The Firearm Blog

The BAM XS-B3 is a really cheap air rifle loosely patterned after the AK.

Click to zoom in on the images

For shooting birds in tight spaces

More info on the rifle here.

B.B. has written two posts about the air guns launched at SHOT. I was going to cover the SHOT air guns, but B.B. knows a lot more about the subject than I do.

Ruger Air Hawk

Read it here.

B.B. has written an interesting article on early target shooting with the Zimmerstutzen rifles.

The Zimmerstutzen was the ancestor of the 10-meter target [air] rifle and extends back to at least 1840. Zimmerstutzen is the rough translation of “parlor rifle” in German. The first zimmer was powered by a percussion cap that propelled a small lead ball through a short rifled barrel.

What I found fascinating was that there were 25 different Zimmerstutzen calibers!

A Zimmerstutzen comes in the nominal caliber 4mm, but in fact there are over 25 discrete calibers that range from 4mm to 5.55mm, in half-milimeter increments.

Zimmerstutzen vs .22LR

Read the article here.

This is a fantastics idea. ‘thinking’ over at RFC posted how to make wax pellets for an airgun. Perfect for shooting bugs indoors!

All you need a some wax, a lighter ,some putty for a mold and a pelet.

WARNING: If you plan on shooting an airgun in your house, I recommend cleaning the airgun first to remove any lead. I check myself for lead poisoning every so often.

Read the tutorial here.

From B.B. Pelletier:

a class three dealer examined it and said in his opinion it could not be removed and attached to a firearm with success.

Gamo has taken pains to make the outer case tapered front-to-rear, plus they have molded two huge flutes into the side of the case. They’ve also made holes in the flutes that expose the sides of the baffles, which are a soft synthetic material, to the air.

It was his opinion that the silencer would be too difficult to remove from the rifle without destroying it, and, even if it could be removed, that the baffles would blow out the sides if exposed to even the low pressure from a .22 rimfire cartridge. In other words, it wouldn’t silence a firearm for even one shot.

More here.

From the air gun expert B.B. Pelletier

Nate in Mass. asked if it’s permissible (possible, without damage to the gun) to shoot pellets loaded backwards. He was thinking of them acting as extreme hollowpoints.

Well, Nate the short answer is “yes,” and so is the longer answer I will give today.

More here.

B.B. Pelletier reviews the Gamo Whisper, Gamo’s suppressed air rifle which I blogged about recently.

Noise is what the new Gamo Whisper is all about, and I’ll address that issue for you right now. I don’t find the Whisper to be that much quieter than any other spring piston air rifle of comparable power. In fact, my tuned .22-caliber Beeman R1, which has no silencer, is quieter because its powerplant makes less noise. The powerplant is where the bulk of the noise of a spring gun comes from, not the discharge at the muzzle.

More here.

Game have a new line of spring powered airguns with integrated suppressors.

They do not use the word “suppressor” which I find odd. Instead they call it “ND25 Noise Reduction Technology”… A suppressor by any other name.

The Whisper is a single cock break barrel action with a rifled steel, fluted bull barrel and an integral, non-removable noise dampener that reduces noise up to 52 percent. 2-stage adjustable trigger and automatic cocking safety with manual trigger safety. Fiber-optic front and rear adjustable sights. Includes 3–9×40 scope with a 1-piece solid mount. .177 caliber shoots 1200 fps with PBA ammo or 1000 fps with lead pellets. Weight: 5.28 lbs. Length: 43.5″.

More here.

Hat Tip: Saysuncle

haha
This fake photoshoped image comes from worth1000.com but I am not sure who the author is.

The pyramydair blog has a very interesting post about the development air pistols in the 1700’s.

Air rifles were scarcely known, and yet these were repeaters! Imagine how much rarer a pistol version of the same gun would have been. Well, such guns do exist. I have seen and held them.

B.B. Pelletier has just completed a long 6 part series on the air gun sport of Field Target

Field target began in Great Britain sometime in the early 1980s. According to the British Field Target Association (BFTA) field target manual, the year was 1981. They say there that the original purpose was a hunting simulation, but I have been told by many veteran shooters that FT was just another sport that happened to use animal silhouettes as targets.

It is worth a read if you enjoy shooting air guns.

Part 1 - How it all began
Part 2 - Targets
Part 3 - Targets - Part 2
Part 4 - Squads
Part 5 - The spring guns
Part 6 - The precharged guns

A very interesting article at the Pyramyd Air Reprt. I do not shoot competitively with air guns nor do I hunt with them but I do enjoy knocking about a soda can once in a while. During my plinking I have never noticed the spiriling pellet phenomenon which is explained by B.B. Pelletiert here.