Cantarini air pistols

by Tom Gaylord

B.B. is giving me a chance to tell you about some neat collectible pistols today.

Before we begin, Pyramyd Air has asked me to alert you to a new shipment of Air Arms guns. Watch the website this weekend and early next week for a host of new guns to appear!

It's been a long time since I got to have any fun with collectible airguns, so today's the day. Allow me to introduce you to a matched pair of high-grade precharged pneumatic air pistols!

First, a bit of history
In the late 1700s, experimenters around the world were trying to push the state of the art for firearms, and one dream on everyone's mind was to make a repeating rifle. Since the powder charge was loose in those days, repeaters didn't make much sense, plus the fact that black powder, which was just called gunpowder at the time, is an explosive, unlike modern gunpowder. Any stray powder didn't just burn, it burned at the rate of about 11,000 feet per second, which makes it a low-grade explosive. Obviously having powder loose in a gun made for great danger.

One experimenter who was attempting to make a repeater was Italian Bartolomeo Girandoni. He had to end his experiments, though, when one of his rifles exploded and killed his son. Girandoni switched to experimenting with high-pressure air, and in 1780 he was awarded a contract to supply the Austrian army with his new design of a repeating air rifle...a 22-shot .47 caliber breechloading rifle. Over the next two decades, he supplied them with 1,000 to 1,500 rifles, hand pumps, large gang pumps and parts.

The world was in awe of an air rifle that could empty its magazine in under one minute. The awe quickly turned to flattery as private gunsmiths all over Europe began copying Girandoni's design and began producing sporting rifles of their own. If you are interested, you can see one such rifle on the DVD Antique Big Bore Airguns.


Here is a video you can't get from The History Channel.


The Girandoni copy was made by Joseph Shembor

Imagine how rare and wonderful these sporting copies of the Girandoni military rifle must have been at the time. Air rifles were scarcely known, and yet these were repeaters! Imagine how much rarer a pistol version of the same gun would have been. Well, such guns do exist. I have seen and held them. Larry Hannusch owns a matched pair of repeating air pistols built along the Girandoni pattern by a maker who signed his name as Cantarini of Vienna. He displayed them at the Little Rock Airgun Expo several years ago, and he allowed anyone who was interested to photograph them.


A cased pair of Cantarini pneumatic pistols with all their equipment is impressive.


Though the pistols are considered a matched pair, they do have subtle differences. Both are heavily covered with gold inlay and gold-plated brass fixtures.

Larry was put in touch with the owner through an internet lead from my wife, Edith. They met, and he bought them on the spot. They were complete but both were missing the leather covering for their butt flasks, so he had a master leatherworker recover them in black Moroccan leather, like the originals. He assembled the kind of tools they would have had, plus a vintage hand pump, and had the entire collection cased in the French style in red velvet.

These pistols function in the Girandoni pattern, which means they feed balls by gravity from a steel tube on the right side of the receiver. A spring-loaded shuttle slides to the right to pick up the next ball, then back to the left to align the ball with the bore. The air runs from the front of the air reservoir in the butt to directly behind the ball. (AirForce revived this valve design in their rifles). It is most efficient because the air doesn't have to make any turns on its way out the bore. In the Cantarini pistols, each magazine holds 10 balls, and the pistol probably had enough air for one magazine.


This photo shows the sliding shuttle for loading and the magazine tube on the right side of the receiver. Look at all that high-relief engraving!

These pistols are .40 caliber and rifled with a polygroove pattern. Each barrel is 7" long, and the overall length is 13". They're numbered to match their removable butts (for filling with air) because this was before the time of interchangeable parts (ca. 1815). Being civilian models, these pistols have a decocking feature that the Girandoni rifle does not have. They can be uncocked without firing, while the Girandoni must be fired if it is cocked.


How's this for deep rifling? It's typical for this period.

The level of engraving and materials indicates these two were made for either a wealty person or nobility, if not for royalty. They don't seem to have a royal crest, but whoever they were made for was definitely a wealthy man.

I think it's good to look at airguns like these from time to time, if only to remind ourselves that everything was not invented in the last 10 years.

Shooting a rifle offhand

by B.B. Pelletier

This posting was requested by frogman, who says he has trouble with unsupported shooting positions like standing (offhand), sitting and prone. Today, I will address the offhand position. And, yes, frogman, there are plenty of secrets for all these shooting positions.

Let's begin
Shooting offhand starts with the alignment of the body. Your skeleton is the structure that keeps you erect, but if it isn't in line with what you are trying to do, your muscles will constantly try to adjust to hold you in position. The result is a wobble. A right-handed shooter should stand almost 90 degrees to the target, with just a slight turn toward the target to allow the rifle to point naturally and without effort. You know when you are properly aligned because, when you mount the rifle, it is almost aiming at the target, without the need to correct through small movements of the upper body. All my tips and explanations are for right-handed shooters.

Tip 1. Small adjustments
You can make small adjustments to the position by turning your feet without changing position. The right foot, which is trailing, is the best foot to adjust positions. Rotate on the HEEL of the foot in either direction to make small sideways adjustments. Do not attempt to adjust more than a few degrees using this technique. Reposition both feet if the rifle is off-target more than that.

Tip 2. Lock your stance
Once you are in position, rotate the left (front) foot to the right by rotating on the heel. This will tension both legs to make your stance firmer. If it throws you off-target (it shouldn't), then reposition yourself - you weren't in the right stance to begin with.

Tip 3. Don't hold the weight of the rifle
A right-handed shooter bears most of the weight of the rifle in his left hand, but he doesn't hold it with his muscles! No one can do that and hope to have a steady stance. Instead, he brings his upper arm in tight to his body and lets the weight of the rifle rest on his slightly extended forearm. The rifle, forearm and upper arm form a triangle whose ends don't close. I have seen 10-year-old girls hold 8.5-lb. target rifles with relative ease this way! But if you don't do it like this, the brawniest man in the world cannot hold a rifle steady.


She's not 4 feet tall and that FWB rifle weighs at least 8.5 lbs.!

Target rifles are made with all sorts of forearm aides to make this hold easier. In Olympic competition, the hand stop is popular. A century ago, a special palm rest was installed to make it easier to hold a rifle this way.


Anschütz target rifle has a hand stop under the forearm to stop the off hand from sliding forward.


The Schützen palm rest dates from the late 19th century.

Thin shooters will learn to throw their hips out to the left to give the upper arm something to contact. Heavier shooters will have less difficulty. Adjust where the off hand is located along the forearm to get the rifle level.


She has to shift her hips to the left to touch her upper arm.

Tip 4. Keep the shooting arm away from the body
You've done all this work to get into a good stance - don't ruin it by holding your shooting arm tight to your body where it can set up wobbles. Practice aligning your shooting upper arm and elbow at 90 degrees to your body, so your elbow is pointing to your right. As you practice, you may discover that you can lower your elbow slightly and be more comfortable, but keep that shooting arm from contacting the side of your body if you don't want to wobble.

Tip 5. Don't grasp the stock
You will notice that neither of the target shooters pictured above is grasping the stock with her fingers. Both use the flats of their open palms. Does that sound like anything you've heard before (hint...the artillery hold)? Now, if you're out deer hunting, you will grasp the stock, but I don't expect you to use a classic offhand stance when hunting.

Okay, frogman, now I want to hear from you. Have these pointers helped you improve your stance and reduce the wobble.

IZH 61 - Part 3 Improved sights; depressing results

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

The latest podcast is posted today. Enjoy!

Sometimes you get a lemon and there's nothing you can do about it. This is a tale of such a gun, as well as the final report for THIS IZH 61.

I wanted to see what sort of improvement would result when the IZH 61 sights were replaced with something more precise. A couple readers mentioned they had done this to their 61s and it helped a lot, which is what I expected. Additionally, one reader told me to only use the clip with the tighter chambers, which I already planned to do.

I selected the Beeman Sport Aperture Sight for the rifle. The price is high, when compared to the cost of the rifle, but this is a sight I've had for years. I use it for experiments just like this. The other diopter sights with 11mm clamps that Pyramyd sells are priced about the same, so there's a choice of sights, but not of price. If they would stock the Mendoza peep sight, there might be a superior sight for a little less money, but, alas, they don't.

Change sights
You might think the first step is to remove the rear sight, but it's not. First you mount the new sight so you can align it with the existing rear sight. That will go a long way to getting you sighted-in. The Beeman attaches via a strange clamping system that is so simple I won't describe it. It's no more complex than a screen door latch. Installation of the peep sight and then removal of the open rear sight took a total of 30 minutes.


A pin punch is needed to drift out the pin that holds the rear sight.


The rear sight base remains on the rifle when the sight is taken off.


Beeman Sport Aperture Sight is just right for the IZH 61.

And then comes the real test - shooting!
And what a test it proved to be. Instead of shooting better, the rifle shot progressively worse! There is definitely something wrong with the feed mechanism, which reinforces why I don't like repeating airguns. When the cocking lever is closed, the bolt probe pushes a pellet into the breech of the barrel, only on this rifle you can feel that the pellet is not aligned correctly.

I shot more of the Crosman Competition Wadcutters that were the most accurate pellets in the last test, but this time I couldn't even equal the poor groups I had gotten with open sights. Then I tried several other pellets of known pedigree - all to no avail. My final group at 10 meters was over three inches wide with an RWS Superdome pellet!


There was no best group. This is what they looked like, only the final group was over three inches wide!

When something like this happens I like to rule out the simple things such as barrel and sight tighteness, and this time everything was tight. So I muzzle-loaded five .177 round lead balls and shot them. That would determine if the loading mechanism was at fault. Pellets don't load through the muzzle well, but .177 lead balls do.

The balls scattered all over the place just like the pellets, so the fault isn't with the feed mechanism - it's the barrel. This rifle either has a poorly-made barrel - or it is so dirty that it acts like there is no rifling. Because of the low velocity, the chances that the barrel is dirty are slim, but not altogether ruled out. Being a repeater, there is no easy way to clean the barrel except through the muzzle, so that's what I'll do. Then I will try to shoot some good groups. If it does shoot well, there will be another report. If it doesn't, and I suspect it won't, then this is the final report for this rifle. I will arrange to get another one to test for you.

I am finished with this particular rifle but not with this test. You may recall that this was a rifle returned to Pyramyd Air for repairs, and I think it has something wrong that cannot be fixed. But I know the IZH 61 can shoot because I've shot so many of them before and never had this problem. So, I'll order a new one and take it from there.

USFT rifle Part 3

by Tom Gaylord

Part 1
Part 2

A natural hold needs a gun built on an angle
The USFT is built in a canted configuration, so the seated shooter doesn't have to adjust his body. It did make aligning the scope more of a challenge, since I normally align the vertical reticle with the receiver. On this rifle, the receiver is offset to the side until I am seated and holding the gun properly. The scope had to be aligned with me in the seated position. I still don't have it exactly right; but, once I do, the scope will force me to shoot without a cant. There is no problem in the offhand position, either, because the reticle of the scope aligns you to level. The pistol grip is canted to the right side for a more natural grip angle. Plus, my rifle's grip has a target palm shelf for stability.

Scope
I opted for 30mm Leupold quick-disconnect scope rings, so the rifle came with a Weaver base. I used a Hakko 8-40x56mm scope dialed all the way to 40x. This is a dark, muddy scope that usually cannot be used at this magnification, but I had bright sunlight on the target, so it was fine. Although there is no scope level (yet) on the gun, I used reference points on the target to level every shot.

Accuracy
This is what you have all waited for, I know. How bloody accurate is this thing? To find out, I shot from a bench. I used the bipod as a rest and I tried both Beeman Kodiaks and JSB Exact diabolo heavies (10.2-grain) that McMurray told me were among the best pellets. Pyramyd has a super deal on H&N Baracuda Match pellets, which are identical to the Kodiaks, so you can save several dollars per tin by buying them. I only shot the gun about 50 times, so what I'm about to show you is very preliminary. The day was windy, with gusts over 15 mph from 6 o'clock. The distance was 50 yards. I sighted in with Kodiaks and then shot the best groups with JSBs. The best five-shot group of the session measures 0.355" c-t-c, which is smaller than 3/8". But all JSB groups were under a half-inch.


Best group of JSBs at 50 yards measure 0.335" c-t-c.

I also show the test target sent with the gun. It is 25 shots with Kodiaks at 51 yards, and measures 0.663". Twenty-five shots is nearly a large enough number that this group is not a statistical prediction at all, but a true validtion of this rifle's accuracy. The small size of the group speaks volumes about the pedigree of both the system and the barrel.


Test target sent with the rifle shows 25 shots at 51 yards passed through a 0.663" group.

Do you need the USTF?
I am not a national-class FT shooter, yet I own this rifle that could easily win at that level. Am I foolish for owning it, since it is a dedicated competition rifle and not just a general-purpose airgun? I don't think so - any more than I think you need to be an Olympic competitor to own a world-class 10-meter target rifle or pistol. I got it to explore the possibilities of pneumatic airguns...how accurate they can be, how ergonomics affect shooting and how efficient a pneumatic valve can be.

This rifle has no regulator, yet it performs as though it had one. Regulators are high-maintenance items that are the weak link in the guns that have them. The USFT is a breakthrough mechanical technology that combines efficiency with reliability and great precision. Even if you never own one, you'll benefit from it because other manufacturers are looking at what it can do and will be influenced by it for decades to come.

USFT rifle Part 2

by Tom Gaylord

Part 1

Before we begin, Pyramyd Air has asked me to announce a huge sale on Webley breakbarrel spring rifles. If you've been in the market for a new springer, this might be the sale you've been waiting for.

We'll now look at the rest of the features of the gun, but first a word about the trigger. Several of you wanted to know about the trigger's adjustability. In fact it is a two-stage trigger. I contacted Tim McMurray, who explained that the adjustment screw in front of the trigger adjusts takeup. If you adjust it as far as it goes, it turns the trigger into a single-stage trigger. I adjusted it to a two-stage, but the second stage is so light (I estimate an increase of 5-10 grams over the first stage) that I cannot always feel it. Rather than shoot when I'm not ready, I went back to single-stage operation, and I think most shooters will agree. There is another trigger adjustment, but you have to partially disassemble the gun to get at it, so I will leave it as it is.

I need to make some additional corrections . The part I called a bolt in the first segment is really a swivel breech. The bolt is just the handle that turns it. The large piece on which the logo is engraved is called the barrel mount (I called it the receiver). The receiver is below it. Both are made of 6061 T6 aluminum. The swivel breech and grip frame are made from 7075 T6 hard-annodized aluminum.


This is a spare swivel breech with a valve set for 12 foot-pounds. The valve stem and seat are shown. The breech removal tool makes changing easy once the air is gone from the reservoir.

Barrel
My rifle came with a 25" Weihrauch barrel in .177 caliber. It is entirely free-floated, so what may look like two barrel hangers in the photo do not touch the outside of the barrel. When the reservoir flexes as the pressure drops, the barrel will be unaffected. The other barrel feature is a muzzlebrake similar to the one used on an M48A1 tank cannon. It strips off the turbulent air and directs it to either side of the muzzle, so the pellet gets out without receiving a push in the wrong direction.

On the bottom of those two barrel bands are studs to accept quick-detachable sling swivels. They are also possible anchor points for bipods. Tim made them for a Harris bipod, but I had a Leapers Multi-Functional Universal bipod that attached in the same way. I had to file off a small amount of material from the stud to get it to fit; but once I did, it worked perfectly. You can't use a bipod to shoot field target, so the reason you want one is to give the rifle a convenient stand between lanes. Otherwise, it's either laying in the dirt, or you have to drag a gun case around the course.

Knee rest
The adjustable knee rest is a popular option most people buy. Because this is a field target rifle and shooters will use it in the seated position, the knee rest is essential to hold the weight of the rifle while shooting. On the bottom of the walnut base is a dense foam pad that rests on the shooter's knee. The rest is adjustable for height and angle as well as postioning left and right. Since I shoot cross-legged instead of knees-up, my rifle has an extension that drops the knee rest down to contact my thigh when I sit. In the offhand position, it becomes a hand rest.


The adjustable knee rest swings to any position needed for support. Dense foam on the base cushions the knee.

Dog-bone thigh support and rifle butt
The dog-bone thigh support is a brand-new item that increases stability for the seated shooter. It's attached at the butt and swings into a position to rest on a seated shooter's thigh, giving one more point of contact for the rifle. Since field target does not permit direct contact between the rifle and the ground, anything that can help stabilize it without touching the ground is a plus. Your legs are already in contact with the ground, so the dog bone has a solid place to rest. The rifle butt slides in and out to give whatever length of pull works best for the shooter. It also rotates to either side, so there is no uncomfortable need to reach out to the rifle - it reaches out and holds you when it's adjusted right.


The dog bone rest swings to either side of the butt and locks in place quickly. It's great for seated shots, but with experimentation can also be used for better offhand stability.

I will finish this report tomorrow.

The Daystate Saga - Part 3 A different Daystate

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

When I left off last time, I promised to show you a Daystate that not many airgunners have heard of. I had two of them, which qualifies me to tell the tale of the airgun many of you have probably daydreamed about and wondered why nobody ever made. I'm talking about the Daystate Sportsman Mark II.

"What they oughta do..."
How many times have I heard airgunners talk about their reservations with precharged guns? They like the way the guns shoot, if only there was some way around the scuba tank and hose. Other airgunners look at their Blue Streaks and wonder why someone has never thought to put a premium barrel on one and perhaps give it some more power. If they know of the Sharp Ace, they wonder all the more. [The Sharp Ace is a more refined multi-pump with greater power and accuracy than the Benjamin Sheridan rifles.]

"Yeah," they muse, "If only Daystate or Falcon would build a PCP and build a pump into it so you don't need a scuba tank!"


Daystate Sportsman Mark II is a multi-pump pneumatic that's built like a PCP. Shooters said they wanted it, but sales didn't agree.

"They" did!
Wonder no longer, my friends - the gun was built. Like I said, I had two of them. The Daystate Sportsman Mark II is a multi-pump pneumatic that's built along the same lines as a PCP, only with a pump built in. The UK version reached 12 foot-pounds and required only two pumps. If it is pumped further, a relief valve will open to exhaust the excess air. The U.S. version hit 25 foot-pounds and required five pump strokes. Of course, as with any multi-pump, you could always stop at fewer pumps and shoot with less power. On one pump, my .22 caliber rifle got about 6.5 foot-pounds with Crosman Premiers. Two pumps gave me 11.8 foot-pounds. Three took me up to 15.5 foot-pounds and four got 17.5 foot-pounds. Five pumps got 19.5 foot-pounds with Crosman Premiers. With a 29.6-grain Dae Sung (similar to today's Eun Jin pellet) the rifle got 24.5 foot-pounds. The rifle was made in .22 caliber and there were plans to make it in .25 also, but I don't know that any were made.

Sounds nice!
Wow, you say! I'd really like that! Sure you would, if only the pumps took the same effort as your Blue Streak, but they didn't. Pump number three required about 67 pounds of effort. Pumps four and five took about 77 pounds of effort. Even pump number two took between 55 and 64 pounds of effort, so the 12 foot-pound gun was no delight, either. The eigth and final pump of a Blue Streak takes about 33 pounds of effort. I have watched several grown men fail to pump the Sportsman five times. A great many more simply refused to do that much work. That was the problem with the rifle. If the invention Tom Gaylord showed you for the Benjamin 392/397 were incorporated into the Sportsman, then, yes, it could be successful. But as it was produced, even in a 12 foot-pound gun, it was simply too difficult to pump. The pump handle swung 105 degrees away from the side of the rifle and the pump effort didn't start to build until the handle was about halfway back.


Pump lever swung 105 degrees open. It pivoted on a massive bearing.

How did it shoot?
It shot just like you imagine it would. It shot exactly like a PCP. The pump lever was on the right side, so it tried to rotate the rifle in that direction when you held it, but other than that there was little difference between the Sportsman and any .22 caliber PCP of the time (1997). There was no noticeable recoil; the trigger was light and delightfully crisp and accuracy was minute of thumbnail at 40 yards - everything you would expect.

The photos show the same clean lines that Daystate was putting on their PCPs at that time. Fortunately, this rifle was made when they were lightening all their PCPs, because that pump mechanism added several pounds of weight. The unscoped rifle weighed 9.5 lbs.!

History
Before there was a Mark II there was a Mark I. Before that, the rifle existed under another name altogether. Daystate didn't actually design it. They acquired the design from another source, and I just recently learned from Daystate of America that they didn't actually build it in-house, either. They acquired it from an outside source and put their name on it.

I liked the rifle after getting used to it. After time passed, comparison with my PCPs that were so easy to just shoot caused me to part company.

For those who find themselves intrigued, these guns still show up at airgun shows. Asking prices are about $550, which is close to the new price in '97. Every one of them you find will probably be in excellent condition - both because the gun is so beautiful that their owners will care for it, and because it is so hard to pump that nobody will ever wear one out!

The IZH 61 - Part 2Let's shoot!

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

In the time between the first report and now there has been some discussion on this blog of the correct way to lubricate the rifle's piston seal. The IZH 61 comes to you with what seems to be petroleum oil inside the chamber and can stand a drop or two of real chamber oil early on. The only way I know to do this is to drop two drops of chamber oil down the muzzle of the rifle with the gun standing upright on its butt. Allow several hours for the oil to slide down the barrel and pass through the air transfer port. Because it flows slowly, the oil should make the 90-degree turn at the transfer port, but you can angle the muzzle slightly forward to help it, if you want.

The air transfer port is located at the bottom of the barrel, just forward of the breech. Reader Gazza noted that there is a screw on top of the receiver that's lined up with the transfer port, but I looked at it and it's not a steel screw. Also, the receiver into which it screws is plastic, so frequent removal of this screw is asking for trouble. This is the first evidence I have found that a steel receiver would have been more desirable than plastic, but as long as you lube through the muzzle, as explained above, there's no need to touch this screw. If you strip this screw, the compressed air will escape through the top of the receiver and your gun will lose power.

The mainspring could stand a few drops of oil while you're at it. Here you may use petroleum oil because the small amount that migrates forward to the compression chamber isn't going to cause any problems. The compression of the IZH 61 is too low for that. All it will do is cause some smoke from the muzzle.

Loading
The rifle comes with two clips. On my test rifle, one of them had oversized chambers. Both clips had large chambers that don't hold the pellets well, but one of them allowed Crosman Competition wadcutters to stick their heads out the other side.


Crosman wadcutters fell through the chambers in the clip and protruded out the front like this. The other clip had tighter chambers.

There is a trick to loading this rifle. After the last shot has been fired, the bolt probe that seats the pellet in the bore is still sticking through the last chamber of the clip. You have to push forward on a silver-colored lock on the right side of the receiver to release the bolt probe, which springs backwards. Then depress the silver latch on top of the receiver and the clip pops out. If no pellets have been fired and you want to remove the loaded clip, just depress the silver latch on top of the receiver and the clip pops out. What I just told you is more information than you will find in the owner's manual.


The silver triangle just below center is the bolt release. Press forward (to the right) at the top and the bolt springs back. The thin silver lever atop the receiver above the magazine housing is the mag release. The screw that I warn you not to loosen is the large Phillips head in front (right) of the magazine.

Pellets
Too bad about the Crosman wadcutters being so loose because they are clearly the pellets this rifle loves best. I tried RWS Hobbys and a special Chinese target pellet that I use in 10-meter pistol matches and neither held groups as tight as the Crosman pellets. So, I protected them when loading the clip and relied on the gun to keep them in the clip when it was loaded (it did). Only one fell out during my shooting session. IZH can fix this loose chamber problem by putting two tiny ridges along the inside of the pellet chambers, running front to rear. That's how everyone else does it. Sure there will be a cost to rework the die , but the results would be worth it.

Accuracy
I would love to show you super-tight bragging groups, but that's not what I shot. Apparently, the old geezer is slowing down. I tried shooting with my bifocals on, but the results were worse than without them. I guess I'm one of those people who really needs a different sight on this rifle. Actually, that complaint is shared by a number of shooters, so this won't be my last look at the 61. I will find something suitable to replace the rear sight and go at it one more time.


My best group of Crosman wadcutters at 10 meters is nothing to brag about. The rifle can shoot much better than this.

Velocity
Well, I see something in the velocity from this particular rifle that I haven't ever seen before. Usually a spring rifle requires a "wake-up" shot before it will come up to the normal velocity. Some require two (heck - PCPs need them, too), but this rifle seems to need one with every magazine! That's strange. This rifle was a return that Pyramyd Air refurbished, and I am starting to wonder if they caught all the problems. RWS Hobbys ranged from a low of 465 f.p.s. to a high of 487, with the final 4 shots between 474 and 487. Crosman wadcutters had a low of 331 and a high of 464, with the last 4 shots ranging from 441 to 464. And, the Chinese wadcutters ranged from a low of 404 to a high of 450 with the final 4 ranging from 435-450. That's an odd phenomenon, and I need time to consider it.

Am I still excited about the IZH 61? You bet! There is a lot of value in this little rifle. It may need better sights to wring it out, but we'll look into that.

USFT rifle - Part 1

by Tom Gaylord


Not what you might expect in a rifle, the USFT requires a little orientation.

B.B. Pelletier invited me to report on the USFT rifle because several readers have expressed an interest in the gun. The first time I saw one was when Steve Schulz brought his new rifle out to the DIFTA field target club, where I used to shoot. Steve's gun wasn't actually a USFT; it was a hand-made rifle called a Simple Simon made by Larry Durham. I was intrigued that Steve's rifle got 55 shots with Beeman Kodiaks at just under 900 f.p.s. on a fill of just 1,800 psi! That was less air than any other precharged rifle had remaining when all the useful shots were finished. The rest of us were filling to 3,000 and Steve only had to go to 1,800 to get the same results.

Steve is one of the finest field target shots in the world, so the fact that he did well with his new rifle was less impressive. He's the kind of shooter who can outshoot most of us with our own rifles, so high scores from him are not exactly news. That clouded my observation of the rifle until I got one of my own. Having played with one, I now I understand that the ergonomics far surpass any other competition air rifle.

The appearance of the USFT commands attention. It doesn't look like anything you have ever seen. In this report I will walk you around the features that set the gun apart. For, it is the egonomics, not the fact that it runs on low pressure, that makes this air rifle the star that it is.

One warning. This airgun is made for the sole purpose of winning field target matches. It isn't a plinker; it isn't a hunter and it certainly isn't a general-purpose air rifle. If you want one of these, want it for the right reasons, because you're going to have to invest some of yourself in the relationship. I think you will understand as I explain the features.

The USFT is a production gun with a lot of hand work still applied during the assembly process. Tim McMurray makes it, and he told me that 113 rifles have been sold thus far. He's looking at starting the second run soon. The rifle just took four of the top five places at the U.S. national field target matches, so the demand for them is very heated.

The valve
The valve is the heart of this rifle. It's an impact-type that is completely different from any you have seen before. It has a low-mass hammer that strikes an ultra-thin valve stem to open the valve against a very weak return spring. The air transfer port is elongated and runs inside what I must call the bolt, for want of a better term.

To achieve the velocity my rifle gets (an average of 938 f.p.s. for Beeman Kodiaks and JSB Exacts, alike), a lot of air must flow through the barrel. That means the valve must be open for a longer period of time, because the air pressure in the reservoir is lower than that of a conventional PCP. A long barrel allows the push on the pellet to be sustained longer, so, just like that 4,000-lb. Cadillac that is so difficult to get rolling when one person pushes it, eventually the pusher builds momentum and can push the car as fast as he can run.


The bolt is closed.


The bolt is open for loading.

This valve was designed to be repaired by the user! It comes apart easily because both the designer (Durham) and the manufacturer (McMurray) wanted it that way. You can even purchase the tools and parts to rebuild your valve. I did, even though I feel confident that the low operating pressure of the gun means I may never have to touch it. Airgunners will understand how I feel.

Loading
To load, the bolt is rotated to the right, exposing the breech of the 25" Weihrauch barrel. There is more room for loading pellets than anything other than a breakbarrel. The bolt glides on bearings and seals that seem bank-vault solid. There are no detents to alert you to when things are in place - they just are, and you soon learn to accept it.

Cocking and firing
Cocking the low-mass hammer is impressively easy. Just pull it back until you hear the sear click. It doesn't take more than a few pounds of effort. If you want to dry-fire the rifle, just cock the sear without moving the hammer. The trigger-pull feels the same either way and no air will be lost that way. Not that field target shooters dry-fire their rifles that often, but you will want to impress your friends with that trigger, whose pull is less than the 8-oz. minimum of my gauge. I estimate a pull of one or two ounces at most.


Hammer is down on valve stem.


Hammer is cocked.

Filling
The fill nipple is a male Foster hydraulic fitting located on the left side of the receiver. It comes with a female cap, protected by a vinyl cover so no dirt gets inside the gun between fills. McMurray located the fill nipple on the rifle's left rear to keep shooters away from the muzzle for increased safety. I like the Foster quick-disconnects because they are easily obtainable anywhere, and three of my PCPs now have them.


Fill nipple is a male Foster. Large gauge is easy to read.

While Steve's rifle filled to 1,800 psi, mine needs only 1,650 - further lightening the burden on anyone who fills with a hand pump. I don't yet know how many shots I will get, but the useful shots are within a string that doesn't exceed 11 f.p.s. so far. Knowing that PCPs do change as they break in, I will watch the gun's performance during the first year. Mine comes off the power curve below 1,300 psi on the rifle's built-in pressure gauge - a gauge, by the way, that is large enough to be reasonably accurate.

In the next report, I'll try to finish the features and get on with shooting.

Introduction to field target - Part 6The precharged guns

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1 - How it all began
Part 2 - Targets
Part 3 - Targets - Part 2
Part 4 - Squads
Part 5 - The spring guns


Before we begin, I was told yesterday from a reliable source that Daystate bullets for the AirRanger rifle are sourced from CCI. Apparently, the deal to buy them from Eley fell through. Airguns of Arizona, the U.S. Daystate inporter, provided that information. Our reader, who made the mistake of buying the bullets for his Condor, lives in the United Kingdom, and he says he bought them directly from Daystate, so someone there should have advised him of the one and only purpose for these bullets.

Let's now look at the precharged guns used for field target. There are fewer U.S. shooters shooting PCPs than spring guns in field target, but those who do usually place higher in the matches. The precharged guns are so easy to shoot accurately that they take you to a new level of competition, which is why they only compete among themselves.

Back in the early 1980s, spring guns still ruled the sport, but by the middle of the decade the handwriting was on the wall. PCPs were here to stay, and they could not be beaten by springers, not even by the fabulous Whiscombes that almost act like PCPs. Daystate was an early leader, with the Huntsman and then the CR94 dominating many matches. I have covered these rifles already in my blog posting about Daystate. Air Arms was their chief rival in numbers, with their NJR 100 being the top competition rifle in the line.

By the middle 1990s, Daystate was being challenged on all sides by newer makers such as Falcon (reborn from the ashes of Titan). I shot both brands of rifles, including their tricked-out field target models, and both shot so much better than I that I could not judge which one was superior, if either really was. It's like Ford and Chevy - both camps have a large following and everyone thinks their brand is best.

By the end of the '90s, specialized airguns started coming from workshops around America like the one run by Alan Zasadny. Alan has worked on many different makes and models, but he's well-known for his conversions of FWB P70s and P70 Juniors - turning them from 6-foot-pound 10-meter target rifles into 19-foot-pound fire-breathing field target rifles. Alan also converted other makes of rifles to field target use. Within five years, airgun makers were finally alerted to the fact that field target was a legitimate sport, and they could profit by building guns for it. Today, the market is bursting with factory-made field target rifles from companies such as FWB and Steyr.


Steyr's HP field target rifle is an adaptation of their 10-meter technology.

That brings us up to date, in general, except for a special rifle I will share with you at the end of this post. Right now, let's look at what elements make a field target rifle different than an off-the-shelf sporting PCP.

Ergonomics
A field target rifle is built for the sport. For example, a rifle with a flat forearm is made that way to rest either on the knee or arm of a seated shooter. More advanced rifles have a knee rest that descends from the forearm. It can be adjusted to allow the shooter to hold a very heavy rifle perfectly still. The pistol grip is more vertical than those found on sporting rifles. Many rifles have thumbhole stocks, and those that have them offer either the thumb through the stock or aligned vertically. The cheekpiece adjusts, as does the buttplate. The sum of the adjustments brings the shooter's eye into perfect alignment with the exit pupil of the scope, making the rifle feel like it was custom-made for that person.


This shooter holds his PCP rifle in the classic AAFTA seated position. All the adjustments mentioned in the text can be seen here.

A field target competitor doesn't worry about the height of his scope above the bore of the gun. Before competition, the gun is sighted-in for every possible range and situation so there can be no surprises in a match. Accuracy is above everything, so a competitor keeps his gun's velocity around 900 f.p.s.

The triggers of PCP field target rifles are usually very light, though not as light as 10-meter rifles. Is is not uncommon to encounter trigger-pulls in the one- and two-ounce range, though I personally like a pull weight to be a little heavier - maybe eight ounces. I also like a positive second-stage stop.

Finally, you'll encounter a host of bizarre homegrown accessories on PCP rifles. The most common is a small feather, piece of yarn or a ribbon tethered to the stock to indicate which way the wind is blowing at the shooter's location. The second most common thing is a super-large parallax adjustment wheel on the left side of the scope. The bigger the better! The shooter wraps white tape around the rim of the wheel and inscribes the ranges that his scope actually measures when correcting for parallax.

USFT is a comer!
The USFT rifle from Mac-1 Airgun is purpose-built for field target competition. I will be turning this blog over to Tom Gaylord tomorrow to tell you about this fine rifle, but I'm going to steal a little of his thunder and give you a peek at it now. Held by 2007 National Field Target Champion Paul Cray in the picture below, the huge circle on Paul's rifle is the parallax adjustment wheel for his scope. The black INSIDE RING is as large as the enlarged wheels on most shooter's scopes.


Four of the top five shooters in the U.S. used USFT rifles this year, including the 2007 National Champion, Paul Cray.

Now I know I glossed over a lot of PCP rifles in this report, but I'm going to hit it harder in the Daystate series, so don't worry.

Bullets and pellets: What gives?

by B.B. Pelleiter

Big post today. We had a question last week that I want to explore. Here it is:

Is it possible to damage a rifled barrel by using pellets that are too large? I'll explain.....
My Condor is a .22, and I have managed to locate some VERY heavy pellets from Daystate (40 grains). I bought and used a few, but on the tin they say .223. They are impossible to push in with your finger alone, and they dont have a skirt, so i actually used the backside of a small metal spoon. This got them in (after a few slips where i bent the pellet around!!!). When fired they leave the barrel at over 900fps, which is actually slower than I expected, and I think this is due to the super tight fit. I have only fired 10 or so this way, as I dont want to ruin the barrel.

Are these safe to fire?

And here was my answer:

Big bullet,

What you have are NOT PELLETS. They are BULLETS!

This is why I rant on about the proper terminology. I'm not chastizing you for not knowing, but whoever (at Daystate) thought that because a projectile is shot from a pellet gun and not a firearm it has to be called a pellet has done a disservice to their potential customers.

Your bullet is actually from an Eley .22 long rifle cartridge that Daystate buys from Eley for one of their rifles that has a .22 rimfire barrel. Pellets don't work in that rifle, so these bullets have to be used.

The bore on a Condor is nominally 0.2165" in diameter, so this 0.223" bullet is way too large for the bore. Only a very powerful gun like the Condor could fire it.

You are not hurting the barrel, unless you screw up the breech with whatever tool you need to push the bullet into the bore. You are sizing the bullet when you shove it into the Condor barrel, and that's why I'm guessing it's leaving a ring of lead at the breech.

You think 900 f.p.s. is SLOW??? Instead you should wonder how the Condor can shoot these bullets at all! You are pushing a .22 caliber bullet through a .21 caliber bore.

Stop using these bullets immediately. They are not accurate and to continue to use them only exposes your rifle to potential damage.

Now, here is today's post.

If you are going to experiment with airguns, you need to get really involved and read about firearms, too. Black powder firearms are especially pertainent, because they share many of the same physical attributes as our airguns. For example, longer barrels get faster velocity with both black power arms and pneumatics. And it never hurts to know something about reloading, either. Just as you should not resize a bullet more than one thousandth of an inch if you want accuracy, you also shouldn't expect accuracy when a huge bullet has to be forced into a smaller barrel like our reader was doing. Once it's in the barrel, the bullet is not too tight to shoot, because lead doesn't expand after being sized down, but when you size a lead bullet six thousandths of an inch or more, there is no hope for accuracy. The axis of the bullet has been changed by the resizing.

They are BULLETS - not PELLETS!
And this is why I get on my high-horse when manufacturers and dealers start referring to solid lead projectiles as pellets. Bullets are solid and have a high ballistic coefficient. They also have a high mass. The longer and heavier they are, in relation to their diameter, the faster the have to be spun to stabilize them. Spin rate is a function of the rifling twist rate and the velocity of the projectile. If a Condor drives a 40-grain bullet at 900 f.p.s., the rotational spin rate is 675 revolutions per second (40,500 RPM). A standard speed .22 long rifle cartridge drives the same bullet at 1,138 f.p.s., producing a spin rate of 853.5 RPS (51,210 RPM) from the same rifling twist. That higher rate is required to stabilize that bullet. The Condor might shoot it accurately enough at 10 and even 25 yards, but by 50 yards the bullet will be scattering.

On the other hand, a 28 grain Eun Jin PELLET driven from a Condor at 1,000 f.p.s. is fully stabilized by BOTH its spin of 750 RPS (45,000 RPM) and the drag created by its hollow tail and wasp waist. The 28-grain pellet is nearly as long as the 40-grain bullet because it is hollow inside, but the aerodynamic drag created by the skirt more than makes up for a slower spin rate.

Bullets are usually not accurate in pellet guns
Because the twist rate of a pellet rifle is so slow (one turn in 16 inches of travel), a solid bullet usually cannot be stabilized properly. There is a firearm equivalent to which we can compare. Aguila, the Mexican ammunition maker, makes a special SSS (Sniper Sub Sonic) bullet for their special silhouette cartridge. It weighs 60 grains and is therefore longer than a 40-grain .22 LR bullet. These cartridges will fit in a rifle chambered for regular .22 long rifle ammunition, but they won't be accurate! At 25 yards you might get them to group, but by 50 yards, they are all over the place. So, why does Aguila make this cartridge?


The difference between an Aguila SSS (right) and a standard 40-grain .22 Long Rifle bullet is obvious and dramatic.

There are special .22 rimfire silhouette rifles that have barrels with a 1 turn in 10-inch twist rate. The normal .22 twist rate is 1 turn in 16 inches. In these faster-twist barrels, the SSS bullet is very accurate and also delivers more of a punch to topple those heavy steel targets. It's not even launched at 1,000 f.p.s., yet it is stabilized by the faster twist. Here is a bullet made for just a single purpose, and it has to be used in a gun built just to handle it. The rifle will not be successful with any other type of .22 rimfire ammo and the bullet cannot be fired in any other gun that is chambered to accept it. Talk about one gun - one bullet!

Well, your pellet rifles are not much different. They will function best with just a few similar pellets. Specialized guns like those from AirForce, some from Air Arms and some from Shin Sung have easily adjustable velocity, so they may be able to handle more types of pellets that fixed-speed guns. But even for them there are limits.

Size matters
Now, there was a huge clue as to the nature of those heavy Daystate "pellets." They said .223" on the tin. And the reader wondered whether that made any difference. Had he known the bore size of his Condor and the fact that bullets cannot be resized that much and still be accurate, he would never have tried them. This is where knowing the technology of firearms and reloading comes into play. I have said more than once in this blog that .22-caliber pellets are not the same size as .22-caliber bullets made for firearms. A .22 pellet bore may not exceed 0.218" in diameter, while .22 firearm bullets come in sizes .223", .224" and .225". GUESS WHAT? You're not supposed to use a .223 bullet in a firearm bored .224, either. You .22 Hornet owners should know what I'm talking about.

Another clue was the fact that he needed a spoon to shove the bullet into the Condor's breech. This is a problem with all bullets in air rifles. They don't chamber easily. Even if bullets are made to the correct bore size, you still have to engrave the rifling along the entire length of the bullet. That takes a lot of force, which is why many muzzle-loading rifles use cloth patches to take the rifling instead of trying to engrave a lead bullet. In the 18th century when the military tried to shoot patchless lead bullets in rifles for the first time, they had to use iron ramrods instead of the traditional wooden ones, because the force needed to engrave the rifling broke wooden ramrods. Introducing an iron ramrod into the bore of a rifle was the kiss of death for accuracy because of the damage it would do to the rifling, but there was no choice. The undersized Minie ball bullet solved that problem in 1840, but by then the days of muzzleloading firearms were almost at an end.

You're on your own
The rate of product development today has outstripped the ability of most companies to keep pace with technical information. Six millimeter plastic balls are now called BBs because of ignorance and a language translation problem, so when potential new shooters go to Wal-Mart to buy airsoft guns for the first time, who will explain to them that Daisy sells tiny steel balls they call BBs and all the airsoft BBs are larger and made of plastic? If we confuse bullets with pellets, then what hope do we have that people will understand that 6mm round plastic balls ARE NOT THE SAME AS STEEL BBs (and will not work in BB guns)?

The world I grew up in demanded that shooters at least tried to understand the technology. But modern information technology has changed all that. People expect to be entertained by the owner's manual, which is why DVDs are packaged with pasta makers. Today's shooter has to find information sources he can trust and shut out the inane jabbering the internet encourages.

IZH 61 - Part 1From Russia with love

by B.B. Pelletier

I have wanted to do this report for close to two years, but the availability of guns held me back. Pyramyd Air kept selling out before I could get my order in. However, now I have one. Here we go!

In the years since I last tested a new IZH 61, things have changed. Metal pellet clips have been replaced with plastic, and some of the parts that used to come with the gun no longer do. When the new model came out, I listened to whining all over the forums about the use of plastic, and I really wanted to see for myself what effect that has on the gun's durability - if any. What all the whiners seem to have forgotten (or perhaps never knew) were the problems we had with the older all-metal guns. I remember when the guns were shipped with faulty desiccant packets that broke open during shipment. The late "Golden" Joe Goulart of Golden Toller Guns sold IZH 60 and 61 guns for practically cost to get rid of them. Owners had to strip the gun to clean out all the desiccant crystals from the powerplant. It was a chore, but you wound up with a very nice sidelever spring rifle for very little money.

Then there were "problems" with the rifle that weren't problems at all. Some guys bought the thing and criticized it for not shooting 1,000 f.p.s. Others criticized the short stock pull, without realizing that a target rifle NEEDS a shorter pull because of the way it is held. And, I still hear from people who want to mount scopes on the gun and what can be done about that?

Folks, the IZH 61 (and the single-shot 60) is an informal TARGET rifle - pure and simple. The Russians made it look like an assault rifle, but at its heart it has always been a paper-puncher and a plinker. No hunting, no field target - just casual fun. That is unless you're the guy from Maryland who installed a $350 Anschütz aperture rear sight and had a custom laminated wood stock built for $275. He turned his rifle into an honest NRA Sporter-Class competition target rifle, except that he went way past the $500 limit to do so. He did it because the rifle is so darned accurate that he wanted to make a point.

You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to make your IZH 61 shoot good. Just buy it and shoot it. It comes from the box ready to go. Use good quality wadcutter pellets. I like Gamo Match, Crosman Premier Super Match and RWS Hobbys. Not because they're the most accurate, but because they're accurate enough and are a good value.

A buddy of mine used to take his rifle to an airgun range, where other airgunners would see it and ask to buy it from him. He went through 23 IZH 60s that way. People usually love this gun when they see what it can do.

Description
The rifle is a spring-piston sidelever five-shot repeater in .177 caliber, only. It has a rifled barrel of legendary accuracy. It has adjustable sights, an adjustable trigger and a stock that's adjustable for the length of pull. While the maximum pull is 14-1/2", most shooters will want less. A person who is comfortable with a 14-1/2" pull on a sporting rifle will probably find 12-1/2" right for target shooting.

It weighs just 4.25 lbs. and measures almost 34-1/2" with the stock fully extended, and just under 31-1/2" when it's in as far as it will go. The cocking effort is a laughably light 12 pounds, making it one of the most enjoyable air rifles in the world. Light weight, easy cocking and five shots. If that isn't a recipe for fun, I don't know what is.

Additional stock adjustment
The stock has the facility for additional length adjustments. Remove the butt by removing the thumbscrew and washer used for locking the stock. That exposes two slots in the bottom of the plastic stub that stays with the rifle. The threaded boss that accepts the locking screw slips into either slot, giving an additional inch of adjustment.


The stock locking screw boss is located in the rear (right) slot. By slipping it into the front slot, the stock can be adjusted about an inch shorter.

Trigger adjustment
My test rifle fired with too little resistance when I got it, so I screwed the rear trigger adjustment screw in (clockwise) about four full turns. That increased the stiffness of the trigger-return spring, but the trigger was still firing before I could feel the second stage, so I screwed in the front adjustment screw about a half-turn and got the trigger where I want it.


Long screw behind the trigger blade (right) adjusts the trigger return spring tension. That controls trigger-pull weight. Flush screw in front of trigger adjusts the length of the first-stage pull. Trigger blade itself can be swiveled from side to side to suit your tastes.

Rear sight
This is one of the big changes that was made when the rifle was modernized. Besides changing the receiver from steel to plastic, the maker fixed the rear sight on the barrel hanger. It used to be removable and a plate that turned it into an aperture sight was included with the rifle. That doesn't come with the gun anymore because if the rear sight can't be moved back, it can't be used as a peep sight, either.

The sight adjusts for elevation via a thumbwheel located in the conventional place. But the windage adjustment is a bit hinky. You must loosen two tiny screws and slide the rear notchplate sideways.


Thumbwheel in the foreground is the elevation adjustment. Windage adjusts by loosening the two slotted screws and sliding the plate sideways.

What comes with the rifle?
For your incredibly low purchase price, you get the rifle, owner's manual, two magazines, a cleaning rod (that I wouldn't use because it doesn't accept accessories) and a spare mainspring. That spare mainspring has started more than a few U.S. airgunners on the road to hobby airgunsmithing. They have discovered this rifle is light enough and small enough to not present the problems of more powerful air rifles, so the detriments to stripping the gun are few. Not that I am advising you to tear your gun apart. But, a rifle of this power is easier to deal with in all ways than a Webley Patriot.

Today was just an introduction to the rifle. Next time we'll shoot and see how accurate it really is.

The mystery of grouping to the left & right: Two possibilities

by B.B. Pelletier

This post was inspired by Ozark, who wondered why his groups were going to the left and right of the aim point. What he either didn't say, or I didn't pay attention to when he said it, was that each group was shot with a different pellet. That's normal for different ammo, but sometimes a gun will shoot the same pellet to one side or the other, and that's not right. Today, I want to talk about that.

Why do they do it?
There are two principal reasons for this phenomenon. The first is that the scope axis doesn't align with the axis of the bore. You took my advice and sighted-in at 20 yards, but when you did you noticed something strange. I told you that if you were sighted to strike an inch below the aim point at 10 yards, you would be approximately dead-on at 20 yards. You were for elevation, but not for windage. Your pellet struck 1/2" to the left of the aim point. Oh, well, no problem, you thought. You just adjusted the scope until it hit the aim point and figured you were done.

You were done for 20 yards; but when you went out to 30 yards, your pellet was 1/4" to the left again. It was right on for elevation but not for windage. And, at 40 yards, it's 3/4" to the left. What gives?

The solution
What's happening is your scope is not looking along the same line as your barrel. At distances closer than 20 yards, the pellet will strike to the right of the aim point, besides striking lower. At 20 yards, it's right on. Between 20 and 30 yards, it will strike right on for elevation; but after 20 yards, it will start moving to the left (windage). The pictures should make it clear.


The scope is looking in a slightly different direction than the bore of the rifle.


This is what it looks like on paper.

Second problem
Believe it or not, some pellets spiral as they travel downrange! On a sunny day at the range when the sun is at your back and the distance is 50 yards or more, you can see the pellet fly downrange through the scope. Many shooters, including me, have seen pellets travel in a spiral path.

I don't mean the pellet is spinning on its axis, which is caused by the rifling, though that is also what causes it to spiral. I mean that the pellet is traveling in an ever-increasing circular motion, and it circles in the same direction as the rifling. The center of the spiral is not inside the pellet. If the rifling was right-hand twist, the pellet goes downrange spiraling clockwise. If a left-hand twist, counterclockwise. The pellet only does this when it is not stable - including situations of over-stabilization.


Pellet travels in a widening spiral.

Groups from a spiraling pellet will be both to the left and right of the aim point, so it is more difficult to pin down than the scope/barrel alignment problem. It doesn't just travel left to right or right to left. It goes back and forth several times as it flies downrange. I have no proof, but I think that pellets that do this eventually fly off in some direction and do not continue the spiral. They are unstable throughout their flight. At close range, they are so predictable that you can even zero a rifle and use it. You'll get tight groups, but they'll just migrate around the point of aim at every distance except the distance at which you zeroed the rifle.

One last observation. Pellets that spiral are also falling throughout their flight, so despite my illustration showing them climbing higher at a farther distance from the muzzle, the axis of the spiral is on a downward slant. They don't really rise as I have depicted here.

Those are the reasons for pellets that move side to side. You can test for this by setting up tissue-paper targets aligned with a laser and collect the targets to analyze what the pellets are doing in flight, but all you really need is a sunny day at the range with the sun at your back and about 50 yards of distance. With the right pellets, you'll see it for yourself.

The Daystate Saga - Part 2 The story continues

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

We left off in the mid-1990s, as Daystate was just starting to bring out a line of new lighter air rifles. I had sent my Huntsman Mark II to Rodney Boyce for a new trigger and regulator. The reg boosted my usable shots to 48 from a 3000 psi fill. Velocity was given in Part 1.

The greater power of the modified rifle was welcome, but the accuracy didn't change, of course (same barrel), so I still had a heavy, bulky PCP when everyone else was going to the new lightweights. Offhand competition for an entire match with my rifle was difficult, though a few offhand shots in a mostly seated match was no problem. I could have left it the way it was and continued to compete with it for many more years; but after owning it for about two years, I sold my Huntsman.

I went through some other PCPs during the years that followed - a Career 707 set up with a regulator and adjustable trigger by Alan Zasadny and a hammer-spring reduction by The A Team. That rifle was a real shooter, but it was a .22 and couldn't keep pace with the .177s in field target. I also had a Barnes rifle in .177. It was set up for 12 foot-pounds, and I've never been a good enough shot to compete in field target at that power level. I was shooting on par with the best TX 200s (and getting beat by them in a lot of matches).

In 1999, Rodney Boyce sold me a Daystate Harrier. It was a single-shot rifle like my Huntsman, but 2 lbs. lighter and ready to compete right out of the box. It had a great trigger and ran at about the same energy as my old Huntsman. Daystate advanced their technology in the last five years of the 1990s, as did every other maker of precharged airguns. The new gun was more accurate than any air rifle I had owned to that time, and eight years later it's still a gun against which all others are compared. But it wasn't that way from the start!


Eight years old and still going strong. My Daystate Harrier is a classic.

For the first few days I was very disappointed by mediocre accuracy. It was grouping tight, small groups, then sending one or two pellets wide by an inch or so at 35 yards. What was wrong? A call to Rodney brought us both to the point of me sending it back for him to look at, then he had a thought. Could pellets possibly by hitting the muzzle cap? Sure enough, they were. When the cap was removed, the shots all went onto the same tight group (about 1/4" at 35 yards and 1/2" or a little more at 50). Using a hand drill, I opened the muzzle hole of the end cap by about a tenth of an inch. After that, I had a tack-driving air rifle that I still own. It shoots so much better than I do that there is little sense going to a more accurate gun - unless there would be some other kind of advantage. Another problem I had was impact shift from the barrel being connected to the reservoir. As the pressure got lower, the reservoir flexed, pulling the barrel with it. The fix was to remove the front barrel band, making the barrel free-floating.

The one thing I absolutely LOVE about my Harrier is that it has to be filled to only 2650 psi - not 3000. I use a hand pump when I compete, and this lower fill point really saves me some strain. I initially got 25 shots of Beeman Kodiaks at 875 f.p.s. within 20 f.p.s. and there is no regulator to break down. That velocity drifted up to 900 f.p.s. after about 1000 shots had been fired. There is no manometer (air pressure gauge) on the gun, so I count shots by counting targets in the match. If I have to blow off shots, I have to recalculate. Toward the end of my competing days, I came across the Phillips pellet holders that strap to the buttstock. They hold 20 pellets and I can count to five or I can fill after 20 shots. My rifle is dead-reliable - the kind of airgun legends are written about, and I know it will always be there when I need it.

During this same period, I briefly had a Daystate Mirage - a sporter that's even lighter than the QC and the LR90. Mine weighed 5 lbs., 9 oz., SCOPED! Without the scope, it weighed 4.5 lbs.! Daystate and Falcon were having a contest at that time to see who could make the smallest, lightest sporter that still had American power. I think Falcon finally won with their Tominator (turkey-hunting rifle) that was based on their pistol action. But, the Mirage was still very lightweight and a thing of pure beauty! It averaged 815 f.p.s. with Crosman 10.5-grain Premiers and was good for 23 shots within 25 f.p.s. extreme variation.


Pint-sized powerhouse! The Mirage was a lightweight rifle that delivered big gun performance.

While this was happening, Daystate updated the CR94 to the CR97, which everyone immediately took to. It was better received than the CR94 had been, and it became very popular to upgrade the 94 to a 97. I wish I knew the differences between the two guns, but I don't. Match totals in those days (end of the '90s) always had several CR97s at the top battling with Ripleys or FWB P70s converted by Alan Zasadny. A few Air Arms NJR 100s were still in the mix, as well.

In my next installment, I'll show you a 1990s-era Daystate airgun that most airgunners know nothing about!

Anti-airgun gun dealer exposed!

by B.B. Pelletier

American readers, our rights are under attack FROM A FIREARM DEALER! Chris McAninch of PrimeGun has a patented method of placing a primer behind a pellet to provide propulsion. The fact that this has already been done for 167 years (since Flobert began ca. 1840) has apparently eluded the "inventor." Here is his website, if you want to see for yourself.

In Europe, people shot target matches with such guns for roughly 40 years (zimmerstutzens 1880-1920), but this guy says his way (209 shotgun primer) is best.

I've tested primer-powered guns (which are classified as firearms by law - something Mr. McAninch knows but doesn't think is fair to his invention), and they are horribly inadequate. That means both inaccurate and underpowered.

He shows a 50-yard target with four holes so far apart that I would have condemned the gun had it been an airgun. But, he thinks it's great. I have to agree that to connect with anything at 50 yards using a primer-powered gun is pretty amazing, but that doesn't make the open group any better.

This isn't the first time someone has "invented" a primer-powered gun. I even blogged them for you. Curiously enough, that report was also prompted by Mr. McAninch. Don't forget my earlier report on the Convert-A-Pell. Mr McAninch has come to the party very late and either hasn't done his homework or else he chooses to ignore the long history of primer-powered guns. All of this would be laughable, except for the form letters he wants you to send to U.S. senators and congressmen supporting his gun. In the letter to senators, he wants you to argue against the current definition of a firearm, so his primer-powered gun can be reclassified as an airgun. I don't know what part of "explosion" he doesn't understand...maybe because it would be just a teeny-weeny lie and not a REAL BIG lie, it's okay.

If you use his form letter, you'll be complaining about the airguns that are over 60 foot-pounds that he thinks ought to be reclassified as firearms. Where 60 foot-pounds came from only he knows, because it's not in any law. In his eyes, 60 foot-pounds must be a REAL POWERFUL force instead of just a powerful force. He even provides tables comparing firearms to powerful airguns - just so the technically inept can have something to put into their sound bites. Sarah Brady should cut this guy a check for doing her job!

Read the "testimonials." They sound painful to me.

Once they have 60 foot-pounds on the books, the feds will start salami-slicing our airgun power limits until we become another United Kingdom. Then, if the UK is any guide, they will go to work on our pocket knives, our tableware and finally what we're allowed to say and do. Forget the castle doctrine! Are you ready to pay reparations to the survivors of the hoodlum who breaks into your home at night and dies when you defend your family?

The BATF&E is prohibited by law from making rulings about airguns, just as all federal, state and local municipalities are prohibited from making any law that declares an airgun to be a firearm. If Mr. McAninch gets his changes to the law, this separation and protection would be muddied and far more difficult to enforce.

As long as Chris McAninch is allowed to make his invention without worries, though, I guess it's worth it for the rest of us to just shut up and lose our rights. After all, they'll eventually get around to him, too, but hopefully by then he will have had a good life. And, you and I can take up stamp collecting or cross stitch.

Daisy Powerline 008 pistol

by B.B. Pelletier

I would like to thank all the readers who commented on the Benjamin pump effort reduction project last Friday. You gave us a good idea of how the market would react to this endeavor.

Today's post is for a reader who has wanted this pistol reviewed for a long time. I'm sorry that it takes so long to get around to things like this, but I'm glad to finally be doing this report.

The Daisy Powerline 008 is a CO2 pistol that shoots both BBs and pellets. It has a rifled steel barrel with extremely shallow lands that can accommodate steel BBs without damage to the rifling. The pistol uses a standard 12-gram CO2 cartridge hidden in the pistol grip. The piercing mechanism is unique, in that it uses a roller bearing for smooth operation and there are no user adjustments. New owners don't have any adjustments to learn, just drop a fresh cartridge into the space provided and close the backstrap piercing lever. Snap the left grip panel in place, and you're ready to go.


Backstrap rotates back and down. Note the roller bearing that puts tension on the CO2 cartridge when the backstrap rotates back into position.

Flip-up barrel
To load the 8-shot rotary clip, release the barrel and flip it up at the back. The white plastic clip has a hole in the center on one side only, and it fits the steel pin under the barrel. Don't worry about indexing the clip when you install it - the gun takes care of that automatically. Each clip has a magnet, so it stays in the gun by itself when the barrel is flipped up. The magnet also holds BBs in place, so the pellet chambers can be sized appropriately for the larger .177 lead pellets.


Clip is easy to load and to install in gun.


The barrel pops up to receive the 8-shot clip. It's held in place by a magnet.

Double-action only
The action is DAO, so even though there is a hammer visible in the frame, it will not stay cocked by just pulling it back. The trigger must be pulled for every shot. The trigger-pull is delightfully light and smooth. A wide trigger blade helps spread the effort. If you like to shoot action pistols, you'll enjoy this trigger.

Very ergonomic
The pistol fits the hand quite well. Some readers have criticized the curvy appearance of the grips; but when you hold the pistol, you know why they did it that way. The manual safety is located at the right rear of the frame. It's a spring-loaded one that you must pull back to move. When it's on, the trigger is no longer connected to the hammer.

Sights
The non-adjustable sights are a classic square notch and ramp front. They look very square, but have a little too much space on either side of the front post. However, they're easy to align and the sight picture is easy to acquire. The gun I tested shoots just to the left of the aim point, which is probably a function of the DAO action. As a righthander, I tend to pull shots to the left. The gun has no provision for mounting optical sights or lasers, so don't even ask. With an all-plastic exterior, it would take a special mount, indeed, to overcome this drawback.

My test pellets
For this test, I used RWS Hobbys, Gamo Match, a Chinese wadcutter that I've used for years in 10-meter competition and a Czech pellet called the Diabolo Standard.

Accuracy
I was able to shoot offhand groups that ranged from 1.5" to 2.5" at 20 feet. The Chinese wadcutters were the most accurate pellets by half an inch. The others were about comparable, except the Czech domes, which were clearly in last place. Shooting was two-handed because of the DAO operation. A double-action only pistol is not a target gun, so this accuracy should be considered minute-of-pop-can, for which the gun is intended.


Best 8-shot group fired from 20 feet. Gun shot to aim point, but DAO trigger caused shots to drift to the left.

Velocity
The pistol is rated to 480 f.p.s., but shooting in a 71-degree temperature, I didn't see it. Hobbys were the fastest pellets, at 411 f.p.s. average. The Czech domes were next, averaging 393 f.p.s. Chinese wadcutters averaged 375 f.p.s., but with a surprising 35 f.p.s. spread. The surprise was that they were the most accurate pellet, though 20 feet is hardly far enough to separate the pellet holes by velocity. Gamo Match averaged 360 f.p.s.

As expected, BBs went faster than pellets
BBs are faster, of course. Daisy zinc-plated BBs averaged 435 f.p.s. under the same conditions as the pellets. Accuracy was better than expected. From 15 feet, I shot a 2.5" group to the same point of aim the pellets were going. So this will be a fun BB plinker. Remember that everyone in the vicinity should wear safety glasses when you shoot BBs, because they rebound from every hard surface.

How many shots?
This gun is a little hotter than the average CO2 pistol. It only gets about 40 shots or five magazines before needing a new CO2 Powerlet.

Bottom line
If you want a DAO action pistol that can shoot both BBs and pellets, this is one to consider. Don't expect it to compete with Umarex pistols costing two and three times as much, but it is a viable alternative to pistols like the Gamo P23 and the Crosman 1088.

Benjamin 392/397 that's easy to pump

by Tom Gaylord

Before we start, there are two announcements. The first is the inclusion of customer reviews for products carried by Pyramyd Air. You'll find the review section on each page of a rifle or pistol. The second announcement is that a new podcast is up.

Something new
B.B. turned the blog over to me today because I have something very different for you. There is a new invention that hasn't yet seen the light of day and Pyramyd Air wants to know what YOU think about it.


Benjamin 392/397 is a classic multi-pump air rifle.

Imagine a Benjamin 392 or 397 multi pump pneumatic that has a maximum pump stroke effort of not more than 12 pounds! Sound impossible? Well it's not. I have tried it and so has my wife. This gun really exists.

The inventor brought his idea to Pyramyd Air owner Joshua Ungier to see what he thought. Josh was amazed. We set up a time in June when Edith and I would be at Pyramyd Air to test the gun. I can tell you that it really works as I have said. As you pump the lever, the effort builds to the low maximum that it never exceeds. A young person can pump this gun with this modification installed.

The invention is an articulated pump linkage that multiplies the force of the pump handle through a variable pump linkage. He calls it a pump assist. We've seen a similar linkage on the IZH-46M single stroke pneumatic pistol, so the concept has already been proven, but this was the first time it had been applied to a Benjamin 392. The 392 allows up to 8 pump strokes, and each pump is harder than the last. After stroke five, the effort required on an unmodified gun becomes significant. The final pump stroke will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 33 lbs. With this modification, all the pump strokes feel exactly the same - light and easy, at one-third the effort.

Let me put that into perspective. You can probably lift a 20-pound sack over your head 100 times, but can you lift a 200 pound sack over your head 10 times? The effort is the same, but it doesn't feel the same. Each pump stroke of the modified rifle is 12 lbs. The stock rifle pumps easy at first and gets hard toward the end. If you only want to put in three pumps, there's no reason to get this mod. If you hunt with your rifle, there's a very good reason to get it. Even the eighth pump stroke will only be 12 lbs.

I tested the new design against a box-stock 397 (the test rifle was also a .177), and the power was comparable between both rifles. So the question is this: Is anyone interested in an easy-to-pump Benjamin 392/397?

The cost
Since this modification has to be added to an already-built rifle, there is cost for both the parts and the labor. Would you be willing to pay around $270 for a new rifle with this modification? The gun's warranty is voided by the work, however the aftermarket will probably be able to keep a 397/397 working for at least the next 50 years. Pyramyd Air sells a new 392/397 for $139.95.

Can your old 392/397 be retrofitted?
Perhaps the more interesting question is whether an existing 392/397 can be retrofitted. If there is a demand for this modification, it might also be worthwhile to retrofit the existing guns. However, the cost to start this project is so high that no one wants to do it unless there is a proven demand.

I would get a new 392 modified this way, so I will be one customer. But I've already tested the gun, and know how it works. You haven't, so Pyramyd Air would like to hear what you think about the idea.

Please consider this proposal and tell us what you think. Your input will play a big part in making this decision. You have all weekend to weigh in.

The Daystate Saga - Part 1 Getting started

by B.B. Pelletier

Several readers have asked for a series on Daystate air rifles, so I'll begin today. Although Pyramyd Air doesn't sell Daystates, they are still very fine PCPs and their story is worth telling. Much of the history of the company's foundation comes from an article written by Pete Wadeson in the May 2003 issue of Airgun Illustrated magazine.

Daystate was founded in 1978 by Don Lowndes, Jim Phillips, Ken Gibbon and Mike Seddon. Their first product was the AirRanger, a tranquilizer rifle designed to capture dangerous game. It may still be made today as the AirRanger MkII.

As Daystate's reputation quickly grew, they were approached by Rentokil (Rent-to-Kill, a large British pest elimination company with offices here in the U.S.) to make a smallbore air rifle for extermination. The first modern smallbore precharged air rifle was created for Rentokil by Daystate in 1980. They called it the Huntsman, and it developed 40 foot-pounds in .22 caliber.


The 10th Daystate Huntsman to roll off the line. Still working today.

The Huntsman was also offered to the general public in a de-tuned version that made 12 foot-pounds, and it had a long production run. I purchased a used one in 1995. The Huntsman is the rifle from which other modern precharged smallbore rifles are descended.

Right from the start, shooters noticed that precharged guns were much easier to shoot than spring guns. And, with PCPs, there was no need to do any work to charge the rifle. Simply screw the air hose from a scuba tank to the threaded fitting at the front of the reservoir and slowly open the tank's valve. The advice of the day was to take at least a full minute to fill a gun, even though the scuba tank could fill it in seconds. Once filled, there were many shots available.

The sport of field target started about the same time as modern PCP guns, so it was inevitable that the two would get together. By the late 1980s, you had to shoot a precharged rifle to win a major match. Daystate's competitors were Titan, Sportsmatch and Air Arms. All made PCP rifles to their own specifications. In that crowd, Daystate and Titan were the affordable rifles, Air Arms made both sporters and some race-ready field target competition rifles, and Sportsmatch made the "Rolls Royce."

All the PCPs of this era were heavy, but the Daystate Huntsman earned a reputation as a lead sled. At more than 9 lbs., my vintage 1990s Huntsman was almost two full pounds heavier than my 1980s Air Arms Shamal, which produced equivalent power. That weight was found in the steel receiver and the steel reservoir.

And here is a bit of airgunning trivia for you. When BAM decided to copy a PCP rifle, they copied the Huntsman, so the BAM B50 and B51 are modern relics of the most successful PCP of the mid-1990s. The most distinctive feature these rifles had was a "swan's neck" cocking piece made of brass.


The BAM B51 is a direct copy of the Daystate Huntsman Mk II.

I'll never forget my first Huntsman. It was a used 12-foot-pound Huntsman Mark II that got about 40 shots when filled to 2,500 psi. Back in those early days, 3,000 psi fill pressures were not as common as they are today, and 12 foot-pounds was more common in the U.S. The simple trigger on my gun was set to break at 8 oz.; and, at 35 yards, five Crosman Premier 7.9-grain pellets went into a cluster of about 0.30" c-t-c spread. This early rifle was not regulated and still kept all its shots within just 20 f.p.s. I scoped it with a Bushnell Trophy 6-18x40 that is still in use today.

When I got my rifle in 1995, the Huntsman was already becoming obsolete. Daystate was in the middle of releasing several newer models, eventually spelling the end for the old Huntsman. The newer guns were lighter and had more graceful stocks. One of them, the CR94, was a field target competition gun slated to go head-to-head with the Air Arms NJR 100. The CR94 started winning big matches and the NJRs had their hands full fending them off.

The new line of Daystate sporters was markedly different than the heavy Huntsman. I'll never forget the first time I picked up a Daystate QC (for quick-connect - the wave of the future in PCPs). I could hardly believe it. It was 3 lbs. lighter than my rifle, yet it had the same performance!

After testing and getting used to the Huntsman, I had U.S. importer Rodney Boyce modify it with a match trigger and a Wellham regulator. The fill pressure went up to 3,000 psi, and the power went from 12 foot-pounds to 17 with the heaviest pellets. With 7.9-grain Crosman Premiers that were still the most accurate, the gun delivered over 15 foot-pounds. I competed with this rifle in several field target matches, but the handwriting was on the wall. I had been shooting with a club that shot the match entirely offhand, and I wanted to try out the AAFTA seated position. The weight of the Huntsman made itself abundantly clear when held offhand for an entire match. My gun was too heavy and bulky at a time when scopes were getting bigger and heavier and ergonomics were starting to rule the day.

When we return, I'll pick up the story right here.

Gamo Hunter Extreme - Part 3 Accuracy

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

Today, we'll look at the accuracy potential of the Gamo Hunter Extreme. The target was placed at 25 yards - a reasonable distance for a hunting airgun. Initial zeroing went pretty fast because the Gamo scope was close to where it needed to be.

Accuracy with Raptors
Because the velocity of this rifle is so high, there isn't much sense in shooting endless targets with lightweight pellets. They will go supersonic and the accuracy will be destroyed. However, there is one pellet I HAD to test. The Raptor PBA is the pellet Gamo touts as a 1600 f.p.s. pellet in their advertising (and 1650 f.p.s. pellet on the gun itself) and had to be shot for accuracy. This is also the pellet they use in the video in which they kill a hog.

The hog was shot at close range, probably not more than 15-20 yards. The rifle used in the video was not the Hunter Extreme, but it was the Hunter 1250, which gets the same velocity and, I have to assume, the same accuracy. Testing accuracy at 25 yards seems reasonable, because many hunters don't shoot much farther than that with a breakbarrel spring gun...and 35-40 yards is about tops.

I do not endorse hunting game the size of hogs with smallbore airguns. I think it is irresponsible and I think showing a video of it puts a poor face on this company that has many good products to their credit. But they did it and you can see it on their website, on the page where the Hunter Extreme is shown.

The BEST five-shot group I could get at 25 yards with the Raptor PBA pellet measures 1.8" center-to-center. The average group measured 2.248". It wasn't the size of the group that interested me the most. It was the shape of the pellet holes. Several of the holes are almost perfect profiles of the Raptor pellet, which means they went through the paper sideways. They are not stable and are starting to spin out of control at 25 yards. I have to guess that they are either being spun too fast by the rifling because of the high velocity, which we established is about 1,350 f.p.s., or they are being buffeted by the supersonic shockwave. Maybe a little of both. While they're accurate enough for a close-range shot, hunters have little hope of connecting at longer distances.


Raptors went into groups like this at 25 yards. This is the smallest.


This hole is almost a perfect profile of a Raptor pellet, which means that it went through sideways!

For the record, 2" groups at 25 yards is better than I expected. But it is not accurate enough for hunting. You need to be able to count on your shots hitting within a half-inch of your aim point for small game, and that means a group size of one inch or less.

Eun Jins
The .177 Korean Eun Jin pellet weighs 16 grains. That's heavy enough to slow it to well below the transsonic threshold in this powerful airgun. I didn't chronograph Eun Jins, but I shot a group with them to see what they looked like. If they were good enough I would chrono them later. But they weren't! They shot so far to the right that only one of five landed on the target paper, despite my holding on a bullseye on the left side of the paper. The one that printed was 8.5" to the right of the aim point. Since the Gamo scope mount does not correct in either direction, I abandoned that pellet right there.

Kodiaks
That left me with the more traditional heavyweight pellets, with Beeman Kodiaks being at the top of the list. The first group was shot without regard to where it landed. It went into a 1.5" group that showed promise, so the scope was adjusted and I resumed fire. The next group measured 1.33" and was closer to the target. Three of the five holes in this group were elongated, however, so even the Kodiak suffers from either transsonic buffeting or too quick a spin. It's double the weight of the PBA, so the effect is not as great. With this improvement, I changed targets, adjusted the scope again, and continued.

The next group was slightly smaller, at 1.29" so I adjusted the scope again and shot what proved to be the final group. It measures 0.782" - just over three-quarters of an inch. Now THAT'S accuracy a hunter can use! I'm sure that if I had continued to shoot the groups would have hovered around this size, and there would have been a few that were even better. But we need to go no farther. This rifle can be used by hunters with the knowledge that out to perhaps 35 yards it has what it takes to harvest game humanely.


Smallest group of Beeman Kodiaks at 25 yards. This is a reasonable group for a hunting rifle. Notice that several of the holes are elongated, indicating the pellets are starting to tumble.

If I owned a Hunter Extreme, I'd have it de-tuned to get the cocking effort down to not more than 40 lbs. I would look for a velocity of about 900 f.p.s. with Beeman Kodiaks, which would probably give about 1150 with Raptors (but I would never use them). I would want the trigger to be lighter and less creepy, which might actually improve the accuracy somewhat. This rifle has the potential to be a fine hunting airgun with a few thoughtful modifications.

Field target - Part 5 The guns - starting with the springers

by B.B. Pelletier


Part 1 - How it all began
Part 2 - Targets
Part 3 - Targets - Part 2
Part 4 - Squads


This will be a mini-series within the series, because there is too much to cover on field target guns to put in a single post. Today, I'll address the spring guns, which I can do in one post.

In the 1980s
The No. 1 spring rifle for field target during the 1980s was the HW77 carbine. All the top shooters used it, and its secrets were closely guarded by them. They found ways to improve the Rekord trigger and ways to quiet the spring buzz of the rifle. The barrel was already accurate enough.

Power boosts to 900 f.p.s. with Marksman FTS domes (THE FT pellet of that day) were very popular, and shooters were mounting larger scopes to help with rangefinding.

Other spring guns that competed well came from Air Arms. They were sidelevers that loaded from a tap. Guns such as the Khamsin and Mistral were nice and accurate but not up to competing with the HW77. In fact, the only rifle that gave the 77 any competition at all was the FWB 124 breakbarrel. It was just as accurate and could be tuned to reach the mid-800s (in the 1980s). However, being a breakbarrel, it required a lot more technique to shoot as well as the 77, so the game really belonged to Weihrauch.

Then came the TX200
Around 1989-1991, Air Arms brought out the TX200 and the field suddenly shifted in their favor. The TX has a trigger that's patterned after the Rekord, but it's assembled differently and it's also capable of finer adjustments. The rifle is an underlever, like the HW77; but instead of having the 77's offset transfer port, it has its transfer port centered in the compression chamber. This helps the airflow a lot and allows the TX to cock easier, yet generate greater power than the HW77. It does have one drawback, however. The barrel, which must be in line with the center of the compression chamber, is mounted lower than the top of the compression chamber, giving the rifle a hunchbacked profile. Shooters may not know why they don't like it, but it does present a less-pleasing profile. Today this look is minimized through the use of a bull-barrel shroud, so the step-down is less pronounced.

Suddenly, the TX200 was winning most of the important matches, or at least placing in front of the HW77. By this time, PCPs were on the scene and TX200s couldn't keep up with them. Still, the spring-gun era wasn't over. The Crosman premier pellet hit the market, and Marksman's grip was over. For the spring-powered TX200, the 7.9-grain pellet performed best. Throughout the 1990s, the TX200 reigned supreme. The most popular alteration was to fit an adjustable stock to the gun. Tuning was done, but never became very popular because the factory tune is already so nice. The TX200 Mark II came out in the mid-90s and added a safety ratchet to hold open the sliding compression chamber. As a side note, Robert Beeman carried the TX for a brief time when it first came out. Sales must have been sluggish, because he dropped the line before the company was sold in 1994. I cannot find it in any of his catalogs, but it appears as a "blowout sale" on several sales flyers. The price in 1993 was not much cheaper than today.

In the late '90s, Air Arms added the semi-recoilless TX200SR to the line. It was available only as a 12 foot-pound gun at first, and I'm not certain they were ever sold any other way. I owned one and found that it cocked MUCH harder than the normal 15 foot-pound TX200 and was no more accurate. The trigger had to have a linkage to connect the blade in the stock with the action, which moved during recoil, so it was never as good as a normal TX trigger. I felt the SR was like the emperor's new clothes, in that anyone who bought one defended it fiercely, but anyone who tried one before buying bought the regular TX instead.

The Pro Sport was also added to the line at this time. It was a copy of Ivan Hancock's Venom Mach II, but it wasn't as refined (not surprising, as Hancock's gun was hand-fitted and cost thousands of dollars). The cocking linkage made cocking much heavier than a standard TX and there was no accuracy advantage. Many shooters liked the sleeker looks better than the TX.

When Weihrauch came out with their HW95 that Beeman lists as the R9, shooters went for it as a less-expensive alternative to the TX200. In that role, it's about where the FWB 124 was with the HW77 - harder to shoot but very capable for those who can master it. It's a gun to get into FT but not one for serious competition.

Whiscombe
The only real challenger the TX200 has had in more than two decades has been the Whiscombe line of spring rifles. Whiscombes are about as accurate as PCPs, but they cost even more than the top precharged guns. That's kept them out of the limelight. A Whiscombe is more than a match for a TX, but the cost will never allow it to rise to its true potential.

Unheralded champion
The final spring gun I will mention is the RWS Diana 54. It's fully as accurate as a TX200 and easier to shoot accurately. However, it has some drawbacks of its own. It is bigger and fatter than the TX200 (though not any heavier) and it doesn't feel as good in the hand. It's somewhat harder to cock - not because the effort is any greater but because being a sidelever, it torques in the hand when the lever is pulled back. And, the flawed Diana scope-mounting solution probably keeps it out of the top position more than anything else. However, I know that 54 owners love their guns and would not part with them.

Spring guns are still viable
The spring gun hasn't left the scene for FT shooting, nor is it ever likely to. It represents a less expensive way to get into the sport that is very desirable. And, TX 200s and Whiscombes are not the only spring guns in use, despite what I have just said. I was just reporting on the leaders in the field, but any spring gun can get you into the sport. The RWS Diana 48 and 52 are very often seen on the field, and others that crop up often are HW77s and HW97s, old FWB 124s and even Beeman R1s. There's a separate spring gun class, so shooters aren't pitted against PCPs, and some spring gun shooters do very well, even in stiff competition.

What makes an airgun scope?

by B.B. Pelletier

Riflescopes have changed significantly over the past 20 years, and airguns have lead the way. Things such as parallax adjustment, sidewheel parallax adjustment, and adjustable scope mounts have all come out of the demand for better scope solutions by airgunners. And, because of all these changes, what airgunners "know" about airgun scopes has also changed - perhaps too fast for most people to keep up.

Airguns no longer break scopes!
In the 1970s, scoping an airgun was problematic, because all the scopes then made were made for firearms. Scope breakage reared its ugly head about the time the great horsepower race began. Airgunners wanted guns that went at least 800 f.p.s. - the minimum speed for magnum status. To build guns that could do it, airgunsmiths created guns with more forward recoil and vibration than had been seen up to that time. Scopes started breaking. A .30-06 recoils more than nearly all airguns, but it kicks the rear - not to the front. So, scopes were braced for rearward recoil. A .375 H&H Magnum kicks pretty hard, but it doesn't vibrate. A Diana 45 with a leather piston seal and sloppy internal tolerances can give you a headache from the high-speed vibration. That's why the early scopes broke.

Scope makers didn't advertise the fact, but in the 1980s and early '90s they quietly cleaned up their act. It's difficult to find a scope that's not properly braced for an airgun today. A few cheapos from China are all that remain of this once-widespread malady. Scopes don't break - as a rule. That said, airguns are still hard on scopes, and individual scopes will still break. I hope you understand the difference.

Parallax adjustment
In scope manufacturing companies where there are real optical engineers, the subject of parallax adjustment is understood very well. Leupold was at the front of the pack in the early 1990s with Premier Reticle, an independent customizing house that specializes in Leupold modifications, leading the way. I can remember being shocked to learn that Premier Reticle could bring the adjustable parallax of a 6.5-20x scope down to as close as 10 yards. Today, Leupold offers the scope that way off the shelf, but so does nearly everyone else.

However, you should be aware that some companies that don't actually produce the scopes they sell. With today's world market, it's possible for anyone to become a manufacturer by aligning with the right Chinese company and getting them to put your name on some scopes. When two guys in a garage decide to make riflescopes and they haven't got a clue what parallax adjustment really is, you'll see goofball minimum distances like 20 or 25 yards. All that does is signal a company that hasn't got anyone on their staff who understands the market. Airgunners don't want 20-yard minimums - field target drives a 10-yard minimum (and Leapers drops it down to 3, just because they can). Rimfire shooters don't need 20 yard minimums, and centerfire shooters barely know what parallax adjustment is. A company with scopes set to a minimum parallax distance of 20 yards is a company that's out of touch with potential buyers of their products. China will make anything you want.

I'm saying that to be a proper airgun scope, the parallax adjustment must go down to not more than 10 yards minimum.

WHERE is the parallax adjustment located?
AO is code for adjustable objective. That's where the parallax is adjusted. At the SHOT Show, I have met scope "manufacturers" who didn't know what the letters AO stood for or how it worked. Clearly not airgun scope makers! But better airgun scopes now have the parallax adjustment on the left side of the scope, and REALLY great scope makers also sell giant adjustment wheels for use in field target. Not all of them know WHY field target shooters want those big sidewheels, though, so I now see some scopes that only adjust down to 20 yards being sold with a large sidewheel. That's the equivalent of trying to sell a Corvette with a trailer hitch and a four-cylinder diesel engine! I think they believe the large sidewheels are a styling element.

Reticles
Another good way to tell if a scope is for airguns is by the reticle. Every day I see more and more fancy and meaningless reticles pop up in the marketplace. The mil-dot is the current rage, and I hate it when someone buys one and then turns to me to explain how it works. I tell them of the military WORM formula used by artillerymen to measure distances on the battlefield, and they come back with something like, "But I want to use it to hunt squirrels!" Sure they do! They also want to use a full-auto Drozd running on air and a car battery to hunt squirrels, because that sounds cool, too. [Don't you DARE ask me for the plans on how to set up that gun!]

If the reticle looks like it belongs in a tank fire control system, it probably does. If the ballistic reticle is adjusted to 400 yards for a 180-grain Silvertip traveling 2,600 f.p.s., don't expect to magically adapt it to the trajectory of an 8.4-grain JSB Exact going 900. Airgun reticles are made for airguns, and they're either simple crosshairs, duplex crosshairs or some simple variation on that - like the Gamo scope I showed you last week. If you must have mil-dots, buy them and then experiment to discover what usefulness, if any, they offer you.

Scopes have changed radically in the past 15 years, and breaking them with an airgun is no longer the issue. Look for the proper parallax range and a good reticle. All other features are icing on the cake.

How barrel length affects velocity in a pneumatic airgun

by B.B. Pelletier

How barrel length affects velocity in a CO2 gun

I didn't intend for this to become a series, but the comments to the first post about CO2 guns requested this post. Okay, I offered it at the end of that first post, so I guess I wanted to do this one, as well.

I was really surprised by the results of that CO2 barrel length report - they weren't what I expected at all. When I thought about it, the reason I said that I thought a 24" barrel on the Crosman 2250 would increase velocity by 100 f.p.s. is because most of my experience has been with air, where there really is a dramatic difference like that! Today, I will make the case that increasing barrel length in a pneumatic gun readily increases velocity.

Airguns of the past had longer barrels!
My first piece of evidence comes from the past. All the big bore airguns of old had long barrels, and the reason they did was for velocity. Those old guns (and I am including the few rifles among the guns) operated on air pressures of 500 to perhaps as much as 900 psi, though I suspect that last pressure to be a bit high. Most of them were comfortable with 600-700 psi. We know this for a fact because Dennis Quackenbush and Tom Gaylord did a study of vintage pump designs and determined their limits. They demonstrated that a single-stage hand pump can generate up to 1,275 psi if the person doing the pumping is heavy enough and the pump piston is small enough. They also found a practical limit for the old pumps, which actually delivered around 800 psi, give or take. Their study is published in Airgun Revue 4.

The ONLY way to generate higher velocity with pressures that low is with a longer barrel. Indeed, when we measure the length of vintage big bore airguns, they have barrels that range in lengths from 28 to 33 inches. There are guns with longer barrels, but there aren't many with shorter barrels (except for handguns and guns made for children). The locks on the old guns held the valves open much longer than contemporary airgun valves. An examination of the vintage valves reveals huge air passageways! Everything was designed to move large volumes of air. It takes a long barrel to take advantage of that.


The long barrel on this Shembor repeating air rifle is typical of all vintage big bores.

If you're interested in how these old guns operate, check out the DVD Antique Bigbore Airguns - From Novelty to Necessity.

A more elegant proof
Proof No. 2 is a remarkable air rifle that has stunned the world! The USFT rifle produced by Mac-1 Airgun delivers 55 shots of a 10.6-grain Beeman Kodiak pellet traveling at 900 f.p.s., and it does it on a starting air pressure of just 1600 psi! When the string is completed, the gun will still have 1100-1200 psi remaining, so all that work is done on as little as 400 psi of air. The air reservoir of the rifle is HUGE! Although the air PRESSURE is relatively low, the VOLUME is very great. Obviously, when a given volume of air is made smaller without air loss, the pressure increases. The USFT rifle reverses what most modern PCPs do. It uses a larger reservoir to lower the pressure of the air. Same amount of air - bigger volume.


USFT rifle from Mac-1 Airgun does more with less air pressure than any modern air rifle.

The ONLY way to use this lower-pressure air effectively is with a longer barrel. When the pellet leaves the barrel, the push provided by the air stops. The USFT rifle uses a 25" Weihrauch barrel, which is the longest one they make. If they offered a 28" barrel, I have no doubt it would be incorporated into the USFT - not to increase the velocity, but to lower the air pressure needed to achieve 900 f.p.s. By the way, this rifle starts at $1,650 and goes up rapidly past $2,000 (and Mac-1 is backordered for several months from the demand). Top competitors are switching over to this purpose-built field target rifle, and they all agree that 900 f.p.s. is the ideal velocity, when accuracy is on the line. This gun just took four of the top five places at the U.S. Nationals, including first place.

The final proof
The final proof is so positive that there is no way to refute it. The .22 caliber AirForce Talon SS gets 820-850 f.p.s. muzzle velocity with a Crosman Premier pellet. It has a 12" Lothar Walther barrel. When you substitute a 24" Lothar Walther .22 caliber barrel, that SAME GUN jumps to 1,000 f.p.s or a little more. That's pretty amazing, but it doesn't end there. Because the Premier is going too fast for good accuracy in the longer barrel, loading a 20.5-grain Beeman Kodiak will slow down the speed to 920-950 f.p.s., but the ENERGY increases from about 32 to over 40 foot-pounds. And, a 28-grain Eun Jin will take the energy up to 45 foot-pounds with a velocity of 850 f.p.s.! The basic rifle with its shorter barrel was getting about 23 foot pounds from the Premier!

You cannot keep extending the barrel forever. There is a turnaround at some point, and it will relate to the caliber of the pellet. A smaller pellet equals a shorter optimum barrel length. But air being so much thinner than CO2, this turnaround point will be much farther from the breech than what we saw in the CO2 test.

To the best of my knowledge, this has never been thoroughly tested. If it has, I don't know where to find the results.

Gamo Hunter Extreme - Part 2 Velocity!

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

Before we begin, Vince called my attention to something I said in the first report that was wrong. I said the articulated cocking lever of this rifle was held against the spring cylinder by the geometry, but I didn't look close enough. Vince told me to look for a roller bearing on the long link and, sure enough, it's there. It's just on one side of the link, which is why I overlooked it, but hey - it does the job! Thanks for watching my back, Vince.

This is the big day! The first independent report on the Gamo Hunter Extreme's true velocity. No smoke and mirrors. No retakes for the camera. No corporate jolly-isms. Just the truth.

Perfect summer day
You could not ask for a better day to test an airgun. No wind to stir things up. An overcast sky for perfect chrono readings every time. No interruptions of any kind. Just me and the big rifle by ourselves on the range. So, no excuses today. This is the way the rifle shoots!

Cocking is hard!
This is not a casual plinker. Did I mention that? It cocks with 52 pounds of effort, but the last few inches of cocking is where 20 percent of that effort is needed, and it just stacks up on you. This will be a two-handed operation for most adult men, and there will be shooters who cannot cock this rifle at all. Please believe me - I am not playing macho games. This is a difficult rifle to cock - even harder than the Webley Patriot.

I really like the scope!
Remember in the first report that I said I'd have to see whether or not I liked this new reticle. Well, I do. It's a good hunting reticle that makes targeting easier than a plain crosshair or even a duplex reticle. And, the scope and scope mount stayed put throughout some sharp recoil and semi-harsh vibrations. Though the Hunter Extreme is no match for the heavy-recoiling Webley Patriot, it does kick harder than a Beeman R1, for example. Anyway, nice scope!


This reticle is great for targeting. I think it will work well for hunting, too. Only the dot in the center lights up (not lit now).

Lousy trigger!
This is the worst trigger I have tested in a very long time. It breaks somewhere over 8 lbs. and has more creeps than a motel lounge. It does feel as though it will break-in over time, but in the beginning it's not a good trigger. I'll blame some of the poor accuracy on the trigger, as it was just too hard to squeeze.

On the plus side, no annoying automatic safety came on. That I like a lot. Just cock and shoot. However, when you do cock the gun, you'll feel each and every spring coil slide through the cylinder in a crunchy parade. This isn't a smooth-cocking air rifle, and it probably will never be until someone tunes it.

On the shooting end, it's just as noisy. It jumps sharply in recoil and buzzes more than it should. Compared to the smooth-shooting Gamo CF-X, the Hunter Extreme sounds and feels like a geriatric Transformer with arthritis! Let's shoot it.

Drum roll, please!
I load a golden Raptor PBA pellet and close the breech. The pellet falls out. I load a second Raptor and take care to seat it deeply with my thumb. This one stays put. The rifle is lowered to the Oehler Chronograph screens and CRACK! - the shot is fired. The pellet definitely broke the sound barrier! And the velocity?

1352 f.p.s. (lonely sound of dog barking in the distance and crickets chirping).


Not quite the number we were told.

I shot it some more. Velocities ranged between 1345 and 1395 f.p.s. That's it!

The particular Gamo Hunter Extreme that I am testing is NOWHERE NEAR 1,600 f.p.s. Despite a huge advertising budget and all the fairy dust in the free world, you people simply did not clap loud enough and long enough. Tinkerbell died!

To make CERTAIN that you get their message, Gamo has engraved the freakin' velocity formula on the outside of the spring cylinder of the rifle, right next to where the pellet is loaded. What's the matter with me? I saw the numbers, yet I still failed to achieve the corporate goal. I must not be a team player.


In case you missed their million-dollar advertising campaign, Gamo has been kind enough to ENGRAVE their velocity formula on the steel compression cylinder of their rifle for you. I have never seen this on an airgun before. It's like they are hoping to be exposed.

The preceding rant is how I do an in-your-face victory dance on the internet. There wasn't much doubt that this gun could not live up to its advertised velocity. Every PBA Raptor I've tested so far has only increased velocity of any given rifle by about 150-200 f.p.s., so how is this one suddenly going to fly 400 f.p.s. faster?

Okay, back to reality. The velocity with Beeman Kodiaks ranged between 987 f.p.s. and 1,012 f.p.s., with 998 being the average. That gives an honest energy average of 23.45 foot-pounds at the muzzle. Gamo ought to be proud of that. They also ought to recognize that this is a 30 foot-pound rifle if they would just make it in .22. If they expect to sell a bunch of $500 breakbarrels - even with the nice scope thrown in - they'd better convert it to something people can actually shoot and get off this pig-killing velocity trip they're on.

I did not test the rifle with lightweight lead pellets to ascertain whether the claim of 1250 with lead pellets is accurate. I can, if you really want me to, but that isn't high on my list of things to do. Just as I would never shoot a pellet at 1350, I would also not shoot one at 1250, so what's the point of testing even more of what we wouldn't do anyhow?

All kidding aside, the Hunter Extreme is the fastest spring air rifle I have ever tested, though I haven't tested the other fast ones with PBAs, and Gamo should be proud of that. It may not be a 1600 f.p.s. rifle, but it's still king of the hill for breakbarrels.

All I'm reporting on today is velocity, so the next part will cover accuracy. I have not closed the book on this air rifle, despite the things I said about the velocity claims. This is still a $500 air rifle that deserves a fair test, and I intend to give it one.