Electronic Burst of Steel | Air gun blog

What’s for Christmas? Part 1

Posted on October 25, 2013 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 121 Comments

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

I know the Christmas holiday is a long way off, but this year it comes upon us faster than usual. Thanksgiving will be very late this year (November 28), and since that day traditionally kicks off the Christmas shopping season, many people will be jammed because of too little time left. So, I’m starting my Christmas shopping blog a couple weeks early.

Stocking stuffers/small, neat gifts

Things in this category are gifts that don’t cost a lot but will have great meaning to airgunners. Some of them are things that shooters won’t buy for themselves.

Leapers UTG pellet & BB trap
The Leapers UTG pellet & BB trap is the best trap for BBs, and it also works for lower-velocity pellet guns. I used to tout Crosman’s model 850 pellet/BB trap. Well, they removed it from the market and replaced it with a model 852 trap that they say is only good for pellets. There doesn’t seem to be much difference between the Leapers and Crosman traps, except the Leapers trap is a few dollars more. How’s that for a switch?

The Umarex EBOS – Part 3

Posted on November 18, 2010 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 76 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

The new EBOS is a loud, powerful BB submachine gun.

Today, I’ll finish the test of the Umarex Electronic Burst of Steel — the Umarex EBOS. This is accuracy day, and the test runs exactly as it has for the other two BB submachine guns I’ve tested — the HK MP5 K-PDW and the Umarex Steel Storm. That means 10 aimed shots at 15 feet on semi-auto, followed by several bursts of full-auto fire.

I have three BBs to test today, and the EBOS brings us a complex set of operating parameters. You can select from either one shot, which simulates semiautomatic fire, a 4-shot burst or an 8-shot burst. But there’s also the rate of fire to select. It can be set for 300, 400 or 500 rounds per minute (RPM). I discovered very quickly that 300 RPM is too much like shooting an M3 grease gun, which bounces around in your hand without much possibility for accurate aimed fire. So I did what every EBOS owner will eventually decide to do. Set it to 8-shot bursts and 500 RPM. Once I did that, I made no attempt to test the other rates or the lower burst count. Nor would a cigarette boat owner use a trolling motor for better fuel economy!

The Umarex EBOS – Part 2

Posted on November 2, 2010 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 107 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

The new EBOs is a loud, powerful BB submachine gun.

Well, this report is somewhat overdue, but I’ve been waiting for some of the new RWS BBs to test for you, because of some good things I’ve heard about them. Looking at these BBs under a 10x loupe, they appear smoother than even the Daisy precision ground shot made for the 499 BB gun.

I plan to test this shot in several ways for you with guns we have a baseline on. But that will be later. Today, we’ll look at the Umarex EBOS velocity. And velocity it has! The specs say 540 f.p.s. and by golly that’s what I saw!

The EBOS is run by a battery-powered electric motor, so many of you are considering it as a replacement for the Drozd. I’m no expert on the Drozd, but I’ll report on the EBOS as it operates similar to the Drozd and let you judge for yourselves. What I mean by being run from a motor is that the firing function is controlled by that motor. The power that propels the BB comes from CO2, of course, and the EBOS uses the big 88-gram CO2 cartridges that give hundreds of shots. But the electric motor takes care of firing the gun once you pull the trigger.

The Umarex EBOS – Part 1

Posted on October 21, 2010 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 30 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

Well, it was inevitable. Just as I was reporting on the Umarex Steel Storm, somebody said they had heard that the new Umarex EBOS (Electronic Burst of Steel) was the better BB submachine gun. If you go looking for the EBOS, don’t look among the air pistols. Even though the firearm it is copied from probably fires a pistol cartridge, the presence of a fixed shoulder stock has caused Pyramyd Air to place this BB gun among the rifles.

There will probably be debate over which of these three new BB submachine guns is the best for a long time to come. I won’t get into that, but I’ll review the same things on all of them so you can make up your own mind.