by B.B. Pelletier
A quick correction about the HW30 price drop mentioned in yesterday’s blog. Volvo brought to our attention the fact that this isn’t the HW30S. In fact, it IS HW30S, which means it has the Rekord trigger and fiber optic sights. Apparently, the gun morphed at some time but the web page was never updated. It now has the correct picture and all other data has been corrected.
Guest blogger
I’m still in New York with Paul Capello, filming for The American Airgunner TV show that debuts on July 4. My wife (Edith) thought this would be a good time to do a guest blog about me. I blame Wacky Wayne for this. He pressured her into revealing inside info about me during my absence. Those of you who are married will see right through Edith’s so-called revelations and not believe them.
Life with B.B. (aka Tom Gaylord)
by Edith Gaylord (Mrs. B.B.)
Don’t believe B.B.’s preamble to this guest blog…except for the part about Wacky Wayne. If he hadn’t suggested this, you’d never get the scoop on B.B.
Bacon guns
Ah, the aroma of cooking bacon…pork fat sizzling in the frying pan first thing in the morning. One problem. It’s 3 pm, we have no bacon and I’m not in the kitchen cooking. That strange porky aroma wafting through the house is the smell of a Chinese spring gun dieseling. I can only assume the Chinese have a glut of pork fat and are stuffing it into every product they ship overseas.
I’ll never forget the first time I whiffed that odor. I was sitting in my office and the cats (we had a whole tribe of them at the time) started lifting their noses to the air, as though they detected the odor of food being prepared. They rose from their sleep and followed their noses…to Tom’s office. (If you’re old enough to remember cartoon character Pepe LePew, picture him floating through the air as he followed a scent!) I followed the cats, and we stood in the doorway and watched as Tom fired shot after shot into a pellet trap. Yup, it was the arrival of the first bacon gun. After some more shooting, he was relegated to shooting them in the basement. Still, the odor found its way upstairs. So, over the years, I’ve grown accustomed to this smell. To make sure nothing’s out of order and that he really hasn’t started a fire with a ham as kindling, I still yell out, “Chinese gun?” So far, the answer’s always been “Yep.”
Hole-y…everything
Last year, my hubby confessed a lot of so-called “accidents” in a blog. Now, he’s found out that his confessions have backfired on him. I use that blog as a reference. If something wasn’t mentioned in that blog, then that means it’s new. And, if it IS new but he didn’t tell me about it, then he’s involved in a cover up. I just want to know when something is damaged. I’ll work it out in my own head after that. If I didn’t yell at him for shooting the couch, then I’d say I’m pretty reasonable about these things.
Bringing you up to date, I noticed a hole in his office wall. When I commented on it a few weeks ago, he said he’d told me about it before…it was an older shot. I don’t think so! Plus, the pellet was still in the wall.
The other day, I noticed a hole in the wall next to the grandfather clock, but he claims it wasn’t a pellet hole…maybe just funny texture on the wall. Texture isn’t dented in about 1/8 inch, doesn’t have a gray tinge to it and usually isn’t perfectly round. Plus, I just took a .177 pellet and it fit perfectly in the hole. A real “Cinderella” moment!
For longer-range indoor shooting that doesn’t involve chronographing, B.B. often sets up the silent pellet trap on his night table. Through a series of doorways and hallways, he can get a pretty good distance for shooting. I just looked at the wall next to the night table and noticed a perfectly round, pellet-sized hole. Our bedroom walls are sand-colored. The hole is white. A round piece of sand-colored wall still rests on the carpet.
In the deep, dark recesses of my mind, I imagine that one day I’ll try to pound a nail in the wall to hang up a picture, and the entire thing will crumble to the ground as a previously hidden network of pellet-sized holes have turned it into Swiss cheese sheetrock. In our next house, I think we’ll forgo the sheetrock and just hang sheet steel.
Shopping with B.B.
I am a different kind of woman: I detest malls and most types of shopping. Yet, the inevitable happens and a-shopping we must go. No matter where we are, you can be certain it’s going to be near a sporting goods store or a gun store. When I say “near,” you’re probably thinking it’s on the way to our final destination or within 5 or 10 minutes of our destination. To B.B., it means it’s on the same planet.
Recently, we were planning to dine in a restaurant located in a strip shopping center. B.B. wanted to stop at a military surplus ammo store “on the way.” Giving it a great deal of thought, I couldn’t see any common streets between the two places. Sure, they’re both in Texas, but no one would consider the store to be on the way to or from the eatery. As it turns out, “on the way” really meant that it would become on the way if we planned to go to the store after we ate. I realize that I’m merely a woman and could never understand the intricacies of planning a travel route (other than traveling cross country several times by myself with a car full of yowling cats), so maybe B.B.’s logic is actually male logic and is not meant to be understood by the female brain.
We have several big box stores within striking distance of our home. Do you think they’re selling pellets, BBs, airguns, scopes and other accessories that Pyramyd Air does NOT sell? I doubt it, but B.B. seems to think these stores could hold a treasure trove of previously unknown products. So, whenever we go out to eat, buy groceries or shop for other necessities, he mentions that a certain store is “on the way” (and you already know what THAT means). Our short trip turns into a much longer trek that involves scouring the shelves of stores that barely have a clue about airguns. I can only remember one time that we actually found something that Pyramyd Air didn’t sell. In fact, it was a product that they DID sell, but the big box store had it repackaged under another name. Yet, this has not deterred B.B. from frequenting every big box store in the area “just in case.”
This is just the beginning
Well, Wayne, I hope you’re happy. Of course, there are more things I could reveal, but I’ll save those for another blog. I’ll continue to collect data to report to later. It’s only fair that you get to know the real B.B.
Edith,
Great blog! I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who will make gun shops “on the way” and shoot holes in things that shouldn’t have holes in them.
I have a question that you or someone else on here may be able to help me with. Since I first heard of the airgun TV show, I have tried to follow the links to the website, tried to enter the address in manually, on two computers, with FireFox and with Internet Explorer and I’ve never been able to see the website. I get a page load error as if I had no internet connection or the address is incorrect (which it is not). I’ve tried disabling all security software. I don’t have any trouble with any other websites, only this one. It’s making me crazy! The only common link I can think of between both computers is that they both share an internet connection through the same Belkin router. I’ve looked in the router settings and I don’t see anything that would cause the problem. Does anyone have any idea why this would be happening?
I do my shooting in the garage. Since my wife never goes out there, she simply doesn’t know about the holes in that wall….
Thanks for the update on the HW30S.
When I saw yesterday’s note on the HW30, my first thought was “A price drop on the HW30 must mean Pyramyd Air is finally going to carry the HW30S.”
So I’m pleasantly surprised to see the new price also offers the advantages of the “S” version of the HW30.
UW Hunter,
Don't know why there's a problem going to the TV show's website. I just went there & have copied the URL from my browser:
http://www.americanairgunner.com/
Just cut-and-paste it into your browser address bar. It should work. Also, you can go to Google and search for "American Airgunner" (use the quotes) to find the site. Click on that link. If it doesn't work for you that way, then there's something wrong with your ISP connection. Maybe they've blocked the site.
Incidentally, the video of the show is not the one shown at the SHOT show. The video has been changed several times & will probably change again some time in the future. I think Paul is rotating the clips to keep it interesting.
Edith (Mrs. B.B.)
Edith-
Really good stuff! I do, however, have a suggestion for another blog by you. Tom revealed that you were left eye dominant but right handed. I suffer the same affliction and was wondering how you have learned to cope with the problem when shooting. I learned to shoot as a kid but didn’t know about my problem until years later. As a kid I learned how to employ “Kentucky windage”. I’m just too much of a klutz left handed. How have you coped? I love to read a blog about that. We’ll all be waiting for further revelations about Tom. Thanks!
UW Hunter,
RE: http://www.americanairgunner.com/ website
What browser are you using?
Do you Flashplayer 10 installed?
Do you have (what sort?) a "high speed" internet connection?
The site is rigged so that the Flashplayer "movie" starts playing immediately. I'd guess that there is something about the site that causes a timeout problem with the browser loading.
Frankly there are so many browsers, !@#$%^&*( browser addons and system configurations that I doubt the website has been "adequately" tested. I'm doing a website for a professional group to which I belong and I have two different computers for testing and 6 different browsers that I use. I need two computers so that I can test two different versions of Internet Explorer. Internet browsing standards are getting better, but there is still much room for "interpretation" of the standards. (ie, different browsers create different renderings of same webpage.)
Herb
BB, off topic. I was going over your post on melting lead, and you mentioned using the lead for casting your own bullets. About the lead you melted, you said it contained an unknown amount of tin and antimony. Would that affect your bullets? If so, how do you monitor and control said amounts of non-lead? A friend tried once to use lead from batteries, but ended up with an extremely hard bullet that stuck in the bore upon loading (blackpowder). JP
Edith,
Thank you for the real scoop on the master!
The bad news for us newbies, is; We won’t get any better with time…
After 50 years….. We’ll still be making holes in walls and ceilings.. (and with Kevin’s new both eyes closed technique we will have even more)!! …
…and still have a strong desire to see the newest airgun and compare it to the old ones..
This means I better start building my “gun house”… but steel walls might be a little cold for me.. so I’ll just make them solid 4” thick lumber with worm holes in it.. then no one will know whether it is a worm hole or pellet hole!!
Do you think Tom will ever stop missing the pellet trap?
Is there life after guns?…
Is there life without guns?…
Was there life before guns?..
wow.. am I profound… or maybe it’s newbielost… not sure which..
Wacky Wayne
“hello” was the word verification
Wayne,
Tom claims the holes are due to wildly inaccurate guns. The holes in the walls, ceiling & sofa are not due to anything he's done. Yeah, right.
There is life after guns…but it's not a good one.
There is no life without guns. How could you even suggest such a thing!
There was life before guns…but it was obviously lacking, so guns were invented.
Like most women, I have an answer for everything! And, just in case you don't already know this, I am always right–because I'm a woman.
Edith (Mrs. B.B.)
High “mom”-your son reporting in-Scott298. I hope all is well and while “dad” is away could I borrow one of his pcp’s. If “dad” hasn’t told you about me by know -boy is he keeping secrets!!! When he come home-if you don’t have the answer-I have an rws 350 in .177 Scoped with a Leapers 3×12 with side wheel parallex adjustment and illuminated reticle. All winter I have been shooting indoors so there has been no change in the enviroment. My problem is that every time I have the gun zeroed in the next target shooting trip the gun is off. It still groups great but it’s not hitting the bull’s eye. I can get 5 shot groups that can be covered by a nickel but every time I go to my indoor range the zero has moved and I have to sight her in all over again. I use the same pellets, Shoot from a benchrest, have a 50lb bag of sand that I rest my hand on-not the gun- and the indoor conditions never change-so where am I going wrong? P.S.–(when can I come home?)
Mrs.BB
Thank you!
Reading about your view just makes
both of you seem that much better
to us mere mortals:)
I would also like to commend you on
your self esteem and being so
comfortable with your self.So many women these days would be horrified to be
identified by who they are married to even if only in one area.The fact that you know who you are and don’t seem to need to
categorize your self is great.
It seems like you’re aware that you’re an individual with your own worth but realize that you are part of a team.Like BB has made clear,I think you are very special.
I count myself lucky to be with a
very special woman too.
UW Hunter
Is it possible that your ISP is blocking it because it is obviously
a gun site? some do unless it sneaks in under the radar like PA.
JTinAL
My wife gets me everytime by saying “I need to stop at A store” (usually an unamusing one for me with no cool departments or stores nearby) and wants me to come along. What she really means is several stores and by the time I come to my senses, it’s too late to jump out of the moving car.
Awesome post, I love it.
Bp
A coworker told me a story once.His parents were gone for a few days and he and a buddy took out his dads rifle (very bad idea of course!).Well, the rifle was loaded and went off. Noone was hurt, but the bullet went through a wall and into a closet. They were in a panic to cover up their bad deed and had to quickly patch the hole in the wall and make it invisable.This they did.His parents came home.They thought they were in the clear until his mom approached him and asked about why her entire rack of clothes hanging in her closet all had holes in them and all at the same level!!The bullet had gone through every article of clothing hanging there. He had to fess up of course.
Jon
Volvo,
Turkey report..
yes, I'm a turkey..
oh, you mean about hunting for turkeys.. the birds..
Since it's so close to the house, I've been out three times for the last hour of light in the evening.. trying to find where they roost exactly.. and it ain't easy.. Josh & Nate have had to do the children thing, so It's been just me at night..
I set up, wait, and do my best to make a scratchy call.. I do get return gobbles, but they haven't come to me yet..
The best I've done so far, is, while stalking my way to setup near a suspected roosting tree, I spooked a couple jakes who flew through the tree tops.. I got off two shots but the tree branches were killed, not the birds!!
But… that was very exciting!!! … and has got me hooked on going back as much as possible..
Josh was saying that it is very difficult to get them to come to you.. the males think the females should come to them, especially the old Toms.. (Edith.. is that the way it is for you?)
So the sitting in a blind thing seems less productive.. (and I get antsy.. I like to move around).. it's great for calling back and forth..(and I get as many as 5 calling back from different spots)..
..but so far they don't want to come to me..
Josh says mornings are more likely, since they are coming down off their roost, and looking to hook up with the females, who roost by themselves… and early mornings are when he and Nate can join me more often..
Scratching my head and turkey caller..
Wacky Wayne
BB,
Just to let you know – Edith’s admission to future surveillance plans for future blogs about you, directed at you, could be construed as stalking, even though they are (questionably) non-hostile, and you may be able to build a case, with the right lawyer. Just make sure your lawyer objects to any references to property damage hearsay from her lawyer. A whole world of big box stores would be available to you and you would still have conjugal rights. However, I must warn you, cats do not have conjugal rights therefore you will be totally responsible for their care, feeding AND entertainment. Cats can be vindictive also. Without Edith’s cat herding expertise, I have a vision of you partially eaten under a pile of Chinese guns surrounded by cats that reek of Chinese pork.
-Chuck
Chuck,
What a hoot! Tom said that if it weren’t for me, he’d be squatting over an open fire in the middle of the living room. After 27 years of marriage, I believe him.
Edith (Mrs. B.B.)
Hey guys!
Anyone have experience with Gamo Shadow 640?
I am considering it for an inexpensive plinker and learning-to-tune gun. Any opinions?
George
RED ALERT!!!
Hi BB,
Please check out the new Marauder videos on Crosman’s site. If you think, as I do, that this is showing an APPALLING violation of basic gun safety, please tell one of your contacts at Crosman.
THROWING a gun to your buddy at the range?!?!? It’s something I’d expect to see shot by some dumb teenager on YouTube, not from a company like Crosman.
Duncan Idaho
Oh, never mind, Crosman just edited out the throwing bit in the past hour.
Duncan
Edith,
That was very entertaining. I’m amazed at these missed shots by B.B. who is such a pro. Interesting to see the massive logistical support behind our airgun guru.
Volvo, I forgot to mention that the Bushman is only $20!
Matt61
Scott298,
I also own an RWS 350 and when I first got it, it was also throwing pellets all over the place and I had to re-zero the scope everytime I picked it up. My problem was finally tracked down to loose screws – the screws holding the action in the stock were loose, the scope rail mount screws were loose and the mounting tube screws were loose. Because this rifle really has a heck of a recoil, the screws do loosen up. I ultimately solved this problem by using blue Locktite and ended up getting a Leapers Picatinny rail mount that corrects for the barrel droop the RWS’ are notorious for. You have to use Weaver mounts with this rail, however. Hope this helps.
So it appears you’re the long lost brother to all of us on this blog…..
fred
HW30S,
Glad to see that it is the “S” which is an outstanding value at $299.00. Essentially that makes it a Beeman R-7 except with a slightly different stock. If you’re looking for the seller that has it at $220, you can stop now and buy from PA. They are in Canada and shipping runs close to $60.00 to reach the States, also returns are virtually impossible. With either the free shipping PA offers or one of the coupon codes the HW30S will probably cost less and not take six weeks to arrive.
The HW30S is currently my favorite Springer.
Wayne,
Never took a turkey myself. Back when I did more firearm hunting they were pretty scarce but the population has increased a bunch in the last couple decades.
I did however convince the girls when they were younger that their old man shot the turkey for Thanksgiving. So in addition to Santa and the Easter bunny we needed to stage the turkey harvest every year. The youngest actually did her first grade drawing for Thanksgiving of me shooting a turkey. I guess what all this is leading to is hit the grocery store for one if all else fails. My daughters used to believe the hole from the pop up thermometer was where I shot it, but you may need to lean it against a tree and have at it with the Browning Auto Five before you bring it home.
Volvo
Herb, Edith, and anyone else who may be able to help,
I have tried copying and pasting the link, found it on Google, and typed in the address on the latest version of FireFox and Internet Explorer. Every time,after a long pause, I get this error: Address Not Found
Firefox can’t find the server at http://www.americanairgunner.com
The browser could not find the host server for the provided address.
* Did you make a mistake when typing the domain? (e.g. “ww.mozilla.org” instead of “www.mozilla.org”)
* Are you certain this domain address exists? Its registration may have expired.
* Are you unable to browse other sites? Check your network connection and DNS server settings.
* Is your computer or network protected by a firewall or proxy? Incorrect settings can interfere with Web browsing.
I’ve tried disabling security features and I go to lots of other gun websites with no trouble. This is the only site that I’ve ever had trouble with.
UW Hunter,
What happened when you clicked on the Google link?
Edith (Mrs. B.B.)
UW Hunter (scuba?),
I use Fifefox and have my computer fully protected with McAfee. I entered the site all the ways Edith suggested.
The best test is to google americanairgunner and select the result that points to the americanairgunner.com site and see what happens. This eliminates any chance of misspelling or whatever.
Check your firefox and browser filter settings to make sure you’re not rejecting it for some obscure filter setting. Do any of your other gun sites have the word gun in the url? Make sure your wife hasn’t put child protection software on to keep you out. Make sure the Windows Microsoft firewall isn’t running if you also use a third party firewall.
-Chuck
This comment has been removed by the author.
UW,
Here’s something else you can check: Make sure you don’t have pop-up blocker checked. You must allow pop-ups for the AAGuner site to work properly.
Another thing someone touched on is to make sure you using the current version of Realtime or Quicktime or whatever you use to play videos.
Word verification “buggeo”. How does it know?!
-Chuck
UW,
My Firefox browser is using Adobe Flash Player 10.
-Chuck
If you watch the video real close near the end, you will see BB giving a 2 nanosecond demonstration of the artillery hold. I can’t tell if both eyes are open though, because it looks more like Kevin’s both eyes closed technique to me.
Ah BB, you will be under so much close scrutiny now that you are on camera. You’ll be up there (or is down there) with politicians and movie stars.
-Chuck
Edith,
You aren’t a guest blogger! Tell Tom I said that.
I have to admit that I chipped the cross supports on a bar stool we have. How did I do that? By using them as target supports for a sound based chronograph before I bought a “real” one. Fortunately it isn’t a prized posession, it came with the house when we bought it and maybe I’ll get it repaired before my wife notices! :-[
A.R. Tinkerer
UW Hunter,
RE: http://www.americanairgunner.com/ website
First, making an educated guess, it is very very probable that the problem is something in the configuration of your machine/browser.
There are error codes, and there are error codes. There is no absolute overall “standard” for exactly how and why errors get thrown in a web browser. Also many errors are timing sensitive. As I said, I suspect that your machine is timing out somehow waiting for the video to download. You in turn get a goofy error that the site doesn’t exist instead of an error indicating that the webpage has timed out trying to download the webpage.
Websites in general don’t do a lot of configuration checking to see that your browser is configured to work with their site. It is YOUR “personal computer.” What you don’t want to be a tester and configuration expert?
… I’ll confess that after 30 years I’m getting tired of it too. With DOS 3.2 I know exactly how everything was being loaded and what was happening. With operating systems with a gig of code and half a million files on a PC, those days are long gone.
Try loading webpage:
http://www.americanairgunner.com/sponsors.html
(QUESTION 1)Does that page work?
There is no video on that page. I expect that page will load fine. If so that means that there is no problem with blocking or the DNS.
No problem if you use numbers instead of website name. The point of the DNS is to allow you to use the name instead of the numbers. It also allows the name to be moved to a different number. (So you could move a website to a different ISP and still have viewers reach your site.)
(QUESTION 2) Again, what kind of connection do you have (dial up with modem, DSL, high speed cable?)
Herb
Kevin,
Ha ha, I knew someone was going to mention that bit about exercise number 13. The Russians have a lot to offer, but they remain a little mysterious.
Matt61
JP,
I promised to do a report on bullet casting, but I haven’t yet. As for how do I test the lead, I do it with my thumbnail, via a scratch test. It’s remarkably accurate, and so are my bullets! There are modern methods, of course, but I think and act like I’m living in 1870.
I ain’t too precise, but it works.
B.B.
Scott,
Nice try on the PCPs!
THe problem with that 350 is it’s a breakbarrel, and they are twitchy with how they are held. Also with parallax.
Put a strip of tape on the butt where your cheek touches when the gun is in n position. Then practice returning to that tape every time. I’m trying to remove the parallax error due to changes in eye positioning.
B.B.
BB,
I’m hoping there will be seasons of American Airgunner for sale on DVD since my in-laws and none of my friends get The Sportsman Channel!
A.R. Tinkerer
(formerly .22 multi-shot)
UW Hunter,
RE: http://www.americanairgunner.com/ website
If your PC is in fact timing out, try hitting F5 (Refresh) after you get the error message. That gives your browser another chance to get the rest of the page.
BB & Edith – I have a number of pellet holes in the garage. Instead of a Chrony, I use a "2X4 Penetrometer" to judge relative velocities.
The Sportsman Channel is part of one of the add-on packages with Comcast. Until I find a job, I'll have to try and find it on-line.
Randy-in-VA,
We have Charter cable, and the Sportsman Channel isn’t even an option. I was told that only satellite TV has this channel. I’m surprised to hear that Comcast has it listed. Maybe Charter will get it soon.
Edith (Mrs. B.B.)
Edith,
Here in California The Sportsman Channel doesn’t seem to be an option.
A.R. Tinkerer
Here in Al. TSC is in the midrange
package with Charter.
Wonder if their programming is a regional thing?
JTinAL
I cant get the site to lload either.
I tried adjusting my settings, and everything. I typed it in. i pasted it in, i searched it, and clicked it, and it didnt work. I even tried the sponsors page, and nothing works. Oh well. Oh yeha i have roadrunner high speed online. I am running Internet Explorer 7, and i have Flashplayer 10. Should i update to IE 8?
Edith,
Nice to know the truth about ol Tom. I dont have any holes in the wall since i rarelyy shoot inside, and when it is, its in the basement,m and thats solid concrete. I try to convince dad, or mom sporting goods stores are on the way, when there halfway across town. lol.
Brody
Brody,
I know if I go under my internet options and then internet security and set the slider from med-high to high the video doesn’t work at the http://www.americanairgunner.com website.
I’ve ran the video on msie 6 ok, but I did have to have the shockwave/flash player updated.
There could be other security issues…sometimes resetting the defaults may work.
Wouldn’t be a bad time to check your updates at microsoft, scan for viruses (avg has a free but computer slowing program) and perhaps use an anti spyware like adaaware or spybot which have good free versions.
Defragging and scaning hard drives wouldn’t hurt too along with clearing out your cookies, saved web pages and website history.
I’ve ran across only one nasty virus planted in a flash video, which at the time, I reinstalled everything on my hard drive just to get rid of it (of course I had back ups). I believe it did eventually create problems for my Media player. Now they’ve updated software to combat it, but it can still leave trails of unwanted files on your computer.
There was another worm like virus I had about 14 years ago, but a good antivirus program like the ones at CA.com knocked it out. It’s also what we use at work.
I’ve tried everything. The page won’t load with the “http://www.americanairgunner.com/sponsors.html” link that Herb posted either. I have a high speed broadband connection and two separate browsers. Everything is up to date and works fine with any other site. No parental blocks, no unusual security settings, visit other sites with “gun” in the URL. I’m at a loss and I really want to be able to see this site.
Thanks everyone for the tips and help. I know this isn’t a tech support site, but you guys are the only ones who can really appreciate my desire to go to this particular site. I haven’t tried changing the DNS server, but I will.
UW Hunter – call your trouble line number for the broadband ISP you have. Tell them the problem and perhaps they will be able to help you out. On the other hand, you can always ask how the weather is in Bangalore, India….
Seriously, call the trouble number.
I have Firefox 3.08 and the website came right up for me.
Edith, I mentioned the ‘sheet steel instead of sheetrock’ comment to my wife, and she pointed out that “ricochets are gonna be a bitch”.
Volvo,
Ye of little faith..
I’ve got a month of spring season still.. and then the fall season.. and I’m hearing the gobbling..
and I can kill the paper ones!!!
and don’t remind me of Elk season either…
practicing my scratch call..
Wayne
UW Hunter & Brody
RE: Not being able to get to American AirGunner website
If you can't load the webpage "http://www.americanairgunner.com/sponsors.html" then something is really screwy. That page has no video, so it should load without any special setup. So your problem isn't with timing out.
It does seem that the address is somehow "blocked" to you. How to trace that down is a mystery to me.
Herb
UW Hunter & Brody,
We used to have a problem receiving Pyramyd Air's weekly email promotions, which are sent by a third-party emailing service. We could receive all email promotions from Pyramyd Air's competitors as well as firearm retailers, which were also being sent by the same third-party mailing service. (So, it had nothing to do with the spam reputation of that service.)
Charter has a special dept. for handling odd problems that their ordinary tech support can't resolve. It took the guy about 6 weeks to get Pyramyd Air's email promos to hit our inboxes. The guy at Charter told me that their computers are blocked from going to a site associated with guns, so they were working in the dark.
I suggest calling your cable company & telling them the situation. I don't know how cooperative they'll be. Our internet cable access is through Charter Business & is a separate service/account from our television cable. It's possible that the business service is more willing to make access changes than those dealing with residential customers (because businesses have a contract & pay more). But it's worth a shot.
There is another solution, but I have not used it. There are sites you can go to that erase your ISP origin. You bring up your browser first thing to that site. It becomes your ISP for all appearances. Nothing is changed on your computer & no software needs to downloaded. I wonder if using one of these websites will help you avoid your ISP's blockage. I know about this because it's the way spammers used to post on our Airgun Letter chat forum in the 1990s. I could ban an ISP, but they kept changing ISPs by going to these sites that cleanse you of your real ISP connection.
Edith (Mrs. B.B.)
Try “http://www.airgunreporter.com”, without the quotes. It’s Paul Cappelo’s site, and there’s a link on there to the airgunner site.
Sorry Edith, I realized that my previous comment could be taken wrong. What I meant was, “You aren’t a guest blogger, you’re family!”
A.R. Tinkerer
(formerly .22 multi-shot)
I think we’re getting closer, but I don’t think that erasing the ISP origin or trying another link is going to fix the problem.
When you link to a site, it is a two way communication. The website creates packets that are rerouted back to you. So the web server has to know to whom the packets are being sent. Thus you send a lot of your information to the web server in your request for the page.
When you get a webpage, then you actually get a pseudo-copy of webpage downloaded to your computer. So when you click on a link, then you go to “your” DNS to convert the alphabetic name to a numerical name.
I’m beginning to suspect that actual numeric address has been removed or blocked at the DNS lookup. The DNS is a basically a database which converts the alphabetic name to a numeric address. I’m not familiar with the tools needed to research blocks, but I’ll look into this…
Also wonder if you can somehow use an alternate DNS lookup. I’d guess that it is possible, but I don’t know how.
It would also seem that
just using numeric address would bypass the lookup. I tried:
http://12.213.224.61
without success and I can see the site. Just using the numeric address might not work since transfer of packets from that address might somehow be blocked too. The router might be blocking all traffic from and to a blocked address. Sort of belt and suspenders.
All in all, I think that the explanation for all of this does have to do with spammers. I doubt that American Airgunner has its own actual server. They probably use some ISP with a server farm. Somewhere along the line the server farm could have been hijacked by, or used by, spammers. The whole block of numbers used by the server farm then probably got blacklisted. Such lists are supposed to be dynamic. Not sure who generates the “master list.” Thus I doubt that the ISP is trying to block sites with guns.
Let’s continue to discuss this in this thread so that the discussion doesn’t get lost.
Herb
Blocked American Airgunner site
Try nslookup. See:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/200525
to use command simply type "nslookup" into "Start/Run" option for Windows. That will open up a window. At the ">" prompt inside the window, simply type the name "americanairgunner.com" (no quotes of course). It should resolve to 65.182.187.86
Herb
This comment has been removed by the author.
RE: nslookup
Didn’t meant to be so cryptic. nslookup basically just uses the already defined method (ie same as web browser) to convert alphabetic address to a numeric address. So this will tell us if the DNS is blocking the address. As I tried to say before the DNS isn’t the only hurdle. Your ISPs router make be blocking all traffic to/from certain addresses (most likely having marked gthemm as spammers, but who no what all reasons you may get on the list…).
Herb
Herb,
You are right. If the ISP is filtering the addresses after the DNS lookup, changing the DNS server won’t work. However, the anonymous browsing might.
UW Hunter,
FYI, after you try the DNS address I posted I will delete those comments.
A.R. Tinkerer
Re: anonymous browsing
I believe the ISP probably doesn’t see the target IP address (i.e. American Airgunner’s address) when using anonymous browsing. This is what could make it work for UW Hunter.
A.R. Tinkerer
Sorry,
I tried http://www.Anonymizer.com once years ago and it didn’t require a download then. I just looked at their site and they require a download now.
Here are a couple alternates:
http://www.megaproxy.com/freesurf/
http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html
or you can search for “anonymous web surfing” in Google. Megaproxy has limited free functionality.
A.R. Tinkerer
A.R. Tinkerer
Agreed anonymous browsing *MIGHT* solve the problem but I doubt it. Anonymous browsing works by hiding your information from the website which you are contacting. UW Hunter’s problem is that American Airgunner is hidden from him. Even with using an anonymous browser I’d think that UW Hunter would be using his ISP’s DNS. (There are ways to get around this but it requires manually configuring the internet connection.)
Basically the internet works via messages. When you want a webpage, then you send a message to the web server who has the page you want. The message has a whole lot of information about you. For example see:
http://www.bufftony.com/browserinfo.html
I’m confident that is not all the information that the web server can obtain. It is just the information that is in the starting request. If you have JavaScript enabled, then the web server can download a page (a message) which has JavaScript code to ferret out more information. Worse yet if you allow Java to be enabled.
That is of course how virus programs do their dirty work. They download and execute code behind your back.
Herb
A.R. Tinkerer,
RE: Using Anonymous browser
It was easy enough, so I tried the two anonymous web browsing sites that you posted. Neither worked for me since the video is blocked for the “free” version. Bummers. Need to find such a site that works when at least the person who can access the site directly can see the video.
Herb
RE: http://www.bufftony.com/browserinfo.html
!@# Ought to look before I say stupid things. That website downloads a page of JavaScript which pokes through your computer. There isn’t that much information about you in packet.
But I think that the information that is in the first table is in fact the information that is encoded in your request. If not exactly right, it is pretty close.
The whole point is that your request for information contains information about you. Very much like “caller ID” on a phone. You can block your ID too, but you still have to first be able to call the number you want to reach.
Herb
Yep, you’re right, the video doesn’t come up through the anonymous sites I gave. I should have tried it myself!
http://www.the-cloak.com seems to work with flash, but the free version doesn’t have enough bandwidth. It has been about 10 minutes and it hasn’t finished buffering the video to play it!
An anonymous service doesn’t need to use the ISP’s DNS since they can have you enter the target address (i.e. http://www.americanairgunner.com) in an entry box on the anonymous service page. It takes the message, extracts the address and does its thing. It can be done other ways too.
A.R. Tinkerer
A.R. Tinkerer
I tried to change the BNS server to the address you provided, but it didn’t stick. After the router restarted itself, it went right back to the automatic setting.
I really appreciate you guys trying to help. I’m at a complete loss on this one. I can usually fix any problems I run into, but this one has me stumped.
UW Hunter,
PLEASE try the nslookup utility. Does the numeric address get returned??
See my post in this thread on April 24, 2009 11:30 AM…
This will tell us if it is in fact a problem with your DNS server or not…
Herb
UW Hunter:
AFTER you try the nslookup utility, please try the anonymous browser at:
http://www.bufftony.com/browserinfo.html
It won’t work fully, but you might get the basic webpage with no video. If you get that much, then the problem definitely isn’t in your machine, it is something screwy at your ISP.
It may or may not work. It depends on if the webpage uses your DNS or the DNS for the ISP of the http://www.bufftony.com
website. I’m not good enough with the Javascript code to tell for sure which it is. So if it doesn’t work at all, then it is still up in the air as to where the problem is.
Herb
UW Hunter,
!@#$%^&*(
The anonymous browser that I want you to try is at:
http://www.megaproxy.com/freesurf/
Sorry for the goof…
Herb
UW Hunter,
Sorry about the DNS address not sticking! I’ll have to cogitate on this over the weekend.
Herb,
I looked at the source for the american airgunner page, saved it to my local disk and opened it locally just to see if the flash movie would still work. It doesn’t! 🙁
A.R. Tinkerer
UW Hunter,
Third thing to try….
RE: Using numeric address for the American AirGunner website.
I don’t know what is wrong, but something isn’t right about using:
http://65.182.187.86/
to open the home page of American Airgunner.(Also
http://65.182.187.86/index.html
doesn’t work.
But if you try to access:
http://65.182.187.86/rats.html
the webpage doesn’t exist and you’ll get an error. Clicking on “webmaster”, which is a different color than the rest of the text, will open an e-mail to our good friend “pcapello.” Using a numeric address in this way is another way to bypass the DNS server of your ISP so a request for the rats.html page is obviously getting to the right server.
A fourth thing to do is to bypass the DNS by using the DOS “ping” utility. Open a DOS prompt. Type “ping 65.182.187.86” at the prompt. The utility will send three requests to the server.
So try the four things that I’ve outlined and let me know. I’ll use that information to figure out the next move. Again the four things are:
1. Nslookup
2. anonymous browser at:
http://www.megaproxy.com/freesurf/
3. http://65.182.187.86/rats.html
4. ping 65.182.187.86
Herb
Herb,
Ping was successful. I was able to access the site using megaproxy!! I don’t see any video links right away, but I don’t have time to search around the site right now (baby’s crying).
THANKS!
UW Hunter,
See posts above. Megaproxy won’t do video for anyone unless you pay for the fee service. We’re just trying to pinpoint where the problem is…
PLEASE try the NSLOOKUP as noted above. I would expect that it will blow up somehow. (no address, wrong address, error, … something screwy).
For instance if I try “notthereherb.com” I get an error
“*** launchmode can’t find noththereherb.com: Non-existent domain”
If NSLOOKUP doesn’t work, then the “problem” is definitely at your ISP’s server. (To them it is probably “working as designed…”) Exactly how you get around the problem isn’t clear yet. Frankly since American AirGunner doesn’t yet really have anything super duper interesting, I wouldn’t fool around with a lot of PC settings just to see it. Sneak a look using someone else’s computer (eg work, public library, neighbor, or relative).
If the “problem” is at your ISP, you should complain and see if they will fix the problem. Considering all the other stuff you can access, it seems silly to block American Airgunner. It is stupid for ISP to act as the “net police.” I can believe that the server farm for American Airgunner’s ISP was spewing spam at some point and that maybe the whole server farm go black listed. But you can see plenty of violence, porn, and guns at other sites. So blocking American Airgunner is worthless.
Herb
UW Hunter
RE: Baby…
Give the baby a hug for me. Remember, you can leave no greater legacy than contributing a decent human being to the world.
🙂
Herb
Herb,
Thank you sir. You are exactly right!!!
Mr B.
Herb,
I tried the NSLOOKUP a couple times. It says that the server is unknown and the DNS request times out.
UW Hunter,
Great information.
Since NSLOOKUP won’t work there is a “problem” with the DNS that your ISP provides. This is confimed since (1) you can PING the numeric address (as provided by others) and
(2) Megaproxy will show basic page even through the video doesn’t come through.
I’d send an e-mail to your ISP technical support, explain the problem, and ask them to fix the DNS. They may or may not do it.
Another option is to hardcode an DNS other than the one provided by your ISP in your internet configuration files. No idea what other problems this might cause in he future.
A third option might be to use the numeric address of the American Airgunner website. If you bypass the DNS you might be ok. Let me check on this some more…
A fourth option to to use some anonymous browser that will stream the video.
With computer systems this complex there are always multiple ways to attack the problem.
Herb
Herb,
If I try to go to the IP address that you provided, this is the screen I get:
Great Success !
Apache is working on your cPanel® and WHM™ Server
If you can see this page, then the people who manage this server have installed cPanel and WebHost Manager (WHM) which use the Apache Web server software and the Apache Interface to OpenSSL (mod_ssl) successfully. They now have to add content to this directory and replace this placeholder page, or else point the server at their real content.
ATTENTION!
If you are seeing this page instead of the site you expected, please contact the administrator of the site involved. (Try sending an email to [the webmaster]) Although this site is running cPanel, WebHost Manager, and Apache software it almost certainly has no other connection to cPanel Inc. or the Apache Group. Please do not send mail about this site or its contents to cPanel Inc. or the Apache Group.
About cPanel:
cPanel is a leading provider of software for the webhosting industry. If you would like to learn more about cPanel please visit our website at http://www.cpanel.net. Please be advised that cPanel Inc. is not a web hosting company, and as such has no control over content found elsewhere on this site.
About Apache HTTP Server:
The Apache HTTP Server is an open source web server which powers many of the worlds web sites. The Apache HTTP server is part of the Apache Group’s many influential projects. Their efforts have helped shape much the world wide web, and they continue to be a dominating force in the web hosting industry.
UW Hunter,
You’re seeing exactly what I’m seeing when you try:
http://65.182.187.86/
I understand the basic concepts of a numeric address but not all of the details.
The page is obviously a default page that should(?) be replaced with something else if the server was “properly” configured.
As I said before… if you try to access:
http://65.182.187.86/rats.html
the webpage doesn’t exist and you’ll get an error. Clicking on “webmaster”, which is a different color than the rest of the text, will open an e-mail to our good friend “pcapello.” Using a numeric address in this way is another way to bypass the DNS server of your ISP so a request for the rats.html page is obviously getting to the right server. Just haven’t figured out to get to the home page: (index.html)with a numeric address.
I’m trying to figure out someway to get the home page by specifying it with the numeric address of the server. Likely possible, I’m just not using the right incantation.
I can’t use the numeric address to get to the website I run either. I’m looking…
Thanks Herb, let me know what you figure out.
UW Hunter,
RE: Numeric address
After poking around, I don’t think that you can use a numeric address to get to the American Airgunner (AG) website.
Basically in order for the numeric address to work, the AG website would have to have a static IP address. In other words the IP address would have to always stay the same and be dedicated to the AG domain name. That is required to use SSL certificates.
However hosting services with shared hosting have an IP address for the server not the website. There is additional information in the page request, besides the IP address, so that the server knows which one of the multiple websites on the server to send back to the requester. So all in all, the point is that if DNS blocking is a big problem, then AG can get around the problem by spending a few extra bucks a month to get a dedicated IP address. You’d then be able to type the IP number of the website to get to the home page and avoid the DNS service.
I won’t get into all the details, but I remembered that my hosting service has a way to get to the website before the DNS propagates. Basically you have to use the master ID for the website. No sense to publish this and make it easy for hackers to know which ID to attack.
So there seem to be four solutions.
(1) Your ISP fixes DNS table.
(2) Use another DNS
(3) Use an anonymous web browser which is using a different DNS.
(4) AG buys dedicated ISP address so that viewers can use the numeric address to circumvent DNS blocking.
As I’ve said before, I’d suspect that the IP address go blocked because of spamming. It is much easier to get a site on the blacklist than to get it off.
Herb
B.B.,
I have some problems. I just bought 500 Daisy Wadcutter pellets for my hunter extreme. My gun shoots 1000 fps with lead. I did what you recommend and tried to sight-in my rifle at 20 yards. But here's the issuue: I can't shoot consistently. I use sand bags and get my gun steady; but I usually have about two consistent shots, then a bad one. What do you recommend? Is it my gun or my scope? Please help.
Thank you.
Anonymous with hunter extreme accuracy problems,
Could be any number of things so I would suggest several things to try. First, are you familiar with the artillery hold?
If not, read this and at the end of the article is a good video to watch:
https://www.pyramydair.com/article/The_artillery_hold_June_2009/63
Next, I would remove the scope and shoot the gun with open sights to eliminate the
possibility that you have a bad scope or a scope that is moving in its mounts.
Next I would suggest that you try other pellets. Crosman Premiers IN THE CARDBOARD BOX and
JSB pellets are usually the most accurate pellets in many airguns. Try a variety of a
heavy (since powerful guns typically like heavier pellets), domed pellets.
Use wadcutter shaped pellets in less powerful guns like 10 meter airguns.
Lastly, make sure you place your cheek the exact same place on the stock every time.
Put a piece of masking tape on your stock to help with repeatibility.
Please report your progress on the most current blog. Here's a link that will take you to the PA home page.
At the top, in the blue banner click on "Blog" and it will take you to the most recent article.
Scroll down to comments and let us know how you're doing:
https://www.pyramydair.com/
kevin
Anonymous with hunter extreme accuracy problems,
Could be any number of things so I would suggest several things to try.
First, are you familiar with the artillery hold? If not, read this and at
the end of the article is a good video to watch:
https://www.pyramydair.com/article/The_artillery_hold_June_2009/63
Next, I would remove the scope and shoot the gun with open sights to eliminate the
possibility that you have a bad scope or a scope that is moving in its mounts.
Next I would suggest that you try other pellets. Crosman Premiers IN THE CARDBOARD BOX and
JSB pellets are usually the most accurate pellets in many airguns. Try a variety of a heavy
(since powerful guns typically like heavier pellets), domed pellets. Use wadcutter shaped pellets in
less powerful guns like 10 meter airguns.
Lastly, make sure you place your cheek the exact
same place on the stock every time. Put a piece of masking tape on your stock to help with repeatibility.
Please report your progress on the most current blog. Here's a link that will take you to the PA home page.
At the top, in the blue banner click on "Blog" and it will take you to the most recent article.
Scroll down to comments and let us know how you're doing:
https://www.pyramydair.com/
kevin
Hunter Extreme guy… those Daisy pellets aren't very good. Many guns shoot very poorly with them, and the fact that they're wadcutters will tend to make them less accurate at longer ranges (possibly as short as 20 yards).
Kevin suggested Crosman Premiers in the box, and while they're good, if a local store carries the Premier Hollow Points in the tin, give them a try. They are generally pretty good.