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
This is the pre-production version of the new Webley Tempest that I got to play with.
There are plans afoot to reintroduce the Webley Tempest. Airguns of Arizona sent me a pre-production sample and asked me to check it out. The experience was as unique as getting a ride in a Morgan three-wheeler.
There is something about the Tempest that reeks of espionage. Weighing just 2 lbs. 4.1 oz., and only about 9 inches long, it could be slipped in an overcoat pocket. The first time that I handled it, a thought sprang unbidden to mind: “This looks like the kind of thing the lads in the OSS would have carried for popping Nazi collaborators.” Of course, I have no information whatsoever that the OSS did any such thing with a Webley Tempest, but still the suspicion lurks.
The Tempest has a distinctly utilitarian look about it. It makes no attempt to emulate a firearm. Its appearance says purely: “air pistol.” It seems to be constructed mostly of matte black metal, although the pistol grips appear to be plastic. The left grip has a pronounced thumb shelf, at the end of which is a lever safety. Below that, a matte black trigger guard surrounds a matte black trigger.
Forward of that, “Webley Tempest” is emblazoned on the forward end of the receiver in white letters. Above that is the barrel, the muzzle end of which is fitted with a blade-type front sight. Moving back along the barrel, you’ll find a knurled section (for gripping, I’ll explain in a moment), and a metal strap that wraps over the breech end of the barrel. On the left side of the metal strap is a pad for pushing with your thumb, and the whole thing is attached to a spring-loaded assembly. That’s all there is to the Webley Tempest.
Here the barrel is released from the receiver, ready to begin the cocking stroke.
To ready the Tempest for shooting, with your right hand press the thumb pad on the metal strap forward, toward the muzzle end of the pistol. This rotates the metal strap backwards, toward the rear sight, releasing the aft end of the barrel. Keeping the strap pushed toward the rear of the pistol, with your left hand grasp the knurled portion of the barrel and pull upward. This releases the breech end of the barrel from the receiver.
The Tempest is now fully cocked and ready to be loaded.
Now, this is where it gets interesting. Still gripping the knurled portion of the barrel, pull the breech end of the barrel up and forward until it latches. This requires an estimated 30 lbs of effort and seems very awkward to me. I found it helpful to brace the pistol against my thigh during cocking, but be careful: the end of the barrel rotates toward the trigger guard as the pistol is cocked, and it can pinch a bunch of skin.
Next, insert a pellet into the breech end of the barrel and return it to its original position. Take aim at your target, flick off the safety, and squeeeeeze the trigger. The Tempest appears to have a single-stage trigger. The manual says it can be adjusted from approximately 3 to 5 lbs. At 5 lbs. 1 oz. sample I tested sent the pellet down range. I tested the .22 caliber version, and 14.35 gr JSB Express pellets whistled through the chronograph at a leisurely 300 fps, which works out to 2.86 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle, but that’s enough to puncture one side of a soup can at 7 yards.
From a sitting position, I was able to put 3 out of 5 shots inside an inch-and-a-half circle. The sights have no micro-adjustment. To change elevation, loosen a screw and slide the sight up or down. To change windage, loosen a different screw and slide the sight left or right. It’s a crude system, but it works, although making small adjustments is a delicate art.
In the end, I found the Tempest a mixed bag. I would have preferred lower cocking effort and easier-to-adjust sights, but I loved the old-fashioned looks and the gentle recoil.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
I did a head-to-head comparison between these two pellets and was surprised by the results.
Not long ago, Greg at Airguns of Arizona asked me if I would like to have a look at the Predator Polymag pellet.
For me, testing pellets always seems a problematic business. The reason is simple: in my view, the number one rule of pellet selection for airguns is: let the gun choose the ammunition. It doesn’t matter what your buddy’s gun shoots or what all the fellows are saying on the internet. What matters is what pellet delivers the greatest accuracy with your airgun at the range at which you intend to shoot. Everything else is secondary to accuracy, because if you can’t hit what you’re aiming at, all other considerations – such as power, penetration, expansion – are moot.
As a result, every airgunner who wants to get the most out of his or her airgun will have to test several different types of pellets, shooting groups with them at the same distances, to see which pellets produce the smallest groups. If it turns out that those tests reveal several pellets that produce very similar (and desirable) results, then you can start thinking about those other considerations such as power, penetration, expansion and so forth as you narrow down your pellet selection. So what’s the best pellet? The one that works best in your airgun. End of story.
Having said that, the Predator Polymag makes some specific claims that are testable. Right on the top of the tin, besides saying “Proven the best hunting pellet made!” and “Superior accuracy and take-down punch,” it also says “The hollow head design with sharp polymer tip offers match grade accuracy with incomparable penetration and expansion.”
Now, whether you get match grade accuracy is going to depend upon which airgun you use to launch the Predator Polymag, but “incomparable penetration and expansion???” I began to think about how I could test that those claims.
I remembered seeing a report on the internet how a fellow had shot bars of soap to test relative penetration, so I decided to do that. I bought some large bars of Ivory soap and shot them at point blank range with my FWB150: two shots with .177 Predator Polymag pellets and two shots with .177 JSB Exacts. Both pellets penetrated the full length of the bar of soap, producing entrance holes, through-tunnels, and exit holes that appeared to be identical. So far, there is no discernible difference in performance between the two pellets, both of which are made by JSB.
It occurred to me that perhaps the Predator Polymag wanted to hit a harder surface to promote expansion, so I then shot a soup can at 13 yards: one shot with each pellet with my FWB150. Both shot penetrated both side of the soup can, and again I could see no discernible difference between the performance of the two pellets.
Okay, I thought, maybe I’m not launching the Predator Polymag shooting fast enough (the FWB generally launches 8 gr. pellets around 640 fps) to really get the best performance out of them and maybe the Predator Polymag pellets need a difference medium to penetrate. So I grabbed a stack of paperback books, taped them together, and took one shot with each pellet at a distance of 13 yards, but this time I was using my Benjamin Marauder, which usually generates close to 20 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle.
I carefully examined the stack of books and found that only one pellet had penetrated sufficiently to “disrupt” the back cover of the first book, a 440-page paperback. That pellet was the JSB Exact. Paging backward through the book, I found the nose of the JSB Exact pellet poking through page 425. Continuing to page backward through the book, I found that the Polymag Predator disrupted page 385, and I found the pellet poking through page 219.
Both pellets were pretty well mangled when extracted from the book, but both appeared to be expanded about the same.
Taking care, I extracted each pellet from the pages of the book. I found the Predator Polymag had lost its polymer point even earlier in the book, but that there was no discernible difference in the expansion of the two pellets.
The bottom line: if the Predator Polymag shoots accurately in your airgun, by all means use it if it meets your needs (and on the internet, I have read many hunters raving about the performance of the pellet), but I was not able to prove – at least with the .177 version of this pellet – the manufacturer’s claims of “incomparable penetration and expansion.”
Til Next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
Every once in a while, you’ll see on the Yellow Forum a topic centering around the topic: “What would be the best survival air rifle?”
I always read these forum threads with great interest because the topic of survival in the wilds has always fascinated me. I remember reading the tale of a group of young men who made an exceptional canoe passage on a Canadian river in high northern latitudes. The passage of the full length of this particular river had never been done before; they had a limited time window in the arctic summer, and they would be beyond communication and beyond outside help, completely on their own. As I recall, they had some accidents, lost some of their supplies, and scarcity of food became an issue.
As I read the account, I began to wonder: if I had to select an airgun to take with me on such a trip – one that would be suitable for collecting food – what would it be?
A while back in this blog, I came up with a list of characteristics that I would like to see in a survival airgun. Looking back at it, I have decided to modify some of my thinking, and I have noted the changes in italics.
1. Portability. That means either a pistol or a rifle than can be readily broken down or at least a rifle that is not overly heavy.
2. Self-contained.
3. Sufficient power for taking small game.
4. Stealthy report to minimize scaring game.
5. Easy to shoot well. Spring-piston powerplants are the hardest to shoot well because of their whiplash forward and back recoil. Multi-stroke pneumatics are easy to shoot well.
6. Reliability. Airguns dealers tell me that springers are the most reliable powerplant. You can usually put at least a couple of thousand rounds through one before a rebuild is needed, and some are far more reliable. Further, springers tend to be “fail soft,” that is, you can break a mainspring, burn a piston seal, and many springers will continue to launch pellets, albeit much less efficiently. By contrast, some multi-stroke pneumatics can fail in storage simply because the seals dry out or lose flexibility.
7. Ease of maintenance. Spring piston powerplants typically require a spring compressor for assembly and disassembly. MSPs usually can be taken apart with hand tools. Also, a high level of weather resistance.
You’ll notice that some of these characteristics are at odds with each other, so you have to make your gun selection based on what’s most important to you.
A couple of weeks ago, the folks at UmarexUSA sent me an air rifle that would make my short list for a survival airgun – the RWS Model 34 P.
The 34 P, a variant of the classic Model 34 breakbarrel air rifle, stretches 46 inches from end to end and weighs just 7.7 lbs with its fiber-optic iron sights. At the aft end of the buttstock is a black plastic butt pad with “Diana” (the name of the German manufacturer) and some horizontal ridges molded into it. Moving forward, the entire stock – buttstock, forestock, and trigger guard – is molded of an all-weather engineering polymer that has a very fine-grain pebble finish. At the pistol grip and foregrip, there are high-profile ridges molded into the polymer that do an admirable job of providing grip.
The red fiber optic front sight.The green fiber optic rear sight.
The molded trigger guard houses the new metal TO6 trigger which is adjustable only for length of first-stage travel. Underneath the forestock is a long slot that provides clearance for the linkage when cocking the 34 P. At the end of the barrel, a molded polymer muzzlebrake serves as a mount for a globe-type front sight which houses a red fiber optic rod. The sight “hood” has slots in it that allow sunlight to reach and illuminate the optic fiber. Moving back along the barrel, you’ll find the notch-type rear sight which has green fiber optics on either side of the notch. The result is that the correct sight picture will show one green dot on either side of a red dot. Moving further back, you’ll find a dovetail for mounting a scope and, at the extreme aft end of the receiver, a push-pull resettable safety.
To ready the 34 P at the muzzle break and crank the barrel down and back until it latches. This will take about 30 lbs. of effort. Stuff a pellet into the breech and return the barrel to its original position. Take aim at your target, take aim at your target, and squeeze the trigger. On the sample that I tested, the first stage came out at about 1 lb. 9 oz. At 2 lb. 4.6 oz., the shot went down range with alacrity – the 34 P was launching .177 caliber 7.9 gr. Crosman Premier Light pellets at 905 fps. With a scope mounted, I was able to put 5 JSB Exact pellets into a group at 30 yards that you could easily cover with a dime.
In the end, I find the RWS Model 34 P to be a worthy candidate for a survival air rifle. It is highly weather resistant, the fiber optics sights are easy to see and provide an excellent sight picture, and the accuracy is commendable.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
The Desert Eagle is a CO2 repeater pistol that just begs to be shot fast.
As a fulltime freelance writer, I occasionally get some really neat assignments. Recently I interviewed a dozen NRA national champions about how they prepare for and handle pressure in competition.
Among them, I got to interview several action pistol shooters. And that got me to thinking: man, I would love to have a good game that I could play with rapid-fire air pistols – a game where I could shoot turning targets, falling plates, and the like, all against the clock. If you would like to get an idea of what might be possible shooting action air pistols, check out these videos of airsoft IPSC shooters here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PB7BNo0zWM and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABhkFTO4cp4
Recently, the good folks at UmarexUSA sent me an air pistol that I think would be a prime candidate for shooting an action air pistol game: the Desert Eagle. The Desert Eagle is a big, beefy pistol constructed primarily of matte black engineering polymer. It stretches about 10.5 inches from end to end and weighs 2 lb. 10.9 oz. Like most of Umarex’s action pistols that look like a semi-automatic, the Desert Eagle is actually a single-action/double-action revolver. .177 caliber pellets are loaded into an eight-shot rotary magazine that, when in use, is hidden by the receiver of the “automatic.” What sets the Desert Eagle apart from the others is that this is a blow-back pistol. We’ll find out why that is important in just a little while, but first let’s take a tour of the Desert Eagle (DE).
Here are the beavertail, the hammer (cocked), and the safety.
At the back end of the DE, you’ll find a pronounced “Beaver tail” that curls back over the shooters thumb. Above that is the hammer, which can be pulled back to put the DE into single-action mode. Just forward of that is the portion of the upper receiver that blows back when the DE shoots. On either side of the receiver are safety levers – pull either one down to safe the action, push either one up to allow the DE to fire. On top of the receiver is the notch-type rear sight which can be adjusted for windage only by loosening a screw, manually moving the sight, and re-tightening the screw.
Underneath this big brass screw is where the CO2 cartridge goes. The Desert Eagle comes with a wide flat screwdriver that fits the screw.
Forward of the beaver tail is the pistol grip which is lightly textured for better adhesion in the hand. On the bottom of the pistol grip is a large brass screw which is removed for loading a single 12-gram CO2 cartridge. Forward of the pistol grip, a molded polymer trigger guard surrounds a molded polymer trigger. Just above the trigger on the left side of the DE is a lever. Pull it downward, and the barrel sleeve, which houses the 5.7-inch .177 caliber barrel, is released to move forward so that the rotary magazine can be inserted into the breech.
Forward of the trigger guard, underneath the receiver, is a flat spot. The DE comes with an optional Picatinny rail for accessories that can be attached to the flat spot with a couple of screws. Moving ahead again, you’ll find the muzzle of the DE and above that, the blade-type front sight. To the rear of the front sight is another Picatinny rail on top of the DE. That’s all there is to the Desert Eagle.
To ready the DE for shooting, take the wide, flat screwdriver provided with the pistol and remove the large brass screw at the bottom of the pistol grip. Drop in a 12-gram CO2 cartridge nose first and replace the brass screw snugly. Load eight flatnose or roundnose pellets into the magazine from the rear (the front of the magazine has a flat face). Do not use pointed pellets.
The barrel sleeve is in the forward position, showing the gap where the 8-shot rotary magazine is inserted.
Release the barrel sleeve, place the magazine in the breech, and push the barrel sleeve back into position until it latches. Take aim at your target, flick off the safety and . . . now, at this point, you have two choices: you can shoot the DE in double-action mode or single-action mode. In double-action mode (in which you do not pre-cock the hammer), the trigger pull is 8 lb., 1 oz., but in single-action mode (with the hammer pre-cocked), the effort to pull the trigger drops to 4 lb. 9 oz.
Now, here’s the really cool part. The DE is a blowback pistol, so as soon as you trigger the first shot, the slide blows back and automatically cocks the hammer for the next shot. With the hammer pre-cocked, that makes it much easier to fire each following shot and to shoot a magazine-load of pellets quite rapidly.
The specifications for the Desert Eagle claim 425 fps, but I found it would launch 7 grain RWS Hobby pellets at 469 fps (average) in 80 degree weather. UmarexUSA tells me you can expect about 50 shots from a fresh CO2 cartridge.
Here's the Desert Eagle, tricked out with the Walther Top Point II on the top rail and the Walther FLR650 flashlight/laser combo on the lower rail.
I mounted a Walther Top Point II red dot on the top rail of the DE, and it really helped me to aim and shoot at targets very quickly. I also tried mounting a Walther FLR650 combination flashlight and laser on the lower rail, but I found I couldn’t see the laser in full bright sunshine, although it works quite well in dimmer conditions.
The bottom line: I give my hearty personal recommendation to the Desert Eagle, with an extra hearty recommendation to the Desert Eagle with the Walther Top Point II red dot sight. Now, if somebody would just invent a really good action shooting game for air pistols . . .
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
B-r-a-a-a-p!
The Steel Storm packs a lot of rapid-fire fun into an air pistol.
The thing in my hand chattered off six shots faster than I could blink, faster than I could think.
Holy BLEEP, I wasn’t expecting that.
I squeezed the trigger again. Braaap. Six BBs punctured the target with the speed of a lightning stroke.
Braaap. Like Dr. Jeckyll’s potion, I could feel the object in my fist working a change within me. Sure, I was gripping it, but it was definitely exerting some sort of power over me. I was beginning to like this power in my hand.
Braaap. A fiendish chuckle issued from my lips, and I began to look for things I could shred.
At the back edge of the lawn I found a tall weed, and I didn’t like the way it was looking at me. Braaap. It won’t be doing that again for a while.
********
Normally, I think of myself as a mild-mannered marksman who enjoys the challenges of shooting well and who prefers slow accurate fire over a torrent of projectiles. The Steel Storm from Umarex, however, has opened my eyes to the pleasures of an area of airgunning I hadn’t considered before: extreme rapid fire.
The Steel Storm Tactical BB gun is really an air machine pistol. About 15 inches long and weighing about 2.7 pounds, it is powered by two 12-gram CO2 cartridges and can fire either single .177 BBs or six-shot bursts.
Made mostly of matte black engineering plastics, the Steel Storm looks like an elongated brick with a pistol grip attached. The aft end is squared off and unadorned. On the left side, a couple of inches from the end, is a rotary switch for selecting single shot mode or six-shot burst. Forward of that is a slide switch that can “safe” the trigger.
The magazine drops out the the pistol grip to reveal a holder for two 12-gram CO2 cartridges.
Below that is the pistol grip that houses the twin CO2 cartridges. A button on the left side of the grip near the trigger guard releases the CO2 carrier, and another button on the “heel” of the pistol grip allows the CO2 magazine to be removed completely.
That long slot above the trigger is for the BB magazine and BB follower.
Forward of the pistol grip, the black plastic trigger guard surrounds a black plastic trigger. Moving forward again, the underside of the Steel Storm is fitted with a Picatinny rail for mounting a flashlight, laser, or other accessory. Above the Picatinny rail on the left side is the BB magazine with a sliding BB follower. Forward of that, the muzzle is surrounded by a short, fat cylinder that looks like it could be fitted with an ersatz “can.”
Above the muzzle, at the top front edge of the receiver is the front post-type sight. To the rear of that is another Picatinny rail, running all the way back to the fixed, notch-type rear sight. Finally, at the top rear edge of the receiver is the cocking lever.
Here's the small hex wrench inserted into the righthand piercing screw.
To ready the Steel Storm for shooting, put the action on SAFE, drop the CO2 magazine out of the pistol grip and remove the front cover. Inside the front cover, you’ll find a small hex wrench tucked into a small compartment provided for it. Use the hex wrench to turn counterclockwise the two piercing screws at the bottom of the CO2 magazine.
Put one CO2 cartridge in each of the slots (having anointed the small end of each with one drop of RWS Chamber Lube), and turn the piercing screws clockwise until the cartridges are pierced. Replace the hex wrench and front cover and slide the CO2 magazine back into the pistol grip until it clicks in place.
The front sight pulls back to open the loading port for the BB reservoir.
Next, pull the front sight back toward the rear of the receiver to open the loading port for the BB reservoir chamber. Pour in up to 300 BBs and slide the front sight back to its original position. Next, slide the BB follower toward the muzzle and lock it into place. Now shake or rock the Steel Storm until 30 BBs load into the BB magazine. After that, gently release the BB follower.
Pull the cocking lever all the way back and release it. Put the selector on single shot or burst. Move the safety to FIRE. Squeeze the trigger and let’er rip. At 4 lbs. 13 oz., the shot goes off, launching RWS Match Grade Precision Steel BBs at about 420 fps.
Here's the Steel Storm with a Walther Shot Dot green dot sight mounted on the top rail.
At seven yards, I found the Steel Storm would put at least some of the BBs from a burst through the side of a soup can. I shot it only a few times in single shot mode, mostly when I was adjusting the Walther Shot Dot green dot sight I mounted on the top rail. I also tried the FLR 650 flashlight/laser combo on the bottom rail and found that the combination of the green dot and red laser made a neat sighting duo.
The Big Fun with the Steel Storm is the burst mode. It made me feel like a ten-year-old boy on the first day of spring, ready to go out and conquer the world, or at least the neighborhood.
Is this rapidly firing BB gun actually good for any practical use? Perhaps for shooting mice or rats in a warehouse.
But really, after you fire that first burst, you won’t care . . . you’ll just know that it is fun.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
To ready the Air Range for shooting, you first have to load the magazine, and, fortunately, it is one of the easiest loading magazines I’ve seen in a long time. Here’s the drill: hold the magazine so that the side with the multiple holes is facing toward you. Insert a pellet, nose-first, into the first pellet bay through the large hole at the bottom of the magazine. You will probably have to use something to push the pellet fully into the pellet bay. I used a ballpoint pen with the point retracted. Rotate the silver part of the magazine counter-clockwise until it clicks and the next empty pellet bay is visible. Insert the next pellet into that bay, and so forth. Just keep doing that until the magazine if full. It’s quick, easy, and straightforward.
To insert the magazine into the action, pull the bolt back and slide the magazine in from the left side with the multi-hole face pointed toward the buttstock. Note well: when you pull the bolt back, pull it all the way back until it clicks. Why? Because it is possible to pull the bolt back far enough that you can insert the magazine but not far enough that the action is cocked.
That happened to me the first time I attempted to shoot the Air Ranger. There I was – the magazine inserted into the rifle, the bolt forward so that a pellet had been pushed into the barrel, the safety off, and I couldn’t get the rifle to fire! That sort of situation makes me very, very nervous. After a quick phone call to Airguns of Arizona, I was instructed to pull the bolt back fully until it clicked. Unfortunately, that also cycled the magazine again, so now I had two pellets in the barrel. That happened to me three times while I was testing the Air Ranger, and the only cure (besides prevention) is to pull the trigger, send two pellets downrange at the same time, and try again.
So, having inserted the magazine and pulled the bolt back until it clicks, push the bolt forward to slide a pellet out of the magazine and into the barrel. Take aim at your target, flick off the safety, and squeeze the trigger. On the sample that I tested, the first stage came out at l lb , 1.4 oz. At 1 lb, 12.7 oz, the shot went downrange – with a tremendous bang and crack.
Okay, I know that's not a dime, but I literally didn't have a dime in my pocket when I was taking the picture.
I had not realized it at first, but I was shooting the 50 foot-pound version of the .22 Air Ranger. The light JSB .22 Express pellets were clearly going supersonic. I emptied the magazine and loaded some JSB .22 Jumbo pellets. There was no more supersonic crack, but the gun was still loud, although significantly subdued compared to some other very high powered air rifles I have shot. Even though the Jumbo pellets were ripping downrange at around 1076 fps (41 foot-pounds), at 30 yards I was able to shoot a pretty shamrock-shaped group that you could cover with a dime.
The folks at AoA tell me that most of the guys who own the 50 fp .22 Air Ranger are shooting Exact 18 gr heavy pellets (1041 fps, 44 fp) or Baracuda Match 21.1 gr pellets (1000 fps, 47 fp). You can expect around 45 usable shots from a fill to 230 bar.
The bottom line: the 50-fp .22 Air Ranger is a big, hairy, powerful air rifle that, aside from being louder than your neighbors might enjoy, does many things well. If you need an air rifle capable of taking down large pests with a single shot, the Air Ranger has all the goodies, and it’s nice to look at as well.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
The Daystate Air Ranger is a beautiful air rifle.
I guess the good folks at Airguns of Arizona got tired of my whining: “How come you never send me any of the really nice airguns, huh?” (The real answer is that they can hardly keep them in stock. Commander in Chief Robert Buchanan tells me that the most expensive airguns they stock are also their best sellers.)
So, to quiet me for a while, they sent me a Daystate Air Ranger. Not just any old Air Ranger, mind you, (It’s available in four different calibers: .177, .20, .22 and .25.) but a 50 foot-pound .22 caliber model.
My first impression of it is that it is just flat gorgeous. And this is not just an opinion of one – my wife wandered by while I was writing this review. She stopped. “Is that real wood?” she asked. “Yes,” I said. She said: “And a compass in the stock . . . ooh, I’m getting goosebumps!”
Okay, it doesn’t really have a compass in the stock, but the Daystate symbol — crosshairs through two concentric circles with stars around the perimeter – really resembles one at first glance. Even without a real compass, you’d have to be pretty jaded not to recognize that the Air Range is a nice looking rifle in a 40.5-inch, 8.6-lb package.
Starting at the back, you’ll find a soft rubber ventilated butt pad. Forward of that is the ambidextrous, oiled-walnut thumbhole stock. Moving forward again, just ahead of the thumbhole itself, the pistol grip is knurled on either side and finished on the bottom with a dark hardwood cap separated from the pistol grip itself by a thin white spacer. Above the pistol grip on either side is a shelf for parking your thumb while shooting.
Ahead of the pistol grip, a black metal trigger guard surrounds a silver metal trigger that is adjustable for second stage weight, trigger angle, and first stage travel. Moving forward again, the walnut stock overlaps the trigger guard somewhat. The forestock has a groove on either side that I found quite handy for pulling the Air Ranger down onto my knee while shooting from the sitting position.
Next, underneath the forestock you’ll find a single allen bolt that secures the action in the stock and black cap that can be slipped off to expose a quick fill fitting (a male Foster fitting) for charging the Air Ranger. Above the quick fill fitting on the left side is a gauge to show how much pressure is left in the air reservoir.
Beyond the end of the forestock is a 500cc non-removable air reservoir. Above the air bottle is the barrel, which has a full-length shroud. The aft end of the barrel attaches to the matte black receiver. The top of the receiver has dovetails fore and aft of the breech for mounting a scope. On the left side of the receiver, you’ll find the serial number, the words “Air Ranger” and the Daystate “compass” – all in white. (On the right side of the receiver, you’ll find “Air Ranger,” “Harper Patent,” and “Daystate England.) In the middle of the receiver is a slot for inserting a 10-shot rotary magazine.
At the aft end of the receiver, you’ll find a black metal righthanded bolt, and, to the left of the bolt, the rotary safety. Flick it up to fire and down to SAFE the action.
That’s all there is to the Daystate Air Ranger. Next time, we’ll see how it shoots.
Til then, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
If there is one thing that irritates the dickens out of me, it’s the emphasis on velocity seen so often in mass-market airgun advertising: 1,000 feet per second . . . 1,200 fps . . . 1,500 fps . . . even 1,600 fps. And you can tell it’s getting through to people who don’t know any better.
A couple of years ago, the good folks at Airguns of Arizona very graciously invited me to come out and attend the NRA show being held that year in Phoenix. It was a great time, and I spent a number of hours at the AoA booth. Invariably, someone would come up, eyeball the gorgeous guns in the display, and ask (pointing at a particular gun), “How fast does it shoot?”
After a while I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I began to politely explain how that velocity is really not the primary concern when it comes to air rifles and air pistols, how speeds above 1,000 fps are generally a Bad Idea with airgun pellets because of turbulence in the trans-sonic region, and how air rifles, unlike their powder-burning cousins, can’t drive pellets fast enough to stay supersonic all the way to long-range targets, causing accuracy woes as the pellet drops back into the trans-sonic region. I’m sure you know all that already, but I can tell you it was an eye-opener for some of the folks attending the NRA show.
The plain truth is that I like shooting wimpy-powered air rifles. It all started in my brother-in-laws backyard. He was shooting a humble Beeman R7/HW30, and I was shooting a Venom-tuned HW97. We were trying to hit a small kill zone on a field target 20 yards away, and he was dropping the target more often than I was. This annoyed me, since I had just spent a lot of money on the aforementioned HW97. We switched guns, and I promptly beat him. The truth was evident: his 6 fp breakbarrel air rifle was easier to shoot well than my much higher powered model.
So we decided to do an experiment. At the next field target match, we would each bring a 6 fp gun, on the theory that knowing our guns were easy to shoot well would help us to achieve high scores even though we were giving up power, velocity and flatness of trajectory. It worked. At the end of the day we each shot a personal best.
Lest you think that performance was some sort of freak occurrence, let me share a couple of other tidbits. The first time that I ever won a field target match was with a scoped PCP match rifle shooting just 570 fps. At another match, I saw Ray Apelles shoot a match high score with an FWB 300 match rifle, which was launching pellets at around 600 fps. And on many other occasions, I’ve seen competitors shoot decent scores and have a great time shooting low-powered tack drivers.
This is my lightly customized Beeman R7/HW30.
If you would like to experiment with turning to “the wimpy side of the force,” the king of the low-power tackdrivers is the HW30. It’s just 38.75” long, weights 5.5lbs, and features a very nice adjustable trigger. It launches Crosman Premier 7.9 grain pellets and delivers them at around 620 fps, producing tiny cloverleaf groups at 10 meters. You can check out my full review here: http://198.154.244.69/blog/2010/09/hw30s-de-luxe.html
Two other low-power break barrel air rifles that I have tested in the past are the BSA Meteor and the RWS Model 24.
A BSA Meteor. This is not the most current model.
More than 2,000,000 BSA Meteors have been sold worldwide, making it one of the most popular air rifles of all time. It is just 42 inches long and weighs 5.75 lbs. I tested a used early model that put Daisy Match pellets downrange at 610 fps. The trigger was hard to pull and was not adjustable, but I’m told that the new Mark VI models have an adjustable trigger.
The RWS Model 24.
The RWS Model 24, now available used, is a real sleeper. At 42” inches long and 6 lbs, it is a very plain looking gun, but it sure does shoot. JSB Exact 8.4 grain pellets went through the traps at 578 fps and drilled one-hole groups at 10 meters. The trigger had a bit of creep, but is very predictable, making accurate shooting easy. I understand the Model 24 has been replaced by the 240, and I hope to have a look at one of those in the future.
I have campaigned this FWB150 in field target competition and had a lot of fun doing it.
Another possibility for the shooter who wants a low-power tackdriver is the FWB 150/300. Available only used, these are recoilless spring-piston match rifles that are easily scoped and a joy to shoot.
Finally, for the shooter who wants a hyper-accurate low-power air rifle, many of the modern FWB PCP match rifles can be scoped, and, at ten meters, you’ll find nothing on the planet that is more accurate. https://www.airgunsofarizona.com/FWB.htm
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
I hunt very little, but I do get called from time to time to do pest control “favors” for the neighbors. When that happens, my go-to airgun is usually a Benjamin 392 .22 caliber pump-up rifle.
There’s a lot to like about the humble 392: it’s easy to shoot well; it delivers enough power to terminate whatever you might reasonably want to shoot with an air rifle; the power can be readily varied; it doesn’t cost a ton of money, and it delivers good longevity and value for an air rifle in its price class. Mostly I like the 392 because it is light, easy to handle, and reasonably accurate.
But all is not 100 percent tickety-boo in 392-ville. The factor iron sights – particularly the rear sight – that come with the 392 are lackluster. Williams makes a peep sight especially designed for the Benjamin that works pretty well, with some caveats.
First, the Williams peep has no screw adjustment for windage. As a result, to adjust windage, you must loosen both screws that prevent side-to-side movement of the peep. Then you gently move the windage adjustment with your fingers. At this point there is the very great risk that it will slip completely out of adjustment, forcing you to start from scratch. Once you gingerly ease the windage into what you think is the proper position, you must then re-tighten the screws without jiggling the sight out of adjustment. Elevation adjustment, however, is as simple as turning a screw.
Second, once the Williams peep sight is properly mounted on the Benjamin 392 and adjusted, there is the problem that, at various distances, the front sight blade appears to be wider than the thing that you are aiming at. This, of course, can be a problem with any rifle with a blade front sight.
Finally, at dawn or dusk or anytime the light doesn’t lend itself to high contrast, aiming with metallic sights can be challenging. For all of these reasons, there are times when I yearn for a better sighting system for the 392.
Mounting a scope on a 392 is problematic. There are no dovetails on the receiver. Some tuners will cut dovetails into the receiver, but even if you mount a scope on the receiver, unless it is a very short scope, it raises the question of where do you put your hands while pumping? If you mount a normal-length scope, you are forced to pump with one hand on the 392’s pistol grip or use the scope itself as a handle for pumping.
But there is another alternative for solving the problem. Some years ago, Colonel Jeff Cooper touted the idea of the scout rifle – a rifle of no more than one meter long (39.4 inches), no more than 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds), with a forward-mounted low-power scope. The forward-mounted scope allows the shooter to keep both eyes open, to aim with precision and yet be aware of the surroundings at the same time.
I was intrigued with the idea of the scout rifle, and, using intermounts clamped to the barrel of the 392, I built one with a forward mounted pistol scope.
Here's my first attempt at a scout rifle, with a forward-mounted pistol scope.
I liked it well enough, but recently I wanted a Benjamin scout rifle that offered better performance in low-light conditions. The good folks at Crosman were kind enough to send me the goodies to put such a scout rifle together.
They consist of a Benjamin 392, Benjamin B272 intermounts, 2-piece medium profile dovetail rings for 30mm scopes, and a CenterPoint Multi-TAC Quick Aim Sight, which is basically a green/red-dot sight with four reticles.
Putting it all together first requires clamping the intermounts to the barrel on either side of the rear sight. Next, loosen the weaver rings on the CenterPoint Multi-TAC Quick Aim Sight and slip them off. Slide the 30mm medium profile dovetail rings on where the weaver rings were and tighten them. Finally, attach the dovetail rings to the intermounts on either side of the rear sight.
Here's my newest version of a scout rifle, with a red/green dot sight.
Tah-dah! You’re done. The result is a fast-handling pest control gun that’s a lot of fun to shoot and easy to pump because there is plenty of room to grab the rifle just forward of the breech. I find my head position behind the dot sight is a bit higher than looking through a peep, but not so high that it bothers me. The CenterPoint sight displays either red or green dots (your choice), and a continuously variable rheostat in the sight makes it easy to set the degree of brightness that you like best for the shooting conditions. The sight allows the shooter to select one of four different reticles simply by rotating a knob: a single dot, three vertical dots, a dot with a dash on either side and the bottom, and a dot within a circle.
That knob on the left side of the sight allows the shooter to select among four different reticles. The big knob on top controls the color and the brightness.
In the end, I really like this Benjamin scout rifle. It’s light, easy to handle, and quick to aim and should make a dandy tool for doing those pest control favors for neighbors.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
