Lov 21 CO2 pistol: Part 2

Posted on June 9, 2017 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 103 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Lov 21
The Lov 21 is a CO2 target pistol; made in the Czech Republic. It doesn’t look like much, but people speak well of it in Canada and Europe.

Part 1

A history of airguns

This report covers:

Learned a lot!
The CO2 cap
Velocity — H&N Finale Match light
JSB Exact RS
Sig Match Ballistic Alloy
Shot count
Trigger
Evaluation

Learned a lot!

We learned a lot from new European readers’ comments to Part 1 of this report — especially reader H3P04. I told you the Lov 21 is an air pistol that I am completely unfamiliar with, and from the little I do know so far, it seems like a winner. Today we start finding out.

The first thing we learned is this pistol isn’t even mainstream in its country of origin! They know about it, but it doesn’t stand out, according to the comments made by several Czech readers.

Umarex Embark breakbarrel spring rifle: Part 3

Posted on May 30, 2017 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 34 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Umarex Embark air rifle.

Part 1
Part 2

This report covers:

The first shot
My test methodology
SAR Journey pellets
Sig Ballistic Match Alloy pellets
Switch to lead pellets
Air Arms Falcons
Evaluation so far
Last target
Summary

Today is accuracy day and I’m looking forward to it. Not only do I get to test the Embark air rifle that Pyramyd Air now sells, by the way, I also get to test the lead-free Journey pellet that was developed especially for the Student Air Rifle program (SAR).

While talking to Jake Hindman, the president of SAR, I discovered that they developed their own official target, rather than using a 10-meter rifle or pistol target. He told me they made the scoring rings large, which made me think of the 10-meter pistol target, but when I looked at the targets in their instructor’s guide, I saw the bulls are similar in size to 10-meter air rifle targets. The width of the scoring rings just needs to be enlarged for SAR.

Umarex Embark breakbarrel spring rifle: Part 2

Posted on May 24, 2017 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 45 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Umarex Embark air rifle.

Part 1

This report covers:

New development
RWS Hobby
Journey pellets
One more pellet test
Firing behavior
Cocking effort
Trigger pull
Evaluation so far

New development

Last time I told you that the Embark air rifle was not available from Pyramyd Air. Well, that has changed. As of this week you can buy the Embark from Pyramyd Air. They list it as a youth rifle, which it certainly is, but I have a feeling a lot of adults are going to want one after we test it.

After I published the first report I was contacted by Jake Hindman, the president of the Student Air Rifle Program (SAR) and we had a nice conversation about his program. Some of what I will share with you today is a result of our talk.

We also discovered that one of our readers, Robert from Arcade, has a son in the SAR, and he gave us his views on how the program is benefitting that school. As he said, with SAR schools can have a safe marksmanship program in their existing facilities and the cost is not prohibitive. That’s exactly what SAR is designed to do!

Blowguns — the first airguns

Posted on May 23, 2017 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 92 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

This is a guest blog from reader Hiveseeker. Today he reflects on the very first airguns — blowguns

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

Blowguns — the first airguns
by Hiveseeker

This report covers:

Airgun history
Blowgun calibers
Blowgun length
Popular .40 and .50 caliber darts
Popular .625 caliber darts
A word about blowgun hunting
Blowgun accessories
Make a blowgun target
How to blow that blowgun
Aiming a blowgun
For further study

lead photo
Modern-day blowguns come in .40, .50, and .625 caliber. Note the accessory dart quivers.

Airgun history

Here at the Airgun Academy blog B.B. has done a great job of sharing his passion and knowledge of airgun history, deepening our appreciation for our favorite sport. Today we’ll be traveling even further into the past as we delve back to the earliest roots of airgun history — the blowgun! B.B. took us there in 2007 when he wrote about The blowgun Where it all began, and observed that “As airgun collectors become more interested in their hobby, they eventually start acquiring blowguns.”

Umarex Embark breakbarrel spring rifle: Part 1

Posted on May 18, 2017 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 78 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Umarex Embark.

This report covers:

Student Air Rifle Program
Umarex Embark
Description
Trigger
Safety
Where is it made?
What’s it like to shoot?
Accuracy
Summary

Student Air Rifle Program

This report is about more than an air rifle. It’s about an entire shooting program called the Student Air Rifle Program, or SAR. SAR was developed in 2013 by the Missouri Youth Sport Shooting Alliance (MYSSA) as a standardized way to facilitate an introduction to school-aged youths, the lifetime sport of target shooting. Think of this as similar to the NRA Marksmanship program that reaches over one million kids each year, except SAR has trimmed the cost and operates under less formal rules. SAR sees itself as a feeder to the more formal program, which culminates in the Olympics.

Pellet velocity versus accuracy test: Part 11

Posted on May 2, 2017 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 39 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

I’m posting a Best of BB today because I had cataract surgery yesterday and I couldn’t see the computer screen to write. I selected this article from December 30, 2011 because it’s the last of 11 experiments I( did on spring gun accuracy and pellet velocity. We seem to be interested in tuning spring guns, and this is a good one to read. Remember — there are a total of 11 parts. So enjoy!

I see it seems to indicate there will be another part to come at the end of this report, but I never wrote it. This is the last in the series.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

Happy New Year from Tom & Edith!

One nice thing about watching a TV program is that it only takes an hour or less to view. You have no sense of the man-weeks of work that go into a short production on screen. Sometimes, the same thing happens in the world of airgun blogs.

Filming American Airgunner 2017

Posted on April 25, 2017 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 53 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

This report covers:

Ft. Smith
Outdoors
Hey — chill out!
Ranch
The Hammer
The Gauntlet
FWB 124
Reality check

Ft. Smith

For the past several years I’ve gone to Ft. Smith, Arkansas every year to film the Round Table segments of “American Airgunner.” We also film several This Old Airgun segments with just me and the host, Rossi Morreale. In the past this has been done in a studio and I have been able to work on the blog when I wasn’t actually in the scene being filmed. This year was different.

Outdoors

We went to a large ranch nearby and filmed for two straight days. Because we were outside we could shoot at will, so there is a lot more shooting in these segments than we have done in the past. And the shooting allowed me to watch others shoot, which influenced the way I think about accuracy.