Airblog

Optics for Hunting Airguns

2008-01-26T20:50:00.000-05:00

Optics for Hunting Airguns
Why scope your airgun
An important component of an airgun hunting rig is a quality scope, as this permits you to realize the intrinsic accuracy of the rifle. There are several reasons to consider scoping an air rifle. Magnification, the ability to enhance the target in conditions of low lighting, and fast sight acquisition are all key factors. Most of us can use iron sights on a lever action 30-30 to take a deer-sized animal at 50 yards, but for me to drop a pellet into the small kill zone of a squirrel at 50 yards requires an assist, especially in the dim light of the early dawn or evening hours when much of my hunting occurs.

Selecting a scope
There are a variety of scopes available for every type of gun and shooting, but the airgunner has special needs. Scopes designed specifically for airguns have become widely available in the last few years, offering good to great optical quality over a wide range of price points. The right scope depends on what type of airgun you use; spring piston airguns have a reputation for being scope eaters, especially the big magnum springers. Even those scopes built to go on a magnum centerfire can be shaken to pieces by a small caliber spring piston air rifle. This is because of the direction of the recoil generated when the spring driven piston slams home, causing a strong bidirectional force to be exerted. Heavy magnum firearm scopes are not designed to stand up to this type of recoil, and the internal mechanisms can be jolted out of alignment. This causes the point of impact to shift around rendering the scope unusable. When buying a scope for a springer, make sure you find one rated for this type of gun or you may be in the market for a replacement sooner than expected! Another issue to consider when attaching a scope to a springer is the selection of the right mounts; on a heavy recoiling springer a one piece mount makes sense as the scope is less likely to “walk” back on the dovetails than a conventional two piece set of rings. On these guns you probably want to use a scope stop, which is a small brace that is clamped onto the dovetail, many models have a pin that drops into an indentation on the rail preventing any rearward shift in position.

Pre-charged pneumatics are almost recoilless, so a standard firearm scope will hold up without problems. However, most airgun shooting occurs in the 20 to 50 yard range, and most firearm scopes have their parallax correction set at much greater distances. Airgun hunters tend to shoot smaller targets at closer ranges, conditions where the effect of parallax distortion is much more distinctive and apparent. For this reason many airgun scope makers design in an adjustable parallax correction on their scopes. The shooter looks through the scope and turns the forward or side mounted objective control until the target becomes sharp. At that point, the parallax error has been reduced for that particular target at a given range. I have scopes with sidewheels and lens ring adjustments, and both work if you become used to them. I have had squirrels and other skitterish game slip out of view while fumbling with the adjustment. On the other hand I’ve been shooting prairie dogs and groundsquirrels from a set position where the ability to range find using the AO was a great advantage. So it depends on the shooter and the type of shooting they do.

What's available?
There are several manufacturers that currently have airgun specific offerings on the market; including Tasco, Leupold, BSA, Nikko Stirling and Leapers. I have and use scopes from all these manufacturers, and all make very good products. I have a well over a hundred rifles in my collection, and was looking for a cost effective solution for the problem of keeping several guns scoped and sighted in at the same time. I was tired of having to remount and re-zero scopes as I moved from gun to gun and back again. At a SHOT show a few years ago, I stopped by the Leapers booth and looked at their products, a range of scopes for just about any application. I ordered several, actually a grab bag of twenty scopes, and have been using these (and others) ever since. I agree with the oft heard adage “buy the best scope you can afford”, but at the same time think the Leapers scopes are one of the best values around. I am not as fond of the compact “Bug Buster” scopes, but have had very good experience with all of the large aperture variable mag scopes I’ve used. I have used these scopes on the gun taken to Africa on both my big game and small game guns because I trust the optical quality and robustness of construction (also a cost effective way to carry backups).Regardless of which you choose, there are certain features that are absolutely necessary in a scope destined to ride on the hunting air rifle, and others that may be desired based on your shooting style and intended use. As mentioned, the scope must be designed to stand up to the forces exerted by a spring piston airgun if that is the platform you’ll be mounting it on. The parallax correction must either be set for the ranges at which airguns are used, or allow the shooter to make adjustments when required. Many of the scopes I use can be adjusted from 7 yards to infinity and I find this to be just about the perfect range of control, but be aware it adds one more adjustment parameter to deal with in the field.

Illuminated crosshairs
Since a common use of airguns is to hunt pest and small game, often taking place in low light conditions, the scope must offer excellent light transmission properties. Many of the airgun scopes being offered today are equipped with illuminated crosshairs, which are quite useful in placing a shot when hunting in low light. In the hours of near darkness in the early dawn or late in the day, it is a common occurrence to have the outline of your quarry but are unable to determine where the crosshairs overlay it. An illuminated red or green crosshair glowing over the outline makes the difference between a shoot-no shoot decision in this situation.

What magnification?
For much of the quarry hunted with airguns, the kill zones tend to be quite small and a variable magnification is a useful feature, in my opinion 3-9x or a 3-12x is the best option in most cases. I don’t use very high power magnifications for most hunting duty, because unless you have a very solid rest the crosshairs at 16x magnification tend to shake like you’re in an earthquake! On the other hand, for lower powered guns that will be used primarily for close in pest control a fixed 4x magnification scope works well. This provides adequate magnification, makes shooting accurately inside of dark buildings like a barn or a feed shed easier, and removes the need to give even passing consideration to the magnification setting when preparing to squeeze the trigger.

Scope models coming from various manufacturers come equipped with Mil-dots, which are a series of dots aligned vertically and horizontally (usually at one mil from dot center to dot center) along the cross hair (Mil dots have been well covered in earlier blog entries. These mil dots can be used to range find if the hunter knows the right formula to apply and the size of their target, but this is somewhat complicated to work out when hunting. I use a laser range finder as it is quicker, easier, and more accurate. But when sighting in my gun I work out which mildot to use at 20, 40, and 60 yards and use the mil-dot and laser range finder en concert to determine shot placement in the field.

Finding a scope
I would suggest that when you get ready to purchase a scope for your air rifle that you consider the platform and the intended use, then take a look online at what’s available.. While you may find an airgun rated scope at your local gun shop, the selection will most probably be fairly limited. I also think that if you want a good quality glass the is a great value, you should take a look at the scopes offered by Leapers.

Jim

Got a new tank

2008-01-22T22:18:00.000-05:00

I purchased a Warthog carbon fiber tank from Airhog about two months ago, and have been using it extensively ever since. I am really impressed with both the volume of air and the number of high pressure refills this compact little tank offers up.

Where does the Warthog fit in?
I have been using an even smaller carbon fiber tank that was a predecessor of the Pigmee tank (also purchased from Van about 4 years ago) and an 80 cu ft steel tank to keep my guns charged ….. the warthog is a perfect compromise between the two. I still use the mini bottle in my day pack when out hunting, especially with big bores, but only use the steel tank in my basement range now. The Warthog has become my general use tank, and I plan to take it along in a couple weeks when I head out to Nevada to hunt before the shot show.

How does it compare to my other tanks?
The Warthog is a 4500 psi carbon fiber tank holding 17 cu ft and weighs a bit over 8lb when filled yet provides more fully rated charges than the 80 cu ft steel tank. Before I bought this tank I reckoned I’d use it as a back up tank, but based the last couple months experience I’m going to get rid of my remaining steel tank and buy another Warthog. It’s nice to have a tank that I can empty out and pack in my bag when flying to a hunt location, and find that I have more than enough air for a weekend of plinking and rabbit hunting.. I also appreciate not breaking my back lugging a steel tank from site to site.

Fittings
My tank is configured with the Swivel Microbore Hose and a female foster fitting. I like this setup better than the short braided hose used on my other tanks, as I find it easier to maneuver the gun when filling. Anybody else had any experience with these tanks?

Closing Thoughts

These smaller carbon tanks are a bit expensive when compared to steel or alum, but they have everything going for them; they are tough, high fill pressure and air capacity, they are light weight and based on flights all over north America, Europe, and Africa they seem to stand up well to the rigours of travel.

Jim

Airgun cure for cabin fever

2007-12-16T10:50:00.000-05:00

One of the things I really like about airguns, is the ability to shoot them just about anywhere. My office is built in the large finished basement in my house. From my desk to the target cabinet at the other end is 10 meters. This requires shooting across the office and through the exercise room, but all the gym equipment is positioned so it won’t interfere.

The terminal end of this little indoor range is a 3’ x 4’ cabinet that is 16” deep. A lower and upper shelf has been left for storage of targets, pellets, and other odds and ends. The middle section is roughly 2’x3’, and is backed by a 1/4” sheet of steel plate. I purchased a number of cardboard boxes that fits the space perfectly, and when filled with plumbers putty is good for a few hundred shots, occasionally patching it up with duct tape. When the box starts to get torn up too badly, I dump the putty into a new box and start over again. The clip from a clipboard is taped at the top and bottom of the box and used to attach targets. Under shelf lighting is built in, and really makes the targets pop.

My desk is large, and stored underneath in a chest is a rest with a sandbag that sets up quickly and unobtrusively when needed. I’ve also got a chronograph with a light source on a cart that rolls into the utility room when not in use. This little mini range is typically used for initial sighting in of new rifles, measuring pellet velocities, more or less the preparatory work before moving outdoors and shooting at longer range. But on weekends like this, with snow storms blowing it has been a lot of fun going downstairs with a box of reactive targets (animal crackers) to shoot at off hand. OK, 10 meter plinking isn’t that challenging, but my feeling is any shooting is fun and that the more you shoot the better you are when it’s time to hunt. After a day and a half of shooting several guns while the storms continued to blow, I’ve finally run out of air. I either need to go to the garage and grab the spare tank or switch to springers for awhile!

Like to hear how you guys have set up your indoor ranges, always looking for new ideas!

2007-12-09T23:52:00.000-05:00

The Prairie Falcon: One of my all time favorite hunting guns!

I’ve been shooting the PF25 for a couple of years now, and have used the gun for everything from starlings to groundhogs with great success. My rifle is a.22 caliber, and when I head out to the squirrel woods with four of the rotary magazines loaded up with eight shots each, I’m geared up for a days outing. If I’m going to go out after prairie dogs in a very target rich environment I’ll carry a Pigmee bottle and a tin of pellets I’m then good for as long as I want to shoot, never running out of air or ammo!

The PF25 is my go to rifle, it is as accurate as any hunting rifle I’ve ever shot and more accurate than most. The rifle is perfectly balanced and the ergonomics are great. The walnut stock with its adjustable butt pad fits like it was built for me. The right handed stock has a well shaped cheekpeice, which along with the perfectly shaped checkered pistol grip gives a consistent hold on the rifle from any shooting position. This is a key aspect of a great hunting gun in my opinion; you never know what position you’ll have to shoot from in the field. The gun is highly reliable and cycles flawlessly.

I’ve recently mounted a Nikko Stirling Platnum series 6-24x52 scope with AO, in BKL medium profile two piece mounts. This turned out to be a great gun/scope combo! I took it to my back yard range and sighted in at 40 yards (where I sight in all my pcps) using JSB Exacts, and stacked pellet on top of pellet.

Last week I took the gun out to a local farm, and was doing some long distant sniping at pigeons. I was set up about 50 yards from a feed bin where the birds would drift in and eat then fly away. Until I got there! Was able to consistently drop birds from 50 to 80 yards away, and put 11 on the ground before the end of the session.

Airhog carries the complete line of Falcons, both the Classic and Prairie Falcons, and if you’re in search of a pcp for hunting I’d suggest you consider this gun. I have been a customer here for several years, back when Van had the company based in Texas. My first contact was to buy a carbon fiber tank (which is another must have), but man oh man when I got to shoot the PF25 I fell in love with it. Due to the soft dollar and ever more restrictive laws in the UK, these guns will get more expensive and less available, if you want a superb hunting rifle now is the time

My First Post On Airblog

2007-11-23T16:20:00.000-05:00

I’ve been given the opportunity to contribute to the Airblog, and though this is new territory for me presents an opportunity I am looking forward to. I’ll start out by telling you a bit about myself, which will help understand my perspective as I post on various aspects of the airgunning world.

I’ve been involved with shooting and hunting using all types of airguns for the last thirty years. While not a serious target or field target shooter, I spend a lot of time on the bench shooting springers, pcs, and the odd CO2 gun for quantitative results. One of the things I love about airguns is that I have a 15 yard indoor range and a 50 yard outdoor range at my house, and get to spend a lot of time behind the trigger. I write about airguns and have a pretty constant flow of new guns to try out, and from time to time I consult with airgun companies and manufacturers on a marketing or design concept.

My real forte is as a hunter; I travel to many destinations to hunt all manner of small game and varmint with my air rifles. While I enjoy using springers and will continue to employ them in the field and carry them as back up guns on my travels, I honestly spend a lot more time with pcps these days.

The reasons I like to hunt with airguns are varied; they are accurate, powerful enough but with a limited carrying range, and quiet. This opens up a lot of new territory to hunt close to home, and as mentioned it’s possible to get in a lot of practice without having to travel to the range. Both of these are important factors for me, as between a busy professional and family life free time is a precious commodity. It’s probably the same for most of us these days, but it is practical for me living in suburbia to shoot and hunt several times in a week with airguns, which would not be possible any other way.

Over the coming weeks I’ll write about airguns, gear, pellet selection, hunting techniques, and quarry. I look forward to having an ongoing dialog with the readers of the Airblog!

The Wind Reader

2007-03-06T14:09:00.000-05:00

by Harley Ayre

You can shoot your air rifle better in almost any windy situation with a gadget you can make yourself for the princely sum of about a dollar.

What you need is a "wind reader." Making a one for yourself is incredibly simple. Go to an electronics supply store and purchase a small package of heavy duty releasable cable ties that are at least 5-6 inches long. Wrap one around the barrel or the underlever of your air rifle near the muzzle. Mount it so that it sticks out to the opposite side from your scope eye. The cable tie must be tight enough that the "arm" will stay put when placed in a horizontal position, but loose enough that you can rotate it straight up or straight down to slip into a gun case.

Next, fasten a few inches (perhaps half at foot at first) of yarn to the end of the cable tie (it helps to drill a hole in the cable tie before you start). Any color yarn, so long as you can see it easily, will do.

When the wind is calm, the yarn hangs straight down. But as the wind begins to rise, the yarn moves away from the vertical. The stronger the wind, the more the yarn moves away from vertical. Notice this: the wind reader shows both the strength and the direction of the wind. Notice, too, that if the wind is quartering -- coming, for example, from the right and partly behind the shooter -- the only thing the yarn shows from the shooter’s point of view at the controls is the amount of left-right wind that must be compensated for.

Reading the wind reader takes some practice. If you are shooting as close as 10 yards, look at the yarn close to where it attaches to the cable tie. Except under extreme conditions, you’ll see very little deflection in the yard, and therefore you probably can shoot dead-on.

But as the range to the target increases, you need to look further down the yarn, perhaps a couple of inches down at 20 yards. So if the yarn swings out an inch to the left, you might need to hold an inch to the left of the center of the target. At 30 yards, check perhaps 3 inches down the yarn; at 40 yards, 4 inches, and so forth.

Now, here’s the tricky part: you’ll have to figure out for yourself how the deflection of the yarn relates to the deflection of pellets from your gun. If you’re shooting a slow air rifle, you will have to hold off more at any given range than if you were shooting a fast one. To begin calibrating the wind reader for your gun, it’s helpful to mentally divide the yarn into thirds for close, medium and long range.

Once you become accustomed to it, I think you’ll agree that the wind reader is a slick system for shooting better under windy conditions.

Setting up a Mil-Dot Scope

2007-02-20T14:20:00.000-05:00

by Harley Ayre

Compared to most firearms, airguns shoot loopy trajectories. For example, an air rifle shooting 820 fps, with a sight height of 1.5 inches, and zeroed at 15.5 yards, will show a pellet drop of nearly two inches at 50 yards, 2.74 inches at 55 yards, 4.2 inches at 60 yards, and so forth.

So what's the best way of putting a pellet that follows a loopy trajectory in the kill zone at an unknown range? Field target shooters manage the trick by using a high-magnification scope with adjustable objective. The shooter focuses the scope precisely on the target and reads the distance to the target off the bell of the scope. Using that information, the shooter then adjusts the elevation knob of the scope to compensate for the rise or drop in the pellet at that exact range.

The problem with the range-find-with-the-scope/knob-adjustment system -- other than it can be very time-intensive to get it set up well -- is that it can be completely defeated by simply returning the elevation knob to zero in the wrong direction. It's really, really annoying when it happens, and all of your subsequent shots will be off until you figure out what happened.

But there is a way to get the job done while avoiding knob-twisting: by using a mil-dot scope. The mil-dot reticle scope was originally designed for the military to allow snipers to estimate the range more accurately. What makes the mil-dot reticle so useful to airgunners is that the crosshairs, plus the dots above and below the crosshairs, give you multiple different elevation aiming points that you can use to compensate for the trajectory at a given range.

It's easy to adapt the mil-dot reticle for use with an airgun. Start by zeroing the scope on the crosshairs at the zero range you prefer; say 20 yards (see the blog on Optimum Point Blank Zero). Once you are satisfied that the pellets are hitting where they should, move to 15 yards and trigger another shot, using the same point of aim. Now look through the scope again, carefully centered the crosshairs on your original point of aim. You'll see that the pellet shot from 15 yards has landed between the crosshairs and one of the mil-dots above or below the crosshairs. This is your new point of aim for 15 yards. Mark the 15-yard aim point on a picture of a mil-dot reticle (you can print one off the Internet or draw one by hand). Repeat the process at 5 yard intervals, and soon you will have mapped out all the points of aim for the distances you plan to shoot at. If you have a variable-power scope, be sure to use the scope at the same power at which you mapped your aiming points. Otherwise, you may miss because the relative distance between dots changes with the magnification on most mil-dot scopes.

To put the mil-dot to use in a practical situation, all you need to know is the range to the target (To find that, you can estimate the range, use your scope to range-find, or ping the target with a laser range-finder). Next, look at your chart to see which aiming point you use for that range, and you're good to go. It's just that easy.

Optimum Point Blank Zero

2007-02-06T13:35:00.000-05:00

by Harley Ayre

Want to get maximum usefulness out of your airgun with minimum aiming hassle? Here's a concept that is extremely useful: Optimum Point Blank Zero.

What is Optimum Point Blank Zero? It's the fine art of zeroing your air rifle or air pistol at the range that will give you the greatest span of ranges at which a directly aimed shot will produce a point of impact close enough to "get the job done." Getting the job done, of course, might involving knocking down a field target, taking small game, or something else.

So, for example, suppose you have an air rifle that launches pellets at 820 fps and the sight height is 1.5 inches (from the center of the sight to the center of the bore), and you decide that it will be acceptable if your pellets land within a .25-inch radius of your aiming point . . . then if you zero your sights at 33.2 yards, all shots from 11.2 yards to 36.9 yards will land within a quarter-inch of point blank if you are shooting correctly. That's a range of 25 yards where all you have to do is point and shoot. Is that cool, or what?

As they say in the infomercials: "But wait, there's more!" Suppose you decide that it would be satisfactory if your shots landed within a half-inch radius of your point of aim. If you zero at 38.6 yards, you get a range of 34.4 yards (from 7.5 to 43.9 yards) in which you can point and shoot.

Now, I can almost guess what you're thinking: "Optimium Point Blank Zero sounds great, but how am I going to figure it out for my rig?" The short answers: you don't have to! Just go to www.airgunexpo.com/calc/calc_opbz.cfm, and you’ll find a neat online calculator, devised by Steve in NC, that will figure it out for you. Just plug in the sight height, muzzle velocity, and vital zone radius, push the CALCULATE button, and it will produce a chart that tells you what you need to know.

There is also a very slick online demo of Optimum Point Blank Zero at www.arld1.com/trajectorypbr2.html. There you can play with different variables (sight height, vital zone radius, muzzle velocity and ballistic coefficient) to see how they have an effect on the point blank range.

Optimum Point Blank Zero is a very powerful concept. Once your airgun is set up for it, it’s a tremendous confidence builder and aid to shooting more accurately.

The Talon: A real PCP bargain!

2006-12-29T05:30:00.000-05:00

by Harley Ayre

I get lots of questions from shooters who want to break into PCPs guns but are concerned about the high prices. Well, I've tested the heck out of the AirForce Talon, and I can recommend it to anyone! No, I don't mean the Talon SS. That's the quiet rifle with the shrouded 12" barrel. It's a great air rifle, too, but I want to talk about the Talon today.

Basic specifications
The Talon is the least expensive AirForce rifle. It has an 18" barrel and comes in both .177 and.22 calibers. Because all AirForce airguns feature rapid barrel changing, you can swap the caliber or the length of your barrel in about five minutes. The Talon is lightweight, at just 5.5 lbs. The reservoir, which also serves as the rifle's buttstock, comes off in seconds, making the gun very transportable in a small package.

The 18" barrel
Let's consider the barrel that comes with the rifle for a moment. At 18", it delivers higher velocity than the 12" barrel on the Talon SS. The muzzle energy potential for a .22 caliber Talon climbs up over 30 foot-pounds when heavy pellets are used. And that's great because the 21-grain Beeman Kodiak is wonderfully accurate in this rifle. The best pellet by far is the 16-grain JSB Exact, and Beeman Field Target Specials are no slouch, either.

Power adjustability
All AirForce air rifles have a power adjustment wheel, but on the Talon it's notable. The 18" barrel gives you tremendous adjustability. Not only does the top end go higher with this barrel, the bottom end also goes lower, and with more consistency! The Talon is more adjustable than the SS, unless you install either the 18" or 24" optional barrel on the SS. Fine velocity variations in the middle ranges are also possible.

Noise
The Talon is not loud like the Condor, but it's louder than the Talon SS. When you dial back the power so the pellet moves as fast as the SS at its top speed, the difference on sound level isn't that great. And, on low power with the pellet squirting out at 450 f.p.s., the Talon is positively a whisper!

Accuracy
Let's clear this up right now - a long barrel does not increase accuracy - at least not with airguns (it may help with primitive black powder rifles). On some guns that have both the front and rear sights mounted to the barrel a longer barrel increases the sight separation, making it easier to sight with precision, but all the AirForce air rifles must either be scoped or mounted with AirForce open sights that attach to the frame instead of the barrel. So, a longer barrel contributes nothing to the sighting precision.

On a calm day, you can expect to shoot groups under one inch in size, center to center, at 50 yards. If your gun doesn't do that for some reason, clean the barrel with JB Non-Embedding Bore Cleaning Compound on a brass brush. Starting from the breech, run the brush through the barrel. Go 20 times in both directions, then remove all traces of cleaning compounds with dry patches. That will restore your barrel to top accuracy.

Since I mentioned the AirForce open sights, I must say that they are one of the few accessories I don't care for. They're fiberoptic and extremely adjustable, but a scope brings out so much more potential accuracy that I see no reason to get the open sights.

Bipod
After a scope, a bipod is the number one accessory an AirForce airgun buyer purchases. There's good reason, too. Besides shooting stability, the bipod also makes it easy to set the rifle down almost anywhere. It acts as a portable rifle stand. Folded up for offhand shooting, it stays out of the way and is so light that it adds next to no weight to the gun. If you buy any AirForce air rifle, plan on getting a bipod, too, at some time.

AirForce sells a lot more SSs and Condors than straight Talons, but that's not a reflection on the rifle. In fact, the Talon is the best deal in the whole AirForce lineup! If you shop prices, you'll soon discover that it's a pretty good deal for all PCPs, as well.

The differences between carbon fiber tanks and fiberglass tanks

2006-12-15T05:30:00.000-05:00

by Harley Ayre

Before we begin, I want to thank all of you who responded to last week's survey. Your answers were thorough and enlightening. The folks at Airhog read them and will be thinking of ways they can better meet your needs.

Let's look at two similar air tank technologies - carbon fiber and fiberglass. They seem very similar, and they are in some respects; but there are also some important differences you should be aware of.

Hydrostatic test
All high-pressure vessels over 2" in outside diameter are periodically tested by hydrostatic test. The purpose of the test is to determine if the vessel has been work-hardened through expansion and contraction. If it has, it is condemned and cannot be filled by a dive shop. For aluminum and steel tanks, the hydro is the final word, unless a fill station spots an obvious flaw during an annual visual inspection. The common hydro schedule is every five years, though there are exceptions.

The age of the tank
But fiberglass and carbon fiber tanks are different than metal tanks. The U.S. tanks do have an aluminum reservoir inside (called a bladder), but it's reinforced by tight wrappings of either fiberglass or carbon fiber. The wrapping gives strength to the tank, and both fiberglass and carbon fiber tanks can be pressurized to either 300 bar (4351 psi) or 310.3 bar (4,500 psi). These tanks also require a hydro test, but they have a definite lifetime, as well. After 15 years from the date of manufacture (when they received their first hydro), carbon fiber and fiberglass tanks are condemned. That is different than aluminum or steel tanks, whose lifetime depends only on the results of the hydro.

Look at the date!
Refill stations have their personnel trained to read the date stamps on all air tanks. They know when a tank is supposed to be filled and when it isn't. An old aluminum or steel tank can be out of hydro and require another test before it can be filled again, but a fiberglass or carbon fiber tank can be condemned on the basis of the date, alone. It is possible, though highly unlikely, that a fiberglass or carbon fiber tank could have never been used one time and still be condemned because of its date of manufacture. That makes a big difference to you, because there are some places selling tanks with a lot less than their full life remaining.

Learn to read the date!
Here's a brief explanation of all the information found on a typical carbon fiber tank. A fiberglass tank would have similar information. Unlike aluminum and steel tanks that have this information stamped into the metal of the tank, fiberglass and carbon fiber tanks have stickers permanently attached under the clear coat of the tank. It will look like the sample shown below.

The label on a carbon fiber tank contains a lot of information relating to the testing of the tank. Fiberglass tanks have similar labels.

Here is the problem
Fiberglass air tanks are an older technology. Once carbon fiber came to market, it had a weight advantage that made fiberglass tanks unpopular, and they were soon replaced. A fiberglass tank weighs as much as 75 percent more than a carbon fiber tank of the same capacity. Emergency services that use the tanks want them to be as light as possible, so fiberglass fell out of favor. They are just as strong as carbon fiber tanks, but they're so heavy that the market for them collapsed.

Therefore, you may find a brand new fiberglass tank with very little life remaining. This is common, in fact, because fiberglass tanks are difficult to sell. Emergency services that were once their biggest users now buy only carbon fiber tanks, so a lot of fiberglass tanks never sold originally. They are now popping up for sale, so you need to assess the life they have remaining if you're interested in buying one.

Carbon fiber tanks should also be inspected with this in mind. They continue to be made, so you are unlikely to find one that has sat on the shelf for years. There are used tanks for sale everywhere. Find out how much life remains before you buy! At Airhog, all tanks are fresh and new, or you will be told their age before you buy.

I'm asking YOU!

2006-11-30T05:30:00.000-05:00

by Harley Ayre

This will be a different kind of blog. Instead of me telling you about some aspect of airgunning, I want to ask your opinions about some important things.

Calibers
There are four smallbore calibers: .177, .20, .22 and .25. There are lots of PCPs in .177 and .22 but a lot fewer in .25. And .20 caliber is pretty rare. Why is that, and what is your favorite airgun caliber? If you have more than one, tell me all of them and what you use them for. Do you have any interest in calibers larger than .25?

Fill pressures
The most common fill pressure these days is 3,000 psi, which is 206 bar. But is that the best pressure? A few German guns now have a maximum fill of 300 bar, or 4,350 psi. BSA has some rifles with a 250 bar maximum fill. On the other end of the spectrum, the American-made US FT rifle uses a maximum fill of 1,800 psi to get 60 shots of 10.5-grain Crosman Premiers at 900 f.p.s. So, the pressure can go either way. Do you wish it would go in a certain direction and can you tell me why you want that?

Regulators
You probably know what regulators do, so do you want one in an airgun? If you don't know, a regulator drops the air pressure in the reservoir to a lower pressure. It then fills a firing chamber with lower-pressure air. The firing valve is tuned to the lower air pressure. As long as it's available, the valve functions the same from shot to shot. Do you want one of these, or do you just want a gun that has lots of shots with very little velocity variation from shot to shot?

Repeaters
How important is having more than one shot? Do you actually use this feature (or wish you could) or does it just sound better than a single-shot? There are tradeoffs with all repeaters. Usually, the feed mechanism dictates what pellets can and cannot be used. Sometimes it limits the length of the pellet, while other times it restricts the type of nose the pellet can have. Today's repeaters are almost as accurate as single-shots, so accuracy isn't the objection it once was, but a repeater can jam if the pellets don't feed smoothly. That fact can limit your pellet choices, too. So, how important is the repeating function to you?

Size and weight
Do you want a big, heavy rifle or a small, lightweight one? You probably know that the longer the barrel the more efficient the airgun. Is that more important, or is a portable, lightweight gun what you want? Are exotic materials like titanium worth the extra cost to keep the weight low?

Materials and finishes
Is a highly polished wood and metal gun with deep bluing important, or do you want a matte black or camouflage finish on your airgun? Is figured wood more important than a stable stock made of fiberglass? Does the use of engineering plastic matter? What about aluminum?

Pellets
Do you like using diabolo pellets, or do you wish airguns could use solid bullets, instead? What is the greatest distance you usually shoot? How accurate do you want to be at that distance?

Accessories
Besides a scope, what are the most important accessories? Bipod? Night vision? Laser rangefinder? Pellet holder? Scope with digital imaging/video capability? Visible laser? You tell me.

Anything else?
Have I left anything out? Is there some other feature you would like to see, or one you wish would go away? I'm trying to learn how good today's crop of airguns is and what improvements are needed to make them better. You are the only ones who know the answer to that.

Air Arms S200!

2006-11-15T05:30:00.000-05:00

by Harley Ayre

How many of you are sitting on the fence, wanting to get into precharged airguns but afraid of what you don't know and all the extra equipment you have to buy? Well, let's look at a true alternative to the more expensive PCPs: the Air Arms S200.

Developed by talented amateurs!
Unlike the other precharged rifles, the S200 was not developed by an airgun manufacturer. It was created right here in the United States by a talented group of field target enthusiasts who wanted to see what was possible when you started with a good CO2 target rifle. The Tau 200 from Brno was turned into a precharged rifle by simply modifying the firing valve of the CO2 target rifle to work with air. At the time (the late 1990s), the Tau 200 sold for a very good price. Those were the days before the euro was established, and the dollar began slipping against it in international trade.

Even today, you can still see the target rifle beginnings in the S200. The target profile in the buttstock is suited to offhand shooting, and the scope mount dovetails are very short because a 10-meter target rifle doesn't use a scope. Still, the butt also happens to work well for a shooter in the classic field target seated position, and the scope mounting points are adequate to do the job because the gun doesn't recoil. The trigger was already good because of the target rifle's beginnings, so nothing was lost.

Good business sense!
What Air Arms did was capitalize on a very good idea and had the rifle built to their own specifications. The result was what you see here - a low-priced precharged rifle that still has accuracy, a good trigger and reasonable power. That's not all!

Lower operating pressure
The S200 uses a fill of 190 bar instead of the normal 206 bar. In psi, that's 2,755 psi, instead of 3,000. If you have never filled a precharged rifle using a hand pump, 2,750 is a lot easier to achieve than 3,000. If you plan on using a scuba tank, you'll get many more full fills from a gun that tops out at a pressure lower than 3,000. As a veteran of both hand pump and scuba operations, I can tell you that the small air reservoir on the S200 means a lot less work for every fill. You will get closer to one shot per pump stroke with this rifle than you will with a gun with a huge air reservoir, such as the Talon from AirForce. Your scuba tank will be drained a lot slower, too! That's still not all!

Comes in .177 AND .22!
Although the S200 started out as a field target rifle, it wasn't long before people began thinking of other uses for it. Like hunting. Because of the straightforward design of the rifle, it is very possible to adjust the power output somewhat. In .22 caliber, it's possible to get the gun up to around 20 foot-pounds, give or take with heavier pellets. Here's why that's a very important fact for those of you who haven't yet bought a precharged rifle.

You've probably read a lot of things about shooters wanting more power and guns being designed to give it to them. You don't really need that power if you know what you're doing. Several years ago in Airgun Illustrated magazine, there were articles by two guys in California who hunted pest pigeons for farmers. They were taking dozens of pigeons with one-shot kills at distances up to a measured 58 yards. They shot rifles that developed only 6-7 foot-pounds at the muzzle! No doubt, these guys were excellent shots and certainly knew their guns, but that's my point. The S200 is a rifle capable of up to nearly 20 foot-pounds in .22 caliber and 14 foot-pounds in .177. Even that's not all!

The barrel
Lothar Walther is a good barrel maker, make no mistake, but the Czechs are world-renowned for their barrels, too. Remember, this rifle started out life as a 10-meter target rifle. Sure, they turned up the fire in the boiler, but that barrel is still as precise as it was when the gun was made to win matches. In fact, that's the main reason the American shooters chose it in the first place.

So, fence-sitters, the holiday season is upon us and here is an attractive and affordable alternative to the more expensive precharged rifles. It has power, accuracy and easy filling to its credit. For an entry-level gun, that's quite a lot.

Oiling pellets is not straightforward!

2006-10-31T05:30:00.000-05:00

by Harley Ayre

Oiling pellets is a subject all shooters of precharged pneumatics (PCP) know about. When I came into the PCP fold in the middle 1990s, it was explained to me that spring guns are constantly blowing their piston lube through the transfer port in small quantities, so you never have to lube them. That turned out to be not entirely correct, because whenever Crosman Premiers get above 900 f.p.s., they start to deposit lead in the bore. But that was the explanation I received.

Why lube PCP pellets at all?
In sharp contrast, a PCP doesn't blow any oil into the barrel. So, if you want oil there, you'll have to put it there yourself. The most common way is by oiling the pellets. Before we go there, a word about the necessity of oiling at all. You may not need to! I say "may" because a lot depends on the velocity at which you shoot and the barrel you shoot through. Some barrels want oiled pellets for best accuracy, while others I've seen did not. A dry pellet going 850 f.p.s. or less isn't going to lead the bore unless that particular bore is very rough to begin with. The Lothar Walther barrels used in AirForce rifles and Falcons are quite smooth and can do well without oiling.

That said, however, I have seen some Lothar Walther barrels that did prefer oiled pellets. This is a very individual thing that each shooter must determine for his own airguns. Then, there are times when oiling is just generally a good idea, such as the aforementioned Premiers in any caliber going faster than 900 f.p.s. How about a Condor cranked up to shoot a JSB Exact at 1150? That kind of velocity always needs oil if you don't want to clean the barrel every 50-100 rounds.

What to use
Over the years, airgunners have had a major debate about what lubes work best in PCPs. It's gone from the ridiculous to the comedic, as one guru will recommend his potion and claim that several others will actually damage your airgun! Kinda like a presidential election year! Now, Airhog has their own proprietary pellet lube, and it's more than just oil - it's an entire system. If I were just getting started in this game, that's probably the way I'd go, because who knows what's really right. At least from Airhog you know they will back what they sell.

What NOT to use
Stay away from petroleum-based lubricants for safety's sake. They won't harm your bore, but if some should get into your reservoir (transferred by an oily hand during filling), you have just created a fuel/air bomb!

How much to use
I think this is far more important than what you use, as long as it's safe. I have seen airgunners pick up pellets that actually dripped oil as they loaded them into their airguns, and I have seen other airgunners who opened the pellet tin and whispered the word "Oil" inside! Accuracy didn't seem to be the issue. Those who used a lot of oil seemed to have guns that needed repairs more often. The repairs seemed to be needed in the bolt and valve region, so I'm attributing that to over-oiling. It may not be correct, but that's how I've seen it.

Another consideration is that oil attracts and holds dirt. Use a lot of it and you will have to clean your airgun more often and more methodically. You'll also have to be careful when handling it, because I have seen over-oiled airguns actually slip from the hands of their owners. Okay, that last example happened to me during a field target match, but it's still valid.

I hope I've cleared up some of the questions you may have about oiling pellets. If not, please drop me a comment.

Play safe!

2006-10-13T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

No matter how long you've been shooting, it's never wrong to discuss safety, so today I thought I'd review some oddball situations you may not have thought about.

Range safety
Just because they're quiet doesn't mean they don't hurt!
This one falls into the realm of bizarre. A field target match is one of the quietest shooting events you will ever see. Golf sounds like a riot compared to FT. And, shooters get lazy because they aren't hearing the sounds of gun discharges. I have seen shooters walk downrange in the middle of a match to fix a stuck target without announcing their intentions! At my FT club, we usually shut down both adjacent lanes and sometimes more whenever someone has to go downrange. No one moves until the line is cold!

Gun handling!
A gun is always loaded until you prove that it isn't! I have seen people cock airguns then, realizing they weren't supposed to do that, put the muzzle on their shoe and pull the trigger! I once saw a man hold his hand over the muzzle to catch the pellet when it came out! He said the rifle had a weak mainspring, and it wouldn't even hurt. I bet it did in the emergency room when the surgeon had to remove the pellet from his hand!

More gun handling!
Watch that muzzle! And watch where others point their muzzles! I once saw a guy take a pellet in the side of his head at a gun show because three tables away some guy was engrossed in trying to make a sale and he, "Didn't know the gun was loaded!" Fortunately, he wasn't demonstrating an AirForce Condor, or he might have faced manslaughter charges instead of a minor lawsuit.

Still more gun handling!
Keep your gol-darned finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot! I know people who habitually hold their finger on the trigger of every gun they handle. One of them just shot himself in the forearm with a .22 caliber Korean air rifle! That's the equivalent of being hit by a .22 short! The pellet went 6" up his arm.

Goofy repairs
A man told me he was attempting to unsolder a Benjamin CO2 pistol using a propane torch to melt the solder. Well, he unsoldered it all right. The gun blew up and disassembled itself very quickly. You see, CO2 doesn't like 400 degree temperatures, and he left a full powerlet in the gun while he did the work!

And the winner is...!
The moron who filled his precharged air rifle with medical oxygen! Yeah, it's cheap when you "borrow" it from the hospital where you work, and yeah, it's available at real high pressures. But it's OXYGEN, folks! Oxygen is the No. 1 supporter of combustion, which is why our Darwin awardee was seeing a blue flame at the muzzle every time he shot! He was just shots away from needing the services of his employer when it was patiently explained to him that what he was doing wasn't such a bright idea. The real irony of the whole thing is that this guy was an orderly who was responsible for enforcing safe practices on the ward where he worked. DUH!

I got a million of 'em, but these should have proved my point. We airgunners have a pretty good track record going for us. Please don't spoil it by becoming my next anecdote!

Fittings and adapters

2006-09-29T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

If you already shoot precharged airguns, you know something about adapters. But, if you're looking to get into PCPs, adapters may be your biggest concern. Let's take a look at the situation.

Very few standards
If automobiles were built to the same lack of industry standards as precharged airguns, we'd all be riding horses! Only the military has screwed up the standards for fuel-filling nozzles to the same extent. NATO once needed 14 different fuel nozzles to accommodate all the different members' fuel tanks! Those days are (hopefully) over, but imagine if you couldn't put a gas nozzle in your car's filler opening because it was either too large or required a keyed connection to open the hose! Well, that's pretty much the story with today's PCP filler devices. There are standards - every maker has one - and very few of them interconnect.

I can remember 10 years ago when this was a serious problem. There were scads of little dealers selling guns they knew nothing about. When pressed for info about how to connect their guns to a scuba tank, many of them simply went out of business instead of seeing the thing through. That set the stage for Van Jacobi to start Airhog.

Mister adapter
When I first met Van, he was preaching standardization for PCP refill sets. When nobody listened, he took matters into his own hands and started supplying all the connectors he knew people needed to make things work. I saw him at the Rendezvous at Standing Stone (a big bore airgun shoot in Pennsylvania), where he had a trailer loaded with a compressor, scuba tanks and a chest full of the most exotic bits and pieces of hydraulica and pneumatica anyone could hope for. You could have showed up with a Norwegian Troll-Thunder Fifty, and Van would have had the lefthand twist 39.5mm tapered Whitworth fitting (with Teflon compression seals!) you needed to connect to the world. Perhaps I exaggerate slightly, but I never saw anyone stump him.

A very special page
Van is an airgun dealer, of course, but airgunners also know he's THE man when it comes to special fittings and adapters. Allow me to introduce you to a very special page on this website - the Fittings and Adaptors page Let's look at a few of the more than 100 special fittings he offers. My favorite is the scuba adapter. Van didn't invent it as far as I know, but Airhog is one of the few places that still offers it. What is it? Well, you may not know this, but in the world of pneumatic airguns, our kind of PCPs are in the minority! That's right. There are probably at least 10 to 20 target airguns for every sporting PCP in existence. And, they all use a DIN adapter, because they got their act together from the start. The majority of hand pumps are made with DIN holes in their bases. This adapter screws into that hole and makes the pump work like a scuba tank that will accept any refill device that needs a K-valve. Of course, this adapter will also screw into a DIN scuba tank valve and turn it into a K-valve.

Another special adapter is the firehouse adapter that you use to fill your carbon fiber tanks. Fire stations have a CGA 347 fitting on their compressors, but your carbon fiber tank has a 300 bar DIN inlet. This adapter connects the two.

I could go on and talk about all the other fittings on that page and many that aren't shown, but that's a waste of time. Don't think of it that way. Think of it as a phone call to Airhog. You tell them what you want to do, and they will assemble the special set of connectors that take you from A to B.

They don't just put parts together, they also fabricate entire refill sets, so don't miss the opportunity to add special touches like a microbore hose that conserves your air. When you bleed the connection to disconnect your refill device, you have to waste some air. A microbore hose cuts that to a minimum.

Once you have the adapters you need to fill your airguns, you cease to worry about them until the next time. With Airhog in the picture, there's no need to ever worry. Bookmark this website as a resource for all your PCP needs.

Energy, accuracy and pellet performance for hunters

2006-09-15T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

Muzzle energy is something new airgunners should become familiar with, because it is far more significant than muzzle velocity. When Daisy was being sued for a wrongful death due to improper design of one of their airguns, the junk-science consultant hired by the plaintiff went on 60 Minutes and told the interviewer that a BB from the gun in question traveled as fast as a .22 rimfire bullet. He even chronographed the BB gun and a .22 pistol to compare the results on TV. While the velocity part is true, this expert neglected to inform the interviewer that the difference in energy between a 5.3-grain steel BB and a 40-grain lead bullet makes the bullet about 10 times more powerful. Similar to the difference between being rear-ended by a golf cart or a tractor-trailer going the same speed.

During the Civil War, soldiers were sometimes fascinated that they could see enemy cannonballs bounding along the ground toward them. The speeds at which the balls were traveling were slow compared to rifle bullets, and their great size made them visible. Field commanders warned soldiers that these cannonballs were dangerous; nevertheless, some soldiers did stick out their arms to touch the balls as they bounded past. If they touched one, it usually ripped off their arm at the shoulder, thus imparting a valuable lesson in ballistics and energy transfer to a dying man.

Performance
Pellet performance is different than pellet energy, although the two are always connected. The more powerful a pellet is on target, the more it will do - there's no way around that. But - is it possible for a pellet to do too much of whatever it does? Certainly!

Over penetration
If a pellet penetrates well and the energy level is too high for the target, the pellet may zip through without much effect. Think about a piece of paper being hit by a centerfire rifle bullet traveling 3,000 f.p.s. The bullet goes through the paper with little effect, other than leaving a clean hole. When that same bullet strikes a deer, the effect is thousands of times greater.

It is possible for a pellet to transit the body of an animal without hitting anything vital and exit without imparting a fatal wound - at least not at that moment. That's why we always recommend larger-caliber pellets for hunting. A .22 pellet is more likely than a .177 to hit a vital spot, plus its greater surface area means it has to impart more energy to the target it hits. If you're shooting a powerful .22-caliber deep-penetration pellet, it can also go too far, so you may want to select a pellet that doesn't penetrate as far.

Controlled energy release
This discussion of over-penetration leads us to the world of hollowpoints and wadcutters. Both are great at releasing energy in a target, but neither has a very good record for long-range accuracy. However, the farther you go from the muzzle, the less energy a pellet retains, so the over-penetration problem might take care of itself.

After all the theories have been evaluated, we must remember that only the pellets that hit the target count, so accuracy has to be at the top of every list. But, accuracy can be relative, too. All that matters is that the pellet you select is accurate enough for the job you want it to do at the range you intend using it - not whether it's the most accurate round in a particular airgun.

The bottom line is that accuracy, pellet performance on target, range and caliber all play a part in the airgun question. An airgun hunter who doesn't consider these factors will not be as successful as he could be.

Learn about firearms to know more about airguns

2006-08-31T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

I got a question last week from a Danish airgunner who had to provide the government with the muzzle energy and energy remaining at 100 yards for his .50 caliber big bore airgun. It seems that is a requirement before one can hunt with an airgun in Denmark.

The answer seemed so easy to me that I wondered why anyone needed to ask. And then I thought more about it. The reason this airgunner didn't know how to find the answer is he doesn't know about firearms! So today I want to talk about how firearms and airguns are alike.

Bullets are bullets
This shooter referred to his 250-grain round-nosed bullets as pellets. He did so because when he bought them that's what the dealer called them. And they were going to be fired in an air rifle, after all. Guys, a bullet is a bullet, no matter what name you give it, and knowing that it's a bullet allowed me to calculate his required ballistic data. Looking in Sam Fadala's Blackpowder Loading Manual, Sam actually chrongraphed bullets from muzzleloaders at the muzzle and agin at 100 yards, using two different chronographs. His data is more exact than a calculation using a ballistic coefficient.

I learned that a 260-grain .50 caliber conical bullet retains 83 percent of its initial velocity at 100 yards and a 177-grain .490" round ball retains 60 percent of its initial velocity at 100 yards. So a 250-grain lead conical bullet should retain at least 80 percent of its initial velocity at 100 yards. All he has to do is calculate what level of energy that would give him and he's done. See how easy that was? Think the Danish government will set up a test range to prove him wrong? I doubt it.

If you are fuzzy about energy calculations, I will show you how that's done in the next posting.

Now let's carry this thing farther. A ball is a ball, regardless of its size, as long as the material it is composed of remains the same. So we can extrapolate the velocity retention for a .177 or a .22 caliber lead ball to the same 60 percent velocity retention at 100 yards. The ENERGY will fall to less than half, but that's easy to calculate, too.

Pellets are like some shotgun slugs
Some shotgun slugs are made with a hollow base to slow them down rapidly. Certain eastern states like the fact that the maximum distance these powerful projectiles will travel from a shotgun is around 800 yards. In the pellet gun world, we have the diabolo pellet that is even better at slowing down. A combination of a deep hollow skirt and a wasp waist makes the modern pellet slow down completely after about 500 yards. That doesn't mean with the rifle held level - it means with the axis of the bore inclined 30 degrees above the horizon, which the U.S. Army has determined to be the approximate inclination required to allow a ballistic projectile to travel the maximum distance.

Solid "pellets" are actually bullets
And here is what this all means. Put a 28-grain Eun Jin diabolo PELLET in an AirForce Condor set on maximum power and incline the axis of the bore 30 degrees above the horizon and the pellet falls to earth at 500 yards. Put a 30-grain solid BULLET in a Condor and do the same thing and the bullet falls to earth farther than 1,760 yards, which is one mile. Solid "pellets" turn a powerful airgun like the Condor into a rimfire rifle.

There is much to be learned by studying firearms. The ballistics all apply, plus many of an airgunner's deepest mysteries have already been resolved.

What is a choked barrel (...and why do we care?)

2006-08-15T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

Most shooters know what a choke does for a shotgun barrel. It constricts the shot column just before it leaves the muzzle, resulting in a tighter pattern downrange. A choked rifle barrel does the same thing, but not for the same reason.

What is a choked rifle barrel?
A choked barrel is a constriction in the bore size near the muzzle. Instead of a screw-in device or an add-on appliance, the rifle bore is made that way. The bore actually gets smaller. It is always a small amount - usually less than one-thousandth of an inch. Both the bore and the lands close in by an equal amount. This is done gradually to not disturb the bullet, or, in our case, the pellet.

Choked barrels are not new
Barrelmakers were choking barrels in the 19th century. Harry Pope, the most famous barrelmaker who ever lived, sometimes bored his choke along the entire length of the bore! I doubt anyone is still doing something like that, but isn't it fascinating that anyone would? Remember, he then had to lap (polish) the bore and then rifle it! Most barrelmakers lap AFTER rifling, but Pope did it both before and after! That's why a gun with a Pope barrel commands the price of a new luxury car today.

What does a choke do?
A choke assures the uniformity of the bullet/pellet at the most critical point in its internal travel - just before it leaves the muzzle. It actually swages (squeezes) the projectile slightly smaller, ensuring that all of them leave the bore a uniform size. This is the reason that it does very little good to run pellets through a sizing die. The barrel itself IS it's own sizing die!

The choke doesn't even have to be uniform!
It's true. The Weihrauch company builds a lot of spring-piston air rifles. They do not choke their barrels, but they do swage in dovetails to hold the front sight base. The upsetting of the outside of the barrel carries through to the bore, which becomes slightly choked. It may not sound like much, but let's look at what it does.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!
Back in the 1990s, when the internet chat forums were getting started, some people posted that the optimum length for a spring rifle barrel is 9-12 inches. After that, the pellet no longer accelerates. That's actually true, but what that fact did was start a rash of barrel-bobbing. Unfortunately, the barrel-cutters didn't get any MORE velocity, but they did manage to remove their chokes. So, they got less accuracy. If you shop for used spring air rifles, beware of "carbines" that are homemade!

Keepa you hands off!
Now don't run out and start damaging all your barrels in an attempt to choke them. If you have quality guns Like Falcons and AirForce rifles, the barrels are already choked correctly. If you push a pellet from the breech to the muzzle, you will actually feel the choke as it resists the pellet's passage. However, now you have another reason to not clean a barrel from the muzzle unless there is no other way.

The Talon SS with an optional 24" barrel

2006-07-31T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

... and the question is: What is the best PCP value available today?

Why the Talon SS?
Why not? It gets up to 25 foot-pounds in .22 caliber and delivers about 35 shots at that power before needing a fill. It's also quiet - something that can't be said about most other precharged airguns. It's accurate - a one-inch group at 50 yards is the claim from AirForce, but veteran shooters know they can get half-inch groups when they shoot JSB Exact domed pellets on a calm day. Yes, there are other rifles that sometimes do a little better; but when you get to this level of accuracy, the shooter and the pellet matter more than the rifle.

It has adjustable power
You can dial down the power wheel for hundreds of accurate indoor shots or dial it up all the way to hunt raccoons, jackrabbits and woodchucks. To be honest, the Talon SS is not as finely adjustable as you might wish because of that short 12-inch barrel. If you install the optional 24" barrel, you'll have a rifle that adjusts as nicely as anyone could hope. The lows get lower and the highs get higher with that longer barrel.

45 foot-pounds from just a barrel swap!
It's true! Install a 24" .22-caliber barrel, and the top velocity of a Crosman Premier goes from around 830 f.p.s. to over 1,000 f.p.s. That isn't even the best part! With the extra power, the SS is now capable of shooting a heavy 28-grain Korean Eun Jin pellet around 850 f.p.s., where it becomes stable out to 50 yards and beyond. Power like that makes the SS a completely different air rifle, and all it costs is $150 for the optional barrel.

But it's not a repeater!
No, it isn't. Neither was Matthew Quigley's Sharps and neither is any benchrest rifle worthy of the title. Accuracy comes from careful handling of the projectile, and you don't get that with a repeating mechanism. That's why serious sniper rifles are all bolt-actions. If this is still a turnoff, you need to be aware that all AirFoirce air rifles are single-shots. The company has been talking for years about making a repeating mechanism that can be owner-installed, but nothing has been seen and I wouldn't advise buying a rifle with that in mind.

No. 1 accessory
After the scope, the No. 1 accessory for any AirForce air rifle is the bipod. It's lightweight and folds out of the way for carrying; but when you need a steady platform for accurate shooting, it's ready in seconds.

AirForce bipod makes a handy shooting platform wherever you happen to be. It tilts, and the legs adjust independently for length.

Why is AirForce the best value?
There are cheaper PCPs out there. Some are from China, and the jury isn't in on their reliability. If and when they need repairs, what will you do if the dealer you bought from has gone out of business? AirForce Airguns are made in Fort Worth, Texas, and all warranty repairs are done at the factory. The company is behind you all the way. That's why Airhog has made these airguns their entry-level guns. They know what a great value they offer.

The Condor is adjustable, you knowShooting at LESS than full power

2006-07-14T17:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

Many shooters buy a Condor for the bragging rights, but what they may not know is that they've also purchased one of the nicest precharged rifles there is - as long as the power is turned down! No law says you have to blast away at top power all the time, and turning the power down on a Condor reveals a real sweetheart of an air rifle!

The power wheel
The power adjustment wheel on a Condor is more sensitive than the adjustment wheel on either the Talon or Talon SS. The extra-long 24" barrel makes all the difference when it comes to sensitivity. You can even dial most Condors down to the zero mark, where they will spit out .22-caliber JSB Exacts at way less than 700 f.p.s.! You'll get lots more shots on that setting, and your rifle is still powerful enough to hunt squirrels to about 30 yards.

The power-adjustment wheel on the Condor is a fine tuning instrument, thanks to the 24" barrel.

Clean your barrel!
For best accuracy with a Condor or any AirForce air rifle, try cleaning the barrel with JB Non-Embedding Bore Cleaning Compound. Coat a wire brush thickly, then run it through the barrel 30 times in both directions. After that, your barrel will be smoother and probably more accurate than before. AirForce barrels often have light corrosion in the grooves and this treatment takes care of it. You only need to do it once, and then you can stop cleaning the barrel altogether.

This is the stuff benchrest rifle shooters swear by! One cleaning session with your rifle will have it shooting its best. Buy this at any good gun store or from Midway USA.

4 easy steps to get miracle groups!
Your Condor is fully capable of shooting groups of less than a half-inch, center-to-center at 50 yards. Here's how to get them:

Clean the barrel as instructed above.
Put the adjustment wheel on the number "4."
Shoot JSB Exacts that have been sorted by weight to the tenth of a grain.
Shoot at a time when there is no wind.

I can shoot a half-inch group with these rules, and so should you.

How to scope it?
The Condor is a long-range rifle, so it wants a scope to compliment that capability. A 6-24x is not too much for this rifle. Use adjustable mounts to conserve the scope adjustments 'til you really need them. High mounts are more desirable because of the straight line of the stock. Since the scope is separate from the barrel, a scope level is a handy tool for precision shooting.

If you own a Condor, isn't it time to explore everything the rifle has to offer? You're wasting a lot of potential by just running it wide open all the time.

88 cubic-foot carbon-fiber tank

2006-06-30T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

This air tank has revolutionized the operation of precharged pneumatics. When I was a boy I loved playing cowboys. Most of all, I loved shooting my sixgun, because I had a remarkable one. It never ran out of bullets. Reloading was for suckers, as far as I was concerned. If old Roy Rogers didn't have to do it, neither did I. An 88 cubic-foot carbon fiber air tank is a lot like that.

The old days of field target
Back when people were still winning matches with HW77s, a PCP was a curiosity at a field target match. Along with it came the mandatory 80 cu-ft scuba tank - that 39-lb. cold metal monster that had to accompany every PCP shooter in the field. You'd see them struggle to lug their tank to the firing line - and woe to the shooters at matches where the parking lot is separated from the FT course! Those tanks had no handles and were hard to move no matter what apparatus you brought.

Not many fills!
Once they got the tank into position, they began draining it into their gun. Since both scuba tank and airguns held the same 3,000 psi of pressure, it wasn't long before they no longer were able to fill their guns all the way. A 30-shot rifle became a 26-shot rifle, then a 24-shot, then, well you see where this is going. Those early shooters needed help from technology!

Enter, the hand pump
In 1996, the high-pressure hand pump came on the scene. Suddenly, there was an option. Instead of 39 lbs., you could carry just five, and you could fill all the way every time. Of course, the effort saved from carrying the scuba tank was more than repaid when it came time for a fill. There were guys who would smile and claim the pump was easy to use, but a lot of shooters didn't buy it. We were still waiting on technology.

Airhog's 88 cubic-foot carbon fiber air tank provides many times the refills of a scuba tank, yet it weighs half as much.

The dawning of the carbon-fiber tank
Airhog was an early pioneer in the use of the carbon-fiber air tanks for refilling PCPs. Van Jacobi recognized the incredible benefits of a tank that weighs half as much as a scuba tank but delivered nine times the number of full gun fills to 3,000 psi. That's right - NINE TIMES! Although the CF tank holds only eight cubic-feet more air than the standard aluminum scuba tank, most of that air is pressurized so high that it keeps on filling a precharged rifle to the limit long after the scuba tank has lost its initial pressure. Van was so impressed with the performance that he and his wife wrote an article for Airgun Illustrated magazine with test data that demonstrated the superiority of the CF tank.

Made for airgunners!
The CF tank was developed as a source of breathable air for rescue workers and firemen. Being relatively lightweight and holding as much air as it does, it's perfect for them. When Airhog started offering them to airgunners, the first thing they did was make a lightweight carrying handle for them. I can't tell you how many times I've carried my scuba tanks by their valve handles, which cannot be good. The Airhog CF tank carries like a light suitcase and even has two aluminum feet on which to stand in the field.

More innovations!
Then, Airhog introduced the microbore air hose. With an incredibly small inside diameter, a microbore hose wastes far less air when the line is bled after a fill. Since you no longer need to use the scuba valve handle and refill gauge as a carrying handle, Airhog incorporated them into a single streamlined unit. Carry your CF tank by the real handle and enjoy the lightweight, unitized gauge and valve handle.

Where do you get one filled?
Not all dive shops can fill to 4,500 psi. For many years, that kept people away from CF technology, but there's been a recent change. Paintball guns are now using air at this pressure and higher, so many paintball shops can now fill these tanks. Of course, if you have an "in" at the local fire station, you'll have no problem getting your tank filled. If you don't have that advantage, check out your local paintball shop.

It's not cheap
You do pay for all the benefits you get with a carbon-fiber tank. For some, the price is a complete turn-off. For those who have been wanting this convenience, the carbon-fiber air tank is worth every penny.

What about a Falcon pistol?

2006-06-15T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

If you're looking for something a little different to spice up your airgunning hobby, don't overlook the Falcon pistols. They come in three versions - the single-shot, the eight-shot bolt-action Raptor and the Hawk, which is actually a bridge between single-shot and repeater, having a repeating mechanism but manual cocking like the single-shot.

The basics
These pistols are all built around the FN8 action. Power can range from a low of 6 foot-pounds to a high of 15, but Airhog says most go out the door at 12-13 foot-pounds in .22 caliber. Each gun has a power spot it favors; once it settles into that spot, it becomes remarkably efficient on very little air. Guns are available in .177, .20 and .22 caliber, but the .20 is available only as a single-shot.

Rifle-like accuracy!
You might wonder what an air pistol can do. Well, some Airhog customers have taken their guns to extremes. Like the fellow who installed his FN8 pistol in a Light Hunter stock and proceeded to win two field target matches with it? And it was .22 caliber!

Scope 'em
With the power and accuracy available in these pistols, a scope only makes sense. You can use a pistol scope or a rifle scope, but lately a lot of buyers are turning to the intermediate-relief scope that's also known as a scout scope. With an eye relief of 10-14 inches, this kind of scope lets you hold the gun close to the chest but not right up to your eye. Because all Falcon pistols are built on 8" rifle actions, they have standard 11mm dovetails for conventional scope mounts.

Best pellet
Van Jacobi, the owner of Airhog, says he likes the JSB Exact Express in the .177 pistols, for the little bit of extra velocity it offers. In .22, he likes the JSB Match Jumbo for the same reason. A JSB Exact would also be a wonderful pellet in either .177 or .22.

The No. 1 reason to own a Falcon pellet pistol
I would have thought most owners used their pistols for hunting, but Airhog tells me most owners keep their pistols handy near the back door for pest elimination. You could argue that's the same as hunting, but what I'm saying is that the Falcon pistol turns out to be the perfect way to keep the bunnies out of your garden and the squirrels off the bird feeder. With THAT in mind, you might begin to see a Falcon pistol as a two-party "tool" to help promote the domestic tranquility. I once had a problem with a rat infestation until my wife learned how to shoot an air rifle. Then, all I had to do was supply the pellets and listen to the hunting report each day after work. I still have that airgun, and she still thinks of it as hers.

Never thought of owning a Falcon air pistol before? I hope this blog has given you cause to reflect on that.

Start a field target club!

2006-05-31T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

You don't know any other airgunners in your area and there are no places to shoot field target. You hardly know what field target is, except what you've read on the internet and in magazines. Join the club! Or, better yet, start one!

You're probably SURROUNDED by airgunners!
There are airgunners (plural) on Kodiak Island, so you are probably not alone in your hobby, regardless of where you live. When I got started in adult airguns, I thought I was alone, too. Then, I found ONE GUY who liked to shoot, and together we started shooting at field targets. We met at a gun show.

We were pathetic!
We knew nothing about FT, except that it existed. We didn't even know there was an American Airgun Field Target Association (AAFTA), let alone that they have a website with their full rule book online! What we did was buy two field targets at a local gun store. Actually, what we bought were not official field targets, they were knock-down targets for .22 rimfire that happened to LOOK like field targets. As I said - we were pretty naive.

We took our two targets out to a piece of land my new buddy owned and we staked them to the ground with landscaping spikes. Backing up 30 yards, we started knocking them down - whoop-de-do! After a few minutes of that, we were bored. The kill zones on our targets were 2.5" in diameter, so it was pretty hard to miss. We backed up to about 40 yards and made things harder. A LOT harder, as it turned out! The farther back you are from anything, the harder it is to hit with an airgun. I enjoy reading the forums where the guys talk about 50-, 75- and 100-yard hits they make. I can tell by what they say whether or not they've ever shot an airgun at those ranges.

We grew
A local guy heard of my friend shooting field target, and he asked us to come by and give a demonstration to a few of his friends. By this time, my friend and I owned four targets, and two of them were the real deal! We set up the four targets in a woods setting and shot at them from two different firing points - making a total of eight targets. Two shots at each target from each position made for a 16-shot impromptu match!

The other guys didn't even own adult air rifles, so I loaned them my TX200 and my de-tuned Career 707, and my friend loaned them his RWS 45. We all had a good time, and the other three guys decided to try this for real. Each of them bought a field target and I bought another one, which gave us a total of eight targets. Our first "match" was shot at those eight targets with two shots each from two different firing positions. The total was 32 shots. One of the guys brought a Diana 27, which didn't do well, and I loaned my Career, TX and my FWB 124 to anyone who wanted to use them.

That day, a club was born. Each shooter then bought an adult air rifle and one additional target, bumping our club total to 13 targets. The next month, we held our first match under AAFTA rules. Two other local guys, who heard about us from some of the guys in the group, joined in. Within the next four months, our ranks swelled to 15 shooters and 20 targets. Guys started buying PCPs and better scopes, and we never looked back. That club is still in operation today, nine years after we held the first demo shoot. They charge a five dollar entry fee now and they own more than 60 field targets, plus a lot of fancy support equipment.

You can do the same thing if you want to. All it takes is one field target and an adult air rifle, and you're off and running. Targets are sold many places, so you won't have the difficulty we had finding them 10 years ago. Adult airguns are available on this website, including great field target rifles!

Why .22 caliber interest is on the rise

2006-05-15T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

Twenty-two was the airgun caliber of choice in America until the 1970s, when the rise of the Beeman company changed American airgunner's tastes. It was good for Americans to experience .177, as well, because it has some benefits. Low cost is one of them, and the accuracy of .177 is undisputed - being fully the equal on .22 and the other calibers. But for hunting and long-range shooting, .177 is in last place.

For hunting, you want .22!
The .22 pellet has so many advantages when it comes to hunting. First, it is almost twice the weight of .177 - and sometimes well above that. Weight is important for hunters because it retains the energy imparted by the air rifle. It also helps buck stray wind currents, though all diabolo pellets have a problem with wind. The second big advantage of .22 is its size. It punches a much larger hole in game, and that is desirable because of the shock it transmits to the animal. The .177 has often been criticized for shooting clear through a game animal without causing enough immediate damage. The animal can then escape - something no responsible hunter wants. But, .22 reaches out and smacks the target with a resounding thump!

For long-range shooting, it's .22!
Though .22 moves slower than .177 in most spring airguns, in powerful PCPs the velocity advantage is nonexistent. Both calibers are up against the supersonic barrier. So, .22 carries its velocity further downrange with the added weight of the pellet; with the increased wind resistance, it is the long-range rifleman's caliber of choice.

What pellet?
On the subject of pellets, which one is good for hunting and long range? There are three winners right here at Airhog. The Beeman Kodiak is a long-time favorite. Its extra weight is perfect for more powerful PCPs, such as the FN19-SB with its 19" barrel, the Prairie Falcon 25 with its 21" barrel and the AirForce Condor with its 24" barrel. As you know, barrel length is one way to get power in a PCP rifle, and these three have what it takes to launch the 21-grain Kodiak far downrange.

The other two pellets that are good in most air rifles and in all PCPs are Crosman Premiers and JSBs. Premiers and JSBs vie for most accurate pellet in most rifles, with JSB taking the honor about 75 percent of the time. These are the pellets that will shoot the half-inch groups at 50 yards in .22 and also in .177, if the day is very calm.

What about .25 caliber?
Twenty-five caliber holds a mystique for American airgunners because it seems so rare and exotic. Only a few American airguns have ever been made in this caliber. About 10 years ago, .25 caliber was a good choice for a PCP rifle because heavy .22 pellets weren't available. But that has changed, and 28-grain diabolo pellets are now common. Solids up to 37 grains are also available for the few rifles that can stabilize them, such as the Condor. You don't need to go to the more expensive .25 caliber pellets to get the weight you need for serious hunting. I'd say that .25 caliber has lost some of its luster, though the caliber will probably remain simply for the novelty.

All things considered, a shooter with a .22 PCP has the right equipment for long-accurate shooting.

Are some airgun barrels better than others?

2006-04-28T05:30:00.000-04:00

by Harley Ayre

I'll answer the title question right off - some airgun barrels ARE better than others. Even among the top brands of barrels (Lothar Walther, Anschütz and Feinwerkbau) some barrels are better.

Barrel grades
What makes a great barrel? Accuracy! That's why the barrel is there to begin with. So, what I'm now telling you is that there are GRADES of barrels from most top makers. Not every barrelmaker has grades, but most airgun barrelmakers certainly do. Before I get into the grades, let's see what's desirable in an airgun barrel.

Rifling methods
For an airgun barrel to be most accurate, it must be as smooth as possible. When a barrel gets rifled, the cutter or button roughens the inside of the bore somewhat. Cut rifling is the worst for this, followed by hammer-forged rifling, with button rifling being the smoothest after the rifling is finished. A cut-rifled barrel does not need as much stress-relieving or straightening as the other types, so the maker has time to work on smoothing the inner surfaces. A hammer-forged barrel is quickest to make but has a lot of stress in the steel that needs to be relieved afterward. Then, it must be straightened. A button-rifled barrel is probably the best combination for making good barrels very quickly, which is why all the top airgun makers use it.

The pellet's path
The best barrels have very uniform bores. You can tell they are uniform by pushing a pellet down the barrel from the breech with a cleaning rod. The pellet won't hit loose spots along the way. Also, all good PCP barrels will be choked with a slight constriction at the muzzle. Usually, it's about half a thousandth, and it's there to make every pellet of uniform size before it leaves the muzzle. This is why a pellet sizer doesn't do any good.

Uniformity is where good barrels differ from better barrels. All the top makers start out with a steel tube of good machinable steel to make a barrel. However, the speed of the rifling button through that tube in part determines its uniformity afterward. Another step is gauging the barrels after manufacture and sorting them into the good and better piles. This is done while they are still blanks, because some gun manufacturers are willing to pay more for premium barrels.

Lothar Walther
Now I'll get specific. Lothar Walther is a barrelmaker with a reputation known around the world. They make some of the finest airgun barrels today. They also make their barrels in grades. A company can choose to buy a good barrel or a better barrel. A better barrel costs more, so you need to know how manufacturing costs drive retail prices. For anything that is made, a multiplier of five is approximately correct to determine the retail price. A barrel that Lothar Walther sells wholesale for $20 should add about $100 to the retail price of a gun. If the barrel costs $30, it adds about $150 to the retail price. These are ballpark estimates, not exact figures.

Market strategy
If a manufacturer wants to be priced on the lower side of the market, the only way he can afford to do so is to use the lowest cost materials and components in his gun that still deliver a product of acceptable quality. If a manufacturer wants to be priced at the premium end of the market, he has to deliver more value and must use components, like barrels, that deliver a little extra - and also cost extra.

Where does that take us?
That takes us to the Talon SS, which groups about an inch or a little less at 50 yards on a good day when shot by a good shooter from a solid rest. Then, there is the Prairie Falcon, which shoots even smaller groups under the same circumstances. However - and this you have to understand - the difference between the accuracy of a Talon SS and a Prairie Falcon is very small, because the Talon SS is already very accurate. It's the difference between either of these rifles and, say, a Gamo 1250 or a Beeman R1 that you get when you buy either one of these. The Prairie Falcon has a premium Lothar Walther barrel - that better barrel mentioned earlier. The Talon SS has a good Lothar Walther barrel that will out-shoot almost all spring-air rifles and right alongside some quality PCPs.

In my next post, I'll discuss what happens to the barrel after it's made and some things YOU can do to make it as good as it can be!