by B.B. Pelletier
Today we’re going to look at the velocity of the TT33 BB pistol. This gun was tested by Mac McDonald, and I’m reading from his notes. Before I get to the velocity, a reminder is due. This is a single-action-only pistol. That means the hammer has to be pulled all the way back before the gun can be fired. The slide will cycle, but the gun does not have blowback. The hammer has 3 positions: all the way forward (or fired), half-cock and full-cock. The gun will fire only when the hammer is on the full-cock position. Then, the trigger needs to be pulled and the hammer will drop forward, firing one shot.
The trigger is creepy, according to Mac, and breaks at around 8 lbs. He DID note that it had improved as he shot the gun. So, it might be a little lighter than that after a break-in.
Velocity
Mac recorded a velocity of 321 to 383. The average velocity of the test gun was 352 fps. The extreme spread is 62 fps, and the average muzzle energy is 1.40 ft-lbs. Mac used Daisy zinc-plated BBs for his tests.
Because of the deliberate way this BB pistol functions, it’s not for those who want an action pistol. They would be better served by any number of less-expensive and faster-firing BB pistols. The TT33 is an extremely realistic handgun. In fact, the realism is over the top. Order it if you want to own a genuine Russian Tokarev without all the registration nonsense.
Pyramyd AIR is the exclusive importer of the TT33. Because of its firearm origins, they ran a sample past BATF&E, who did not seem to have a problem with the gun. But, remember, the government can change its mind in a heartbeat. They withdrew the Junker carbines, which were made from real AK carbines, and they could decide to do the same with this pistol. Therefore, if you want one, and I mean REALLY want one, the time to act is right now.
Next time, I’ll cover accuracy and wrap up this report.
Good morning, all.
I’m just up for a moment and going back to bed…
PeteZ
Guess it’s good morning and good night. I’m just up watching TV waiting for reruns of “Leverage” to come on. After I take my meds I probably won’t remember it anyway, guess that’s why I watch reruns all the time. Have a good night sleep! zzzzzzzzzz 🙂
rikib
Rikib-respect dont worry it is just a joke 🙂 !
THANKS, I’m going to try an get some sleep now it’s about 3:50am here.
rikib
Good Morning B.B.,
If my memory is working this morning, wasn’t another converson of the Tokarev to a CO2 powered, BB firing pistol band by the BATF&E awhile back?
Mr B.
Mr. B,
I’m not aware of an earlier Tokarev BB pistol, but that isn’t conclusive. Maybe they tried to import this one earlier?
B.B.
BB:
Checking out the price of the TT33 on the PA site I had to do a double take.
That is cracking value for money.
Ok I know it is a BB pistol,but WHAT a BB pistol to have.
I missed the opportunity to own a converted Lee Enfield MKIV air rifle which fired Air Cartridges and regretted it ever since.
C-S:
Combine your two hobbies.
Build a model battleship(Preferably the Bismark)and float on the surface of your aquarium.
Using your air gun,shoot the model below the waterline and then watch it gently sink to the bottom.
Take the fish out first 🙂
DaveUK
Dave,
Do I shoot through the glass of the aquarium first? Maybe I’ll see the ship sink all the way to the floor.
-AlanL
Dave,
A converted SMLE? The No. 4 is one of my favorite battle rifles!
B.B.
Hello BB 🙂
This rifle was on the market in the UK back in the mid 80s.
It was converted to fire the Saxby&Palmer air cartridge which was the same as the subsequent BACS (Brocock air cartridge system).
I read about it in a UK airgun magazine at the time.
The reviews were very glowing.
Sorry I can’t remember the name of the Mag I saw it in BB.
‘Airgunner’rings a bell.
DaveUK
BB:
I did a bit of digging and can find only comments on other forums about the Converted MK 4 Enfields.
Apparently there was only about 900 ever made.
This rifle appears to have passed into folklore.
DaveUK
Dave tried,didn t liked 😉
rikib,
The comments you wanted deleted have been removed.
Edith
Noticed that. Thank you! 🙂
rikib
Alan L:
You are right about the glass.
We don’t want a ‘Deuce Bigalo’ situation on our hands 🙂
C-S:
‘Tried’ I was only kidding……what was it like,big splash?lol
DaveUK
Dave i am kidding too,i love animals and you would be suprised how some fish can be clever especially south american cihlids ,whats with your gun!?
C-S:
I have done a DIY mod on my B-3 after being inspired by ‘Derrick38’.
To quieten the spring noise I added a couple of thin rubber bushes to where the stock screws into the body of the rifle.
Plus I have packed the hollow stock with tightly wrapped thin plastic carrier bags.
They are light and mould round the mechanism OK.
This has deadened the loud ‘Twang,Thunk’sound a bit.
All the other mods will have to wait on the cash flow 🙁
DaveUK
What s with your accuracy did you test it!?
C-S:
Oh yes, I straightened out the rear sight housing and replaced the sprung sliding elevation noggin with a thin metal dowel.
It will never be a target rifle with open sights, but gone are that days of shooting low and to the left.lol
DaveUK.
On the subject of shooting pellets into water it is quite amazing how far they still travel,so beware.
I fired my snub nose Brocock .22 from a distance of a couple of feet into water contained in a plastic bucket.
The objective being to retrieve the pellet and see what scoring was made by the rifling on the pellet.
Unfortunately I fired at a slight angle and shot a hole in the bucket nearly six inches below the waterline.
Mythbusters did a test and found the high velocity rounds like 30-6 and 50 cal broke up as soon as they hit the water.
The 12 gauge slug carried on a few feet though.
DaveUK
Dave,
Did you ever see the film “Saving Private Ryan”? One of the things that stayed with me the most was the underwater shots of bullets killing our guys.
I shot a Baracuda with my .22 RWS Diana 350 into the swimming pool at a 45 degree angle to see what would happen. You wouldn’t want to be within anywhere within 4 feet of the entry point, trust me. The splash went 5 feet up in the air.
-AlanL
Alan L:
You know what this means?
We can go fishing with our air rifles 🙂
DaveUK
Sure but use pointed ammo cause it can brake surface tension ,domes would shatter like hitting a brick- come on i am whatching Braniac too 🙂
C-S,
The good quality domed pellets do not shatter or break apart when hitting water. I’ve shot several. In fact, they hardly get damaged at all. I recently did that in order to capture a pellet intact which I wanted to count the rifling grooves in to confirm that I had got a 9-groove LW barrel on my custom 2240KT pistol. I posted photographs of the pellet on Photobucket a while back. I’ll have to try hollow points and see if those break up. But I agree with you that pointed pellets would probably be best for deepest penetration in water.
TwoTalon,
The thing that most intimidates the neighborhood kids when they come swimming (at least the little ones) is when I tell them there’s a chemical in the water that if they pee in the pool the water immediately turns bright red around them. If any of them ever put that to the test I’d never see it! 😀
-AlanL
Alan OK-myth BUSTED 🙂
That’s quite a novel idea for keeping the neighborhood kids out of your pool. Stocking your pool with baracuda sounds great. Would a big gator work as well? Piranha?
twotalon
Did Pyramyd pick the winner for the rifle provided by Crosman at the garage sale last Saturday?
Anonymous,
Yes, a winner was selected, and he’s picking up his gun today. We’re hoping he’ll give us permission to take a picture of him with the gun and post it on the blog along with his first name.
Edith
Edith,
Did a recent change take effect in the Google RSS where clicking on the blog header of a RSS comment now opens a new window? That is really convenient and a very good feature!!! It was a real pain to have to click the back button to get back to RSS. If it’s new, THANK YOU!!!! If not, well, thanks anyway.
-CJr
It is creating a new window in IE8 also. Good deal!
=CJr
CJr,
I’m unaware of any changes that were made. Did you download an update to your software? If so, maybe that had the desired effect.
Edith
Now if we can just figure out how to get Google reader to refresh like IE8 does.
I also noticed that IE8 doesn’t have a spell checker while Google does. Is there an option button I’m missing?
-CJr
Try installing “Tiny Spell”. I’ve been using it for quite sometime and it works fine across many applications.
rikib
Edith/Rick
Any chance of a comment preview feature sometime down the line? I would like to minimize the extent to which I make an ass out of myself.
Slinging Lead,
I’ve forwarded your comment to those who are in a position to make that change. I’ve forwarded similar requests in the past, but nothing’s come of them.
Edith
SL,
Just got back an answer. A preview feature for blog comments is now on the list. Don’t know when it’ll happen, but at least it’s on the list.
Edith
Edith
“The List” is good enough for me. May I add that you are an exemplary example of PA’s stellar customer service?
What’s the big deal! You don’t have a chance to read what you have written before you click on the “Submit Comment” button! I admit I’ve screwed up (many times), but that is because I did not read what I had written. This really should be a low priority item with everything that the programmers have been going through.
rikib
I would like to say thank you and wlecome you home from the deadly jaws of the horsepital monster.
Several years ago I purchased a cfx in 177 at the first Pyramid Garage sale. The gun and som Crosman Premiers in the box pretty much killed my toy budget for a while.
The gun has gone through 3400 pellets or so (I don’t count I kept the boxes and tins) and with the addition of a GRT trigger has become as accurate as i could evger hope for. I never used the JB bore paste to clean it in the beginning and had a great time breaking it in.
A friend daughter and son in law needed some help and a refused dollars so they bought me a gift. It is a Wally World special A Beeman RS1 with bith a 22 and 177 option. Neither shoots straight enough to consistently hit in a 1 inch circle. After the CFX it was pretty disappointing and when switching back to the CFX and shooting 3/8 inc hgroups I figured some of it had to do with the rifle. I tried lots of different pellets and none were any better.
I did decide that the 22 cal pellets were much easier to handle, so I stuck it out
I went to the Pyramid garage sale last weekend hoping to find a diana 34 or CFX in 22, nmo such luck. There were some nice things but all way above my budget. I bought 2 boxes of premiers in 177 lites and 2 boxes in 22 and the JB bore paste. I took advantage of the buy 3 and get one free offer. I also bought some of the pellets in the damaged tins.
I brought home the damage tins and had to go back and pick up the premiers and the bore paste yesterday
The bore paste cleaning recommended by Tom turned the 22 version into a much more accurate shooter. The premiers in 22 are quite accrate in the gun and some of the others were almost as good.
I may pass on the cfx in 22 now as this Beeman is pretty nice after all.
Thanks for all your advice.
jim
Any Hockey Fans! Can the Black Hawks put it away tonight!
rikib
All, I just had the very pleasant experience of speaking to Tom, himself, over the phone–an experience I would hope for everyone. Tom is as affable and pleasant to talk to as he is on the blog. He sounds terrific (So does Edith in the few seconds I had with her), and you would never believe either of them have been through the two months that they have. If Tom is still in the recovery mode, then the full-power effect must be quite overwhelming. He effortlessly picked out the Hawaii area code of my cell phone which I do not think is common knowledge among residents of Texas. Anyway, the recovery looks to be proceeding well.
BG_Farmer, glad you’ve seen the light and are now in a more leisurely occupation. Yes, I agree that steel cans would be much tougher to penetrate than glass bottles. My guillotine model actually wouldn’t be accurate in fixing the can in place for penetration tests. I don’t have a TV, so have not seen the show but it doesn’t look promising. I wonder if they have checked the guy’s credentials to see if he is really a Marine. In the book, Inside Delta Force by veteran Lee Haney (the basis of the TV show The Unit), he claims that the Marines had “the cream of the crop” as he put it of shooting talent. However, I suppose he was speaking of their snipers. Missing a big target at 100 yards with a Springfield is pathetic. I understand that before Belleau Wood, the Marine line infantry astonished French marksmanship instructors by regularly hitting targets at 900 yards.
Robert, I do believe that the SMLE is unjustly maligned for inaccuracy compared to the Mauser and Springfield, and it certainly sounds like it is fun to shoot with that rapid bolt action.
Chuck, glad you got to shoot your Savage and that it agrees with you. That Accu-Trigger is really hot. As for the bolt, the cock on opening, as someone mentioned, is a feature of the Mauser design that is just about universal on all sporting rifles. The cock on close, which is indeed faster to operate, is unique to the SMLE. I’ve never heard of a design which cocks while retracting the bolt (except for my airsoft rifle which disguised the spring mechanism with a bolt action). My Savage 10FP in .223 did not feel at all stiff from the beginning, so I don’t know why yours would. I expect it will wear smooth. BG_Farmer, I was thinking of your comment about slop to the bolt in the Savage. I retracted the bolt on my 10FP and saw that it indeed did wiggle around more than I expected. While shooting, it is perfectly smooth. Then, I compared it to my Anschutz and found that there was also some wiggle of the bolt in full retraction. It wasn’t as much as the Savage although the Savage action is considerably longer. I don’t believe any bolts are made that have no lateral movement at all.
Here’s a question on firearms revolvers. The cylinder of my Ruger Single Six rotates freely and I’ve learned how to remove and replace it easily enough. But despite this free movement, the cylinder must be machined so that when a chamber is lined up with the barrel, it must form a near perfect seal for the bullet to be fired with any accuracy. How can this be? Free movement and the kind of exact fitting you need of chamber to barrel seem incompatible. I admit with the cylinder in place, I cannot see any daylight between it and the barrel. However, reason says that there has to be some gap there which should spray gas onto your hand with the discharge, and it seems impossible that you get the same fit of chamber to barrel as you would with a semiauto. It seems like revolvers should be far less accurate than semiautos if they even function at all.
Have you considered that Julius Erving, Dr. J of basketball fame, could hardly find a handgun, he could use? His hands are said to be so large that he can palm a basketball.
Matt61
Matt,
I don’t think the Mannlicher-Schoenauer bolt will wiggle on retraction, not much anyway. I would suppose all Mauser-like/ish actions do to some degree, though. As you say, it is one of those things you notice when playing with a new rifle for the first time, then — assuming it functions correctly during use — never pay much attention to again. My 111’s bolt probably wiggles more than your 10’s, simply because of the difference in length.
Guess no hockey fans, well I’ll be monitoring the blog but watching the game!
rikib
History Channel repeated the first Top Shot show this evening so I got a chance to see it. I have no idea what was wrong with the blowhard Marine “professional shooter.” No do I know where he shoots professionally, or what he shoots, but he was really poor with the Springfield. By his own admission he fired 30+ rounds with no hits.
But if the next episode is as bad, with the various team members looking for bragging rights instead of earning them behind the trigger, I will quit watching.
pete
Does an illuminated scope that has red/green reticle have it where you don’t have to have either a red/green on but have regular crosshairs? The specific scope model is Leapers 5th Gen 4x32AO Bug Buster Scope
/product/leapers-5th-gen-4×32-ao-bug-buster-scope-illuminated-mil-dot-reticle-1?a=502
Also can you mount lasers on scopes and if you can, is the one im looking at capable of having one?
Brian,
Leapers refers to their illuminated reticles as “RGB,” which stands for red, green and black. So, yes, you don’t have to use the illuminated reticle if you don’t want to because plain black is also available.
Edith
Brian,
I have some scopes with illuminated reticles but never use them. I leave the lights off and go with the black. The good news is this means the scope is still usable even if your battery goes dead.
About mounting a laser on a scope: I’ve seen it pictured in a gun magazine and it looks really weird. The laser has a mount that allows it to fit over the scope tube. I would assume any scope tube would be fine. By that I mean if the lasers mount is a 1″ mount it would work with any 1″ scope tube. A special scope is not required.
PA has one for both a light and a laser:
/product/bsa-varmint-hunter-precision-laser-sight-light?a=1046
Also I found this on another site:
Raptor Laser Sight with 30mm/1 inch Scope Mount Kit $49.44
Use the Raptor Laser Sight to mount on your Rifle Scope. Suitable for rapid-firing or shooting at moving targets. The kit includes a high strength Aluminum Alloy mount with hex keys. It can be mounted any where on the main body of your scope tube and can be rotated to either side. The laser is operated by a Push On, Push Off switch on the end of the unit. The laser is powered by 3 LR44/AG13 Button Batteries (Included). Scope mount is 30mm and can be used on 1 inch scopes with 1 inch bushings. (1 inch bushings supplied.)
Features:
* Easy to mount on any scope.
* Batteries included.
* All mounting hardware included.
* Mounting hex wrenched included.
* Packaged in foam lined hard box with magnetic latch.
Specification:
* Length: 3.25 inches
* Diameter: .625 inches
* Mount Offset: .8 inches
* Mount for 1 inch and 30mm Scope Tube. (Included)
* Uses 3 LR44/AG13 Batteries (Included)
* High Strength Aluminum Alloy
CONGRATS! Chicago BlackHawks 49 years in waiting for that Stanley Cup to return. They say the Stanley Cup is the most difficult trophy to win in sports, 117 years old.
rikib