This report covers:
- Bits and pieces
- Rich Shar
- New markers from Firebird
- Retired Ruth Kass
- Hammerli free pistol
- Diana model 24
- Leapers
- The banquet
- Raffle
- Summary
Bits and pieces
I said I would write one more report on the 2024 Pyramyd AIR Cup and this is it. Unless it’s necessary I won’t mention any timeline today because these are just small but significant things that happened throughout the entire Cup.
Rich Shar
I met Rich Shar at this year’s Cup and he reminded me that he had offered to fix my .30 caliber Hatsan 135 whose gas spring leaked down. I want to do that but after two computer upgrades I have lost Rich’s contact info. I can’t reach him. If one of you readers know him please ask him to contact me.
New markers from Firebird
Vendor’s Row experienced periodic explosions from the Firebird booth. With Ton Jones manning the booth it was expected. Ton did compete in the benchrest match so there was some relief. But each time he returned to the booth he marked his territory.
This year Firebird brought their new markers to the Cup. They are 3-inch containers of a chalky powder that comes in several colors. Attach an explosive target to one and when it detonates it also generates a huge cloud of smoke.
New Firebird markers generate colorful clouds of smoke!
Retired Ruth Kass
I was glad to see Ruth Kass and her husband Bryan Lever at the Cup this year. Ruth is the helpful saleslady in Pyramyd AIR’s Customer Service center who many of you readers know from talking to her about products. The rumor is she retired a month before this year’s Cup, but according to her husband nothing much has changed. Wherever she went she dove in and started helping people. I guess it’s in her DNA?
Hammerli free pistol
And Bryan had a Hammerli model 100 free pistol that he was shooting on one of the firearm ranges. It may or may not have traveled from Texas to Ohio and after the Cup it may or may not have remained in Ohio. All I know for certain is that if Bryan’s smile had been any larger there would have been danger of the top of his head falling off.
Bryan Lever shoots his new/old Hammerli model 100 free pistol.
Diana model 24
Ruth then showed us a Diana model 24 breakbarrel rifle. Yes, it did come from Germany and is a real model 24, not the Chinese model two forty classic. But it has a problem. The safety will not disengage after the gun is cocked. After cocking she had to spend a long time fiddling with the safety to get it off so the rifle could fire.
Ruth Kass fiddles with the safety on her Diana 24, but she couldn’t get it to work reliably.
Ruth then abandoned her rifle and started shooting pistols with us. That ended our fun because she can outshoot either of us most of the time!
Bryan brought several Crosman pistols to shoot. One was a 600, which is an airgun he favors. I got to shoot that one.
I shoot a Crosman 600.
Leapers
We stopped by the Leaper’s booth on Vendor’s Row many times. They were showing their new Integrix 3-27 scope that Margaret Ding had mounted on her Red Panda rifle to compete in the benchrest match. Like all Integrix scopes this new one is crystal clear. They are not quite out yet but I am hoping to test one for you.
The real news at Leapers this year was what we showed them. And by “we” I mean Ian McKee. The AEA rifle Ian used last year to compete in the benchrest match was very attractive to Leaper’s owner, David Ding. David was a SWAT cop in Taiwan before coming to America and he likes small, accurate semiautomatic rifles. It was difficult to get that rifle out of his hands. Might that mean…?
David Ding liked Ian’s AEA semiauto.
The banquet
The Pyramyd AIR Cup ends in a banquet where the prizes for the matches are presented. The attendance is so large that we can no longer fit in the Cardinal Shooting Center banquet hall, so the banquet is held in an open canopy tent that is set close to the 100-yard range.
The banquet marked the end of the 2024 Pyramyd AIR Cup. It was catered with great food and drink.
One attraction at the banquet was the dunk tank. Pyramyd AIR president Val Gamerman sat for a lineup of well-wishers who paid for chances to dunk him with raffle tickets. John McCaslin started things by walking behind the dunking mechanism and pulling the lever. Val wasn’t expecting that.
Val Gamerman sits in a dunk-tank target. To start things AirForce Airguns owner, John McCaslin, snuck behind the target and tripped the mechanism!
Raffle
The raffle was a highlight of the banquet. Interspersed between the awards for the matches huge raffle prizes were given. Some of them were packages topping $3000 and none were chum prizes. And then, when the last prize was awarded everything was over. It was a pleasant end to a very successful Cup.
Summary
That’s all for this year’s Cup. If you came you saw a great event. If you didn’t come try to make arrangements to attend next year.
Can’t wait for UTG airguns!
B.B. and Readership,
For Tom: i got my copy of your latest book, The Many Lives of the Apostle John this afternoon and have reached page 67. Thank you.
For those reading Tom’s book:
Please check out this link https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/search/?query=Apophis
You will need to read a bunch of the scientists “updates” to understand what i am about to say. The one thing i learned well in all my years in S&TI is to expect change to any calculation and not forget that the ellipsis of containment crosshairs mean nothing.
The only thing that is certain on this Earth is Change ever since Adam took a bite of the apple from the Tree of Knowledge that Eve gave him at the behest of the snake; the Great Satan.
shootski (a believer)
Ordered it a couple of days ago and looking forward to what FM knows will be a good read.
B.B., your friend Ruth’s issues with Diana Model 24, of course reminded me of my guest blog about a similar gun:
https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2023/04/roamin-grecos-wrestling-match-with-a-rws-diana-model-24-j/
Perhaps her issue is related to an improperly adjusted trigger. My other thought is that someone must have taken the gun apart and not put the safety back together properly.
Roamin,
She asked me to repair it and I declined. What I needed to do was find out what caused it and to see if I could fix it for her.
There is no rush with this one and she knows that.
BB
RG,
I had to reread your guest blog about your Diana 24J as I had forgotten all about it. Senility has apparently set in.
I didn’t want to say anything, buy now that you mention it….
;o)
RG,
Mention what?
Exactly.
;o)
Thanks for the great report. Looks like everyone was having a lot of fun!
BB,
I am so thankful that you and Ian live “close by” and were able to make the trip to the PAIR Cup together. Having been to Texas a long time ago, I know that nothing is really “close by”.
So, the Hämmerli Free Pistol may or may not have stayed in Ohio. I will bet that it may or may not have been free. 😉
As goes the saying, “a good time was had by all.” Still remember a business professor in college whose work-life philosophy was “make your work your fun, otherwise find another line of work.” He called this “enlightened selfishness.” Did FM heed his career advice? Nooooooo…
Hello everyone, this is Rich Shar and Tom here is my information
Rich Shar
317 East High Street
Leetonia Ohio
44431
330 853 9916
Ruth if you want give me a call and I will take care of that RWS 24. You have helped me out numerous times, now I can repay the favor.
Rich,
Thanks. I will contact you.
Tom
Therein lies the power of this blog.
Ian.
Rich, what kinds of airguns do you service? Do you concentrate on springers, for example?
I enjoy working on all of them. It’s a hobby for me not a job. If it turns into a job then i will move onto something else. The ones I find hardest to repair are the CO2’s . They always have some crazy way of putting parts in them.