Monthly Archives: February 2009

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

It’s been four months since I reported on this project, but today I have an update. For those not familiar with why I’m writing about a firearm in an airgun blog, I’m using my experience with a gun that started out as a lemon to illustrate what you can sometimes do when you have to make lemonade. This lesson pertains to airguns, cars, houses and even life.

I bought this .45 ACP pistol because of the advertising. The claims were, and still are, that you could buy a gun with $2,100 worth of custom features and factory-tuned adjustments for about $500 (at the time). It seemed too good to be true, but having held one at a SHOT Show for a couple minutes and dry-firing it a little, I convinced myself it was true. read more

by B.B. Pelletier

Before we begin, I will be out of town today and tomorrow, so I’m asking you veterans to watch the comments for me. I’ll start answering when I return this weekend.

Guest blogger
Vince rebuilt a Markham gun for Wayne, another blog reader, and here’s the third part of that project. 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 will edit each submission, but we won’t work on any submission that contains gross misspellings and/or grammatical errors. read more

by B. B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

In this report, I’ll tell you about shooting field target using the holdover method and the scopes that go with that. I held over for the first three seasons I shot field target. The first season consisted of a couple demonstration matches to shake out the bugs in our club. We had to do everything for the first time, and we were using 20 borrowed targets that were somewhat obsolete by the time we got them. There were all sorts of operational issues.

It all started at the beginning
I had reluctantly agreed to be the match director because, of the four men who founded the Damascus Ikes Field Target Association (DIFTA) club, I was the only one who had competed in field target matches before. Truth be told, the matches I had competed in would be called Hunter Class today because nobody sat to shoot. One of that club’s founders had a bad back, and they just ran the thing as a stand-up competition. I tried to sit to shoot just once, but gave up after all the criticism and catcalls. I missed the shot, too! read more

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

So many of you commented on how attractive my 2200 is that I thought I would show you this larger photo. Isn’t she a beauty?

Today, we’ll learn what Rick Willnecker has been able to do to my Crosman 2200 Magnum. You’ll remember that he rebuilt the powerplant after I had a problem with a hardened pump seal.

I’ll also draw upon the numbers reported by Joe G. from Jersey. He has a brand new 2200 Magnum that he bought in 2004, so his velocities are right for the gun when new.

First, I pumped my rebuilt rifle 8 times and fired several .22-caliber Crosman Premiers to see how it was shooting. The results of that exercise were very enlightening. read more

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

This is our last look at the Career Infinity. You may recall that the inlet valve seal had failed, and I replaced it in one of the reports. Then the replacement valve failed and I replaced it with a special Teflon inlet valve made by Boris at Pyramyd Air. I said in part three that I would let you know how well the new seal is holding.

Boris made the Teflon inlet valve seal on the left to replace the three-part inlet seal assembly that came with the Infinity. Less mass may keep the seal from deforming too much.

Well, it has held air for two months now, plus the gun has been refilled a number of times. I’m ready to pronounce the gun fixed. Boris’ design works fine. On to the accuracy test. read more

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

There were almost 100 comments to the first part of this report within the first week. Not bad for a report done on a Tuesday. When there are that many comments, I know I’ve struck a chord.

Today, in the velocity report, I’ll show you a few more things about this amazing BB gun. I’ve owned the model in this report for about seven years, but I had never chronographed it before. So, there was a big surprise waiting for me that I’ll share with you in a moment.

First, let’s talk about how this gun cocks. Because the cocking puts wear on the finish of the barrel, many guns you might be tempted to call excellent are really not higher than very good. To cock the gun, you pull or push the barrel straight back into the receiver. I mentioned in Part 1 that the cocking exposes the shooter to the muzzle, so care must be taken to ensure safety. And this is a very powerful BB gun, so it isn’t easy even for an adult to cock. It’s definitely not for kids. read more

by B.B. Pelletier

Guest blogger
Vince is rebuilding a Markham BB gun for Wacky Wayne, and here’s the second part of that project. 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 will edit each submission, but we won’t work on any submission that contains gross misspellings and/or grammatical errors.

Today we’ll see Part 2 of Vince’s project to rebuilt Wayne’s Markham model D BB gun.

Methuselah – Part 2 read more