Category Archives: Airgun History Project

History of airguns posts

Webley Service Mark II: Part 6

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Webley Mark II Service rifle
Webley Mark II Service rifle.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

A history of airguns

Today’s report is a follow-on to a 5-part series I did on the Webley Mark II Service rifle. Today’s post is by reader RidgeRunner, who now owns the rifle. He tells us about the maintenance he did on the rifle.

If you’d like to write a guest post for this blog, please email me.

And now, take it away, RidgeRunner.

This report covers:

  • A Little History
  • Something Funny Going On
  • We’re Going In
  • Doodad
  • Onward Through The Fog
  • Back Together
  • What’s Next?

A little history

Those of you who have been hanging around for a while may vaguely recall BB doing a blog about one of these air rifles. What some may not know is my loving wife contacted BB and conspired with him to have that very air rifle be my Christmas present last year. Needless to say I was quite surprised — shocked is more like it. This lovely old lady is now a permanent resident at RidgeRunner’s Home For Wayward Airguns. read more

An American Zimmerstutzen: Part 2

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

American Zimmerstutzen
What in the world is this?

Part 1

A history of airguns

This report covers:

  • The puzzle
  • Gold?
  • On to the next supposition
  • Few gun parts
  • Discussion
  • Busy box
  • Summary

The puzzle

Reader August figured out the main piece of the puzzle, when he discovered that the inscription on the large medallion is from the Trenton Watch Company. Actually, that was all you needed to know to know that none of the medallions on this gun are gold. No tests are needed, because in the watch industry, the words “Warranted 10 years” are industry code for heavy gold electroplate. Another term is gold-filled. They all mean electroplated. Electroplate means plated with gold — not solid gold. Any pawnshop owner or worker in the world should know that. Therefore, the pawn shop that listed this on Gun Broker and used the tag as one of their pictures, was clearly misleading potential buyers. New reader Mudflap was the first to catch that. read more

Johnson Indoor Target Gun: Part 5

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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
Part 3
Part 4

A history of airguns

This report covers:

  • The test
  • First shot
  • Second shot
  • Adjusted down again
  • Rubber band broke
  • Now for a group
  • Proof of the pudding
  • Summary

Well, all the work we did was to get to this point. Today I shoot the Johnson Indoor Target Gun for accuracy.

The test

I shot at a target about 10 feet away. I was seated and used the UTG Monopod as a rest.

Since these BBs are only moving 126-129 f.p.s., or so, I used an aluminum foil target like the one I made for the Sharpshooter catapult gun test. We know slow-moving balls will penetrate aluminum foil readily. The target was backed by a cardboard box that stopped every BB, and then sent them back at me. More work is required on the backstop to catch the BBs successfully. read more

Johnson Indoor Target Gun: Part 4

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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
Part 3

A history of airguns

This report covers:

  • Research
  • Cutting trouble
  • Sloppy cutting
  • It worked — sort of
  • What to do?
  • Experiment over?
  • Too much power
  • Summary

Today I will try a different kind of rubber in the Johnson Indoor Target Gun. Several readers who are more knowledgeable than me about slingshots recommended I try Theraband Gold. It is one of the types of elastic that’s favored by catapult users and makers around the world. I watched a You Tube video of the Slingshot Channel titled, The BIGGEST slingshot EVER. The builder uses Theraband Gold to launch a bowling ball into a Mercedes car repeatedly, destroying it. read more

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

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