Air guns - Pyramyd Air Report

Webley Junior - Part 1

2010-04-30T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Announcement: Just a reminder that Airgun Arena is holding a shooting contest. There are rifle and pistol categories. Rifle categories are: spring, sporter (PCP/CO2) and target. Pistols categories are: sporter, custom and target. The contest started on April 15 and ends on May 15, 2010. Pyramyd Air is supplying prizes, and there's still time to enter.

Update on Tom/B.B.: I visited with Tom for 3 hours Thursday afternoon. He said he felt fantastic and was quite animated! He's improving day by day. I'll be spending quite a bit of time with him this weekend.

Today's blog comes from Airgun Revue #6, which was published in 2000.

The Webley Junior was a solidly built English pistol...and I wish I owned this one.

I like Webley pistols, make no mistake about it! Although I haven't owned all models and variations, there have been a number of Seniors, Mark IIs and Premiers in my possession over the years. Except for the Junior. I'm not a real collector, but the solid feel of the gun keeps me coming back for more.

For some reason, the Junior has eluded my grasp. Like the Diana 35, the Junior is an air pistol I've admired from afar, never quite being able to reconcile the cost of a smoothbore when so many accurate rifled models are around. The Junior has its grips held on by a single screw. Its end cap (at the muzzle end of the gun) has but a single cross-screw instead of separate cross-screw and spreader screw. The cocking link has a single pivot instead of two, and the trigger has only 2 pins where the big guns have 3 to 5. In other words, it's the cheap member of the Webley family, and cheap is not why I got into airgunning. I'm here for the blued steel, the fine wood and the perceptible substance of quality-crafted airguns. With all its cost-cutting features, the Junior just doesn't sound like any of those things. But it is.

In 1999, I received an email request out of the blue from collector Eric Hall. He asked for information about a Webley Junior. To answer the query, I consulted my library copy of Hiller's third edition of Air Pistols book that has been read so much that the pages were starting to fall out. An answer was created in the form of 20 questions about the gun. After a day, the response came back, and I learned that the Eric had a fairly valuable Webley Junior, or at least a Junior as valuable as it can get.

Eric and I emailed back and forth for another week when I asked him to send me his gun so I could write about it. He didn't hesitate. Before you know it, I had this great-looking Junior in my hands.

The gun is the second iteration of the pre-WWII Junior to come from Webley. The first one had wooden grips with tighter ribbing than the ones on our sample gun, plus the rear sight was adjustable on many examples. Ours has the ribbed (for strength) steel grips that pretty much define the pre-war Junior. They're blued but are also the first metal part to rust and turn plum-colored, which these are doing. A single screw on the right grip passes through the frame and grabs a threaded escutcheon on the left grip.

The grip frame is straighter than those on post-war Juniors. It looks quite similar to the frame of the so-called straight grip Senior, a Webley that was also in its initial design iteration the same time as this one.

Actually, the grips of later Juniors never did become as slanted as those of later Seniors, but the bottom of the lower grip frame did become wider and more rounded after the war, which gave the visual impression of a greater rake. The early gun has a more rectangular grip frame by comparison.

As slick as can be, the back of the Junior exhibits none of the features found on the fancier models. The rear sight is fixed; but since the gun is a smoothbore, the sights are really for general reference and not for precision shooting. There's no access into the compression chamber from this end of the gun.

The frame is blued steel also, but on this gun the color is actually reddish brown. I understand that happens when the bluing salts are too hot. You see it on custom Mauser rifles from time to time. The frame is fashioned into two steel loops that encircle the steel spring tube/compression reservoir. The loop in the back is enclosed at the end, leaving no access hole at the front of the compression chamber, as is found on the Seniors. Hence, there isn't a Not to be removed warning around a screw slot that's always buggered by some anonymous airgunner's clumsy attempts to learn why. The back of the Junior is as clean as the deck of an aircraft carrier--from the bottom of the grip frame to the top of the sights.

A spring-loaded thumb latch holds the barrel closed and tight against the breech gasket. It's not as convenient for right-handers as the lever found on the left side of the larger pistols, and I'm sure the lefties feel a sense of revenge.

Cocking isn't easier than a Senior, even though the Junior has a weaker mainspring. That's probably because the cocking linkage is less articulated, which reduces the overall mechanical advantage.

The Junior cocks like all other Webley pistols--by pulling the barrel up and forward to compress the mainspring. The linkage is simpler than most of the larger pistols, which makes the cocking effort just about as hard.

As with all vintage Webley pistols, the Junior is a barrel-cocker. After releasing the rear (breech) of the barrel, you lift it up and forward while the cocking link pulls the piston straight back, compressing the mainspring as it goes. But back and front are reversed on a Webley. Back, when referring to the piston, means toward the muzzle of the gun, while forward means toward the shooter. Webley uses a compact folded cocking mechanism that employes the barrel as a handle to cock the gun. It's one of the defining features of the brand and was even used on two models of rifles--the Mark I and the Mark II Service.

Although the Junior is known as the runt of the Webley litter, it's not a weakling! Even though everything on the gun is smaller, the Junior holds its own in the power department. I've seen published velocities in the 250-300 fps range, but our test gun, which had been left cocked for more than a week when I got it, was much stronger.

The piston seal is a no-tech plug of leather on the end of the steel piston. It should be kept oiled with a good grade of gun oil, which will not diesel because the compression is too low. If you ever have to replace the seal and can't find one from the factory, it should be easy enough to make one from sections of an old leather belt. They would have to be stacked because the seal is quite thick.

The mainspring nests inside the hollow piston, which fits tightly enough to guide it well. Gun oil on the coils is good here, too. One surprising aspect was the round wire section of the spring. All the bigger Webleys use flat-section wire to get more coils into a short space. The round section will last longer, but it won't have quite the power potential of the flat-section wire.

The mainspring is under a fair amount of pretension, too. About 2 full inches are compressed when the end cap is tightened.

The end cap, which is on the front of the gun, has a hollow spring guide attached to it. You can oil it when the gun is disassembled or just let the slung-off oil from the mainspring do the job over time, which is what I did.

Next time, we'll look at velocity and accuracy.

When Savage made a folded-metal gun

2010-04-29T05:30:00.006-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Tom's feeling better and his spirits are quite high. He had several liters of fluid eliminated from his abdomen. Turns out there was no fluid in his lungs, however the fluid in his abdomen was pressing on his lungs and made it difficult for him to breathe. His belly still looks a bit distended to me, but that might be due to having a very long needle poked into him at various angles. Tom said it was pretty painful, but he'd do it all over again if he had to.

Today's blog originally appeared in the September 1998 issue of The Airgun Letter.

A toy gun made like a BB gun. The Savage ball-shooter must have been a young boy's delight!

It was before World War II, when the economy was recovering from the Great Depression, that Savage Arms Company of Utica, New York, offered a toy ball-shooting long gun with a pump action.

Airgunner Alan Johnson told us he'd been a Savage employee but had never heard of this toy gun. He told us that Savage had moved their plant from Utica to Massachusetts after the war, which was the first indication that the gun was made before the war.

I first encountered one of these in 1994 at the big antique/flea market in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I remember thinking at the time how much the gun resembled the Remington model 26 BB gun in everything except size. The Savage is just 30-1/2" long and weighs 36 oz.; the Remington is one of the largest and heaviest of all folded-metal BB guns ever made.

The dealer who had that gun was asking what seemed like an exorbitant amount for a gun in roughly the same condition as the one pictured here--$350, as I recall. The high price put me on the lookout for another example; but until I found this one, I never saw another.

The original paper sticker has survived on our gun all these years later.

The Savage name is all over my gun. The right side of the receiver has both name and company logo in raised letters.

At Little Rock, Richard Schmidt had this beautiful example on his table.

After I purchased this one, though, I saw another at the 1998 Little Rock Airgun Expo on the table of collector Richard Schmidt. His was in almost-new condition, obviously having never been played with. Mine is rougher, showing lots of use but no real abuse. The one thing both these examples have in common is the original Savage paper sticker on the right side of the butt. The one I saw at Carlisle had no sticker.

This ad by Abercrombie & Fitch is for the Savage toy gun, which they call a Fox. Note construction of the foam "shot retaining target" at right.

Jim Buskirk, who publishes the Toy Gun Collectors of America newsletter, sent me a package of info that included an Abercrombie & Fitch ad for this exact gun. That ad said the gun was sold both as Savage and as Fox. The ad refers to the gun as the Fox model 31, although the drawing in the ad itself clearly shows the Savage name on the side of the receiver. It also says the gun is designed to shoot red wooden balls that are 3/8" in diameter, and the power is supplied by the mainspring alone. They go out of their way to make the distinction that this is not an airgun--perhaps to soothe parents who might think that it is based on the general size and construction. The price was $3.00--not altogether different from what a low-end BB gun would cost in that era.

I bought a package of 3/8" balls based on this information, hoping to chronograph the gun. But the balls I got are slightly too big for the barrel. So, I'll estimate the velocity at around 50 f.p.s., based on the norm for straight catapult guns that use a coiled mainspring. I could be off a bit on the low side, but the range of the gun is given as 10-12 feet, so it isn't much faster than that.

To load the gun: Place the butt on the ground, pull out the spring-loaded magazine follower and drop the balls into the hole (arrow).

The gun is loaded through a round cutout in the bottom of the magazine tube, about midway up the barrel. In fact, what appears to be the barrel of the gun actually houses both the mainspring and the true barrel, which is only half as long as it looks.

Savage was real big on the safety of their cocking mechanism.

The slide handle must be held firmly forward in order for the trigger to release, just like on the Remington model 26. Even as old as this gun is, the safety device works perfectly--probably having been better designed than the rest of the gun.

Buskirk also sent the summer 1992 issue of his newsletter, which has a reprint of an ad for a cork shooter that looks very similar, though not identical, to our subject gun. It's grouped with another toy gun from Fox--the famous double barrel that takes spring-loaded shells that shoot wooden "bullets." The implication is that the pump gun is also a Fox. It differs in shape somewhat from the one I have, plus it holds only 5 balls; and they're cork instead of wood, but it might very well be a version of my pump gun. They were sold for $2.93 by Montgomery Ward & Co.

Both ads include a target with the gun. The Abercrombie & Fitch ad has what looks like a foam target face, and they refer to it as a "shot retaining target," so I assume the foam would part to hold the ball by friction. It seems to be divided into small "fingers" to do just that.

Buskirk added in his letter that he felt Savage might not have been the actual manufacturer of the gun. He based that on the fact that Savage, as a firearms manufacturer, would not necessarily have the experience or tooling to work with folded metal.

What he says makes sense, but the top of the gun is stamped with the following: SAVAGE PLAY RIFLE MANUFACTURED BY SAVAGE ARMS CORPORATION, UTICA, NY. PATENT APPLIED FOR. If they didn't make it themselves, why word it that way?

As far as I know, Savage, Smith & Wesson, Winchester, Johnson, Remington and possibly Sharps are all American firearms manufacturers who have made toy guns or airguns at one time. When I include Winchester, I don't mean the German Diana models they imported in the '60s and '70s. I refer to the two beautiful prototype BB guns that are in Mike Burleson's collection.

Did other U.S. firearms makers ever make airguns? Perhaps the blog readers might like to contribute to a search of the literature to help answer this question. We know that Daisy, Sheridan and Quackenbush made firearms. Were there others? Time will tell.

Thanks to Alan Johnson and Jim Buskirk for their contributions to this story.

This gun once belonged to "R.M.," who carved his initials on the left pistol grip.

Give 'em something to do

2010-04-28T05:30:00.010-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom: The hospital didn't get around to doing the procedures mentioned in yesterday's update...because people who were in critical condition were ahead of him. They hope to do everything today. Tom looks and feels MUCH better, and we think the hospital is on the right track. Without going into too much detail, they're working with his body's natural immune system and have seriously altered the medications and protocols of the previous hospital.

Todays blog comes from the August 2001 issue of The Airgun Letter. I remember when Umarex first brought out so many CO2 pistols that looked like firearms. People wanted them but didn't really know what to do with them. Popping paper targets got kind of boring after a while. These days, there are lots more CO2 guns, but we haven't seen a big growth in targets. So, this article is still pertinent.

The Colt M1911A1 has a smooth, light double-action trigger-pull that makes rapid shooting a breeze. Rig up a target and start shooting! Gun is shown with optional compensator.

Give the public something to do with those action pistols! Something fun--something that's hard to quit will get them involved in the sport quicker than any other advertising. That's the way to sell CO2 airguns.

The action pistols made by Umarex and other manufacturers are fun because they're repeaters. Most are very realistic to look at and hold, so the shooter gets a tactile treat when he has one in hand. But people get confused when it comes to shooting these new guns, as in, "What do I shoot AT?" They often try to make target pistols out of them, and that's a role for which these airguns are poorly suited.

The accuracy of the average action pistol is about 1-1/8" at 10 meters--and that's at their best. At their worst, accuracy is more on the order of 2-1/2" to 3". That's pretty far from target accuracy when there are guns like the Beeman P1 and Gamo Compact floating around. Either one of them and many others like them can hit a dime with every shot at 10 meters.

But, the action pistols can do something that very few of the target guns can do. They can shoot rapidly, and many can mount optical sights. Set up in this way, they become the airgun equivalents of the firearms they copy--true action pistols.

Velocity is the same for all these guns--360-390 f.p.s., give or take. You can expect 50-75 shots, depending on how fast you pull the trigger, because CO2 chills the gun as it flows through and a cold gun uses more gas.

Since this article first appeared in 2001, Gamo has come out with these great spinner targets. They're metal, so don't shoot at them with BB pistols.

Targets can be homemade or not
Juice cans with a string fastened through their bottoms can be stood on a flat board 15 feet away--each can standing over a hole in the board through which the string passes. Paint them black for contrast and have at 'em! The pellet should topple the cans and a pull on the combined strings at the shooting line should bring them each back to standing over their holes once more (you'll need some ground clearance under the board for the strings).

Gamo has made some spinner targets that are ideal for action pellet pistols. So, if you don't want to make your own, these are perfect. The nice thing is that they're not just spinners. You can tie balloons on them and one even has a paper target frame.

How does it shoot under pressure?
One thing I noticed as I shot magazine after magazine in preparation for this report is that the more you shoot, the better you get. Better means faster. I shot almost one full tin of RWS Hobby pellets--that's a full 500 rounds in just one session. And there was more than one session! I went through dozens of CO2 cartridges gathering data and experience.

I'm guessing there are plenty of people who buy a CO2 pistol, shoot it enough to exhaust a CO2 cartridge and then put it away because popping paper targets loses its luster after 75 rounds. Unique targets--homemade or otherwise--will heighten the enjoyment and make you more accurate, which is what I discovered.

What types of targets do you shoot at?

BRV - Part 2

2010-04-27T05:30:00.010-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Some time today, doctors will drain Tom's abdomen and the small amount of fluid that's seeped into his right lung. He'll get general anesthesia, so we may be in for some more funny stories if he goes through Sundowner's Syndrome again.

Now, on to today's blog which is a continuation of my experience with air rifle benchrest. This is an edited version of the article that appeared in the January 2000 Airgun Letter.

by Edith Gaylord

By the time our two-day benchrest tournament came around in September, I'd already shot a number of matches and was ready to compete against all comers. I didn't expect to win, but I didn't expect to be at the bottom of the heap, either.

Thinking about all the things I'd learned along the way, one of the greatest learning experiences was watching the top shooters perform. My scores increased, and I got the highest score I'd every made in BRV.

The equipment race...sort of
BRV is for .177 caliber only, and most people shoot Olympic 10-meter rifles. The distance for that class of rifle is 22 yards. Since my Barnes Ranger was not a stock Olympic 10-meter gun, I had to shoot at 30 yards. Only 8 yards difference, but it sure seemed a lot bigger at the time. When the wind's blowing and won't stop in time for you to get off all your shots during the allotted time, you have to shoot through the wind. And it's infinitely easier to shoot better at 22 yards than at 30.

Watch the winners and do what they do
A technique that I believe helped me increase my scores in the final matches in September is the same one that I used to acquire a higher level of skills in both tennis and racquetball: watch the winners.

When I was a sophomore in college, I took a tennis course. If you showed unusual talent, the teacher would spend more time with you to hone your skills. She spent no time at all with me!

One day, I was in a doubles match. I was with a student on one side of the net, and my teacher and another student were on the other side. In the middle of a volley between me and the teacher, she was surprised by my sudden skill and asked what had happened. I told her I'd been watching professional tennis players on TV and in live events in town. This was probably the first time in my life that I performed well under stress. It was a good day to pick because that match was the final exam for my course. My doubles team defeated the teacher and her teammate, and I got an A. Six months later, I transferred to the University of Florida in Gainesville, and more than one person thought I was part of the school's tennis team based on my skill on the court.

Back to benchrest. I knew who the best shooters were because I made it a point to find out who won previous tournaments and matches. The habits and manners of good shooters are the best textbook. So, I mimicked the moves, body position and actions of Dave Horner, who was the reigning BRV World Champion. Watching him was instrumental in increasing my scores. The way he held his gun, the direction of his body, feet, arms, head...everything. While I may have creeped him out, I was determined to extract every nuance that I thought would help me improve.

A final note...to field target shooters
While I've never seriously shot in field target matches, I've seen a lot of people who have. I observed that the best shooters have something in common. They're always interested in getting better. They observe other shooters and pick up habits that will improve their scores. Shooters who are always near the bottom of the pack and rarely improve aren't necessarily people who have the worst equipment. I knew a shooter who had some of the top guns, but he just didn't seem to do all that well. He was intent on blaming his equipment. If he'd just watch the winners and mimic them, he might have done well with the first gun instead of buying dozens of others to try to gain a winning score.

BRV - Part 1

2010-04-26T05:30:00.007-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: On Sunday morning, Tom's white cell count skyrocketed and two more pancreatic cysts were discovered. He's been transferred to a regional trauma center to receive care from doctors and nurses who specialize in his type of medical situation. We were very relieved once he was situated in the new hospital. They immediately made changes to his protocols, medication, etc. An interesting discovery...the gallons and gallons of fluid in his abdomen is pure bile! I have no idea how long it would have taken the other hospital to discover this. This is progress, and both Tom and I are grateful for the change of venue.

Now, on to today's blog!

by Edith Gaylord

I originally wrote my air rifle BRV (benchrest) experiences for The Airgun Letter. Tom was already shooting field target matches, and our gun club wanted to hold air rifle benchrest. So, I decided to do the shooting this time to give Tom a break since he was also going to be the BRV match director.

Although I'm not a good shot, I discovered that I actually enjoyed the matches because I wasn't depending on my skills to hold the gun. Instead, I could concentrate on doping the wind, remembering to squeeze the trigger instead of pulling it, concentrating on shooting my targets instead of my neighbor's and balancing my gun the same way every time.

Our test match was held on a really cold day. If you saw this in color, you'd see that my fingers were just as blue as my jacket.

First, let's have a test match
Our club had to qualify to hold benchrest matches, so we had to hold a test match with at least three competitors. Two of the club's field target shooters volunteered to participate in the test match. I was the third. Match day was icy, rainy, even sleeting at times. Nevertheless, all three competitors stuck with it and finished the match...with blue lips and fingertips!

Cross-eyed
One of the things that I find most frustrating is being righthanded and left-eye dominant. I can shoot with my left hand, but not with any semblance of accuracy. We originally discovered that I was left-eye dominant when Tom handed me a camera (pre-digital), and I automatically put the view finder up to my left eye.

To make it easier for me to shoot benchrest without having to train to use my right eye for scoping, we needed to locate a suitable scope mount that would accommodate my cross-eyed dominance.

My "out-rigger" scope mount. I couldn't just rest the rifle when I was done shooting. I had to lay it down or lean it against something so it wouldn't fall over.

I tried everything to find a suitable offset mount, but nothing off the shelf worked for me. Dan Bechtel, who owned B-Square at the time, said he'd send us some mounts that might work. Those mounts moved the scope about an inch to the left, and I needed a shift of 2-5/8 inches. Gary Barnes, who made the Barnes Ranger I was using as my match rifle, agreed to make some custom mounts for the gun. Finally, I was set to go.

Early lessons learned
Here are some of the things I learned from my practice and the first match.

You can cant your rifle if you do it right
I had a level for my gun, which was more of a distraction than an aid. The Airgun Letter had run an article about canting guns, and it said that those who always shoot at the same distance can cant their gun the same way every time and not suffer accuracy problems. Since benchrest is always at the same distance (30 yards for the class I was shooting), I opted for a slight cant. I had to repeat that hold with each shot. But it was natural enough for me to be able to repeat it, and it was easier than trying to always find the exact same spot on the level, which was not a comfortable position for me. Tom always said I was half a bubble off plumb--and I guess this proves it.

Don't rest your reservoir on anything
Never lay a PCP gun's reservoir on a rest. You can put the gun's stock on a rest, but the changes in the reservoir's pressure will cause variations in point of impact if the reservoir is supporting the gun on a rest. At our first real match, airgunner Earl Brooks was shooting a Daystate CR 97, and he mentioned that where he rested the forearm of his gun also mattered noticeably. That's probably why Ray Apelles found that his free-floated Career 707 achieved even greater accuracy. The reservoir's pressure changes really have an effect when you're shooting at a point that is no larger than an aspirin. That's the size of the center "mothball" in airgun benchrest.

White bullseyes are much harder to shoot than black ones
It is MUCH easier to hit a traditional black bullseye than the white mothball centers on a BRV target. This was mentally confusing to me. When I mentioned this to BRV founder Larry Brown, he said it was deliberately designed that way. Devious!

Don't shoot when it's windy near the shooter
When the wind ruffled my hair, my shots would be off. However, when the wind was blowing only downrange, nearer the target and not around my bench, I shot closer to where I had aimed. Larry confirmed that my assessment was correct--when the pellet comes out of the barrel and is pushed off course immediately, it keeps going further and further off course. But when it leaves the barrel without a breeze, then it's going downrange on course and will be closer to the point of aim. Seasoned shooters already know this, but I was just learning when I took up benchrest.

Sometimes, harder is easier
Lastly, I found that Shakespeare can be applied to benchrest--"Sweet are the uses of adversity." I realized that I could estimate the wind downrange and hold a bit to the left or right of the mothball. In fact, I got a higher score than when I shot during a dead-calm moment and aimed directly at the mothball. How could this be? What I had learned was that it was easier for me to hold against something. Some people seem to find it easier to NOT shoot at precisely the perfect time, but at a time when things seem to be working somewhat against them. Maybe I'm just a person who enjoys overcoming obstacles rather than just doing things the easy way.

I shot three matches on my first day (the matches were held on two consecutive days). I tend be observant and was interested to see how minute changes affected my score. By the time I'd shot the third match, my score had tripled. Yes!

New products and more

2010-04-23T05:30:00.011-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Tom is still making progress, and things are moving in the right direction. (Woohoo!) Once again, today's blog is from B.B.

Pyramyd Air has some new products, so I wanted to bring some of them to your attention. They have a web page that lists new items, but all of you may not look at it. Plus, I can add my 2 cents here.

Beautiful, huh? It's even more gorgeous in person...rich walnut stock (beech also available), unparalleled blueing, accurate, powerful. What's not to like?

The Falcons are coming! The Falcons are coming!
About 10-12 years, Edith saw a female target shooter out-shoot her husband in EVERY field target match with a Falcon Light Hunter rifle with a skeleton stock. When she found out that Pyramyd Air was going to sell Falcons, she grinned from ear to ear.

Pyramyd Air is now stocking Falcon rifles, and the web pages will be available very soon. The guns are made in England, and their quality is superb--the equivalent of Air Arms. In fact, the company that owns Air Arms also owns Falcon Airguns (a relatively recent acquisition). They'll stock the Prairie Falcon, but there are other models coming, too.

Of course, last year, Beeman imported a Falcon rifle and carbine. These are branded as Beeman guns on the breech, but the new batch is coming direct from Falcon and will bear only that name.

Several of the new .45 cal. pellets have steel tips embedded in the round nose.

.45 caliber pellets
Big bore airguns have really moved to the forefront, and Pyramyd Air is keeping up with the growth. They've just added 4 new .45 cal. pellets to their lineup. Three of them are steel-tipped round noses and the fourth is a hollowpoint. They run from 175 to 230 grains. These new pellets bring the total ammo for .45 up to 14. Lots of choice!

Beeman guns, pellets and mounts
As you already know, Pyramyd Air is now the importer for the high-end European Beeman guns, ammo and accessories. There's a transition period now, and that means you might find two product pages for one model of gun. One model might have iron sights while the other has fiber optic sights. One might be the model shipped from the Beeman warehouse in California, while the other model may be the stock we just received from the German manufacturer. As we found out the other day, there are two for the HW50S.

At this time, the Beeman guns that are being ordered by Pyramyd Air are starting to arrive, as are the pellets and mounts. The mounts are also a nice surprise, as Pyramyd Air has been able to significantly lower the prices on them. If you've avoided them before because of price, you might want to start checking them out again.

In-stock dates and why they keep changing
Contrary to popular opinion, Pyramyd Air is not playing games with the dates they use to indicate when an out-of-stock item will be in stock. In fact, we have several people who are tracking these dates. They contact the manufacturer or vendor to determine if a product has been shipped. If it hasn't, then they get an estimate when they think the shipment will happen. If the shipper doesn't know, then they remove the ADD TO CART button and just leave it at that. You can see the product but you can't order it.

When we're told that a shipment has been made, we estimate when it'll be received in Ohio. Often, the date listed is two weeks from the ship date. As is often the case, the products arrive earlier than expected and everybody loves us.

A manufacturer might tell us they're going to ship something in a day or so, and we should get it within a week. We put a 2-week in-stock date online but then find out that the shipment never happened. We move the date out even further. Occasionally, the shipper has pulled our leg a number of times, and the date keeps getting pushed out further and further, over and over. Think you're frustrated? Pyramyd Air doesn't like it either! It's maddening when manufacturers aren't straight with you. In some cases, though, the manufacturer was expecting a delivery (such as a shipment of guns from China or Turkey), and that shipment didn't arrive because the factory didn't ship it as promised. So, everyone's delivery date gets bumped.

Another issue is U.S. Customs. Sometimes things fly through customs without an issue...and sometimes they don't. Airsoft is especially vulnerable to customs delays. I've heard of delays as long as 6 months. I'll bet there have even been longer delays.

So, the next time you get an email that says the product you ordered didn't get delivered on time or you see an in-stock date constantly changing, don't blame Pyramyd Air. It's the manufacturer or their suppliers who have delayed delivery.

Now that we're talking about shipping and stocking issues, what are your other gripes?

My survival gun

2010-04-22T05:30:00.016-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Things are still progressing smoothly. He's being fed intravenously and is now allowed to drink some water. Today's blog came from B.B.

Here's a little teaser: Pyramyd Air will be revealing something new and exciting on Monday, May 3. A lot of people have been working on this surprise for months. No more clues. And don't even think of trying to get any info out of Edith!

Ever wonder which airgun you'd want if you were on a deserted island (think "Gilligan's Island")?

On a deserted island and hunting for food? Hope you have the Sheridan Blue Streak with you!

The Sheridan Blue Streak, which I got in 1978, is my choice as a survival gun on a deserted island. Does that surprise you? You probably thought I'd pick the Discovery or the Beeman R1 (my personal R1 is an older model and has open sights, the current one does not). They're great rifles, but each rifle and all other powerplants just can't bring to the table the reliability and flexibility of a Sheridan Blue Streak.

Why I picked a multi-pump
Imagine the variety of critters you could dispatch with a multi-pump. Put 2-3 pumps in the gun, and you could easily take a rabbit at relatively close distances. A few more pumps, and birds (head shots, please) would be on the menu. Put in 7 or 8 pumps, and you'll be taking larger lizards and even some snakes. Again, head shots.

I suppose I could take a wild pig with 8 pumps. While I don't consider this humane, I'm talking strictly about a survival situation. And, you're well aware of a large airgun manufacturer that already advocates taking a wild pig with a head shot with a .177 cal. rifle. A Sheridan air rifle is .20 caliber, which offers a bit more punch.

The only thing that might need regular maintenance on a multi-pump is a seal. As I've stated for years, keep one pump in the rifle when you're not shooting, and you'll protect the seal. My 32-year-old Blue Streak still has the original seal because I've followed this procedure religiously.

What about oiling the pump lever? Pellgunoil is the best thing, but what if you didn't bring any with you? How about coconut oil? (I expect to find coconuts on my island!) That ought to do it for maintenance. Sounds simple. And that's the point. I don't want a gun that needs to be handled with kid gloves or has lots of areas that could fail or that might need special attention to keep it functional. The gun has to take care of me, not the other way around.

Why I didn't pick another powerplant
Here are the reasons I eliminated all the other powerplants from my list.

Spring-piston: I own quite a few spring guns and have extolled the virtues of this dirt-simple powerplant. However, there's one hitch. The mainspring could break. While it IS a remote possibility, I'm totally out of luck if that happens. Gas springs don't usually fail, but this is a life-and-death situation, and I don't want to risk even the slightest chance something could go wrong if I'm depending on an airgun to survive. Plus, the piston seal could get nicked, and the piston would lose compression. There's very little you can do once that happens.

Single-stroke pneumatic: This powerplant just doesn't have enough power to take small and medium game. While I could use the stock to club an animal, that's not really what I had in mind.

CO2 gun: My deserted island is warm enough for CO2, but where will I replenish my stock? Plus, I'll need Pellgunoil or the gun will start to leak after a short period of time. I don't think coconut oil will be a good substitute.

Precharged pneumatic: For those of you who thought my choice would be the Condor or Marauder, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I won't have air to replenish a scuba tank or electricity or gasoline to power a compressor. I could take a hand pump, but that's just one more piece of equipment that could break or need maintenance. Remember, I'm trying to make this as simple as possible with the least number of things that could go wrong.

The variable power of a multi-pump was one of the deciding factors. I don't want a gun so powerful that my pellets rip through a critter and exit the other side. I want the ammo to stay inside and create a larger wound channel. This ensures that the animal will die faster.

One final thing that no on talks about is the shooter's ability to operate the gun at lower levels that involve less stress. The Blue Streak (and the Benjamin 397 and 392) is already a very under-stressed airgun. But you have an ace up your sleeve if you own one of these in a survival situation.

Remember that nick I mentioned on the compression seal of the springer? There's probably no less chance of nicking the seal on the pump head of a multi-pump pneumatic. What you do with a multi-pump pneumatic, you can't do with a springer...pump it more times. So, if your multi-pump pneumatic seal leaks a little--but you can add more strokes to compensate for that leak--you're back where you want to be.

What else would I want/need?
Pellets! I can easily pop out 1,000 pellets on a weekend, but I could make that many last a year or more. My first choice would be Crosman Premiers, as they deliver very consistent velocities.

I'd also like to take a sharp knife, a multi-tool and a flashlight. I could get along without these, but they'd be nice to have.

Which gun and what equipment would you take to your deserted island?

B-Square Professional Gunsmith Screwdriver Set

2010-04-21T05:30:00.004-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Things are still going along nicely, and the doctor called to tell me that he's very pleased with the way things are improving.

B.B. actually provided a blog for me today, but I didn't get to the blog til really late, so I'll save it for another day this week. It needs a little bit of work and some finishing touches. Today's blog came from the February 2002 Airgun Letter.

I use this whenever I mount a scope, tune a gun or adjust a trigger. I didn't want to share my set, so Edith has her own set.

I've been using this B-Square Professional Gunsmith Screwdriver Set since 2001. It's replaced just about everything else in my tool chest. Until it came along, I used the Chapman set that comes in the yellow plastic box. It was fine, but I broke one of the slotted screw bits early on, and it's too much hassle to send off for a replacement. Chapman even tells you in their literature that their bits are not hardened and will break. They claim this is to avoid damaging the screw slots on expensive guns, but I'm not convinced.

Expensive guns usually have hardened screws, and you're supposed to hand-grind each bit to fit them exactly, so if you do the job right, there isn't much danger of damaging the slots. Having said that, I must admit to having damaged my share of screw slots over the years.

The B-Square set is made of super-tough steel, and all the bits are hardened. The slotted bits are hollow-ground, which is important to a gunsmith. I wouldn't hesitate to grind one to fit a particular screw slot if the job warranted it, but they seem to fit most screws just fine the way they are.

The bits with long shanks are for installing recoil pads, but they work on regular screws just as well. There's also a nice selection of the more common Allen screw bits, though I do wish there were more--both larger and smaller. The Chapman set comes with an optional case of Allen bits, which come in very handy--especially in the field.

There are two Torx bits--for Leupold mounts I was told--and six Phillips bits. There's also a one-eighth inch square-drive bit for installing Remington buttplates. It can also be used to drive small sockets, which the gas guns seem to need.

I'd like to see a few Phillips bits in the larger sizes, as the European spring rifles often require them; but for what can be packed into a compact plastic case, B-Square has done very well.

I like this tool set a lot, but I lost my first one at the security checkpoint in the Dallas airport. I had it packed on my carry-on bag without thinking, and it was confiscated. I have no complaint except that I wish I'd been more aware of where it was that day.

Best news of all is that B-Square will give you a free replacement for any bit you break. No more hassle!

Pyramyd Air sells this set for $28.95, which is $1.00 less than the retail price in 2002!

Finding the good stuff

2010-04-20T05:30:00.007-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: They drained his cyst through a tube, an incredible amount of fluid exited his body and he's now looking trimmer. In fact, he looks and feels 1,000% better than he did on the Tuesday he was discharged from his first hospitalization. Things are looking up, and I can't stop smiling!

Today, I'm doing a guest blog. I've done them before and thought it was time I expressed myself again. B.B. has asked me to bring my laptop to his hospital room so he can dictate blogs to me. He was quite insistent about it, so I guess I better comply!

If you'd like to write a guest post for this blog, please email us.

Bloggers must be proficient in the simple html that Blogger software uses, know how to take clear photos and size them for the internet (if their post requires them), and they must use proper English. We'll edit each submission, but we won't work on any submission that contains gross misspellings and/or grammatical errors.

Now, here's my guest blog.

by Edith Gaylord

Have you ever read Pyramyd Air's customer product reviews to find just the right product? If not, you may be missing out on some of the best gear out there. Sure, B.B. will tell you what he knows, and the readers of this blog will give you great advice based on their experiences. But we can't test everything, and that's where the customer reviews come in.

Are you reading the customer product reviews to find hidden airgunning treasures? Believe it or not, the Gamo Big Cat is one of them!

One of the best examples of a product that has gotten super reviews is the Gamo Big Cat 1200. B.B. did a 4-part blog on the Big Cat over a year ago because I told him it had 50 reviews and seemed to have hit a home run with almost every reviewer. While his review found some things that weren't perfect, lots of airgunners didn't agree with him. The customer reviews have now grown to 106...and they all still rave about this rifle, with the rating being 5 out of 5 stars. You won't win a field target match with it, but it's a great critter gitter and doesn't appear to be overly fussy about hold or stuck on just one type of pellet. It's a real bargain--and a lot of airgunners agree with that. While some reviewers would like to change the trigger, there are plenty of people who have no problem with the factory trigger.

It's only $35.99, yet the Crosman C11 gets great reviews! Don't have one? You're missing out.

The Crosman C11 CO2 BB gun is another gun that proves you don't have to spend a lot to have a lot of fun. There are 62 reviews for it, and it gets 5 out of 5 stars. While most people shoot it just for fun, others are using it to maintain firearm proficiency. The fact that this gun shoots steel BBs yet people are impressed with its accuracy says a lot. Oh, sure, there are other BB guns that shoot well, but they usually cost more.

I probably wouldn't get away with this next item if B.B. were here, but he's not--so I'll do it: Crosman Premiers. Yes, the ones in the box are from one die lot. Yes, they're great pellets. BUT, the Premiers in the tin are getting fantastic reviews from shooters! For instance, the .22 cal. Premier hollowpoints have 88 reviews and getting 4.5 out of 5 stars. You're not going to use them for any type of competition, but they're fine, accurate pellets that have seriously impressed airgunners. The .22 cal. Crosman Premiers in the box (the only Premiers B.B. endorses) have 40 reviews and also 4 out of 5 stars. I realize that the boxed Premiers are domes while the others are hollowpoints, but there are plenty of delighted shooters who think the Premiers in the tin are great pellets.

I've never found a person who didn't like the TX200.

And, now, for something a little different: the TX200. B.B. lists this among his favorite guns. In fact, I believe it's his favorite production springer of all time (even beating out the Beeman R1). There are plenty of other airgunners who agree, and the 34 customer reviews that give this gun 5 out of 5 stars are a testimony to its universal appeal. What you may not know is that this gun also ranks No. 1 with Pyramyd Air employees. These are people who are exposed to hundreds of guns, yet the TX200 stands out as the top gun. In fact, I believe the TX200 has been in that top spot since the list of favorite employee products has been in existence. It's really hard to knock a gun that does everything well.

Drop coin into slot: The Challenger--an airgun that paid off the Depression!

2010-04-19T05:30:00.004-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Announcement: Tom/B.B. had a slight relapse early Sunday morning. He's back in the hospital due to a minor complication called a pancreatic pseudocyst. It's an accumulation of pancreatic fluid that's not draining. They're monitoring things, relieving pain and waiting for the fluid to drain on its own (which it's expected to do). It was the pain that was our biggest concern. Once the pain was gone, all Tom wanted to talk about was airguns and the blog. Stuff happens.

This changes B.B.'s plans to attend the Little Rock airgun show. However, I hope those who attend will send us lots of pictures; maybe we can put them together for a guest blog and show everyone else what they missed!

Now, on to today's blog. While this is a reprint from an article that appeared in Airgun Revue #2, Tom has been wanting to run this article since March! I thought this was as good a time as any. Enjoy!

Called a countertop trade stimulator, the Challenger was one of many small shooting galleries that accepted pennies.

In the 1930s, the world was in the middle of a hard depression, which many people were not prepared to weather. Lifestyles of the Roaring '20s had to be revamped to survival in the '30s. For store owners, the pinch of tight money was particularly defeating because money is the lifeblood of trade.

Not that there wasn't money enough to go around. There was plenty of money. People were just reluctant to spend much of what they had for fear they wouldn't be able to get more. This fear paralyzed trade at the grassroots level, which, in turn, ruined the entire economy.

Trade stimulators had been around since the 1890s, but the need for them was never so keen as during The Great Depression. Only organized crime was able to generate a reliable income with their numbers rackets, which resembled the state lotteries of today but on a smaller scale. For a store owner to be a numbers agent, there had to be ties to the mob, which dictated the rules and the shares of the take just as states do today. Enter trade stimulators--devices that made all their money on the premises and could be owned entirely by the store. No waiting for the daily payoff announcement from the mob (or the state lottery commission).

Here's the payoff. Nine scoring balls relate to the nine disks inside the game.

The "DROP COIN into slot" trade stimulators are a family of seemingly innocuous games that sat on countertops all over the country. For a penny, a person got 10 chances to do something. In the case of the machine shown here, it was to hit nine different paddles, which were scored by steel balls showing in the window at the top. Other machines had different games, but the object remained the same--10 chances to do something for a penny.

The coin goes in the slot on the gun's right side; then, the lever on the side is depressed to start the game.

Now, suppose the store owner told you that if you got all nine paddles in a single try, he would give you $100. Pretty good play for a penny, huh? Of course you're no dope, so you figure the game is gaffed--which it is. The No. 3 paddle on this one isn't connected to the scoring mechanism! You can hit the paddle all you want, that ball isn't going anywhere. But the store owner takes care of that, too. He pays a shill a sawbuck to run out of the store screaming that he won the prize! You run in with your friends and, sure enough, all the balls are showing. He really did it, you think. Heck, you're a 13-year-old-kid. What do you know about life? So, the word goes out throughout the neighborhood and soon there's a line in front of the machine--lots of kids and a few gullible adults, too.

This is what you saw when you played the game. Notice that there is no way to use the sights with the gun passing through the case.

Folks, the play on this little machine isn't that easy to begin with. The steel balls are launched by a spring-loaded plunger inside the metal gun, which is attached to the front of the box. Sometimes, the balls come out at the full 50 feet per second and are fairly accurate; other times, they just dribble out. And the gun's sights are completely useless because you can't see through the wooden box. This is an instinctive thing, not a marksmanship game.

The store owner can, therefore, offer lesser prizes for a run of eight paddles, with little risk of losing. Say a pack of cheap smokes--just the thing to attract 13-year-olds. Since these prizes are possible, there will be a constant, if infrequent, run of legitimate winners to keep the momentum going. Sooner or later, some wiseguy is going to catch on to the gaffed paddle, so the owner changes it periodically. And the law never wises up--because, as you can clearly see, there's nothing written about any of this anywhere on the game. Even if a grifter tries to cheat the play, the owner simply clears the scoreboard with a penny and chases off the grifter.

Believe it or not, these small simple games had a part to play in the ending of the Depression. They also provided hours of amusement for just pennies; and, perhaps most importantly, they offered hope to people who had all but lost it.

There are many different types of shooting gallery machines like this one. They were made by the ABT company and are so rugged that most still work. You can find several websites that deal in these trade stimulators.

Benjamin Marauder, .25 caliber - Part 1

2010-04-16T05:30:00.005-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Announcement: Airgun Arena is holding a shooting contest. There are rifle and pistol categories. Rifle categories are: spring, sporter (PCP/CO2) and target. Pistols categories are: sporter, custom and target. The contest started on April 15 and ends on May 15, 2010. Pyramyd Air is supplying prizes, so git yer gun 'n' git shootin'!

The Marauder now comes in .25 caliber.

Yes, today we'll begin our look at the new Benjamin Marauder .25 caliber rifle. This report will dovetail with the new .25 caliber Benjamin pellet, of course.

The first thing I note is that the price of the .25 is $30 greater than for either the .177 or .22 Marauders (at this time). Even with that, it's still under $500, which has to be the biggest news! So, it's now possible to buy a .25 caliber PCP for a very good price. Of course, the Korean sporters have hovered near this price point for many years, but the Marauder is made in the USA. 'Nuff said?

The question on my mind was one of size. Would the .25 need to be larger than the smaller calibers? Would the receiver need to wider or possibly longer? And what about the diameter of the barrel shroud?

Fortunately, I tested the smallest of all, the .177 Marauder, when it first came out. I've looked carefully at both rifles and can tell you that there are no intentional dimensional differences.

One thing that strikes me but may not affect anyone else is that the entire Marauder line of stocks has changed. Crosman now says that all Marauders are made in the USA with some foreign parts. I have to imagine that the stock is one of those parts. Where the stock on my original .177 was more rounded and had overly generous checkering, the new .25 has a square, high profile to the forearm and the checkered portions on both the forearm and pistol grip have shrunk significantly. The finish of the current series of stocks is a matte or hunter-type finish that many of you have said you like. Lastly, the ventilated buttpad has also shrunk.

As far as the metal parts go, I think the outside dimensions are pretty close between the largest and smallest caliber rifles. I was especially concerned with the width of the shroud, and I can tell you that if it is any wider than the shroud on my .177, that width is not intentional.

Fill pressure
When I first tested the .177 cal. rifle, I made a big deal about the adjustability of the valve and hammer stroke/impact strength. These features allow you to tune the rifle to different pressures with different output powers. The current Marauder has these things, but the recommended fill pressure is 3,000 psi, and I think the amount of experimentation with all the variables can be overlooked. It's there if you want to use it, but nobody's going to make you. Yes, the Marauder is still a Dual Fuel airgun, allowing the use of CO2 as well as high-pressure air. It's my opinion, however, that Dual Fuel is more appropriate to the Benjamin Discovery rifles and less so to a .25 cal. PCP like the Marauder. You don't buy a Corvette and then convert it run on corn cobs.

Like all Benjamin PCPs, the Marauder's coupling on the rifle is a male Foster.

Fill device
With all the new shooters coming into the world of PCPs, fill devices are more important than ever. Followers of the Benjamin PCP line will know what I'm about to say. But if you're brand new and looking around at all possible guns, this is an important fact: All Benjamin PCPs fill with a female Foster coupling. It doesn't matter if you're filling from CO2 or air, the coupling on the rifle is a male Foster, so you have to have a female Foster connector to link up. If you buy Benjamin-branded fill devices, the right connectors will be there. If you're putting together a Chinese meal for your airgun, know that you'll need a female Foster quick-disconnect to couple whatever gas you intend to put in the rifle.

Trigger
The new Marauder's trigger continues with the adjustable features found on the original Marauder. However, I must say that I believe Crosman engineers have found ways of smoothing up this light an action. Speaking of actions, I found that the hammer cocked a lot smoother and easier on the new .25 caliber test gun.

The clip
Besides that, there's just one more significant difference between the .25 cal. Marauder and all other calibers: the clip. Where .177 and .22 cal. rifles both support a 10-shot circular clip, the .25 is an 8-shot. That's still enough ammo to down a murder of crows. Like the other two smaller calibers, the .25 clip inserts from the righthand side of the rifle, leaving clearance on the left for a large adjustable parallax wheel on your scope.

Besides all this, the new Marauder in .25 cal. will produce over 45 ft-lbs. of energy. We'll find out exactly how much we can get when we take the rifle into accuracy testing. For now, let me say that I think we have another winner on our hands.

"Flag City Toys that Shoot" airgun show

2010-04-15T05:30:00.005-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Blog reader derrick38 sent me these 14 images and descriptions from the "Flag City Toys that Shoot" annual show in Findlay, Ohio. These pictures originally debuted on Another Airgun Blog, which is written by Nick Carter and derrick38, but we wanted to give the show some extra exposure. If you've never made it to this show, it looks like it's grown into quite a to-do and is worth attending. Maybe I'll make it to the next one!

If you've never visited Nick and derrick38's blog, you're in for a treat, especially if you like to see the work of talented people who are able to machine and create airgun parts. Since I'm vastly unskilled in this area, I bow to their expertise.

If you'd like to write a guest post for this blog, please email me.

Bloggers must be proficient in the simple html that Blogger software uses, know how to take clear photos and size them for the internet (if their post requires them), and they must use proper English. We'll edit each submission, but we won't work on any submission that contains gross misspellings and/or grammatical errors.

Now, it's show time!

by derrick38

The show opened at 9 am, and by 10 it was pretty crowded.

Lots of interesting stuff.

Note from B.B.: A contemporary ballflask pistol. If I had to guess, I would say it looks like it was made by Mike Reames of Ohio.

Note from B.B.: The bottom pistol looks like a Daisy FEG 92 to me.

About half the show was cap guns and BB guns. Someone had a stack of folded-metal Daisy bayonets marked $200 EACH!

Quite a few Hammerli airguns. More than I've very seen in one place before.

Note from B.B.: This was my first 10-meter pistol...a Diana model 10 target pistol (bottom gun).

Walther and Hammerli target pistols.

A Brown pneumatic. It was tagged at $1,350.

I bought this S&W 78G for $100. It was holding gas at the show. I took it outside and shot it a couple times. Allegedly, it had been holding gas since Thursday night. As I was shooting this picture on my deck, WHOOOOSH! Sounded like the valve stem seal. The seal on the cap appears original. So, I assume all the seals need to be replaced. Shouldn't be a problem.

Look familiar? I bought every single "Airgun Letter" issue Ken Reeves had for sale. I already had a few, but friends have "borrowed" a couple here and there, and I probably never had more than 6 or 7 to begin with. I think this was actually my best score at the show.

Pyramyd Air sold only dented tins of pellets. They gave me the Pellet Pen loader on the left for buying 3 tins of .20 cal JSB Exacts. They brought rifles for display and took orders for them. Got the Vorteks from another vendor. Have never been able to find them in .22 cal before--not that I've actively looked. I'd always heard they were never made available. Obviously, that's not true.

On the way out, I spied this box with a Daisy 790. It was touted as being complete. The price was pretty cheap, and I figured I could send it to Nick Carter or use it as parts for the 78G I'd just bought if it wasn't all there. It's not.

Note from B.B.: This is the frame and barrel housing of the Daisy 790, which was the final iteration of the S&W 79G.

.25 caliber Benjamin pellet - Part 1

2010-04-14T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

I'm home! I dictated this blog to Edith on my last afternoon in the hospital.

A special note from Edith: Thank you to everyone for your unending support, kindness, caring and love. Tom and I are very deeply touched. Tom's return home was delayed, but we finally got back around 6:30 pm. The cats ran around in excitement as he moved around the house. Tom had a small dinner (per his specific request--half a low-fat beef hotdog and 3 fresh strawberries), and he told me it was the best meal he's eaten since he left 16 days ago. Well, that was easy. While I'm a pretty good cook, it looks like I won't have to try so hard from now on!

Now, on to today's blog.

The title alone must come as a surprise to some of you. All along I've been referring to this pellet as the .25 cal. Premier. Indeed, it IS based on the Crosman Premier but will be marketed as a Benjamin pellet only. So, in the great line of Crosman Premiers, we must make a parenthetical note that the .25 caliber is called a Benjamin.

This makes sense because all the guns Crosman makes in that caliber are the Benjamin brand. It's not a big deal, but you need to get your terms straight, as do I.

History
The .25 cal. pellet is as old as the .177 and .22. Perhaps, the .22 is a little older than the others, but you have to get into esoteric shapes, such as cat slugs (solid lead bullets with felt bottoms), before that even takes effect. So, for all intents and purposes, the .25 is just as old. But, it was only as popular as the other two in the early 1900s. After about 1914, .22 and .177 calibers took off, leaving the .25 cal. in the dust...until now.

From the beginning, the .25 cal. pellet was always viewed as a bulldozer. It never had the precision of the other two smaller calibers, and there was no real reason to give it that precision. Velocities of the early .25 guns, and I'm speaking mainly about BSA rifles, were never high. Three hundred feet per second was considered adequate. Of course, at the same time, .177 might be doing only 550. The need for precision and accuracy at great range was not there. Consequently, you can view early .25 cal. pellets as lead slugs with very little precision. I may get criticism from some advanced collectors for saying that--and I welcome it if they will just provide the substantiation for their assertions.

Moving forward
Twenty-five-caliber rifles continued to be made after 1914, but they were always an appendage to something greater. For example, the Webley Mark II service rifle came with all 3 calibers. When you look at the pellets you could buy for the .25, it probably wasn't worth installing the barrel. Twenty-five caliber pistols came along later with the same ammunition problems.

In the 1970s, the airgun horsepower races began; and, before long, .177 surged ahead of .22. It wasn't due just to speed that this happened. It also was impacted by the much finer target guns being produced in Europe for .177 caliber only. By the end of the 1970s, there were no formal target matches being shot anywhere with anything but .177.

The .25 cal. soldiered on, but with vastly inferior sales of the .22 and completely out of the running compared to the .177. This must be one of the heartbreaks that Dr. Robert Beeman suffered when he tried to promote the .20 caliber by himself. There just simply were no adequate pellets to go with the fine guns he was having built.

Down to today
What I've given you in the few paragraphs above is a very condensed outline of the history of the development of pellets. There's certainly far more that could be said about all of this, but I don't feel that this report is the right place for it.

We're here to examine the performance of a new .25 cal. pellet, and one that I have high hopes will change the future of .25 cal. airgunning. Behind my desk stands a storage cabinet filled with different pellets, including those made in .25 cal. A recent gift from derrick38 and Frank B., both readers of this blog, has expanded my selection greatly. And, in all of that, I can tell you that there isn't one true premium .25 cal. pellet. We're faced, instead, with using the best we can find, which I have found to be the H&N Baracuda/Beeman Kodiak (the manufacturers list them at different weights, and I can't explain that). Ten years ago, when RWS USA was importing .25 cal. airguns, they brought in a beautiful 20.1-grain pellet called the Diana Magnum. While this pellet was available, it was celebrated by .25 cal. shooters around the world. When RWS USA stopped buying Diana guns in that caliber, they saw no future need for the pellet.

This brings us to the here and now. I'm going to test the new Benjamin .25 in as many ways as I can think of. If I had gold-standard pellets against which I could test them, I would do so, but you understand why that isn't the case.

The new .25 caliber pellets from Crosman will bear the Benjamin brand name.

Let's look at the pellet
The Benjamin pellet is, without a doubt, a Crosman Premier by another name. I didn't make that up; Ed Schultz at Crosman told me that he took their best ballistic coefficient Premier, which ironically turned out to be the .20 cal., and stretched it out to .25. But is it a .25?

The new pellet has a nominal diameter of 6.4mm. Since .25 cal. pellets have varied so widely over the years, I can't really fit this fact into the broader lexicon of .25 pellets. But, around the world, .25 cal. is accepted as 6.35mm. So, this one should be bigger.

The reason I say "should be" is because companies like Milbro put out many types of .25 pellets that may have all said 6.35mm on the tin but may have been anything but that. See how hard it is to discuss this pellet? I'll give you exact measurements in part 2.

We weighed 10 pellets to determine their average weight.

I weighed 10 sample pellets and came up with an average of 27.77 grains. The range was from 27.5 to 28.0. Before you start criticizing, do some math and extrapolate back to .177 caliber. You'll find the best pellets falling into similar weight ranges when the size is properly scaled down.

The new pellets come 200 to a very large tin with a screw top. That screw top is a feature all by itself. Nothing worse than an open tin of pellets in your range bag, and these tins will prevent that.

My plan is to test the heck out of this pellet, because it's more important than any new airgun. This is a radial bias ply tire that can take your existing automobile and change its performance. I have a .25 Marauder with which I'll conduct comparative testing. I also have a Whiscombe, and I doubt that there are any better .25 springers on the market!

One final thing is that I don't mean to denigrate the other new .25 cal. pellets by gushing over this one. This is just where I started. I know there's already a new.25 RWS Superdome as well as three new .25 pellets coming from Gamo...and I may have forgotten one or two. Keeping things together in a tidy package, this report is only about the Benjamin .25 caliber pellet.

Stoeger X50 air rifle

2010-04-13T05:30:00.004-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

To continue with my discussion of what it's like to be in the hospital as an old guy, let me tell you another interesting fact of the Sundowner's Syndrome. For over a week, I was angry because the patterns in the acoustical tiles of all my rooms were poor advertisements for used gear that somebody was trying to sell. It wasn't until this week that I realized that was more Sundowner's Syndrome. I was reading into the pattern. That's why each individual panel has the same lousy stuff for sale. For instance: "2.5 hp pump, needs paint & rings, $18." I was very angry that the hospital had allowed itself to be duped by construction workers who wrote their cheap ads into the acoustical tile panels of every room. It wasn't until last week that I realized they weren't messages at all--just random patterns that my brain was translating. Now, how the heck could I do that and yet not read the 3 alien symbols (see yesterday's blog) from the first time I woke up? Yup. Gettin' old is for the birds!

However, there's an up side. After 10 days, I finally caught up with myself and realized that I hadn't had a shower. So, I asked for the one and only sponge bath that I can remember. Edith tells me they gave me several. However, I can only remember one because it was so memorable. Two female nurses were wearing gypsy costumes that they totally wet down and did a wild flirtatious dance that covered me with soap and water. Somehow, their clothing dried off quickly and they dried me off quickly, too. I suppose the truth of the matter is that they were actually washing me with washcloths and drying me with towels. But, in this case, I like my interpretation better.

Of course, the flip side of staring at the ceiling for 18 hrs a day is that whenever I looked away, I could see things crawling, flying and moving. It seems that there was an insect infestation on every wall. The doctor told me that bugs are a pretty common Sundowner's hallucinations.

The Stoeger X50 comes with or without a 3-9x40AO scope with a 1-piece mount. The synthetic stock has dual cheekpieces and is either black or REALTREE Advantage Timber HD camo.

Yesterday, we looked at the Stoeger X5 air rifle--a great youth rifle. Today, we'll look at the opposite end of the spectrum and examine the Stoeger X50, which is a magnum springer.

This monster is advertised to put pellets out the spout at up to 1,500 f.p.s. with alloy pellets. With lead pellets, they say it does 1,200 f.p.s.

The X50 is huge! A Winchester model 70 is petite by comparison. It weighs 10.5 lbs. with the scope installed in the combo package I tested, and it cocks with 43 lbs. of effort. The pull measures 14.75 inches and the overall length is 49.75 inches, making it significantly longer than 95 percent of all centerfire rifles. Make no mistake--this is a man's rifle; and I don't care how big and strong your 14-year-old son is, he's going to feel this airgun and so are you.

If you select the scoped model, you'll get a real nice 3-9x40AO scope. All models come with fiberoptic sights.

The combo package I tested comes with a nice 3-9x40AO airgun scope. Because it's an airgun scope, it's rated for the sharp forward lunge of the rifle at firing. It also adjusts for parallax down to 10 yards.

This big rifle also has a nice set of fiberoptic open sights on it and is available without the scope. The rear sight is adjustable for both windage and elevation, and should please those shooters who don't want optics.

Unlike the Stoeger X5, the X50 has a trigger that's adjustable for second-stage pull.

Trigger
The X50 has a two-stage trigger that adjusts for the length of the stage-two pull. Pull weight does not adjust. Stage two is very long and creepy, and you cannot feel the end of the stage. You just keep pulling until the trigger breaks. The trigger on the test rifle broke at 5 lbs.

Power
The X50 is advertised as capable of 1,500 f.p.s. with non-lead pellets. No one in their right mind would shoot it that fast because accuracy would suffer, so the safe bet is to use heavier pellets. Whenever I encounter a .177 that's too fast, I always reach for Beeman Kodiaks. These are 10.6-grain domed German lead pellets and also sold by the manufacturer as the H&N Baracuda.

Kodiaks averaged 899 f.p.s. in the X50 after a 100-shot break-in. They ranged from a low of 894 f.p.s. to a high of 907 f.p.s. over 10 shots. That's very good consistency for a spring-piston rifle, boding well for accuracy. Power with this pellet at the muzzle is 19.03 foot-pounds.

Just to test the advertised velocity of 1,500 f.p.s., I also shot a string of Crosman Silver Eagle hollowpoints. This 4.8-grain lead-free pellet is the fastest real pellet I have seen in .177 caliber. There's a 3-grain English plastic pellet available for bar bets, but nobody takes it seriously. Silver Eagle hollowpoints averaged 1,364 f.p.s. and ranged from a low of 1,312 f.p.s. to a high of 1,390 f.p.s. That's a huge velocity spread; but because the pellet also breaks the sound barrier, it's a moot point. They cannot be accurate in this rifle.

Using lead pellets, you'll get the best accuracy possible from the X50. This inch-size group (target has been enlarged) at 25 yards is very acceptable.

Accuracy
With a good artillery hold, the X50 placed five pellets in a group measuring 1.029 inches at 25 yards shooting off a rest. That was with the Beeman Kodiak pellet I predicted would do well. Actually, I got several groups of Kodiaks under 1.25 inches at 25 yards, which is indicative of an air rifle that wants to shoot. Remember to hold the rifle as loosely as possible and never rest it directly on anything except your hand. This is a breakbarrel and has to be held right or accuracy will suffer.

Summing up
It's not "just as good as" or "a great substitute for." The X50 stands on its own merits and deserves to be evaluated that way alone.

Stoeger X5 air rifle

2010-04-12T05:30:00.004-05:00

Stoeger X5 air rifle

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: (This is from Tom. He dictated this from his hospital bed this past weekend.) Well, I've been entertained a lot in the past 2 weeks in ways you couldn't possibly imagine! As it turns out, when you get into the second half of your life, your reaction to general anesthesia leads to very bizarre mental behavior. It's called Sundowner's Syndrome, and it can be quite entertaining. When I went for my gallstone removal procedure, it was a success, but I didn't come out of the anesthesia for 4 days. When I finally woke up, I was laying on my back looking at the ceiling. A green laser "X" symbol appeared on one side of the ceiling and 3 symbols that looked like alien lettering appeared on the other. As I watched this, I was asked this question: "Which one of these 2 is colder?" It was like a test for a college course I never signed up for and didn't even know existed. My reaction was pretty quick. I think quicker than they anticipated because I threw some nurses around the room because I panicked and had to be tackled by a male nurse. What happened after that is a mystery, but I awoke in a tall skyscraper room 3 days later. The room was in an office building in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and it was run by French terrorists. A voice asked me, "Where do you think you are?" I said, "I know where I am. I'm in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada." And the voice replied, "No, you're in Texas." And I thought, "where in Texas do they have skyscrapers this tall? Must have been some place in Dallas." But, no, I was only on the second floor of the Huguley Memorial Medical Center in Burleson.

I can't give you an explanation as to why I got the facts so jumbled, but this is the humor that is called Sundowner's Syndrome. One of the nights after that, I was given a very special "knock you out and drop you down" sleeping pill that allowed me to hear conversations in another building a mile away and actually see and pass things from myself to these people who were talking. The one person I remember was Larry The Pirate--the same one seen in the movie Dodgeball!

What I'm saying is that my cognition has not been absolutely 100% the past couple weeks. At times, it bordered on a Picasso. I have plenty of other stories that will have to wait until the darned bugs stop crawling on my window shade. But that's not why we're really here. I want to talk to you about a rifle I tested recently.

Pyramyd Air sells the Stoeger X5 with either a wood stock or a synthetic stock. You can get the rifle with or without a 4x32 scope.

The Stoeger X5 is a real nice youth spring rifle. I'm not going to get into a discussion of whether or not this rifle is better than the Bronco or even how it compares. Just take my word that it's just one more excellent youth rifle to add to a growing list. Yes, it's Chinese, and yes, we know that to be in the price group the gun has to be made in China, Turkey, Mexico or Spain. But, the Chinese have proven that they can do wonderful work when they want to, and the Stoeger X5 is an example of that.

Wow!
Whenever that's the first observation I make when testing an entirely new airgun line, I know things are going to be interesting. I'm looking at two of the four models Stoeger makes--the youth model X5 and the screaming X50 at the top of the line. All four models, which include the intermediate X10 and X20 rifles, are spring-piston breakbarrels, making them the salt of the airgunning earth. No technological surprises--just simple shooters. Today's blog is about the X5. I'll do the X50 on Tuesday.

A youth rifle…for shooters of all ages
I have a soft spot in my heart for youth model air rifles--not because I like kids more than the next guy, but because youth models are easy to cock and can have the smoothest-shooting powerplants of the entire spring-gun world. Those two attributes have been all but lost in the horsepower race that's been ongoing in the spring-piston class for the past three-plus decades. But, at the end of the day, those two things are what make airgunning a rewarding pastime.

The first thing I did after taking the Stoeger X5 from its box was cock and load it and fire it into my office pellet trap. I prayed that it wouldn't go buzz with the rattle of an ill-fitted mainspring and piston. Well, it didn't! In fact, it didn't buzz at all. It shot with a solid thunk that usually costs an extra $100 to $250 to achieve through an aftermarket tuneup. The only other air rifle in the world that shoots this smooth right from the box is the Air Arms TX200, which costs over $550.

Hence the "Wow!" To paraphrase the movie Jerry Maguire, "They had me at the first shot!"

The X5 is a large youth rifle, and that's good, because a lot of the "yoots" who shoot it will be on the sunset side of 50. The pull measures a manly 14.25 inches, and the weight of 6.5 lbs. (scoped) is just right for an all-day shooter for just about anyone over 12. The overall length of 40.50 inches seems short, but the wood stock is thick and proportioned as an adult rifle. (I tested the wood stock only, but I assume the synthetic stock has the same dimensions.) What we have is a great compromise of adult size with a youthful ease of cocking.

Cocking effort is a mere 18 lbs. I rate all guns that stay under 20 lbs. as youth-ready, because that's what it takes to pump a Daisy 853 target rifle, which is meant for youth competition. Guns this easy to cock can be shot hundreds of times in succession without feeling the strain. And for the 12-year-olds who want to shoot it, the X5 should be well within their capability.

There's no anti-beartrap mechanism, so the X5 can be uncocked manually. Just restrain the barrel (which you should always do with a breakbarrel spring rifle), take off the safety off and pull the trigger. The barrel can then be safely brought back to the closed position and the rifle is no longer cocked.

All Stoeger X5 versions come with fiberoptic sights (adj. rear).

The 4x32 scope gave a sharp image at 25 yards.

Sights
Though the X5 has a nice set of adjustable fiberoptic open sights, my test gun also had a 4x32 scope and a 2-piece mount. This one comes out of the box ready to go, and they'll like that in Oshkosh. I focused the ocular lens for a sharp image at 25 yards.

A heavy trigger is one of the few drawbacks on this otherwise-great youth rifle.

Heavy trigger
The X5 is a delight to shoot, except for an overly hard single-stage trigger. My RCBS analog trigger-pull gauge goes up to 8 lbs., and it's possible to interpolate another pound--so 9 lbs. is the limit. The non-adjustable X5 trigger breaks at about 8.25 lbs. I think that's too heavy for kids and even I had difficulty controlling the rifle for the best possible accuracy off the bench. We're going to have our kids learning to pull triggers with two fingers if we give them guns with pull-weights this high.

Power
This is a youth rifle, so we don't expect high velocity. In fact, it's the lower power level that makes the gun feel so stable. Gamo Match wadcutter pellets averaged 607 f.p.s. at the muzzle, and the spread for 10 shots was from 596 to 619. RWS Club pellets weigh 7 grains and average 622 f.p.s., with a spread from 610 to 628. These numbers put the X5 on the fast end of youth rifles. Muzzle energy is just over 6 foot-pounds.

The X5 shot very well. This 5-shot 25-yard group with Gamo Match pellets is well under one inch (target has been enlarged).

Good accuracy
After overcoming the trigger, though, I found good accuracy at 25 yards. Because the X5 is a breakbarrel, it's extremely hold-sensitive, so I had to use the artillery hold to let the gun recoil as much as possible when firing. And, of course, I did not allow any part of the gun to touch the sandbag. Laying the forearm on the flat of my open palm, it was possible to shoot five pellets into a group smaller than one inch. The smallest group measured 0.807 inches, center-to-center of the two widest shots. Given the heavy trigger I was fighting, I call that a great showing.

The bottom line
For less than $140 scoped, the X5 isn't the cheapest scoped air rifle by far. It's about $40 above some of the bargain-basement name brand combos. I think it's worth it, though. I don't buy airguns on price any more than I do firearms. First, they have to work properly and be accurate; then we look at the sticker. The X5 is well worth a look.

The day of the round ball

2010-04-09T05:30:00.006-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: This short blog was dictated by Tom when I visited him Thursday in the hospital. His eyes brightened, and he was excited about writing agin. I'll spend all day Saturday and Sunday with him, because he wants to write some blogs for next week. Stay tuned!

Is round ball ammo ready to make a comeback? Pyramyd Air already carries round balls in .177, .22 and .25 calibers. Are more to come?

For hundreds of years, the round ball was the only bullet that existed. Then, in the 1800s (or maybe slightly earlier), conicals were discovered. They delivered such greater range to the arms that used them that the round ball became obsolete. Of course, mixed in with all of this is the "mysterious" effect of rifling, which has to be calculated for accuracy at different ranges. But, we're getting off the track. Today's discussion is about the round ball.

Never before have we had such a huge selection of .25 caliber pellets. Pretty soon, there will be one more--the .25 caliber Crosman Premier (which I'll be testing for you).

Airguns are being used for far more than ever before. Even smallbores, such as .177 and .20 calibers are being used for hunting. And, 2010 is clearly the re-emergence of .25 caliber. In all of this, will we see a similar re-emergence of round balls in place of pellets?

Recently, H&N shipped a sample package of 9mm round balls for Pyramyd Air to test…and they've tested very well, so far. Will they change the way of the smallish big bore in the same way diabolos changed the way of pellets for smallbore airguns starting in the early 1900s?

I don't have answers for any of this, yet, but I can see that the day of the round ball airgun has returned.

Daisy 888 Medalist 10-meter rifle

2010-04-08T05:30:00.004-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Tom has moved out of ICU to a regular room, is able to get out of bed and walk unaided for several steps, have visitors other than family and is eating real food. It's the simple things in life that bring us joy!

Let's move on to today's blog, which is about the Daisy Avanti 888 Medalist. Today's blog originally appeared in the November 2000 issue of The Airgun Letter.

The 888 Medalist's laminated stock is in sharp contrast to what Daisy usually turns out.

I was pleased to receive one of the first production model 888 Daisy 10-meter rifles from the Avanti line.

Is the Daisy better than the new Crosman Challenger? I won't answer that directly, because I don't believe there's a single correct answer. Both guns have features never before seen in youth-market target guns. I'll try to point out the Daisy's features for coaches and parents, so they can make a reasonable choice between two fine target rifles.

The first technical feature is perhaps the biggest difference between the two. Where the Crosman uses either high-pressure air or bulk-fill CO2, the Avanti 888 is a bulk-fill CO2 gun only, operating from a screw-in 2.5-oz. tank. The Crosman gets approximately 70 shots per tank on air (at 530 fps), and the Daisy gets hundreds of shots per CO2 tank (at 560 fps). That's pretty incredible when you consider the power source.

Daisy Avanti 888 Medalist
.177 10-meter rifle
Muzzle 1' from start screen, 10 shots, 66 deg. F

Chinese light wadcutters, 7.6 grains
High.....581 f.p.s.
Low .....573 f.p.s.
Average.....578 f.p.s.
Extreme spread..... 8 f.p.s.
Standard deviation.....2 f.p.s.
Muzzle energy.....5.64 ft.-lbs.

H&N Finale Match, 8.1 grains
High.....587 f.p.s.
Low..... 582 f.p.s.
Average.....584 f.p.s.
Extreme spread .....5 f.p.s.
Standard deviation.....1 f.p.s.
Muzzle energy.....6.14 ft.-lbs.

Five shots with Chinese lightweight wadcutters (left) were okay; but in the 888, H&N Finale Match pellets stole the show!

Not only is the velocity high, the shot-to-shot consistency is quite remarkable. It's as good as a top precharged target rifle with a good regulator. These shots were chronographed well into the charge, so there's no special effect being derived from the first few shots after the fill. This, plus the pinpoint accuracy with H&N pellets, was quite a surprise.

Daisy's web site says the gun shoots 500 f.p.s., so perhaps ours was a bit hot. Still, I liked the extra speed and would hope it was there on any gun I owned.

The 888 is built on the 853 action. A long, skinny gas reservoir fits where the 853 pump lever and compression tube would be; and it unscrews for filling, so Daisy sent a wrench to loosen it.

You'll need a fill device to pressurize the Medalist's bulk-fill CO2 tank. This one is made by Kingman.

Because of the narrow diameter of the separate CO2 reservoir, an hour's pre-chill in the freezer helped introduce more liquid CO2 into the tank, though I never got close to the rated 2.5 oz. Even so, the 1.6 oz. that did go in were enough for hundreds of shots.

The 853 receiver is used, but cocking is easier and the trigger seems crisper.

Daisy sells the rifle with the same aperture rear sight that comes standard on the 853, but I would assume most buyers will upgrade to the better unit made by Gamo. The Daisy sight requires three adjustment clicks in the direction you want to move to take out the slack. Of course, if you have to move it more in the same direction, there's no more slack.

The stock is laminated wood and has a solid feel. Together with a most functional muzzle weight, the rifle balances well, with a slight but noticeable muzzle-heaviness. The laminate stock does add some weight. The 888 weighs about 6.9 lbs., so coaches and parents should consider that. By comparison, the 853 pneumatic is about 1.5 lbs. less.

Along the bottom of the stock is a functional accessory rail for a sling mount. It's indexed so the rifle can be quickly returned to any setting--always a plus when many shooters have to share equipment.

The trigger will be a welcome change to those who now compete with an 853. It's lighter and crisper than the pneumatic. No doubt there will be some popular mods for it in a short time, because it is not adjustable, as far as I can tell.

Another happy point is the cocking effort. The 853 is a real bear in this department, but the 888 is a dream. That will keep young shooters fresher during a match--to say nothing of the huge advantage of not having to pump the gun for every shot. Heavy or not, the 888 is better-suited than the 853 for young shooters.

The pellet trough is still a bit small for adult fingers because this is an 853 action. It helps place the pellet on the right side of the receiver, where it's flat, and roll the pellet into the trough. Once there, the bolt pushes it smoothly into the breech.

The bottom line is that Daisy has built a winning rifle.

The Shinsung Career 707 9mm Ultra - Part 2

2010-04-07T05:30:00.000-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Tom had some Jello and drank some water on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, he'll have a low-fat liquid diet. They think that on Thursday, if all continues to go well, he might be able to have a low-fat regular diet. He was able to get out of bed twice. Things are definitely looking up!

Part 1

Now, on to today's blog. This is the second installment about the Shinsung Career 707 9mm Ultra.

The Ultra is large. Although it looks a lot like a regular Career 707, it's 20-25 percent larger in every dimension but length. The action is thicker, the stock is beefier and the weight is over 10 lbs., compared to the 707's 7.5 lbs. The pull is 13.75 inches, which is about normal for a sporting rifle but longer than a Career's. The overall length is a compact 42 inches, which adds something to the feeling of bulk, because it concentrates the weight.

Another part of the bigness is the huge reservoir on the Ultra. Where the twin tubes of a Career 707 measure 0.943 inches OD on my calipers, the Ultra reservoirs measure 1.103 inches across! That may look like a small difference on paper, but it is, in fact, a whopping big difference. The tube walls are thicker, which accounts for some of the extra weight, but they also hold a lot more air! Where eight pump strokes raise reservoir pressure 100 psi on a Career, I found it took 13-14 pump strokes to do the same on the Ultra. Yes sir, this is a big air rifle!

The Ultra's power wheel. While some guns have adjustable power and some guns having repeating mechanisms, there are only a few that have both. The Ultra is one of them.

Power to spare!
The rifle features adjustable power via the same power adjustment wheel Career owners have come to love.

Note: The only ammo that currently works in the Ultra is the 77.8-grain Eun Jin pellet. Since I wrote this article, I discovered that all other 9mm pellets cause problems.

On the lowest setting, I shot a single 60-grain pellet, at 181 f.p.s. Six clicks (about 1/3) up netted me 40 shots at an average 736 f.p.s., with a 12 foot-second spread. But high power is what everyone wants, so let's look.

Ultra 9mm repeating air rifle
Muzzle 8' from start screen, 10 shots, 85 deg. F

.356 caliber Korean pellets, 58.3 grains
High.....966 f.p.s.
Low .....928 f.p.s.
Average.....942 f.p.s.
Extreme spread .....38 f.p.s.
Standard deviation.....9 f.p.s.
Muzzle energy.....114.90 ft.-lbs.

.356-caliber Pellet Man bullets, 90.1 grains
High.....850 f.p.s.
Low .....801 f.p.s.
Average.....833 f.p.s.
Extreme spread .....49 f.p.s.
Standard deviation.....14 f.p.s.
Muzzle energy.....138.86 ft.-lbs.

.356-caliber Pellet Man bullets, 114.2 grains
High.....744 f.p.s.
Low .....715 f.p.s.
Average.....728 f.p.s.
Extreme spread .....29 f.p.s.
Standard deviation.....11 f.p.s.
Muzzle energy.....134.43 ft.-lbs.

Although I tested 3 other pellets, the ones that now perform flawlessly are the 77.8-grain Eun Jins.

I made a serious mistake the first time out with the rifle. The power wheel stuck at six clicks up from the bottom, so I assumed that was full power. The rifle is very accurate with pellets at that level and there are more than 40 shots available per charge, but it's well below the power limit of the rifle.

Crank her up to the top (19 clicks), and it's rock 'n' roll time! Both Pellet Man bullets were accurate, but I preferred the 90-grain 3/4 roundnose bullets best of all. They packed the biggest punch, plus they fed into the bore better than the 115-grain bullets, which seemed to stick as the lever pushed them home. Because of that, there was a kickback through the lever whenever the heaviest bullets were shot.

Seven pellets fit into the magazine, as the nose of one fits into the hollow tail of the one in front of it. With 90-grain bullets, you get five shots per magazine and with 115-grainers, four.

Pellet Man also makes both 90- and 115 -grain hollowpoint bullets that hunters will want to try. At the power level demonstrated, the Ultra would be perfect for coyote, nutria and woodchuck if the range is reasonable. For rabbits and squirrels, dial down the power and use the pellet for less penetration and less meat loss.

One final comment about ammunition. There's a loading port on the right side of the receiver the same as is found on the Career 707 rifle. But on the Ultra, the port is too short to accept even the 90-grain bullet, so it isn't very useful. About all you can do with this port is set up the magazine to feed 90-grain bullets and feed pellets through the port, since they alone will fit.

Accuracy
At first, I shot the rifle with open sights, which are more than adequate on this gun. The rear sight adjusts for both windage and elevation, though the elevation took a moment to figure out. The rear screw on top of the sight is screwed down to raise the sight (and the strike of the round) and backed out to lower it. It seems strange at first, but it works perfectly.

At 10 meters, I got one small hole with the 60-grain pellets, which were the ones I chose to sight-in the rifle. It put them at approximately the point of aim at that close distance, which put them about the same point or a little higher at 35 yards. That sight picture also served for the 90-grain bullets, though they were off about two inches to the left and somewhat lower on the target.

The pellets gave good groups of just over an inch with open sights. But once I was on target at 45 yards, I mounted a 4x Beeman SS2 scope to continue testing.

At 45 yards, five 60-grain pellets went into this nice group measuring 0.882" c-t-c. 90-grain bullets went about an inch at this range. The rifle is just as accurate with pellets down to 750 fps, which conserves air for many shots.

As it turned out, the rifle gave results at 45 yards that were just a little larger than at 10 meters. At 45 yards, five pellets sailed through a group measuring 0.882 inches c-t-c, while at 10 meters the group was 0.552". Both groups were shot with a scoped rifle.

With 90-grain solid bullets, the group opened up to about 1 inch at 45 yards, but I'm not sure that's the best it can do. I felt the rifle might have shot tighter groups with a more powerful scope; but since I had to dismount the scope each time I changed ammunition (to remove and install the pellet stop) and re-zero after each change, I used the SS2 for time's sake. If I were going to hunt with an Ultra, I'd select one projectile, then mount a more powerful scope.

Final thoughts
There aren't many repeating big bore airguns in the world as of this report--certainly not modern ones, anyway. The 9mm Ultra offers the same power and accuracy as the single-shot. If you want a repeater, this is the rifle to get.

Add to that the great number of shots you get from a single fill of the gun--at least 40 or more on 1/3 power! The major differences between the Ultra and the single-shot seem to be the repeating function, the power adjustment and the size of the gun.

The Shinsung Career 707 9mm Ultra - Part 1

2010-04-06T05:30:00.005-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Tom has improved more on Monday than in the previous 4 days combined...and the doctor agrees. Tom's sense of humor, wryness and funny personality are all intact. If all goes according to plans, he'll be eating jello and soup today.

Now, on to today's blog, which is about the Shinsung Career 707 9mm Ultra. This is one of the big boys of airgunning. John Burroughs, who used to import and distribute the Ultra, wrote an article about the gun in 2007. Today's blog was written by Tom in October 2001 in The Airgun Letter. Although Tom's article is older, he includes information and a view not provided by Burroughs. Some things overlap, but there's also plenty of new info in this blog.

Some things don't have to change if they're right from the start. The Ultra is one of them.

Make no mistake, the field of big bore airguns is growing fast! This segment has been in airgunning's background for more than a hundred years, and not many beyond a few active airgunners were aware it even existed.

In the first half of the last century, two .410-caliber air shotguns--the Paul and the Vincent--were created by their owners to satisfy a personal desire for an inexpensive training shotgun to be used at short ranges in relative quiet. The problem is that shotguns are already short-range weapons, so making them even shorter range can be an exercise in futility. Just ask Mossberg, who tried the same thing with their Mo-Skeet-O rimfire shotgun.

In the late 1960s, Crosman followed in the tracks of Vincent and Paul with their 1100 Trapmaster shotgun--a .380 smoothbore with its own special trap and reusable shells and pigeons. It was a big bore airgun by definition, but not usable when it came to round ball accuracy.

In the 1970s, several designs came out of the Philippines, the best known being the Farco air shotgun, a 28-gauge scattergun running on bulk CO2. Through the sheer size of the .50 caliber lead ball it shoots, the Farco became the first air shotgun to have any credibility for taking medium-large game, such as the American whitetail deer.

Though it has fallen from the favor it knew throughout the 1990s, the Farco is still available today. It generates pretty close to 100 foot-pounds in factory trim and some folks have hot-rodded it well beyond the pale. It cannot it be considered accurate enough for humane hunting beyond about 35 yards, but it does demonstrate one fact rather clearly--American airgunners are interested in big bore airguns!

Big bores go modern
Dennis Quackenbush set out to define and refine the field of big bores in 1993. His first gun was a kit for building the famous Paul air shotgun, but its low sales demonstrated that airgunners really wanted a complete gun rather than a project. The .375 Brigand he made next hit the nail square on the head and has evolved into an entire lineup of powerful yet affordable big bores.

Besides Quackenbush, Gary Barnes has made several big bores ranging from primitive-looking muzzleloaders to sophisticated benchrest rifles that shoot conical bullets accurately at ranges up to 200 yards. Gary builds guns in smaller numbers than Dennis, but they have an equal buzz throughout the market. Pennsylvania jeweler Tim Jones has also made a small number of very stylish big bores that evoke the looks of both fine Pennsylvania rifles as well as handmade European target guns.

The Koreans enter the picture
But it's the Koreans who have come to the party with full-rate production airguns lately. Shinsung is well-known for the fabulous Career 707 lever-action repeater. Not only does that rifle offer instantly adjustable power over a broad range, it's also one of the most accurate airguns on the market. Some .22 Careers are able to shoot consistent sub-.50" groups at 50 yards--something even the rimfire boys admire.

The Ultra is not the first big bore that Shinsung put out. Several years ago, they converted their powerful Fire 201 .25 caliber shotgun to a single-shot 9mm rifle. (The Fire 201 has changed a bit and is now the Fire 202S.) Since the Fire loads from the breech, it was easy to convert. The rifle that resulted is both very powerful and accurate, producing energy in the 125 foot-pound region with five-shot groups of 1.5" to 2" at 50 yards.

At about $550 retail, the gun represented a tremendous value in a small-caliber big bore. But that wasn't good enough for Shinsung president B.D. Lim. At one of the SHOT Shows, Mr. Lim told me that his vision of an air rifle is one of power, accuracy and a repeating capability. So, although his 9mm single-shot is both powerful and accurate, it does not have the repeating mechanism he wanted--hence the Ultra.

I first saw and tested the Ultra in 2000. That rifle was essentially what you see here except there were some engineering steps yet to be taken. One of those was to design a brand new rifling for improved accuracy while allowing for the mechanical feeding of a repeater.

With a single-shot breechloader, the shooter can overcome many accuracy concerns by inserting the pellet directly into the rifling. When the rifle mechanism has to do the same job, it must be designed to always place the pellet in the exact right place for power and accuracy. That means the design of pellet has to be taken into account as well, or everything is compromised.

You don't notice such subtleties with firearm ammunition because the design of the cartridge takes care of them. But just start shooting a muzzleloading rifle, and you'll soon appreciate what's involved. A pellet gun is much more closely related to a blackpowder muzzleloading gun than to a modern firearm, because it also has no cartridge to index each shot.

Quick quiz: Why is a Colt 1860 Army revolver considered a muzzleloader despite having six shots in a revolving cylinder? The answer? You must first load the cylinder from it's mouth, or muzzle, before the revolver is ready to shoot. Where an 1866 Winchester lever-action will cycle its metallic cartridges through the action, a Colt 1860 Army must be loaded exactly like a single-shot muzzleloader. The difference is that you load it six times before shooting instead of just one.

Bartolomeo Girandoni attempted to make a repeating blackpowder rifle that did not use cartridges with the result that his son was killed (or lost an arm, depending on which source I read) when that gun blew up! But his 12-shot repeating air rifle was successful enough to become a limited-issue standardized Austrian military weapon. In all, 1,000 to 1,500 military rifles were produced, again depending on the source.

The fact is that repeating air rifles are about as difficult to make as repeating non-cartridge blackpowder guns. Soft lead bullets do not like to be handled by hard metal actions. Making such rifles accurate to boot is even more difficult. In part 2, you'll find out how well Shinsung did with theirs.

Daisy's 693 CO2 BB pistol

2010-04-05T05:30:00.015-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: I spent most of Easter Sunday at the hospital. Tom is off the ventilator and breathing on his own. I hope that he can stay that way and not be placed back on the ventilator through the night. He's hoarse right now, but is able to vocalize a bit. All his tests and vital signs are normal, so things are looking quite good as I write this late Sunday night.

Now, on to today's blog, which originally appeared in The Airgun Letter in March 2000.

The 693 is an exciting and attractive action BB pistol.

The 693 is a half-nickel/half-black variation of Daisy's model 93. It's a 15-shot BB repeater fed from a hidden in-line quick-change clip that resides inside the top "slide." To load the clip outside the gun, one hand holds down the spring-loaded follower while the other dumps BBs one at a time through the feed hole. It's just a bit fiddly until you get the knack of it. Once the BBs are all in, release the follower and make sure it's bearing against the BBs, then drop the clip into its slot and close the top, making the gun ready to fire. For those who shoot their guns a lot, Daisy sells a 3-pack of spare clips.

The spring-loaded BB clip slips into the top of the pistol, where it's hidden from view.

The 693 is a double-action-only pistol, meaning that each pull of the trigger also cocks the hammer. That's not the piece sticking up at the rear of the slide, but the actual hammer hidden inside the gun. What appears to be an external hammer on the rear of the slide is just a casting and completely nonfunctional, as is the slide release.

The trigger-pull is light, long and only hindered by a small amount of creep, so it's easy to stay on target when shooting. As Elmer Keith used to tell his students, use the resistance of the double-action trigger-pull to stabilize the gun in your hand. This is helped, no doubt, by the extra-wide trigger blade, which I happen to like.

The gun has a cast metal frame (that's the silver part) with mostly plastic parts. Although it's very light, at 20 oz., it's full-sized and feels good to an adult hand.

Notice the extended rectangular block coming out from the back of the grip. That's the grip safety, and it's functional. Unless it's depressed, you can pull the trigger all you want but nothing will happen--just like the ones on firearms.

With the left grip removed, access is gained to the CO2 cartridge compartment. The large thumbscrew under the grip forces the CO2 cartridge into the piercing pin.

The pistol is powered by one CO2 cartridge inside the grip. The left grip panel pops away from the gun, revealing the CO2 cartridge compartment and mechanism. Remember to put a drop of Crosman Pellgunoil on the tip of each CO2 cartridge and drop it in the well neck-up. Then, simply screw the thumbscrew at the bottom of the grip until the cartridge is pierced.

Daisy reports a muzzle velocity of 400 f.p.s. for all their similar gas BB guns. When I chronoed the 693, it was on a cool day and we used the unmarked BBs Daisy sent with the gun. I'm not sure, but they look like Precision Ground Shot under a 10X jeweler's loupe.

Daisy 693 pistol
66 deg. F - Muzzle at start screen
10 shots - 5.3-gr Daisy BBs

High……..389 fps
Low……..379 fps
Average……..385 fps
Extreme spread……..10 fps
Standard deviation……..4 fps
Muzzle energy……..1.75 ft-lbs

Ten shots were fired from a distance of 15 feet. Two of them are in the white--one cutting the black at 2 o'clock, and the other is in the 5-ring at 7:30. The sights are pretty much where they should be for this distance. The long, smooth trigger-pull helps you center the shots, which is nice because the pistol is double-action-only.

Shots were taken at approximately 15-second intervals to allow the gun to warm up. This is a normal procedure I use because CO2 is a coolant gas. By rapidly firing any CO2 gun, the internal mechanism is chilled by the rapidly expanding gas, and the cool parts chill the gas from the next shot, resulting in lower velocity. This doesn't mean you can't fire the pistol as fast as you can pull the trigger; it will work fine that way. It's just a consideration I use for reporting the velocities so the gun doesn't take an unnecessary hit in the consistency department. If the 693 were a target pistol, the lowering of velocities through rapid fire might be a concern; but with a fun gun, it doesn't matter that much.

Throughout the test, I seemed to get about 60 good shots from a CO2 cartridge. It's fairly easy to track because the magazine holds 15. All you have to do is count the number of magazines, and you have the total.

Accuracy is more or less minute-of-cardboard-box, as befits a smoothbore pistol. Part of that is due to the double-action trigger. Through training, you can expect your scores to climb.

One benefit of the lower velocity and nearness to the target is that you get immediate feedback of where your BBs are going. After a few shots, instinct takes over and you can plaster the target without reference to the sight--which is what this little gun is all about, I suppose.

It's a fun gun, meant for a good time of informal target shooting and nothing too serious--a lineup of plastic soldiers in a sandbox, balloons, Necco wafers, etc. It's certainly not meant for hunting or serious competition.

As always when shooting steel BBs, you must wear safety glasses at all times. That also goes for any observers who happen to be around. Steel BBs can rebound from hard targets with nearly the same force they went downrange, so play it safe.

Crosman's Town & Country

2010-04-02T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Progress is very good. I don't have a definite date for him to come home. His pancreas is still somewhat inflamed, but nothing like it was before. So, he has to wait a little while before he has his gallbladder removed, which is an outpatient procedure.

Now, on to today's blog.

Here's an article about a highly collectible gun. This originally appeared in Airgun Revue #2, which was published in 1998.

The Crosman Town & Country is a short pneumatic rifle that's very robust. The wood stock has some fullness to it.

Many companies took the model name Town & Country for their top-of-the-line models during the '40s and '50s, but I suppose it was the Chrysler Corporation that made it the most memorable with their wood-sided station wagons. The name bespoke quality and a wealth that was measured more by comfort and rural gentility than by mere money. When I hear the name Town & Country, I immediately get an image of the movie White Christmas, with der Bingle and his Broadway troupe helping General Waverly fill his inn. That's a nice image, so the name Town & Country has always meant something extra special and nice to me.

The Crosman Corporation made its Town & Country pneumatic air rifle from 1948 until some time in the early 1950s. It was their first really new design for pneumatic rifles since the 100-series guns came into being in 1924. And, although the flavor of the Town & Country styling hung around in the Crosman line for decades, the model was quite short-lived. Hence, it's somewhat scarce. And, being scarce, it has collector value well above contemporary Crosman guns.

The T&C came in both .177 and .22, but the latter was by far the more popular caliber in the U.S., at that time. As a consequence, the .177 caliber model 107 is quite a bit harder to find than the .22 caliber model 108. A 107 will often bring $400 to $500 when in excellent condition, compared to $300 to $350 for its big brother. This trend is actually common to all the Crosman rifles produced during this era--the .177 seems to bring a little more than the .22. It holds for some vintage Crosman pistols, as well, but not for others. Go figure!

The action also has some mass--as if to suggest the lines of the Sheridan Supergrade.

I jumped at the chance to test a model 108 T&C because of all the mystique that has been built up about it. Certainly, the gun has some unique features worthy of examination on its own merits, but the special aura of its rarity tends to push all that aside. Then, there's the sheer physical size of the gun. Although not overly long, the T&C is very thick and robust, which tends to convey a feeling of power. Like the Sheridan Supergrade, the T&C has a more well-proportioned stock than the air rifles that followed it. It also has a larger action, almost as if to suggest a Supergrade, though the resemblance ends there.

With the tall "town" sight up, the rifle shoots low--for close-up shots.

The knurled nut twists out, freeing the tall sight to pivot to the right…

...where it reveals the short "country" sight for longer ranges.

The front sight is certainly the most interesting single feature of the gun, because there are really TWO front sight blades instead of one! One for town, and the other for the country. To change blades, the shooter loosens a jamb nut with fine threads in front of the fixed low front sight blade. This allows the sight to spring forward and unlocks the taller blade in the rear, which can then be rotated to the right and locked against the stock. With the short front blade revealed, the rifle is suited to the longer ranges of the country.

Not only is there an aperture sight, above it there's an open notch. For people who want it all!

The rear sight is almost as curious as the front. It's an adjustable peep that slides in a vertical slot along the left side of the receiver. A coin-slotted knurled screw provides a friction stop, and there are unnumbered index lines along the sight slide for reference. An L-shaped crosspiece at the top has an elongated slot in which the knurled aperture adjusts, but the really unique feature of this sight is that there is a notch above the peep to allow for rapid open sighting. The T&C isn't the only air rifle to have this feature, but it's still very different from sights normally found on airguns.

As robust as the stock appears, the pump lever is surprisingly short. It reminds me more of the little model 760 that came a decade later than it does a 100-series pneumatic that was its immediate predecessor. The short throw of the lever makes for easy pump strokes, so you can quickly build up to the recommended 8-10 pump maximum; but when you do, the rifle doesn't have the same power as other Crosman pneumatics--at least the one I tested didn't. In a moment, I'll tell you why I believe this is so; but now, let's look at the performance:

Crosman Town & Country
.22 caliber
66 degrees F, point-blank range

Crosman Premier--14.3 grains
5 pumps
High velocity....461
Low velocity....445
Max. spread....16
Std. dev....6
Avg. velocity....453
Muzzle energy....6.52 ft. lbs.

8 pumps
High velocity....531
Low velocity....509
Max. spread....22
Std. dev....8
Avg. velocity....519
Muzzle energy....8.56 ft. lbs.

RWS Superdome--14.5 grains
5 pumps
High velocity....438
Low velocity....429
Max. spread....9
Std. dev....3
Avg. velocity....433
Muzzle energy....6.04 ft. lbs.

RWS Superpoint--14.5 grains
8 pumps
High velocity....507
Low velocity....495
Max. spread....12
Std. dev....4
Avg. velocity....502
Muzzle energy....8.12 ft. lbs.

These velocity figures seem low, when other Crosman pneumatics deliver 12 foot-pounds and often more. I believe the reason for this is the method of breech sealing employed by the T&C. On the rear of the bolt, a protruding pin slips into a cam slot in the rear of the receiver when the bolt is rotated closed. As this pin engages the cam, it forces the ground bolt face forward into a mating section of the breech. In other words, the T&C seals with a metal-to-metal contact at the bolt/barrel interface. Now, that fact, by itself, is nothing new to airgunning. Airgun makers have been using this design for some time. But to effect a good seal this way, both pieces of metal must be ground to fit, and the cam must be a positive one; it has to hold the bolt in place. On the rifle I tested, the cam was so steep that the bolt could not help but rotate open slightly under the force of the air blast. In short, it wouldn't stay closed.

I noticed a puff of air around my right hand every time the rifle fired, which I initially blamed on the recent resealing job my test rifle had gotten before the test. Then, I examined the bolt lockup more closely and discovered that the real problem was a loose bolt seal. No matter how hard I closed the bolt, that steep cam slot invited it to spring back just enough to exhaust some air. The problem was solved by manually holding the bolt closed with the thumb of my shooting hand as I pulled the trigger. There was still a small puff of air, but it was greatly diminished from what it had been. A real fanatic might have used some automotive valve-grinding compound to hand-lap the front of the bolt into the rear of the barrel; but this wasn't my rifle, so I left it at that.

Hobby pellets grouped okay 10 meters, but with one flyer.

Premiers worked good, too, but had the same problem with flyers.

Accuracy wasn't bad, but it also wasn't that great when compared to what other vintage Crosman rifles can do. RWS Hobbys were the best, shooting a dime-sized group of five off a rest at 10 meters. Five Premiers went into a slightly larger hole, but both pellets shot groups with a tight cluster of four plus one flyer. Surprisingly, the best accuracy with both pellets was at a full eight pumps. Usually, I've found that pneumatics prefer the middle of their power range. Perhaps, the T&C, being so tame, is better able to handle pellets at its top power.

So, if you're thinking about adding a T&C to your airgun collection, do it for the nostalgia rather than the power potential.

A rare Quackenbush toy pistol surfaces!

2010-04-01T05:30:00.000-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: He had some gallstones and backed up sludge removed from his bile ducts on Wednesday. He was unable to get enough oxygen, so they've left him on the ventilator. His right lung was partially collapsed, which sometimes happens when you have an IV in/near the neck. They put a tube in there to remove the air outside his lung so it can fully expand. His oxygen levels were great when I left him last night. The nurse told me that remaining on the ventilator for a little while after surgery happens a lot. They'll try to take him off the ventilator today. His gallbladder removal will happen once he's breathing unassisted. I'll update any changes in the comments section.

Announcement: We're canceling the April 8 Facebook event to give Tom more time to recover from his surgery. We'll let you know when it's rescheduled.

Now, on to today's blog.

The following appeared in Airgun Revue #6, which was published in 2000. While this blog is kind of short, I've always had a strange liking for this little pistol because it reminds me of the Haviland & Gunn pistol I found at a flea market for $5.

Over 125 years old, yet no one's ever heard of this gun!

Collector Wes Powers displayed this rare Quackenbush toy pistol at the 1999 airgun show in Baldwinsville, New York. He described the moment he first saw it, saying he knew it must be a Quackenbush or at least a near-relative, but it was a gun he'd never seen before. That's saying something because collectors know that when West finds something new it must be REALLY rare!

He was even able to track down the patent application for the gun. The fact that Quackenbush referred to it as a "toy" pistol is especially interesting, because the gun was and is capable of launching a .22 caliber round ball with some force!

The language of the patent makes it sound as though the gun was meant to be a simple but powerful cap pistol; but the barrel is bored through, and it will accept a round ball.

This gun fits into a number of categories. It's very much like the zimmerstutzen guns I've written about, especially the older ones that used percussion caps to launch lead balls.

It's also a lot like the cap-firing BB guns I've written about.

Wes demonstrates how the firing hammer pivots sideways to put on the percussion cap. The rubber bands that power the hammer have been removed for clarity.

A closeup of the hammer pivoting sideways reveals the nipple for loading. If there were a rubber band on the gun, doing this would allow you to safely load the cap.

A curious thing about this toy pistol is the way the hammer is powered. Instead of the traditional coiled mainspring, this pistol uses rubber bands to slam the hammer down on the percussion cap! On the front of the frame, two wire hooks anchor both ends of a rubber band, which passes around the hammer. When the hammer is pulled back, the band stretches, storing up potential energy for when the trigger is pulled. It's an ingenious method, not to mention how it lowers production costs, simplifies construction and gets the user involved in the design (they have to replace the band when it breaks!).

The Quackenbush Lightning air rifle used elastic bands in a similar fashion to power the piston of what was an early spring air rifle. That gun is rare enough by itself, but the gun featured in this article has never been written about. Thanks to Wes for sharing his find.

The Crosman 118 - A gallery rifle that went public

2010-03-31T05:30:00.001-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom
I visited Tom last night, and he's been moved into the ICU. His infection is getting worse, not better. After I visit him this morning, I will update you in the comments section.--Edith

Now, on to today's blog, which comes to you from Airgun Revue #2, which was published in 1998.

The Crosman 118 looks mundane, unless you know what it is and how it works.

In the early 1950s, most American airgun buyers were not very discriminating. Their tastes ran to Benjamin and Crosman pneumatics, as well as to the ubiquitous Daisy BB gun. Most knew nothing of the fine precision airguns being made in the UK and Europe, and only a few more were aware of the fine Sheridan model A (Supergrade) that was being made right here in Racine, Wisc. It was a time when .22 rimfires held sway among the largest number of shooters, because rimfires were so easy to shoot almost anywhere. So, when the Crosman Corporation brought out a new CO2 repeating air rifle--the model 118--at a price of $34.95, it must have shocked many people.

Actually, we now know that the gun that became the model 118 was not originally offered to the public. It started out in 1947 as a .21 caliber gallery gun with a hose connected to a bulk CO2 tank under the counter. In that configuration, it was designated the model 117. That gun was made at roughly the same time Crosman was also plying companies with its shooting gallery, which is a long story in its own right. The short version is that Crosman was selling complete shooting galleries, including the guns that went with them, so companies could start shooting leagues for their employees. The guns used in these galleries were the CG-style rifles. CG stands for "constant gas," as the 4-oz. bulk tanks held enough gas for many shots. The public couldn't buy just one CG rifle over the counter, either; they came as sets with the galleries.

Crosman developed the 117, which connected to a bulk tank via a hose from the underside of the fore end, just in front of the gun's internal valve. Except for how the gas got into the gun (and the caliber), the 117 looks identical to the 118--a fact that airgunner Steve Gibbons recorded on film at a SHOT Show and shared with The Airgun Letter readers in 1995. In 1996, airgun writer/historian Dean Fletcher documented it, again, with a different photo and a brief history, which appears on page 182 of his big book The Crosman Rifle, 1923-1950.

The 118 was the first of three so-called bulk-fill CO2 rifles that Crosman sold to the public. The single-shot models 113 and 114 were accepted much more readily because they sold for a price of $21.95, which was much more affordable in 1952. But the 118 was never a big seller; and by 1956, it was gone from the inventory.

Let’s now take a look at this curious American classic, and see what makes it tick. Our subject rifle was purchased at a local flea market, and the former owner--an airgunner who had never heard of bulk-fill guns--unscrewed the filler cap to see where the Powerlets went. When he discovered that the reservoir was too small to accept Powerlets (which a bit of pre-measuring might have determined just as well), he wrote off the whole thing as a bad idea and sold the gun.

The first order of business, therefore, was to get the rifle resealed. Normally, a Crosman bulk-fill gun will still have great seals when you buy it used, especially if the former owner was smart enough to leave it charged with gas. But this one had been tinkered with and was leaking heavily. Precision Pellet resealed ours for $20, which is less than the 1952 purchase price. If that's not a bargain, I don't know what is.

The 118 is much the same kind of airgun as the Crosman Town & Country, in that it's a short rifle that has some thickness to the stock. Curiously, both guns sold for a premium when they were new and were contemporaries in the early 1950s. Our test rifle weighs exactly 5 lbs. and measures a scant 38.5 inches, tip to tail. The 22-inch barrel is steel, as is the reservoir tube underneath. But the bolt handle, filler cap and front sight are all brass parts, which is a reversal of what one might expect. The caliber is .22. American airguns of the 1950s were very much based on our national awareness of the .22 rimfire cartridge at that time. We wanted a smooth transition from airguns to firearms, so .22 was by far the favored airgun caliber. Although .177 guns existed, collectors note that it's usually harder to find American airguns in that caliber. And single-caliber models, like the 118, were invariably .22. The in-line, spring-fed clip requires the use of flat-nosed pellets for reliable feeding. I tried pellets with slightly rounded noses because they often do work in other airguns having in-line clips--but not in the 118. Apparently, the shearing action of the carrier that strips off the next pellet in line is pretty abrupt.

The bolt lifts straight up and back to cock and load. It's easy to learn and delightful to do in rapid fire.

The bolt isn't a typical Mauser-style crossbolt, either. If you examine the photos, you'll notice that the bolt handle is pulled straight up and back to cock the gun. Lowering it loads the pellet in the barrel, which makes it ready for firing. The actual loading operation takes place beneath that rectangular plate on top of the action, but you probably don't want to know! It works smooth enough, but our rifle did require some oil on the moving parts before it fed reliably.

I had feeding problems with Crosman wadcutters, and even more with Premiers because of their slight dome. RWS Hobbys worked okay and H&N Match worked the best. The cadence at which the bolt is cycled is also important. You have to work it like a gallery gun--with a fast and definite action; no hesitation or indecisiveness. After the final shot, the clip follower enters the pellet feed arm, effectively locking the action until the rifle is reloaded. This probably also carries over from its origins as a gallery gun.

Both the receiver and the removable clip have windows cut into their sides so you can see at a glance how many pellets are left, if care is taken to align them when loading. The clip on our rifle was missing a part--the keeper to hold the follower when the clip is loaded. It was still possible to load without the keeper, but I had to use my thumb to restrain the tiny follower projection that protrudes through the vision slot. Once the clip is fully inserted in the gun, the follower is held in place by the pellets, which rest against the feeding mechanism. The line of pellets advances only one pellet at a time into the carrier for transport to the back of the barrel. Spring pressure from the follower pushes the next pellet forward, once the hole in the carrier aligns with it.

Some features found on the more common single-shots carry over to the 118, such as a crossbolt safety that runs through the stock above the trigger. The trigger is a simple notch that retains the hammer against the pressure of a coiled spring. It's possible to slick up a bit, but it'll probably never be in the great category. The one on our test rifle is stiff and creepy.

At the back of the receiver is a power adjustment screw that allows the shooter to increase or decrease power at will. All it does is change the tension on the hammer spring, but that's all it takes! You might wonder why anyone would want less than maximum power; but indoors, at close range, low power is quieter and gives more shots.

Speaking of the number of shots--for some reason, the rifle I tested was a little gas hog. Where our .22 caliber 114 single-shot often gives 60 full-power shots, the 118 pooped out somewhere between 30 and 40. Of course, there could be some differences in the valves of the two rifles tested, but a difference of roughly 40 percent is too wide a variation for that to be the only reason. I believe the feeding mechanism requires more gas because it provides a less positive seal. At any rate, you'll want to keep a 10-oz. tank around when you shoot.

Velocity was a bit on the staid side, with Meisterkugelns going 586 with a 17 f.p.s. spread over 10 shots. That was at 67-deg. F, which is on the low side for CO2 guns. CO2 is a very temperature-dependent gas, with pressure rising and falling in a linear relationship. At 70-deg. F, the pressure is around 900 psi, which is a good operating point.

Not a great 10m group, but it's in the right place.

Sighting is also a trifle lackluster on this rifle. There's a peep, but it's crude and adjusts by sliding parts and friction locking. Hence, there's no real precision. The best groups I saw were with H&N Match pellets, which yielded five-shot groups just under 1/2" spread, center-to-center. This could be more a function of an imprecise sight picture, rather than the fault of the gun. I didn't spend a lot of time shooting it for the record.

The Crosman 118 was certainly short-lived. Probably the high price and the use of an exotic (for that time) gas mitigated against its acceptance by the general public. With their popular pneumatic rifles selling for around $20, there was, perhaps, too much of a jump in price up to the 118, which cost about 43 percent more. And, CO2 was far from being a popular power source in the early 1950s. Until the advent of the ever-popular Crosman Powerlet many years later, carbonic gas occupied only a minor niche among airgun powerplants, and bulk-fill guns were at the bottom of even that stratification because of the extra work they entailed. So, the rifle that might well have revolutionized the shooting gallery trade was mostly a flop when it came to the general populace. But for collectors of vintage American airguns, the Crosman 118 stands apart as one of the key pieces in a rich tapestry of airgunning in the mid-20th century.

The Sheridan model E CO2 pistol

2010-03-30T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Announcement from Edith Gaylord
Tom/B.B. will be out of commission and offline for at least a week. Yesterday, he had another gallbladder attack. I took him to the ER, where we discovered that he also had acute pancreatitis. The pain was so excruciating this time around that three shots of morphine did little to relieve it. The pancreatitis will be treated with antibiotics over the next three days (he can't eat or drink anything, either). Then, they'll remove his gallbladder. If you happen to have Tom's cell phone number, please don't call him.

Whatever you blog readers can do to answer questions will be much appreciated. Of course, I'll answer as many as I'm able. I'll keep you posted on Tom's progress!

I'll be providing blogs from previous articles Tom's written for one of our former publications. Here's a neat one from Airgun Revue #2, which was published in 1998. Enjoy!

This Sheridan pistol is finished as nicely as any airgun from "the good old days."

"They don't make 'em like they used to!" Have you ever heard that said about airguns? Do you say it yourself? If you do, perhaps you haven't yet had a chance to see or shoot Sheridan's model E CO2 pistol. It's as well made as any of the airguns of the past and better than most. Although it was discontinued recently, there are many of them laying around just waiting for you to connect with a piece of Americana.

First, let's clear up some confusion that originates with the manufacturer. Until January 1977, there were two separate companies--Benjamin and Sheridan. Benjamin's history goes back into the 1800s with the St. Louis Air Rifle Company, which became Benjamin during the first decade of the 20th century. Sheridan is a relative newcomer, starting in 1947, with the first offering of their Pneumatic Rifle, which has since been known as the Supergrade.

So, Benjamin/Sheridan have been two separate companies until Benjamin purchased Sheridan. Although they're now one, and wholly owned by another airgun maker--the Crosman Corporation--there still are differences between the two brand names. Caliber is the biggest difference. Sheridan pioneered the .20 caliber with their first rifle and have sold their airguns with the same caliber ever since.

Benjamin guns have been offered in both .177 and .22, with public preferences of one over the other at various times. In the 1950s and '60s, .22 was by far the favorite; but in the '80s and '90s, .177 was dominant.

I've been discriminating between guns made by Benjamin/Sheridan, therefore, by caliber. If it's .20, it's a Sheridan; if not, it's a Benjamin. Our subject pistol is a bright nickelplated .20 caliber CO2 single-shot Sheridan model E. More on this in a bit.

One of the first things to disappear after the golden age of airguns ended was the use of good, substantial materials with corresponding finishes. The older Benjamin guns of the '30s through the '50s had black nickelplating over silver nickel--all on a solid brass base metal. Whether they were brand new or without a speck of original finish, these guns looked (and still look) like a million dollars. It's true that they sometimes look a little scuzzy when the black is just left in the corners and some of the silver has begun to show brass, but that's just a larval stage that can give way to a golden-trumpet sparkle with a little polishing. When contrasted against an oiled brown walnut stock, the all-brass look is my favorite.

Crosman was more conservative with finishes, applying black paint instead of plating; but their guns also looked snazzy, either new or buffed to a shine. Although they did produce some steel-tubed/barreled guns, many--if not most--of them were all brass like the Benjamins.

In the 1960s, American industry began to find less expensive ways to build products, and brass gave way to pot metal first and then plastic in airguns. Finishes weren't as durable when marketing departments and comptrollers began reining in their production departments. The reasoning of the day was that airguns are temporary possessions, after all. So, why build them to last forever? When that thinking took over, airguns became the very temporary items that it dictated. Airgunners will tell you that the golden age was over--not to be resurrected in the US, again.

But the Sheridan model E, made for just a little more than one year, beginning in 1989, belies that philosophy. It's heavily plated with beautiful nickel over a metal base that has been well-prepared. Nickel looks so nice on a gun, having a slight gold cast that can only be noticed by holding it next to something plated with chrome. And a good nickel job will outlast a good blue job by many years. Chrome, by comparison, is brittle and will soon begin to flake off in unsightly patches.

The rear sight of the model E is adjustable for both windage and elevation. Although the method of adjustment is crude, it works perfectly. The entire unit slides left and right in a groove and is held in position by a single slotted friction screw. Elevation is via a headless slotted screw running through the horizontal leaf. This same method has been used for air pistol sights since the 1930s and is just as precisely accurate as more expensive click-adjustable units, if not as easy to make fine adjustments.

You might think that accuracy in a gun selling for under $90 would be quite low, but the Sheridan is really quite the shooter. In fact, it was this aspect that caused us to look at it in the first place. One of our readers sent us some targets he had shot with his Sheridan model H multi-pump pneumatic (different powerplant than the model E, but similar in other ways) that were quite eye-opening. He had several five-shot groups fired at 25 yards that measured under an inch! That isn't bad for a rifle, let alone a pistol. For a pistol costing so little, it's very good!

He had scoped his gun with an inexpensive Tasco, but I preferred to try ours with the factory iron sights. Shooting at 10 meters (33 feet), I got one five-shot group that measured under 3/8", and several others were just a smidgen larger. The most accurate pellets were the .20 caliber Crosmans that come in a red plastic belt-loop box--the same as the .177s.

This is the kind of accuracy I got from a rest at 10 meters. Not a target gun but certainly a good plinker.

Shooting from a rest, I noticed a very pronounced flip-up at the muzzle with every shot. The escaping CO2 works backwards on the gun (like a rocket), once the pellet has cleared the bore. I adjusted the sights to a six-o'clock hold, and lighted the target well, so my nickel sights appeared totally black. The sight picture was less than precise because the front blade is many times smaller than the rear notch; but by focusing on the front sight and not the bull, I managed to keep a decent sight picture.

The trigger on the pistol we tested was a bit stiff, at more than 5 lb., but it broke without creep. A bit of moly lubrication on the sear and the bearing pin lowers this by about 1 lb. I wouldn't recommend any stoning of the sear in this gun, as the parts are not as hard as those found in some firearms. The moly grease makes a large difference.

Regular Crosman .20 caliber pointed pellets went into a tight group under 3/4". Crosman Premiers, a pellet that usually shoots best in most guns, lagged behind in this one, keeping them all in a group just over an inch. This is why it is always recommended that a shooter try all different types of pellets in a gun. Barrels will vary from gun to gun within the same brand and caliber, so it always pays to try out everything you can lay your hands on.

64-deg. F • Point blank
Crosman Pointed Pellets
High.....412 f.p.s.
Low.....384 f.p.s.
Avg.....398 f.p.s.
Ext. Spread.....28 f.p.s.
Beeman Silver Sting
High.....444 f.p.s.
Low.....423 f.p.s.
Avg.....429 f.p.s.
Ext. Spread.....21 f.p.s.

I found that shooting rapidly did cause the velocity to drop along a regular slope, but waiting 15 seconds between shots allowed things to stabilize and velocity to rise to the average. Many CO2 guns exhibit this phenomenon, which is caused by their internal parts being cooled by the steady flow of CO2, a refrigerant gas. The vapor pressure of CO2 drops when things get cooler, which puts less pressure behind each succeeding pellet. So, it's often a good idea to allow a CO2 gun to warm up between shots.

In all, I must say that I was most impressed by this Sheridan pistol. It has the genuine quality that we all look for in older American airguns. Too often, today's guns do not measure up to that same standard. This one does. If you're looking for an inexpensive American-built gun, try either the Sheridan or the Crosman line of CO2 and pneumatic pistols. The CO2 gun now comes in a dull painted finish only, but the pneumatic is still finished in bright nickel.

RWS 92 - Part 2

2010-03-29T05:30:00.003-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Before I begin, don't forget that on April 8 at 8 p.m., Eastern, I'll have a special Q&A session on Pyramyd Air's Facebook page just for you. Please join me then. You must have a free Facebook account and be a friend of Pyramyd Air to participate.

Part 1

Before we begin, I have an airgun-related story for you. Edith and I own a Select Comfort bed--the kind that is called a Sleep-by-Number bed today, but 15 years ago it was just Select Comfort. The air compressor that inflates both mattresses finally went belly-up this past weekend, so we ordered another. But while trying to fix this one, air was let out of both mattresses, and the bed was unusable until the new compressor arrives.

I used a CO2 bottle to inflate one mattress, but I ran out of CO2 before the job was finished. So, I used a scuba tank to finish the job. It did the job in less than a minute, and although I have to admit that it was not convenient to do, I was sure glad we were able to do it, because I love that bed. I would not have enjoyed sleeping on a lesser mattress for even a few nights. In the past I have also used a bulk tank of CO2 to extinguish a car fire, and now this. It's just one more reason I'm glad to be an airgunner.

Today, we'll take a look at the power of this RWS 92. Several readers were familiar with this airgun, so this should be a revealing day for them.

RWS model 92 by Cometa.

Getting right to it
Crosman Premier 7.9-grain pellets averaged 618 f.p.s. The spread was from a low of 596 f.p.s. to a high of 638 f.p.s. That's 42 f.p.s., which is pretty high for a spring gun. That computes to an energy of 6.7 foot-pounds.

Next, I tried JSB Exact 8.4-grain pellets. Being heavier, they should be slower; but being made from softer lead, they may be close in velocity. It came as only a small surprise that they averaged 635 f.p.s. The spread went from a low of 626 to a high of 647, so just 21 f.p.s. separation. The rifle's more at ease with this pellet, though we'll have to await the accuracy results to know for sure. The energy is a more lively 7.52 foot-pounds.

Then, I tested some RWS Hobbys. As a lightweight lead pellet, they should be pretty good in a gun like this. They averaged 693 f.ps. The spread went from 675 to 707, so 22 f.p.s. The energy worked out to 7.47 foot-pounds.

The power fits in with my observation that the 92 is 7/8 of an FWB 124. It's a great place for a plinking rifle to be. A little less than advertised but still very useful.

Firing behavior
The rifle is fairly calm when it fires, but there's a jolt. The barrel was too loose when I tested because it would not remain in any position after being cocked. I took the action out of the stock and found the locking screw for the pivot bolt that Vince told us about. I tightened the pivot bolt, but then it didn't align with the locking screw with or even without the spacer he put in, so I removed the pivot bolt and reshimmed it to torque the bolt a little more. It doesn't change the velocity, but it may help the accuracy when the time comes. I see what Vince means about those notches being hard to align when doing this job, so I was glad for his fix.

Here you can see the barrel pivot bolt locking screw clearly, and how it must fit into one of the scallops cut into the periphery of the pivot bolt head. If it's off, the locking screw won't fit. A small shim under the pivot bolt head causes it to end its rotation earlier than normal. You can also see that the next notch is very far from this one, so the shim must be much thicker.

I did slice my finger while working on the action outside of the stock, which is a reminder that the metal parts on many spring rifles have razor-sharp edges unless you take the time to dull them. Normally, that's part of a tuneup. It's not the sexy part nor does it add anything to the bottom line, but it's the thing to do for your own peace of mind whenever you work on the action again.

The two-stage trigger-pull breaks at between 3 lb.., 2 ozs. and 3 lb.., 14 ozs. I attribute the large difference to the second-stage creep, as you would expect on a rifle in this price range.

When out of the stock, the 92 also resembles the FWB 124 more than a little. I would expect disassembly would be similar to the German gun. Looking through the cocking slot, I noticed that the mainspring was coated with moly paste, which confirms that this rifle was lubed after it came from the factory.

Moly grease on the mainspring is a giveaway that the rifle was tuned after the factory lubed it.

So far, so good. It looks like the RWS 92 is a fine plinking pellet rifle that was a great value when it last sold at $100. Next time, I'll check the accuracy, which will be interesting with these all-plastic sight parts.