Archive for February 2012

A “Primitive” Airgun

Monday, February 27, 2012

No one knows for sure exactly when it happened, or where. Some estimate it was sometime in the fifteenth century. Others say it was perhaps thousands of years earlier. Whenever it was, at some point in the mists of time, some intrepid innovator discovered what every kid who has blown the wrapper off a soda straw knows: if you place moveable projectile in a tube and quickly blow into the tube, the projectile will come zipping out of the tube.  In an instant, our inventor had discovered the blowgun, the primitive ancestor to all airguns that we use today.

Your Humble Correspondent, shooting a .62 caliber blowgun in the darkest jungles of upstate New York.

The natives of the Malay Archipelago (Borneo) and the Indians of the Orinoco and Amazon river basins are generally acknowledged to be the heavy hitters in blowgunning. The South American blowguns range from 12 to 20 feet long, and there are those who claim the Jivaro Indians can hit a hummingbird at 50 yards with one. Blowguns are, or have been, used by Ninjas in Japan, various military units and by modern folks wishing to tranquilize wildlife. Blowguns have been used for sport and hunting by native people in North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

I first became interested in blowguns in my twenties when my Dad bought one, and we fooled around with it one weekend. I forgot about them until I saw them being used by research scientists on the National Geographic channel a few years ago. This piqued my interest, and I started looking into them. The bottom line: they are a lot of fun.

But first, a disclaimer: just because you are the powerplant supplying the energy in a blowgun, don’t make the mistake of thinking they are harmless toys. Even the least powerful blowgun I tested could, at ten yards, stick a pointed target dart into a block of wood with enough energy that it always required pliers to pull it out.

The blowgun is a very simple projectile launcher, but it has a lot to recommend it. It’s virtually silent and requires no movement that would reveal your presence. It’s mechanically simple, highly reliable, light and easy to carry. The only consumable items are the darts, which are inexpensive to buy or easy to make.

Today in North America there blowgun target shooters as well as enthusiasts who hunt with blowguns, taking birds, squirrels, rabbits, pan fish, and snakes. In A Sporting Chance Daniel Mannix successfully hunted a wildcat, woodchucks, and pigeons with a blowgun without the use of poison, and he killed a deer using darts with curare. By all means, check your local laws regarding blowguns. They are illegal to possess in California or Massachusetts.

If you poke around the internet, you’ll quickly discover that modern blowguns are generally made of aluminum tubing and come in various lengths and three common calibers: .40, .50, and .62. On the Internet, you’ll also discover directions for making your own blowgun from electrical conduit or (sometimes) PVC tubing.

At 13 yards, this mini-broadhead dart punched through both sides of this can.

Among commercially manufactured blowguns, forty caliber is the most common. The widest ranges of darts are available in .40 and .50 cal. If you would rather purchase a blowgun, I have had good luck with those from Cold Steel. Cold Steel offers several different models of .625 cal. blowguns as well as an assortment of ammunition. I have never hunted with blowguns, but I found that a Cold Steel mini-broadhead dart would penetrate both sides of a tin can a 13 yards.

When experimenting with blowguns, select your targets with care. A pizza box is the right size but must be backed by something more substantial such as an archery target. I like taping small balloons to the target and trying to pop them at the greatest possible range.

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

-          Jock Elliott

Posted in Airguns | 8 Comments »

The HW70A Pistol – What fun!

Monday, February 20, 2012

A very simple pistol that is very pleasant to shoot.

Okay, I’ll admit it; I was prejudiced. Before I explain why, let’s back up for just a moment. At the heart of the word “prejudiced” is the notion of “pre-judging,” and that carries with it the underlying concept of forming an opinion without sufficient facts to back it up.

We certainly see prejudice at work sometimes in interpersonal relationships, but we also observe it in airgunning. Some years ago, I got into a conflict with a fellow on one of the forums because had formed the opinion that a particular air rifle that I had reviewed highly had to be a certified piece of dung because he had once owned an air rifle made by the same manufacturer, and he thought not very highly of it. Now, in point of fact, he had never seen, handled, or shot the particular model that I had praised, so he had no basis on which to form that opinion. He was prejudiced. It would be as if I condemned all modern Chevrolets because I once had a nasty experience with a Chevette. That’s prejudice.

Nevertheless, I was just recently guilty of pre-judging an airgun . . . in this case, the Weihrauch HW70A. I remember that the first time that I saw a picture of the HW70A. It was in the 1999 Beeman Precision Airgun Guide. On Page 27 the HW70A appeared, along with its brother the HW70S. My very first impression of the wooden-stocked HW70A was that it looked crude, like someone’s first attempt at building an airgun: “Hey, look, I made it myself!”

So I continued on my merry way, thinking those kind of thoughts about the HW70A, never having handled one or shot one, until a sample of the HW70A actually arrived at El Rancho Elliott just the other day. When I pulled the it from its box, it didn’t look so crude after all. In fact, it looked pretty nice.

It is a breakbarrel spring-piston air pistol. The receiver, breech block, barrel, front sight, and trigger are all metal, finished in a black satin finish that is really very nice, and the rest of the pistol – the “stock,” pistol grip and trigger guard – are all molded out of black polymer. The pistol grip is ambidextrous and has molded-in checkering on either side. Above the pistol grip on the left side is the safety. It activates automatically when the HW70A is cocked, and you slide it toward the muzzle to click it OFF.

The polymer “stock” which embraces the lower half of the receiver has molded-in wood grain on either side. I find that a little silly, but it doesn’t detract from the appearance of the pistol. Ahead of the pistol grip is the trigger guard, which is molded from the same polymer. Inside the trigger guard is a black metal trigger which apparently can be adjusted for weight. The manual, however, says “The trigger pull setting as it comes from the factory is usually best for the airgun in question and should not be lightened.” So I didn’t mess with it.

At the far end of the “stock,” you’ll find the breech block. Attached to that is the barrel, at the end of which is the blade type front sight which is surrounded by a nice smooth metal hood. More about that in just a moment. At the extreme aft end of the receiver is the rear notch sight which is click adjustable for elevation and windage.

To ready the HW70A for shooting, grab the pistol grip in one hand and the front sight hood in the other, and pull the barrel down and back toward the pistol grip until it clicks. This takes around 30 lb. of effort and cocks the action and opens the breech for loading. What’s make this particularly nice is the smoothly finished hooded front sight. As you break the barrel, the sight doesn’t dig into your palm or cause any discomfort; instead it functions as a “cocking assist handle” and makes the process easier. Slide a .177 pellet into the breech and return the barrel to its original position.

Take aim, slide the safety off, and squeeze the trigger. At just over 3 lbs., the first stage comes out of the trigger; at 4 lbs. 15 oz. (on the sample I tested), the shot goes down range. There is a bit of recoil, but not much, and the muzzle report is very subdued. While the HW70A doesn’t buck like a bronco when it goes off, neither does launch pellets with blinding speed. JSB Express 7.87 gr. pellets averages 399 fps, which works out to 2.8 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle.

The recoil, however, makes a difference. That means you’ll have to work to master this air pistol. From a Creedmoor position, I found I could put four pellets in a group you could cover with a dime at 10 meters, but then the fifth shot would get away from me. The Beeman catalog claims accuracy of 0.32 inch CTC. I believe it, but I wasn’t able to achieve it.

In all, I found the HW70A was incredible fun to shoot . . . easy to cock, mild recoil, pleasantly quiet, and well built. I think it would be the perfect pistol for a pleasant afternoon with a friend, plinking at targets and spinning yarns.

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

-          Jock Elliott

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Posted in Airguns | 4 Comments »

A conversation with Stefano Gervasoni, Export director of Daystate

Monday, February 13, 2012

In May, 2009, Daystate was acquired by the same group that owns Marocchi Arms. For the past two-and-a-half years, Stefano Gervasoni has been Export Director of Daystate.

JE: How did you get involved with airguns?

SG: In my last job, I was sales manager for Minelli an Italian company that made wooden stocks for airguns and firearms, so I was familiar with airguns because we supplied some of the components for them. Now that I am at Daystate, we make everything!

JE: Philosophically, how do you approach Daystate moving into the future?

SG: Daystate was already at the top of the airguns market when I joined the company. It was already the leader in PCP air rifles, thanks to the continuous development that had been done in the past.

Moving forward, Daystate needs to stay at the top end of the market and be the most advanced company in terms of new products, experimental work on airguns, which means research and development. Daystate is where it is because of the genius that was put in its air rifles in the past, and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.

JE: How important is the American market to Daystate?

SG: The American market is very important to Daystate. US sales constitute about 20% of our total sales, and American sales represent 50% of our exports, so financially the American market is important to us. But there is another season why the US is important to Daystate.

JE: What’s that?

SG: The US is an airgun marketplace that is very sophisticated. The customers are very experienced, and they know what they want. The general culture of the customer is very high, and the competition is strong, which is good. That means the American market obliges Daystate as a manufacturer to continually improve and innovate.

It’s challenging, but it is good for Daystate. The US market pushes us to do our best.

JE: Speaking of innovation, do you have anything new and exciting coming along?

SG: At the SHOT Show this year we displayed a new model, a .30 caliber (7.62mm) big bore air rifle. We expect that it will produce 100 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle.

It is a new way to think about air rifle design. It is a pre-charged pneumatic, and it uses the air that would normally be wasted to index the magazine. It is a very efficient design. While it is not simpler to manufacture, it is simpler to operate.

At the SHOT Show, there was a lot of interest in this air rifle, and people in the US are waiting for it to come to the market. We expect that we will have product available in the US in April or May.

In addition to the .30 caliber version, we also expect to bring out .177, .20, .22, and .25 versions of the Wolverine, as well as 12 foot-pound versions for the UK market. We’re very excited about the Wolverine, and we think that the basic underlying principles of its design will help us to maintain leadership for the next five years or more.

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

-          Jock Elliott

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Posted in Airguns | 3 Comments »

Airguns of Arizona – the International Connection

Monday, February 6, 2012

If you think that Airguns of Arizona is content to rest on its laurels, quietly baking in the Arizona sun, think again.

Recently I spoke with Robert Buchanan, president of AoA, about the company’s international connection. “At least once a year, I go to Europe. Frequently, it is to visit the IWA Fair, which is the European equivalent of the SHOT Show. All the major manufacturers display at IWA, and we have important meetings.”

“Some of the time is spent talking about how we can work together better,” Buchanan says. “The airgun manufacturers usually have some things they would like AoA to do better, and we usually have some requests of them. We try to work through those issues and find out what going on for the next year in terms of product, pricing, and so forth.”

He notes that the American market appears to be rising in importance for the European manufacturers. “Things appear to be worse in the European economy than they are here in the US, and the European airgun manufacturers are apparently looking to us for growth. Right now, AoA is on a track for very good growth.”

Buchanan sees a change in the way the Europeans are approaching the American market. “For most of our history in working with them, when they designed a new gun, they would first design it for the 12-foot-pound European market and then later they would see about boosting the power to meet the demands of American consumers.”

“Now, however, we’re starting to see some companies look first to the US when designing a new model. The Daystate Wolverine is an example. It is a big, powerful air rifle, two years in the making, and it was designed clearly for the American market. Sure, it will be sold in Europe, but its first market is the US,” Buchanan says.

Among frequently discussed topics on Buchanan’s overseas visits to manufacturers are customer service and parts. “We have tens of thousands of dollars in parts inventory at Airguns of Arizona, but we don’t have all parts at all times. I usually press manufacturers to be quicker about responding to request for parts, because American customers are pretty much accustomed to ‘instant’ customer service. And of course, we always stress the need for the highest quality products and quality control,” he says.

He adds that visiting the factories helps AoA to understand how and why some of the air rifles and air pistols are made the way they are. “Some of the top end elite air rifles are every bit as exotic as a Ferrari,” Buchanan says.

Every other year, AoA sends some of its employees overseas to train at the factories to learn how to service and repair the air guns that AoA imports. “We learn how to service a particular gun in a particular manner that is quicker and more efficient and also less stress on the components. Sometimes there are specific torque values on individual bolts that will bring out the best performance,” Buchanan says. “It’s no longer good enough to tighten everything until it is snug. You have to get it right.”

Sometimes the international connection works the other way. “Fredrik Axelsson of FX visited us a couple of months ago and was extremely helpful. Stefano Gervisoni of Daystate came over for the SHOT Show. It was educational for all of us.”

The bottom line for Buchanan, though, is that the international connection has helped, and will continue to help, Airguns of Arizona to deliver better airguns and service to its customers.

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

-          Jock Elliott

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Posted in Airguns | 7 Comments »