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Air Guns 2024 Pyramyd AIR Cup: Part Five

2024 Pyramyd AIR Cup: Part Five

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

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.

Cup Firebird markers
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?

Hunting Guide

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.


Cup Bryan Hammerli
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.

Cup Ruth 24
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.

Cup Tom 600
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…?

Cup David AEA
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.

Cup banquet
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.

Cup dunk tank
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.

author avatar
Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier)
Tom Gaylord, also known as B.B. Pelletier, provides expert insights to airgunners all over the world on behalf of Pyramyd AIR. He has earned the title The Godfather of Airguns™ for his contributions to the industry, spending many years with AirForce Airguns and starting magazines dedicated to the sport such as Airgun Illustrated.

17 thoughts on “2024 Pyramyd AIR Cup: Part Five”

  1. 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)

  2. 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. 😉

  3. 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…

  4. 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.

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