 340 N-TEC in yesterday’s test, I would have told you that only smooth-shooting low-powered guns would do that. But the 340 disproved that. It’s smooth, even at great power, which is why I tried it on the bag.

I still don’t know everything, despite what you may have have heard. Like all of you, I’m still learning this stuff as I go. Whenever you find a stable springer, try resting it on the bag. The artillery hold is a wonderful technique, but it isn’t always needed.

Who makes it?

In recent years, people have become obsessed with the origins of airguns. I guess the Diana situation is a good illustration. One person wants only a Diana-made airgun because he insists that only German-made airguns are worthwhile. The next person wants a Diana that has been made in Rastatt, before the company was moved by the new owners. Then there’s a guy who doesn’t want a Diana at all. He wants the Chinese copy made by Factory Number 2, because they make a product that’s just as good as Diana, but they don’t charge an exorbitant price for it. A fourth fellow then chimes in and tells us that the White Stag company is copying the rifle made by Factory Number 2 and giving it a superior trigger. And, finally, a guy asks why Diana doesn’t just copy the rifle Factory Number 2 builds, and give it the White Stag trigger?

Folks, this stuff is gettin’ too heavy for my head! I just test them and report what I find. You have to sort them out yourselves.

Does it have a Lothar Walther barrel?

Close on the heels of who makes the gun comes the question, “Who makes the barrel?” As if only one company in all the world knows how to make airgun barrels. Then, I see comments about why certain airguns are so accurate. They all seem to say that it’s due to their Lothar Walther barrels. I keep my mouth shut when this happens, even though I know some of those guns people are bragging about use barrels made by Anschütz and even BSA. Heck — that’s where John Whiscombe went for his barrels!

Lothar Walther makes fine barrels, I will give them that. But so does Crosman. Yes, I said Crosman! I have seen Crosman barrels that will shoot just as well as anything Lothar Walther makes. There are two distinctions that separate Crosman barrels from Lothar Walther barrels. First — Crosman doesn’t put the effort into barrel-making that Lothar Walther does. That’s not a criticism of Crosman. They are simply making a lot more things than just barrels.

And second, Crosman is not known for their barrels. They should be, in my opinion, because they’ve made some darn fine barrels. But at the rate they manufacture airgun barrels, it’s impossible to hold the same level of consistency that Lothar Walther holds. You will pay 10 times as much (and a heck of a lot more, truth be told) for a Lothar Walther barrel as you will for a Crosman barrel, so there isn’t the time in the process to maintain the same level of consistency.

As far as I know Lothar Walther doesn’t make:

Pellets
BBs
CO2 cartridges
Complete airguns

…and a great many other products. Each of these (pellets, BBs, CO2 cartridges and whole airguns) are entire industries, yet somehow Crosman manages to do all of them well, while still making good barrels.

If there’s a chink in their armor, it comes from the guns they don’t make — the guns they buy from Wang Po Industries, as blog reader RidgeRunner refers to them. I’ll agree, those guns are the Achilles Heel of the Crosman product line. They’re what they are — some are okay and others are not so good, but Crosman receives them in 40-foot containers and whatever comes out has to be disposed of, one way or another. But don’t tar the entire company with this one brush, because Crosman is still a leader among airgun manufacturers.

I think the globalization of airgun manufacture disturbs our conservative natures. We don’t all vote the same way, but when it comes to airguns and shooting, we have a lot more in common than most of us would care to admit.

Strange questions

I read every question this blog receives. Even though I don’t always answer them (I have no time), I read them all. Along with the regular questions, there are a few I find strange.

One that I get a couple times each year deals with using air pistols to kill pests. Now an AirForce TalonP air pistol can easily take small and even medium-sized game. It produces 50+ foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. But a TalonP pistol doesn’t exactly fit in your pocket. It’s not a pistol in the same sense that a Walther PPK/S is. And that’s what these questions are asking: “Can I kill rattlesnakes with a Walther PPK/S BB gun?”

NO — you can’t!!!!!

Don’t even think of trying, because if the snake finds out what you’re trying to do (and they will), then it’s YOU who are in trouble.

Then there’s the guy who has disassembled his Rolex watch and wants me to provide step-by-step instructions and preferably a short video to help him assemble it again. Did I say Rolex watch? I’m sorry, it was his multi-pump pneumatic, but it might as well have been a Rolex.

Okay — here are the instructions. Set the parts of the airgun on the kitchen table. Raise your left hand and place your right hand over your heart and swear you will never take apart another airgun. The bill for this lesson is the cost of your now-destroyed airgun. If you want an advanced degree, pack as many of the parts as you can find into a box and ship them to a repair center like Pyramyd AIR. That costs more, of course. Education always costs something.

“Well, heck, Tom — I could just not take the next one apart at all — just send it in for repairs when it needs them.”

See — you’re smarter already!

The final strange question is one I wrote. I never got one just like this, but I get a lot of them that are similar:

hello i have a airgun that my father got as a kid for me it worked until a few years ago then stopped one day it looks simple to take apart and i would like to learn to fix airguns as i am planning on starting a repair business when i retire next year what do you think is the best book to learn how to repair airguns and can you please tell me the schools that have airgun repair training programs

I don’t know what you want, because I could read these thoughts many ways. Please try to break up your thoughts into sentences so I give you the right advice.

Passion

I am passionate about the subject of airguns. But I don’t “hype” guns, like some new readers suppose. In fact, I do the opposite. An airgun has to please me before it gets my approval, and not too many do. Yesterday, you saw one in the Diana 340 N-TEC.

Just because I don’t mock certain manufacturers or use foul language, never suppose that I don’t care. My big fear is that people will act on my recommendations and be disappointed.

More in me

I’m sorry, but I needed to do this today. I guess I reached critical mass. There’s a lot more, but I promise to parcel it out in small amounts.

73 thoughts on “Odds ‘n’ ends”

  1. Hmm, I got a bb pistol at Wal-Mart and I can’t seem to hit this coyote I’ve been trying to dispatch. I think the problem is the Chinese barrel, I finally got my hands on a lw barrel, I think that will do the trick, do you have any videos showing how to replace an air gun barrel? If not could you make one? I need to do this tonight if I can, coyote is getting on my nerves.

  2. As usual a lot of information. Thank you BB for your thoughts. Now a question about the Sig Sauer P226 PELLET PISTOL. Do you or any of the blog readers know anything about them ? It is hard to find links for the Pellet version of the P226. The cost looks real reasonable. I have read a couple of comments that it may even be produced in Germany at the Sig Saur factory. Wonder if anyone out there has seen one, or better yet shot one. Thank you in advance . Harvey

  3. B.B. Never tried either of my PPK/S’s on rattlers, but we had a bunch of them on the mountain where we lived. My 5 boys would dispatch them with their BB guns and my daughter’s husband would remove the heads and fry them up and there’d be a rattlesnake feast for the happy hunters.

  4. JoeB ON Orcas
    All I want to know is how did you get those rattlesnakes to hold still long enough to skin them and then cook them.
    I have killed a many in my day and tried to clean and cook them to eat them but even 12 hours after we cut their heads off they would still crawl around on their own. Being that we were camping out in the woods and only had the bare essentials such as knifes and guns and big logs for the fires I guess we forgot the most important thing, Nails to keep them from moving on the big logs as we tried to skin them before cooking them.

    Also being that we were there to ride our dirt bikes and not actually hunt even thought it was hunting season it seems we had managed to alienate all the local hunters camped near us due to the fact that our noisy dirt bikes seemed to spook the deer and make it more difficult for the hunter to actually get to shoot at the deer we had no issue with find all the rattle snakes we wanted so I never understood why they world get so mad and shoot over our heads as we rode by ( at least I assumed it was over our heads ) as we never got hit so I guess they really were not all that good of shots as if they could not hit a big target like a dirt bike with a person riding it how did they expect to hit a little ole deer that would stand right in front of them until we would ride by on our bikes.

    Oh wait I was asking how to skin a rattle snake wasn’t I and got side tracked instead. Darn the ole brain just aint what it used to be.

    BD

    • BD,

      Just go on. I love your stories on bikes and cars. They are always off topic, but boy, they are amusing and remember me of the pranks I did when I had the time.

      You should compile them somewhere,

      Regards,

      August

      • August
        I only wish I could stay in my childhood as those were some of the best years of my life, but then some of the things I did back then would have me and my parents in jail in todays culture and social paranoia.

        Could you just imagine the uproar and news reports that would result from a group of 8 and 9 year olds out in the woods and islands hunting by themselves with 12 ga shotguns and 22s or 30-30s all with their parents permission or camping overnight every weekend while in junior high school from 3pm Friday afternoon until Sunday evening around 7 or 8 pm with no parental supervision with those same guns and little boats that enabled us to get to anywhere in Cocoa Beach Florida by boat or junior high students going and coming to and from school by means of a 10 foot fiberglass boat.

        Or high school students having a vocational class at the county community college 25 miles from the high school and driving themselves there in their own cars instead of riding the school bus to the junior college just to avoid having to sit on a bus for an hour and half one way to get there and then have to ride that same bus back to your school which would make you an hour and half late getting out of school each day. I did that for two years all with my parents permission much to the disdain of the school board and their rules.

        Then there was the issue of Florida passing the 18 year old law in Oct of 73 and me turning 18 in January of 74 so that I wrote my own excused absence notes to take to school to get a written excuse for not being at school which again did not set well with the schools principle but I was 18 and in the state at that time was considered an adult which released my parent of all responsibility for me or my actions.

        So yes I did push the boundaries to the very edge of being legal and within the laws rules at the time. That is why I make some of the statements I do as far as this country and the loss of our freedoms since most generation X and younger people have no clue as to the freedoms that they have lost since they never had them to start with just like wearing seat belts as it was not a law when I first started driving and actually one of my first cars I could not have worn them if I wanted to as it did not have any and it was a 450 horsepower 1964 GTO with the 389 tri power, four speed trans, posi rear end and only an alternator on the motor with no power steering or disc brakes or A/C to rob the motor of all that sweet horse power on tap when you wanted it and can only say I wish I still had that car today as it got 18 mpg around town and 23 out on the highway at 80 mph as long as you would keep your foot out of the tri power.

        I sure do miss those good ole days.

        BD

        • Hey BD,

          I hear you! Most of the things that we did as kids would get you jail time in this day and age. We had fun, nobody got hurt, nothing was damaged. There was no “electronics” to entertain us – we had to figure that out ourselves. That was back when being made to stay in the house was considered a punishment.

          As far as the childhood thing. As a kid I started out with pelletguns and home made bows and arrows, now decades later I am back to pelletguns and home made bows and arrows. My wife says that I am in my second childhood – I strongly disagree – I am still in my first and clinging to it desperately! 🙂

          Great blog today BB! Got a good chuckle from the comments!

          Vana2

          • Vana2
            I am with you on all that as I am still struggling to maintain my child hood mind set as well the only issue I have is my 18 year old mind still remember how to do all the thing we did as kids but this old body will just not let my mind do what it wants or when I can fool my body and get to do all those things it pays me back in two fold.

            I also started out with pellet and bb guns, never did get to the bow and arrows but did make many a sling shot as a kid and like you are now back at the pellet guns and slingshot stage and just refuse to grow up as it much more fun being a child in a adult body except for the old adults body.

            Now if we can only get everyone else to agree with us we would have it all made. LOL

            BD

            • BD,

              I know what you mean – I am (slowly) learning that I need to budget my energy or pay for it.

              I am fortunate that my granddaughter and daughter live with me. Keeps me young playing with the 9 year old granddaughter. She loves fishing and shooting my Slavia 618.

              This weekend I am making her a swing set and hope to make a tree-house this summer. Too many projects, not enough time!

              Vana2

              • Vana2
                I have my 9 year old grandson here with me as well and yes it helps keep us young and we are just getting ready to do shoot as well as I have bought him a new 1077 to shoot instead of his 760 as he was getting tired of having to pump it up after every shot so at least the 1077 he get twelve shots before he has to reload.

                I also converted the 1077 from CO2 to HPA as I found two NOS air source adapters for the 1077s one for me and one for GF1 so we have found that on 1100 psi air you get three magazines of very consistent and accurate shots per fill of the 90 gram cylinder and is far cheaper filling with air instead of CO2 plus it is not temperature sensitive. you can also shot as fast as you pull the trigger with out the velocity loos when using CO2. So they are way more fun and cheaper to shoot on air .

                BD

              • JoeB on orcas
                I have always wanted to be Benjamin Button as well and start out old and get younger every day. Just think if it worked that way we would be old and smart and get younger and dumber every day.

                Best of luck with the renal failure as I am not that old yet and do not have any actual failing organs but do have heart disease and bad arthritis that makes me fell much older than the 59 years that I am at times and can predict the weather better than the weather men do

                BD

          • Mike
            yep my thoughts exactly only that 64 goat sure would have benefitted from front disc brakes as four wheel drum brake just did not work well with a 12 second quarter mile car on the street.

            BD

            • Buldawg
              You tell’n all them growing up stories again.

              I just got to say one thing. I know what you mean.

              Reminds me of run’n around on the tractor with the guns and fishing poles. We didn’t have 4 wheelers (atv’s) back then. Just dirt bikes and a tractor.

              Then I can’t forget about driving my big block, 4 spd Camaro to school with open header’s. Nothing like hearing a big can with open header’s.

              And like I said before in the past my daughters do read the blog every once in awhile so I can’t say everything I did back then. 🙂

              • Gunfun1
                Yea telling those stories keeps me young at heart and I also remember those old day when open headers were just about a normal thing with our hot rods as my goat did have exhaust but no mufflers so it had that famous Pontiac rap when you let out of the throttle and I loved to get downtown in between the building with the glass windows and accelerate and then back off the throttle and just watch the glass vibrate to the point of almost breaking.

                I do try keep it clean as well because I do know that there are more than just adults that read this blog so I do leave out some detail as well. But I agree with Vana2 as I wish I started out older and got younger as time goes by but then we would not have our childhood memories to keep us young as we grow old as it would be just the other way around we would have our old age stories to remember to make us feel old, wait that just don’t even sound good much less right so I guess we just have to remember the young stories as we grow old.

                BD

                  • Gunfun1
                    I plan to have fun till there is none to be had either because this country is no longer or I am no longer capable of doing so and I don’t see the latter happening anytime soon.

                    Go for all the gusto you can as one day it will be no more.

                    BD

    • BD,
      You cook them in the skin. But first you have to put a drinking straw up their “you know where” and blow real hard so get rid of all the stuff they have eaten; then full your mouth with moonshine and repeat the process. That will season them from the inside and kill any unwanted bacteria. LOL!

      Pete

      • Pete in the Caribbean
        Now I know why we could never get the snakes skinned as we were drinking the moonshine instead of giving it to the snake to keep him from moving but it did a good job of keeping us from moving.

        I knew we should have had you with us when camping as we would act first and then think about what we just did instead of thinking about what we were going to do before we did it but we managed to survive anyway.

        I probably would not have liked the rattle snake any way as I grew up on the beach and never liked fish or ate it as I could never get past the fishy smell and taste. although the moonshine may have helped with that once my taste bud and nose were incapacitated.

        BD

    • BD, Can’t help you with the rattlesnake skinning, as this always happened when my wife & I were off in town. My son-in-law wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed but he was a genius as an outdoorsman. It was amazing to watch him catch trout; he’d talk love to the fish before releasing it. Pity he didn’t treat our daughter the same way and the marriage didn’t last.

      [Edith, when I tried to post this it said I “didn’t have permission to access”.
      2nd try. again got “Forbidden. You don’t have permission to access /blog/wp-comments-post.php on this server.”
      3rd try: Now it says “Please fill the form.”]

      • JoeB on Orcas
        Its all good as I have not killed one in years and never really had the desire to eat one its just as young teenagers we had always heard that rattle snake was good eating so one time we had killed one and decided to skin it and try to cook and eat it when we were camping but he darn thing just would not hold still to skin it as we would stretch it out on a log with one person holding each end and as soon as the knife touched its skin it would coil up in a ball and after about 10 try’s at skinning it we just gave up and threw it back out in the woods and the next morning when we got up it was back in our campsite like the headless horsemen seeking revenge.

        BD

    • I have found that the nerves will keep them moving around, until you run cold water on them, or submerse in ice water, if available. They are well worth it – fine eating!

      • Jeff
        Thanks for that fine bit of info as I had heard that they were good eating as well but was just never able to keep them from moving long enough to skin the to cook them but it makes sense to chill them down to chill their nerves out and keep them from moving.

        I will try that on the next one I come across .

        BD

  5. Absolutely! Ref Crosman barrels…one of the top 5 barrel manufacturers in the world…without a doubt, and far and away the best tube on a budget gun.
    We all bemoan the “badge engineering” but have to accept that any Webley is a Hatsan, that any BSA springer is a Gamo…and hope that the purchase has improved the breed, mercifully in both those cases, because of physical proximity some expertise has been purchased too.
    Crosman’s temptation to use Chinese manufacturers I think is a particularly pernicious mistake but I can see why it’s happening, they have to compete with Beeman.
    I don’t know what to feel about Dr Bob, on one hand he, pretty much single handedly introduced the US public to quality European air rifles, on the other hand did his very best to disguise the origins and made what’s known as a “brand story”, in itself not an unusual marketing ploy…and, by it’s nature littered with a few dubious claims..Beeman’s parent company now has a Chinese ownership (oh yes it does) and I wonder how long, as it feeds, Chinese products into it’s line up, it can ride Weihrauch’s quality coat tails…..the QB78 line up of Chinese Crosman copies made by Beeman’s overlords is being rebadged as Beeman now….putting Crosman in the position of having their own product rehashed and sold against them, by a home market name that a lot of the US were led at one time to believe were an actual manufacturer of a better quality product.
    What choice do they have but to try to compete, I struggle to hold it against them.
    Dr Bob, at times, I feel, ought to be put in the stocks (along with our own Millard Bros) for disservices to the sport

    • Crosman doesn’t even make the 160 anymore, that the QB78 is a clone of.
      The 2260 is close, but all I see for those is the heritage, that might be old stock.

      I can’t fault someone for building a product the market wants, and that the original maker refuses to sell.

  6. BB,
    I appreciate that you don’t mock or judge manufacturers or readers for their favorite or future airguns. I understand that you write this blog via Pyramyd AIR and try to keep topics within the scope of their inventory. However, I think we all know there are other sites that continually slander manufacturers because of some business decisions they’ve made. Thank You for being unbiased!

    RPM

  7. BB,

    LOL! This is a great write up today!

    We do occasionally tend to take this stuff far more seriously than we should. I personally wish to apologize and thank both you and Edith for all that the two of you put up with out of us children in your efforts to make all of this work. I for one will try to be less taxing on your patience.

    I still do not care for Wang Po Industries though. 😉

  8. When was kids and lived in the country we only had one school for 10 grades.

    It was kinda tuff to learn with all us kids in one room.

    Or was that suppose to be 12 grades. O heck with it I never even learned to use my toes to count back then. 😉

  9. In the “open letter to air gun manufacturers” you mentioned weaver rails, and in the N-Tec blog you mentioned the drooper rail fit the N-Tec’s proprietary rail even though it a non-prototype drooper rail may not.

    Did either of these things imply that I can add a weaver rail to my R9 by having a gunsmith drill and tap holes in the spring tube ? If not, would any sort of glue likely stick a weaver rail for a firearm on there well enough to hold up to springer recoil ?

    Thanks.

    • John,

      While I don’t doubt that it would be possible to attach a Weaver base to an R9, I wouldn’t do it. If the base was off by only a degree you would have problems with every scope you mounted — not to mention the rifle would never look right.

      Stick with the Weihrauch 3-hole scope stop is my advice.

      B.B.

  10. I was fortunate to have had a good foundation in grammar during my first two years of high school.

    I would have told you they were my most boring classes, and most of my fellow students agreed. When Mrs. Dempsey would throw her hands up and demand how many students actually did their homework the night before, it was usually just me and one other girl in the class that raised our hands.

    But they turned out to be my most important classes. As I went on to college, every paper I wrote in a wide variety of classes benefitted from those boring and repetitive exercises that taught consistent and correct grammar. After my first year of college, I actually went back to that high school and bought a copy of the class textbook, a good one that was still being used by the same teacher. It sits within arm’s length of my desk at my full time job now, and I still consult it.

    Thank you, Mrs. Dempsey!

    (Note: Any grammatical errors in my writings are entirely my own!)

  11. BB,

    seems like this blog was written for me, at least partially 🙂

    I thought maybee you knew whether the N-Tec was a newly built test rifle or from somewhat older stock. Of course you can’t magically know the origin of every product and component.

    I am fine with GSG producing new Diana guns as long as they are high quality and made in Germany (or maybe Europe). I think tradition is part of the appeal and if the product doesn’t do that justice, I think it makes a mockery of the brand.

    I am totally fine with good Chinese products. I could name some great ones, actually.

    I certainly don’t expect reviewers to “trash” products. I prefer an unbiased description of the strengths and weaknesses and maybe a judgement of value. Everything else is subjective. Actually judging value is already difficult, but I guess it can be done in a way that tells potential buyers if the product is suitable for their needs.

    Stephan

  12. Crosman can definitely make some accurate barrels. As I mentioned yesterday, I was able to keep shots in a 2 inch circle at 50 yards with a Crosman TR77 and the cheap center point 4 x scope that comes with it, which retails for around $100 at Wally World. A TR 77 would be my recommendation for someone who wants a cheap yet accurate springer for around a hundred to $125.

  13. Hi B B

    Super article! I love it when you do stuff like this. I’m still chuckling about the snake & other stuff! All you other guys, I haven’t had a good laugh like today in a looong while. B. B. you are right about the barrels Sir. I have a Hatsan Striker & recently bought a 125 which is incredibly powerful, but both guns have very accurate barrels. Half inch groups with jsb exacts 8.44 grns. .177 (.22 is not allowed here) at 25 meters forestock rested on a rolled up pillow, scoped, artillery hold. Best part is its not stamped made in Turkey & the dealer said the barrels are made in UK. The build quality is solid & price was very good which led me to buy. They haven’t disappointed me. Only minus is the 125 has a very harsh firing cycle. I will strip & tune it soon. Hopefully it will smooth out.

    Errol

  14. Edith
    I tried to leave two post to Pete in the Caribbean and the first one said an error and took me to a PA website page and I replied again and it just went to the windows page that says error the message could not be delivered.

    I don’t know if they went to spam or not but if so would you please check and post one of them to him and if not let me know and I will try again

    Thanks BD

  15. That’s funny about the rattlesnake, but never mind about them. What about the giant monitor lizards that are infesting Florida. I don’t know if even a big bore shotgun is enough.

    As for the artillery hold, will it still work with a gun that doesn’t need it? It may not make it better but will it make it worse? If not, then the simplest thing to do is to refine your artillery hold. I very much like the idea that if you can shoot spring guns, you can shoot anything.

    Mike, I have no plans to go fighting with my Saiga rifle. But supposing I did, doesn’t the original AK lack the bolt-hold-open feature? If so, that hasn’t stopped them from being the most destructive rifle ever made by far. On the other hand, I’m learning how to adapt to having the bolt held open by my special magazine.

    BugBuster, interesting that you claim the M1A is superior to the Garand. Why and how? Mechanically they are almost the same. And a two time winner of the Nathan Hale Trophy at Camp Perry, the award for the best civilian shooter, told me that the accuracy of the Garand and the M1A are identical. He made a living gunsmithing both and he rebuilt my Garand.

    The only differences between the guns that I know of are the longer sight radius for the Garand which favors accuracy. The long stroke piston of the Garand is supposed to be more reliable than the short stroke of the M1A although I’ve never heard complaints about the reliability of the M1A. Similarly, long-stroke pistons, like that in the AK, are supposed to be less accurate because of the moving mass, but in the M1 series, at least, that doesn’t seem to have been a problem. Balance probably is in favor of the Garand since the balance of the M1A changes as you go through the extended magazine. For the range, I can’t imagine the disadvantages for a Garand.

    Tactically, I agree that the M1A is a better choice just because of the optics. But on that subject, it appears that that there are now ways to mount standard scopes on the M1A receiver. Given that it’s receiver is identical to the Garand, you should be able to put the mount there as well. Then you could scope the Garand as it should have been and not with that side-mounted version that has always left me cold. It seems like an obvious idea, but no one seems to have done it. Otherwise, I think the M1A comes out ahead in its cut down Scout version which makes it more adapted to the close quarters battle methods that have been developed.

    As for reloading, what is “run out” for bullets? I was taught by the best but I’m always glad to learn more. You can write me at gufgo24@yahoo.com, and I’ll tell you my reloading procedure.

    Matt61

    • Matt,

      Yes, the artillery hold works for all airguns. In fact, it is one of the secrets of a .22 rimfire target shooter. They call it follow-through and they don’t hold the gun quite the same way7, but the repetition of the hold is crucial.

      B.B.

    • What I meant was that for normal use, you wouldn’t gain anything by modifying your Saiga. A bolt hold open feature would have been an improvement. However, Mr. Kalashnikov didn’t add one. Probably the KISS principal at work.

      Mike

  16. B.B.,

    Great article. Reminds us all to keep it a little more “on track”,.. and less “in the ditch”. You do a great job of sorting it all out.

    As for the Diana 340 N-Tec and “holds”….. If you will note, I listed the holds from worst (3) to best (1).

    My mistake was that I had 2 and 1 reversed, noted by your correction. Most springers will (require) an Artillery hold. If your lucky, you can move to a bag front rest only.

    My thoughts at the time was that you were trying to squeeze out the last bit of accurracy by using the bag only rest. In actuality, your were seeing if you could “lax” up the requirements that a springer normally demands.

    I stand corrected. As stated, my groups with the, before and after, tuned TX did improve with the bag only rest. Now you got me thinking that I have to give the Artillery hold another try.

    Thanks, Chris

  17. B.B.

    Have you had a chance to scope and shoot the Walther Terrus yet? I know you guys in Texas are getting pounded by all kinds of bad weather. I really hope that is the reason for no part 4 and not that the Terrus can’t shoot. 🙁

    David

  18. The range we go to is near the desert and I have never seen a rattlesnake there but you know this is their home. I like to shoot clay pigeons propped up against a rock with 22 rimfire. So once in a while I go to the skeet range with a bag to collect partial or whole pigeons, this is out in the brush and I really look before every move for snakes.
    .

  19. B.B.
    It’s an important blog for all of us. Your efforts are always appreciated. I am always stunned when I read a blog posted in 2005 that has recent replies!
    What a valuable resource for all worldwide. All this leads to better airguns a better informed audience, and a lot of fun for all of us.

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