Air guns - Pyramyd Air Report

The FWB 124 - 30 years later

2008-07-04T05:30:00.010-05:00

Introduction by B.B. Pelletier

Guest blogger
Greg Anderson fell in love with the FWB 124 years ago. After all these years, it's still his favorite, and in today's blog, he tells you why.

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The FWB 124 - 30 years later

by Greg Anderson

Everyone has a story about a gun he owns. After reading B.B.'s report on the FWB 124 - a classic pellet rifle some time back, I thought I would add my experience with the 124.

In the beginning....
I first read of the FWB 124 in a boilerplate magazine article about the best firearm of each general class of firearms. It was the usual article. The best shotgun was the Remington 870, best pistol was the M1911 and best revolver was some S&W kit gun. It was the kind of article we’ve all seen a hundred times. But what was different in this article was that it included an airgun.

The FWB 124...still a great gun 30 years later.

The airgun they puffed about was something called a Feinwerkbau Model 124. Well, I'd never heard of Feinwerkbau or their rifle, but when I read that it didn’t require CO2 or pumping and that it needed just a single cocking stroke to propel a .177 pellet at 800 fps, I was intrigued. Eight hundred feet per second was getting close to rimfire velocity, making this more than a teenager's toy.

My first adult airgun
I ordered a copy of the Beeman Precision Airgun Guide, and it had detailed information on the FWB 124. The catalog was also a wealth of information on what Beeman called "adult" airguns. Anyway, I was sold. I wasn't so much sold on airguns as I was on this particular airgun. It appeared to be powerful, accurate and a masterpiece of practical engineering.

My FWB 124 loves these pellets. Wish they were still made today.

I bought a new FWB 124D from Beeman around 1978 or 1979. Along with the rifle, I bought 10 boxes of Beeman Silver Jet pellets, which they recommended for the 124. At the time, Beeman was also pushing their overpriced scope, insisting that other scopes would be beaten to death by the recoil, but I passed on it. As I recall, the scope with mounts was around $100. That was a lot of money back then.

I called several scope manufacturers to see what was available for airguns. The folks at Weaver told me their Marksman K4 scope (4x32, steel body) would handle the recoil, and they'd adjust it for 50-yard parallax. In addition, they recommended mounts for the gun that would stay put under the sharp recoil of the piston slamming home. The mounts looked like the ordinary 3/8" dovetail units found on most .22 rimfires, except for a row of hardened steel teeth on the clamps. I installed this scope on the rifle with these mounts, zeroed it and started shooting. At that point I had about $400 in the gun, scope and ammo. (A year or two after I bought the 124, I ordered the new aluminum trigger to replace the plastic unit. It's still in the original bag. The plastic trigger just keeps getting the job done.)

Who says plastic triggers don't last? Here's the replacement aluminum trigger I bought for the 124, because I figured I'd need it down the road. I never installed it, and almost 30 years later the plastic unit still works like a champ!

Figuring things out for myself
I'd never used a spring airgun before and there was little adult airgun information available at the time. Generally, what little information there was came from Beeman. I found that shooting technique was critical. You could not zero the gun off a sandbag and then expect accuracy when shooting off-hand. You couldn't zero shooting off-hand with a sling and then expect accuracy from an off-hand snap-shot. I didn’t find that the loose hold advocated now was superior to any other hold. The one critical item for accuracy was that, regardless of how you held the rifle, you had to hold it exactly the same way for every shot. Once I got that figured out, the 124 became old reliable.

Over the years, I've used that little rifle to shoot just about anything you'd normally shoot with a .22 rimfire. While it's certainly no .22 rimfire in the power department, it's adequate for everything squirrel size and smaller out to about 20 yards. In fact, its lower power is an asset when shooting red squirrels or starlings off the side of my house because the pellet rarely penetrates the creature with enough velocity to damage my siding.

30 years old, but it's just like new!
I've used this rifle for nearly 30 years now. In spite of all the dire warnings of it being hard on scopes, I've never even had to adjust the zero. I've always used the Beeman Silver Jet pellets (8.39 grains, out of production for some years), so there was never a need to re-zero for another pellet. I have about 700 pellets left of the original 5,000, so that's at least 4,000 shots through the rifle. I recently removed the Weaver scope because my eyes are getting bad and I needed a scope with more focus adjustment in the eyepiece. When I pulled the mounts off the receiver the "teeth" on each mount had impressed a neat row of notches in the dovetail cut on the receiver. There was no evidence the mount had ever shifted in 30 years.

This Weaver scope really came through. My FWB 124 never shook it loose or shifted aimpoints.

As long as I was going to invest in a new Leapers 4x32 scope, I thought I should replace the piston seal and mainspring. I decided I would chronograph the thing before I tore it apart so I could have a benchmark for the seal and spring change. The chronograph showed the gun still drove Silver Jets at 780 fps and it made 830 fps with Beeman Lasers, so I just changed the breech seal and put on the new scope.

Old gun, new Leapers scope.

It's still my favorite air rifle
I have around a dozen modern airguns. I have three other rifles, all of them more powerful and newer than the 124, including a Beeman R1, an RWS 350 and an RWS 54. Yet, the 124 is still my favorite. It's the gun I always reach for if I just need to shoot something quick. It's light, effortless to cock, quick to mount, powerful enough, quiet and more accurate than I am. Yeah, maybe its trigger isn't perfect, but it's such an elegant little rifle in every other way that I can overlook the trigger. If I have one regret about the 124, it's that I didn't order it with a Beeman custom walnut stock. If I remember correctly it added around $165 to the 124D's price, which, at the time, was a lot of money. Still, in retrospect, I wish I'd scraped up the cash to get it.

The 124 in the Beeman catalog...it started a 30-year relationship that's still going strong.

To answer the old gun magazine question, "If you could own just one airgun, what would it be?" Well, even after 30 years, if I could only own one airgun, it would still be the Feinwerkbau 124. In my opinion, it's still the standard against which all other air rifles are measured.

Airguns are too easy!

2008-07-03T05:30:00.003-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

I have a lot of interests besides airguns. Recently, a friend gave me a small electric RC helicopter that awakened a desire to fly. It's good when I get to encounter new things, because it reminds me of the difficulties new airgunners face when they enter our hobby. Keeping that in mind helps me write more clearly.

Well, with RC helicopters there's a lot to learn. You don't just take up this hobby and immediately move up to the biggest and best equipment. You can't, because flying an advanced RC helicopter takes experience and skill. If you were to buy the biggest whomptydoodle RC helicopter on the market, you wouldn't even know enough to get it prepared to fly! That's good, because the moment you did you'd crash.

A newbie doesn't stand a chance flying one of these.

The same cannot be said about airguns. Any fool with money can buy an FWB 700 rifle identical to the rifle an Olympic shooter would use. Or, he can buy a USFT rifle without a clue how to use it or what it even does. He would be at no risk to himself or his equipment to own and shoot an Evanix AR-6 rifle, as long as he practiced the basics of safe shooting.

But anyone can shoot one of these.

With a .90 RC helicopter capable of 3D flight (that's a really big radio-controlled helicopter that can fly full aerobatics that even full-sized helicopters cannot duplicate), a beginner would have a flaming mass of ruined parts in no time. Life would severely correct the beginner's lack of experience and start him or her on a very expensive learning path.

But, anyone with money can buy an RWS Diana 350 Magnum - shoot it for an hour - and then complain to the world that it doesn't do everything the reports said it could. The air rifle doesn't burst into flames or reach back and slap the silly shooter in the face.

That's where the questions come from. Here's one I get all the time. "I'm having a hard time choosing between a .177 Benjamin Super Streak or a Career III 707 in .22. I want something that'll be accurate out to at least 75 yards but also quiet enough to not disturb the tenants in the next apartment. Which airgun should I buy?"

You SHOULD buy an IZH 61 or a Beeman R7 and learn how to shoot before talking about shooting 75 yards with an air rifle. That's what you SHOULD do!

But you don't want to do that. You want to go to the head of the line by starting at the top of the hobby. Tell me - where in your apartment do you even have 75 yards to shoot?

If we were playing violins, you'd want to own a Stradivarius, despite the fact you sound more like a jug band. Thank God a Strad costs millions of dollars, so only the very best violinists can afford to play them. And half of them don't even own the instruments they play - they're on loan for a lifetime by others who appreciate talent.

Even a Stradivarius requires talent to make beautiful music.

Please don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that you should be denied the best equipment until you prove yourself as a shooter. I'm simply saying that in our hobby it's too easy to own the very best without the skill to use it. Then, when he gets his Strad, he scratches the bow across the strings and says, "I don't see what everyone is talking about. This thing don't sound so purdy." No, it don't!

Now, that small RC helicopter my friend gave me is at the bottom of the heap of beginning RC helicopters. It is the RC helicopter equivalent of a Crosman 760. It doesn't even have the ability to hover. But guess what? After flying it for three months, I discovered that on my own, and I learned something about RC helicopters. I'm now ready to move up to one that can hover. But I'm far from being ready to fly that whomptydoodle model that looks so sexy in the hands of an expert. I may never get that far in the hobby - but at least I know it. That's what three months of experience has taught me.

My bio information listed at the top right of this blog says there are no stupid questions. I'll stick by that, because I want you to be able to ask about anything. That's what this blog is here for. But sometimes questions are asked before the person doing the asking has bothered to learn anything about the subject. I don't call those questions stupid, but they're uninformed. Here's an example, "I want to be able to hunt whitetail deer with an air rifle. I notice that a round ball shot out of a Big Bore 909 goes faster than a 200-grain pellet. I want to be able to kill deer out to at least 250 yards, so would I be better off using round balls instead of pellets?"

No - you would be better off:

1. Moving out of your apartment in Manhattan, where the whitetail deer are scarce.

2. Learning something about ballistics before using just one fact - velocity - to invent a universe that doesn't really exist.

3. Learning to shoot.

4. Waiting until you're 18 years old, so you can do all of this legally.

Today's blog sounds like a rant and it probably is. But I had to get it off my chest. I still love all of you and I want you to continue to ask your questions and try new things.

I, on the other hand, will concentrate on hovering.

When bad things happen Airgun accidents

2008-07-02T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

I'm talking about airgun accidents today - real accidents, not just the lies a kid tells when he's caught shooting another kid just to see what will happen. Bob C. asked for this one, but I bet a lot of readers will be interested.

Starting with springs
Mainsprings are usually under a lot of tension even when the gun isn't cocked. If you're not careful when you release the spring, something bad will happen. The first time I disassembled a Beeman C1 made by Webley I didn't use a mainspring compressor. The end cap that weighs several ounces got away from me and flew six feet before hitting a wooden desk drawer divider, which it broke in two. Now, this was not an accident. This was a "stupident." An accident happens when something you could not control goes bad - like a bridge collapsing during an earthquake. A stupident is when you do the wrong thing and get caught by fate.

The C1 end cap hit this desk divider to the right of the crack (see the dent in the wood) and busted it in two.

Another spring tale
A gentleman was disassembling a spring gun at an airgun show and did not have the use of a mainspring compressor. The spring got away from him (stupident - not accident) and flew across the aisle, hitting a person in the head. No real damage was done, but the hittee didn't appreciate the event! I heard this report from the person who was hit.

Spring gun stupident
At another airgun show, a dealer had loaded a spring gun with a pellet and realized he had nothing with which to extract the pellet. The gun was a low-powered pellet rifle, so instead of going to the trouble of walking outside the show and shooting into the ground, he put the palm of his hand over the muzzle and pulled the trigger. After all - it was just a low-powered spring rifle - how bad could it be?

Here's how bad - a friend had to drive him to the emergency room of a nearby hospital so they could dig the pellet out of the hand. It penetrated out of sight. I heard this report from an eyewitness. Ironically, the person who committed this stupident also committed the one before.

Two for one stupident
Sometimes it isn't enough that just one person is stupid. Two people are even better! I had a loaded Daisy No. 25 pump BB gun on my table at Roanoke (stupident number one) and while I was away from the table a guy came up and pumped the gun. He didn't want to buy it, he was just kicking the tires. My wife, who didn't know it was loaded, told him to uncock the gun, but of course that's not possible with a Daisy 25. So he put the muzzle on top of his shoe (to cushion the piston, I presume) and fired (the other stupident)! The result was instant and painful. He felt so embarrassed that he bought the gun. I only heard the story after returning to my table - whereupon I checked all my other guns to ensure they were unloaded!

CO2 stupident
At another airgun show, a dealer was disassembling a CO2 pistol that discharged during the work. The pellet that was in the barrel struck the leg of a man standing 20 feet away. The breech of the pistol was open when the gun discharged - otherwise the pellet would have penetrated the man's leg after passing through his jeans.

The worst CO2 stupident
I was sworn to secrecy on this story. The teller who committed the stupident told me I could tell people it happened but I was never to reveal his name. When you hear what he did I think you'll understand why he wants to remain anonymous. He was working on a Benjamin 252 CO2 pistol, trying to solder the sight fixture on the front of the barrel to the CO2 tube below. He knew there was a CO2 cartridge in the tube, but he thought he could do the job quickly enough that it wouldn't matter. You see, as CO2 is heated, the pressure increases. Soldering temperature is above 400 degrees F, so that raised the pressure of the gas high enough to blow the threaded CO2 cartridge cap off the gun! It buried itself in a wall but fortunately no one was hurt. He probably wouldn't have been just hurt. He probably would have been killed.

One from my wife
My wife remembers a stupident that could have been deadly. Here's her story: At the Little Rock Airgun Expo, a man in his 30s told me he liked to teach youngsters how to use and handle guns. One day, he had a pellet pistol while outside with a group of kids, when the gun jammed. He tried to unjam it but couldn't figure out what was causing the problem. For a closer look, he held the muzzle close to his eye and repeatedly pulled the trigger so he could examine the mechanism! He didn't realize what he'd done until much later, but the horse was already out of the barn, as all the kids in the neighborhood got to see how to "safely" handle a loaded gun! I am stupefied that he managed to live to adulthood!

Wrong gas stupident
PCPs run on air, but the hospital employee had access to tanks of oxygen. Oxygen is like air, isn't it?

NO!

But this kind of stupident is not that uncommon. Apparently some hospital employees are not trained in the dangers of pure oxygen gas.

This is what happens when a VERY HOT flame is held against aluminum for a long time! It looks like a cutting torch has been used on this gun from the inside out.

Note the discoloration of the anodizing. Forensic scientists use clues like this and the bending of the steel barrel to determine how much heat caused the damage and how long the fire lasted. An oxygen fire is a dangerous thing. This rifle was returned to Pyramyd Air as defective.

Recent stupidents
I have committed a couple stupidents in the past five years. One involved a Chinese rifle I was testing, and the other was a vintage German gun I bought. The pictures below tell the tale.

I shot the couch! Because the aimpoint was four inches above the couch, I didn't move it out of the line of fire, and a Tech Force 99 made this hole. It's been there four years, as a reminder of how stupid and lazy I can be. Believe it or not, my wife never said one bad thing about this stupident because I think she knows how bad I feel.

I let my guard down and the trigger of my new/old BSF 55N slipped when I closed the barrel the first time, putting this hole in the ceiling of my office. That's why I advise BSF owners to not adjust the triggers too light.

Stupid is as stupid does. I tell you these tales in the hopes of increasing your awareness of the potential dangers of our hobby.

Parker-Hale Dragon

2008-07-01T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Okay, the field target course will have to be postponed until 2009. We didn't get the students we need. But we'll select some dates very soon and everyone will know when the first class is next year. I'm also looking into ways of reducing the length of the course to make it easier on the students.

Hey - what they ought to do...
How many times have you heard someone "invent" a gun he thinks ought to be made, only to discover that it actually was? I know this is a common occurrence for me.

One gun I hear about a lot is a powerful single-stroke pneumatic. After they discover the powerplant, some shooters become enamored with the fact that the single-stroke is pneumatic, so it shoots without vibration or movement and it takes only a single stroke of the lever to charge the gun. The only thing the makers forgot to do was make it powerful. So, these hopeful shooters do that in their mind and then wonder why the engineers overlooked such an important thing.

It's the same as wondering why the car manufacturers won't release that 100 mpg carburetor, now that we really need it.

Why don't "they" make a powerful single-stroke pneumatic air rifle?
"I would buy one in a heartbeat if airgun manufacturers would just get off their collective butt and design what 'we' want. We want a single-stroke pneumatic air rifle with enough power for hunting." That's exactly what Parker-Hale did. Or rather they accepted the design of an independent airgun designer and put it into production. A single-stroke pneumatic rifle with enough power for hunting.

Well, I lucked into a chance to see and operate a Dragon at the 2008 Little Rock Airgun Expo, and I knew I'd be reporting it to you readers someday. When a reader recently saw one for sale on the American Airguns free classified ads page, he asked about it. I answered his question and asked if he'd like a report, which brings us to today. Since I've never tested the rifle the report will have to be thin, but I've added some detail photos that you won't see anywhere.

The Parker-Hale Dragon is a large single-stroke pneumatic rifle that shoots like a PCP. The owner shoots his rifle at the 2008 Little Rock Airgun Expo.

Enter the Dragon
The Dragon is an 11-lb. single-stroke pneumatic air rifle that looks like a PCP with a pump added on. It shoots at just under the British legal limit of 12 foot-pounds, so those .22-caliber Crosman Premiers will probably be going out the muzzle between 575 and 590 f.p.s. Being middle-weight pellets, they have to be lower in energy so some super-heavyweight doesn't push the rifle over the legal limit. The lever is attached to the right side of the action and pivots near the muzzle. It swings through about 105 degrees of arc to compress all the air it takes to generate 12 foot-pounds.

Make no mistake, the rifle has the firing characteristics of a PCP. There is zero recoil and vibration when the shot takes off. Because of the low muzzle energy, the report is relatively low, too. About like a Sheridan Blue Streak with five pumps of air. Thank the longer barrel for that. And thank the weight of 11 lbs. (before adding the scope) for the stability of a field target rifle. The weight seems to come from the extensive - nay, dare I say universal, use of steel components and parts. The Dragon is a lead-sled, compared to a normal PCP. Most of that weight is in the extra pumping mechanism, but the use of steel in the parts is a driver, too.

Make ready!
Ever watch the film Patriot and thank God you didn't live at the time of the American revolution? Getting a flintlock ready to fire was no simple task. Well, if the rifles had been Parker-Hale Dragons instead of flintlocks, the revolution would probably have lasted a few more years. Compared to a flintlock, making the Dragon ready to fire is a chore.

I forget all of the steps to making the gun ready, but here are the ones I do remember. First, you simultaneously lift up on the safety button and push the trigger forward to set the valve. Then, you pop the pump handle away from the stock, but that requires you to pinch two sheet-steel cams together while simultaneously pulling them away from the stock. Once the lever joint has been properly freed, you swing the lever out and up to the top of its arc, just past the muzzle of the rifle. Next, you close the lever, compressing the air. Then, you cock the rifle, which retracts the bolt, allowing you to load a pellet. Close the bolt and you may be ready to fire. I forget if the safety comes on automatically at this point.

Before you push the trigger forward to close the firing valve, the safety button in front of the trigger is pushed straight up.

Once the safety is up and out of the way, the trigger is pushed forward to close the firing valve.

The next step is to pump the gun, but before that, the pump lever link is simultaneously squeezed together and pulled away from the stock to free the joint.

Now the pump lever is swung forward past the muzzle and then returned to the resting point alongside the stock. After that, all that remains is to cock and load the gun.

It may sound as if I am criticizing the Dragon's design as I describe the process to make it ready, but that's not my intention. I was given a rare opportunity to examine this strange and almost handmade air rifle mechanism, and I vowed to report the process to my readers, if and when I wrote about the rifle. Where else are you going to get this kind of information? I know for a fact it wasn't reported in the airgun magazines when the gun was new, because I was interested in this rifle for myself.

The trigger is light and crisp - just what you'd expect from a top-grade PCP. In its day, the Parker-Hale Dragon was on the pricier side of the cost spectrum, but it didn't last very long. As I recall the gun was available for only a year to 18 months before it was pulled from the market in 1997. Parker-Hale stopped making firearms and airguns of any kind in the year 2000. The Dragon is not a common model. That's why I told the reader who inquired that the $600 asking price for a non-functional gun was a no-brainer. It's no doubt worth twice that and more.

The bottom line
At this point a few thousand of you readers know a little something about an exotic airgun that had a very short life. That will not prevent someone from saying, "You don't understand. When I said I wanted more power I meant 30-40 foot-pounds. When is someone going to make a single-stroke rifle like that? And I'd like the weight to be 8 lbs. with a scope. Yeah, that sounds about right!"

Improve your shooting with the two-bag rest technique

2008-06-30T05:30:00.007-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Troubleshooting
Today, I'm helping a couple readers with some problems. First is Frank B., who owns a Marksman model 70 that he asked a question about. Seems his rifle is missing the trigger adjustment screw. So, Frank, I pulled the screw from my BSF 55N rifle, whose trigger unit is very similar, and I photographed it. For you photographers, I painted the screw with light. I didn't get a perfect exposure, but it's good enough for this job. Also, this is a macro done with my nicer camera.

The shank is 10mm long.

I told Frank the screw was 2.5mm, but seeing it enlarged like this I think it's a 3mm screw.

I hope this helps you locate a screw for your trigger. Remember, the BSF trigger that your rifle has is very prone to slipping off when cocked, so never let go of the barrel when its broken open.

Discovery problems
Today's blog is really an emergency report to help our reader, Andreas, who is having an accuracy problem with his new Benjamin Discovery. Normally, that wouldn't be so bad, but Andreas lives in Cypress and doesn't have the same airgun opportunities that we have here in the states. He bought the Discovery after reading my reports, and I want him to enjoy the gun to the fullest.

Room to improve
On Saturday, Andreas sent me the links to some groups he'd fired with his rifle. They look okay, but since they were shot at just 18 yards, they do have room for improvement. Andreas doesn't have access to JSB 10.2-grain Exact domed pellets, which my tests showed were the best in the .177 caliber he owns, so he is shooting 10.5-grain Crosman Premiers, which are pretty close.

Premier benchrest technique!
I want to share with him and all of you the best technique for shooting a firearm or a pneumatic rifle to get the most accuracy. This technique was developed in the late 19th century. It's called the double bag technique. To use it, you need two shooting bags.

Look at the arrow that indicates how the rear bag is to be adjusted. Sliding it back and forth raises and lowers your aimpoint. You never have to touch anything but the trigger.

The front bag should be long enough that the rifle, when rested on the bag, won't fall off. A rolled blanket or towel usually isn't good enough. A bag with "ears" is always best for this, though if it is too long it won't allow the rear bag to work its magic.

These Beeman benchrest bags are perfect for the two-bag technique. The front bag is on the right.

Rear bag controls the gun
The real secret of this technique is the rear bag. It stabilizes the rifle so you don't have to hold it to your shoulder. I've watched several of you caffeine-hyper shooters on the range, and I know that not holding the rifle can be a real plus! The rear bag also adjusts the muzzle of the rifle, ever-so-slightly, because of the angle on the bottom of the butt. You can raise and lower the crosshairs by very small amounts by sliding the bag forward and back. That's how you center the sights, and since you aren't touching the rifle anywhere other than the trigger, the sights stay on target. Your breathing and heartbeat cannot move the rifle when you use a two-bag rest.

I should have shown you this type of rest long ago, but so many of you shoot spring guns. You can't use this rest with a springer because it has to be handheld.

Andreas, please let us know if this helps you with your Discovery.

Photographing airguns - Part 3

2008-06-27T05:30:00.005-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

Let's take a look at close-up detail shots. Before we do, another little tip about lighting your subject that will come in handy when doing close-up shots. It's called painting the subject with light.

Yesterday I showed you how the scope mounts went on to the Ruger Air Hawk Elite rifle. What I DIDN'T show you was the trouble I had taking those photos.

Initially the photo of the rings came out like this.

But when I painted them with light, they looked like this. Notice the extra detail that comes out in the mounts.

I didn't take my time setting up the shot. As you can see, the rear ring got more light than the front, but the image that I painted with light looks far better than the one I didn't. Rather than retaking the shot, which I would have done if the photo were going into a print publication, I accepted it when it was good enough. However, on the next shot, I adjusted what I was doing and improved the exposure.

For this shot, I changed the direction of the light sweep, coming from the right instead of from the left. You can see the improvement in the evenness of the lighting of both mounts. This time, however, the specular highlights from the light blew out the Ruger name at the bottom. Gun companies don't like it when that happens.

To paint the image with light, I used a Crosman tactical flashlight that puts out a white light of 60 lumens (means it's pretty darn bright). While the shutter was open for about four seconds, I wiped the light through the subject in about a quarter-second. By "wiping the light," I mean I shined the beam at the subject while moving it through the subject from side to side, so it was on the subject a total of about a quarter-second. That's painting with light.

Close-ups
Now we'll talk about close-ups. This will take more than one report, so I'm splitting it into two sections. I'll tell you what will be in the second section at the end of this one.

Close-ups are called macros, and many good digital cameras have a macro setting. You saw the dime I photographed in Part 1, so you know what I'm talking about. You will have to focus very close to your subject, and lighting will become more of a problem but painting with light will help you.

If you have a film camera, you need a macro lens. I have a special Nikon 55mm lens that lets me make a 1:2 image. That means the image on my 35mm slide is 1/2 the size of the original subject. If I have used fine-grain film, I can enlarge that image many times, so a .177-caliber pellet can appear 6 inches tall and still be in sharp focus. If I want even more enlargement, I have a special attachment called a bellows that enlarges beyond 1:1. But that one eats light like crazy, and often I cannot get enough light on the subject to get the shot. That's where Photoshop software comes in, but I'm not ready to talk about that yet.

Now I'm talking about digital cameras, only. The international symbol for a macro is a flower, so if you don't have the camera manual anymore, look for the symbol that resembles a tulip. It will often show in the viewing window as a yellow symbol. On some cameras, it will be the opposite choice from a mountain symbol or the symbol of a group of people. Your camera also makes sounds, if you haven't turned them off. There is a most familiar sound that your digital camera makes when the subject is in focus. If you don't hear that sound, the image will be blurry. However, if you don't shoot from a steady rest or a tripod, the image may be blurry even though it was in perfect focus. So put the camera in macro, use a tripod or steady rest and make sure the feedback sound says the camera is in focus.

On my primary digital camera, a button is dedicated to the macro function. This photo was taken by my little point-and-shoot camera in the macro mode. I used a tripod. The button is 7/32" across (5.5mm). That's smaller than a quarter-inch.

This is the macro setting on my point-and-shoot camera. I took the photo with my primary camera in the macro mode. To set the macro mode on the point-and-shoot camera, you press on the silver ring where the flower is shown. The camera taking the picture was hand-held, because this camera is really steady! The exposure was 2.1 seconds. The button in the center is 3/8" across (10mm).

Next time
In the next installment, I'll cover more macro tips, including these:

How to photograph pellets
How to take macros without a macro mode
What kind of camera I use

When you see features on the camera I use, you'll see why I like digital photography so much and why I can do things that maybe you can't. Don't despair - my camera currently sells for as low as $335, so it isn't a backbreaker if you need high-quality images.

Ruger Air Hawk Elite - Part 3

2008-06-26T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

The Norica Young air rifles went on sale yesterday morning. There are just a handful of them, so act quickly if you want one. I'm not endorsing the rifle, because I've never tested one. All I can tell you is that Norica is a good maker, and the price for this gun is very low. They are new-old-stock, so expect some discoloration and possibly handling marks. Some will have boxes while others don't.

A reader asked whether the Ruger logo appears on the rifle. Here it is.

On to today's report, where I test the Ruger Air Hawk Elite for accuracy. You may remember that the 11mm dovetail scope rail grooves have no provision for a scope stop. Readers have suggested I use BKL scope mounts that hold by clamping pressure, alone, or put valve grinding compound on the dovetails to seize the scope ring clamps (not a bad idea!) or that I just back the scope mount bases up to the rear of the dovetails, where they'll bottom out at the end of the cuts.

I've decided on a slightly different method, and we'll see how successful it is. I put the rear ring at the end of the 11mm dovetail, where it stopped, then I added a separate scope stop behind the front ring for added resistance. The AirHawk Elite has a pretty hefty kick for a lighter rifle, so these two measures will be tested well.

The rear ring is backed up in the dovetail as far as it will go.

A separate scope stop is anchored behind the front ring.

I sighted-in the rifle and shot all groups at 21 yards indoors. It was windy outside, and this was a way to move the test along.

The test pellets
Not one of the pellets used for the velocity test proved accurate in this rifle. RWS Hobbys shot 1.5" groups, as did Beeman Kodiaks. Gamo Raptors turned in the largest group of the day. Five of them stumbled through the target with a spacing of 1.912" between the centers of the two farthest apart. Not a pellet to pick for this rifle! Beeman Trophy pellets did better, but still weren't good enough.

Five RWS Hobbys went into this 1.438" group at 21 yards. This is representative of both Hobbys and Kodiaks in this rifle. Note that all four shots in the white have tipped a bit, indicating they are not stable.

Five Raptors wandered through the target in this loose 1.912" formation. Like herding cats!

Here are six Beeman Trophy pellets. They're better than the others, but still not good. This group measures 0.946".

Then I tried JSB Exacts
I'm sorry to always do this to you, but it's the truth. JSB Exact 10.2-grain pellets are often the best in most guns. When they aren't, try Crosman Premiers and Beeman Kodiaks. But this time the JSBs won hands-down.

Five JSB Exact domes made this pretty little group. It measures 0.330".

I shot this one for the guy who wanted me to shoot more groups with the Walther Falcon Hunter last week, after I said I knew it could shoot. I knew this Ruger could shoot, too, and here's the proof. A second group measuring 0.330". It only looks larger because of the way the paper tore.

I'm not done with this one yet
Normally, I'd finish here, but I want to visit this rifle one more time. The way it vibrates with every shot, it loosens the stock screws and the muzzlebrake screws. I had to tighten the muzzlebrake twice during this report. I can live with that, but the trigger I want to examine in more detail. As is, the pull is far too long and the release feels indefinite. I'd like to see what, if anything, can be done.

10-meter pistol shooting - Part 5

2008-06-25T05:30:00.004-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

See - I didn't forget about this. I just let a little time elapse. Today, I'm going to talk about taking your score up from the high 400s to the mid-500s. There are only two things you'll need to do that. When you examine them closely, you'll discover they're two parts of the same thing.

How did I get here?
Let's review your 10-meter progress to this point. When you started shooting 10-meter pistol, your score for 60 shots ranged between the high 300s and the low to mid-400s. You were all over the place, and often threw shots into the white. Go look at a target here if you forget what one looks like. Better yet, buy a couple hundred because you're not getting into the 500s without them.

See?
After a period of regular practice, your scores were always in the 400s, and sometimes above 450. By then you were getting critical of your trigger and you had the sights adjusted to a fair-thee-well - unless you're like old Ed. Old Ed was a shooter who shot 10-meter with us every Monday night. He shot in the mid-400s, but he was consistently a little low and left. After watching him for a couple weeks, I asked him about it. Turns out, he'd put his pistol in a bench vice and sighted it in that way. He knew he was shooting low and left, but in the vise the gun was drilling the center.

Several months later, I convinced Ed to adjust his sights. Lo and behold, he shot a 520 that evening! I don't know what that did to his bench vise's score, but who cares? It never showed up to any of our matches, while Ed was a regular. Believe it or not, there comes a point in almost every shooter's life when a simple sight adjustment will add points to his score. Maybe not 30-40 points, but take what you can get.

Breaking 500
Breaking 500 is usually a tough nut for most shooters. But, after adjusting your sights, the one thing that'll add more points than any other is the front sight. By which I mean learning to concentrate on the front sight to the exclusion of almost everything else. At this point in the game, you've mastered the grip, mount (raising the gun before shooting) (Part 2 and Part 3) stance (Part 1)...and you've found the best pellet. From this point until you are averaging 550, the front sight will add all your points. Non-target shooters cannot understand this, and world champions talk about little else. Let's see why.

A perfect diagnostic
When you concentrate on the front sight to the exclusion of almost everything else, you start to notice little things that were previously below the radar. Things like how the pistol pulls slightly to the left just before the second stage of the trigger breaks (yep - gotta get a gun with a better trigger). You notice when the front sight starts diving below the bull and nothing you do with your arm can hold it up (holding the gun on target too long). And you start getting real good at calling your shots - as in, "That was a nine at 9 o'clock." You used to be happy about just knowing which way the pellet went; now you're scoring the target that's too far away to see clearly. "Oh my gosh, I just flipped at 8! What's wrong with me?"

A month ago, you went down to the target like a gold panner - anxious to see what you had. Now you go down having scored your five or ten shots to within one point - all without being able to see them from the firing line.

Then, a day comes when you CAN see all your shots, because they all touch and they're all inside the nine-ring. Now you start to put pressure on those around you who see the same thing. You're averaging 525 points out of 600, and you finally grasp the importance of the front sight. Now you'll have to practice daily to get the next 25 points.

Practice make nearly perfect
Daily practice consists of a routine of at least 100 dry-fire shots followed by a full 60-shot match. Your score floats upward five points at a time until it starts bumping into the number 550. As you practice, you realize that all you're doing is becoming more intimately familiar with that all-important front sight. It now dawns on you that practice has revealed that the front sight may be the secret to shooting, which is what I meant by these two things being the same.

What I'm not saying, but what is happening just the same, is that your stance is now perfect. You can no longer stand any way but the right way, with the right amount of tension in both legs. Your grip and raising of the pistol are perfect, as well. You start shooting perfect scores of 50 with five shots - and believe me when I say that the first time you do it will be no less of a celebration than a golfer's hole-in-one or a 300 game in bowling. As you approach an average of 550, you'll shoot a lot of 50s - many more than any golfer ever shot holes-in-one.

Now, grasshopper, this is as far as I can take you from my own experience, because I never had a 550 average. My best score in practice was 545 and in a match 537. I got to the place I'm now describing, but I never went on. However, I do know how to go beyond 550, because several world champions and Olympians have written descriptions of the journey. Maybe I'll tell you how to do it next time, though I must warn you, it does sound very strange and new-age.

RWS Diana scope base - Part 1How we began

2008-06-24T05:30:00.003-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

I've wanted to write this report for a long time, but I didn't want to get you all excited about something you couldn't buy. Now I hear that Leapers will be shipping the Diana scope mount bases in July. Since it will take several reports to cover these bases adequately, the time has come to break silence.

The year 2007 was busy for me. Besides developing the Discovery with Crosman, I was also working on this base. Here's how the project got started. Some time in 2006, I told a reader how to mount a scope on an RWS Diana rifle. That must have been the thousandth time I had to go through that litany, after which I had to convince him that these problems really do exist and then I recited what I had done to try to convince Diana that their scope base needed to be changed. Weary and desperate, I met with David Ding of Leapers at the 2007 SHOT Show and asked him to make this base.

My buddy Earl "Mac" McDonald was with me at that meeting, and his contribution turned out to be equally important. I just wanted a base that would provide a positive mechanical scope stop for most Diana rifles. I was tired of hearing that some people had sheared-off screws and long grooves cut through the steel bases of their rifles. The only way to positively afix a scope to a Diana spring rifle (with the exception of the models 46, and the Schutze), is to hang a vertical scope stop pin in front of the scope base. This looks dorky, not to mention the crudeness of having to do it that way. But the holes on the rifle's scope base are too shallow to hold a scope stop pin, and the large-headed screw at the rear has a thin shank that will not take the strain of a scope mount bearing against it under repeated recoil. If you're using that screw as a stop, you need to know that it will shear off.

This is what happens every time! The scope stop holes are too shallow and the pins rip out the back, cutting a groove backwards. This rifle had only 200 shots (approx.). The large-headed screw was already sheared off.

Don't butt the rear ring against the large screw head at the right. With the new base, you won't have to.

My contribution was the design of a plate that fits in front of the rifle's scope base. I even named the plate the recoil shock shoulder to convey the message of what it does. Leapers executed it beautifully, and you can't tell that their base is mounted any way but correctly. It just looks right. They radiused the bottom of the shock shoulder to conform perfectly to the spring tube diameter, so this base looks organic to the rifle. I also asked for a relief slot to protect the fragile large-headed screw from contact with the base.

Leapers' new Diana scope mount bases are well-engineered for the job. They have a Picatinny top to fit all Weaver-type rings. Note the recoil shock shoulder in the front. It hangs in front of the Diana rifle scope base to provide a positive mechanical lock for the scope rings.

Notice how well the new base fits over the existing rifle base. It looks right on the rifle.

We didn't forget that fragile big screw! Leapers made a cutout so the base doesn't touch it.

Long job becomes short
Because the new base conforms so perfectly to the base on the rifle, it mounts in just seconds. The technicians at Pyramyd Air will find their scope-mounting time is cut drastically when they start using this new base. And, if that were all the new base did, it would be worth the money, but that's only half the tale.

Remember that Mac was at that meeting, too. After I made my pitch, he chimed in by asking if they could possibly engineer in a forward slope to cure the barrel droop problem some of the guns had. Oh my gosh! I'd completely forgotten that necessary step! Once you solve the anchoring problem, there may still be a barrel droop issue.

What is barrel droop?
Barrel droop means that the barrel's bore is pointing downward in relation to the plane of the scope base. When a scope is mounted, the barrel shoots noticeably lower than the scope looks. To compensate has always meant cranking up the elevation knob to bring the pellet back up to where the crosshairs are looking or inserting a shim. With some RWS Diana rifles, this isn't always possible or there's too much shimming that has to be done. Some of them have a large enough angle of droop that the scope cannot be zeroed at 20 yards, which is the most common zero point for most air rifles.

Diana wasn't convinced
For several years, I asked the management at Diana to fix this problem. Whenever I met them at the SHOT Show or at IWA, I would lobby for a change to the barrel droop problem. My suggestions fell on deaf ears. I'm sure I sounded like some airgun fanatic to them. After all, their guns were easy to sight in with the open sights that are installed on the barrel. What's the problem? They hadn't responded to the hundreds of people who called and wrote to ask what they were doing wrong. I had! Again and again, I told people how to either shim their mounts or, better yet, how to use B-Square adjustable scope mounts - mounts, I might add, that Dan Bechtel, the founder of B-Square, developed specifically for the airgun barrel droop issue.

So, when Mac spoke up, he saved the day. As long as a new base was being developed, let's solve ALL the mounting problems at the same time. Well, hearing that gave me another idea. Since this was just going to be a scope BASE, why not make it the best base we possibly could, which would be a Picatinny rail that accepts Weaver rings? That way, after the base was installed, the rings would just snap into the grooves and the mounting job would be complete.

That meeting lasted for 20 minutes, and David Ding decided right then that he would develop the base. I would test it and when it was ready for the market, the problem of scope-mounting a Diana rifle made after 1985 would be over. Instead of a 20-minute tutorial, all I'd have to do would be give the link to the part they needed.

In the next installment, I'll tell you about the testing I did. It lasted all year and pretty much revealed that this base won't be easy to copy. There's a lot more to show you and more that you need to understand about this base, so please stay tuned.

Ruger Air Hawk Elite - Part 2

2008-06-23T05:30:00.003-05:00

By B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

Who's your pal? Pyramyd Air has just uncovered a very small number of new-old-stock Norica Young breakbarrel spring rifles from the 1990s. These were left after an airgun dealer went out of business and they've been sitting around for years. While they are brand new, a few may have some age discoloration and handling marks.

The Norica breakbarrels come in several different colors (color choice not possible because of short supply).

Here's your chance to grab a new rifle from the '90s at a '90s price.

The Norica Young is a youth model breakbarrel with a colorful painted wood stock. Norica is the quality Spanish airgun maker that made several models for Beeman. I imagine this .177 rifle will produce velocities in the low to mid 600 f.p.s. The gun has no safety and the non-adjustable trigger is very heavy for safety. The price for this time capsule air rifle will be only $75. Quantities are very limited, so act as soon as I alert you they are live. Don't call before because until it's live on the website, there's nothing to sell.

Field target course in jeopardy
Things aren't looking good for a field target course in 2008. So far, only Wayne has said he'll attend. We're issuing a press release to locate more students. If we don't have any more takers before the end of the month, we'll have to postpone this course until the summer of 2009. We understand that we gave you very short notice this year, and if it doesn't work out - so be it. We'll sure get a head start on a 2009 course!

Here comes the Diana scope base
Tomorrow, I will start a report on the new Leapers scope base for Diana air rifles. They'll be available in about a month. I'll explain in detail what this new base has going for it.

Now, let's get back to Ruger's Air Hawk Elite and test for velocity. The rifle had a few shots before this testing took place. The first one was a powerful detonation, but not a sound after that. The rifle is rated to 1,000 f.p.s. I shot a few dozen times before recording these velocities, just to get any excess oil out of the compression chamber.

RWS Hobbys
RWS Hobbys (7.0 grains) used to be the lightweight pellet of choice. Unless the manufacturer had some compelling reason, like they made their own pellets, they used Hobbys for velocity tests. And, every airgun writer used them for the same reason. In the test rifle, Hobbys averaged 920 f.p.s., with a range from 912 to 930. That's 18 f.p.s., which is considered pretty tight for a spring rifle. The average muzzle energy is 13.16 foot-pounds.

Crosman Premier 7.9-grain pellets
The Crosman Premier 7.9-grain pellet is another test standard. For .177 spring rifles you use the 7.9-grain weight unless the gun's power dictates otherwise. This one did not. The average was 815 f.p.s., with a spread from 791 to 833. That's surprisingly slow and also a larger velocity spread than I expected from this pellet. Muzzle energy averages 11.65, which you can see is a large drop from the Hobbys.

Gamo Raptors
Every dog has its day, and this time the Gamo Raptor (5.4 grains) surprised me completely. Not only were they surprisingly fast at an average 1072 f.p.s., they also had a relatively tight velocity spread from 1059 to 1081. The muzzle energy was the highest, at 13.78 foot-pounds. The first time Raptors have lead in any test I've conducted. They earned a place in the velocity test with this performance. Wouldn't it be fun if they were accurate, too?

Pellet choices
We have a rifle in the sub-14 foot-pound category that performs well with lighter pellets. Popular wisdom says it won't do as well with heavyweights. Just so we'll all know for sure, I also tested the rifle with Beeman Kodiaks. Before I get to that test, though, let me explain why I say this. A spring rifle operates on a balancing act of spring strength, piston weight and the length of the piston's stroke. If the rifle does well with light pellets, it means the piston is probably too light to also do well with a heavier piston. Tuners can actually adjust the gun to a certain pellet by adding weight to the piston until performance peaks. But let's see how this works in practice.

Beeman Kodiaks (10.6 grains)
Beeman Kodiaks (10.6 grains) also astonished me. I expected a velocity around 690-710, but the rifle averaged 747 f.p.s. What's more surprising is the tight velocity spread from 743 to 751. The average muzzle energy was 13.14 foot-pounds, only a little behind the Hobbys. Conventional spring gun tuning wisdom suggests this isn't possible - that a rifle be good on both ends of the pellet weight spectrum. So much for conventional wisdom. Clearly, this powerplant loves both Raptors and Kodiaks.

So, the gun is right on the money as far as power is concerned. I think Ruger may be on to a good thing with this rifle. Accuracy testing comes next.

Starting your own field target club Start with one friend

2008-06-20T05:30:00.006-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier (AKA Tom Gaylord)

This series is for Wayne in Ashland and for anyone else who thinks that he or she is the only airgunner on the face of the earth. I don't care where you live, you can start a field target club. Okay, you guys in New York City and Chicago will have to drive a bit, but I had to drive 27 miles to my local FT club.

I identified myself today for two reasons. First, we have a lot of new readers, and I just wanted them to know who is behind the keyboard. More importantly, I was one of four guys who started the DIFTA field target club in Damascus, Maryland. You can check out what I tell you with current DIFTA members, one of whom - Joe McDaniel (signing on as Joe in MD) is both the match director at DIFTA today and the webmaster and one of the governors of AAFTA.

Here's how we started. Phil Dean called to ask if I would come out to the Damascus Izaak Walton League to set up and run a demonstration adult airgun range during the 1996 Chevy Sportsman's Team Challenge. My wife, Edith, and I had just returned from a disastrous public event at Aberdeen Proving Ground, where we had been asked to do pretty much the same thing. At Aberdeen, we were left on a range by ourselves (just Edith and me). The show's promoters were announcing elsewhere that we were running "BB-gun competition for the kids!" So we got nothing but 4-10 year olds and their moms to shoot TX 200s and super-tuned R1s at field targets. Talk about a mismatch!

I finally gave up and went home when a boy who was helped by his father got hit in the eye with the scope of my recoiling R1 and THREW the rifle on the concrete pad! That rifle and stock still bear those scratches. Dad offered to pay, but when I told him what the highly modified gun was worth (about the same as his Chevette) he excused himself and, as they say in the fireworks industry, "retired quickly."

So, I put Phil Dean through hell on the phone. I DID NOT want a repeat of that disaster! Had I known Phil, I would have known he would never let something like that happen on his watch.

We reluctantly went to the Chevy Sportsman's Team Challenge, ran our public course (with Phil's help, I might add), and we enlightened a bunch of old farts. Phil then asked if we could start a field target club at the Izaak Walton league. Inside one month, we held our first match, and I learned how a club gets started from nothing. For the record, the two other DIFTA founders are Jim Piateski and Ed Burrows.

You need three things to start a club
You need shooters, a place to shoot and targets to shoot at. Surprisingly, it's easier to solve all three problems at the same time, than to tackle them individually. Here's how you do it. You start with one friend. Now, don't tell me you don't have any friends, because I'm the original loner. You gotta find a friend.

Before Phil, Jim and Ed came into my life I had found a shooting friend at a local gun show. We were just talking and the conversation got around to airguns. I owned a Career 707 but had no place outside my basement to shoot it and Wayne owned a farm and had always wanted to see one of those big pellet rifles shoot. Long story short, we went to his farm and shot - a lot. Then we each bought a field target that was made for a .22 rimfire, believe it or not. It has a 2-inch kill zone which is perfect for two old doofuses (doofi?) like us.

Anyhow, I owned this one totally inappropriate field target (plus four legitimate ones), but I'd shot with a field target club in Virginia a couple of times. Their match director, Trooper Walsh, offered to lend our new club 20 old targets his club no longer used. Wayne didn't want to shoot with us, but Trooper put the word out in Maryland and Virginia and we had about 10 total shooters show up at the first shoot.

So, to summarize, find a friend, he'll bring in his friends and one of them will know of some land you can use. And here's a tip when meeting the landowner for the first time. Don't take your Career 707 along. Let him see your Gamo Whisper or RWS Diana 34 Panther - a gun that doesn't sound like something a sniper might use.

Let's pretend your friend is the loan officer at your bank. His sister's husband's parents own a cherry orchard about 35 miles from where you live. They will let you use five acres of brushland situated off to one side of the orchard, plus the landowner husband is sort of interested to see what these adult airguns can do. His best friend is a home remodeler who has a woodworking shop, so he gets the plans for field targets off the internet and quickly builds 10. You pony up $30 for target reset strings and related materials and within two weeks you hold your first match. Three other shooters show up and you squad the five new shooters (the landowner, his best friend and the three new guys) with you and your buddy, so everyone can share the two air rifles you have between you.

The landowner is hooked and buys a TX200 for the next match. Your pal suggests you charge everyone $10 per match and give a $5 discount to the people who help set up the course. He tells you those funds will offset the $200 he's going to put up to buy 10 field targets from Pyramyd Air.

For match No. 2, you have 20 targets (the 10 he bought plus the 10 the guy made). Two more new guys show up (one of the three new guys from last time invited them), plus your friend's sister's husband, so now there are 10 of you. The landowner's wife barbecues hamburgers and hot dogs for which she charges a very low price, plus there's a cooler full of sodas and iced tea.

Honest-to-gosh, this is how it's done! I didn't make up anything to write this blog - just changed an occupation or two. Phil Dean really did buy a TX200, after I let him shoot mine at the Chevy Sportsman's Team Challenge. Ed Burrows bought a Maccari custom TX200 a couple months later, and Jim Piateski was our carpenter. I used to let guys shoot my TX or my FWB 124 until they got rifles of their own. We didn't have to make our own targets, but another club that formed in northern Virginia did just that. And it was at Trooper's club in Virginia where the barbecue was served.

The most important part of starting a field target club is to find a friend.

A good QB36-2?

2008-06-19T05:30:00.010-05:00

Introduction by B.B. Pelletier

Guest blogger
Lothar Kommer found a way to improve his QB36-2 and make it a good tool for eliminating pesky pigeons.

If you would like to write a post for this blog, please email me at blogger@pyramydair.com.

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 will edit each submission, but we won't work on any submission that contains gross misspellings and/or grammatical errors.

A good QB36-2?

by Lothar Kommer

If you have a QB36-2 that works well but think it could be better, you're probably right.

My .22 caliber QB36-2 was okay, but I knew it could be better!

I first bought a .22 caliber QB36-2 to control the hundreds of pigeons that were living in my 200-year-old country house in Curico, Chile, because no other pest control method is as selective and precise.

Pigeons were 30-45 meters (35-50 yards) from the nearest point where I could shoot them, so an airgun had to be powerful enough to kill them.

Originally, I tried shooting pigeons with my Gecado 25 (Diana 25). During my first week of pest control, killing pigeons was easy. After they got wise to me, they moved further away, and the Gecado's limitations became obvious. That's when I got .177 and .22 QB36-2 underlevers, but I was still having problems taking pigeons further away. Obviously, I blamed the guns rather than my own shooting abilities!

After few weeks, both my guns had broken springs. Even though I 'd never dissasembled an airgun, I had no problems except for the plastic spring guide and support in the .22 that was torn in four parts and some small plastic parts with no possibility of being reinstalled in the gun.

[Note from B.B.: Disassembling a spring gun can be dangerous. Mainsprings are compressed even when uncocked. Removing and reinstalling them without proper equipment and precautions can result in serious injury and even death. Do not disassemble spring guns unless you know what you're doing and have the right equipment. You must also know how to safely reassemble your gun!]

Fnding a spare QB36-2 spring was a problem. The original had 50 coils, but I found only 36- and 40-coil Chinese springs. I used the one with 40 coils. Because it was short, I added some spacers to get precompression and to recover some power. At this time, I was convinced that the spring prevented me from getting the power I needed.

The spring guides and supports for both guns were modeled after the glued parts of the original and made from 1-1/4" steel bar. Something I still don't understand is why this part is made of plastic. It's so cheap and easy to make from steel. Starting with practically nothing, it took me less than 30 minutes to do this.

I made this spring guide from a 1-1/4" steel bar.

After that, the internet became my most important source. I read lots of bad reviews about the QB36-2...poor quality, bad seals, low power, too heavy, dieseling, cut fingers, cracked stocks, bent barrels, etc. According to many airgunners, the only solution was to buy a B22 or B21, which are not available in Chile, so I got as much info as I could from the few good reviews.

Two tips made a lasting impression:

Get or make a spring compressor.
The ends of a spring should be polished to reduce torsional movements of the gun caused by spring expansion when firing.

With that in mind, I disassembled one gun. Since it was my first time, the other assembled gun would serve as a model when it was time to put everything back together. I removed the piston and cylinder and deburred and polished both. Before polishing, I removed the rubber seal. While pushing the piston into the cylinder, I closed the transfer port with my finger. The air leaked between the seal and cylinder. I decided to replace the seal. Again, no spare parts were available, but Charliedatuna's website suggested using rubber or an all-Teflon seal, such as a synthetic bottle stopper. It worked slightly better than rubber, but it still leaked a lot. I kept the seal's thickness at 1/2" and reduced the diameter of the non-working Teflon seal. The result was a 1" diameter o-ring with 1/4" thickness.

My homemade o-ring works great!

It wasn't hard to install the seal, but I had to avoid cutting it when passing through the cylinder. Properly lubed, this seal had ZERO air leaks. It costs less than $2 and took almost no time to make. Since eliminating the air leak, my gun's power increased.

The thickness of the Teflon seal support was gradually reduced, increasing the size of the air chamber until the back completely disappeared and the front became only a support for the o-ring. The more I reduced it, the more power I got from my gun. I also shortened the screw that holds the seal to the piston. The o-ring in the .22 is the first one I used. It has over 7,500 rounds through it, while the .177 has 4,000+ (and still looks new).

The piston from my .177 QB36-2 after 4,000 shots.

I wasn't satisfied with the length of the piston, so I reduced it with a rotary grinder on the end with the seal. I took off about 0.5mm (about 2/10") at a time, until the gun barely cocked.

Acting as a spacer and extra weight, a steel chunk measuring 3/4" long x 3/4" diameter (from bar stock) was put in the piston. [Note from B.B.: this is usually called a weighted top hat.]

My homemade top hat worked quite nicely!

The piston DID break. Fortunately, the gun was pointed in a safe direction. I fixed it, and it's back in action.

My broken piston was repaired and now works perfectly!

Walther Lever Action - Part 3

2008-06-18T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

We'll finish the Walther Lever Action today with a look at accuracy. There was a tornado warning in my area when I tested the rifle, so I confined the test to indoors at 10 meters. When you see what it did, though, I don't think you'll mind.

Scope use
I tested the rifle with open sights, only, though it's possible to mount a scope, using either a B-Square mount or a Walther mount.

Sights needed very little adjustment
I had tested this rifle before for Airgun Illustrated magazine, and it was right on then, so nothing changed but the elevation from being bumped around. It took two targets and just a few shots to get back in the black again. Because all shooting was at paper, I used wadcutter pellets that cut better holes.

Gamo Match
The first pellets tested were Gamo Match. They did well but were not the best in this rifle. Gamo Match will always be pretty good in any airgun that has reasonable accuracy.

This is the best target shot with Gamo Match pellets at 10 meters from a rest. The group can almost be covered by a dime.

H&N Match
H&N Finale Match shot about the same as Gamo Match. Again, they aren't bad, but the rifle can do better.

This is the best target shot with H&N Finale Match pellets. Once again, a dime will almost cover the group.

RWS Hobby
The RWS Hobby pellet proved best in this rifle at 10 meters. I shot several groups and all were better than those shot by the other two pellets, but the best one was really something.

This is the best target shot with the Walther Lever Action. It's almost as good as a 10-meter rifle can shoot at the same range. Shot with RWS Hobbys. The average group was about one pellet-hole larger.

The trigger came under great scrutiny in this test. Had it been as good as a 10-meter rifle trigger, the groups would have been smaller, because I could see some movement of the front sight during the squeeze.

Cocking is butter-smooth and light. The Walther will spoil you for a lever-action firearm - even a .22! I have to agree with those who like this rifle for its realism.

It's certainly not cheap, but if you like realism and fast action in a pellet rifle, you will want to try Walther's Lever Action.

Photographing airguns - Part 2

2008-06-17T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

How about if I give you gun photographers something you can put to immediate use? Today, I'll talk about the use of light. You already know to turn off the flash on your camera, but let's see what you can do to light the subject.

Using available light
With film cameras, using available light was complex, because you not only had to know how long to expose the subject, you also had to know how the film you were using performed with a longer exposure. Every film was different, but as an example, the Ektachrome 64 I used had reciprocity failure. The longer it was exposed, the more the colors changed. To offset it, I had to use filters. But I also used filters for different types of light falling on the subject, and different variations of Ektachrome 64. It was very complex, so once I committed it to memory, I stopped looking for different films that could do the same thing. It's kind of like finding the one right pellet for your gun, except that there was far more complexity.

Digital does away with all of that. The computer in the camera sorts out the type of light you use, so I find myself doing unforgivable things, like using florescent and incandescent lights for the same photo. Incandescent shifts colors toward the red and florescent shifts them to the green, but I no longer think about it.

I also no longer worry about having enough light. Back in my film days I could take up to an 8-second exposure, or I could hold the shutter open manually and count off however many seconds were needed. Today, the chip in my digital camera does that, and all I have to do is tell it how light or dark I want the picture to be.

Light tricks
I use house lights for most of my internet photos. If they put a hot spot on the subject, I will make a shadow fall on the subject to eliminate the bright spot. If I'm shooting a long gun for a magazine, where lots of sharp detail is needed, I shine two 500-watt quartz lamps at the white ceiling and let the reflected white light fall on the subject. My lamps are photo-grade lamps called Tota lights, and they adjust for height on tall stands that I run all the way up to 8 feet. That makes the reflected light as bright as it can be.

Get rid of shadowss
Before I had the Tota lights, I used to take most of my long gun shots outdoors. An overcast day is perfect, as it casts no shadows, but you can take wonderful shots on a bright sunny day, too. Just photograph in the shade. That tip, alone, is enough to change the way you photograph guns, if you haven't been doing it. But wait - there's more!

Choose the right background
Invariably, the classic mistake all new gun photographers make is to lay their guns on a white sheet. Because they can see the gun best that way, they assume the camera can, as well, but it can't. It turns out you have a far more sophisticated imaging laboratory in your head than the finest cameras made. Lay your guns on a background that's lighter or darker than then, but not by much. I'll show you what I mean.

White isn't a good background for a dark gun because it overwhelms the camera's "brain," making it think the picture is brighter than you want it to be. It's like staring at a snowfield on a bright sunny day. It makes you squint and there goes the fine detail.

A medium blue background allows more detail to come through, but this picture is overexposed (intentionally) to show the damaging effects of direct lighting. It's only marginally better than the first photo. I exposed both this shot and the first shot at the same manual setting. Although this background looks grey, it's the same one used in the photo below.

By allowing the camera to select the right exposure, you get a far better shot, even with direct lighting. Hard to believe all three photos are the same gun with the same lighting - florescent room lighting! Notice the shadow beneath the gun, indicating the light was not directly above the subject.

Now, let me show you what the image can look like when it is taken in indirect (reflected) light. This was taken with a single 500-watt Tota light bounced off the ceiling.

No hard shadow, more details pop and there's not as much detail loss in the dark areas. Notice this is the only photo to clearly show the front sight pins.

Ruger Air Hawk Elite - Part 1

2008-06-16T05:30:00.004-05:00

By B.B. Pelletier

Before we begin, some announcements. All you who have been waiting for .22 caliber round balls, Gamo has come to the rescue. Pyramyd expects to get them in July, so get your orders ready. Be sure to lay in a good supply, as you never know when they'll be out of stock again!

We have one student for the Field Target course in August. Wayne will drive all the way from Ashland, Oregon, to Cleveland if we're able to hold the first course this year. I need a few more definite students before I can get this course off the ground, so please check in if you think you can come. I'm tentatively thinking about holding it August 18 through 22, but that's not locked down, yet. Please let us know if you think you can come this year.

A beautiful breakbarrel from Ruger. Diana, are you watching?

Today, we'll start our look at Ruger's Air Hawk Elite. One of our readers asked if this rifle is a copy of the RWS Diana 34. At the time I said I didn't think so, but now that I look at it, it seems to be similar - though it has some differences as well. I didn't look at it that carefully at the SHOT Show, but now I have one to test thoroughly.

This is the upscale model that comes with a 3-9X40 scope and mounts, so there's nothing but pellets to buy. Hopefully, I'll be able to tell you which ones after this test. All Ruger rifles are available as .177 caliber only at this time. If they're successful, I would think, at some point, they'd bring out a .22.

Selling at $180, the Air Hawk Elite is positioned against the RWS Diana 34 Panther, except that the Panther costs $7 more and doesn't come with a scope. It is, however, a formidable gun to take on, so many shooters will be watching this one. Actually, since it comes with a large muzzlebrake and a scope, I guess it's positioned against the RWS Diana 34 Meisterschutze Pro, so the price difference is much greater.

The stock
The stock is an ambidextrous thumbhole that you will either like or not. I'm not a fan of thumbholes as a rule, but this one doesn't seem too bad. It isn't as large as many that have come to market recently, and I can get used to it. The wood looks like beech and is as well fitted and finished as anything Europe makes. The black ventilated recoil pad is also fitted very well.

The trigger
The adjustable trigger looks similar to a Diana T05, with one major difference. The blade is METAL. It's as if someone who knows the American airgun market was listening to all those complaints. It's a small feature to add, but one that will win Ruger a LARGE vote of confidence from the average airgunner. I'll report on the trigger-pull in the second report, but I'll tease you by saying I'm surprised how light and smooth it is!

The safety comes on automatically when the rifle is cocked, but it's located in a place at the center of the end cap where the thumb can release it easily. Also, this rifle can be uncocked by pulling the trigger and riding the barrel closed.

Metal finish
I have to stop to remind myself that this rifle is made in China, because I cannot really see any difference between it and a German-made Diana. The metal is all nicely polished and deeply blacked. This is a rifle of which you can be proud.

Muzzlebrake
A large hand-filling muzzlebrake provides a convenient handhold when cocking the rifle. It's decorative, only, and does nothing to quiet the rifle. But this is a spring rifle that needs little quieting.

No scope stop!
They cut the 11mm dovetails directly into the mainspring tube, but they didn't put a scope stop on the gun! In the year 2008, with everything we know about spring guns, this is an unforgivable oversight! No amount of clamping pressure alone will stop a scope from slipping on these rails, and something will have to be done. I 've had readers recommend BKL scope mounts as a solution. Since my numerous phone calls and emails to the company went without an answer, I won't recommend them. There needs to be a positive mechanical scope stop put on this rifle. I will test it with the mounts they sent and see if they can hold on tight enough. A simple hole drilled into the spring tube or a metal plate held on with a metal screw would have sufficed. How could they have overlooked that?

No scope stop! How could they do this in 2008?

Ball-bearing breech detent
Just like the Diana 34, the Air Hawk has a ball-bearing breech detent, which means the rifle opens and closes like a dream. The cocking link is articulated, which is different than the Diana 34. Instead of a metal bridge on the underside of the mainspring tube, they used channels in the stock to hold the link parallel to the spring tube. There's a pronounced crack as the barrel is first broken, so hunters will have to be careful it doesn't spook their quarry.

Next stop is the chronograph.