I came upon the subject for this blog quite by accident, and it was all my fault.
A while back I had been whining to Greg, my chief contact at Airguns of Arizona, about how winter was coming in big, bad upstate New York, and if the winter was anything like last year, there was going to be a period – maybe a long period — when I would be unable to test airguns. So would they please – please, please, PLEASE! – send me some guns to test in a big hurry!
Here's the reason for the whining: this is what El Rancho Elliott looked like after the first storm in January 2011.
And just to prove that I am not psychic in any way, here is approximately the same view on Jan. 2 of 2012.
Greg, being an excellent fellow, in great haste dispatched a large package containing several guns, which I then proceeded to test. When I got to the last gun, disaster struck. The bolt would not cycle properly, after which I could not get the fully loaded magazine out of the breech.
So here I was with a fully loaded, fully charged PCP air rifle that I could not unload. This makes me really uncomfortable, and I was borderline freaking out when I called AoA and got Shane on the line. He immediately gave me the procedure for getting the magazine out of the breech. I tried it, and it worked. Next, Shane wanted me to run a cleaning rod down the barrel to make sure that that there wasn’t a pellet jammed in there.
Dutifully, I slid the rod down the barrel and a mashed pellet and a machined brass cylinder came out. I reported this to Shane (we were doing this in real time on the phone), and he said, “Oh, you must have a gun that wasn’t prepped.”
“Wasn’t prepped,” I said. “Whaddya mean?”
“We prep almost every air rifle we ship,” Shane said. “You need to talk to Darren. He’s our primary prep guy.”
So I interviewed Darren, and what follows is the real and true story of how Airguns of Arizona preps air rifles before you get them.
When it comes to prepping precharged air rifles, the first is the removal of any special fittings that are attached to the gun for shipping. Some PCPs have a barrel plug and a special restrictor screw that are fitted so that the gun can be legally exported from the country of origin. (The barrel plug is what I ran into when the magazine jammed in the gun.)
After any shipping fittings are removed, the gun is visually inspected for any dings or pressure marks in the stock, any rust, signs of damage, any molding issues on synthetic stocks.
Here's Darren prepping a gun for a customer.
“After that,” Darren says, “we test most precharged guns for accuracy and velocity.” (There are some exceptions to this: there are some models that come shipped in well-sealed factory packaging, and AOA allows the manufacturer/distributor to deal with any quality issues on these models. It is too easy for a customer to confuse AOA’s testing with supplying of a used gun due to the torn packaging.)
“We’ll mount a scope and benchrest the gun at 18 yards,” he says. “If the customer is purchasing a scope with the gun, we’ll mount the customer’s scope and sight it in. We’ll test up to five different pellets to find the best pellets for that gun, and we’ll generally test with a heavy pellet to make sure that it is generating the proper amount of foot pounds.”
If there is a problem with the accuracy of the gun, AoA investigates why – looking for problems like perhaps a bad barrel or clipping issues. AoA will also hold up shipment on a gun if there is a dramatic spread in velocities. When everything checks out properly, Darren will print out chronograph receipt and the test target, sign off on the gun, and include those with the gun as it is shipped to the customer.
All spring-piston air rifles are tested for velocity, usually for 5-10 shots to make sure that it is consistent. “We don’t generally test for accuracy,” Darren says, “but if a customer buys a scope with their springer, we will mount it, sight it in, and shoot a five-shoot group with it.”
He adds, “I test so many airguns that very often I will know if there is an issue with a gun simply by the way it sounds and feels when I shoot it. Sometimes when we’re shipping several of the same model gun, I’ll test them side-by-side to give me an additional check on quality and consistency.”
With the exception of a few isolated models, Airguns of Arizona routinely preps the air rifles it sends to customers – at no additional charge. “It makes sense to do that,” Darren says. “It ensures customer satisfaction, reduces hassles at our end, and, if a gun arrives at a customer with a problem, we know that something happened to it between here and there.”
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
Jock Elliott
Great info, AoA really cares about the customer.
Jim,
That was certainly my impression.
Mr. Elliot,
That was bold. What was possibly an uncomfortable scenario, ended very well and displayed what a good distributor they are. With solid logical concerns you have expressed what all of us customers expect and have enjoyed from them. The couple of guns I have purchased from AoA were perfect from the first pellet onward.
Thank you Mr. Elliot and AoA.
Wallace,
Thanks for the kind words.
I’m amazed… Is this commonplace for people to go to such lengths? I recently bought an airgun from a sporting shop (in the England, where I live) and got the impression that it was delivered to the shop and placed on the wall until purchase. I also purchased a scope which I later fitted myself at home. I basically just walked in to the shop, bought a gun and scope and vey little was said apart from when I gave my address (for legal purposes).
I stumbled upon this site as a result of a random Google search and I think it’s wonderful! I’ve bookmarked you and you can expect to hear from me again!
In fact, you may be able to help me… This may sound ridiculous and it may not but as a young child, a friend of mine had a break barrel rifle – these were the days when kids walked around with guns and nobody batted an eyelid – and we would sometimes load the rifle in the proper way and sometimes we would drop the pellet down the barrel and then load it… It was just less effort. Now, I have a .22 SMK under-lever thing. I know little about airguns. First of all, will this work with my rifle? Secondly, will this harm the rifle?
I looked on Google but alas, no answer.
Love your site! Hope to hear back from you!
Thanks,
Chris
Chris,
First, thanks for the kind words.
Second, I don’t recommend muzzle-loading any airgun unless it is specifically designed to be loaded that way. Frankly, I don’t see any advantage to NOT loading pellets into the breech end of the barrel. In short, follow the manufacturer’s recommendation for loading.
I can attest to their attention to detail and fine work ethic. I recently bought a royale 500 that just wasn’t shooting quiet right. After shipping it back, Darren worked it out, mounted my scope, and made sure I had an awesome shooter.
For high end guns and excellent service, AoA are your guys.
Thanks again, Darren.
Let me first say that I am a very skeptical person when it comes to buying new products. I wanna see them work and work correctly. I will generally do a good month or more worth of research when dabbeling in a purchase of a product I am not familiar with. With this being said, you can imagine what I am like when it comes to firearms. I won’t even hold a gun I want until I see it preform in person. Now living in upstate ny there is not any options other then Internet buying or taking a vacation to hold a gun. As the second option isn’t very cost effective
as much as I would have loved to justify it. I had to put my faith into someone else’s hands. After doing many months of research (5 to be exact) and spent about 30 or so hours of and on the phone with the staff at AoA. I took the plunge. I made my choice and I waited for the impending doom to happen, because I was sure that without prior experience with what I was getting into this would surely be an epic disaster. Well I will be the first to step up and say that this was probably the smoothest purchase I ever and will ever make. My air rifle was flawless. It shipped in an adiquate time, it was packaged exceptionally, the customer service was first rate, and I was amazingly with out a fault to speak of. This is obviously a testament to the amount of effort put in by the boys at AoA. Thank you guys for you knowledge and genuin concern towards your customers. It doesn’t go unnoticed. This was my first pcp and won’t be my last.
Personal thanx from Rye6969
Let me first say that I am a very skeptical person when it comes to buying new products. I wanna see them work and work correctly. I will generally do a good month or more worth of research when dabbeling in a purchase of a product I am not familiar with. With this being said, you can imagine what I am like when it comes to firearms. I won’t even hold a gun I want until I see it preform in person. Now living in upstate ny there is not any options other then Internet buying or taking a vacation to hold a gun. As the second option isn’t very cost effective
as much as I would have loved to justify it. I had to put my faith into someone else’s hands. After doing many months of research (5 to be exact) and spent about 30 or so hours of and on the phone with the staff at AoA. I took the plunge. I made my choice and I waited for the impending doom to happen, because I was sure that without prior experience with what I was getting into this would surely be an epic disaster. Well I will be the first to step up and say that this was probably the smoothest purchase I ever and will ever make. My air rifle was flawless. It shipped in an adiquate time, it was packaged exceptionally, the customer service was first rate, and I was amazingly with out a fault to speak of. This is obviously a testament to the amount of effort put in by the boys at AoA. Thank you guys for you knowledge and genuin concern towards your customers. It doesn’t go unnoticed. This was my first pcp and won’t be my last.
Just ordered my hw30s deluxe today. Seeing your level of service in prep work plus talking to my salerep (Jared) makes getting the rifle an all around good experience.
thanks!
Mike,
Thanks for the kind words.