Air guns - Pyramyd Air Report

Smith & Wesson 78G and 79G - Part 1

2009-07-03T05:30:00.001-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

I know I've mentioned these pistols before, but I cannot find any report on them. The other day, I wanted to send a link to a reader who asked about them, and was surprised to see I hadn't done a full report. Then, before I could even say that in a reply, several other readers chimed in to mention they love their pistols as well. So, I knew I had to do this one.

This is part one, and I will try to finish in part two, so velocity and accuracy will be in the same report. I have a 78G today, but I've owned several of these in both calibers over the years. The 79G is the .177. They used to show up at airgun shows new in the box for $100, which is where my first one came from. And that one was different from the norm, so I'd like to mention the differences now.

That 78G was a very early one--made in Springfield, Mass., before S&W moved production of the pistol to Tampa, Fla. Production lasted from 1970 to 1978, according to S&W historian, Roy Jenks. The Blue Book of Airguns differs just a little. The box and literature is where you will see the different addresses. All the guns say Springfield, I believe.

The early guns had some distinctive points. First, they were finished matte black. Later guns had a shiny black paint. Second, the early guns have an adjustable trigger. Reader Twotalon was kind enough to forward pictures of his gun so you can see these things.

Twotalon's early 78G has a matte finish.

Early 78G and 79G pistols have an adjustable trigger.

The other feature those early guns had was one I reported in Airgun Revue 3 but caught considerable flack for it. They had two stages of power--controlled when the gun was cocked. Stop at the first click for low power. Two clicks were high power--the same as for the Crosman Mark I and II pistols, which the S&W pistols functionally resemble more than a little. People told me their guns had only one power level, and I must be mistaken. Well, I no longer owned an early pistol when I wrote that report, so I figured I had made a mistake, but Twotalon reported yesterday that his early pistol does have two power levels. So, the early guns have it and the later guns, which are the most numerous, do not.

Pull the two triangular knobs forward (left) to cock the gun.

All the guns have adjustable power. A screw under the barrel at the front of the gun controls the tension on the hammer spring and can move the power up or down by screwing in or out.

The power adjustment screw is under the barrel.

My current 78G is one that the former owner had to repair. He did a wonderful job, fixing the loading bolt lock on a potmetal gun. It wasn't holding gas when I got it, so I sent it off to Dave Gunter, a custom airgunsmith in Oregon. Dave specializes in power tunes for CO2 guns and pneumatics. Where a normal 78G might get 390 f.p.s. with a .22-caliber Crosman Premier on high power and 290 on low, my gun now gets over 500 f.p.s. Or at least that's what it got when I first tested it years ago. We shall see!

Dave does some non-standard things when he tunes one of these pistols. One thing he does is thin the bolt probe for better gas flow. His full-time job is setting up racing engines for performance sports cars, so efficient gas flow is something he knows well. You can contact Dave here.

With the bolt back for loading, you can see how Dave Gunter thinned the bolt probe for better gas flow. This is just the loading bolt. It doesn't cock the gun.

The 78G is the .22 caliber version and the 79G is the .177. After S&W stopped production, they sold the tooling to Daisy. They continued making the guns for several years as models 780 and 790. Their triggers were much worse than even the later Smith pistols. Later, Daisy changed the designation to model 41 and further cheapened the gun in every imaginable way.

Physical description
The 78G is a very realistic copy of the S&W model 41 target pistol in .22 rimfire caliber. The weight and dimensions are very close, with the air pistol's 43.5 oz. being slightly heavier than the rimfire pistol's 42 oz. with the 7.5" barrel. The external dimensions are very close, and the wood grips on the firearm are faithfully reproduced in plastic on the airgun. But it's the realistic kind of plastic that fools people!

My current pistol came in a factory box with five S&W powerlets and a tin of 250 pellets. This is the most common presentation I have seen of this pistol in the years I've been in airgunning. At some airguns shows, I've seen 50 of these boxes stacked up at a show awaiting a sale. Today, though, people are starting to pay good money for one, even without the box and papers.

This is how it came from the factory.

The trigger on this example is a single stage with some creep, but it's not too bad. Many of my firearm handguns are not as nice. And I will report on accuracy next time, but I know from past experience that this is an accurate airgun. There's more to come!

Knowing what to do - Part 2

2009-07-02T05:30:00.001-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

Before we begin, Pyramyd Air is running a new video contest.

Well, the last time I wrote on this subject I failed to take into account the television schedule that has me running all the time. So, I haven't done anything yet with the two Czech rifles I talked about last time. They're still on hold, so I'll keep the series alive with other nuggets of airgun information.

Starting with pneumatics
Remember the rule of keeping a pump of air in every pneumatic rifle? About 0.05 percent of the airgunners know to do that--maybe less. So, it isn't getting done. Consequently, most vintage pneumatics you encounter are suspect as leakers. But not all of them leak.

A Crosman model 101 may not leak, but it also may not shoot. That's because its owner has overpumped it beyond the point of valve lock and doesn't know what's going on. The gun will never shoot, but every so often he puts in another pump, just to see if it has healed.

A rifle like that needs to be partially disassembled and the valve stem needs to be rapped with a hammer to exhaust the excess air. It's a common fix, but only to those who know airguns.

And on the 101, I unscrew the hammer weight, which is at the back of the gun, to keep pressure off the valve stem. My gun holds a pump of air for years at a time.

A Sheridan Supergrade (officially called Model A) will not pump from empty unless you cock it first. To store this rifle with air, you must cock it first, then pump, then ride the bolt down slowly so the hammer doesn't hit the valve stem.

Many people have seen CO2 leave a vapor trail from the muzzle on a warm day, but pneumatics can do it, too.

And then CO2
A Walther PPK/S may lose its charge over a period of two weeks. But if you put several drops of Crosman Pellgunoil on the tip of the next cartridge you pierce, it may hold for the next 12 months.

Vintage CO2 o-rings may swell in the presence of CO2 gas. They will look huge and the end caps are difficult to remove right after a fill or when the cartridge is exhausted. You can tear a vintage o-ring by being too aggressive when it's swollen this way. That corrects itself in a few hours, and they'll be back to normal in all ways.

Many barrels on CO2 guns are brass to avoid corrosion when the chilled gas condenses water vapor while shooting. You don't have to do anything about them. No cleaning. In fact, they're easy to damage when being cleaned.

Don't leave CO2 guns or tanks in a hot car in the summer. They can build pressure to dangerous levels and blow up, damaging the car.

Spring forward
The stroke length of a spring-piston gun is important to its power. Stronger springs often don't increase power, while guns with long strokes are difficult to tune down.

Oiling a mainspring is an infrequent job. Most spring guns never need it. If the coils bunch and spring during cocking, the mainspring may need some oil. Spring gun oil is good for this. Silicone chamber oil isn't good because it's too thin to protect the inside of the powerplant from galling (metal-to-metal scraping).

Oil a gun with a leather piston seal every month or 500 shots, whichever comes first. Oil a gun with a synthetic piston seal every 3,000 shots or whenever the piston honks like a goose when the gun is cocked.

Cleaning your airguns
The barrel is the part most people want to clean, and it isn't required most of the time. As long as the gun shoots accurately, leave the barrel alone.

Wipe outside blued steel parts with Sheath or Barracade or something that neutralizes fingerprints. When a gun gets wet, be sure to wipe it dry before storing it.

A cloth impregnated with silicone is good for wiping metal parts.

"We have met the enemy, and it is us!"
The following is made-up, but based on things I have actually witnessed over the years.

Sharky is hot for a Flabbengaster 190W from all he has heard on the internet. So, he springs for one.

His initial report:

I bought the Flabbengaster 190 from Plumbum Pushers, and I had it drop-shipped to Idaho Ike whose tunes everyone says are the best. I wanted screamin' power, so I had him put in the Red-Butt Baboon seal with the Kooky Kangaroo mainspring. Based on the advice of Dreadful Doug on this forum, I had him clip three coils off the spring and install a stack of five power washers. I also opted for Snail Snot on the mainspring.

When Ike finished, I had him send the rifle to Robert Bobbet to have the barrel cut back to 10 inches. Then I had him silver-solder one of his Hush-A-Boom moderators on the end, so the gun will be super-quiet. I live in an apartment, and I set up field targets next to the dumpster in the parking lot. I live on the third floor and shoot out my bathroom window, so I rigged a remote control reset for the targets, because I don't want my neighbors seeing the reset string.

Report number two:

This thing is a bear to cock! How do you guys do it? I figured the 19-inch factory barrel was overkill and that the three-inch can I installed would make up for it, but it doesn't. Also, the trigger is way too stiff, so I disassembled it to stone all the surfaces and put moly on everything. Now I can't get the gun to close without firing unless I block the safety lever with my finger, so that's how I shoot it. I put my finger between the trigger and the safety lever and just slip it out when I want to shoot.

By the way, my Red Star scope is shifting something bad! Any recommendations?

Post three:

This Flabbengaster 190 is a P*S! I don't see what all the good reports are about. Mine didn't shoot from the start! I'll sell it with a Red Star scope for $100, shipped.

Poor Sharky never even shot a Flabbengaster 190, did he? He shot a butchered mess that he created and then sold when it didn't work.

Like I said, I've seen every one of those things before. Just not all on one gun.

Gamo Extreme CO2 - Part 1

2009-07-01T05:30:00.001-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

As I go through all the airguns on hand and get ready to report on new ones, you readers are generally ahead of me, urging me to test this one and that one. I thought I was going to surprise you with the Gamo Extreme CO2, but just yesterday, Dallas from Australia asked for it. How strange, because it was slated for today a week ago.

How many of you remember that Gamo had a CO2 rifle back in the 1990s? The G1200 was a pump-action (slide action, actually) repeater powered by 12-gram CO2 cartridges. The Blue Book of Airguns has precious little information on that rifle, but I was around when it was new. I don't know how well it sold here in the U.S., but the advertised velocity in .177 was 560 f.p.s., which is pretty reasonable. I would expect a velocity of not above 620 f.p.s. from a hot .177 CO2 rifle with any size cartridge or reservoir. But the Extreme CO2 is not a .177. It's a .22! So I find Gamo's claim of 700 f.p.s. to be extremely interesting. I will be certain to explore it for you.

Of course, it's summer now and CO2 guns are summer guns, so this is an appropriate rifle to test and use. The Extreme CO2 uses an 88-gram cartridge that gives the rifle the potential for a great number of shots. They will not be more powerful than those from a 12-gram cartridge, of course, because the size of the container has no bearing on the pressure of the gas. But this is a plinking gun and more gas is very desirable for lots of continuous shooting.

This "thousand-word" picture shows where the 88-gram gas cartridge goes, which is under the sliding forearm. The long, sloped rear sight is also visible.

This is a repeater, too, and not just a repeater--it's a slide-action repeater or what is best known in the firearms world as a pump gun. I use that term with care because I find that it confuses new airgunners, who equate the word pump with a multi-pump pneumatic. The Extreme CO2 runs on CO2, only. The term pump in this case refers to how the circular clip is advanced and how the rifle is cocked. The synthetic forearm slides straight backward, advancing the clip and cocking the hammer. Then it returns forward again in preparation for the shot. Once you get accustomed to the movement of the forearm, a pump gun is almost as fast to shoot as a semiautomatic.

Okay, 700 f.p.s. and .22 caliber. What does that tell you about the sound? This rifle will be LOUD, make no mistake. It has to be, with that volume of gas being exhausted from the muzzle. Even if it doesn't reach 700, it's still clear that Gamo intends for this to be a powerful rifle--and power in a gas gun means noise, as a rule.

This is a 10-shot repeater and comes with two rotary clips. To load, you have to pull the forearm back, then pull back on a locking lever to unlock the clip.

The forearm removes by pressing two buttons--one on either side, and pulling it straight forward and off the gun. It must be removed to install an 88-gram CO2 cartridge. Both the forearm and the piece it attaches to that remains on the gun are made of plastic. I will watch them both for signs of stress, because they operate the action. The safety is a crossblock type that runs through the bottom forward part of the triggerguard.

Most of what you touch on the gun--butt, forearm, barrel casing--is plastic. But the receiver is annodized aluminum with a black finish over a heavily bead-blasted surface. Therefore, the Extreme CO2 is not a light airgun. It is both large and heavy--at least for a CO2 rifle. The length of 43.3" overall and weight of 7.7 lbs. don't convey the sense of largeness felt when the rifle is in your hands. The CO2 cartridge and scope that come with the gun boost the weight to over 9 lbs.

The stock is fully ambidextrous, and so, of course, is the pump action. Lefties should really enjoy this one. The synthetic stock is hollow, so many of you will want to fill it with foam to deaden any vibration.

The open sights are quite unique. The front is a red fiberoptic bead, which is not uncommon, but the rear is a long, sloped ramp with a yellow arrow to align with the front. It looks like it will be quick to acquire. Of course the scope that comes with the rifle will probably be mounted in the preponderance of cases. It's a 3-9x40 scope that appears clear enough after the first examination. It comes with a one-piece mount already on the scope, so all you have to do is clamp it to the receiver dovetail.

The rear sight is a long, gentle slope. The yellow arrow points to the red bead front sight when you sight over the receiver. It looks like a landing pattern when you see it in person!

This has been a boom year for new airguns, and this would appear to be one more to add to the mix. Of course, we have to test it to be sure, but I like this rifle already--just from the feel.

Crosman's new Nitro Piston Short Stroke - Part 2

2009-06-30T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

The Nitro Piston Short Stroke is a handsome breakbarrel. My .22 is finished in digital camo, but there's also a charcoal gray carbon fiber stock, as well.

Part 1

Today, I'll look at the velocity of the new .22 caliber Crosman Nitro Piston Short Stroke breakbarrel rifle. There was a lot of interest in part 1, and I see that a few other writers are starting to test the guns, as well. So far, the interest seems to be all positive.

Cocking effort
I measured the cocking effort by pressing the muzzle down on a bathroom scale and breaking the rifle to the cocking point. This was a tricky rifle to measure, because if I went fast the effort increased by 8 lbs. If I went slow and deliberate, the rifle cocked with just 30 lbs. of effort through almost the entire cocking stroke. It actually falls off by a few pounds toward the end of the short stroke. As the shooting continued, I found that I was cocking faster every time, so I'm not so sure the slow part really does anything useful, but the deliberate part sure does!

So, there you are! Cock a gas-spring gun slowly but deliberately, and it'll be lighter than if you try to horse it. By deliberately, I mean don't mess around. Hold your hand as far out toward the muzzle as possible to get maximum leverage, which isn't difficult considering that there's no front sight. Once you start the cocking stroke, don't stop.

Crosman Premiers first
The 14.3-grain Crosman Premier averaged 712 f.p.s. The spread went from 695 to 727, so a total of 32 f.p.s. Premiers loaded easily and flush with the breech. The average velocity develops a muzzle energy of 16.1 foot-pounds, making this pellet the clear power champion of the test

RWS Superdomes
RWS Superdomes weigh 14.5 grains and are pure lead pellets. In the Nitro Piston SS, they averaged 694 f.p.s., ranging from 680 to 709, for a spread of 29 f.p.s. The loaded easily and fit the breech well. The average velocity generated a muzzle energy of 15.51 foot-pounds.

RWS Hobbys
RWS Hobbys screamed out the muzzle at an average 771 f.p.s. At a weight of only 11.9 grains, these pure lead pellets generated an average energy of 15.71 foot-pounds at the muzzle. The velocity spread went from 761 to 781, for a total of 20 f.p.s., which was the second-tightest of the test. They loaded easily but were the tightest pellets in this test.

Air Arms domes
Air Arms domes are supposedly 16-grain pure lead pellets, but my scale says these weigh 15.9 grains. At that weight, they averaged 673 f.p.s. out the muzzle for an energy of 15.99 foot-pounds. The spread went from 664 to 679 for a total of just 15 f.p.s.--the tightest of this test. They fit the breech loosest of all pellets used in this test.

More on the trigger
I have to comment on this trigger, as it is one of the nicest I've seen on what is essentially a budget breakbarrel. It is two-stage and so crisp and positive! The second stage on my test rifle breaks at a repeatable 3 lbs., 12 oz. and is so crisp that I guessed it was a full pound lighter. If you like nice triggers on your rifles, you should like this one.

Just for fun, I adjusted the screw a full turn in each direction, but the only thing that changed was the length of the first-stage pull. The pull-weight remained constant. The second stage was also mushier after adjustment in either direction until several shots had been fired. Then, the crispness returned.

I also praise Crosman for leaving the safety manual. Nobody likes or needs an automatic safety. The safety on the NPSS works so smoothly and easily when you want it, yet it never forces itself on you. If I'm ever asked to testify about how safe I think automatic safeties are, I will say that I think they're dangerous. They foster practices where a shooter cocks and loads the rifle, then immediately takes the safety off. I would rather have the responsibility of putting on the safety left up to the shooter, because they know when they need it and when they don't. An automatic safety makes them take the safety off automatically without thinking. So, it might as well not be there.

This will be a fun gun to test for accuracy because it shoots so smoothly!

Hammerli Pneuma - Part 3

2009-06-29T05:30:00.005-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

Hammerli's Pneuma has turned in an impressive test! I really enjoy the MTM shooting bench and rifle rest. They make my job so much easier.

Today, we'll look at the accuracy of the Hammerli Pneuma, and I know from the comments there are several of you hanging around to hear what I have to say. Let me make it simple for you--buy the rifle. In my test that follows, I found the .177 Pneuma to be very accurate.

I did not follow my own plan of shooting enormous groups this time, because I was under time constraints to test a couple of different airguns and one .22 rimfire. The day was very nearly perfect, which was a blessing, because the past two times at this range I had to shoot in high wind. So, I made only five-shot groups on this day, so I could finish the testing for all the guns before the wind picked up.

I mounted a Leapers 3-9x50 scope (similar to this CenterPoint 3-9x50 with ill. reticle) in medium-high Weaver rings, despite all that people say about that being impossible. The Pneuma receiver is low for a PCP, so scopes with larger objective bells have trouble clearing the top of the barrel. In this case the scope barely clears the barrel, and you can feel it brush the barrel as the parallax ring is turned for adjustment, but it's the perfect height for my eye. I discovered that the Pneuma's thumbhole stock has a very high line, which helps elevate the eye to the scope.

The 50mm scope objective barely clears the barrel with these medium-height Waever rings. Yes, I know they're nickel. Sometimes you have to use what you have.

Loading was okay but with the scope as low as I had it, I had to watch what I was doing. This is another good reason to use high rings.

The sidelever functioned smoothly every time. In fact, the entire rifle seemed to be dead-stone reliable. I say that because one of the other guns I was testing (the scope on it, actually) was giving me fits! It was so nice to have a gun that just did what it was supposed to that day.

I filled the reservoir to 200 bar, as we learned to do in Part 2 of this report. But I shot longer strings than the velocity numbers predicted that I should. What I mean is that the velocity numbers had indicated the gun really liked Beeman Kodiak pellets, but that lighter pellets started varying in velocity quicker. According to the numbers I recorded, there were fewer useful shots with lighter pellets. Well, on the 50-yard range that didn't turn out to be the case. Just when the pellets should have been dispersing wildly, they were grouping tighter than ever. So, I kept right on shooting down below 150 bar, and the good groups kept coming.

Kodiaks first
I expected Kodiaks to be accurate, and they did not disappoint. At 50 yards on this breathless day, I managed a best group of 0.734" for five shots and an average group size of less than one inch.

Best ghroup of five Beeman Kodiaks at 50 yards went into this group measuring 0.734", c-t-c.

JSB 8.4 grain pellets
I didn't think a lighter pellet would do as well in this rifle, but that was incorrect. With JSB Exact 8.4-grain domed pellets, I shot three five-shot groups that went 0.736", 0.772" and 0.808". That's extremely consistent shooting. I have to report that those groups were not all centered in the same spot, so if I had combined them they would have been about 1.5" between centers. But, once again, I was shooting in a place on the power curve where the velocity numbers predicted the pellet strikes would shift.

Second-best group of five JSB Exacts at 50 yards measures 0.772" between centers.

Worst group of five JSB Exacts at 50 yards measures 0.808" between centers.

The Pneuma shot without a problem. I found it easy to scope, easier to sight-in; and once it was sighted, it was a bullseye drill. Kodiaks deliver the best performance of both power and accuracy, making them well worth trying. But the word on the street is this rifle does well with almost anything.

Conclusions
The world now has another low-cost PCP with remarkable performance. The Pneuma is well worth a place on your short list of pellet rifles. It's a single-shot, which I will always prefer to a repeater, and it has the power needed for small-game hunting. I would buy the .22 for hunting and the .177 for general shooting and the occasional pest.

Tactical flashlights and some other light stuff

2009-06-26T05:30:00.003-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

I always feel guilty when I get this far off track, because I know fewer of you will be interested. But Fridays are my "play days," and I try to write about light topics, because I know you just enjoy chatting with each other all weekend.

Having said all that, I think most people need at least one tactical flashlight. The reason? Simple! Tactical flashlights are the highest form of flashlight and they have more than one purpose in life. A regular flashlight is for seeing in dark places, but a tactical flashlight is for something else. A real tactical flashlight can also be used to temporarily disorient and even blind an assailant, giving the user time to either run away or defend himself in some other way. Here at Pelletier Acres, we are armed with the .45 ACP, so anyone who hears me yell, "FREEZE, DIRTBAG!" would be well-advised to cease and desist. Actually I plan to yell something more colorful than that, but Edith advised me not to print it here.

Edith once asked me to demonstrate how I would do that (the yelling, I mean) and even though I warned her what I was about to do, she was still visibly shaken when I did it. So I still got it, and it still works!

The part the tactical flashlight plays in this drama is it overloads the optic nerve and disorients the person. When combined with a persuasive command, this can force many people to comply with the verbal order. Even those less inclined to cooperate cannot avoid temporary night-blindness caused by the intense light.

So what?
Okay, you say, but everybody knows that B.B. is a paranoid dinosaur who fantasizes that he's living in the wild west. I'm perfectly safe in my apartment here in Gotham and, if there is trouble, well, isn't that what 911 is for? Boy, will I be glad when these paranoid old silverbacks are all dead and gone, so society can finally progress as it was meant to.

All right, you and I see life differently. But you still need a tactical flashlight! Check THIS out.

Old B.B. likes to ride his bicycle in the mornings before the sun rises. He wears a helmet and has lights on both the front and rear of his bike, plus he stays within the safe confines of his housing development. What could possibly go wrong?

Dogs!

I have used my most powerful tactical flashlight on several mean dogs who seemed to be out to get a piece of me. I started with the cute little white terriers down the street who like to bark and chase my bike as I ride past their house. When I hit them with the light early in the morning, they stop running and whine for a moment. The next morning they are right back at it, with some reluctance to leave their yard. These little cuties are no real threat, but they demonstrated that the light worked.

Then one rainy morning when I was walking the neighborhood and a large dog came at me in absolute silence from the rear on an intercept course, I was relieved that the light had the same effect on him. After he stopped I walked up and spoke to him in a low, commanding voice. He remained in place, presumably blinded for a few minutes, and when he started moving again, he walked away from my path. I was already about 500 yards away, but I kept my eye on him, just in case.

So, the light worked as intended. But that's not the only reason for owning one.

Other pests

Things that go "bump" in the night
One morning, Edith woke me at 1:30 a.m. because of a disturbance on the back porch. She thought someone was breaking in, so I took my tactical flashlight and gun and went to the window. There in the light was a large possum! I shined the light on it for about a minute, then went to the back door to the porch. As I passed the living room, I saw that both cats were glued to the floor-length window, watching the porch in rapt silence. Just what I always wanted--silent watch cats! They note everything that happens around your home and keep it in the strictest confidence!

When I opened the door to the back porch, mister opossum had left the building. That was good, because I certainly was not going to shoot him with a .45 at two in the morning! As far as I can tell, he has never returned. The cats tell me nothing.

A tactical flashlight is an intense spotlight that can be used for general seeing as well as forcing compliance. Many of them are rated in lumens, and 100 lumens is considered the bottom threshold for forcing compliance in the way mentioned above. But I can tell you that a light with 65 lumens used correctly can do a lot. My first, second and third lights were all from Crosman. The first came with one of their guns, but number two and three I picked up at the Roanoke Airgun Expo for $5 each. The two CR123A batteries inside them cost more than that, so it was a no-brainer. The switches on two of them have already failed, so I am down to just one at present. My most frequent use for them is as a fill light in long-exposure photos. Remember my report on "painting with light?"

It seems that Crosman no longer sells their light separately. But all is not lost!

UTG tactical flashlight
My friends at Leapers make the UTG tactical flashlight. It's sold in the airsoft equipment section and flashlight section and costs just $30. I know that's a lot more than the $5 I mentioned before, but that was apparently a one-time, you-had-to-be-there special deal. This one has 95 lumens, so it's pretty much the real deal. It has a regular pushbutton/twist-on switch in addition to the pigtail gun switch you see in the description, so you can use it normally.

For more power, this flashlight/laser combo puts out 126 lumens for just over $50.

Want even more? This UTG light puts out 260 lumens and has a police-rated body configuration that makes for easier handling. It's the highest output I have found for under $50.

Beamshot
While at the 2009 SHOT Show I was given two Beamshot lights to evaluate. One is a one-cell (CR123A) PD3 compact light that puts out 180 lumens. It has a switch for the full-power light, a strobe effect or you can adjust the light down to 15 lumens for just seeing. With the latter, the battery lasts a lot longer. The strobe is highly effective in producing compliance, because the human eye cannot adjust to it. This one is a serious light with law enforcement recognition. Expect to pay around $80 on the street.

Beamshot PD3 uses just a single CR123A cell to generate 180 lumens of light. It is compact and feature-filled.

I also have the Beamshot TD4, a 240-lumen light with the same operational features as the smaller light, only instead of a single button on the end controlling it, there are three--one for each function. It also has a built-in SOS signal function. Set it and it continues to flash the distress signal without your intervention. This larger light uses two CR123A cells. This is the most powerful light I own and it is certainly capable of rendering a subject blind temporarily. The bezel has hardened points for breaking glass in an emergency. Expect to pay around $150 for this one.

The larger Beamshot TD4 uses two CR123A cells for 240 lumens. The bezel has pointed spikes to break glass in an emergency. Three buttons operate the multiple functions.

Fenix
I saw the Fenix TK10 light at the SHOT Show and was so impressed that I asked for it for Christmas. It's a 225-lumen light housed in the most rugged body on the market. I watched a video of the light still functioning under 20,000 lbs. of crushing pressure. The switch is simpler than those found on either of the two Beamshots. There is an on/off button that doubles as a pulse button. That's it. What you lose in functionality you gain in a lower cost, ruggedness and reliability. This model sells for slightly less than $80.

My Fenix uses two CR123A cells for 225 lumens. It has a pushbutton pulse switch that also turns the light on and off.

This is my go-to tactical flashlight. A year ago, all I had were the Crosman lights, but I've made it a point to gather as many as I can. I use them to augment my defense firearms, and these are weapons I can use with no lasting effects. I have already told you how I use them.

Other survival lights
For more than a year, I've been using a dynamo flashlight from John Deere. You wind it for 2 minutes and it shines for 20 minutes. I just got an NRA dynamo flashlight to add to my collection. It even has a DC outlet port for charging your cell phone! I use these flashlights around the house exclusively to save the batteries of my tactical lights.

This John Deere dynamo flashlight never needs batteries. Just wind the crank, shown here but normally tucked flush with the body. Two minutes of cranking gives about 20 minutes of light.

The NRA sells this dynamo flashlight that also serves as a cell phone charger. This one is larger than the John Deere and is the right size for the glove compartment or tackle box.

Small wonder!
The Streamlight nano is a tiny flashlight just larger than a quarter and puts out a full 15 lumens of light. That makes it as bright as a standard flashlight using two D-sized cells.

A Streamlight Nano is tiny but puts out about the same light as a flashlight running on 2 D-cell batteries. It uses watch batteries and operates for 8 hours on one set.

Flashlights are mundane until you need them--then they're priceless. I've shown you some here that have multiple purposes, including defense. This is just one category of equipment that belongs in a bugout bag.

Crosman's new Nitro Piston Short Stroke - Part 1

2009-06-25T05:30:00.001-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Well, nobody can say that moss grows on the Crosman Corporation! In two years, they've set the pneumatic world on edge with their price-busting Benjamin Discovery and their feature-loaded Benjamin Marauder. But they haven't put all their eggs in the pneumatic basket, either. While the airgun world was watching them break ground there, they were quietly developing the new Crosman Nitro Piston Short Stroke series of spring-piston guns with gas springs. And now they're bringing them to market.

History
I first saw the new gas spring rifles during a visit to the Crosman plant earlier this year. Ed Schultz, their director of engineering, asked me to step outside on the back side of the plant. What he had was a prototype breakbarrel that, frankly, didn't look any different than a hundred others I'd seen. It had a fabricated Delrin can for a muzzlebrake, but knowing that springers don't make much noise at the muzzle, I was unimpressed. Then Ed said to me, "Tom, what part of a spring rifle makes the most noise?"

The answer was obvious--the powerplant. But did Ed know that? In fact, he did! He then proceeded to cock and load the .22 caliber rifle and handed it to me to shoot. He directed me toward a high hill across the empty parking lot. I fired and almost nothing happened! The rifle did pulse, and I knew it had fired, but the sound was so low it didn't sound right.

Then he handed me a Gamo Whisper and told me to shoot it. Now as everyone knows, the Whisper is a quiet spring gun, but that .177 example was noticeably louder than the .22 I had just fired.

Ed explained, "Everyone knows that the powerplant of a spring rifle makes at least three-quarters of the noise. So putting a silencer on the gun does very little. We've put a silencer on, but more importantly, we have managed to also reduce the noise made by the powerplant."

By this time, I was cocking and firing the rifle while Ed was speaking. I noticed that this was a gas spring gun, but one with a difference. Yes, it had more cocking resistance from the start--a characteristic of all gas springs, but this one seemed much easier to cock than most. Once my arms got up to speed with the power required, it never increased (gas springs never do); and toward the end of the short cocking stroke, it seemed to diminish a bit. This was something new!

Three months later, while filming the Crosman plant tour for American Airgunner, Ed showed me another new gas spring rifle. This one had a shrouded barrel and was covered with a digital camo pattern that felt rubberized and grippy. This was the first pre-production Nitro Piston rifle! Ed asked for comments on the cocking, the feel of the stock and the general impressions of the shooters. Paul Capello was shooting this one with me, so here was another person seeing the Nitro Piston system for the first time. We were both pleased with the performance of this stunning new spring rifle, and now I want to include all of you in the experience.

The Nitro Piston Short Stroke is a handsome breakbarrel. This one is finished in digital camo, but there's also a charcoal gray carbon fiber stock, as well.

General description
What we have here is a spring piston air rifle made in East Bloomfield, New York. They're made in both .177 and .22 and sport either a digital camo or all-gray stock. The model I'm testing has an ambidextrous thumbhole stock coated in a rubberized digital camo pattern. Inside, the rifle sports a gas spring that Crosman prefers to call a Nitro Piston, in reference to the nitrogen gas fill. And that gas is one of the things that makes this rifle so relatively easy to cock. The other things are patented, and nobody has told me anything--but I know that micro-fine surface finishes are at least part of the secret.

The barrel is fully shrouded with an aluminum shroud that extends from the baseblock to the muzzle. It's tapered at the baseblock end and parallel out to the muzzle that it capped with a non-remnovable cap. A peek inside with a strong light shows the possible presence of technology, though as I have already mentioned, a spring rifle hardly needs it.

The rifle is light, weighing just 7 lbs., but it comes without sights and Centerpoint's AR22 series 3-9x40AO scope that comes with the rifle boosts that to just over 8.25 lbs. Speaking of scopes, this is a good one. Usually, rifles that come bundled with a scope have the cheapest model obtainable, but this one isn't. It's one many of you would buy for your other rifles.

The top of the receiver has a scope stop hole to accept a vertical anchor pin. It's a small feature but a necessary one that some other airgun manufacturers don't seem to grasp. I'll cover mounting the scope and the full specs of the scope in the report on accuracy.

The trigger is adjustable for the length of the second-stage pull. The safety is manual and workable with just the trigger finger.

The trigger is adjustable for length of second-stage pull. Safety is manual and can be worked by one finger.

Speaking of noise!
I couldn't wait for the second and third reports, either, so I stepped out my back door and fired several Crosman Premiers into the ground. As I remembered, the rifle is quiet. The action is quick like all gas springs, and the recoil is very minimal. But I want to discuss noise for just a moment.

If you're an experienced airgunner, you'll think this rifle is pretty quiet. If you have no experience with spring-piston guns, you probably won't. If you compare this gun to a Marauder, the Marauder will be quieter every time. But if you compare this to a silenced .22 rifle shooting CB caps, this will seem very similar. How the rifle sounds depends on your experience with airguns.

Last week I was at the firing range, and a boy and his grandfather were shooting a .22 rifle next to me. The boy was afraid my Hammerli Pneuma would be noisy. I told him that while it was noisy for an air rifle, it would seem quiet to him. Everyone had hearing protection on, and the Pneuma was just a tiny fraction as loud as the .22 rimfire. So, don't listen to those who say PCPs are just as loud as rimfires, because most of them aren't. And, when it comes to the relative noise a Crosman Nitro Piston makes, it's less than a Gamo Whisper, but just about the same as a Whisper with an Air Venturi gas spring installed. And the only way to completely appreciate this is to shoot the rifle outdoors, away from buildings with reflective walls.

Summary
The Nitro Piston Short Stroke is lightweight, quiet, relatively easy to cock, comes with a quality scope, and finished with an attractive and grippy camo pattern on a thumbhole stock. Now, we need to see how powerful and accurate it is.

Air Venturi HaleStorm - Part 1

2009-06-24T05:30:00.001-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

The Air Venturi HaleStorm is a good-looking PCP repeater.

I've had a sample Air Venturi HaleStorm on hand for a couple months, awaiting their arrival at Pyramyd Air so I could report on them. I want the things I cover to be in stock, or at least for them to be due in within days of the first report. Nothing worse than whipping you into a froth that cannot be satisfied!

Okay, let's get this out of the way right now, because if I don't the rumor mills will start cranking. This rifle is made in Turkey. Except for the repeating mechanism and the stock, it looks very similar to the Hammerli Pneuma. Testing will show how close the performance is. Rather than ask why the single-shot Pneuma costs more than the HaleStorm, I would think you would want to buy the one you want and not draw attention to it. But that's just me.

The HaleStorm is stocked with a beautiful hardwood stock, with a high cheekpiece and an adjustable buttpad. The pistol grip has panels of impressed checkering on both sides, but the forearm is smooth. The stock is fully ambidextrous.

The shape of the forearm is very unique and quite reminiscent of the shape Ivan Hancock used on many of his custom rifles that were made in the Venom shop. A wide, flat-bottomed forearm tapers on either side of the stock into a finger groove that runs the full length of the forearm. It gives the shooter something positive to grasp; and even though airgunners, as a rule, don't grasp their stocks with their fingers when shooting, it still feels pretty neat.

The rifle is a bolt-action repeater with a sidelever operating the bolt. A 10-shot circular clip extends above the top of the receiver, so two-piece scope mounts are necessary. I'll tell you more about how that clip is installed in the velocity testing report.

The open sights have fiberoptic inserts front and rear and will be considered good open sights by those who favor them. The rear sight is adjustable for both windage and elevation with a crisp ratcheting mechanism. And, by the way, this front sight also adjusts for elevation, which adds to the range through which the open sights can be adjusted.

The rear sight adjusts crisply in both directions.

The front sight can be removed and also adjusts for elevation.

Because the HaleStorm's receiver is lower than most PCP receivers, you'll need to use high rings, or you can select scopes with smaller objectives (32mm or less) to clear the barrel if you want to stay with medium-height rings. Low rings are out of the question for most scopes, except for those with no swelling in front or back, and would require removal of the rear sight.

The rifle I'm testing is in .22 caliber, so you get a chance to see how that performs compared to the .177 Pneuma I'm also testing. Like the Pneuma, the HaleStorm has a scope mounting rail that accepts both 11mm dovetail bases and also Weaver bases, which have a wider dovetail. There's a Weaver slot for the key in that base, but the 11mm bases don't have to use it. This setup gives users the widest possible range of scope mounts to select from.

The scope rail will accept both 11mm scope rings and Weaver rings.

This rifle also has a muzzle cap that unscrews to reveal 1/2x20 threads. If you own a legal silencer, this is the perfect mount. It also allows you to remove the front sight assembly, which is pressed in place and held with a locking screw. Personally, I wouldn't bother, because I cannot see a hint of the front sight with the scope set to 3x and focused to about five yards. The front sight looks good right where it is.

The barrel is connected to the rifle at the receiver and also through two synthetic hangers located halfway along the reservoir. It is completely free-floated at the muzzle, so I guess it's a semi-free-floated barrel! There's no such thing; and if the reservoir moves, the barrel will, too, but I can't think of a better description.

The onboard manometer (air pressure gauge) reads in bar, as you would hope, so there is no conversion required when you fill the gun. A synthetic plug is inserted in the fill port when the probe isn't there to prevent dirt from entering.

So, how does this rifle stack up against other PCP repeaters? Well, the tests still have to be done, but in terms of power, this rifle is under 30 foot-pounds, so it's in the Marauder class. It's not quiet, so expect noise when you shoot. It's a sidelever like the Blizzard S10, but this one will have more shots at less maximum power. Finally, there's that great price. After the Benjamin Discovery, the HaleStorm is the least-expensive precharged rifle around. So, if it's accurate and as powerful as advertised, I'd say we have another good entry-level PCP from which to choose.

BB gun disassembly

2009-06-23T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Before we begin, I have an announcement. On Thursday I'll start the Nitro Piston review.

Today's report is for Bob from Oz, who asked for it long ago and has been more than patient. As we consider this operation, we must acknowledge that BB guns come in many different styles, and they don't all come apart the same way. Therefore, this report will deal with those Daisy guns made from around 1915 to around 1970, which includes a large segment of what's on the used market today.

Older and newer guns may vary a little or a lot from the ones shown with this procedure, and there are models within the same timeframe that vary because of their unique design. Also, non-Daisy guns may sometimes vary. However, fundamentally, most inexpensive BB guns are designed and assembled in pretty much the same way. If slight differences are encountered, it should be easy to adjust your methods to accommodate them.

You will soon see that rather than a report on just how to disassemble BB guns, this is more a report on how to build a disassembly machine, because that's what it takes to do the job. Without this machine, you need extra arms and hands at various times in the procedure.

The design of this machine was given to The Airgun Letter by the late Jerry Voich, who authored an article for us on BB gun disassembly. Let's begin simply, shall we?

The powerplant of most Daisy BB guns is held in the gun by a spring anchor, which is a flat piece of steelplate that fits through the body of the gun. Find an easy way to remove this one piece, and the whole job of disassembly becomes easy.

The first step is to remove the shot tube. This is accomplished by simply unscrewing the tube and removing it from the gun. This is done on all guns. After this step, the guns become more specific, though the assembly of most of them remains the same.

Taking as an example the Daisy model 1938, most commonly known as the Red Ryder, we can remove the buttstock and forearm by the removal of several obvious screws and bolts. The trigger and cocking lever are then removed by removing more obvious bolts. In the case of the trigger, there's a return spring that also comes out with the blade.

That leaves us with the powerplant, which consists of the mainspring, the piston assembly and the spring guide. Daisy calls the piston a plunger and all the parts are plunger parts. When the gun is assembled, the plunger casing (mainspring guide) is pressing backward on the spring anchor, which holds it in place. On the front end of the plunger assembly, there's a plate that's swaged into the tinplate body of the gun. This plate forms the front of the compression cylinder of the gun. Its backside is what the plunger (piston) rests against; and in the front, it contains the screw threads that the shot tube screws into. This part does not come out of the gun.

I don't own a Red Ryder, but this 499 is constructed very similarly. On this gun, the spring anchor is just a dedicated metal plate that sticks through the top of the gun.

This No. 102 Model 36 is a simpler BB gun that incorporates its rear sight into the mainspring anchor.

One big secret!
The one big secret to BB gun disassembly/assembly is to take the pressure off the spring anchor so it can be removed by simply lifting it out of the gun. Then, the tension is relaxed on the mainspring, and the powerplant parts can be slid out the back.

The way to remove the anchor is to reach around either side of the anchor and put pressure on the mainspring, which is wrapped around the plunger casing (spring guide). Forcing the mainspring forward takes pressure off the anchor so it can be removed. The tension on the mainspring is relaxed, and all the powerplant parts can be removed from the back of the gun.

It takes a ram with forked legs to reach around the spring anchor and push the mainspring forward, and that's what the disassembly/assembly machine provides.

This plunger assembly is from a modern Red Ryder. On this one, the spring anchor is part of the assembly, rather than a separate part. You can see it at the bottom of the photo. This is representative of what's inside most Daisy BB guns. The silver tube at the top of the assembly is the air tube or transfer port. It straightens out after passing through the swaged-in plate at the front of the compression cylinder.

This schematic is for illustration, only. The prices are old and out of date. You can compare the plunger assembly in the photo to the older one in the schematic. Reprinted with permission of Daisy Manufacturing Company.

The machine
Once again, the credit for this machine goes to the late Jerry Voich. He was a subscriber of The Airgun Letter who wanted to share this with all the folded-metal BB gun collectors in the world. This isn't the only design that will work, of course, but it is simple to build and straightforward to use. Once you understand what you are dealing with, taking a BB gun apart is no more difficult than disassembling any spring-piston airgun.

Jerry Voich's spring compressor works with one hand, leaving your other hand available to remove parts from the gun.

One last bit of advice
I've disassembled several BB gun mechanisms without the benefit of a device like this, and it certainly is possible. One thing I learned while doing that is to work slowly. For example, once I remove the spring anchor, the next step would be to install it again. I would do that several times until I got the hang of working with those parts. This single step is the crucial one in the whole process, so whatever you can do to make that easier makes the entire job easier.

Evanix Blizzard S10 - Part 1

2009-06-22T05:30:00.003-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Blizzard S10 from Evanix is a big rifle, but not a heavy one. You must scope it.

Here's a popular airgun many of you have been asking about. It's the Blizzard S-10 from Evanix, a 10-shot repeater with good power and quiet operation. Many shooters feel it may be the most significant Korean PCP to come to market in a long time. This test will look into those areas for you, and we'll see what this new rifle offers.

The Blizzard S10 is an all-new rifle. It's a sidelever-type bolt-action revolver with a 10-shot cylinder that advances as the action is cocked. The revolving cylinder is actually a clip that is removed to load. And this one holds 10 pellets, so it's larger in diameter than the cylinders that hold six. This one sticks above the receiver, so two-piece scope rings are required.

The 10-shot clip is metal and uses a large o-ring around the outside to hold all the pellets in place. It works smoothly and without hangups when advancing.

The clip sticks up above the top of the receiver, so 2-piece scope rings are required. The safety is a silent European type.

This is a large air rifle, but not a heavy one. Because a lot of what's inside the gun is just air, it's surprisingly light. At 8.75 lbs., no one will mistake it for a lightweight, but given the size of both the reservoir and the barrel shroud, it feels lighter than it looks. Of course, it comes without sights, so factor in the weight of a scope and rings, which add at least another pound.

I'm testing a .22 caliber, which has to be the overall most desirable caliber, but know that the rifle also comes in .177. In some places, .22 caliber has been hampered by harmful legislation, so offering the .177 makes sense, but if you get one in that caliber be prepared to shoot the heaviest pellets to keep the velocity under control, which means under the sound barrier. The .22 should be ideal, and I should be able to shoot heavier pellets for greater long-range power, as long they will fit in the cylinder.

There's no possibility for power adjustment on this gun. You just shoot it as it comes, which in .22 caliber is supposed to hit around 1050 f.p.s.

The stock on my test gun is a right-hand version, shaped as well as any English airgun stock every was. That's understandable, too, because the Koreans have been making stocks for English airguns for several years. The Blizzard stock has a very vertical pistol grip with a scooped-out thumbrest at the top for a vertical thumb hold on the shooting hand. That's one of my favorite holding positions, so I find the stock very easy to hold. The buttpad is also adjustable for height, so you can dial in this stock for maximum comfort. I'm testing the standard stock, but there's also a right-hand thumbhole stock.

Does the Blizzard have any "technology"?
Yes, it does. The shroud isn't entirely hollow. In the front, there are what appear to be Delrin baffles that will break up the turbulent air as it comes out of the muzzle. The shroud itself is large--0.985" in diameter, so a whisker under a full inch. It looks like a bull barrel, except for the brass muzzle cap that breaks up the impression. Inside you can see the technology and even remove the top portion of it, though most of it remains tucked inside. A little forensic investigation revealed at least six levels of baffles inside, if you count the one just beneath the end cap. That should make for a very quiet rifle, though this one may have too much power to be too quiet.

A look under the muzzle cap. Four more baffles under this one and another one plus an end cap on top.

So, how much noise?
Make no assumptions! When shot with no pellet in the barrel, the Blizzard is quite loud. But load a pellet, and the noise diminishes to a third as loud. It sounds about like a Sheridan Blue Streak shooting on three pumps. It's about as loud as a Diana 34. But remember, this rifle generates three times the energy of the 34. I can't tell you whether it's quiet enough for your backyard because I don't know your situation. My house is 15 feet from either neighbor, and the Blizzard is too noisy to shoot in the fenced backyard when they're home. But for a rifle of this power, it's very quiet.

Stock observations
The stock shape positions your sighting eye very high above the receiver, so a scope will be right in line. A rifle with this power potential demands a scope that can hold up to long-range work, so I'll select one accordingly. The right-hand stock operates very smoothly for a righty like me. A lefty will choose the left-hand stock but will still have to support the weight of the rifle with his shooting hand when he operates the sidelever. That will put some strain on the shoulder and left hand. But a right-hander will find this rifle quite smooth and fast to operate.

Things they got right
I have to comment on the fill port because Evanix got it right. The gun has a captive fill port cover that turns to protect the port from dirt and opens easily for a fill. It's a small feature, but one that many companies can't seem to get right.

The pressure gauge (manometer) is marked in bar! Hallelujah! For so many years, we have put up with the cryptic Asian pressure readings, but now we have a gauge that's marked in a world-recognized scale. Fill to 200 bar.

A Korean pressure gauge that reads in bar!

The safety is a copy of a European silent safety that's been around for many decades. It's on the right rear of the receiver and works as you would expect--back for safe and forward to fire. No automatic safety!

There hasn't been much testing of the Blizzard, so I guess I'm getting in on the ground floor.

The Beeman C1 - Part 3 The rifle that created the artillery hold!

2009-06-19T05:30:00.001-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Despite the size of this photo, the C1 is a small rifle. The western look was unique in its day. The scope is a 2-7x32 BSA.

Part 1
Part 2

Today, I'll test the Beeman C1 carbine for accuracy. You will remember that it was shooting on the slow side when I tested it in Part 2. That shouldn't affect accuracy, though. You will also remember that the C1 has a single-stage trigger that many of you say you prefer. This one came from the factory rough and creepy but broke in to be smooth and sweet, if not exactly crisp.

My rifle is scoped with a BSA 2-7x32 scope. The C1 has no scope stop, so the rear ring is butted against the end of the 11mm dovetails, which end at the end cap. It's not a good way to stop a scope, but it's all this Webley had.

You may recall that when I got this rifle it had the scope mounted. I always wonder when I get one like that if the scope was just thrown on for looks or perhaps it lived on the rifle for many years and is sighted-in to a gnat's eyelash. I've never found one of the latter, and this one certainly never knew this scope before I started shooting it. It was off by about a foot at 23 yards! What I'm saying is people don't often sell sighted-in rifles.

I painstakingly adjusted the scope until it was hitting the point of aim--sort of. Actually, the story is much more interesting, so why don't I tell you?

To make a long story short...
This is the first pellet rifle I have not been able to shoot well. It simply refused all my attempts to shoot a group no matter what I did. I tried a total of seven different pellets over a period of several hours and nothing worked. I tried holding it tight, loose and not at all. I shot it off the flat of my palm, the backs of my fingers and straight off the sandbag--nothing worked.

Best group of the session was this horrible showing. Notice, though, that three pellets are touching. While they aren't even a great group for this close, they do show that the rifle has promise.

This is what the average group looked like.

I cleaned the barrel and encountered the tightest barrel I've ever seen. The brass brush was so bent after cleaning that I threw it away--the first time I've ever done that. But even after that cleaning, the rifle remained inaccurate.

I checked the screws and they were all as tight as they would go. I wiggled the scope and it was tight. While many shooters blame their scopes for inaccuracy, I have found that it's seldom them that causes massive inaccuracy. This scope may still be bad, but I'll not blame it yet.

Then I wiggled the muzzle. To my surprise it rocked from side to side a quarter of an inch! Then I cocked the rifle and positioned the barrel halfway up (closed). It would not remain in position on its own. The baseblock is loose in the forks. No way is that rifle going to be accurate until that's fixed. I'll examine some other things before testing the rifle again, too.

By this time, I'd spent the better part of a day on this rifle, so I decided to call it quits and make my report. There's more work ahead before this problem is resolved, so we will have a part 4.

Leapers 1.25-4x24 scope

2009-06-18T05:30:00.003-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Know how to tell when you're testing something really good? When it has major features you don't notice because you're focused on other things that matter more at the moment. So it is with our subject scope. Leapers sent me a goodie bag of scopes and gear to test for you. I've already told you about their UTG Special Ops computer bag that I now use exclusively on all my trips, and now I'm pawing around the rest of the gear to see what's there. One good thing I found is this Leapers 1.25-4x24 scope, which has already proven invaluable in a test for an article I'm writing for Shotgun News. I'll tell you about the major feature I overlooked at the end of the report.

If you go by the criteria for airgun scopes, this 1.25-4x24 scope shouldn't even be sold by Pyramyd Air. It has so many things going against it as an airgun scope. First, it has fixed parallax set at 100 yards. That's not even close enough for a .22 rimfire, to say nothing of an airgun. Airguns want their parallax set under 50 yards. Next, the low power runs contrary to what airgunners are buying these days. Then, there's the small objective lens. Twenty-four millimeters is smaller than one inch, which is the nominal diameter of the scope tube. We think of 32mm as a small objective, but 24 is even smaller.

All joking aside...it works!
So, why am I testing this scope here? Well, having disregarded all of these "shortcomings," I mounted one on a .22 rimfire I'm testing for a Shotgun News article and proceeded to shoot very good groups at 50 yards. The reason this was possible? One word--clarity. My 61-year-old eyes that normally need bifocals were able to bisect the bull of a 50-foot smallbore target at 50 yards with the crosshairs of this scope. That's on FOUR power! That's how crystal-clear the image is!

The bull on a 50-foot small bore rifle target measures 1.5" across the black 6-ring. The Leapers scope reticle was able to bisect this bull at 50 yards so I could see it.

The crosshairs are fine in the center part of the reticle--fine enough to bisect a 1.5" circle at 50 yards. They're thicker at the edges, which sounds like a duplex pattern, though I don't think this reticle is a true duplex. The thick lines are too far out of the center. But they do focus your vision on the central part of the reticle. The inner lines are ultra-fine, and no worries about breaking them, because theyre etched on glass rather than being actual wires. There are fine mil-dots on them, as well.

The click adjustments are 1/2-minute (approximately 1/2" of movement at 100 yards), and they were accurate enough to center my groups at 50 yards with the rimfire I tested. That rifle, by the way, was a new offering from Umarex--the Colt M4 in .22 long rifle. You can read that test in the September 20 issue of Shotguns News.

This is also a long eye relief scope. The ad says 4-5"; and when I measured it, the relief on my scope is at 4" when the exit pupil is optimum. That means you have some mounting flexibility. The scope doesn't have to extend back as far as some do, which on many air rifles is a problem because of the forward location of the scope stop.

So what about the 100-yard parallax setting? With magnification this low, you aren't bothered by it. Things are clear enough to shoot at 5 FEET when the power is set as low as it will go. They're a little fuzzy, but you can still resolve a housefly or an ant at that distance. So, the parallax isn't going to be a problem. I shot a sub-1" 10-shot group with a .22 rimfire semiauto at 50 yards, so whatever parallax there is, it isn't much of a problem.

Next, this is almost a compact scope. It's under 10" long and will fit most air rifles with no positioning problems--even those shorter rifles that normally have problems with scopes. The one I'm testing has a one-inch tube and mounts in standard rings, but another slightly larger model with similar features has a 30mm tube. Either one should be a great hunting rifle scope for guns shooting at 50 yards and less.

The forgotten feature?
What about that feature I overlooked? Well, it turns out that this scope has an illuminated reticle--and because the reticle is etched on glass, it's very fine when illuminated. Only the center fine lines are illuminated--either red or green--and they do not flare on the inside of the scope tube when the brightness is turned up high. I overlooked it because I didn't need that feature for my test. I just wanted a clear scope so I could shoot accurately. And that's what I got. It wasn't until this evaluation for you that I even noticed the illuminated reticle feature or installed the battery to examine it!

What is this scope suited for?
I plan to mount this scope on my Quackenbush .308 rifle. It will make a great minute-of-deer scope out to around 150 yards, which is pretty much the maximum for the .308 air rifle on animals of that size. For prairie dogs, it should do well out to 100 yards. That's how clear the image is. It would also work well on a powerful smallbore like a Condor or an Evanix AR-6. Anything where precise aiming is important, along with compact size and a wide field of view.

This isn't for field target or for long-range shooting, despite how well it served that purpose for me. It's a fast hunting scope with a wide, clear field of view.

If you're looking for a nice hunting scope, even for a firearm, don't overlook this one!

Romanian spring rifle - Part 2

2009-06-17T05:30:00.003-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

It's been a while since I wrote part 1 on this rifle. You may remember that I showed you the velocity, so today I'll complete the report with accuracy testing. Of course you aren't going to mount a scope on one of these by any normal means, so I'm shooting with open sights today.

Somebody mentioned that Pioneer means "Boy Scout" in Romanian. Actually, the Young Pioneers was the Soviet group that most resembles our Boy Scouts, but they are not the same organizations. The Young Pioneers were a paramilitary organization that rose from the ashes of the Russian Boy Scouts after the fall of the Czar. They did pretty much the same things as scouts, and also guarded military tombs and received limited military training. They were a youth adjunct of the Soviet Communist Party. Both boys and girls were in the same organization. Their motto, "Always Ready," is an outgrowth of the Boy Scout motto, "Be prepared."

Is there a connection between the rifle we're examining and the Young Pioneers? I have no information about that, but perhaps some of our readers may know. At any rate, there's no doubt that this is a youth rifle, designed for kids to cock and shoot all day. As such, it pulls at the heartstrings of many shooters who want nothing more than a lightweight, easy-cocking plinker to pass the time with. Today, we'll see if this is the one. Vince has warned us that it isn't, so we'll see.

I figured 10 meters was a good test for a plinker, and of course the 20-shot group still holds. But for starters, I stood about 20 feet from the target and fired a 5-shot group with the first pellet I planned on using just to make sure the gun was on paper. Let me show you what that did.

The first five shots were Gamo Match offhand at 20 feet. This was just to ensure that the gun was hitting on the paper. I used a 6 o'clock hold for this well-centered group.

Two things were learned from those five shots. First, the rifle is reasonably accurate. Second, the single-stage trigger is very hard and stiff. I measured it at a repeatable 7 lbs., 8 oz. But the group didn't look bad for starters. Then I moved back to 33 feet and shot 20 shots from a rest. Because I thought the group might climb when shooting from farther back, I tilted the 10-meter pistol targets sideways, so the bullseye would be lower on the paper. That's why all the targets are printed on what looks like an angle.

Twenty Gamo Match pellets went all over the place. They are fairly well-centered on the bull if you discount that single shot at 9 o'clock, but the elevation was all over the place.

While cocking the rifle, I reflected that this was one of the easiest breakbarrels I had ever cocked. The bathroom scale confirmed that with a reading of just 9 lbs. to cock. That makes this the leader in cocking ease!

A second pellet I tried is a lead-free target pellet that's not yet on the market. I have them to test in lower-powered spring rifles, and this one certainly qualifies.

This lead-free target pellet wasn't bad. It's not on the market yet.

Twenty lead-free target pellets shot about the same as the Gamo Match. Not quite as wide but a little more vertical.

Surprisingly, these plastic pellets shot about as well as the Gamo Match, which I didn't expect.

The RWS Basics shot best in this test. They disbursed about half as far as the others, with all but a few going into one tight group. Remember, please, that I was shooting with crude open sights and with a 7.5-lb. trigger!

RWS Basics were the best--going into a smaller group with most going into the same hole. The target is displayed as it was shot--on an angle.

The significant improvement with the Basics lead me to believe there might be pellets that are even better. Vince said this gun is like a BB gun, but this one is just a little better than that. Not a lot, mind you, but it's good for a minute-of-pop-can at backyard distances.

That's going to be it for this gun, if you don't mind. It was fine for it's intended purpose; and in today's terms, perhaps a bit overbuilt.

Beeman quick cleaning pellets

2009-06-16T05:30:00.007-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Announcement #1: Twice a year, I'm a guest on Charles Heller's "America Armed & Free" on Liberty Watch Radio. We talk about airguns & take questions. I was on this past Sunday (6/14/09), and you can listen to a recording of the show here. My guest spot was in the first 30 minutes. I'll make another guest appearance in December. The show broadcasts to the Tuscon, Arizona, listening area, but anyone can also listen to it live on the internet. I'll give you a heads up when I have a definite date for the next show. Now, on to today's blog.

Announcement #2: A reminder that Pyramyd Air is moving on June 19-20. If you want to get anything delivered this week, you need to place your order by noon (Eastern) today and specify 3-day delivery. Find more info here.

Guest blogger
This is Alan's second guest blog. He tells us how he cleans his airguns with cleaning pellets.

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

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.

by Alan

Let's take a look at Beeman Quick Cleaning pellets. B.B. has already given some very good information on how to perform thorough cleanings with J-B Non-Embedding Bore Cleaning Compound and a Dewey one-piece cleaning rod. I believe that's the best method for those times when a thorough cleaning is required. However, cleaning pellets may also have a place in your airgun supplies. So where do Beeman's cleaning pellets fit in?

1. Quick cleaning of airgun barrels
Felt pellets are designed to be fired from rifled or smooth bores of spring piston, pneumatic or CO2 gun. Upon firing, the felt pellets expand to fit the detail of the bore, wiping it clean of lead debris, graphite lubricants, excess oils and moisture.

I used them to clean my Gamo Recon, which sat unshot for most of the winter. It was stored in about the worst conditions possible, having found it's way behind the clothes dryer. With the action left partially open, it was subject to repeated moisture then drying (our laundry is in our garage and it pretty much rains all winter.) When I recovered it this spring, I noticed some light surface rust at the breach and assumed I'd see more in the barrel.

For the first shot, I fired a dry cleaning pellet in to an old blanket being used as a backstop. It came out looking like this:

The next shot showed evidence of oil and rust:

I repeated the cleaning procedure until the pellets were coming out clean. The whole process took about 5 minutes, and I'm certain that the barrel crown was not subject to the damage that can sometimes occur when a cleaning rod is used. Now, the barrel is clean and this little rifle is ready to shoot.

Here are some tips on cleaning pellets and how to use them in various powerplants.

Spring-piston guns: Beeman recommends using two pellets in low-powered spring guns and at least three in moderate- to high-powered air rifles. These are loaded at once to help increase air resistance and stop the piston from slamming into the end of the compression chamber. If I had an expensive or extremely powerful air rifle that recommends against dry firing, I would be very cautious in trying this. Some manufacturers have claimed their spring guns can be dry-fired with out hurting the gun. [Note from B.B.: Pyramyd Air does not recommend dry-firing any spring gun.]

CO2 guns, multi-pump pneumatics & single-stroke pneumatics
Beeman recommended cleaning procedure is very basic, but I tend to a more extensive procedure below.

Shoot a dry cleaning pellet into something that facilitates recovery (I use an old towel) I like to examining the first pellet for clues about the cleanliness of the bore.
Next, I put a drop of Crosman Pellgunoil on a pellet and load it. This shot is guaranteed to leave a splat mark so be sure to watch that target.
Then, I fire new cleaning pellets until they're coming out dry. If several come out dry and dirty, I repeat the use of an oiled pellet and continue cleaning.
Once the pellets come out clean and dry, the barrel is clean. If the gun is going into storage, I'll fire one more load with the slightest bit of Pellgunoil to leave a film of oil in the bore.
If the cleaning pellets are clean and dry, the task is complete and the gun is ready for shooting. For single-stroke pneumatic match guns, the instructions recommend a couple of fouling shots on the cleaned barrel to bring the point of impact back to normal.

2. Point shooting and indoor target practice
Although it says that they will shoot to a higher point of aim than lead pellets, Beeman recommends cleaning pellets for point shooting practice and indoor target shooting.

For point shooting the pellet is moistened with a dark lubricant or colored dye allowing it to be used in the manner of simunition or a paintball marker. It is recommended that you clean and lubricate the bore before & after use of your homemade marker pellets.

Although cleaning pellets should be considered dangerous to the eyes at ranges under 20 feet, the Beeman documentation states that the pellets are not normally capable of breaking a light bulb at that same distance. Because of their light weight and limited range, they are a natural for short range indoor target practice. Items such as Styrofoam cups and ping-pong balls make fun reactive targets when engaged from a distance of 6-8 feet.

3. Pest control
Beeman cleaning pellets are instrumental in the war I wage against certain Northwestern Pacific insects such as the extremely aggressive, of which the most notorious is the hobo spider (Tegenaria agrestis).

The hobo spider is not beneficial, and you don't one want it around your house! (Photo courtesy of Dr. Lee Ostrom's hobo spider images)

The hobo is both aggressive and poisonous, capable of causing significant reactions in both humans and pets. Hobos will jump on you and bite. Before encountering these nasty buggers, when my wife or one of the kids called me to deal with a spider, I'd scoot it in to a glass or onto a magazine and put it out the nearest door or window.

Now I blast them in to tiny little spider parts. A felt pellet through my Gamo P-23 pistol, and there's nothing left but a smudge. Big spiders can leave a smudge that requires some cleanup, but it's worth it.

There may be a fourth use for cleaning pellets
I have to wonder if the .22 cal. felt pellets (either whole or cut-in half) could be used as a component in reloading shotshells for the Gamo Viper Express Air Shotgun. I'd like to get my hands on one soon and do a little experimenting. If anyone else has attempted this, please let us know.

Do Tell! - Part 3

2009-06-15T05:30:00.003-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Guest blogger
This is the final installment of Vince's guest blog about Wacky Wayne's vintage Tell air rifle.

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

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.

by Vince

Part 1
Part 2

As it turns out, the clearance between the pivot bolt and hole in the breechblock was a little too loose, and this seemed to be responsible for the lockup problem (as it often is). But everything is machined from solid steel; there's no bushing to wear down and replace. As I'm mulling over what needs to be done, it finally occurs to me that the pivot bolt is actually tapered, and that's how the factory controls the clearance. Now that things started wearing a bit, I needed to get the bolt to go in further so the widening taper would snug things up again. If I go too far, it would jam solid in the breech and rotate in the lockup fork, which I don't think it's supposed to do.

I undercut the bolt head, and undercut it way too much on purpose. As I suspected, the bolt now jams in the breechblock, but I fix that by installing a steel shim under the bolt head to bring it back out a bit. This way, if it wears again, it can easily be readjusted by putting a thinner shim in place.

A steel RWS breech seal shim fits perfectly!

This tightens the lock nicely and gets rid of most of the barrel lift. There's still a little, but that's one of those things I think we're gonna have to live with. The moly paste I put into the pivot and fork should minimize further wear, so it shouldn't get worse anytime soon.

That pretty much wraps up the Tell. How does it shoot? Velocity is about the same as before I started; and as I mentioned earlier, the trigger is certainly stiff. Unfortunately, accuracy just isn't that good, even after cleaning the barrel.

In the course of trying to nail down the reason, I try pushing a pellet down the bore and find a rough patch right near the muzzle. If I sight down the bore from the breech end, I can see a ring that seems to be intruding into the bore's surface. Sure enough, it looks like there's some bad pitting at the muzzle. A second JB-and-bronze-brush cleaning doesn't help.

I offered Wayne a choice: leave it as is or let me drill out the last inch or so of barrel and hopefully get past the rough stuff. I didn't think this gun was ever gonna be a volume shooter, but rather just a functioning relic that could be taken down and shot once in a while. I really didn't want to drill out the barrel. I had to consider what it would do to the collector value--and what Wayne might do to me if I screwed it up! To my relief, Wayne concurred. No drilling.

Wayne's now got his Tell back, capable of grouping about 1" or so at 10 yards. Enough to whack the aforementioned soda cans pretty reliably...and certainly better than most BB guns at that range. I wish it had come out better for him, but sometimes there's a limit to what can be done. But it works, it works reliably and it will certainly be an interesting addition to his collection.

Benjamin Marauder - Part 5

2009-06-12T05:30:00.000-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

In the time since I wrote Part 4 of this report, hundreds of Benjamin Marauders have been shipped. Though there is still a huge backlog of orders, the Marauder is now out there, being tested by real people like our own Derrick, who won Marauder number 100 in Crosman's Summer House contest. So listen to them--not me--when it comes to accuracy, quiet operation, trigger performance and everything else.

However, I promised you I would return to the Marauder to finish my report, because there were a few details I needed to clear up. One was the trigger, which Matt very much wants to read about, and the other was a test of the production valve that Crosman sent met. This report will hit the trigger hard and begin our look at the new valve.

Trigger
I mentioned the trigger in the general description, but never really gave it the attention it deserves. Today I will. The Marauder trigger is two-stage and adjustable for the length of the first stage pull, the location and length of the second stage pull, the location of the trigger blade at rest and the trigger pull weight. According to the owner's manual, changing the trigger pull weight does not affect the sear engagement.

When Crosman sent me the new valve to test they sent it in an assembled reservoir that had a trigger attached to it. So the trigger I had on the rifle I tested for you before (Parts 1 through 4) has now been changed. I took the rifle with the new valve out to the range yesterday to sight it in and noticed that the new trigger is set similar to the first one, so I will adjust it now, as I explain the process to you.

According to my RCBS trigger-pull gauge, the trigger on the gun now breaks at 1.5 lbs. To access the adjustment screws, remove the trigger guard. The pull-weight screw is in front of the trigger blade and is a 1/8" Allen screw. Turning clockwise increases pull weight and counterclockwise decreases pull weight. Just for fun I turned the screw in several turns and increased the pull weight to 2 pounds, 4 ounces. Most of this weight is loaded into the first stage, so stage two becomes hard to sense when the weight is high.

Large screw on the left adjusts the weight of the trigger-pull. Two small screws behind the trigger blade on the right adjust first- (left) and second-stage pull lengths, respectively. Small screw on plate behind the trigger blade (the screw farthest to the right in this picture) adjusts the location of the trigger blade.
Then I turned the screw back out and dropped the trigger pull to 12 ounces. The return spring functions perfectly and I can feel stage two easily. If the weather were cold I might increase the weight to 24 ounces, for safety's sake, but in the warm months it's ideal the way it is.

Speaking of safeties, the one on the Marauder is manual. Derrick reckons Crosman must have bound and gagged their lawyer to get this one out the door! The safety is a blade in front of the trigger that you can operate with your trigger finger.

The pull weight is also governed by where you place your finger on the trigger blade, since it is a lever. I find it natural to hit the blade about in the center, so that's where I hook the trigger gauge for measurements.

You can also adjust the location of the trigger blade, fore and aft, to suit your hand. I found that it is right for me, so I left it alone.

First and second stage lengths
Two screws behind the trigger blade adjust the lengths of the first and second stage pulls. Each takes a wee-teeny .050" Allen wrench, as does the trigger location adjustment. These two screws adjust together, so changing one automatically changes the other. You will have to adjust both screws until you get the first stage stopping where you want and the second traveling as far as you want.

Trigger performance
This is a world-class trigger, make no mistake. The let-off weight remains the same from shot to shot, so you can get used to the performance.

Well, that's it for the trigger, except to note that an overtravel stop would be nice. Now I'd like to begin my report on the gun's performance with the new valve. Except that when I reached the range I had no idea what fill pressure Crosman had set the new valve to, nor what power level they set up. So there I was on the 50-yard range without a clue about what I was shooting! And that was sad, because I watched three out of five Kodiaks sail through THE SAME HOLE at that range. The other two shots opened the group to 1.25 inches, so until I get control over what I'm shooting, I cannot finish this report.

A note on barrel cleaning
Ray Apelles, who was one of the developers of the Marauder, discussed barrel cleaning with me. Ray pointed out that there is an o-ring INSIDE the barrel, just in from the breech. It seals the bolt after it has pushed the pellet into position. Well, I hardly want to run JB Bore Paste down a barrel that has an o-ring! So cleaning the Marauder barrel will be limited to cleaning patches pulled through with a flexible cable. I did put some diver's grease on that o-ring, however.

Let's test the rifle!
Today, with the help of the chronograph, I will discover how this gun has been set up. So the first thing to do is to fill to 3,000 psi on my tank gauge, and to note where the needle on the gun's manometer rests at that pressure.

A fill to 3,000 on the gauge mounted on my carbon fiber tank resulted in a nearly identical reading on the gun's manometer. So at that pressure, the rifle agrees with a tank gauge that I know to be reasonably accurate.

Gun's built-in manometer agrees with the gauge on the fill tank.

With that fill, I began shooting Crosman 10.5-grain Premiers. I was so amazed by what I recorded that I'm printing the entire string here.

Shot Vel. Notes
1 893 3000 psi
2 911
3 926
4 921
5 931
6 932
7 936
8 931
9 943
10 938
11 944
12 939
13 940
14 946
15 949
16 948
17 948
18 952
19 946
20 950
21 941
22 942
23 944
24 942
25 938
26 941
27 934
28 932
29 935
30 931
31 933 2400 psi
32 929
33 929
34 926
35 926
36 921
37 922
38 918
39 910
40 910 2300 psi
41 907
42 907
43 903
44 896
45 891
46 893
47 887
48 889
49 878
50 875 2000 psi

To my eyes that string is incredible, because it shows a valve efficiency seldom seen in a PCP. Usually, when a gun drops off the power curve, which for a 50-yard shooter might be around shot number 31, the way this rifle is set up, the velocity drops off rapidly. But this gun hangs on through shot 43. If you were shooting at 35 yards there might be 40 good shots per fill. In fact, my strategy would be to fill to 3,000 and shoot four magazines before refilling for everything short of long-range accuracy testing.

For those shooting long range, I would fill to 2,900 psi and shoot 27 shots. That should net you an extreme velocity spread of about 20 f.p.s., give or take.

Conclusions
Now that I know how the rifle is shooting, I will adjust the velocity to clip off the final 30-40 f.p.s. and see if I can't get a shot or two more per string with an average around 900 f.p.s.

Do Tell! - Part 2

2009-06-11T05:30:00.004-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Guest blogger
This is the second part of Vince's guest blog about Wacky Wayne's vintage Tell air rifle.

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

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.

by Vince

Part 1

The Tell's spring was a bit of a stumper at first.

Trashed or not?

As you can see, it exhibits significant spring fatigue at one end. Or does it? Normally, those closed coils would raise a flag; but in this particular case, I really don't think so for four reasons. First, the collapsed coils are all grouped together. Second, they're at the end of the spring. Third, the spring itself is pretty straight--it's odd that so many coils would fatigue and yield so evenly. Lastly, the coils gradually get spaced further apart as they get further away from the end of the spring.

This, I believe, is an ordinary variable-rate coil spring. As the spring is compressed, the closely spaced coils at the end quickly stack up, effectively reducing the number of active coils in the spring. It starts out relatively soft but stiffens up more rapidly than a standard spring as it is compressed. Variable-rate springs in themselves are not terribly unusual, especially in automotive applications (suspension and valve train, for example); but this is the first time I've seen one in a spring gun.

Moving into the gun itself, something catches my eye...something not nice catches my eye. Inside the spring tube, I see a bunch of circumferential grooves that don't look like they're from the piston, since that sort of wear would tend to be parallel to the axis of the tube and not perpendicular to it. I'm concluding that these marks are from the original machining process, not from use:

Grooves in the compression area.

Grooves in the spring area.

In any event, it doesn't really matter. Since the seal is leather it'll be quite tolerant of this sort of thing. I hone it out and reassemble the powerplant after gooping up the spring with Mystic JT6 MP grease and moly powder mix.

This is a grease. I'm not using tar on a low-powered springer like this one.

The rest of the reassembly is a reverse of the disassembly process. The relatively low spring preload pressure means I can just push it together with my hands.

During this process, I'd noticed that the stock was loose. Exactly how it is retained at all is a bit of a mystery at first, since there are no obvious screws holding it to the action. This means there's only one other possibility, and pulling the buttplate off the rear of the stock uncovers the stud and nut that holds it together.

A few twists with a 17mm socket on an extension tightens the stock nicely.

The single-piece trigger is showing some obvious wear, and this explains why it was unreliable when I first tried it.

Worn sear. The spring is fine despite how it looks.

There's not a lot of sear "meat" left to work with, so I just go real conservative on regrinding the sear angle so I KNOW it isn't gonna let go. I went a little too far, and the trigger now takes more effort than it probably needs to. But considering how little metal there is in front of it, I decide not to risk any further refacing.

Now that the rear half of the gun is taken care of, I move to the front and that troublesome pivot. It comes apart with a spanner driver on the nut.

The tool is homemade. Obviously.

The lockup is pretty standard, although you can see the unusual practice of making the block and barrel all from one piece. The little screw in the second picture retains the locking wedge, making it a breeze to disassemble for cleanup and relube. The breech seal is pretty beat and gets replaced.

The breech seal is in the compression tube, not the barrel.

All milled from a single piece of steel.

A standard o-ring will replace the breech seal.

Vince continues on Monday with part 3 of the Tell discovery tour!

The Beeman C1 - Part 2The rifle that created the artillery hold!

2009-06-10T05:30:00.001-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Despite the size of this photo, the C1 is a small rifle. The western look was unique in its day. The scope is a 2-7X32 BSA.

Part 1

If you remember, the C1 is one of the first adult air rifles I ever owned. I got my .177 C1 from Beeman and had the opportunity to break it in and shoot it until it smoothed out to become a great little shooter.

Today I'm testing the .22 version I acquired in a big trade with my buddy Mac, following the Little Rock show this year. I didn't own a chronograph when I had the first rifle, so this test will be as revealing to me as it is to you. Kind of like finding out whether the girl next door was really as chaste as you envisioned when you were a kid, or whether she dated the fleet.

Observations
Before we get to velocities, I'd like to make a couple of observations. First, I had forgotten that the C1 has the mother of all single-stage triggers. If you look up single-stage in the dictionary, there will be a picture of a C1 beside it. It's long and engages right at the start of the pull. No false first stages here!

The trigger on my test rifle is well broken-in and releases at 4 pounds, 4 ounces. I can't call it crisp because you can feel the trigger moving as you pull, but it is very pleasant. While the later C1s have a manual safety on the right side of the gun, this one doesn't even have that. Cock it and it's ready to go.

Next, the C1 is a carbine. Though the gun isn't difficult to cock, that short barrel will have your arm aching after a couple dozen shots. It's certainly no Diana 27!

Also, the breech is butter-smooth. Though it has a chisel detent to hold the barrel shut, it feels and operates like a ball bearing detent, which is to say very nice.

Finally the firing behavior is dead-calm and quick. The gun moves in recoil, but there is no vibration to speak of.

The .177 C1 was represented to have 830 f.p.s. velocity, which probably meant 750 f.p.s. for sure, so the .22 should be in the low 600s. Let's see where this one is.

RWS Superdomes
The 14.5-grain RWS Superdome averaged 503 f.p.s. It ranged from a low of 487 to a high of 510, for a spread of 23 f.p.s. They seemed to fit the rifle well, but the energy they delivered works out to just 8.15 foot-pounds.

Crosman Premiers
Surprisingly, Crosman Premiers that weigh only 14.3 grains averaged just 494 f.p.s. That's less than the heavier Superdomes. The range was from 482 to 503 f.p.s. Muzzle energy for the average velocity is 7.75 foot-pounds. They also fit the breech variably, with some going in a quarter-inch and others sitting flush with the breech. The deep-seated ones were invariably the fastest.

Some Premiers fell deep into the barrel...

...while others had to be pressed flush with the breech.

RWS Hobbys
At less than 12 grains, RWS Hobby Pellets are the lightest I tested. Being pure lead, they also went the fastest. The average was 527 f.p.s. and the range was from 522 to 536, for a tight 14 foot-second difference. The average velocity produced an energy of 7.34 foot-pounds. All pellets fit the breech uniformly.

Eley Wasps
Just for fun I tried some fat Eley Wasps. At 5.56mm I didn't expect much velocity from them and I was right. They averaged 437 f.p.s. with a spread from 425 to 450 f.p.s. The average velocity produced 6.15 foot-pounds from this 14.5-grain pellet.

Conclusions
Based on these numbers I'd say this rifle is a little tired. It probably needs seals and a new mainspring. I looked through the cocking slot and saw that the grease seemed to be from the factory, so this gun has just been shot a lot. No complaint there, because that's what it's built for!

Do Tell! - Part 1

2009-06-09T05:30:00.004-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Guest blogger
Vince got another gun from Wacky Wayne, but this vintage rifle is one that most airgunners probably won't see unless they go to an airgun show. In fact, most of you have probably never heard of this air rifle. Here's a chance to see it before and after Vince does his magic.

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

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.

by Vince

Do Tell! That's pretty much what Wayne grunted to me as he informed me of his latest win on gunbroker--a German-made Tell air rifle in .22 caliber. "Ugh. I buy Tell. You do Tell," or something to that effect. He wanted to send it to me to give it a once-over, a check-out and do anything else necessary to make it into a world-class FT rifle. Or whack soda cans at 10 paces. Whatever.

A few days after he wins this thing, it shows up at my door. As I first set eyes on it, it becomes apparent that this thing is not a typical airgun, or at least not a typical airgun as might have been built in the past 80 years.

The Tell is a bit unusual.

There's no forestock at all, the cocking link is totally exposed and the sights are not adjustable for elevation. Since they're both dovetail-mounted, they can be drifted for windage. There's a crude trigger adjustment that looks factory--an external screw that threads through the front of the triggerguard and controls the engagement of the direct-sear trigger.

Simple, but I don't like this sort of adjustment on a direct sear.

The barrel and breechblock are machined out of a single piece of steel, and the rear 40 percent or so has a classic octagonal shape to it. All in all, something about it very much reminds me of how an early .22 rimfire rifle might have been built. I have no idea of the date, but another early German airgun I worked on for Wayne (a Haenel Mod 1 DRP, ~1920s) looked pretty normal. So, I'm guessing this one might be earlier than that. The makers of this rifle certainly had a preference for machining over stamping, and it makes me wonder what it must have cost new.

Now, THAT'S a cocking link!

As I start looking it over, I notice a couple of problems right off the bat: the lockup feels loose and the barrel has a definite upward lift to it. Velocity is in the low 400 with Gamo Match pellets, which I imagine is probably pretty normal for it. With the questionable lockup, I didn't even try accuracy at this point; rather, I just dug right into the guts of it.

The rifle comes apart in an interesting way. A little unusual but not unheard of. Wayne's old Haenel and my R10 are constructed like this. There are no pins to knock out; once the proper screw is removed, the endcap with the trigger assembly simply unscrews from the rest of the action.

Remove front triggerguard bolt...

...and unscrew!

At this point, it disassembles pretty much like any standard spring gun. The inner parts are in pretty good shape (hope MY inner parts are in as good a shape at that age!). The leather seal on the piston hasn't visibly deteriorated, and the catch for the direct-sear trigger looks pretty good.

Leather piston seal is good enough to reuse.

No serious wear on the direct-sear trigger.

This is something I was particularly concerned about since the trigger felt "iffy" when I test-fired the gun. By iffy, I mean that it wouldn't always hold. I don't trust iffy when it comes to direct-sear triggers (well, any trigger for that matter).

Vince will tell you more about Wayne's Tell in the next part.

You asked for it: More Balderdash!

2009-06-08T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

I'm in New York filming episodes for the American Airgunner TV show. Because you enjoyed the last Balderdash column I reprinted from the Airgun Letter, I'm reprinting two more. These are from 1996.

Before I get to that, Pyramyd Air has announced a Father's Day 2009 Video Contest. It runs the month of June, and the rules are on the entry form. If the judges pick your airgun video as winner, you'll get a Gamo Whisper CSI air rifle!

MYTH #3
The cumulative force required to pump a multi-stroke pneumatic airgun adds up to hundreds of pounds, making this type of gun undesirable for the novice or the person of small stature.

Balderdash! Please don't tell my wife that a Sheridan pneumatic rifle is hard to pump. Now that she's killed her fifth rat between the eyes at 25 feet using an offhand shot, she doesn’t need the grief of knowing it should have been difficult. And since she can't begin to cock my C1 carbine, which only requires 34 lbs. of force compared to the "combined hundreds of pounds" for the Sheridan (Ha! Ha! Ha!), there aren't many airguns left for her to use. Of course, she could use a CO2 or precharged gun, but that's not the point, is it?

I don't know where this got started, but it's been around a long time. Admittedly, the sixth through eighth pumps on a Sheridan are harder than the others, but as for using the cumulative effort for the comparison--why not calculate the horsepower required to walk to your car to prove that you can't make it to work anymore? Or, better yet, stop breathing and save wear and tear on your diaphragm for a while.

I will agree that multi-pump guns are both slower and more cumbersome to prepare for each shot. That's one good reason why I shoot them less frequently than either CO2 or spring-piston guns.

The problem with pneumatics is not the effort they require, but the intelligence. Every time I watch an adult try to pump one of the things with a three-inch choked grip on both gun and lever, I'm amazed that high school science class didn't take more effectively. These are LEVERS, folks! You have to apply force at the point furthest from the fulcrum to get the best LEVERAGE!

When my son was 14, he could pump a vintage Crosman 100 to a velocity of almost 700 f.p.s., but he couldn't begin to cock my R1. But, then, bumblebees aren't supposed to be able to fly, either.

MYTH #6
Two-cylinder CO2 guns will shoot with less power when you use just one cylinder of gas.

Ted Osborn suggested this one, but I knew that W. H. B. Smith had conducted this experiment back in the 1950s. He reported in Gas, Air and Spring Guns of the World that the power of a Crosman 160 rifle with a single CO2 cartridge was down 10 percent, and the number of shots was 18, compared to 35 with two cartridges. I conducted the same test. First loading a full cartridge, then an expended one into my gun. Five minutes after gas flow started, I shot as many shots as possible separated by one-minute intervals. Ambient temperature was 78-deg. F, and a Chrony chronograph was used. The pellet used for all tests was the Crosman Premier in .22 caliber.

My test results were:

SHOT........VELOCITY
1...............628
5...............615
10..............582
11..............573

SHOT........VELOCITY
12..............573
13..............549
14..............534
15..............513
16..............496
17..............480
18..............463
19..............436
20..............412
21..............gas exhaust

The top velocity recorded with this pellet in this rifle using two full CO2 cartridges was 637 f.p.s. So, what we've been told is still apparently true--CO2 evaporates until it reaches a pressure of 900+ psi at 72-deg. F and above. As long as there's liquid CO2 present, that same pressure will be maintained and velocity will remain constant.

Hammerli Pneuma - Part 2

2009-06-05T05:30:00.001-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Hammerli's Pneuma is an exciting new PCP rifle at a great price!

Part 1

Today I test velocity on this .177 Hammerli Pneuma. As I mentioned in Part 1, Hammerli advertises a velocity of 1,200 f.p.s. for this rifle, so I tested it with heavy pellets to start with, because velocities above 1,000 f.p.s. aren't usually accurate. With power like that, the Pneuma will be a good hunting rifle.

Although I tested a .177, I would recommend getting the Pneuma in .22 because of the power potential. However there are those who favor .177 even in a hunting rifle and if that is the case, this might be the rifle for them. I've read a lot of good reports about the gun and nothing bad so far.

The Pneuma is a single-shot bolt action rifle, but the bolt is operated by a sidelever. This sidelever is quite smooth and easy to cock. I think everyone will like its behavior. The pellets simple drop into the loading trough and align perfectly with the breech. No screw holes get in the way of easy loading.

Adjustments
The trigger is two-stage and adjustable for both the length of the first stage pull and the letoff weight. To adjust the letoff weight, the triggerguard has to be removed. I adjusted the trigger and got the first stage pull where I wanted it, but no amount of turning that pull-weight screw did anything. The letoff remained around 4.5 pounds. The safety is automatic and must be pushed in before firing every time. The buttpad is also adjustable, which is an extra nice touch on what is essentially a budget PCP.

First fill
For the first fill I went up to 3,000 psi, which is an overfill, according to the manual. Hammerli says to stop at 200 bar, which is 2900 psi and I found that advice to be correct. The onboard manometer, however, reads 170 bar when a more reliable gauge says there is 200 bar inside. So go by your vetted and trusted fill gauge.

Beeman Kodiaks
Beeman Kodiaks were the first pellet I tried. Since I went to 3,000 psiu (206 bar) I will list all the velocities recorded from that fill.

Shot Velocity
1 954
2 961
3 965
4 970
5 975
6 976
7 981
8 987
9 986
10 984
11 997
12 995
13 996
14 ---
15 992
16 988
17 988
18 1007
19 996
20 997
21 994
22 997
23 1001
24 997
25 986
26 991
27 1000
28 988
29 989
30 984
31 994
32 979
33 974
34 972
35 971
36 969
37 959

Analyzing the shot string
If you have been a reader for a few months, I expect you can analyze this shot string and determine what is happening. Clearly the gun was valve-locked for the first few shots. That's attributed to the overfill I mentioned. So on the second fill I stopped at exactly 200 bar.

The useful shots in this string are debatable, as always, but I would select the first shot at 987, which is the 8th in the string. The last useful shot for me would be shot number 31, which went 994 f.p.s. So my useful shot string would have 24 shots in it (shot 8 to shot 32). That is a LOT of shots when you consider how powerful this rifle is.

My selected string ranges from a low of 984 f.p.s. to a high of 1007 f.p.s.--for a total spread of 23 f.p.s. The average velocity in my selected string is 993 f.p.s., which works out to a muzzle energy of 23.21 foot-pounds. I would expect 26 foot-pounds and more in .22.

Only 46 pump strokes were required to bring the rifle back to 200 bar after this shooting. That works out to about two strokes per shot. give or take.

RWS Superdomes
RWSSuperdomes were another surprise, in that they gave far fewer useful shots on a fill Once again, I will show you the numbers.

Shot Velocity
1 1051
2 1060
3 1066
4 1061
5 1053
6 1073
7 1057
8 1060
9 1060
10 1067
11 1063
12 1055
13 1044
14 1040
15 1044
16 1032
17 1029

Surprising, no? I was just as surprised, so I ran a second test, again filling to 200 bar. This time it only took 29 pump strokes to fill because the reservoir had only dropped to 150 bar. That indicates the lighter Superdome pellet is not working as efficiently as the heavy Kodiaks with the Pneuma valve.

Second string:

Shot Velocity
1 1037
2 1060
3 1057
4 1063
5 1062
6 ------
7 1060
8 1060
9 1051
10 1056
11 1055
12 1051
13 ------
14 1045
15 1027
16 1021
17 1023

The second string is even slower but close enough that we can tell the first strong wasn't a fluke. Just to see how close the advertised velocity is, I then refilled to 200 bar and fired 10 Gamo Raptors. The high was 1195, the low 1138 and the average 1174 f.p.s. So the velocity claim stands firm.

Conclusions?
The Pneuma is set up for power, so use the heavier pellets for maximum performance and accuracy.

From what I hear, the rifle is very accurate, so the next test will tell. If it is, this is another good entry-level PCP in a growing number that offer choices to shooters for the first time.

IZH-61 Sight Options - Part 2

2009-06-04T05:30:00.006-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Just a couple notes before I turn it over to Chuck. First, I do not answer questions send to me at the blogger address. I want all questions to come through this blog, if possible.

Second, I'm off to New York today for a week of filming the TV show. Be back next Thursday, if all goes well.

Finally, I am checking with Mendoza to see if they can modify their peep and open rear sights to allow them to be adjusted lower.

Guest blogger
This is part 2 of CJr's guest blog about how he outfitted 3 of his IZH-61 rifles with different sight options.

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

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.

by CJr

Part 1

Experimenting with peep sights
Previously, I told you about scoping the IZH-61. Today, I'll tell you my experiences with replacement open sights. A surprising discovery was that all of the peep sights tended to shoot very high.

I installed the Beeman Sport aperture sight on one of the rifles and tried to sight it in. I couldn't get any closer than 1.5" ABOVE the bullseye with the sight adjusted down to the max. I then mounted it on another IZH-61 and was able to get it down to 1/4" BELOW the bull at max down! Since it worked acceptably on this IZH-61, I left it there and did not test it on the other two. I did double-check the mounting on both rifles to make sure the clamps were in the rail properly. Also, this sight seems to mount canted to the left, and I had to adjust windage a few clicks to get on target. This sight has ZERO scope creep--I think because it has two, although small, set screws along the length of the base. They don't show in the following photo because they're on the right side of the sight.

Beeman Sport Aperture site mounted. Note that it's mounted as far forward as possible in order to bring the point of impact down farther.

On another rifle, I installed the Avanti Precision diopter sight, and it worked good but I had to adjust it all the way down, as well. I tried it on only the one rifle; and since it worked, I left it there. I had to adjust windage on it, also, but only one or two clicks. This sight has only one screw on the base, and it may have creeped 1/32" since I mounted it. I gave the screw another crank with pliers, so maybe that'll take care it. You put your eye right up to the eye cup on this one, and it shuts out any unwanted glare; however, it tends to make the target look very small.

Daisy Avanti Precision diopter sight mounted. Note that even though the eyepiece is farther back than the scope configuration, there's no eye relief problem since lenses are not involved.

Mendoza report
I liked the Mendoza sight. It's very similar to the Beeman; and it's comparatively inexpensive, very well built and adjusts nice with positive clicks. I really liked the price since I wanted to buy three of them. However, I put the Mendoza sight on my IZH-61 but couldn't get it to go low enough to shoot at 10 meters. My shots were about 2-3 inches too high. With the Mendoza sight adjusted all the way down, the top of the front sight needs to be almost touching the inside of the front sight hood in your sight picture to compensate. Even if I made a front sight that way, it may still be hard to see the target without cutting off the sight hood. I don't know on which rifle I mounted it, and I didn't try it on another one to see if it made a difference. I don't think it had any scope creep. It has two hefty set screws that should hold it pretty tight.

Conclusion
With all the sights, I did not have to remove the gun's stock rear sight. Merely crank it all the way down, and it's out of the way. All the peep sights had good solid construction and were very easy to install and adjust.

I like the construction of all of them; but with my eyesight, the Avanti works best. The Beeman and the Mendoza have larger apertures, so I don't get that much of the "pinhole" effect that sometimes improves focus. I get a fuzzy sight picture with or without glasses. I'm near-sighted. Either the front sight is in focus or the target is, but not both. The Avanti has a smaller aperture, so I can see the sights and target much clearer. But it appears that I'm looking down a tube, and the target looks so much smaller than through the Beeman. With such a small picture of the target, I can't get any precision. Don't look for me on the 2009 competition trail.

IZH-61 Sight Options - Part 1

2009-06-03T05:30:00.005-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

Guest blogger
This is CJr's first guest blog for us, although he's already been very active and helpful by contributing to the blog comments. As many of you know, the IZH-61 is a rifle that any shooter can appreciate and enjoy, and CJr shows us some ways to modify the its open sights.

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

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.

by CJr

I was interested in configuring my IZH-61 rifles with sights that are compatible with competition shooting regulations. I don't intend to use them for competition, just to gain experience shooting with the different optical devices. That means no magnifying lenses are allowed, so I purchased some diopter peep sights to see if they would work for me. I also want to have one IZH-61 configured with a scope for general target practice and plinking. Since I do all of my shooting indoors on a 10-meter range, I must be able to sight in any optical device at that distance.

I have four IZH-61 guns. One is scoped with the UTG BugBuster 6x32 scope, another has a Beeman Sport Aperture sight, the third has a Daisy Avanti Precision diopter sight and the fourth has the original open sight. Here's what the three guns with altered sights look like:

Top to bottom: Beeman Sport Aperture, Daisy Avanti Precision diopter and UTG Bug Buster 6x32.

I tested the Mendoza diopter sight but couldn't get it to compensate for shooting too high. I don't show it here because I returned it to Pyramyd Air and replace it with the Beeman. More on the Mendoza later.

Scoping the rifle
The IZH-61 is a short rifle with a very short scope rail. The only scope that made sense to me was the UTG 6x32AO Bug Buster Compact, and it's an excellent fit when used with the UTG 11mm to Weaver adapter. The Weaver adapter prevented scope creep and allowed me to position the scope further forward, giving me better eye relief. Look at the following picture to see that a shorter scope is necessary, especially if your body requires a shorter pull.

This shows the relative positions of various scopes if they were mounted without the Weaver adapter. The stock of the gun is at its fullest extension. The front scope ring of the Bug Buster (bottom) is positioned just short of the back of the magazine-release button. The other scopes shown are a BSA 4-16x40IR at top (15.5 inches) and a Ruger 4x32 (11.5 inches). The Bug Buster is just 8.25 inches long.

The Weaver mount, because of its construction, lets me position the scope far forward while still giving me access to the magazine-release button.

Note the magazine-release button under the mount overhang. Also note how the scope is all the way forward in the rings in order to move the scope as far forward as possible.

The Weaver adapter's rear mount screw is actually hanging off the back of the gun's scope rail. It's constructed in such a way that tightening it provides a positive grip on the rail, aiding in the prevention of scope creep.

I had to shim the back scope ring to compensate for a lot of barrel droop. In hind sight, I wish I'd used the B-Square 10101 1" Interlock Adjustable Rings. I did use them later on a Daisy Powerline 953 TargetPro with very good results.

Watch for part 2, which will appear in tomorrow's blog.

Hunting prairie dogs

2009-06-02T05:30:00.002-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

The black-tailed prairie dog dominates the Texas Panhandle pasture.

This past week I was in Lubbock, Texas, for two days with the television show filming a prairie dog hunt. We were guided by Jay White, a veteran airgunner who was gracious enough to invite the whole crew onto private land for the hunt. I won't spoil the show by telling you how everything went; but since this was my first time hunting these animals, I would like to give you some of my observations as a newbie.

Different game = different tactics
I have always been a woodland hunter, feeling more at home in the trees and brush than the open lands we encountered in Lubbock. We hunted on an oil patch (flat open land with pumpjacks pumping oil), where cattle graze on open land too poor to sustain even a small herd with anything less than hundreds of acres. The prairie dogs build their mounded holes on such land because it affords them perfect visibility from danger. Imagine no trees, bushes or even tumbleweeds. Just low tufts of coarse grass that the sod poodles seem to love.

Pumpjacks like this are everywhere.

As a result of this empty terrain, the prairie dogs see you coming a long way off and know where you are at all times. There's no such thing as stalking, though I did try walking on a zig-zag indirect line whenever I tried to close in on a particular dog. It was no use, though. They had a network of sentinels set up around the fields to warn them of any suspicious behavior, and apparently I looked like an Eskimo on a nude beach! They bark at you in short whistles that don't let up until you either move away or scare them down their holes.

Prairie dog hole. There's another hole at the upper left.

More power!
The other dynamic of northern Texas is wind. In fact, we passed hundreds of windmill generators on our way up to Lubbock, which sort of gives you the score. It was blowing a constant 15 m.p.h. on the first day of hunting, so some shooting corrections had to be made. If we shot into the wind, our pellets precessed sideways to the right and climbed; if we shot across the wind, we got several feet of drift at 80 yards, which was about as close as those whistle pigs let us get. If we shot downwind, the pellets went pretty straight, but so did our scent! There was no good place to be. I found myself wanting a flat-shooting .204 Ruger instead of the .22 Talon SS that had always seemed so powerful among the trees.

The problem with a powerful centerfire, though, is the houses and roads that ring the fields. Sure, they might be a mile away, but a centerfire can cover that much ground pretty quick. A pellet gun can't shoot that far, so it's the perfect tool--if you can get close enough to use it!

What range?
Another thing that threw me off my game was range estimation. In the woods, I'm usually able to guess within a yard or two out to beyond airgun range, but out in the open I'm lost. I estimated the range to a nearby pumpjack at 180 yards and was stunned when the laser rangefinder pegged it at 249 yards! Or the abandoned truck I felt was maybe 200 yards away until the rangefinder confirmed it was over 430 yards! Clearly, I was not the person to ask!

I mostly watched while others armed with Condors and one Sumatra shot at targets 100 yards away. We bagged a couple cottontails but no dogs to take home on the first morning. That evening, we hunted different land, where the bushes grew to above man height. They enabled us to stalk closer to the holes, and I dropped a dog offhand at 25 yards with the Talon SS. My first shot was low and sprayed sand in his face, so he ducked down the hole. Ten minutes later, he was back up. Shot two went over his head, and he ducked down again. During that time he was down, I walked up to about 25 yards and waited. The third time, I popped him square, and he went down for good.

Our guide dropped a dog that evening with his Sumatra, and the other hunters got shots at dogs as well. We saw plenty of large Texas jackrabbits, but they were always moving too fast to shoot. Often, they ran straight at us until they saw us, then veered away sharply.

The vegetation made this second place more ideal to hunt, for sure. We had planned to call coyotes, too, but a west Texas thunderstorm descended after an hour and ended our hunt abruptly. The rain persisted, making the ground too wet to continue that evening. The next day, we returned to the first place to finish the day. Though we saw a lot of dogs, they remained out of shooting range all day.

The irony was that when we went to lunch, there were prairie dogs on vacant land across the busy city street at less that 50 yards! They knew they were safe there and didn't drop down their holes when people approached.

What I learned
Having never hunted prairie dogs before, I learned that they're difficult to stalk. Most shooting will be long range, so have your most accurate pellet already sighted-in. And choose an airgun that can reach out! I felt hampered with the SS, but the Condors were clearly able to deal with the ranges we needed to shoot. I could have switched to a 24-inch barrel, but I didn't think to bring it with me. Shooting sticks are a must for the longer shots. And a good pair of binoculars are essential for hunting these critters.

Little Bit: Diana No. 0--Were they kidding or what?

2009-06-01T05:30:00.000-05:00

by B.B. Pelletier

I just returned from the Pyramyd Air moving sale and have a few days before I fly out to New York for a week of filming more episodes for The American Airgunner. The moving sale was nothing short of spectacular! Lots of people came out, tons of stuff was sold and John Goff of Crosman flipped a whole bunch of burgers. Things moved so fast, my head was spinning.

I've tapped into a past issue of the Airgun Letter to bring you the Diana No. 0 [zero] rifle, which I have dubbed "Little Bit." I hope you enjoy reading about this fabulous little gun as much as I enjoyed owning it.

It's little, it's light and a six-year-old can cock it. What is it? Well, according to the original paperwork, this tinplate smoothbore sidelever is a Diana Cork-Airgun Number 0. The date stamp on the back of the wooden butt says 9, 50--which is the German manufacture date of September 1950. That makes this little treasure just over 59 years old [of course, when I wrote this in 1996, I said it was 46 years old].

The Diana 0 is a tiny toy-size airgun. It looks harmless, but this little tinplate shoots as powerfully as a full-size Daisy!

The paperwork that came with it says (in German) that the gun was manufactured under license number 77, issued August 9, 1949. It says that it's primarily a cork-firing gun that can also shoot 4.5mm pellets or round balls from three to five meters (9.5 to 16.4 feet) when the extension barrel is installed. There is a 4-1/4" screw-in sleeve that houses a smoothbore seamless brass barrel to adapt the gun to the smaller ammunition. One could unscrew the extension and load from the rear for each shot, I suppose, but I find it much more convenient to load through the muzzle and drive the shot home with an ultra-thin ramrod. Beeman Perfect Rounds are a snug fit in the bore, but they provide the most accuracy and muzzle energy.

The gun measures just 30" long, although it appears much smaller. It weighs--Are you ready?--just under 1.5 lbs.! Yet, even with its Lilliputian size, the Diana Zero is a tiny tiger, throwing steel BBs an average of 213 f.p.s. The large .177 lead balls go just as fast, plus they smack with enough force to pass completely through a thick cardboard barrier. Granted, this is no Philippine monkey gun, but it packs a lot of power into a very small package.

Besides the gun, which is in near-perfect condition, and the original instructions, there’s also one of the original three corks that came with the set. How do I know it's original? Simple--the gentleman from whom I got this little gem was the original owner! He remembers purchasing it for the equivalent of $2 or $3 in a department store in Mexico City in 1954. He bought it for his daughter, but she apparently grew out of BB guns (Can you imagine?), and he wanted to see it go to someone who would appreciate it as he once had.

The strange thing about this story is that I had just seen a slightly different version of this gun, the Diana model 10, at the 1996 Baldwinsville Airgun Show. Until Baldwinsville, I was unaware of a sidelever Diana tinplate. I knew about the model 1 breakbarrel and even the half-tinplate/half-serious model 20 underlever that Dennis Hiller makes so much of in his book, Air Rifles; but Richard Schmidt’s model 10 was the first miniature sidecocker I'd ever laid eyes on.

A week after Baldwinsville, the owner of our subject gun called, and we struck up a conversation that led to my acquiring it. Until it arrived a few days later, I assumed it was really a model 10, and he was simply misreading the model number off the barrel. Now I know better. This IS a different gun; although it's no stretch to imagine that the Zero eventually morphed into the model 10.

The only marks on the gun are these on the metal and the production date stamped into the butt. The later Diana model 10 had the model number stamped into the metal.

Upon close examination of the paperwork and the gun, you can readily discern that this is an early production item. In fact, except for the Diana name and the words "Pat. ang." (patent pending), there are no markings anywhere on the metal parts. It's from the instruction pamphlet, which has two detailed halftone photos of the gun, that the model number is established.

The instructions suggest that corks are for indoors. In that mode, the gun is considered completely safe for children. The backyard or garden is the place to shoot balls or pellets when the extension barrel is installed. Shooting in the street or in the public places is strictly forbidden by the police.

The barrel extension must be screwed in to fire BBs and pellets. Without it, this is a cork gun.

The sidelever incorporates an anti-beartrap safety device, so little fingers can't be pinched if the trigger is inadvertently pulled while the lever linkage is exposed. To fire, the lever must be snug against the stock. That’s not too impressive in a modern airgun; but in a child's post-war tinplate from the 1950s, it's nothing short of incredible! Heck—I KNOW I had a double-barreled cork shooter that would close the barrels smartly by a pull of the trigger.

Sidelever airguns aren't that common, but the Diana Zero is one made of folded metal. It's easy enough for a child to cock, plus it has an anti-beartrap device to protect little fingers.

And the mainspring is light enough that small children can easily cock it. The wonder is that it shoots as hard as it does.

The instructions tell you to cock the gun first, in order to let air pass freely into the compression cylinder in front of the piston. If a ball or cork were in the barrel, there would be no way for air to get past it as the piston is withdrawn. Well, that's the theory. The truth is that this gun is made of folded metal and there are PLENTY of ways for air to get into the compression chamber!

Accuracy is relative. It tends to group its shots inside the same compass quadrant as the barrel orientation. Point it west, and the ball will head toward the setting sun somewhere between the north and south poles. Maybe it groups tighter with corks, but I haven't tried them (and I doubt I ever will).

I have been unable to locate any advertising literature on either the Zero or the model 10 Diana guns (there was also a model 10 target pistol from the '70s, but that's a completely different airgun). They surely don't show up in the common airgun literature. Perhaps, because it also fires corks, this is more of a toy gun, and I have very little resource material for them. I don't know--IS there a popgun/cork gun reference?

I think this gun belongs to the airgun community because of its credible performance with lead BBs, but I doubt there will be much written about it. Does anyone have a 1951 Frankonia Jagd catalog in their collection? Were they even in business then?

Just through inquiries, I turned up another Diana Zero in New Jersey (not for sale), so it isn't a one-off fluke. Still, I think it may be a good bit more scarce than many of the more well-documented, rare Dianas, such as the pre-war Peerless models.

Why write about such a trivial gun? It's simple. If you're a Diana collector, the Zero belongs in the set, as does the model 10. Even though you may never find one, they're a part of the post-war product line. There's always the chance you might encounter one at a toy show or flea market some day. Wouldn't it be nice to know what it is? We're all aware how spotty and incomplete airgun literature is, so here are a couple more paragraphs of the story.