by B.B. Pelletier
I’m talking about airgun accidents today – real accidents, not just the lies a kid tells when he’s caught shooting another kid just to see what will happen. Bob C. asked for this one, but I bet a lot of readers will be interested.
Starting with springs
Mainsprings are usually under a lot of tension even when the gun isn’t cocked. If you’re not careful when you release the spring, something bad will happen. The first time I disassembled a Beeman C1 made by Webley I didn’t use a mainspring compressor. The end cap that weighs several ounces got away from me and flew six feet before hitting a wooden desk drawer divider, which it broke in two. Now, this was not an accident. This was a “stupident.” An accident happens when something you could not control goes bad – like a bridge collapsing during an earthquake. A stupident is when you do the wrong thing and get caught by fate.
The C1 end cap hit this desk divider to the right of the crack (see the dent in the wood) and busted it in two.
Another spring tale
A gentleman was disassembling a spring gun at an airgun show and did not have the use of a mainspring compressor. The spring got away from him (stupident – not accident) and flew across the aisle, hitting a person in the head. No real damage was done, but the hittee didn’t appreciate the event! I heard this report from the person who was hit.
Spring gun stupident
At another airgun show, a dealer had loaded a spring gun with a pellet and realized he had nothing with which to extract the pellet. The gun was a low-powered pellet rifle, so instead of going to the trouble of walking outside the show and shooting into the ground, he put the palm of his hand over the muzzle and pulled the trigger. After all – it was just a low-powered spring rifle – how bad could it be?
Here’s how bad – a friend had to drive him to the emergency room of a nearby hospital so they could dig the pellet out of the hand. It penetrated out of sight. I heard this report from an eyewitness. Ironically, the person who committed this stupident also committed the one before.
Two for one stupident
Sometimes it isn’t enough that just one person is stupid. Two people are even better! I had a loaded Daisy No. 25 pump BB gun on my table at Roanoke (stupident number one) and while I was away from the table a guy came up and pumped the gun. He didn’t want to buy it, he was just kicking the tires. My wife, who didn’t know it was loaded, told him to uncock the gun, but of course that’s not possible with a Daisy 25. So he put the muzzle on top of his shoe (to cushion the piston, I presume) and fired (the other stupident)! The result was instant and painful. He felt so embarrassed that he bought the gun. I only heard the story after returning to my table – whereupon I checked all my other guns to ensure they were unloaded!
CO2 stupident
At another airgun show, a dealer was disassembling a CO2 pistol that discharged during the work. The pellet that was in the barrel struck the leg of a man standing 20 feet away. The breech of the pistol was open when the gun discharged – otherwise the pellet would have penetrated the man’s leg after passing through his jeans.
The worst CO2 stupident
I was sworn to secrecy on this story. The teller who committed the stupident told me I could tell people it happened but I was never to reveal his name. When you hear what he did I think you’ll understand why he wants to remain anonymous. He was working on a Benjamin 252 CO2 pistol, trying to solder the sight fixture on the front of the barrel to the CO2 tube below. He knew there was a CO2 cartridge in the tube, but he thought he could do the job quickly enough that it wouldn’t matter. You see, as CO2 is heated, the pressure increases. Soldering temperature is above 400 degrees F, so that raised the pressure of the gas high enough to blow the threaded CO2 cartridge cap off the gun! It buried itself in a wall but fortunately no one was hurt. He probably wouldn’t have been just hurt. He probably would have been killed.
One from my wife
My wife remembers a stupident that could have been deadly. Here’s her story: At the Little Rock Airgun Expo, a man in his 30s told me he liked to teach youngsters how to use and handle guns. One day, he had a pellet pistol while outside with a group of kids, when the gun jammed. He tried to unjam it but couldn’t figure out what was causing the problem. For a closer look, he held the muzzle close to his eye and repeatedly pulled the trigger so he could examine the mechanism! He didn’t realize what he’d done until much later, but the horse was already out of the barn, as all the kids in the neighborhood got to see how to “safely” handle a loaded gun! I am stupefied that he managed to live to adulthood!
Wrong gas stupident
PCPs run on air, but the hospital employee had access to tanks of oxygen. Oxygen is like air, isn’t it?
NO!
But this kind of stupident is not that uncommon. Apparently some hospital employees are not trained in the dangers of pure oxygen gas.
This is what happens when a VERY HOT flame is held against aluminum for a long time! It looks like a cutting torch has been used on this gun from the inside out.
Note the discoloration of the anodizing. Forensic scientists use clues like this and the bending of the steel barrel to determine how much heat caused the damage and how long the fire lasted. An oxygen fire is a dangerous thing. This rifle was returned to Pyramyd AIR as defective.
Recent stupidents
I have committed a couple stupidents in the past five years. One involved a Chinese rifle I was testing, and the other was a vintage German gun I bought. The pictures below tell the tale.
I shot the couch! Because the aimpoint was four inches above the couch, I didn’t move it out of the line of fire, and a Tech Force 99 made this hole. It’s been there four years, as a reminder of how stupid and lazy I can be. Believe it or not, my wife never said one bad thing about this stupident because I think she knows how bad I feel.
I let my guard down and the trigger of my new/old BSF 55N slipped when I closed the barrel the first time, putting this hole in the ceiling of my office. That’s why I advise BSF owners to not adjust the triggers too light.
Stupid is as stupid does. I tell you these tales in the hopes of increasing your awareness of the potential dangers of our hobby.
OK, I’ll add one.
I was working on a B22 sidelever, attempting to make an anti-beartrap catch with more engagement than the original for more safety (ironically).
Since I was doing the final fitting of the beartrap to the action I had to work with the breach alternately open and closed with the gun cocked. My little girl (maybe 3) was wandering in and out of the room, sometimes in front of the muzzle. I didn’t worry about it since I knew there was no pellet in the breech.
Imagine my horror some time later when I discovered that I had indeed loaded a Daisy pointed pellet into the gun (why, I have no idea) and forgot about it.
I knew that I was taking a bit of a chance working with the open breech without removing the spring… but getting my fingers nipped (or even amputated) is nothing compared to what could have happened.
There was a squirrel getting into the bird feeder, so ran and grabbed one of my air rifles and made it ready to fire. I opened the kitchen window and took the screen out. I was able to aim at the critter, but it ran off right as I was going to shoot. I set the rifle down on the counter top, and closed the window. When I picked up the rifle I unknowingly squeezed the trigger. I realized that I had forgotten to put the air gun on safe after the pellet had bounced off the counter top and broke the other kitchen window.
Another story.
While working at a lumberyard, my boss told me to have the guys in my department “get a pellet gun and shoot those damn birds that are sh**’en on the wood.” We wound up with a Crosman 2100 and a whole bunch of bb’s. One of my co-workers decided to see what would happen if you pumped the rifle 50 times. He pumped the gun, cocked it, loading a bb, and then fired. The rifle made a click and nothing happened. He cocked it again, fired, and again nothing. He repeated this until the whole 17 shot magazine had been forced into the breach. The gun finally went off sending all 17 bb’s rocketing strait up. They bounced off the inside of the steal roof of the pole barn we were in and rained back down on us. I took the 2100 apart only to find that the valve had jammed open expelling all of the air in the chamber at once.
Speaking of picking wrong target material: go to Youtube.com and search .50 cal. ricochet. This fellow was shooting plate iron and he was VERY lucky to survive that bounce back. I know it’s not an airgun, but I’m still too ashamed to mention how I shot myself in the butt using a hard target indoors….
I seen that video a while back. The bullet bounces off the target and hits the muffs right off the shooter’s head.
B.B.,
Im glad you dont have the bad stories. at least none of these have bad endings. I have a cuple stories(with good endings)
1.
My Uncle told me one time, that when his son was about 6, he came outside, and wanted to shoot my uncles pistol that he had been shooting that day. Well he said okay, and gave it to him, and showed him the safetey, and how to line up the sights and everything. So he told him to go ahead and finish shooting the clip which was like 2 shots. He turned around, to pick up brass i think, heard a bang, then heard crying. My Aunt rushed out side to see what it was, and what had happened is a lot funnier now, then it was then im sure. He put the pistol right next to his face to line up the sights,(its a semi auto) pulled the trigger, and WHAM! the slide cycled and hit him right on the eye. He said he had two lines on each side of his eye from the sights.
2.
I had just got my new bow, and was going to shoot it for the first tim. Well, it was made to shoot with a release, so i got my dads relese, clipped it onto the string. Nocked an arrow. Oh by the way did i metion ive never used a release before? I got halfway through the daw, and TWANG i just see an arrow flying over the trees. Its a good thing i practice safety rules, and always point muzzles, and arrows downrabge when i shoot them.
Oh and B.B.,
I found a screw to fit my scope stop yesterday, but when i mounted my scope, i tightened the screws as tight as i could get them, and after the first shot, my front ring lifted up and off the rail. i will try again, but i think a may just have to get a better mount.
Thanks for the great Blog,
Brody
I have a Beeman RS2 in .177. I’ve been reading that shortening the barrel will improve the accuracy and not effect velocity. I have a friend who is a gunsmith and owes me a favor. I’m just wondering if taking 4 inches off the barrel (it’s a 20 inch barrel) would make a noticeable difference or if I should save my favor for something else?
A have a Leapers 3-9×40 on this gun which I love. I use only use the artillery hold when shooting. Just looking to squeeze out every last bit of accuracy.
Thanks for your advice. Your blog is great, I have been reading it evey day.
Aaron in MI
I saw that .50 cal. ricochet. He is lucky to have not been hurt.
B.B.
Brody,
You did not have the clamps in the dovetails. That’s an easy mistake to make. Happens all the time.
B.B.
Aaron,
DO NOT cut the barrel of your RS2!!!!!
So many armchair “airgunsmiths” prattle on about things they have never done and have no knowledge of. I have had bunches of people crying on my shoulder over the years because they cut the ends off their barrels. Every time it was on the advice of someone on the internet.
It doesn’t work!
Leave your barrel as it is and learn to shoot the gun. I can’t tell you how many butchered airguns I see every year at the shows, where someone has turned a $450 Beeman R1 into a $200 disaster with a hacksaw.
Here is a true story – not about barrels – but about other modifications that ruined an airgun. When I worked at AirForce and fixed all the guns that came in for repairs, one day we had a person knock at our door. We normally didn’t answer the door except for deliveries, but he had seen us in the office, so we let him in.
He had a Condor that was beat all to hell! The valve had been hammered out of shape and the frame of the gun had been stretched. I asked him where he got this mess in the paper bag (his gun was apart in a shopping bag) and he said at a garage sale.
While I rebuilt the gun as best I could (I could not fix the stretched frame) the office manager got his name and address.
Later, from our database, we discovered that this was the original owner of the gun, and, what’s more, he was signing onto the Talon Owner’s Group and Mr. Condor – advising everyone to replace their striker with a super heaviweight brass striker, like the one that had beat his gun apart!
Do you think he ever went on the forum and told them how things turned out? Of course not.
Yep, there are a lot of experts out there.
Leave your barrel alone.
B.B.
BB, Sorry to be off theme, but when can we expect part two of the Leapers Diana mount, june 24, 2008 entry. Also what scope would you suggest for a .22 Panther 34, all my air gun shooting until now has been with iron sights, but this rifle has enough range and power to benefit from a scope.
Best Regards
Mario J. Garcia
Here’s mine B.B. I had my chrony set up and was watching a friend shoot over it and kept getting errors. The sun was at the wrong angle and i was adjusting the chrony position to take advantage of the shades, adjust chrony, take a shot, adjust chrony, take a shot. I got lazy and stood relatively close to the chrony while having my friend shoot over it. He shot one of the poles and the pellet zinged right by me. PHEW!!! From SavageSam
Mario,
I’ll get the next report on the new base out next week. As for a scoep for your rifle, If money is no object I really like the AirForce 4-16. But if you want to spend less, look at Leapers 4-16:
/product/leapers-5th-gen-4-16x50ao-rifle-scope-illuminated-red-green-mil-dot?a=1808
The new base gives you the height you need, so buy medium height Weaver rings.
B.B.
SavageSam,
When I was a kid of 14 I was out shooting with a kid I didn’t know that well. We were shooting .22 rimfires. When I went down to change the target, the other kid started shooting with me down at the target stand. That was scary, and as soon as I could I took the rifle from him and didn’t give it back.
B.B.
I bought a Benjamin 422 at a garage sale.since it was hard to get 8 gram co2,I set it up for a bulk tank.We all like to think we know a thing or two….loaded the gun with 12 .22 pellets that stack from the back and feed semi-auto.I was sitting on the corner of my bed,with the trigger safety on{it only blocks trigger movement}opened the tank valve to check for pressure leaks…BRAAAAAP!!!@#*%!twelve .22 pellets full auto point blank into my mattress.forgot to set the hammerweight with the bolt.valve slapped the weight as it closed,spring rebounded the weight back at the valve,etc..all with the safety on! I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer!!!Frankb
[Raises left hand]
Crosman Nightstalker with failure to fire after CO2 cart change + 30 minutes of frustrating troubleshooting and swap of CO2 cart + place hand over muzzle to determine just how much CO2 was being expelled (3-times, adjusting the CO2 cart each of the first two times) = stupident.
Pellet was against the bone and under the muscles/tendons in left hand. Not removable by emergency room so add in the $600+ out of pocket that insurance didn’t pay for the surgery + weeks of bandaged and swollen hand + embarrassment with friends, family and co-workers, and of course now all of you.
Results – I’m much more careful now.
Those wishing to see the photos and x-rays can go to http://rabbittwarren.net/Rabbitts_Blog/index.html and read the blog entries from May 14th and 23 and June 8th.
So…the last time you shot your airgun, did you really think about what you were doing or did you just go on auto-pilot and think you thought?
Rabbitt
B.B.,
I’ve got one of Stephen Archer’s premier silent pellet traps. Archer says to fill it with duct seal putty. After a fruitless search for duct seal at local hardware stores, I settled on plumber’s putty.
Plumber’s putty stops all the pellets from my .177 QB78 at 10 meters. It’s done so for months. Today I decided to try out my .22 AirMagnum 850 on the trap. I shot at 15 meters. After just one group I had a hole out the back; the fourth and fifth shots broke through.
My wife says I had it coming–“It’s a bigger gun.” But, as I explained to her, my first test on the trap was with the 850: I piled in some plumber’s putty, fired point blank, measured the penetration, then doubled that figure to determine the necessary thickness. Straight out of the instructions.
I’m guessing the first shots burrowed a tunnel and the last two followed that tunnel to the wooden backstop. Here’s my question: How does duct seal prevent tunneling? Does it seal holes between shots? Or is it just tougher stuff?
No more target shooting until Archer sends out a steel plate.
Bob in CA
GL Barnes handed a lady a loaded gun at a Show years ago and she then managed to shoot a hole through the ceiling. Now, no airgun is a toy but Barnes’ rifles make a LOT of power.
– TeflonTron
Rabbitt,
Ouch!
B.B.
TeflonTron,
Oh, yes. I forgot about that one.
B.B.
BB:
Yep. Just a tad bit of pain.
I see we both like the stupid is as stupid does line. Yep. Stupidity was the word for the day that day.
Rabbitt
Bob in CA,
How interesting – a question that also dovetails nicely into today’s topic.
No, duct seal does not self-heal. What you do is shoot about 10,000 shots into the trap and never clean it. That builds a mass of lead that the new pellets impact against. I have an Archer trap that absorbs 30 foot-pounds with ease. When it was new I didn’t trust it with more than 15.
My own homemade silent trap has over 50K pellets in it and a steel plate in the back to boot. It will take 65 foot-pounds without a whimper.
But I still use an Outers .22 rimfire trap for the powerful airguns. It saves wear and tear on the silent traps.
B.B.
SavageSam,
When I trained kids we used to do a watermelon demonstration. A balloon filled with red-died water is another good training aid.
You need something that makes an impression, then relate what he just saw to the worst bad accident he ever had. If you can make the connection, the lesson will take.
B.B.
That Mr. Condor who put a heavy hammer in his gun I bet did it because AirForce had been using a spring for .177 in Condor valves. And that spring did not allow the valve to open all the way at 3000psi.
When people would send in their guns to AF due to them not working at 3000psi they would be told…their gauge was wrong and it was fine.
Good thing AF came clean on that farce and admits to using the wrong spring. So now you can get them to put a spring in the valve for .22 or .177.
If Mr. Condor had known the valve spring was wrong from the factory he never would have needed a heavy brass hammer to try and open his gun.
Thank goodness Airforce finally corrected that problem and admits to it.
Andrew
Alright, I’ll leave the barrel as is. Although I do have faith in my gunsmith friends ability to cut the barrel the right way, it wasn’t his idea to cut it, it was mine after reading it on the internet!! That’s why I asked you. The RS2 is a pretty good shooter imo.(I have been using the crossman premier 7.9 grain hollow points which are all I have available locally) I just thought it would be cool to customize it a little bit.
I’ve got about 2500 shots through it (based on the empty tins in my basement) and haven’t performed any maintenance. It’s not making any unusual noises and if anything is more accurate now than during the first 1000 shots. Can I just keep on shooting until I notice a twang or a loss in accuracy or is there some basic maintenance I should start to consider now?
Thanks again for your advice, you are the man!!
Aaron in MI
B.B.
So an end cap capable of breaking a desk divider in two hit a person in the head without damage?! This person sounds like the crows on steroids in one blog post who were shot in the head with no effect.
I’m surprised that the low-powered spring gun only buried a pellet in the person’s hand and didn’t shoot completely through it.
Here’s one from YouTube. “I’m the only one in this room professional enough…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhIJOVD8hwY
That’s a very good point about tunneling in duct seal. I was blissfully shooting away when I noticed while hanging targets that the pellets had bored a hole almost through to the metal backstop. I slapped on more duct seal, but it’s time to check again.
Matt61
Hi BB,
Any movement on Pyramyd carrying the Tanaka SAA Airsoft revolvers?
Regards,
Joe B.
Ok, I’ll admit to one from back when I was just starting to tinker with airguns.
I was taking apart Crosman 357. I pulled the trigger a few times to make sure the cartridge was out of gas. But I didn’t unscrew the cartridge and remove it…
So I started taking it apart, got the side plate off and kablam, gas rushed everywhere and all the parts exploded out and away from the pistol…yes, I had the safety on that blocks the hammer from hitting the valve. So just pulling the trigger was not the proper way to make sure the cart was out of gas!
I spent an hour finding all the parts, because I had a paranoid fear that one had embedded itself in my brain or something…but I did find all the parts…
Now I always wear safety glasses when working on airguns, remove any cartridge and push a rod down the barrel to clear any pellets. You can never be too safe.
I was shooting CB caps from a Ruger .22 revolver, at a target fastened to a log at about 25 feet. One of the bullets bounced back and hit me right above the eye. No damage but it could have hit my eye. It never occurred to me that the light loads would not bury themselves in the log. I put on my shooting glasses and switched to full-powered .22 LR loads.
A friend of mine shot herself in the hand when she was 10. She still had this BB imbedded in her palm when I met her, 23 years later. She had a Crosman airgun she thought was unloaded, and was shooting it against her hand to feel the air. She didn’t tell her parents for fear they and her friends’ parents would take away their airguns. Recently she had it removed. She is a massage therapist and went through quite a bit of trouble and expense to make certain the BB was removed in such a way that no nerve damage resulted to her hand. She would have left it there but it began to swell one day. She was the best example of the importance of gun safety we’ve had around here. The BB by the way had lost quite a lot of mass, and had assimilated into her bloodstream.
–Joe B.
scott298–Hi B.B.-Scot298 adding to this blog(by the way tell “mom” I said Hi!) My house is on a corner lot and a park is across the street to the left when standing in the road facing the house. In this park they have a great 55gal drum for garbage and it’s in direct line with the bathroom window. On occasion I love to send a crossman heavy just to hear the twang of the pellett hitting steel-the can is approx 70yrds away. I always make sure no one is at the park and there are no vehicles moving on the street. Even if there is a hint of someone in the area I won’t shoot. I had just installed brand new windows throughout the house. It was a raing evening and I just couldn’t resist. I opened the window and the screen-checked that there was nothing remotly in the shooting area, lined up the sights on the scope and let that crossman fly-sure enough I got my twang and every dog in the area was barking. With a grin I lowered my rifle only to see that the pellett had gone thru the new sill on the window. While I had a clear shot in the scope I forgot to take into account the 3 inches the barrell was below is below the scope. Now this happened about 9 months ago and every time my wife and I have a disagreement-you guessed it-she brings up the bathroom window, She will never let that one go, and yes I have a new window on order–Scott298–shoot straight and don’t forget where the barrell is in relation to the scope!
B.B.,
Thanks for the response. It should be noted that before I shot the .22 850, I redistributed the putty and cleaned out pellets in the process. Probably a bad move. I was also aiming at “virgin territory” on the trap, using a different target image. Put together, I guess I didn’t have any old pellets to form a barrier.
Would you recommend using a low energy gun and a variety of targets to break in a trap before switching to a high powered gun? (Although at 14 fpe, I never really considered the .22 850 high powered.)
Bob in CA
Hi BB, My tale of woe is similar to Scott298’s. This spring I was trying to shoot squirrels in my garden. I was shooting a Talon SS off hand and kept missing. The range was only 15 to 20 yards so was pretty discouraged about my shooting skills. Untill one day I was doing something else and noticed gouges in the railing of the deck. The distance from the center line of the scope to the center line of the barrel is three inches. I was clipping the deck railing instead hitting the squirrels. Fortunately my wife has not noticed. And I have become more careful.
Mike T
Andrew,
Mr. Condor did what he did because it was the only thing he could think of to get more power. It didn’t work because the valve only opens so far.
I am the one who told people their gauges weren’t reading correctly and it is still true today. Those gauges can be off by 3 percent and still be within production spec, and I’ve seen them off by more than that.
B.B.
Aaron,
Keep on shooting until you start to notice a twang. There is no basic maintenance, but a full tuneup would probably make it shoot even nicer. Not more accurate but with less vibration.
B.B.
Matt61,
The person hit in the head wasn’t hit by an end cap. He was hit by a mainspring. And it wasn’t a spring from a C1, either. It was probably a lesser-powered gun.
B.B.
Joe B.,
I’ll ask about the Tanaka.
B.B.
Nick,
I have had the same thing happen (but not when disassembling the gun) several times. I always get surprised when unscrewing the CO2 screw and then dumping the whole cartridge.
B.B.
Joe B.,
Your friend is lucky that wasn’t a lead BB.
B.B.
Scott298,
I have dented or shot through three chronographs by forgetting where the barrel was, in relation to the scope.
But far worse than that was the soldier who forgot his range briefing and used his rifle sights on an M203 grenade launcher range. The M203 is a 40mm grenade launcher underslung beneath an M16. You have to use a quadrant sight mounted on the left side of the gun to get the proper elevation to launch the grenade down to the target. Well, this guy forgot that and ended up with a live grenade sitting in front of him in the firing bunker.
Fortunately for him, the 203 grenade is armed by spin, so it requires a certain distance of travel before it arms. But he still messed his trousers.
Being the OIC of the range, I had to toss the grenade downrange, where we blew it up with other grenade fire.
B.B.
Bob,
I have to be honest – I would have thought the 850 would have been easily stopped by an Archer trap – especially a .22. The trap is so pretty that I almost gave in and cleaned it, but knowing that it has no steel plate in back, I decided to “season” it with lots of pellets. It’s not as far along as I would like, but it’s getting close, after two years of shooting.
B.B.
Mike T.,
At least you weren’t trying to shoot your Talon Creedmore-style, only holding the barrel between your knees because it doesn’t reach all the way to your feet!
That has been tried.
B.B.
B.B.
Now why would anyone hold the end of his gun in a flame for any length of time? As a repairman for airguns, you must have seen the strangest things.
I started out in airsoft because I didn’t want the danger of anything with more power. Now look at me. But I didn’t move forward without thinking a LOT about safety and trying to figure out a fool-proof system. I suppose there isn’t one because one has to always be alert and complacency about any system is probably the greatest danger of all. However, a couple elements of my system have given me a lot of confidence. One is to do everything with guns in exactly the same way. The targets get hung, the eye and ear protection put on, the magazines loaded, the triggerblocks put on and off and the guns fired in precisely the same order each time. That way you minimize the chance of inadvertently loading a pellet and forgetting about it. The second thing is to never, ever load the gun except to fire it. When the shooting is finished, the gun is either empty or it gets cleared; no loaded gun ever sits around for any reason. So far, so good. My gun room with its 15 foot range is a model of absolute power and control!
Matt61
BB
I think mr. condor did what he did to get the power that was ADVERTISED by you and airforce. It’s one thing to want more power, it’s another to want the power that is supposed to be there when you buy the gun. Why else would airforce have come out with a new valve (which works great by the way)
Andrew,
You can think whatever you like. Mr. Condor owned a rifle that had been tested AT THE FACTORY BY ME and was delivering shots over 1,250 f.p.s. with .22 caliber Crosman Premiers before he wrecked it.
My point in saying this is that misinformation, which was rampant on the internet at that time because of posters like Mr. Condor of the Talon Owners Group, caused many owners to screw up their rifles before they took the time to learn what they could do. The .177 valve had nothing to do with guns not achieving 1200 f.p.s. It was the unwillingness of owners to believe that a lower fill pressure could deliver the same power as the published number.
Fortunately that old batch of people is now silent, for the most part, but now Aaron wants to whack off 4 inches from a perfectly good barrel. I want him to know that advice given on the internet – even my own – needs to be weighed against sound reasoning.
Mr Condor might agree because he paid twice for the same gun.
B.B.
Hi BB, you’d advised trying H&N Finale Match (pistol) in my IZH46, and they’re offered in both 4.49 and 4.5mm. Which diameter is the better fit for the Izzy?
Also, I see the Pyramyd no longer offers this pellet – is the same thing available from them under a different label? I like to give them my business when possible in return for supporting this blog.
BC
Matt61,
No one held that gun in any flame. The gun was filled with pure oxygen that ignited at the muzzle from the friction of compression (the shot) and then burned the gun from the inside out! That’s what pure oxygen can do. It isn’t combustible by itself, but it supports the hell out of anything that is.
B.B.
BB,
First of all, just wanted to thank you for the Parker-Hale piece yesterday. Looks like it would be fun for silhouettes if someone brought it back. I can see why it might not have gone over big with hunters, though.
Regarding safety, I don’t have any good stories, mainly because I am an obsessive-compulsive about gun safety and just started tinkering with airguns — I can see more chances for mishaps with springers especially during [dis]assembly. However, I was checking some of the details on my son’s toy Christmas rifle (probably making him a shotgun later this year) and he grabbed the muzzle and pointed it in a safe direction, then lectured me sternly. Apparently they do listen:).
BC,
I would look for 4.51 and 4.52. They are usually the best, with 4.51 being perhaps the most universally used.
B.B.
BG_Farmer,
Every time I disarmed a mine, I prayed that all the factory workers were obsessive-compulsive.
And “atta boy” for your son!
B.B.
B.B.
Let me get this straight: You picked up a 40mm grenade that had been fired but not cleared the firing line and threw it down range. Then you supervised firing more grenades at a target that was only as far away as you could throw a 40mm grenade?
Forgive me but that is about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of happening on a military range.
Jerry
BB, if you know someone who needs a stock (with sling) for a Haenel 310 bolt action let me know. Free, just pay shipping from Houston area.
I dropped my 310 when one of the kids ran by me as we were returning to the house and the barrel bent.
(As we get older we don’t get mad, we just chalk some things up to fate. It was an accident.)
I also have 2 12 shot clips (that could use new springs (of course) and a few tins of the 4.4 ball that my boss got for me last time he was in Germany. (What a guy!)
It’s ashame it happened as I really enjoyed shooting it; plus to see others expressions when they shot it and noted it’s accuracy (as you have previously reported) out to about 10M.
Perry Ford, hm 979-627-7678
texmotodad@gmail.com
I too used to work in a lumberyard (family business) and we had a major pigeon problem. They infested the insulation in the ceilings of our warehouses and were causing it to deteriorate. My step father allowed us to carry pellet rifles on our forklifts and we’d take pop shots at them when we saw them. One time there was a pigeon sitting on a beam directly overhead so I aimed straight up through the grill in my lift’s roof and fired. Somehow I managed to completely miss the pigeon and hit the bottom of the beam, sending the pellet ricocheting right back down at me and right into the corner of my eye! Had it been a hair to the left, it would have hit my eyeball. Fortunately, it caught the edge of my eyelid and bounced off. Lucky!
What is the kill zone of a crow if hunting with a .22cal Talon?
Have a few potential accidents.
First one was many many years ago. I’d finally got old enough that my father upgraded me from my Crosman 177 multi pump to a 22 and shotgun. In turn my Crosman was handed down to my younger brother.
One day I happened to find him and his buddy shooting cans off each others heads. So I promptly took the gun away and told him he couldn’t have it back for a while. He was so mad he ran and told dad I took his gun away. Dad promptly found me and asked my why I was being so mean.
When dad got the full story little brother got more than just his gun taken away. Little brother was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Of course this is an old family joke now.
Second story. I had just cleaned my new to me 22 semi-auto the night before and placed it in the gun rack for to be used for hunting the next morning. When I picked it up the next morning the first thing I did (as was required by dad) was cycle the chamber. And a nice bright 22 rimfire long rifle shell popped out – have no idea to this day how it got in there. But it made a believer out of me. I always cycle the chamber every time I pick up a gun – single shot or automatic.
Third story. I shot my wife in the bottom. Well not really. She got hit by a pellet that bounced back out of my shooting trap. So she tells everyone I shot her in the butt. It was completely spent of energy so no harm was done. Just makes for a funny story.
My shooting trap is about 30-years old and it is made from an aluminum square frying pan. It is home made but it effectively stops pellets and BB’s and did not allow bounce back until lately. My newer high powered guns have damaged the lower wood bounce guard. Guess I have to do a rebuild. I’m an engineer and calculated the ricochet angles. It worked fine until it got damaged by bad shooting high powered airguns.
Jerry,
It probably was a stupid thing to do, but the alternative was to call Range Control who would have essentially done the same thing. The 40 mm 203 grenades are spin-armed and have to travel a minimum distance to be armed.
B.B.
Perry,
That’s very generous of you. I think you’ll get some better action, though, on this forum:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/405945/
I’m sorry you don’t still have the action, because bent barrels are usually pretty easy to straighten.
B.B.
Angry,
That was a close call!
B.B.
Crow killer,
Aim for the high chest with a .22 Talon (or Talon SS).
B.B.
Well I was in Vietnam with the Army and B Trp 1/1 Cav Americal (1st Armored Division). We were going down Hwy 1 to Duc Pho with our M48A5’s. I was sitting on top of a track and another guy was a few feet behind me. All of a sudden a shot goes of just behind me. The guy had a 45 with a round in the chamber go off. He then says I guess I better not leave a round in the chamber anymore as that’s the 2nd time that’s happenend.
You could see a mark were the round hit just in back me.
You can’t leave a round in the chamber of those old 45’s as the firing pins would hit the primer. Some people don’t learn the first time.
Somehow i had to take apart my crosman 357. It had the co2 capsule inserted and as i knew it was empty…well i guessed it was empty. When i was removing the last screw, bang and all those little parts were all over my room.
blas
BB,
If there were no problems with the fill pressure on the Condor valve, then why did Airfoce change it and today will admit to using the wrong spring And could not fill to 3000psi?
And as for people gauges being off, funny they worked on others guns that filled to 3000psi.
But I guess if you are not using a chronograph to check velocities then you would think the gun was shooting at advertised velocity.
Fact is there was a problem and Airforce recently fixed it after many years. Funny how they valve they develop was very similar to valves developed and shown on the Talon Owners Group long before.
Andrew
Andrew,
AirForce did change the valve, to placate those who live by the numbers. They didn’t fix anything, because the gun still performs the same, though at higher pressure. Same top velocity, same total number of shots.
There was no problem, but some people could not get used to the fact that AirForce told them to not fill to 3,000 for the Condor tank, only. Now they can fill to 3,000 and even if their gauges are off it will work..
The power never changed. You could get 1.200 + f.p.s. with .22 Premiers from Mr. Condor’s gun and you still can with a new one. But the pressure at which that is possible was increased, as well as a few other things.
Andrew, if you pressurize my Daystate Harrier to 3,000 psi it shoots in the 400s. So don’t believe for a moment that all guns work at 3,000. Not all Falcons do. I had a Titan that liked 2600 psi.
BSAs now require 3350 and Walthers need 4350, so where does that put us?
You have to be flexible with PCPs. They do not all perform the same and they probably never will. A knowledgeable owner starts learning his gun as soon as possible, because staying in lockstep just because the instructions list a number isn’t very effective.
Checking velocities with a chronograph is how you establish the performance curve for any PCP. Benjamin Discovery owners are finding that out right now. The instructions say to fill to 2,000, but a lot of those guns like to start at 1,800 or even 1,700. They get the same high velocity and the same number of shots – they are just farther down on the pressure curve, and that saves them pumping and/or air. What is not to like about that?
B.B.
Crow Hunting
I ment to ask what the size of the killzone of a crow is?
Crow,
You have about .75 inches in all directions from the high center of the chest.
B.B.
G’day BB
What is your advice regarding uncocking a spring/strut air rifle?
Just replaced the loading “foot” (that compresses the spring/strut) on my Eliminator and thought this my have helped break it. Got a new one made of 316 stainless.
I certainly did not cock it with the stock unattached…as per warning sticker.
Cheers Bob
Bob,
I forget how an Eliminator uncocks. If there is any slack before the linkage catches the piston, then that would be too much stress on it. But if you can maintain contact as you uncock the gun I can’t see how that would hurt anything.
B.B.
I dont know if anyone else has said this, but the Four Rules apply just as much to air rifles and pistols as they do full fledged firearms.
These are not “toys” or lesser weapons. I have killed many a squirrel, rabbit and crow with mine. They will kill or injure just as their powder propelled cousins.
I was sitting on the deck on day taking a break between sessions and forgot the gun was cocked and loaded and i transferd it from my right hand side to my left keeping it pointed strait up..i always keep it pointed in a safe direction loaded or not and somehow my finger found the sensitive trigger and put a hole in my moms table umbrella lol..thats my gaff..its a nitro piston so sometimes while waiting 5 min between shots i used to keep it loaded..not anymore..one lesson im glad i was tought was to always keep is pointed in a safe diffection..ground sky or target..