Synthetic-skirted (saboted) pellets and accuracy

By B.B. Pelletier

Today’s posting is an answer to a question from one of our readers:

I heard saboted pellets don't work very well in some airguns because of the barrel being choked. Is that true?

Can a synthetic skirt be accurate?
I can only give you my personal observations on this question, plus the scant material I’ve read and seen. I've not had good luck achieving the same level of accuracy using pellets with synthetic skirts (what our reader and some manufacturers refer to as sabots) as I have with homogenous, pure lead pellets. Ten years ago, synthetic-skirted pellets were not very accurate at all. They were relatively new to the airgun scene and certain manufacturing problems I’ll discuss in a moment weren't properly addressed.

Top-quality synthetics are better today
Today, the picture has changed greatly. Top-quality synthetic-skirted pellets are now very uniform, and accuracy has improved quite measurably. That said, there are still some brands of synthetic-skirted pellets that do not measure up to the high standards of the makers I am going to mention. Therefore, what I’m about to say only applies to the specific brands I mention.

Prometheus was a pioneer
Prometheus was an early developer of synthetic-skirted pellets. Initially, they marketed their pellets as the fastest pellets on the market, because, indeed, with the combination of their light weight and their low-friction synthetic skirts, they proved faster than any lead pellets around. But that nearly sank the company! They caused British spring guns that had been below the legal UK limit of 12 foot-pounds to suddenly exceed it!

Accuracy was such an issue with the early synthetics that Prometheus did a huge amount of R&D to correct it. The problem resides in the two-part projectile. A synthetic pellet is made from a hard metal core and a lightweight synthetic skirt that surrounds and contains the core. Unless the pellet is very uniform, it will not be accurate. It's more difficult to marry two dissimilar parts, the core and the skirt, into one than it is to form homogeneous lead into a precision projectile.

Prometheus finally made an accurate saboted pellet!
Prometheus persisted and by the late 1990s they had a pellet that was very consistent. They even made a promotional video showing shot groups with large numbers of pellets going through very respectable groups at decent distances of 25 yards and more.

Skenco pellets are very accurate!
I've tested almost all of the different types of saboted pellets made by Skenco and found them to be very accurate. They've got quite a variety to choose from, including some long-range .177 pellets heavy enough for some of the more powerful springers.

In the final analysis, I must say that top-quality homogeneous lead pellets are more accurate than synthetic-skirted ones. It isn’t because of the choke at the end of the barrel, but because of the two-part construction of synthetic pellets compared to more uniform lead pellets.

Tokyo Marui VSR-10 G-Spec MG315

By. B.B. Pelletier

Tokyo Marui may make the finest airsoft guns in the world, but they aren’t real good at naming them! The VSR-10 G-Spec MG315 is REALLY a military sniper rifle, that looks a lot like the U.S. Army’s M24. Based on the Remington 700 bolt-action rifle, the M24 is a wonderful rifle for sniper duties and our subject gun is perfect for airsoft players.

It’s so SMOOTH!
If Marui ever needed a poster child for quality, this is the one. This spring-piston gun is butter-smooth. The ease with which it cocks is forgotten when you squeeze the trigger and note the calm shooting behavior. If pellet rifles could be made this smooth, people would buy them - I don’t care what velocity they had! It’s a shame that many players will feel the need to beef up the powerplant, because they will no doubt say adios to such smooth behavior as I have never seen in a spring airgun.

The magazine works like it should!
The magazine inserts in the bottom of the stock and fits flush with the rest of the stock when it’s all the way in. A special magazine loader comes with the gun, or you can load it manually, one BB at a time.

Feeding was flawless, though the gun has a decided preference for Marui 0.20-gram BBs. The Hop Up mechanism on the left side of the stock is easy to adjust, allowing you to change ammo brands and weights quickly.

Other stuff that comes with the gun
A spin-on silencer completes the gun. Of course, there’s nothing to silence on the Marui; but on the firearm, the silencer muffles the report to keep the sniper’s location hidden.

A Picatinny-type rail attaches to the receiver for scope mounting. It looks great, plus it holds your optics rock-solid. This gun is accurate enough to warrant a scope. Expect to hit inside an 8" circle at 50 yards (off a rest, of course) and a full-torso silhouette at 90 or even 100 yards should be possible once you get things dialed in.

Marui puts non-detachable swivels on the gun, but the studs that anchor them are what you need for detachables. A set of QD sling swivels from any gun store (or Wal-Mart) is just the trick.

Best feature of all, this rifle is light! By the time you get a scope, sling and bipod mounted, you’ll be pushing 7-8 lbs., which certainly beats the 12 lbs. of the real deal. After a day on the game field, you'll thank Marui for the weight savings.

The manual has some English it in! Though most of the instructions are in Japanese, there is enough English to get along. As always, the illustrations are very good.

For long-range sniping in airsoft games, this Marui is worth a look!

More on muzzle velocity and energy

By B.B. Pelletier

I received the following question posted as a comment to my May 18 posting, What about Eun Jin pellets? I thought this question deserved a better answer than just a few lines in the comment section, so here it is.

Question:
I keep noticing the reference to foot-pounds of [energy] when talking about the force needed for certain ammo. All airguns I read about are usually rated in muzzle f.p.s., or I see a reference to calculating foot-pounds with a particular round.

Do airguns have an "unloaded" foot-pounds-of-pressure [rating] to go by?

I ask because I purchased a Winchester 1000B from Pyramyd Air, and I cannot find a reference to its foot-pounds. Wonderful weapon, by the way.

Answer:
The foot-pounds of energy that an airgun is capable of generating is related to its muzzle velocity in this way: muzzle velocity X the weight of the projectile = muzzle energy. There's more to the formula than that, and it has been addressed in Tom Gaylord's article Airgun formulas and other neat stuff - How to calculate foot-pounds and velocity.

Your air rifle shoots pellets of different weights at different velocities. So it delivers different muzzle energy as the weight of the pellet and its initial velocity changes.

Airguns have a RANGE of muzzle energy
A gun doesn't just have one muzzle energy rating. It has a range of energy produced with different pellets. An "unloaded" energy rating for any airgun would take into account the expected range from the lightest to heaviest pellet.

Some pellets are too large for the bore and don't go as fast as their weight would indicate, while others are too small and don't seal well, resulting in velocity lower than expected. So, instead of a clean graph of energy that changes with the weight of the pellet, we get a graph that has a few surprises in it.

Let’s experiment
Let's plug in some numbers and see what happens. On your own Winchester 1000B, let’s say you're getting 713 f.p.s. with 10.6-grain Beeman Kodiaks. The energy calculator in the article says that would give you 11.97 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. The lightweight RWS Hobby pellet that weighs 7 grains would have to go 855.17 f.p.s. to match that energy, but when you shoot them in your gun, low and behold, they average 901 f.p.s. That’s an energy of 12.62 foot-pounds.

Speed up with synthetic pellets
If you want to shoot even faster, try the Hyper velocity lead-free sabot pellets, type 2 in your gun. At 5.9 grains, you might expect them to go 950 f.p.s., but the plastic skirt has such a low coefficient of friction that they actually go 1,011 f.p.s.! Wow! According to the energy calculator in the article, you're getting 13.39 foot-pounds!

The bottom line
What we've seen in this hypothetical experiment is that your Winchester 1000B air rifle has an energy spread of 11.97 foot-pounds to 13.39 foot-pounds. No airgun has a single muzzle energy or velocity, but each possesses a range of energy and velocity depending on the pellet used.

I used the velocity provided by the manufacturer (1,000 f.p.s.). But since I don't have your rifle to test, I don't know how exact that is. My velocity figures for the pellets mentioned are in the ballpark for rifles with the Winchester 1000B's power range. For actual figures, chronograph your gun with each pellet.

Are longer barrels more accurate?

By B.B. Pelletier

How long must a barrel be to be accurate?
There is no answer to that, because short barrels are JUST as accurate as long barrels. That's today's post in one sentence.

I just overheard an airgunner asking his buddy how much more accurate he thought a longer barrel would be for his AirForce Talon SS. As I listened, the two of them hypothesized about all sorts of accuracy influences that don't really matter or even exist.

Proof that a longer barrel doesn't increase accuracy
You can explore the accuracy versus barrel length controversy right here on the Pyramyd Air website. Let's start with a look at the Drulov DU-10 target pistol and the Drulov DU-10 Eagle target rifle. The rifle has a barrel twice as long as the pistol, yet there is NO discernable difference in accuracy. The rifle has a higher velocity as a result of a longer barrel, which means it can shoot farther than the pistol, but it does not group any better at 10 meters. Both are made for 10-meter target shooting and both are equally accurate.

A longer barrel guides the pellet for a longer time, so it MUST be more accurate. Right?
No! When it comes to accuracy, the length of TIME a pellet stays in the barrel is inconsequential. The belief that longer barrels are more accurate might harken back to the days of the Kentucky rifle, when barrels were very long. They got that way to more effectively burn their charge of blackpowder. A side benefit was the increase of distance between the front and rear sight. That made for more precise aiming, which in turn led to greater accuracy. But, the longer barrel, by itself, was no more or less accurate than a short barrel.

Need another example? Here it is. The barrel of a TX200 is less than 10 inches long, yet that rifle is one of the most accurate spring-piston rifles in the world. The TX is legend among field target shooters, who often choose it above every other spring gun made. Yet, it has one of the shortest barrels in the world of spring guns.

Swap barrels on your Talon SS & accuracy stays the same!
Back to where we began. The Talon SS provides the best way to prove this question because you can change barrels in a very short time. AirForce offers a 24" .22-caliber barrel for the Talon and the Talon SS (and in .177). The Talon SS comes with a 12" barrel; while the longer barrel increases velocity, the accuracy remains the same. According to AirForce, all three models group about 1" at 50 yards with any length barrel in either caliber.

A man who proved short barrels are deadly accurate!
Elmer Keith was a famous shooter who wrote a lot about long-range handgun shooting. He's famous for killing an elk at 400 yards with a handgun, a shot that proves extremely difficult for a marksman rifle shooter. During a demonstration for the U.S. Army, he once shot an entire magazine of Colt .45 Automatic from a government M1911A1 pistol through a man-sized silhouette at 200 yards. Most soldiers find it difficult to hit a man-sized target at 25 yards with the same gun! So, short barrels never bothered Keith!

By following Keith's instructions, I once shot several cylinders from a snubnosed Colt Agent .38 Special in front of witnesses through a football-sized target at 80 yards. So, there you have it. Long barrels, by themselves, are not more accurate. They may help by increasing the distance between the front and rear sights, but the sheer length of the tube has no bearing on how accurate the gun will be.

Warm weather means hotter velocities for CO2 guns!

By B.B. Pelletier

Shooters in Florida, the Southwest and Hawaii don't worry much about cold weather, but the rest of us do because the winter puts an end to outdoor shooting with CO2 guns. Now that summer is back in almost every corner of the US, all of us can head outside again for loads of powerful CO2 shooting!

Many of you may already know that warm ambient temperatures can increase velocity in a CO2 gun. How? Because CO2 evaporates at higher pressures as the air temperature increases. As the air temperature increases, CO2 is warmed and more pressure is achieved inside the CO2 container. And, as you know, higher pressure means more power!

Did you know that barrel length also increases velocity? Let's take a look at a CO2 pistol that demonstrates this perfectly.

How to get an extra 110 f.p.s. from a pistol
The velocity for a .177 TAU 7 Match pistol is 450 f.p.s. The same gun with an extra two inches of barrel - the TAU 7 Silhouette - gets 560 f.p.s. It's amazing that just adding length to this barrel - with no other functional changes in the gun - will make a pellet go 110 f.p.s. faster!

A longer barrel means compressed gas has more time to accelerate a projectile because the released gas is escaping in an enclosed environment - between its source and the pellet. Because it is captive, the gas is channeled into moving the pellet forward. Once a pellet leaves the barrel, it immediately starts to slow down. Since the gas is pushing the pellet for a longer period of time (an extra two inches, in the case of our TAU pistol), it is giving it that much more speed. So, you can choose between higher gas pressure (when temperatures are warmer) or a longer barrel to increase velocity in your CO2 gun. What if you combined these two? You'd extract the maximum velocity from your gun!

Another trick to get the most velocity from your CO2 gun
To get even more velocity from your CO2 guns, simply pause for a longer time between shots - at least 30 seconds is good in cooler weather. In the hot summer with the sun shining, a pause of 10-15 seconds is all it takes. The gun cools down with the shot because CO2 acts as a coolant. By allowing it to warm up again, you'll gain extra power.

Warm weather safety for CO2 guns
There is a limit to how hot a CO2 gun or container should get! If you leave a gas gun or container in a closed car on a summer day, it can explode! At the very least, it will blow the seals out of the gun; at the worst, it could remove your windshield or even injure somebody. CO2 containers not enclosed in the gun could also explode. Be very attentive whenever a gas gun is exposed to temperatures above 80 degrees F. If that means exhausting the gas from the gun or the container, then do it. That’s better than an accident.

Bad vibes

By B.B. Pelletier

Today we'll look at a problem some spring guns have in abundance - too much vibration!

What causes vibration in a spring gun?
Vibration is caused when the moving parts of the powerplant have too much clearance. The moving parts include the piston with its seal, the mainspring, the spring guide and sometimes other parts - such as the piston liner (inside the piston), which removes some of the clearance between the mainspring and the piston wall. Technically, this last part isn't supposed to move, but if it gets bent during operation it can cause vibration.

Do powerful guns vibrate more?
More power isn't really an indicator of a tendency to vibrate. In fact, some very powerful spring rifles hardly vibrate at all. Gas-powered piston guns, such as the Beeman RX-2, are among the smoothest, as far as vibration is concerned, though it may take a little time to get used to the quicker recoil.

You might even expect a powerful steel spring rifle like the Webley Patriot
to vibrate a lot, but it doesn't. Yes, you will feel some vibration, but compared to other spring guns, it isn't too bad. Now, RECOIL on a Patriot is a different story!

Webley and BSA know how to tame vibration
In my experience, both Webley and BSA spring rifles have been the most vibration-free airguns. Weihrauch guns usually vibrate more, and they also vary more, gun to gun. Most older Chinese airguns are pretty bad, but for some reason the newer ones are very nice. I think the Chinese have learned a lot about fitting powerplant parts in the last 10 years.

Gamo guns vibrate in the beginning and then become smooth!
Most new Gamo rifles I have shot seem to vibrate a lot. That said, you can significantly reduce the vibration just by continuing to shoot a Gamo rifle! It seems to take thousands of shots, but a well-used Gamo can be fairly smooth. Of all the Gamos, I find the Shadow 1000 to be the smoothest out of the box, though the Hunter 1250 Hurricane is surprisingly smooth, despite the power. The Hunter 220 has the most vibration of the Gamos I have tested.

Why would a formerly smooth gun now vibrate?
When a smooth spring gun all of a sudden starts to vibrate, it usually means the mainspring is canted (bent). Springs cant for a number of reasons, which I'll cover in another posting. However, I will tell you now that there is no grease that can stop a canted spring from vibrating. The only solution is to replace the spring.

There's a lot more to vibration than what I've written here, so look for more info in future postings.

The BB pistol that didn't shoot BBs

By B.B. Pelletier

We're surrounded by hundreds of BB pistols today. There seems to be no end of models from which to choose, but it wasn’t always that way. In the 1930s, the first American BB pistol was a very different kind of airgun.

The Daisy Targeteer was on every kid's wishlist!
Daisy’s Targeteer was initially offered in 1937. It came in a cardboard box with the pistol, instructions, a metal tube of special shot (we’ll get to that in a moment) and spinner targets. The box converted into a backstop that held the spinners so they could be shot safely. All this cost just $2.00!


The first Targeteer was blued & had fixed sights.


The Targeteer box doubled as a shooting gallery.

Special shot for a special gun
The Targeteer's action is a spring-piston design that has to be the world’s weakest BB gun! Instead of shooting conventional steel BBs, it shot special .118-caliber steel shot that Daisy made just for this gun. If you read about the Sharpshooter rubber-band catapult gun in my May 11 posting, you'll remember that they are the same caliber as the Targeteer. The Sharpshooter shot traditional No. 6 lead birdshot that's used in shotgun shells. The Targeteer's ammo was steel! Only a company as large as Daisy had the resources to make a steel version of this shot!


Regular BBs dwarf the tiny Targeteer shot.

The Targeteer operates just like a conventional Daisy rifle in all ways but cocking. To cock it, pull the barrel back into the action. Most people simply pushed the muzzle back with the heel of their hand while holding the grip in their other hand, which means they're cocking a gun with they're hand over the muzzle!

Not a bang but a whimper
The Targeteer discharges with an anemic sound, much like a mouse coughing. When the piston jumps forward, the BB exits the muzzle at, perhaps, 100-150 f.p.s. Being very light as well as slow, the BB cannot break windows, lightbulbs or even one sheet of paper at a distance greater than 10 feet. That’s why the cardboard box was good enough as a backstop.

Even though this gun lacks power, it's fun to shoot! The Targeteer lasted up to World War II, then resumed production after the war. Nickel-plated versions (often mistakenly called chrome-plated) were available after the war, as was a very pretty plastic shooting gallery model that housed the gun on top of the gallery when not in use. The gallery was only offered from 1949 through 1952 and is considered a prized Daisy collectible in its own right.


A fancy shooting gallery also held a
nickel-plated Targeteer when not in use.

Targeteers are easy to find!
I find Targeteers all the time at flea markets, gun shows and airgun shows. A reasonable price for the first-version blued gun by itself in good condition with lots of blue and no rust is $60. Nickel-plated guns with lots of finish sell for $40 to $60. A Targeteer complete in the cardboard box sells for $100 to $150; the red plastic shooting gallery with gun goes for $200 to $300, depending on condition. The metal shot tubes bring $5 to $10; if you're lucky, they'll still have some copper-plated steel shot inside.

Read about it in the Blue Book of Airguns
The Blue Book of Airguns, 5th Edition will be available soon. If you're interested in strange old airguns like the Targeteer, be sure to order a copy.

The Beeman P1/HW45 is one of my all-time favorite air pistols!

By B.B. Pelletier

Spring-piston air pistols are usually pretty anemic, but Beeman's P1, which is made for them by Weihrauch and also sold as the HW45, is an exception!

Big power in a small package
No, the P1 is NOT small, but the spring piston powerplant that hides inside certainly is. If Weihrauch wanted to, they could reduce the outside of the gun significantly with no loss in power. What keeps it large is maintaining the look of an M1911A1 Colt pistol.

IS it a 1911 or not?
The bottom half of the gun is very true to the M1911A1 pistol. In fact, it's so close that 1911 grips will fit a P1 and vice-versa. The part that resembles the slide, however, is a different story. It's HUGE, compared to a 1911. The sights sit much higher in the hand because of the extra height of the slide. That was necessary to house the powerplant with enough metal for the strength needed to cock the gun.

Because the grip is so close to a 1911, the P1/HW45 responds to a 1911 hold. The middle finger squeezes what would be the grip safety into the web of your hand. No other fingers apply any pressure at all. When it fires, the gun bounces in the hand, but in the reverse direction of a .45 firearm.

It cocks like a Webley
To cock the pistol, the upper part of the gun is unlatched and pulled forward, pivoting at the muzzle. There are two distinct clicks in the cocking cycle. When the top is straight up, the first click signifies low power. When the top has swung just a little further forward, the full-power click kicks in.

Although this is a very powerful air pistol, it's not difficult to cock. You just have to get used to the direction the top is going to swing so you can position your hands properly at the beginning of the cocking cycle.


The first click stops on low power.


The second click is just a little further forward.
That's high power. No greater cocking effort is
required to reach this point; you just swing
the upper half of the gun farther through its cycle.

What a fantastic trigger!
There are few air pistol triggers as nice as the P1's. Only target guns and a few single-stroke pneumatics are as light and crisp. And, you can adjust the trigger for the second-stage engagement point.

Weihrauch/Beeman - What's the difference?
Well, there is a price difference, for starters. Even though they are made by the same manufacturer, the Beeman version costs a little more. Of course, the names and model numbers are also different. But that's not the biggest difference between the two. Can you guess what it is? Pyramyd Air will send one free box of Crosman Premier pellets in your choice of .177, .20 or .22 caliber to the first person who posts the correct answer to today's posting! Use the envelope icon at the bottom of this posting to submit your answer.

Eyes wide open!

By B.B. Pelletier

Since you sight a gun with your eyes, let’s talk about them.

Binocular vision - a blessing and a curse!
Binocular vision (both eyes looking at the same thing with some separation between them) gives humans their ability to judge distance. We can train this talent and actually improve it a lot, but it’s the skill that allows us to operate cars and catch a thrown ball.

When we shoot, though, having two eyes can be difficult. Most untrained shooters, and more than a few who should know better, instinctively close one eye to sight their gun. It seems like the thing to do, until you receive advanced marksmanship training. Then, you’ll be taught to keep both eyes open when you shoot.

Sight with your dominant eye
Your dominant eye is the one you instinctively use for sighting, and you are blessed if it’s on the same side of your body as your dominant hand (right-handers sighting with their right eye).

I wrote today’s posting because I read a report of a pistol shooter who was getting lousy groups because he couldn’t remember which eye to close. The answer is - neither! Learn to trust your dominant eye and leave both eyes open if you can. When the person I read about figured that out, his groups shrank to one-fifth their original size.

Which eye is dominant?
To discover your dominant eye, point your finger at a distant object and alternately cover each eye with your other hand. The dominant eye is the one that still sees the finger pointing at the distant object when the other eye is covered. Your non-dominant eye will see your finger pointing to one side of the distant object when you cover your dominant eye.

Closing one eye while sighting uses voluntary muscles (to close your eyelid), which will tire you during a long shooting session. That’s one reason target shooters are trained to keep both eyes open.

I received a recent comment asking if I was going to post any tips about accurate handgun shooting. Well, here it comes!


Shooting glasses make you look like Robocop
but shoot like Annie Oakley!

Shooting glasses to the rescue!
Special shooting glasses, like the pair pictured above, shield the non-sighting eye so it receives light through a translucent guard but cannot focus on anything. This strengthens the eye that does focus on the target and sights. If you don’t have the kind of shooting glasses shown above, simply use plain safety-type shooting glasses with a card taped over the lens in front of the non-sighting eye. If you keep both eyes open, you will probably see the target much sharper than before.

You should keep both eyes open even when using a scope for the same reason. More light strengthens the sighting eye. Only with the other eye open to see, it does get confusing! It’s something I still have to think about after many decades of shooting, so the strangeness probably never goes away completely

Even if you continue to close one eye, you’ll still be able to hit the target. But the technique of keeping both eyes open is valid. Try it and see if it helps your score.

What about Eun Jin pellets?

By B.B. Pelletier

Have you tried the South Korean Eun Jin pellets? If not, you're missing out on pellets that really pack a punch!

Great airguns AND great pellets come from South Korea!
In South Korea air rifles are the default weapons for hunting. To make sure hunters have plenty of power, South Korean airgun manufacturers have produced some very accurate and very powerful air rifles. One of these is the Career 707. Made by Shin Sung, the gun's name was chosen because the word career means "to go very fast." The gun definitely lives up to that!

The preferred hunting caliber in Korea is .22, although the manufacturers make .177- and .20-caliber guns and have even produced some .25-caliber honkers (primarily for the American market). Are you wondering why hunters who can't use firearms wouldn't choose a .25-caliber airgun over a .22? That's where the Eun Jin pellets come in!

How heavy are these pellets? They're heavy as...well, lead!
Eun Jin's .22-caliber pellets are so heavy that they make larger calibers unnecessary! Heavy pellets keep velocities down into the accurate subsonic range (Korean guns are very powerful), so Korean companies make very heavy lead diabolo pellets. The Eun Jin .22 is at the top of the heap, weighing in at 28 grains!

Eun Jin pellets are also heavy even in smaller calibers. The .20-caliber Eun Jin pellet weighs 20.7 grains, compared to the second-closest diabolo - the .20-caliber Beeman Silver Arrow at 15.5 grains. A .177 Eun Jin weighs 16.1 grains. The closest diabolo is the H&N Neue Spitz-Kugeln at 11.57 grains. There's no comparison!

Eun Jin pellets are available in .25 caliber and 9mm. The Koreans make rifles in these calibers, although they aren't always available. Right now, the only 9mm on Pyramyd Air's website is the Career Ultra.

Do you have enough power to shoot Eun Jin pellets?
Heavy pellets are not for average airguns and need lots of thrust to stabilize them in flight. Even though they are a diabolo design, they will not be accurate in guns with less than magnum power. In .22, .25 or .20 caliber, they need a minimum of 40 foot-pounds. In .177 it takes about 25 foot-pounds to stabilize a plump Eun Jin!

If you've got the power, Eun Jin is a great pellet to use. Once you've used them, you'll wonder how you ever hunted without them!

Take your power down a notch to experience an excellent hunting rifle

By B.B. Pelletier

Power, power power! That's all you hear airgunners talking abou. Are you one of them? If so, you may be overlooking one of the greatest advantages airguns have: accuracy!

While not the most powerful air rifle around, the R7 is a favorite of many!
The Beeman R7 is a classic spring air rifle and based on Weihrauch's HW50, which has been around for several decades. The R7 has an American-style stock that fits in with the rest of the R-series rifles. Underneath, it is a wonderful intermediate-powered gun with a lot going for it.

"Only accurate guns are interesting"
Townsend Whelen hit the ten-ring when he said that accurate guns are the only interesting ones! And, accuracy is the R7's strong suit, which is common with lower-powered spring-piston rifles. You don't fight the recoil characteristics nearly as much. Oh, accuracy still requires a good technique, but the lower-powered guns are much more forgiving of how you hold them. As a result, you hit your target more often. That's what it's all about!

When you can hit your target, hunting with an airgun becomes more practical and a smart choice. Instead of flying away as though your shots never touched them, birds will now fall where they are hit! I'm not kidding - you'll experience remarkably good shot placement. The R7 is good to about 30 yards. It'll stretch farther than that, but 30 yards or less is where it's strongest.

Besides accuracy that will earn you bragging rights, the R7 has a wonderful, crisp trigger. An added bonus is its light recoil - and, yet, it hits as hard as the biggest 1960-era magnum spring rifle! If you need another good reason to buy this nifty rifle, here it is: it's not even expensive!

Scoping an R7 is a no-brainer in my book
The best way to get every last bit of accuracy from the R7 is to install a Leapers Bug Buster scope. The Bug Buster is bright, focuses closer than any scope on the market, has a mil-dot reticle and BOTH red and green illuminated reticle, which makes it PERFECT FOR HUNTING. The Bug Buster is so bright you'll have ample light in the early morning or twilight hours.

Good scope rings are essential, and B-Square's two-piece rings are just the ticket. Positioning won't be a problem, and they have a recoil stop pin, which you'll need for the R7. It's a perfect match.

How to match the right caliber with the right job
Use .20 caliber if critter control is your main task. If you generally prefer .177-caliber air rifles, use heavy pellets. If you stay with my suggestion of keeping the range under 30 yards, you'll discover that Beeman Crow-Magnum pellets are accurate enough, and they'll certainly do the job if they connect! Otherwise, try Beeman Kodiaks or JSB Predator pellets - a new type of hollowpoint. Before using them on a hunting trip, test them in your gun to see if you like their performance. If you can reliably hit a quarter at 30 yards, use them.

Power to the people - and the crows, squirrels & other marauding critters!
Now, crows that tear open your garbage bags, gophers and chipmunks that love to dig up your property and squirrels that dominate your bird feeder will answer to a higher power...make that a lower power! The Beeman R7 is more than capable of doing its part. All that's left is for you to do yours.

Expand your hunting opportunities with this great CO2 rifle!

By B.B. Pelletier

When you think of CO2 rifles, you probably think of Crosman's famous 1077. It's a great rifle with 12 shots and wonderful accuracy. Want somthing a little more substantial for hunting? The Benjamin AS392T with AirSource might be just the gun for you.

The AirSource bulk CO2 tank was created by Crosman a few years back. The first rifle adapted for it was .177 caliber, which is great for plinking but hardly what's needed for hunting. A year after they introduced the 1077 AS, they adapted it to the Benjamin 392, giving us our subject rifle. So, for the first time since the late 1940s, we have a .22-caliber CO2 rifle that uses a bulk tank.

How many shots you get depend on which power level you pick
The AS392T has dual-power control that delivers two levels of power. When the bolt is pulled back, you'll get a click - and then a second one. Stop pulling the bolt after the first click, and you'll be shooting at low power. At this level, Beeman Silver Bear hollowpoints shoot an average of 506 f.p.s. On high power, which is one more click back on the bolt, they average 580 f.p.s. The AS392T is rated at 610 f.p.s., which I got when using RWS Hobby wadcutters (they're lighter than most .22 pellets). That was on high power, of course.

If you want to conserve CO2 and get more shots, then shoot on the lower power. Need more power? Click the bolt a second time, but remember that you'll get fewer shots and should carry a spare AirSource tank.

Add pellets & a scope and you're ready to shoot!
Benjamin Sheridan Diabolos feed the best because a slope at the front of the feed trough flips up the tails of many other types of pellets (they stop on it and tip their noses down). I found that round nose or domed pellets feed well.

Mount a scope with the Crosman intermount. It clamps onto the barrel and provides a base to attach scope rings. If you choose Crosman's 410, 410S or 4032 scopes, you don't have to buy anything else because they all come with the correct rings to attach to the intermount. I recommend the Crosman 4032, because it's brighter and more powerful. More important, the potential accuracy of this airgun warrants the extra expense.

The AS392T is a great CO2 rifle for the hunter who wants substance and power. As a .22, it is one of the few CO2 airguns with enough power to make hunting a genuine possibility.

Before I sign off today, there is one more thing I want you to consider. Five years ago, Benjamin Sheridan offered several CO2 rifles in either .20 or .22 caliber. Today, this is the only one left standing. If a .22 CO2 Benjamin has ever been a secret desire of yours, it's time to get the lead out!

A hunting airgun for under $100? Yes - and it's accurate!

By B.B. Pelletier

Many airgun hunters think airguns costing under $100 are too cheap to be powerful and accurate for hunting. They're wrong, and I'm going to prove it with the Daisy 22SG!

Technology is the reason the 22SG costs so little
Airgun makers can't make guns the way they did 50 years ago, and you wouldn't want them to. Those guns had so much in material costs and so much machine time that they would cost many times more than today's bargain airguns. By using the most modern manufacturing methods, smart manufacturers turn out a superlative product for a surprisingly small amount of money. Daisy is just such a company, and they manufacture airguns as powerful and accurate as the pneumatics of the 1950s - but affordably!

Dissecting the 22SG, piece-by-piece

The barrel is a button-rifled steel tube nestled inside a polymer-reinforced tube that's inside another sheet-steel outer tube. Sounds like a lot just to make a barrel, but it results in accurate, high-speed rifling of materials that are very strong. This method avoids drilling deep, straight holes, which are the bane of gunmakers everywhere! You get an accurate barrel that doesn't cost a fortune to make.

The pump on the 22SG doesn't need Hercules to work it! Daisy did this by using proven polymer pump technology coupled with an O-ring pump piston seal. They refined the design with guns like the legendary Avanti 853 single-stroke target rifle. This gave them credible hunting power from similar components. The 853 is made for youthful shooters, so the lessons learned for its design naturally makes the 22SG easier for adults.

The receiver is perhaps the most telling part on the gun, because the outer shell is made of cast aluminum. It doesn't have to be, but Daisy made it that way to convey a sense of value to the customer. For years, a very similar receiver made of polymer worked just fine, but Daisy knew their customers wanted wood and steel - so they redesigned the parts with the highest profile. Inside the receiver are many steel parts that give this gun a feeling of robust value when coupled with its hardwood furniture.

What do you get for under $100?
You get a true multi-pump pneumatic capable of hunting small game, which is what the SG stands for. You also get a 4x scope with duplex reticle and the mounts to put it on the gun! That's a lot for the price you pay. In fact, I dare you to find a quality pneumatic rifle made of wood and steel that shoots accurately and reliably - and comes with a scope and mounts - for less than $100.

If you're on a tight budget but still want to hunt small game with an air rifle, you can't go wrong with the 22SG!

How to find airgun leaks & what you can do about them

By B.B. Pelletier

How do you find a leak in an airgun? What do you look for? For that matter, WHERE do you look? We've talked about O-rings, seals and how Pellgunoil miraculously seals a gas gun. But I never told you how to find the leak in the first place! Now's the time!

I'm forever blowing bubbles...
...and so are pneumatic and gas guns that leak! Soapy water is the traditional way to find air leaks. Airgun repair shops keep a soapy solution around for this very purpose, and you can use the same method. Get some dishwashing liquid, mix it with a little water in a small drinking glass, apply the soapy solution to the places on your gun suspected of leaking. If there's a leak, you'll see bubbles forming in the soapy solution!

What if the leak is deep inside the gun?
Not all leaks are found by the first method, so there's another way to detect leaks that are deeper in the gun. Wipe a film of soapy solution across the muzzle of your gun with your finger. If the valve is leaking at the exhaust side, your muzzle will blow bubbles.

In a hurry & no time for soap? Try this!
If you're in a hurry, here's a fast way to find leaks: stick the muzzle in a basin of water. If it blows bubbles, the valve leaks. I've used a toilet bowl in a pinch (for testing airguns, of course!). Remember, you are putting only the muzzle in basin of water - not the whole gun or even the entire barrel!

Do NOT leave water on your gun
Guns and water don't mix well, so make sure you dry the gun completely after any of these tests. I don't think a towel will do a good enough job, so I suggest that you use an air hose or some other kind of forced air. Dry-firing the gun several times is a good way to dry any water that's in the barrel. After you're sure it's dry, wipe down the gun with a good oil. If it's a CO2 gun, shooting a Crosman Pellgunoil CO2 cartridge through the gun would not only be the perfect way to finish the after-testing maintenance, it might even seal the leak!

Sometimes, you can hear the leak!
Sometimes you can hear where a gun is leaking if it's a fast leak. You need to be in a quiet place, plus it helps to cup your hand around the gun parts you suspect of leaking. If the leak is fast, this is a quick way to pin it down.

What about sloooooooow leaks?
There are leaks so slow they are next to impossible to find in the traditional way. Like magnesium car wheels that become porous after driving on salted streets, there are airgun leaks that may never be found. You have to be reasonable. Most of my airguns hold their charge for years, but I have a vintage Crosman pump that loses its one-stroke maintenance charge in two weeks. The solution has been to pump it twice when I want to leave it a long time, and to check it every six months. So far, that's worked. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!

Let me know how you find leaks!

Have you ever seen a rubber band gun?

By B.B. Pelletier

I thought it would be fun to look at something completely different: a gun that uses the power of rubber bands to shoot tiny BBs. These guns were first made way back in 1923, but the one I want to share with you today is from the 1960s. I bought it new in California and at the time I thought it was a holdover from the 1940s that just hadn't sold in 20 years. You know - "new old stock"?

The Sharpshooter is a pretty little gun!
My gun turns out to be a Sharpshooter pistol, made in La Jolla, California, before the year 1960. That was when the company was bought out by Berry Brow Enterprises and moved to Line Lexington, Pennsylvania. I found this out in an article by D.T. Fletcher in Airgun Revue #1. Apparently, my gun is the deluxe model because it is nickel-plated with ivory-colored plastic grips. A deluxe black gun had the same white grips and a shiny blued finish. A final model is plain blue and has no grips at all. The grip panels are just raised stampings of the metal gun frame.


My deluxe Sharpshooter is in good condition!

The box included the gun, operating instructions that look like they've been pieced together over 20 years, some rubber bands, a tube of shot, a loading trough and a target stamp. Ink the stamp and make as many bullseye targets as you have paper. This is really a very complete shooting kit in a box.


A complete shooting kit in a box!

It's not just a simple gun - it's also a sophisticated flyswatter!
The guns shot No. 6 chilled lead birdshot, and ads for the gun claimed you can hit a fly at 16 feet with this gun. In Fletcher's report, he actually landed four out of five shots into a fly-sized target at 10 feet. When he used multiple rubber bands on his gun, he got velocities up to 158 f.p.s. With a single band, you get just over 100 f.p.s. Stoeger's 1950 Shooter's Bible said the shot measured 0.118", which makes The Sharpshooter a .12-caliber gun.


Smaller than a regular BB shot tube,
the Sharpshooter tube holds about
as many shots because it's so small.

A slingshot with a trigger & a barrel
The gun throws the tiny ball like a slingshot launches its projectile. A plastic launcher mechanism rides a rail to keep it straight, and the ball is forced by acceleration into a small seat in the back of the mechanism. Apparently that's what gives the gun its accuracy. While I've never hit a fly with my gun, the shots go predictably to the same place time after time. I suspect there is more accuracy in the gun than most people might believe.

This gun had no price increase for 17 years!
The price for my deluxe gun was $5.00 in 1950, which is exactly how much I paid for it when I rescued it off the store's shelf in 1967! The deluxe black gun went for $4.25, and the plain black gun sold for $3.50. For comparison, a Daisy Red Ryder sold for $4.95 that same year. I keep the gun around as a curiosity, only. It's sort of the airsoft of the 1920s!

Do you have any odd airguns laying around the house? If so, I'd enjoy hearing about them!

Hi-Capa 5.1 Marui blowback airsoft gun is packed with realistic features & a blast to shoot!

By B.B. Pelletier

Ask any airsoft enthusiast what the best brand is, and you'll get the same answer every time: Tokyo Marui. They have earned that reputation because they produce airsoft guns that are RELIABLE, REALISTIC and FUN!

A tricked-out Colt M1911A1 that looks amazingly realistic!
The Hi-Capa 5.1 is a tricked-out M1911A1 Colt widebody. It has many of the features of a good slicked-up carry gun, yet it retains the look of the basic pistol. It weighs 33 oz., which is about right for a Commander-sized gun but a few ounces light for the full-sized 1911 that it copies. There is a lot of metal in the gun, including the frame - but the grip frame and slide are plastic.

It operates on green gas, which is injected into the base of the magazine. The gas not only powers the BB but also cycles the gun's slide, cocking and loading it for the next shot. So this is a true semiautomatic handgun.

The magazine holds 30 BBs in a double-stack. But where other airsoft guns use a funnel to pour in the BBs, this magazine requires them to be inserted by hand, one at a time. I think the reason for this is Marui's commitment to precision. This gun won't "vomit" BBs all over the place as it fires, because they are retained in the magazine under spring tension at the mouth.


It takes a while to load all the BBs,
but this gun holds them securely
until all are fired.

This stock gun packs a lot of power!
Green gas guns typically have more power than most spring-piston guns and many stock electrics, as well. This one has a stated velocity of 270 f.p.s., and the recommended BBs should be the heavier ones, weighing 0.20 grams to 0.25 grams. So, it shoots heavy BBs fast. That makes it a very powerful airsoft gun, and you must use caution and safe gun handling at all times.

With the gun you get a cleaning rod that's also handy for removing stuck BBs and drifting out the takedown lever. There is also a Weaver-style mount for a laser under the frame. To install it, remove the two frame knockouts so the self-tapping screws have a place to attach. Marui included the correct drift pin for this job as well.

Marui loaded lots of Colt features into this gun
All the important controls on this pistol function as expected. The rear sight adjusts for both windage and elevation, the front sight drifts in a sideways slot and the safety is ambidextrous. The grip safety works as it's supposed to, the magazine release is identical to Colt's button - even the slide comes off the gun when the takedown lever is drifted out through the side of the frame!

Maruis are for serious shooters
While the common view is that airsoft guns are cheap, this is not true of the better brands. Tokyo Marui is at the very top of the heap and should be the most expensive of all - but that's not the case. This pistol sells for $158.95, which is pretty fair for an airsoft gun that is very well made and has a surprisingly similar look and feel of an American firearm icon. If you know airsoft, the name Marui says it all!

Stop over-torqueing your gas gun connections!

By B.B. Pelletier

This advice applies to both precharged pneumatics (PCP) and CO2 guns. The connectors that are used to fill these guns, and the caps that hold the CO2 powerlets, ARE NOT PICKLE JARS!

How a pickle jar seals
A pickle jar seals through force. The cap, with a flat synthetic seal, is pressing against the mouth of the jar. The seal is very flexible and fills all the small gaps of the jar mouth when pressure is applied. Same with a catsup bottle. But not a PCP or CO2 airgun.

How a PCP airgun seals
Both PCPs and CO2 guns use O-rings as seals. You DO NOT need to screw the connectors together tightly to make the seal. When the air or gas pressure rises inside the reservoir, it forces the O-ring against the walls of the connection, making the seal. The greater the pressure, the tighter the seal. In fact, that's why PCP fill adapters have bleed valves.


The bleed valve is the large-headed
screw on top of the adapter body. The
refill gauge is underneath.

How bleed valves work
A bleed valve releases the pressure in the fill-adapter connection so the fillings can be removed. If there were no bleed valve, it would be extremely difficult to uncouple some fill adaptors. Why, you'd need a pipe wrench to do it! Which is why you sometimes encounter fill adapters that look like they have been manhandled with a pipe wrench.

If you just tighten the fill adapter finger-tight and allow the O-ring to do its job, you'll find it a lot easier. The pressure of the gas is quite a bit more than you could muster by hand and it acts on the O-ring, forcing it into all the recesses where air could escape. The O-ring is in the K-valve on the scuba tank, in this case.

CO2 guns seal the same as PCP guns
CO2 guns can be charged in two ways - with a cartridge (either a powerlet or an AirSource cartridge) or with a separate bulk tank. The powerlet usually presses against a seal, though on some guns an O-ring in the cap of the powerlet reservoir does the job. The AirSource cartridge seals with an O-ring, and it does have a sort of reverse bleed valve that allows the gas to be turned off and the AirSource adaptor to be removed from the gun without losing the remainder of the gas in the cartridge. Neat!

If you use pellgunoil, as I recommended a few days ago, the seals will do their jobs for many years. So, tighten your fittings finger-tight only and keep the torque wrenches in the garage.

SAFETY: Watch where you shoot!

By B.B. Pelletier

Don't let THIS happen to YOU!
While riding in a friend's truck yesterday, I noticed that his driver's side mirror was smashed and had a large hole in it. It looked like a large rock had hit it. I was curious how it happened.

"Guess," he said, with a stupid grin on his face.

"You SHOT it?"

He nodded as he told me the story. He had been sniping at pigeons from the cab of his truck. He has a short PCP that allows him this kind of flexibility and he shoots hundreds of birds each week. Pigeons and grackles are all he hunts and his rifle is always in the cab with him.

He lined up his scope on the target without considering that the muzzle of the gun is about three inches lower than the scope. While he was able to see the bird through the scope, the muzzle was pointing at the mirror - and the rest is history. It will take several hundred dollars to replace because it is both remotely adjustable and heated.

No comment on shooting from the cab of a vehicle, which is illegal in most states - THIS IS A HUGE SAFETY VIOLATION! Unfortunately, this sort of thing isn't that uncommon.

Last summer, I read a forum posting about a guy who had been shooting from his deck. He rested his legs on the railing and rested the forearm of his rifle on his knees. Same problem as my friend - saw the target in the scope but SHOT A PELLET THROUGH HIS FOOT! The guy said he was embarrassed that it happened, but he shared the story online to alert others to the danger.

Another careless airgun incident
About five years ago, I attended an airgun show where shooting was allowed. A dealer was selling a Beeman P1 spring pistol and a buyer was about to shoot it. The shooter held the pistol in a novel two-handed hold with his left index finger over the muzzle, instead of wrapping his left hand around his right hand. Three people jumped on him at the same moment, and I'm sure the sale was ruined from the communal browbeating the guy took. I shudder to think what might have happened if this guy had been by himself.

Airguns are fun but let's not forget that they're real guns, too! The first rule of gun safety is never point the gun at anything you don't want to shoot. Sometimes, because of the design of the gun, you need to give more consideration to where your muzzle is pointed.

Incidentally, I never refer to these types of events as "accidents" because an accident is unforeseen, unexpected and/or involuntary. If you follow the first rule of gun safety, you will not and cannot have an "accident."

If you want to share an experience with us about this kind of event, I promise not to lecture. I suspect that you've learned your lesson, and sharing your experience will benefit others.

What is "valve lock"?

By B.B. Pelletier

Valve lock is what happens when you over-pump or over-pressurize a pneumatic airgun. Rifle or pistol doesn't matter; both can become valve locked and suffer for it.

Don't more pumps make a gun MORE POWERFUL?
No, they do not. In fact, they do just the opposite. The power of the gun drops when there is more pressure in a reservoir than the valve has been designed to handle. Some big bores like the 909S and some super-powerful smallbores like the Condor drop very dramatically from just a small amount of additional pressure. That's because they have much larger valves than most conventional air rifles. Those big valves are needed to allow lots of air to pass quickly when they open. That's where a lot of the great power of these guns comes from.

The same air pressure holds big valves shut harder than small valves. The pressure presses on a larger surface (the big valve), holding it shut with greater force. Overpressure that would make little difference to a lower-powered gun can shut down a more powerful one.

When I was a kid, I used to pump up my Benjamin 20 times, and it was as powerful as a .22!
Lots of folks seem to remember stuff like this, but it simply is not true. You can prove it with a chronograph. Take any multi-pump pneumatic, such as a Benjamin 392, and chrongraph it with one pump less than maximum, then with the maximum pumps, then with one pump more than the recommended maximum. You'll see the velocity rise from the first test to the second and drop again in test three. If you try it with two pumps over maximum, you'll see velocity drop even more.

No valve lock with CO2
The absence of valve lock is one of CO2's advantages over compressed air. Carbon dioxide pressure varies with temperature, not by anything the shooter does. So it is impossible for a shooter to intentionally over-pressurize his CO2 gun; the matter is out of his hands.

A CO2 valve operates within a fairly narrow performance range; a pneumatic gun can be over-pumped at will. By preventing people from stressing their valves, CO2 guns have the added benefit of a potentially long life.

Can anything be done with a valve-locked airgun?
The ultimate valve lock is a gun that will not fire at all. Happens all the time with certain vintage Benjamins - especially the pistols. It's too easy to over-pump, so people do it all the time. Here are two cures for valve lock:

Cure No. 1 - Leave it alone! It can take weeks or even months, but a gun left alone will eventually bleed off the excess air to the point the valve works again.

Cure No. 2 - Rap the air out! The gun must be disassembled to the point that there is access to the valve stem. The excess air can be rapped out by hitting the valve stem hard enough the make the gun go "POP." If you don't know how to disassemble AND REASSMBLE your gun, the first cure is the one for you.

What have we learned?
Hopefully, you will pay attention to the owner's manual and not over-pump or over-fill your pneumatic airguns. However, if you think you may do it, you might want to bookmark this particular post for future reference.

Is pellet-sizing a waste of time? Maybe not!

By B.B. Pelletier

Pellet sizing was hot in the 1970s, when pellets weren't as uniform as they are today. I own a sizer and I've used it to compare the accuracy of sized pellets against unsized pellets from the same tin. I have never seen a difference in accuracy, but I have heard of one reason for sizing that might make sense for some shooters. I'll get to it at the end of this post.


A pellet sizer squeezes pellets
smaller as they are pushed
through a steel die.

Even a world champion can't tell the difference!
The late Don Nygord, world champion air pistol shooter in the 1980s, once wrote that he could not see any difference between sized and unsized pellets. Don sold target airguns and pellets to shooters for many years and perhaps had the opportunity to test this theory more than many people in his quest for perfection.

You can easily conduct your own sizing test
The best way to determine if pellet sizing makes a difference is to conduct your own test. Clamp an accurate airgun in a vice so it cannot move. Fire all groups while it is in that position. For obvious reasons (i.e., movement), don't use a breakbarrel gun. (No modern target airgun is a breakbarrel.) Precharged pneumatics (PCP) or gas airguns are the easiest to test because they don't need to move much to be reloaded.

Shoot a 20-shot group of sized pellets and another 20-shot group of unsized pellets at the same distance. You really should shoot at 20 yards or more to see a significant difference, although at 10 yards you can sometimes notice a difference if the number of shots is high enough.

What size should the pellets be?
This is the question that reveals the fruitlessness of sizing pellets. Nobody knows what size they should be! In fact, pellet sizing has become so unpopular in the past five years that you'll be hard-pressed to find sizing dies in as many different sizes as you would like to try. So, if you do find that sizing helps, it will only be because of a lucky chance of finding the perfect size for the one gun you are testing. Use another gun and all bets are off!

All target airguns and most high-quality adult airguns have choked muzzles that squeeze the pellet by one-half of a thousandth of an inch at the muzzle. That automatically sizes all the pellets and negates any other sizing efforts.

One REAL advantage of pellet sizing
If you've tried Pyramyd Air's Predator heavy pellets, you know how hard they can be to chamber. Predators are solid and must be engraved by the rifling in order to enter the bore. Many repeating rifles have difficulty feeding them. AirForce recently relieved the breech of all their barrels to allow easier loading of these pellets.

Some shooters are running Predators through a sizing die to reduce their outside diameter by one-thousandth of an inch. This makes them easier to load. Keep in mind that sizing much more than one-thousandth can also render them inaccurate. I only have this secondhand and have never tried it myself. But it does make sense. If it works, this is a legitimate use of a pellet sizer.

If you've tried sizing pellets or have conducted the test I set forth in this report, let me know your findings.

B.B.'s treasure chest: The miracle oil!

By B.B. Pelletier

An inside secret!
Here's a tip all savvy airgunners need to know. There is an oil that CAN FIX airguns! It's called Crosman Pellgunoil, and here's how it works. CO2 guns use O-rings and synthetic seals to keep the gas inside the gun. These seals and O-rings need lubrication to do their job. They don't need it for friction reduction; they actually need it to complete the gas-tight seal between the synthetic seal material and the metal walls of the gas passages.

At microscopic levels, the metal walls of the gas passages in an airgun are very rough. So are the surfaces of O-rings and synthetic seals. If the seals and walls are left dry, pressurized gas eventually forces its way out through these tiny passageways.

The right lubricant creates a gas-tight barrier!
A thin film of the right lubricant gets into the tiny imperfections in the metal walls and synthetic seals, creating a gas-tight barrier. The pressure of the gas forces the lubricant into the tiny passageways and, if the viscosity of the lube is correct, it doesn't get forced any farther.

One way to instantly turn a CO2 gun into a leaker is to put some penetrating oil on the seals. The low viscosity of the penetrating oil allows it to flow through the tiny passages. The gas follows after it and right on out the gun.

The end of leaking CO2 guns
Take a gun that's leaking gas and put a drop of Pellgunoil on the tip of a new powerlet before putting it in the gun. The pressure of the gas carries the lube with it as it flows through the gun (remember, this is a leaker we're doing this to), until every seal is coated with a thin film of oil.

You can't see what's happening, but you sure can hear it. At first, you hear gas leaking from the gun, then the sound will either diminish and go away gradually. More often, you'll hear a hollow sound as the gun seals itself instantly. After you've done a few guns, you'll feel like a magician as you almost instantaneously stop gas guns from leaking!

How to pay bottom dollar for used CO2 guns
A trick that experienced airgun collectors use to pay less for CO2 guns is to look for leakers at gun shows and garage sales. They carry several CO2 powerlets with them. When the owner says he doesn't know if the gun holds gas, they can slip a powerlet into the gun then and there! When the inevitable leak turns up, the price reduction for a leaking gun can be very dramatic!

Sometimes, oil will not fix a leaker. In those instances, resealing the gun is the answer. But, you'll still get a price reduction when you try this trick. Use Pellgunoil when you've gotten the gun home to see if that's all it takes to seal it up tight again.

I'd like to hear from those who either have done this in the past or who try it for the first time.

What about a silencer for your airgun?

By B.B. Pelletier

Airguns are quiet, which is one major reason shooters flock to them. But some of them, particularly the precharged pneumatics (PCP) and CO2 guns, DO make noise. By adding a silencer, you can muffle even this sound and have a VERY QUIET gun!

What is a silencer and who cares?
A silencer is a device that attaches to a firearm and reduces the level of the report by at least one decibel for at least one shot. That's a paraphrase of the legal definition. Who cares about that definition is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF&E). They are a division of the Department of Justice, and they're chartered to control the production, distribution and ownership of silencers. To own a silencer in the United States, you need a tax stamp issued by the BATF&E.

What about a MODERATOR?
You can call it a moderator, a suppressor or anything else you can think of; if it does what the legal definition says, it's a silencer and subject to the law. If your airgun came to you with a silencer already on it and you now own it, YOU are responsible for complying with the law. Whoever sold it to you may also have some responsibility, but as the owner, it's YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.

What if the silencer is attached with epoxy so it can't be removed?
If it can't be removed with a hacksaw, a carborundum cutoff wheel or a cutting torch you might be safe. Otherwise, you are responsible.

Silencers ARE legal – if you go through the proper steps to obtain them
I've read many times where people say silencers are not legal in America. Well, they are, but there are certain legal steps to be taken before obtaining one. You apply through a Class III firearm dealer and your local chief of police to the National Firearms Act (NFA) Branch of the BATF&E. A fee of $200 is paid for the tax stamp that will be issued if you are granted permission. Then that silencer, by serial number, is licensed to you for life.

So, there is NO WAY to quiet a PCP airgun?
Yes, there is. Several years ago, AirForce Airguns designed the Talon SS. The frame of the SS sticks out past the muzzle of the barrel and forms a chamber to enclose the muzzle. A special end cap closes this chamber and strips off a lot of the muzzle blast from that rifle. As a result, the Talon SS is a great deal quieter than a PCP of similar power and barrel length.

This design is now widely called the shrouded barrel, and other airgun manufacturers have begun to offer some rifles that also have it. The Logun S-16 FAC is one such rifle. So look for guns that include a shrouded barrel to find quieter air rifles.

What about silencing a spring rifle?
It has been done. The TX 200 MkIII by Air Arms has a shrouded barrel, as does the TX 200 HC. But spring guns are already so quiet that silencing them is not as dramatic as silencing a powerful PCP.

Airguns are pretty quiet already, and by getting a rifle with a shrouded barrel, you can go that extra step. Of course, the legal silencer will always be an option, too.