What I want in a repeating air pistol

by Tom Gaylord

I guess I'm different than a lot of airgunners because I also shoot and enjoy firearms. In fact, for three decades of my life, I shot more firearm than airguns.

In the area of handguns I have a few favorites. I think the Colt Python is the best revolver design ever created. It's odd that I have owned a few Pythons but got rid of them for various reasons, and now my wheelguns are Rugers and other Colts. But I do love the Python. I have to get another 6-inch Python again, before the price jumps too high.


Colt Python in Colt Royal Blue with 6-inch barrel is my favorite double-action revolver.

In semiauto pistols, I really like the M1911A1 Colt. Once I learned how to shoot one accurately, I have had an ongoing romance with the gun. I notice with satisfaction that the U.S. Army has rediscovered why 9mm is too small a caliber for a military sidearm and they are also looking at something that shoots the .45 ACP again, if not the actual M1911A1 pistol. The Umarex pellet pistol copy is just as nice as the firearm, and like most Umarex handguns, the switches all work - including the grip safety! I can't think of a better airgun to train with than this one.


Colt M1911A1 pistol is my favorite semiauto, because it is so accurate and powerful.


The Umarex pistol is as realistic as it gets!

My favorite handgun of all time, however, is the Colt Single Action Army in .45 Colt caliber. I have owned nine of these, including three first-generation guns. I've also owned about a dozen replica Colt blackpowder revolvers.


Colt's Single Action Army is my all-time favorite handgun.

What does this have to do with airguns? Well, for several years I have been having a running dialog with Umarex President Wulf Pflaumer and his son Eyck, about bringing out an SAA revolver in CO2. After seeing the beautiful job they did with the S&W 586 and 686 air pistols, I know this company could do real justice to the SAA. The problem has been where to put the CO2 cartridge.

I think I've finally figured it out! If they were to put an 1860 Colt Army grip on the revolver, I believe the CO2 cartridge will fit inside. When I was a gunfighter at Frontier Village amusement park in the 1960s, our gunfighters with larger hands would install a 1860 Colt blackpowder grip on the single actions. In those days we all used Colts because the Italian guns were not made nearly as well and could jam in a gunfight.


The Colt 1860 Army revolver has a longer grip that may acommodate the 12-gram CO2 cartridge.

I hope I'm right about this and that Umarex does consider bringing a CO2 version of the SAA to market. I will buy the first one!