Tag Archives: single-shot

Diana 27S: Part 3

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Diana 27S
Diana 27S.

Part 1
Part 2

A history of airguns

This report covers:

  • SHOT Show
  • Odd-sized breech seal
  • Grainger
  • Velocity with Air Arms Falcon pellets
  • Fooled around
  • WHAT!!!?
  • On with the test — JSB Exact Heavy
  • Chronograph error
  • Cocking
  • 27S
  • Cocking behavior
  • Firing behavior
  • RWS Hobby
  • Summary

SHOT Show

I’m at the SHOT Show today. Today is Media Day At The Range, so I’m looking at all the new airguns that are on the range in Boulder City. Yesterday I went to Sig Range Day, so tomorrow I will have a report on both events. The show opens on Tuesday, so the Wednesday blog will be my first report from there.

Today we look at the velocity of the Diana 27S we are testing. If you recall, in Part 2 the breech seal failed and I couldn’t test the rifle. I replaced the seal with a temporary leather one and the velocity jumped from the mid-300s to the high 600s. I said then that it was the largest velocity increase I have ever seen from just replacing a breech seal. I expected a gain of 60-80 f.p.s. Several readers made similar comments. read more

Air Arms Pro-Sport: Part 6

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Pro-Sport
Air Arms Pro-Sport.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

This report covers:

  • Evil BB!
  • Report on the Meopta scope
  • Sight-in
  • The test
  • Refine the sight-in
  • However
  • Hurray!
  • What have we learned?
  • The second However
  • H&N Baracuda with 5.50mm head
  • Next
  • Summary

Today we test the Air Arms Pro-Sport with the Vortek PG3 tune kit I installed and tested in Part 5. But first I have to clear up a misconception.

Evil BB!

Somewhere along the line you may have read that I said the Meopta MeoPro Optika6 scope came without scope caps. It wasn’t really me who said that! It was my evil twin cousin, BB Airgundart! He sometimes sneaks into my house and messes with the blog without me knowing it. The Optika6 has a very nice set of scope caps with their logo on both caps. I found them on my somewhat cluttered desk, in the detritus just above the Cambrian layer! read more

Gamo 126 single stroke pneumatic 10-meter target rifle: Part 2

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Gamo 126
Gamo 126 single stroke pneumatic 10-meter target rifle.

Part 1

A history of airguns

This report covers:

  • RWS Basic
  • Sig Match Ballistic Alloy
  • RWS R10
  • Warmed up?
  • Second string of RWS Basics
  • Pump effort
  • Trigger pull
  • Discussion
  • Summary

Today is velocity day for the Gamo 126 target rifle we are testing. We learned a lot from the comments in Part 1 and I also learned a lot while researching the rifle for this report. Today we will see where this particular one is.

The Blue Book of Airguns said to expect a velocity of 590 f.p.s., but many owners say 550 is about as fast as they ever shoot and some even say less. The rifle also starts loosing velocity over time, so we should be able to assess the health of the gun I am testing right away. read more

Diana Bandit PCP air pistol: Part 1

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Diana Bandit
Diana Bandit precharged pneumatic air pistol.

This report covers:

  • Bandit
  • Customer reviews
  • The case
  • Description
  • Weight
  • Power
  • Sights
  • Magazine
  • Trigger
  • The point
  • Fill coupling
  • Discharge sound
  • Free-floated barrel
  • Summary

Today we begin looking at the Diana Bandit precharged pneumatic (PCP) air pistol. It is the pistol equivalent to the Diana Stormrider rifle.

Bandit

The Diana Bandit is a repeating PCP pistol that comes in both .177 and .22 caliber. It has a circular spring-loaded magazine that holds 9 pellets in .177 and 7 in .22. I selected a .22 for my test.

Customer reviews

I read some of the customer reviews of the gun before examining it. It seems to me there are two main camps that purchase a pistol like this. One camp buys it based in the price. It’s everything they want in a Benjamin Marauder PCP air pistol (they hope) for $190 less. The other camp buys the pistol to modify it into something they really want. First they have to fix all the things that Diana got wrong when they designed the airgun, like not putting in a regulator, then they move on to accurizing it with other barrels and exotic sights. read more

Air Arms Pro-Sport: Part 4

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Pro-Sport
Air Arms Pro-Sport.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

This report covers:

  • Pro-Sport trigger
  • Based on the Rekord
  • Set trigger
  • Rekord is not set
  • What is dangerous?
  • Hair trigger
  • Slippage
  • Fingers with neuropathy
  • Cold fingers
  • So what?
  • TX trigger
  • Mach II trigger
  • Pro-Sport trigger adjustment
  • Stage one
  • Stage two
  • But wait…
  • Summary

Pro-Sport trigger
Air Arms Pro-Sport and TX200 trigger. Graphic from Air Arms.

Pro-Sport trigger

Today I show you the trigger of the Air Arms Pro-Sport rifle that I’m testing. I said in Part 2 that I was going to show how to adjust it in Part 3, and then I breezed right past that and shot groups instead. The reason I did is because this trigger was adjusted perfectly as the rifle came to me from the factory. Stage two breaks at 14.8 ounces. It’s far too light for sporting use but perfect for shooting from a bench in a warm environment.

I normally don’t take the time to write about adjusting triggers for you, though in the recent past there have been several exceptions. The Pro-Sport trigger, which is identical to the TX200 Mark III trigger, needs to be another exception, because it is one of the finest sporting air rifle triggers on the market. read more

Air Arms Pro-Sport: Part 2

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by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Pro-Sport
Air Arms Pro-Sport.

Part 1

This report covers:

  • Surprise
  • Surprise number 2
  • Sleek
  • Velocity
  • RWS Hobby
  • Air Arms Field domes
  • H&N Baracuda
  • Cocking effort
  • Trigger pull
  • Summary

Surprise

Today we look at the power of the .22-caliber Air Arms Pro-Sport underlever air rifle. When I unboxed it I was amazed that the bluing is as deep and lustrous as ever! Air Arms hasn’t lost sight of what made them the top spring gun company in the world — their quality! Nobody can look at this air rifle and not be impressed! Not only is the bluing deep and flawless, the beech stock is finished just as well. Instead of the skip-line checkering that’s found on a TX200 Mark III these days, the Pro-Sport has a different type of skip-line checkering, and it is a unique variation. It’s laser-cut of course, but I defy anyone to prove it! It looks like genuine hand-cut checkering. I say it has to be laser cut because the rifle doesn’t cost enough to pay for hand-checkering. read more

IZH MP532 target rifle: Part 3

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by Tom Gaylord

Writing as B.B. Pelletier

IZH MP532
IZH MP532 single stroke target rifle.

Part 1
Part 2

A history of airguns

This report covers:

  • BIG discovery
  • The test
  • Sight-in with RWS Meisterkugeln
  • H&N Match Green
  • Qiang Yuan Training pellets
  • Trigger has great control
  • RWS R10 Match Pistol
  • Where are the good groups?
  • H&N Finale Match Rifle
  • RWS Hobby
  • Still unaware
  • The second rifle
  • First shot — ah HA!
  • Finale Match Heavy
  • Qiang Yuan Training pellets
  • Rear sight
  • Summary

BIG discovery

Settle in, kids, because today holds a huge discovery. Today I shoot the two IZH MP532 rifles for accuracy.

The test

I shot off a rest at 10 meters. Since a single stroke pneumatic doesn’t recoil, the gun can be rested directly on the bag. I shot 5 shots at each target so I could test more pellets, and there were also two rifles to test. I began the test with the latest rifle that was made in 2007.

I started the test by pumping the lever 3/4 of the way 20 times to flex and warm up the pump cup. Then on every shot I pumped 3/4 of the way, relaxed and then pumped all the way. We learned in Part 2 that this makes the rifle shoot as fast as it can and also keeps the velocity stable. read more