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Airgun bloopers!

Posted on July 20, 2012 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 105 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

Announcement: A.J. Stewart (aka JrSquirreler) is this week’s winner of Pyramyd Air’s Big Shot of the Week on their airgun facebook page. He’ll receive a $50 Pyramyd Air gift card. Congratulations!

A.J. Stewart gets a chance to shoot Ray Apelles’ custom Benjamin Marauder at Crosman’s Northeast Regional Field Target Championship (NRFTC) hosted by Crosman at their facilities in East Bloomfield, New York.

The concept of a product gone wrong isn’t unfamiliar in our society. One only needs to consider the Edsel automobile, Apple’s Lisa computer and reformulated New Coke to realize that failures in the marketplace are part of our rich tapestry of life. And collectors will point out that Edsels are now highly collectible, or that Apple learned a lot by taking the PARC technology and putting it into a $10,000 personal computer. It was the perfect springboard for their hugely successful Macintosh line. As for New Coke, well, the comedians are the only ones who derived a little benefit from that!

FWB 300S vintage target air rifle: Part 2

Posted on February 13, 2012 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 60 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

The FWB 300S is considered the gold standard of vintage target air rifles.

Some more history
The first part of this report was certainly met with a lot of enthusiasm, so I think I’ll add some more history today. In the comments to Part 1, we had a discussion of the sport called Running Target. Some called it Running Boar, which it was for several decades, and long before that it was called Running Stag.

The sport originated in Germany, I believe, though it was probably popular in Austria and perhaps even in Switzerland. It existed at least as far back as the mid-19th century and was shot outdoors at a target pulled on tracks by human power. The original target was a male chamois made of wood with a target where the heart of the animal would be. But that target evolved into a male red deer, called a stag. The stag was exposed to the shooter for a specific number of seconds.

FWB 300S vintage target air rifle: Part 1

Posted on February 1, 2012 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 112 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

The FWB 300s is considered the gold standard of vintage target air rifles.

I’ve danced around writing this report for the better part of a year, and some of you have asked me when I was going to get around to it. Well, today is the day we’ll begin looking at Feinwerkbau’s fabulous 300S — considered by many airgunners to be the gold standard of vintage 10-meter target air rifles.

Today’s blog is an important resource for those who are interested in fine vintage 10-meter target rifles, because I’m going to give you the links to all the other reports I’ve done.

FWB 150
HW 55CM
Haenel 311
HW 55SF
Walther LGV Olympia
HW 55 Tyrolean
Diana model 60

Airgun selling strategies

Posted on October 3, 2011 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 40 Comments

by B.B.Pelletier

I attended a gun show this past weekend; and on the first day, I noticed something that I’ve seen for many years but never appreciated. Most of the people who attend gun shows don’t know what airguns are worth. You can benefit from that.

Nobody knows what airguns are worth!
Across the aisle from me, a dealer had a Daisy model 21 double-barreled gun laid out. When I examined it, I noticed that it was really beat-up. It was a 20 percent gun, at best.

The dealer said he wanted a thousand dollars for this gun, because he’d seen one new in the box selling for $3,500 on the internet. He knew his was a junker, but he figured it must be worth that much at least.

Projectile weight

Posted on May 24, 2010 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 60 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Tom’s condition continues to improve, and some milestones the doctors have set have been reached and even surpassed. Since Saturday, he’s been all smiles and has perked up quite a bit because his best friend, Mac, has arrived for a week’s stay. He’ll be testing guns and providing velocity and accuracy data, which B.B. will use to write blogs over the next few weeks. Since Mac is a heck of a great shot, we should be seeing some really good targets and groups.

Today’s blog is based on the various comments to the previous blogs about Pellet variation and Mass production.

AlanL has previously commented that light pellets might be more efficient and was wondering about things like drag. He specifically mentioned using aluminum for pellets. I thought I would take today and do a short report on some projectile weight changes that have been made and had major impacts over the years.

A tale of two Red Ryders – Part 2

Posted on May 17, 2010 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 111 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on Tom/B.B.: Improvements continue! One of the doctors mentioned that they’re starting to look down the road to see when he can be discharged. Nothing definite yet, but things look promising!

Today’s guest blog is a continuation of last Thursday’s, comparing a vintage Red Ryder with a new one.

Part 1

by BG_Farmer

Cosmetic differences cont’d

Both guns have identical view ports, through which you can see that a BB has been fed correctly. Externally, of course, I cannot detect any difference in the feeding and loading mechanisms. The old one is a little less particular about correct orientation during cocking. The 1938B loads reliably but is more particular about the orientation of the gun than the older 1938.

A tale of two Red Ryders – Part 1

Posted on May 13, 2010 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 59 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

Update on B.B./Tom: Tom is walking around the hospital halls several times a day (using a walker). The doctor said he seems to be recovering faster than expected. Today, Tom’s moving to a different floor…where patients go when they need less nursing care. Good news!

Today, we have a guest blog from BG_Farmer. It’s a two-parter, and you’ll see the rest of it on Monday.

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

Bloggers must be proficient in the simple html that Blogger software uses, know how to take clear photos and size them for the internet (if their post requires them), and they must use proper English. We’ll edit each submission, but we won’t work on any submission that contains gross misspellings and/or grammatical errors.