Category Archives: CO2

CO2 Category

Hellboy semiautomatic BB gun: Part 1

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Hellboy BB gun
The Hellboy BB gun is a realistic semiautomatic repeater.

This report covers:

  • Features
  • Realism
  • Sights
  • Carry handle
  • Stock
  • Magazine
  • What’s it for?
  • Summary

Today I start testing the Hellboy-BB-gun from Hellraiser — an Air Venturi brand. This is a semiautomatic BB repeater in the form of an M4 tactical rifle. Several readers have been waiting for this review, so here we go!

Features

Yes, the Hellboy is semiautomatic. Despite having a selector switch that has the Safe, Semi and Auto positions, the Auto position does nothing. The gun will still fire semiautomatically when the selector is in that position. The selector is located in the right place for anyone who has used an M16, M4 or AR-15. read more

The airgun market in 2018

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

This report covers:

  • Serious airgunner
  • The market has exploded
  • No more cheap
  • The gun crisis
  • Where were airguns?
  • Firearm crossover
  • Airguns — cheap???
  • Is that all there is?
  • The future
  • The point?
  • Summary

When I started writing about airguns in 1994 there weren’t but about 5,000 to 15,000 serious airgunners in the U.S. No one knew for sure how many there were because there was very little data about this market. There may be disagreement on just how many there were but everyone agrees that the American airgun market was small.

Serious airgunner

Let me define what I mean by “serious airgunner,” because that has a bearing on what I’m saying. Airguns are very prevalent in the United States. I would estimate that millions of homes have at least one airgun, but that ranges from the family who just inherited their parents’ home and are unaware of the old Benjamin that’s stuck up in the rafters of the garage to homes like mine, where the number of airguns is greater than 50. There are a huge number of families with airguns, but most of those people cannot be considered serious shooters. My definition of a serious airgunner is someone who owns and shoots an airgun at least once each month. My experience is that if they do shoot an airgun that often, they shoot it a lot more than that! read more

ASG CZ 75 P-07 Duty BB pistol with blowback: Part 2

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

ASG CZ 75 P-07 BB pistol
ASG CZ 75 P-07 Duty BB pistol with blowback.

Part 1

This report covers:

  • Stick magazine
  • The quirk
  • ASG Blaster BBs
  • Daisy Premium Grade BBs
  • Dust Devils
  • Shot count
  • Trigger pull
  • Blowback/recoil
  • Summary

Today we look at the velocity of the ASG CZ-75-P-07-Duty-BB-pistol. As I said in Part 1, this is a compact pistol, but a duty size that’s larger than a pocket pistol.

Stick magazine

The stick magazine is separate in the front of the grip. It holds 20 BBs that are loaded through the top. The follower is smooth and light and has a lockout notch at the bottom of the mag, so it’s out of the way for loading. I found the mag pretty quick to load, but it did have one quirk.

The quirk

Sometimes, when a BB doesn’t register through the chronograph during a shot string, I have to load a single BB after the magazine has been emptied to complete the 10 shots. This mag doesn’t work well that way, because the top BB doesn’t stay in place. It falls out of both the front and back of the mag, but when there is another  BB beneath it to push it up, it remains in place. I guess when you get to the last BB in the gun, the gun must hold it in place because there were no jams or failures to feed throughout this test. You just can’t load a single BB into the mag and have it stay in place. Other than me, I doubt anyone would want to do that. read more

Sig Sauer P226 X-Five pellet pistol: Part 3

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

Sig P226 X-Five
Sig’s P226 X-Five pellet pistol.

This report covers:

  • Shot it at Sig
  • Loading
  • The test
  • Sight-in
  • Discussion 1
  • RWS R10 Pistol
  • Falcon pellets
  • H&N Finale Match Pistol
  • Discussion 2
  • Summary

This report has been a long time in the works. And, because of that, you are going to get a better report. We last looked at the Sig Sauer P226 X-Five pellet pistol on June 27 of this year.

Shot it at Sig

While I was at Sig I had a chance to shoot both this pistol and the new M17 pellet pistol that isn’t out yet. They share a lot of common traits, but I will review the M17 pellet pistol separately when it comes out. As you also learned, I bought a 9mm M17 to go along with the pellet pistol, so there is an extended report coming.

Back to the X-Five. I mentioned in Part 1 that it sure looks a lot like a P226, and it was confirmed that that pistol was the one the X-Five was originally based on, though for the American market the X-Five will start as a P320. Don’t fret though, because all these Sigs bear a lot of similarity. Okay, let’s get to shooting. read more

My day at Sig Sauer: Part 4

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

ASP20
Sig Sauer’s new ASP20 gas spring breakbarrel air rifle breaks ground in many areas! The safety is on both sides of the stock. Photo provided by Sig Sauer.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

This report covers:

  • Update
  • Sig Super Target pistol
  • Sig X-Five
  • M17
  • It’s over!
  • Dinner
  • Summary

Update

When we closed Part 3 I said I was done with the ASP20 until the test, but I overlooked a couple very important things. Several of you asked me where the safety is and it is shown in the pictures several times. It’s on the right side of the stock. And also on the left side! Yes, the ASP 20 is 100 percent ambidextrous. The safety is manual and slides forward and back.

I also forgot to mention that the rifle comes with a Picatinney rail welded on top, so scope mounting will be a breeze. This type of scope base is replacing the 11mm dovetail rail and most new spring guns have one. read more

ASG CZ 75 P-07 Duty BB pistol with blowback: Part 1

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

ASG CZ 75 P-07 BB pistol
ASG CZ 75 P-07 Duty BB pistol with blowback.

This report covers:

  • SAO
  • Threaded muzzle
  • Description
  • CO2
  • Sights
  • Testing plan
  • Summary

When I reviewed the ASG CZ 75 P-09 Shadow BB pistol recently, several readers said they owned the P-07 and liked it. Little did they know I had one ready to test.

If you look at the Pyramyd Air website you will see many ASG CZ-75-P-07-Duty-BB-pistols. This is the all-black one that has blowback. There are guns without blowback that cost less and guns with blowback and extra finishes that cost more.

SAO

This pistol I’m testing is single action only, despite the trigger appearing to be double action. Either the hammer must be cocked or the slide racked before shooting the first shot. I have already racked the slide and can tell that this slide is light. The recoil impulse from the blowback will probably be lighter than with a gun that has a heavier slide. read more

We The People BB pistol: Part 3

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

We The People pistol
We The People commemorative BB pistol from Sig.

This report covers:

  • The trigger reveals itself
  • Sights
  • Grip
  • The test
  • Daisy BBs
  • Hornady Black Diamond
  • Dust Devils
  • Blowback
  • Accuracy?
  • Discussion
  • Summary

Today is accuracy day for the Sig We The People 1911 BB pistol. Remember, there is a cartridge equivalent pistol, but I won’t be testing one of them.

Things I look at in a semiautomatic BB gun test

I do a lot of these BB-pistol tests and I thought I would take a moment to tell you what I look for. Since this is a BB gun the level of accuracy is not the same as I would expect from a pellet pistol. And it is certainly not what I expect from a single-shot pellet pistol! I know you guys are rolling soda cans with BB pistols like this, so that’s my criteria — is it that accurate and will you have fun shooting it that way? I do shoot it at paper but only for a visible record we can all see and discuss. read more