Posts Tagged ‘Airguns’

Sight, glorious sight – protect yours!

Monday, April 9, 2012

When I was a kid, I loved to watch cowboy movies on TV. A time-honored gimmick in some of them was to have an interjection: “Meanwhile, back at the ranch,” and the scene would shift to the ranch, where something important was going on.

Well, I have a “meanwhile back at the ranch story for you.” This one comes from El Rancho Elliott, where yours truly tests airguns in upstate New York. About a year ago, I noticed that I was having trouble focusing on thing with my right eye, and that a kind of halo would appear around bright lights.

I went to the eye doctor, who said that I was developing a cataract in my right eye. The cataract was changing the optical characteristics of the lens in my right eye, which was making it difficult to focus. I got a new eyeglass prescription for the right eye, and that improved focusing, but I was still having problems with halos around lights.

Over time, the problem got worse. I could still shoot well  if I was using a telescopic sight, but after a while, my general vision in my right eye was like walking around with a piece of waxed paper over my right eyeglass lens. Finally, I decided I just had to do something.

About two weeks ago, I had a cataract operation on my right eye. The doctor made a 3mm incision in my right eye, inserted an ultrasonic probe into the lens capsule, broke up the right lens, and then sucked out the remains of the lens through the probe. Next, a folded plastic lens was inserted and allowed to unfold. Before the operation, I could barely read the second line on the eye chart. Now my vision corrects to 20/25, and the doctor expects even more improvement may be possible.

Just minutes ago, I came in from testing two airguns, and what a pleasure it was to shoot with good vision in both eyes! I was even able to shoot an air rifle with globe front sight and peep rear sight, something I hadn’t been able to do for some time. I am deeply grateful for the improvement in my sight. It’s simply glorious.

All this points out that sight itself is a gift, and that the smart move for you – and me – as airgun shooters is to protect that gift. That means that whenever you shoot, you and everyone else on the shooting line should wear protective eye wear. I normally wear polycarbonate lens eye glasses to correct my vision.

If you don’t wear something similar to protect your vision, let me humbly suggest that you try these shooting glasses. In fact, pick up a few pairs so that you have enough to protect the folks on the firing line. The cost is miniscule, particularly when compared to the cost and hassle of an eye injury.

Finally, to further protect your sight, take care in your selection of targets. Remember that BBs tend to ricochet when shot against hard targets. A soft backstop works best with BBs. On the other hand, shooting resilient spherical targets with a high-powered pellet gun tends to result in the pellet coming straight back at the shooter. My favorite backstop for pellets is a pellet trap that is filled with Ductseal. The pellets bury themselves in the Ductseal and stay there. So take a tip from Uncle Jock, who just had a reminder about the importance of eyesight, and protect your eyeballs when you shoot.

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

– Jock Elliott

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Airguns | 8 Comments »

FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber – Part I

Monday, January 16, 2012

The FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber is handsome and powerful.

FX airguns enjoy a well-deserved reputation for excellence and accuracy, and the FX Royale 200 Synthetic in .25 caliber is no exception. It is a big airgun – 45.5 inches from end to end – that weighs just 6.7 lbs. and delivers a tremendous wallop, nearly 44 foot-pounds at the muzzle.

The butt pad is adjustable vertically.

Starting at the extreme aft end of the .25 Royale, you’ll find a black rubber butt pad that is adjustable vertically. Just loosen a screw and slide the butt pad up or down to meet your need. The butt pad is attached to an ambidextrous matte black synthetic stock that has a raised comb, cheek piece on either side, and a pronounced thumb notch.

Here's the trigger, breech, and magazine.

Forward of the butt stock, the pistol grip is flared at the end and has ribbing on either side. Moving forward again, the matte black synthetic material of the stock forms a trigger guard that surrounds a black metal trigger. The trigger is adjustable for first stage length of pull, second stage weight of pull, and, if you have tinkered with the trigger adjustments, the safety catch adjustment. The manual warns that “Failure to adjust this screw (the safety catch adjustment) after altering the trigger can result in a non-functioning safety.”

Just ahead of the trigger guard is an allen head bolt that holds the receiver in the stock, and forward of that is a black and white air pressure gauge that is about 7/8 of an inch in diameter. Beyond that, the forestock is relatively unadorned, except for ribbing molded into the polymer on either side.

The air reservoir protrudes nearly a foot beyond the end of the forestock. At the end of air reservoir is a port into which a filling probe is inserted for charging the reservoir. This is the only thing about the .25 Royale that I didn’t like. I personally prefer that air reservoirs be equipped with male Foster fittings. In my experience, they work pretty well, providing a quick and secure connection for filling PCP airguns. I don’t understand why a special filling probe was required but then again I am not an airgun engineer, just an airgun shooter.

Above the reservoir is the fully shrouded barrel. The shroud stretches 25.5 inches from muzzle to where it meets the receiver, but the specifications say that the .25 caliber barrel itself, which is inside the shroud, measures 23.6 inches.

At the aft end of the shroud is the receiver, finished in shiny black with white lettering. On top of the receiver, forward and aft of the breech, are dovetails for mounting a scope. In the middle of the receiver is the breech, which is just barely deep enough to allow loading single pellets by hand and which allows the 11-shot self-indexing .25 caliber rotary magazine to be slid into place.

On the right hand side of the receiver, you’ll find the toggle-action bolt. You cock the action and ready it for the next shot by pulling it full back and then sliding it fully forward again. It’s smooth and easy. Just below the aft end of the cocking lever is the safety.

That’s all there is to the FX Royale 200 Synthetic in .25 caliber. It’s a handsome air rifle with a utilitarian and purposeful look about it. As a .25 caliber, it is most likely to be used as a hunting rifle, and I like that there is no wood to worry about scratching or damaging with moisture. This is a serious tool designed to withstand inclement conditions without serious concern.

Next time, we’ll take a look at how the FX Royale 200 Synthetic in .25 caliber shoots.

Til then, aim true and shoot straight.

–          Jock Elliott

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Airguns | 3 Comments »

How Airguns of Arizona preps guns before you get them

Monday, January 9, 2012

I came upon the subject for this blog quite by accident, and it was all my fault.

A while back I had been whining to Greg, my chief contact at Airguns of Arizona, about how winter was coming in big, bad upstate New York, and if the winter was anything like last year, there was going to be a period – maybe a long period — when I would be unable to test airguns. So would they please – please, please, PLEASE! – send me some guns to test in a big hurry!

Here's the reason for the whining: this is what El Rancho Elliott looked like after the first storm in January 2011.

And just to prove that I am not psychic in any way, here is approximately the same view on Jan. 2 of 2012.

Greg, being an excellent fellow, in great haste dispatched a large package containing several guns, which I then proceeded to test. When I got to the last gun, disaster struck. The bolt would not cycle properly, after which I could not get the fully loaded magazine out of the breech.

So here I was with a fully loaded, fully charged PCP air rifle that I could not unload. This makes me really uncomfortable, and I was borderline freaking out when I called AoA and got Shane on the line. He immediately gave me the procedure for getting the magazine out of the breech. I tried it, and it worked. Next, Shane wanted me to run a cleaning rod down the barrel to make sure that that there wasn’t a pellet jammed in there.

Dutifully, I slid the rod down the barrel and a mashed pellet and a machined brass cylinder came out. I reported this to Shane (we were doing this in real time on the phone), and he said, “Oh, you must have a gun that wasn’t prepped.”

“Wasn’t prepped,” I said. “Whaddya mean?”

“We prep almost every air rifle we ship,” Shane said. “You need to talk to Darren. He’s our primary prep guy.”

So I interviewed Darren, and what follows is the real and true story of how Airguns of Arizona preps air rifles before you get them.

When it comes to prepping precharged air rifles, the first is the removal of any special fittings that are attached to the gun for shipping. Some PCPs have a barrel plug and a special restrictor screw that are fitted so that the gun can be legally exported from the country of origin. (The barrel plug is what I ran into when the magazine jammed in the gun.)

After any shipping fittings are removed, the gun is visually inspected for any dings or pressure marks in the stock, any rust, signs of damage, any molding issues on synthetic stocks.

Here's Darren prepping a gun for a customer.

“After that,” Darren says, “we test most precharged guns for accuracy and velocity.” (There are some exceptions to this: there are some models that come shipped in well-sealed factory packaging, and AOA allows the manufacturer/distributor to deal with any quality issues on these models. It is too easy for a customer to confuse AOA’s testing with supplying of a used gun due to the torn packaging.)

“We’ll mount a scope and benchrest the gun at 18 yards,” he says. “If the customer is purchasing a scope with the gun, we’ll mount the customer’s scope and sight it in. We’ll test up to five different pellets to find the best pellets for that gun, and we’ll generally test with a heavy pellet to make sure that it is generating the proper amount of foot pounds.”

If there is a problem with the accuracy of the gun, AoA investigates why – looking for problems like perhaps a bad barrel or clipping issues. AoA will also hold up shipment on a gun if there is a dramatic spread in velocities. When everything checks out properly, Darren will print out chronograph receipt and the test target, sign off on the gun, and include those with the gun as it is shipped to the customer.

All spring-piston air rifles are tested for velocity, usually for 5-10 shots to make sure that it is consistent. “We don’t generally test for accuracy,” Darren says, “but if a customer buys a scope with their springer, we will mount it, sight it in, and shoot a five-shoot group with it.”

He adds, “I test so many airguns that very often I will know if there is an issue with a gun simply by the way it sounds and feels when I shoot it. Sometimes when we’re shipping several of the same model gun, I’ll test them side-by-side to give me an additional check on quality and consistency.”

With the exception of a few isolated models, Airguns of Arizona routinely preps the air rifles it sends to customers – at no additional charge. “It makes sense to do that,” Darren says. “It ensures customer satisfaction, reduces hassles at our end, and, if a gun arrives at a customer with a problem, we know that something happened to it between here and there.”

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

Jock Elliott

Tags: ,
Posted in Airguns | 11 Comments »

The FX Gladiator Mk II – Part II

Monday, November 14, 2011

The left side of the Gladiator Mk II

To ready the Gladiator Mk II for shooting, attach the filling probe to a SCUBA tank or high pressure pump, slide it into the filling port at the end of the forward air tube, and slowly fill the Mk II to 220 bar.

The spring-loaded 12-shot magazine is self-indexing.

Next, load the rotary magazine. You’ll notice that the Gladiator now uses the same magazines as the FX Royale. Start by turning the transparent lid to the magazine counterclockwise until it stops. Put one pellet in the open slot on the rear side of the magazine so that the tip of the pellet is pointing out of the hole. This locks the magazine spring in place.

Turn the magazine so that the transparent lid is facing you. Turn the lid clockwise one slot at a time and fill the slots with pellets with the tip of the pellets facing into the hole. Lock the lid in its starting position.

When selecting scope mounts, make sure they are high enough to provide clearance for the magazine.

Next, pull the bolt lever all the way back and insert the magazine, black side toward the muzzle, into the breech from the right side. Now, this is where life got interesting for me while testing the Gladiator Mk II. When I mounted the first scope, the magazine hit the “saddle” of the scope (the bulge where the elevation and windage knobs are mounted) when I tried to slide the magazine into the breech. So, down into the workshop again and I mounted another scope. This one slide into the breech slot, but I couldn’t get the bolt to work properly. I called Airguns of Arizona, and Kip helpfully walked me through the process until I could finally figure out that the magazine was hitting the tube of the scope so that it couldn’t be seated all the way home (almost, but not quite). Finally, a third scope with higher mounts fit properly, and the magazine slid into place.

Push the bolt forward, flick off the safety, and squeeze the trigger. The first stage required only 9 ounces on the sample that I tested. At 1 lb. 2.2 oz., the shot went down range. This a phenomenal trigger, light and crisp, that feels a lot like a match trigger.

On high power, the Mk II launches 18.1 gr. JSB pellets at average of 855 fps, or 29.38 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle; medium power, 655 fps and 17.24 fp, and low power, 499 fps and 14.42 fp. The good folks at Airguns of Arizona tell me that the Mk II will deliver 95 shots per fill on high power and an astonishing 190 shots on lower power.

At 30 yards, shooting from a casual rest, the Mk II delivered this nice group.

And the accuracy? Well, the accuracy is just fine. At 30 yards with JSB Jumbo pellets, I put 5 shots into a group that measured just .625 inch edge to edge. That works out to well under half an inch center to center.

Yup, if I were in the vermin control business and needed an air rifle that required a minimum of ancillary equipment for a day’s shooting, I think the FX Gladiator Mk II would be number one on my list.

Til Next time, aim true and shoot straight.

–          Jock Elliott

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Airguns | 4 Comments »

The FX Gladiator Mk II – Part I

Monday, November 7, 2011

The Gladiator Mk II is a tackdriver and, thanks to two air reservoirs, delivers an enormous number of shots.

If I were a professional pest controller who needed an airgun to do his job, I think I have just found the air rifle that would be Numero Uno on my list: the FX Gladiator Mk II.

Before we take a look at the Mk II, a couple of items. First, I reviewed the FX Gladiator Tactical a while back, and if you want to check out those blogs for comparison, you can find them here http://198.154.244.69/blog/2010/10/the-outstanding-gladiator-tactical-%e2%80%93-part-i.html and here http://198.154.244.69/blog/2010/10/the-outstanding-gladiator-tactical-%e2%80%93-part-ii.html.

Second, I love shooting precharged pneumatic (PCP) air rifles. They have, as a group, a bunch of admirable qualities. Most will shoot one inch edge-to-edge groups at 50 yards with the right pellet, and often they will do substantial better than that. They have no nasty whiplash recoil to deal with, as do springers and gas-piston guns. Many offer a very neighbor-friendly report, and they are just plain easy to shoot well. Buuut, most require the shooter to have a SCUBA tank or a high-pressure hand pump handy to refill the air reservoir when all the usuable shots have been consumed. For me, that diminishes the pleasure of shooting a PCP air rifle; the less ancillary gear I have to drag out the door when I got shooting, the better.

The new FX Gladiator Mk II gets around the ancillary gear problem with a couple of slick tricks: a very easy-to-use power adjustor and two – count ‘em! – air reservoirs. As a result, the Mk II delivers a shot count that should allow the overwhelming majority of shooters to go out the door with the Mk II and a tin of pellets and not have to worry about refilling the Gladiator until they get back home from a day’s shooting. We’ll talk about that some more in a while, but first let’s take a walk around the Gladiator Mk II.

The Gladiator Mk II stretches 44.25 inches from end to end. With the rear air reservoir/buttstock unscrewed, the receiver and barrel assembly measure about 34 inches. Without a scope or rings attached, the Mk II weighs 8.5 lbs, and it looks – to my eye, anyway – just great. With the exception of a couple of teensy spots where dots of red paint appear, the Mk II is a symphony of matte black metal and matte black engineering polymer.

The rear air reservoir angles downward and makes for a comfortable shooting position.

At the extreme aft end of the Mk II, you’ll find a soft rubber butt pad (which can be adjusted vertically) attached to a polymer cheek piece assembly that slides over the rear air reservoir. The good folks from FX have wisely designed the Gladiator so that the rear air reservoir angles down slightly from the line of the receiver. This allows for a comfortable shooting position.

Just ahead of the trigger guard is an easy-to-read air gauge.

Moving forward, most of the rear half of the receiver and barrel assembly is swaddled in another engineering polymer molding that provides a pistol grip, trigger guard, and forestock all in one piece. This assembly secures to the receiver with a single allen bolt. The pistol grip has grooves on either side for better gripping and so does the forestock. Inside the trigger guard is a black metal two-stage trigger that can be adjusted for first stage length of pull and second stage weight of pull. Forward of that, you’ll find an easy-to-read air gauge on the underside of the forestock.

The power adjustor on the lowest setting.

At the end of the forestock is the forward air reservoir with a filling port at the end. Above that is a fully shrouded .22 caliber barrel. At the rear end of the barrel is the breech assembly, which is the same breech assembly used in the FX Royale air rifle. On the left hand side of the breech is a black metal wheel which is the power adjustor. Turn it to change the power setting: one red dot means low power, two dots means medium power, and three dots is high power.

In in the middle of the breech is a slot for receiving the 12-shot rotary magazine, and on the right side of the breech, you’ll find the breech lever and a lever style safety. That’s all there is to it.

Next time, we’ll take a look at how the Gladiator Mk II shoots.

Til then, aim true and shoot straight.

–          Jock Elliott

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Airguns | 4 Comments »

Air Force’s .25 caliber pistol – the ultimate truck gun?

Monday, October 31, 2011

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

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Airguns | 2 Comments »

The .22 Remington NPSS

Monday, October 17, 2011

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

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Airguns | 18 Comments »

The 50-fp Daystate Air Ranger – Part I

Monday, July 11, 2011

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

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Airguns | 4 Comments »

Fun on a Sunday afternoon

Monday, January 3, 2011

On a warm Sunday afternoon back in October, 2010, back when there weren’t large white bears roaming my yard (well, maybe that’s a teeny bit of an exaggeration, but it was 8.8 degrees F. just the other morning), I got to do something that is becoming increasing rare for me: I got to shoot my own guns.

Now, I realize that this might be kind of a cheesy thing to say, but I spend so much time reviewing various airguns for this blog that it has become really uncommon for me to drag out a bunch of my own guns and shoot them just for the sheer joy of sending a few shots down range.

But it happened that a warm, fairly calm afternoon popped up one Sunday afternoon in late October, so I began pulling a few of my favorites out of their gun cabinets to see how they are behaving.

The Quigley Sheridan

The first gun I decided to try is my “Quigley” Sheridan. This is a modern Sheridan that Larry Durham very kindly fitted with a globe front sight and a tang vernier rear sight. Shooting .20 caliber JSB Exact pellets off a casual rest, I managed to put three shots in a group that measured only 5/8 inch edge to edge at 35 yards, but the next two shots expanded the group to nearly 2.5 inches. The problem with shooting an air rifle with non-glass, non-magnifying sights is an optical one. It’s simply hard to see the target. Perhaps I’ll start experimenting with shooting with my left eye in the future.

The second air rifle to come out of the closet was a modern “Steroid” Sheridan with a 10X scope. At 35 yards, 5 JSB Exact pellets landed in a group that measured 1-1/8 inch from edge to edge. Four of the shots measured only ¾ inch edge to edge, certainly good enough for defending the garden or the bird feeder.

I then decided to give my scoped Beeman R7 a try. At 35 yards, shooting Crosman Premier Light .177 pellets, I could only squeeze out a 1.5 inch edge to edge 5 shot group. Clearly I was not having my best luck with a spring-piston air rifle that day.

My scoped FWB150

Then the guys who inhabit the back room of my brain handed me an idea: why not try a recoilless springer? Once again, I dove into the basement and emerged, this time, with my trusty FWB150. This time I put all 5 JSB Exact pellets into a group that measured just ¾ inch edge to edge. This was clearly more like it!

A target like this always puts a smile on my face!

My final candidate for the day was the always reliable Benjamin Marauder. Shooting again from the same casual rest, I began launching Crosman Premier Heavy pellets at the target 35 yards away. After 5 shots, I strolled down to the pellet trap to admire my work. The group (seen above) measured just 3/8 inch edge to edge. That works out to about 2/10 inch center to center.

So what did I learn from all this? First, that it’s always fun to put a few shots downrange on a nice afternoon. Second, there’s a reason why people use scopes on rifles (so they can see better!), and third, for wicked consistent accuracy, it’s hard to beat a precharged pneumatic shooting the right pellet.

May you soon find a nice afternoon to enjoy a little casual shooting. In the meantime, there’s this big white bear in my yard . . .

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

–          Jock Elliott

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Airguns | 2 Comments »

The Tackdriving RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro Compact

Monday, December 20, 2010

The RWS Meisterschutze Pro Compact is downright sleek in its appearance.

I woke up one morning a few weeks ago with the realization that I had never shot one of the air rifles that so many airgunners purchase as their first “quality” air rifle: the RWS 34. A while ago, I had a neighbor who simply loved to hunt with his RWS 34, but I never got to shoot it, and he has since moved away.

So I asked the folks at umarexusa to send me a sample of the 34 Meisterschutze Pro Compact (MPC) in .177 caliber. It comes with a RWS one-piece “drooper” scope mount, an RWS 3-9x40AO rifle scope and a muzzlebrake. When I pulled it from the box, I was immediately impressed by its businesslike appearance.

There is no cheek piece on either side of the MPC's butt stock.

The long, slim hardwood stock is completely unadorned by any checkering or decoration of any sort. At the end of the stock is a rubber butt pad attached to the stock by a black spacer. There is no cheek piece on either side of the butt stock, making the design completely ambidextrous, and there is only a slight rise in the comb. Forward of the pistol grip is a black plastic trigger guard surrounding a black plastic trigger that is adjustable for first stage travel.

THE MPC is equipped with a substantial muzzlebrake, apparently the same one used on the TH 56.

Forward of that, the forestock reaches out to cover the breech block and cocking linkage. Beyond that is the barrel on which is mount a substantial muzzlebrake. The appeared to be the same muzzlebrake that was mounted on the very accurate RWS 56 TH that I had tested some time ago. The breech block on this model is not designed to take a rear sight but instead has fine horizontal lines molded into it. The receiver is finished in a matte black that appears to match the scope and scope mount. At the aft end of the receiver, there is the familiar push-pull RWS safety which is resettable.

The RWS one-piece scope mount fits exactly over the dovetail on the receiver and provides compensation for barrel droop.

Mounting the scope was straightforward. The one-piece mount fits the RWS dovetails exactly and has two anti-recoil pins that drop into corresponding holes on the receiver. The only trick is to make sure that the arrow on the drooper mount is pointing toward the muzzle. With the scope mounted, the MPC weighs 9 lbs. 12 oz.

To ready the MPC for shooting, grab the muzzlebrake, pull it down and back until it latches. Stuff a pellet into the breech end of the barrel and return the barrel to its original position. I estimate the cocking effort to be in the mid-30s, perhaps 36-37 lbs. Next, take aim at the target, flick off the safety, and squeeze the trigger. The first stage requires only 1 lb. 9.8 oz., and at 2 lbs. 10.8 oz., the shot goes downrange. The RWS 34 Pro Compact launches 8.44 gr. JSB Exact pellets at about 840 fps, which works out to 13.22 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle.

When it came time to test the MPC for accuracy, that’s when life got interesting. As I so often do, as soon as I mounted the scope, I grabbed the MPC, some Crosman Premier 7.9 gr. pellets and went outside to bang off a few shots at 13 yards from a sitting position. My first group measured just .375 inch edge to edge. Not bad, I thought.

A couple of days later, shooting off a rest at 32 yards, the groups opened up tremendously to well over an inch. Then the gun began throwing flyers – a .75 inch group with a flyer 1.5 inches away. I was just starting to work my way through some alternative pellets when I heard a rattle as I cocked the gun. Investigating further, I found that the muzzlebrake was loose.

With the muzzlebrake tightened, the MPC delivered this very satisfying group at 32 yards.

I loosened the end cap on the muzzlebrake, tightened the two grub screws underneath the muzzlebrake that clamp to the barrel, then screwed the end cap in tight. The next group, shot with JSB .177 Exact pellets, was magic: just .5 inch edge to edge at 32 yards, making the MPC one of the most accurate break barrel air rifles I have shot in a long, long time.

The bottom line is that the MPC is an air rifle that does a lot of things well. It has a decent trigger, makes reasonable power, and delivers excellent accuracy. With this air rifle, you could hunt, plink, or shoot hunter class field target and all at a very reasonable price.

I give the 34 Meisterschutze Pro Compact my highest personal recommendation.

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

–          Jock Elliott

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Airguns | 29 Comments »

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »