Monthly Archives: November 2018

An American Zimmerstutzen: Part 1

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

American Zimmerstutzen
What in the world is this?

A history of airguns

This report covers:

  • Firearm
  • Hand made
  • Covered in “charms”
  • How does it work?
  • Where are we going with this?
  • Summary

Today I have something so strange there are no words for it. I titled this report, An American Zimmerstutzen, simply because Whatizit wouldn’t attract many readers. But that’s what I wanted to call it. What in the world is this strange little gun and why does it even exist?

American Zimmerstutzen size
It’s not that big, as the Red Ryder shows.

Firearm

First, this is a firearm. It uses .22 caliber blank cartridges to launch what I was told are .22 caliber lead pellets. That won’t work very well because .22 caliber pellets are not really .22 caliber. More on that later. read more

Air Venturi Match pistol: Part 3

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

Air Venturi V10 pistol
Air Venturi’s V10 Match pistol.

This report covers:

  • Best-laid schemes…
  • Straightforward
  • How to dry-fire the V10
  • Lubrication
  • Moly
  • Test the trigger
  • Put everything back together
  • The fix
  • Summary

Best-laid schemes…

…o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley! The poet, Robert Burns, was right when he said that. I told you that I was going to show you how to lighten the trigger of the Air Venturi V10 Match pistol today, and I am. But in the past this has always been a simple 15-minute job. It should take me maybe 30 minutes with pictures. I had planned to do the accuracy test today, after finishing with the trigger. Nope! Instead I struggled for some time, and in the struggle I learned something valuable that I will now pass on to all of you.

Straightforward

The job I’m going to show you is straightforward. It should be easy for everybody, as long as you don’t stray past where I’m taking you. In Part 2 we left the trigger at between 2 lbs. 2 oz. and 2 lbs. 9 oz. pull. A 10 meter pistol trigger can be as light as 500 grams, which is 17.64 oz. or 1 lb. 1.64 oz. So, where we left the trigger was more than one pound too heavy. read more

Sig Sauer P320 M17 CO2 pellet pistol: Part 2

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Sig M17 pellet pistol
Sig Sauer P320 M17 pellet pistol.

Part 1

This report covers:

  • Action
  • Sights
  • Light rail
  • Holsters
  • Disassembly
  • Installing CO2
  • Removing and installing the magazine
  • Manual
  • Works with BBs
  • Summary

Just a reminder that I’m in the hospital today, so I can’t answer questions. Hopefully I will be back home sometime tomorrow.

This is the completion of my description of the new Sig P320 M17 pellet pistol. Now I need to explain something. This pellet pistol is marked M17 — not P320 M17. Sig calls it the P320 M17, so it is correctly identified both here and on the Pyramyd Air website. But I told you that I bought the P320 M17 firearm, and it is marked with both numbers. Let me show you.

Sig M17 pellet pistol markings
On the top left of the slide the pellet pistol is just marked M17. This is also how the Army sidearm is marked. read more

Sig ASP20 rifle with Whiskey3 ASP 4-12X44 scope: Part 2

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Sig ASP20
Sig ASP20 breakbarrel rifle.

Part 1

This report covers:

  • The silencer
  • Accuracy
  • Tools
  • Whiskey3 ASP 4-12X44 scope
  • Can the scope be used without the ranging system?
  • Summary

Today I will finish the general description of the new Sig ASP20 breakbarrel rifle. If you want one you should have placed an order during the Cyber Monday sale, when they were 20 percent off!

The silencer

Let’s begin with the silencer. I mentioned in Part 1 that it is a real one with technology inside. Instead of baffles Sig uses three “hair curlers,” or at least that’s what they look like. They are in series and are each wrapped with felt. I can tell you that they definitely work. Also the gas piston in this rifle is very quiet, which makes the ASP20 the quietest spring-piston airgun at this power level. read more

Why collect airguns?

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

A history of airguns

This report covers:

  • Covered this subject before
  • How to begin?
  • Because I couldn’t have them
  • I couldn’t afford them
  • Got a paper route
  • The point
  • Why do this?
  • Not the only reason
  • Summary

Reader William Schooley requested this report and I need to do it today for a special reason I am going to explain. On Wednesday I go into the hospital for surgery, so I am writing a lot of blogs to cover the time when I can’t be online. When Edith was with me, something like this was seamless, but now I am the only guy in town and I have to do things differently. Therefore, this week’s blogs will be shorter and, starting Wednesday, I won’t be able to answer comments for awhile. I’m supposed to be home on Thursday sometime, but we’ll see how that goes. Now let’s get into today’s report. read more

Johnson Indoor Target Gun: Part 3

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Johnson Indoor Target Gun
The Johnson Indoor Target Gun is a catapult BB gun that was made in the late 1940s for youth target practice.

Part 1
Part 2

A history of airguns

This report covers:

  • What kind of rubber?
  • Remove the old rubber
  • Measure the old rubber
  • Loops on each end
  • Install the new rubber
  • Ready!
  • Daisy BBs
  • Problems!
  • Got it going
  • Baseline
  • Shortened the rubber
  • Second Daisy test
  • Dust Devils
  • Two lessons
  • Shortened the rubber again
  • Higher velocity
  • Shortened the rubber another time
  • Last test
  • Summary

Today I install a new rubber band in the Johnson and if all goes well, we will see what velocity it gives. In case you forgot, when I got this gun the rubber was broken.

Rubber
This is how I got the gun.

What kind of rubber?

I have been shooting my other Johnson Indoor Target Gun for years, so I had 10 feet of 3/16” amber surgical tubing on hand for repairs. I will start with that.

rubber bag
I had this surgical rubber tubing from my other Johnson.

Remove the old rubber

Step one was to remove the old rubber from the gun. It might look easy, but wherever that rubber was in contact with the steel in the gun it had bonded. It took me 15 minutes to get all the little pieces out. read more

Sig Sauer P320 M17 CO2 pellet pistol: Part 1

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Sig M17 pellet pistoll
Sig Sauer P320 M17 pellet pistol.

This report covers:

  • M17 differences
  • M17 pellet pistol
  • My grand plan
  • What’s up?
  • Lookalikes are coming to the top
  • Back to the M17 pellet pistol
  • Operation
  • Disassembly
  • Same heft
  • Summary

To all our American readers I want to wish a very happy Thanksgiving. Now, on to today’s report.

On January 19, 2017 it was announced that the U.S. Army had selected the Sig Sauer P320 pistol for their new Modular Handgun System. The full-sized gun is called the M17 and the carry-sized weapon is the M18. The rest of the U.S. armed forces also have or will have this sidearm. The nominal caliber for the U.S. military is the 9X19mm pistol cartridge that is best-known as the 9mm Luger.

M17 differences

The M17 is not just a P320 by a different name. The Army specified certain performance requirements for their pistol and they require Sig to maintain a strict separation in their plants between Army contract guns and similar civilian guns. This not only covers the finished guns but also all parts. read more