airgun design | Air gun blog - Pyramyd Air Report

Interesting gun designs — Benjamin Legacy: Part 4

Posted on June 19, 2015 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 95 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Benjamin Legacy SE
Benjamin Legacy with a gas spring was a short-lived breakbarrel.

This report covers:

Getting started
The hold
First group
Second group
After that
Additional data
What’s next?

Let’s look at the accuracy of the .22-caliber Benjamin Legacy gas-spring rifle. If you remember, this was a rifle that came out just before I went into the hospital in 2010. When I got out 3 months later, the gun had already been taken off the market. I never reviewed it for you because it was an airgun you couldn’t buy, but the fact that it only took 16 lbs. of force to cock it fascinated me. I wanted to see what it could do regardless of whether or not you could buy one; because, if this turned out to be a good idea, it’s worth doing again.

An open letter to airgun designers

Posted on May 22, 2015 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 183 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Announcement: Pyramyd Air has asked me to announce their Memorial Day Madness sale, which features some sizable price reductions.

This report covers:

Design parameters and constraints
Barrel
Pivot joint
Coiled steel spring items
Piston
Spring guides
Mainspring
Gas-spring items
Piston bore
Trigger and safety
Stock
Sights
Scope base
Disassembly
Discussion
You do the rest

I used to teach a subject called Value Engineering to Department of Defense procurement personnel. Value Engineering was a U.S. Army initiative from World War II, where a design was examined by not just engineers, but by all the disciplines that dealt with the product. The goal was to create the function of an item at the lowest cost.

They discovered, for example, that a maintenance man could make a small change that saved the Army millions of dollars by either making the item easier to maintain or making it so it didn’t require maintenance at all. On the other hand, a production manager might make a change in the design that dropped the cost to produce the item from $2000 to $3.00 by simply changing the way it was produced.

Interesting gun designs — Benjamin Legacy: Part 3

Posted on May 20, 2015 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 64 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

Benjamin Legacy SE
Benjamin Legacy with a gas spring was a short-lived breakbarrel.

This report covers:

Something special from the back room!
Benefits of a lower-pressure gas spring
Trigger
Lower power
RWS Hobby pellets
Crosman Premier pellets
JSB Exact RS pellets
The point of this review

Something special from the back room!

I’m going slow with this report, because it concerns an airgun you cannot purchase. Read Part 2 to see where I found out about the .22-caliber Benjamin Legacy breakbarrel with a gas spring — not the Legacy with a steel spring that sold many years earlier. In the 3 months between the time I contracted pancreatitis in March of 2010 until I was discharged from the last hospital in June of that year, the Benjamin Legacy with gas spring was born, died and forgotten. I never had the chance to review it for you.

Interesting gun designs — Benjamin Legacy: Part 2

Posted on April 20, 2015 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 55 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

This report covers:

Something special from the back room!
Easy to cock
Smooth shooting
Testus interruptus
No more Legacy
Something’s coming — maybe
The rifle
Cocking effort 16 lbs.
A modern Diana 27?

Today’s report is the reason I wrote the whole report about interesting designs. Today, I’m going to address what I’ve wanted to show you for the past 5 years. This is an interesting story, so fill your cup, sit back and enjoy.

It began in 2009, when Paul Capello and I started the television show American Airgunner. We needed content for the show, and the Crosman Corporation in East Bloomfield, New York, invited us to come in and film their operation. I had toured parts of their plant before, and I knew there was a lot to see.

Something special from the back room!

During the tour, their head engineer, Ed Schultz, asked if we would like to see something special. Naturally, we were excited! He took us out a back door next to the bulk CO2 tank that fills all the cartridges they make. Then, he told us about a secret project of his.

Interesting gun designs: Part 1

Posted on April 9, 2015 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 63 Comments

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

This report covers:

M1 Carbine
Investment casting
The Swedish Luger
Weak steel alloy
No criticism intended
Airguns are next

This is Part 1 because there is are additional parts planned. I have wanted to write this report for many years, which will come out as the story unfolds.

Mention interesting gun design to anyone 60 years and younger and sooner or later the AR-15/M16 will enter into the discussion. They’ll call it the Mattel-o-Matic and other derogatory terms. It deserves much of that derision, not because of the gun’s design, but because of the unsuccessful way in which it was launched. It was tested in just a cursory way and then quickly modified and shoved out the door to satisfy political pressure. It was proven (field tested) in battle, where tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines paid a very high price for the shortcomings of the initial design. In the half-century since that time the design has evolved into something robust, reliable and very adaptive.

2014 SHOT Show: Part 3

Posted on January 17, 2014 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 119 Comments

by Tom Gaylord, a.k.a. B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

Mea Culpa!
You know, Babe Ruth was the home run king of his era. But he was also the strikeout king. Sometimes when you swing for the fence, you get fanned by the pitcher. I’ve done that a couple of times in recent reports.

The AirForce Escape SS has a 12-inch barrel. I said it was an 18-inch barrel, but several of you clever guys spotted why that could not be. And, while I was starting to redden from embarrassment in the AirForce booth, John McCaslin also took the opportunity to inform me that what I wrote about the Escape valve is also incorrect. It isn’t different than the TalonP valve — it is identical. So, gather a crowd and paint me red…I goofed!

What’s possible?

Posted on January 10, 2013 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 90 Comments

by Tom Gaylord, a.k.a. B.B. Pelletier

Today, I just have to address all the discussions in the comments we’ve been having regarding the cost of production (of airguns) and why some companies can or cannot build certain guns. Let me begin with the Benjamin Discovery, whose story is a wonderful lesson of what’s possible.

History of the Benjamin Discovery
In 2006, Crosman held a conference with all the airgun writers. The four of us (Stop laughing! I’m telling the truth, here!) were flown to upstate New York and initially presented with Crosman’s corporate goals and objectives. We were then shown things that were soon to be launched. Finally, they asked us to tell them what we thought airgunners wanted. We sat in what they call their War Room (a boardroom with many of their products on the walls) and told them things we thought they should make — or at least consider making.