About Jock Elliott
Located in upstate New York, I never met a projectile launcher I didn't like. Besides fooling around with airguns, bows, and blowguns, I pick banjo and guitar. I share my life with my wife, son, and a variety of furry creatures.
Posts by Jock Elliott
The Air Force TalonP with a red dot mounted.
Folks who have read this blog for even a little while realize pretty quickly that Your Humble Correspondent has hardly ever met a pneumatic projectile launcher that he didn’t like. The new Air Force TalonP .25 caliber pistol is no exception. I like this diminutive powerhouse, but I will admit to not knowing entirely what to make of it.
Air Force says the TalonP is “for the serious hunter wanting a compact yet powerful hunting tool” and adds that it “sets a new standard in air pistol power levels.” It truly is astonishingly powerful. The sample I tested was launching 31 grain Barracuda pellets at 862 fps, generating nearly 52 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. That’s enough power, with proper shot placement, to kill almost anything you might reasonably want to kill with an airgun.
The TalonP stretches 23.25 inches from the end of the air reservoir to the muzzle (with the air tank unscrewed, the main receiver stretches just 18 inches from end to end). It weighs just 3 lbs. 10.5 oz. without a scope or red dot. At the extreme aft end of the TalonP, you’ll find a matte black metal air reservoir with a volume of 213 cc (by comparison, the Talon rifle has an air tank volume of 490 cc).
Moving forward, you’ll find a matte black metal receiver that houses a .25 caliber Lothar Walther barrel. Above the breech is a long dovetail rail for mounting a scope, red dot, or accessories. Below the breech is the pistol grip which had nubbly plastic grips. Forward of the grips is the trigger guard which surrounds the trigger and a red push-pull safety.
The power adjustment wheel is just above the forestock on the left side of the receiver.
About three inches forward of the trigger guard is a matte black plastic forearm. Above that on the left side is the power adjustment wheel and forward of that is the muzzle. Above and below the barrel are rails that can be used for mounting accessories.
When I started setting up the TalonP is when life started to get interesting. At nearly two feet long and over three-and-half pounds, I didn’t want to hold the pistol in front of me, Weaver-style, because I thought that might be too ungainly. As a result, I didn’t want to mount a pistol scope. At the same time, the air tank doesn’t reach back far enough to provide a buttstock for my lanky 6’1” frame, so I didn’t want to mount a rifle scope.
So I mounted a red dot scope on the top rail and held the TalonP with two hands while using the air reservoir as a kind of cheek piece with no buttstock.
It’s easy enough to get the TalonP ready for shooting. After charging the air tank to 3,000 psi and re-attaching it to the receiver, push the cocking knob on top of the bolt all the way forward until it latches. Next, push a pellet all the way into the breech with your thumb or a pellet seating tool. Pull the bolt back to its original position and rotate it into either notch at the rear of the cocking slot (this indicates that the bolt is all the way back).
Take aim, push the red safety lever forward until it clicks off and squeeze the trigger. Just 1 lb. of pressure takes the first stage out of the trigger. At 1 lb., 10.5 oz. the shot goes down range with a loud BOOM. As a shooter, I could feel the recoil and the tug of the muzzle as it wanted to lift. This is one powerful air pistol, and it lets you know it. The TalonP manual says you’ll get about 10 shots per fill at full power. You need to count those shots, because there is no gauge to tell you how much air is left.
The Air Force folks say 10 shots per fill, but if you turn a power down a bit, you'll get a shot curve that looks like this.
Shooting from a casual rest with the red dot, I was able to shoot groups with Benjamin .25 caliber pellets that were roughly 1 inch edge to edge at 13 yards. I strongly suspect that a shooter with a bipod and a rifle scope could do substantially better at longer ranges.
So, in the end, what is the TalonP? The airgun equivalent of an elephant gun for short people? A funky hunting pistol? An ultra-carbine? I think it may find its greatest acceptance among two groups: hunters who want a powerful airgun that can fit in a backpack and farmers and ranchers who want a powerful pest control tool they can slip behind the seats of their pickup trucks.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
It’s that time of year when the trees in upstate New York start to get streaked with color, when dried leaves begin to crunch under foot, when I get the urge to make sure that the stove on the sun porch is working properly.
While part of me wants to get ready for hibernation with a plentiful supply of warm beverages and good books next to a warm fire, another part of my inner man begins to nag at me: “This is a great time to get out and shoot. Find something fun and challenging to do!” And so, with my wife’s help, I did.
My wife is a frequent “silent” contributor to this blog. About a week ago she was thumbing through all the advertising circulars that get stuffed into the Sunday newspaper when she encountered a flyer from a craft shop.
One of the items in the circular was a “craft” pumpkin. A craft pumpkin, as it turns out, looks just like the kind of pumpkin that grows in a pumpkin patch, but it is made some kind of composite that can be carved like a regular pumpkin but won’t turn rotten over time like the real ones do. “That would make a great airgun target,” my Better Half said.
“Perhaps it would,” I said, as I began mulling the idea over in my head. A jack o’lantern would make an interesting target, I thought, but I wasn’t particularly keen on the notion of shooting up a craft pumpkin. Maybe I could come up with a paper target that would suffice.
A couple of more days of cogitation produced what you see below: Uncle Jock’s Great Pumpkin Challenge.
Here’s how it works: first, download the PDF file for the Great Pumpkin Challenge from this link. Next, print out the file at 100% on 8.5 x 11 paper, attach it to a safe target holder, and have at it.
These are the rules:
- Distance: 20 yards for match rifles and pistols under 12 foot pounds; 30 yards for air rifles and pistols 12 foot pounds and above. You can use any caliber you desire.
- The objective: Hit the black circles as close to the center as possible. There are 19 possible targets on the face of the jack o’lantern. Only one shot per black circle.
- Scoring: We’re using worst-edge scoring. If your pellet hole stays entirely within the black circle, you get 2 points. If any portion of the pellet hole breaks out of the black circle, you get one 1 point. If in doubt, you get the lower score. If you miss the black circle entirely, you get zero points. On some of the circles, it may be possible to squeeze a pellet entirely into the open space inside the black circle. If you manage that, you get 3 points. If any part of your pellet hole touches the black circle from the inside, you get 2 points. When in doubt, you get the lower score.
- Position: You may shoot from any position that is supported by the human body. SteadyAim harnesses are allowed, but shooting from a mechanical rest is not. If you want to shoot with your air rifle or pistol supported by a cushion, the airgun must be supported entirely by your hand or your arm which is resting on the cushion.
That’s it. Now print off your targets, go have fun, and let me know how you did. You can respond to this blog or you can email me with your scores and photos or scans of your targets at jock.elliott@gmail.com
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
The .22 Remington NPSS in digital camo.
When I reviewed the Crosman Airgun and Pellet Capabilities Chart discussed in last week’s blog, I was struck by the fact that, aside from the .25 caliber Benjamin Trail NP XL 725 (which I had written about a while back), only one of the breakbarrel air rifles listed on the chart consistently offers the longest estimated effective maximum range.
That rifle is the .22 caliber Remington NPSS. The chart suggests that it is capable of taking pigeons and squirrels at 42 yards, prairie dogs at 45 yards, raccoons at 15 yards, and turkeys at 30 yards. That’s quite a resume. And while I had reviewed the original Crosman NPSS in .177 a couple of years ago, I decided I needed to have a look at the Remington version in .22.
The Remington NPSS comes with a 3-9 x 40 scope and one-piece mount.
The good folks at Crosman were kind enough to send me one, and here’s the skinny. The Remington NPSS, which proudly displays “Made in the USA” on the receiver, stretches 43.75 inches from end to end and weighs 9 lbs exactly with the 3-9 x 40 CenterPoint scope mounted. Physically, the Remington NPSS is identical to its Crosman-branded predecessor. It has a weatherproof ambidextrous polymer thumbhole stock that features a soft rubber cheek piece and “nubbly” texturing at both the pistol grip and the forestock. It’s available in a digital camo finish (on the sample I tested) and a carbon fiber look, neither of which affect the performance of the gun.
The Remington NPSS is fitted with a soft rubber butt pad and cheek piece.
What really sets the Remington apart from other breakbarrel air rifles you may have shot is the NPSS powerplant. That stands for Nitro Piston Short Stroke. Unlike conventional breakbarrel air rifles, it has no spring. Instead it has a gas ram – much like the gas strut in the liftback of an SUV. When you break the barrel of the Remington NPSS to cock it, instead of compressing a spring, you’re driving back a piston which compresses gas in a cylinder. When the cocking mechanism latches, it holds the gas under pressure until you pull the trigger, allowing the piston to shoot forward, compressing air in front of it and launching the pellet down the barrel.
It works exactly the same as a conventional “springer,” except there is no spring, and that gives the NPSS some advantages. For example, you can leave it cocked for long periods without worrying that the spring will take “a set” and weaken the power of the air rifle. In addition, cocking is generally smoother, and there is no torque or vibration when the shot goes off. Crosman also claims that the NPSS powerplant is quieter than a conventional springer. From the shooter’s position behind the receiver, that is difficult to prove, and I’ve found that trying to measure the relative loudness of various airgun powerplants can be fiendishly difficult. Bottom line: if the NPSS didn’t seem especially quiet to me, it didn’t seem particularly loud either, which in my mind works out to “average” loudness.
Getting the Remington NPSS ready to shoot is straightforward. Grab the barrel near the muzzle and pull it down and back until it latches. This takes about 23-24 pounds of effort, according to Crosman. The cocking stroke is incredibly smooth, with no spring noise or creaking. Insert a pellet into the aft end of the breech and return the barrel to its original position.
Take aim. Flick off the safety (The Remington NPSS has a lever-style non-automatic safety inside the trigger guard). Squeeze the trigger. At 3 lb, 15 oz, the first stage comes out; at 6 lb, 8 oz, the shot goes down range. That’s heavier than I would like, but the trigger seemed very consistent and didn’t appear to interfere with accurate shooting.
With .22 Crosman Premier pellets, which went down range at about 850 fps and generated around 22.9 foot-pounds of energy, I was able to shoot essentially one-hole groups at 13 yards, but the groups opened up to 1.25 inches (edge to edge) at 30 yards. I also noticed that the point of impact would shift if I moved from sitting position to shooting off a rest to shooting offhand. It seems to me that the big trick with this air rifle is either (a) to learn where the point of impact will be from various shooting positions or (b) shoot consistently from only one position such as offhand.
In the end, I liked the .22 Remington NPSS. It seems to me to be a solid, workhorse air rifle that would serve many shooters well for pest control and hunting duties.
Til next time, aim true and shooting straight.
– Jock Elliott
There is now incontrovertible evidence that I should not be allowed to watch television late at night. And certainly not without serious supervision, the kind of high-level supervision that involves electrodes, neurologists, and technicians squinting at readouts.
Why? Because I blew the hindquarters off a camel today with an air pistol, that’s why. But I get ahead of myself. Let’s hit the rewind button for a minute and get back to the beginning.
It all started innocently enough. Some months back, El Rancho Elliott decided that we would subscribe to the online streaming version of Netflix. Then one day my Better Half discovered that the first season of Top Shot was available for instant viewing.
If you’re unfamiliar with Top Shot, here’s a quick synopsis. It’s a History Channel show that each season brings together 16 shooters to compete in a series of challenges. The challenges might involve shooting a .50 caliber Barrett, a .22 Ruger, throwing a tomahawk, shooting sporting clays, popping balloons with a blowgun, or nailing targets while hanging upsidedown. The challenges are fun, often difficult, and frequently involve not just accuracy but strategy. Week by week competitors are eliminated until there is just one remaining – the Top Shot – and he or she goes home with $100,000
Both my wife and I got hooked on Top Shot pretty quick. By the time we had finished watching the second season (I had been staying up late so I could see what happened in the next episode, and the next, you get the picture), my wife asked if we couldn’t create some similar challenges using airguns. Sure, I said.
Then, for some reason known only to the Powers That Be, the following popped into my head: why not go to the grocery store and buy some targets that the wildlife in the neighborhood could eat when we were done destroying them?
So I trundled off to my local supermarket and purchased the following: some big round crackers, some medium-sized round crackers, some cheese puff balls, and some animal crackers. I was on a roll now, but how was I going to secure the aforementioned targets to a board in front of my pellet trap?
Out of my fertile brain came the answer: frosting! Spread a generous portion of frosting on the edge the board and then stick the crackers into it. It would work, I thought; it had to work. I decided to get chocolate frosting for contrast in the photograph and also because I like chocolate frosting.
Arriving home with the goodies, I clipped a fresh target into the holder on my pellet trap and grabbed a hunk of 2 x 6 board that I usually use to support cans in front of my pellet trap. I buttered the thin edge of the board liberally with the chocolate frosting and then began sticking crackers into the goo. They stood up pretty well. You can see the results in the picture below.
The scene of the great grocery store shootout.
Next I needed to select a pneumatic weapon. I didn’t want to make it too easy, but neither did I want to make it too difficult either for my first experiment. So I chose the Smith & Wesson 6” revolver in black. Mine has a red dot mounted, I figured at 10 meters, I ought to be able to hit the large round crackers easily, but the cheese puff balls and the animal crackers might be difficult.
My weapon of choice: the Smith & Wesson 6" revolver with a red dot..
I inserted a fresh CO2 cartridge, loaded Crosman 7.9 Premier pellets into the rotary magazine, and let fly. Bang! My first shot was obviously high. I steadied my grip and fired again and again. No telltale holes appeared in the paper behind the targets, and none of the edibles had moved. I strolled up to have a peek, and I could see there were holes in the big crackers.
Aiming a bit lower, I knocked one of the big crackers off its perch. Next, I blew the hindquarters off one of the animal crackers, the camel. Aiming lower, I found it was easier to break the targets or send them flying.
In all, I used up some 40 pellets before just one of the cheese puff balls and some fragments were left.
- The aftermath of the great grocery store shootout.
Who knew that chocolate frosting splattered so easily? It cleans up fairly easily with a little soap and water. Maybe peanut butter will work better next time.
Still more evidence of the carnage.
Bottom line: It was a lot of fun but messy, and definitely worth doing. And it wasn’t bad eating the leftovers.
So now, dear reader, it’s your turn: how about sharing some of your favorite fun targets? You can post a response to this blog or email jock.elliott@gmail.com.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
All of us who shoot air rifles or air pistols in field target, silhouette, or Olympic ten meter disciplines have felt the pressure of competition. If you’re like me, sometimes you deal with it well and sometimes not so well.
Recently for Shooting Sports USA, I interviewed 13 NRA champions on “The Fine Art of not Cracking Under Pressure.” For the most part, these are not airgun shooters, but the advice that they offer applies to virtually any shooting discipline. The first installment of this three-part series appears in the September edition. If you would like to read the entire series, which runs some 10 pages altogether, you can sign up for a free subscription to the digital edition of Shooting Sports USA here: www.shootingsportsusa.com
Below, with permission from Shooting Sports USA, are some brief excerpts of the champions’ advice for shooting better under pressure.
Dr. Judy Tant, Bullseye Pistol
The fundamentals of handling match pressure are not very exotic. . . If you haven’t prepared, you deserve to be anxious, because it is in some sense a rational response. The other basic that is mundane is that the more matches you shoot, the more desensitized you are likely to be to the pressures of competition.
Phil Hemphill , PPC, Bullseye Pistol
I try to put pressure on myself when I’m practicing, so am accustomed to it in the actual match. Train as realistically as possible. That’s the good thing about training: If you make a mistake, you can go back and correct it. What separates the good shooters from the average shooters is that we have a set game plan, and we go back to our game plan or our checklist, and that helps me to feel that I am back in control.
Doug Koenig, Action Pistol
Everybody suffers from pressure, but the more you are in a particular situation, the better the chance you have of dealing with it. . . When I am in competition, I try to focus on what I have trained to do–Just pick one thing and focus on it. As an example, for the Bianchi competition, I try to focus on the middle of the target and put all my attention there. I try to maintain a laser focus on the exact center of the target.
Lanny Bassham, Smallbore Rifle
Here’s a myth: Pressure causes performance to drop. Pressure does not cause your performance to drop. What I learned about pressure was that when you feel the physical effects of pressure, it’s real. You feel an adrenaline rush, your heart rate goes u and your blood pressure goes up. I’ve seen shooters shoot extremely high scores with their legs shaking. Pressure doesn’t cause your scores to go up or down, but your attitude does. Your attitude is what’s important.
Another myth: If I could avoid pressure, I would do better. Actually, pressure is an amplifier. It is my friend. Pressure makes me realize what I’m doing is important so I pay better attention. Again, careful what you care about. Trust, rather than try when you’re shooting in national competition.
Jessie Abbate, Action Pistol
Not knowing where I stand as the match progresses puts me in a position to do my very best every time I step to the line–giving it everything I can, right there. If I am in a match and I know I have a good stage, it gives me self-confidence to shoot well. But I tell myself that stage is over, and the next stage is a brand new one. If I do badly, I have to drop it, forget it, and move on. Otherwise, dwelling on it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Launi Meile, Smallbore & Air Rifle
For me: Every time I shot, I expected to break a record. I had very positive expectations, but I trained to earn it. If you’re shooting 10 points better than you’ve ever shot, you need to bring it back down into perspective. If you’re saying to yourself “This could be a national record,” you’re bringing the future onto your shoulders, If that comes into your mind, you have to deal with it. But what is your job really right now? To shoot one perfect shot–the thing that you’ve done thousands of times to finish out this match. It takes practice.
Julie Golob, Action Pistol
The critical thing for me is to accept that there is going to be pressure. You’re going to feel nervous or can even have feelings of self-doubt. Add to that, whether you’re thinking about it or not, your body is going to naturally react to tension. The best thing you can do is simply accept this. . . The second thing, while you have all these emotions racing through your system, is to focus on technique. As an action shooter, I tell myself to micromanage everything about my stage–every little thing that I can, instant by instant. Nothing is on auto pilot when I’m preparing to shoot.
Jason Parker, Smallbore & Air Rifle
The best way to deal with any situation where you’re shooting so well you get scared of yourself is to have prepared yourself for those days when you are successful. You have to be ready for those big scores to hit you at any point. It starts with the training. You have to know that you’ve done everything you can to have your best day that day. . . I do a lot of breathing techniques. I don’t have to shoot a particular shot if I don’t want to, so I take a couple of deep breaths, let my heart rate go down and then I’m ready to shoot the shot.
Lones Wigger, Smallbore Rifle
To learn how to win, there are several things you have to learn how to do. You have to do it from within. You have to learn how to train just as if you were in a big competition. You work on every shot. You have got to learn to treat it just like a match–to get the maximum value out of every shot. You have got to use the same technique in practice and in training. A lot of shooters have a problem because they change their technique from practice to the match. In competition, you work your ass off for every shot. You have to approach the training the same way.
Brian Zins, Bullseye Pistol
For me, it’s all about shot process. There should be nothing you do different from shot to shot; whether you’re shooting good or shooting bad. Every good shooter develops a process. The difference between a good shooter and a bad shooter is consistency. From the time you decided you’re going to shoot a shot until the shot goes off, everything has to be the same.
Bruce Piatt, PPC, Action Pistol
On match day, I expect to be nervous; the trick is to monitor yourself and not let it overcome you. Some people, especially new shooters, will have a tremor in their hands and they will panic, making themselves more nervous. Know that it is coming, accept that it is here, and deal with it. Before shooting, I can feel it coming. I often breathe deeply, which does help some. I store my stress in my shoulders, so I do some shoulder rolls, look at the leaves and trees and think what a nice day it is. Anything to get my mind off of the match, if only for a moment. If you focus totally on the shooting all day long, you’ll burn yourself out.
Carl Bernosky, High Power & Action Pistol
I have a routine that takes me right up to where the trigger goes off. When I see what I need to see in the sights, the gun goes off. I try not to pay attention to the gun moving and all the self-talk that comes at you. When I see the sight picture that is correct, the gun should go off. The worst thing you can do in a match is be cautious; being cautious makes you overthink. You want to be in your match mode in practice and your practice mode at the match. Your brain is what makes you nervous, and if you have accustomed your brain to what you are doing, that helps to minimize pressure.
Ernie Vande Zande, Smallbore Rifle
There is something that I do that is called contingency planning. I’m off the range when I’m doing this, and I’m identifying a list of things that could you wrong. If item ‘A’ happens, what is the best, most logical thing for me to do to get back into the competition at a high level? If it actually happens, then you implement the plan that you have already thought out. You know what to do and you do it. It takes a lot of discipline to learn to do this and do it well.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
Part I showed you how to disassemble the Marauder in preparation to installing the HDD. In Part II, you’ll learn how to install the HDD. The numbering of steps follows in sequence from Part I.
5. Now, insert the vinyl Installation Tube provided in HDD kit into Bolt hole at the rear of the Breech. You’ll notice that the tube has an asymmetrical flare on one end. Steve calls this the Retention Tab; I call it the “fish lip.” Insert the tube into the hole at the back of the breech so that the fish lip is protruding from the breech and pointed downward, per the picture below:
Next, using a screwdriver or allen wrench, push the vinyl tube forward until about 1/2″ emerges into magazine slot in the breech. Flip the breech over so that you can see the underside. You should be able to see the vinyl tube visible through a slot under the breech. With pliers or an allen wrench, pull the fish lip so that it sticks into the slot, roughly flush with the edge.
The picture below shows the fish lip in the slot, but the aft end of the tube should actually be about a half inch further toward the muzzle.
6. Remove Screw #25 from Hammer #40. This will require use of the 9/64 allen wrench. Screw #25 will not be reinstalled – the place it occupied will be used by the HDD. Set it aside in case you ever want to return the Marauder to factory trim.
Next, set HDD with its ball bearing fitting into hole exposed by the removal of screw #25, with HDD concave side facing toward the muzzle end of the Marauder.
7. At this point you need to hold the Marauder very steady because, as Steve puts it, “the only thing holding the HDD in its proper position at this moment are Happy Thoughts.” Of course, once assembly is completed, the HDD will be securely captured and locked in position between hammer and bolt. But for now, it’s a little precarious. If you removed the barrel from the barrel band, slide the barrel back into position now. Next, very carefully, lower the breech onto the air tube, taking care that HDD enters the slot on the bottom of the breech, and the Transfer Port Sleeve #19 slides into its port in the breech. Make sure that both Breech Gaskets #29 are in their correct positions before completing this operation. While bringing the breech back down onto the air tube, I found it helpful to use a small flashlight to locate the hole that the transfer port sleeve should slide into. The Big Trick here is to complete this operation without knocking the HDD out of position. Remember to keep thinking those “Happy Thoughts!”
8. Once you have the breech back on top of the air tube, replace Screws #31 and (both) #36 screws. Screw #31 tends to fall off the allen wrench, so insert the allen wrench as firmly as possible into the screw head before lowering the screw into position. Below is what the completed assembly should look like.
9. Gently slide the vinyl Installation Tube back until contact with the HDD is felt. Apply gentle but firm finger pressure to end of Tube to hold HDD in position. The picture below shows the approximate position of the installation tube when it is touching the HDD.
10. While holding the bolt handle in a vertical position, slide the Bolt #9 into Breech #8, so that Bolt passes over HDD and contacts Installation Tube. While applying counterpressure on Installation Tube to hold HDD upright and in position, continue sliding Bolt so that Installation Tube fully emerges into the Magazine slot. Shine your flashlight on the vinyl tube in the magazine slot. If you see the bolt probe protruding into the vinyl tubing, you know that the bolt has passed over the HDD. (The function of the installation tube is simply to hold the HDD in position while reinserting the bolt into the Marauder.)
11. Using care not to damage the Bolt probe, with long-nose pliers or similar tool, pull the Installation Tube out and free of the Breech. I used a small screwdriver to tease the end of the tube out of the magazine slot and then grabbed it with needle nose pliers.
12. Replace Plunger #7. Note: the plunger controls how easy to hard it is to rotate the bolt. You don’t want to tighten it as hard as you can. Tighten it a little, test the results, and retighten or loosen as needed. Next, replace Screw #26 and Bushing #24. If you keep the Marauder upright, you run the risk of the screw and/or bushing slipping off the allen wrench and disappearing into the innards of the gun. Instead, invert the gun so that you are inserting the screw upwards. That way, if it falls, it will fall out of the Marauder.
13. Check your work. With the gun fully reassemble, slide the bolt all the way home. You’ll probably notice some friction as the bolt slides over the HDD. Since you cocked the Marauder when you started this installation, flip the safety off and pull the trigger. The gun should fire.
Next, cock the Marauder. (If it won’t cock at all, the HDD is probably out of proper position, and you need to retreat to step 7 and start again from there.) You may notice that the cocking effort is extremely high during the first dozen or so shots, but the effort drops noticeably as the HDD assembly wears in. Congratulations, you’re done! You now have a Marauder that will deliver more shots per fill because it wastes less compressed air, and it will shoot more consistent velocities as well.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
Note: This blog on installing the Marauder HDD is broken into two parts. Part I covers the disassembly of the Marauder prior to installation. Part II will cover the installation of the HDD itself.
Virtually all airguns that store gas under pressure (such as pre-charged pneumatics, multi-stroke pneumatics, and CO2 guns) and use a knock-open valve suffer from hammer bounce. When the airgunner triggers the shot, the hammer hits the valve and knocks it open, allowing gas to rush into the breech, propel the pellet down the barrel, and out the muzzle. So far, so good. The very next thing that happens is that the compressed gas inside the reservoir acts like a spring and pushes the valve shut, often with enough force to drive the hammer off the valve. The hammer then slams back down on the valve (this is hammer bounce) and pops the valve open again. When this happens, the gun wastes air (or CO2) and makes a louder report than necessary. Even worse, hammer bounce contributes absolutely nothing to the propulsion of the pellet downrange, since the pellet has already left the barrel before the hammer bounce occurs.
To prevent hammer bounce, a hammer debounce device (HDD) is needed to prevent the hammer from rebounding off the valve and needlessly opening the valve again. The result of installing an HDD is a flatter shot curve with more shots per fill, as shown by the diagram below.
To install the Marauder HDD, engineered by Steve Woodward and offered by Airguns of Arizona, you will need to print this Marauder Parts Diagram from Crosman Corporation:
http://www.crosman.com/pdf/manuals/1763%20and%202263%20EVP%20and%20PL%20update.pdf
You will also need a flat-blade screwdriver, pliers, needle nose pliers, a 3/32” allen wrench, and a 9/64” allen wrench. A small flashlight will also be helpful. Note: you don’t have to remove the action from the stock, but you can if you want to.
The HDD kit (shown below) includes the HDD itself (right) and a vinyl installation tube.
Okay, let’s get started.
1. SAFETY FIRST! First, remove the magazine or single-shot tray, and degas (depressurize) rifle. You will be working with the rifle cocked (see below), and if you inadvertently trigger a shot with the rifle pressurized, you could (as Steve Woodward put it) “send the transfer port parts to the fourth dimension.”
2. Set the safety and cock the rifle.
3. Remove Plunger #7. This is a screw assembly at the extreme back edge of the receiver.
You’ll need the flat blade screwdriver for this.
Here’s what the assembly you are removing looks like:
Next, remove Screw #26 and Bushing #24 that is attached to it. You’ll need the 9/64 allen wrench for this, and you’ll find the screw on the lefthand side of the receiver, just aft of the magazine slot.
BIG NOTE: There is a bushing around the shaft of screw #26, and it will want to fall into the innards of the gun if it doesn’t stay attached to the screw as the screw is removed – so try to tilt the gun so that the screw and its bushing want to fall out of the gun as you are unscrewing it.
With screw #26 and its associated bushing removed, you can slide the bolt #9 completely out of the back of the breech.
4. Next, remove Screw #31. This requires sliding the 3/32 allen wrench into the hole from which you removed Plunger #7. I found I had to use pliers on the end of the allen wrench to get the screw to break free.
Next remove (both) Screws #36 using the 3/32 allen wrench. These are located on either side of the breech forward of the magazine slot.
With screw #31 and both screws #36 removed, you can lift the breech #8 free of Tube #1. If it is easier for you at this point, you can also slide the barrel out of the barrel band, completely freeing the breech and barrel assembly from the rest of the Marauder’s air tube assembly.
We are now done disassembling the Marauder breech in preparation to installing the HDD. Next time, we’ll go through the actual installation of the HDD.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
The Vortex Diamondback mounted on my Diana TH56.
Back in March of 2010, I did a blog on scopes, springers, and recoil http://198.154.244.69/blog/2010/03/scopes-springers-and-recoil.html.
In it, I suggested that “if you have been shooting a heavily recoiling springer (or gas ram), and you’ve been noticing your shots sometimes fall exactly where the gun is pointed and sometimes they inexplicably go elsewhere, it just might be your scope reacting badly to the recoil. As a result, you might want to consider changing to a fixed power scope . . .”
Since then, a couple of things have happened.
The first is that I have heard from two people who report that they have had fixed power scopes fail while mounted on an RWS54, which is a heavily recoiling springer.
The second is that on May 1, 2011, I attended a field target match at Eastern Field Target Competitors Club http://198.154.244.69/blog/2011/05/field-target-at-eftcc.html, and there I met Hector Medina. Several things set Medina apart from the crowd in field target competition. The first is that he campaigns a .20 caliber Diana 54 recoilless spring-piston air rifle in the piston class. While the recoilless Diana/RWS springers are rising in popularity in field target, even now you don’t see many of them in competition. It’s also unusual that he shoots .20 caliber when most FT competitors shoot .177.
Medina shooting his RWS54 with the Diamondback scope.
Second, Medina shoots with just a 12 power scope in piston class when most competitors use much higher power scopes. Third, Medina has done quite well with his rig, taking third at the US Nationals in 2010 and winning the piston class at the Northeastern Regionals in 2011. He says he gets a kick out of the fact that he has done reasonably well using “a squirrel rifle.”
And that brings us, in a roundabout way, to the subject of today’s blog: the Vortex Diamondback 4-12×40 AO scope. Why? Because that’s the scope that Hector Medina uses on top of his RWS 54 for field target competition. Medina has used the Vortex Diamondback 4-12×40 AO for about 14 months now and has put about seven thousand pellets downrange during that period without any problems with the Vortex Diamondback scope. That is high praise indeed, and Medina’s experience speaks well of the quality of the Vortex scope. The plain truth is that you can’t do well in field target competition if you are having problems with your scope.
Based on Medina’s experience, I decided to have a look at the Vortex Diamondback 4-12×40 AO, and the short version of the story is that I am quite impressed. The Diamondback 4-12 stretches just a hair over 13 inches from end to end and weighs just a smidgeon under 15 ounces. It is a variable-power scope with a one-inch tube and a 40mm objective that offers magnifications from 4x to 12x. The eye relief is just a bit over 3 inches, and the focus adjusts from 10 yards to infinity.
The Vortex Diamondback 4-12×40 AO is equipped with the Dead-Hold BDC reticle is a kind of mil-dot lite reticle with just one dot on either side of the crosshairs and three dots below the crosshairs. This works really well for field target, since you can set the reticle up so that the top of your trajectory is at the crosshairs and then work out what ranges the dots below the crosshairs represent. Below is the setup that Medina uses with his gun.
Here is how Medina setup his Dead-Hold BDC reticle. This aimchart is valid ONLY in the gun that originated it: a Diana 54, equipped with an HMO Piston, in 0.20"; cal. firing 13.7 grs. JSB Exacts at 800 fps. Scope is the Vortex Optics DiamondBack 4-12X40 AO DH/BDC on BKL 260-D7 mounts. It is the property and under Copyright of Connecticut Custom Airguns, LLC; no warranties or claims are made to its suitability for other cases.
Besides the BDC reticle, I really like three things about the Vortex Diamondback 4-12×40 AO. First, when I looked through the scope, I thought the optics were really bright and crisp. Second, I found the knurled sections on the objective bell and power adjustment ring were easy to grip. Third, I was impressed with the quality of the elevation and windage adjustment knobs.
Take off the caps on this scope and you find very nice adjustment knobs.
Finally, the Vortex folks must think pretty highly of their scopes: the Diamondback 4-12×40 AO is backed by an unlimited and unconditional lifetime warranty.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
