#Airgun

Our recent segment on the American Suppressor Association and the subsequent support of the Hearing Protection Act was well received. As a reminder, even though we are all feeling the positive vibes from a promising pro-gun political climate, now more than ever we all need to continue our support of the organizations who work hard to preserve our second amendment rights. So if you have yet to join, the ASA, please do so. Today I’d like to speak directly to a unlikely segment of our community – Airgunners.

The Olympics are in full swing in Rio, and Team USA brought home their first gold early on. The first medal of the 2016 Olympics was also the USA’s first gold and went to 19-year-old Virginia Thrasher in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event. Not only did Thrasher get the gold she made a new record, outshooting more seasoned Olympian Du Li of China. Thrasher finished with a score of 208.0; Du Li finished with a score of 207.0. It’s worth noting she was up against experienced Olympians including Du Li – who took home the gold in 2004 – and Serbian Andrea Arsovic, who was ranked No.1 in the world but who failed to make it to the final round of the event.

Birchwood Casey designs and manufactures some of the greatest steel targets – and targets in general – on the market. Whether you need something for your air rifle or are interested in some up-close-and-personal trigger time on steel plates with frangible ammo, they’ve got you covered. They recently expanded their line to include a couple new tree stands: Birchwood Casey Dueling Tree Targets.

If there’s one thing I enjoy changing up when I head to the range it’s my targets. And if there’s a company out there with a wide variety of targets available, it’s Birchwood Casey. If you have access to a shooting spot that allows steel targets, Birchwood Casey has quite a few options in that category. There’s one in particular that’s fun for use with everything from airguns to centerfire, though, and that’s their Shoot-N-Spin.

While everyone was focusing on the SIG MPX, MCX, and the Legion handguns at the SIG booth, the company had a whole section of new airguns that they are producing. Not airsoft like a number of companies add their name to, but actual .177 caliber CO2 powered airguns. Currently they were offering the P226 Navy, P250, MPX SBR, and an MPX with a faux suppressor as patterns for the airguns. All are offered in various configurations of Flat Dark Earth, Green, and Black. The important thing to note about these airguns is that they are 1:1 replicas. Thus, for training value, their airgun 226s and 250s will take current lights, holsters, and many other accessories that will fit to the actual firearms that they are imitating. All are made from aluminum, but what I found most interesting was the way that SIG configured the CO2 cartridges and the magazine feeds. The MPX versions have the CO2 cartridge hidden in the tubular stock, while the handgun versions have them hidden in the rear portion of the pistol grip with no excess cartridge locking material hanging out. The handguns have a 8 shot rotary system on both sides of the magazine, so once fired, the shooter can change the magazine around and have another 8 shots. However with the MPX, it is essentially a belt fed pellet system, that is pushed up via the action of the charging handle, giving the shooter 30 pellets to shoot from a single magazine.

Harkening back to the days of true Gentleman, boutique can manufacturer Boris Palatnik offers a CO2 powered ball bearning cane gun for sale. The cane gun holds 12 steel balls that fires semi-automatically at up to 600 FPS. Boris claims the ball is sufficient for self-defense and that the ball will penetrate drywall .25″ at 30′ from the shooter.

Hatsan USA is offering new .30 and .35 caliber airguns for the American hunter. Called the “Carnivore”, the new airgun line will produce 75 (.30 cal) and 95 (.35 cal) foot pounds of energy, with 860 and 730 ft/s velocity, respectively:

Oleg Volk has reviewed the Crosman MAR177 .177 upper receiver attached to a standard AR-15 lower receiver, resulting in something that is legally a gun (the lower receiver) but fires pellets using air. It is a pre-charged repeater designed for competition training. Oleg really liked the upper as well as the concept …

Yes, ammo is coming back in stock at reasonable prices, but sometimes a product just catches my eye. The product this time is the Crosman MAR177 PCP conversion kit, which transforms your AR into a Pre-Charged Pneumatic air rifle. The “Modular Adaptive Rifle” fits without modification to any AR-style lower and fires common .177 caliber pellets.

This post was written by  Dr. Jim & Mary Clary.

I did not realize that physics would allow spudguns to achieve the level of power achieved by Sureshot’s guns cannons.

Scott Pilkington, who owns Pilkington Competition Equip. LLC, has invented an AR-15 PCP air gun upper. The BF-17 is powered by CO2 with a gas is tank is inside the handguard.

Gamo have released a new .117 pellet called the PBA ARMOR. The PBA stands for “Performance Ballistic Alloy” which is a non-lead alloy. The alloy used in these pellets is harder than the alloy used in the PBA/Raptor pellets, hence the name.

Gunpundit has spotted photos of the Veritas Mark IV in Denver. The Veritas Mark IV is a paintball/airgun gun that shoots .68 Caliber paintballs filled with a pepper spray type substance. The gun is patterned after and the same size as the M and accepts most AR-15 accessories.

Benelli USA is now importing the Stoeger X Series air rifles.