Knowing where to tap

by Tom Gaylord

Yesterday I had an experience that drove home the reason I write about airguns. I was cleaning a Ruger Mark II pistol, something I avoid as long as possible because I find the Mark II difficult to assemble and disassemble. What finally pushes me over the edge is the thought that somewhere in the U.S. there is a factory where a young woman puts these guns together all day long. I imagine her name is Tiffany and that she's 23 years old. She works at Ruger assembling guns during the day and goes to college at night (in my imagination). And Tiffany can assemble a Mark II while text-messaging three friends and conducting a voice conversation about her weekend with a fourth friend who works at the next bench.

IF TIFFANY CAN DO IT, SO CAN I!
That's my battle cry as I pry up the mainspring housing latch on the Mark II and immediately get into trouble. But I have an out! I can search Google and find someone who has been kind enough to publish the instructions, step-by-step, for goofballs just like me. In this case, it is the official Ruger site, where I find the complete manual.

And that is one big reason why I write about airguns. Because, when I started in 1994, nobody else was doing it. We didn't have a robust internet then, either, but I was starved for information about airguns.

Soon after I started writing The Airgun letter, a small crowd of people popped out of the woodwork and informed me they had staked claim to the airgun high ground and what the hell did I know, anyway? No matter that I had been shooting airguns when their fathers were still dating their mothers - who the hell did I think I was? I hadn't cleared my writing plans with any of them and they were furious.

A JOB WORTH DOING IS WORTH DOING POORLY!
That's a quote from my minister a few decades ago. What he meant was, if you have a job to do - GET ON WITH IT! We had a similar saying in the Army - Lead, follow or get out of the way! There may have been more words, but those are the ones I remember.

You can talk about something until they plant you six feet under, or you can try to do something about it, starting right now. I guess I'm still trying.

Knowing where (and when) to tap
If I know something and I know you want to know it, too, the chances are good I'll tell you. If you don't understand, I will be patient and try to explain. If you don't like what I am saying because it runs contrary to what you want to be true, I won't argue with you. Arguing takes time and I'd rather use my time to write.

And when you get stuck and I don't know what to tell you, either, both of us have to remember - TIFFANY DOES THIS ALL THE TIME!

A new book about air machineguns

by Tom Gaylord

One question that I get a lot concerns the availability of BB machine guns. I am talking about steel BBs, now - not 6mm plastic balls that even I now call BBs in print, but which are a different projectile altogether. I'm not denigrating airsoft when I say this, but my job of explaining things to new enthusiasts is much more difficult because of the imprecise language we airgunners use.

So I'm talking about real steel BBs like those shot in real BB guns, such as the ubiquitous Red Ryder. And some of these guns were made to shoot lead shot instead of steel, like the famous Feltman carnival guns. I'm also talking about them.

Well a much broader book about all AIR machine guns is now available.


Larry Behling's new book is the only one of its kind ever published. There is no question that every airgun collector needs one.

We've waited a long time for this book!
I first met the author, Larry Behling, when I attended his airgun show in Baldwinsville, New York, back in the mid-1990s. By 1996 I was aware that he was writing a book about air machine guns. From then until now Larry has worked to gather the materials, information and photographs that are seen in his book. To call it a labor of love has got to be right, because nothing less could keep a man motivated for so long!

I learned stuff on the first read
My critics will say that's to be expected, and I suppose they're right. I DON'T know much about air machine guns, except that there's a lot of people who are very excited about them.

I was the Technical Director at AirForce Airguns (2003-2005) when the owner, John McCaslin, bought the rights to manufacture the Starfire Tommygun from Vintage Machine Corp. I helped take the orders and ship most of the final 50 guns that were part of that deal. I mention that because it put me in touch with a lot of crazy BB machine gun addicts, and it taught me the lengths to which they will go in the pursuit of their hobby! Larry's book will only aggravate their condition, which I am sure is terminal.

For the rest of us - the sane ones - Larry exposes to a world of airgunning we never suspected! Forget big bore guns for a moment, these are full-auto terrors that function on air, freon, CO2 and electricity. Yeah, we all know about the Feltman - or thought we did, in my case. And most of us have seen the more popular MacGlashan (see, Larry, now I know the right way to spell the name, thanks to you) aerial trainer from World War II, but Larry will show you the first successful air machine gun from 1834!!! He'll not only show you the Hotpoint machine gun - he'll tell you all about it, too! And the Caselman air machine gun that that poor guy from South America is all worked about - Larry doesn't just show you the guns, he shows the ad, some tech literature that came with the guns - he even shows the shop where Jeff Caselman put it all together!

How to get a book
This 324-page large format tape-bound book sells for $65, plus $8.40 shipping in the U.S. Payment can be U.S. postal money order, other money orders payable in U.S. funds and by personal check drawn on a U.S. bank (all checks must have state driver's license number). Send to:

Larry Behling
220 County Route 6
Phoenix, NY 13135

Larry's email address

Technique!

by Tom Gaylord

I was at the range today, not to shoot an airgun but to test a Ruger 10/22 for an upcoming Shotgun News article. The article is about potential accuracy and I'm pitting Ruger's 10/22 Target against my own custom gun that I built for this series of articles.

Anyway, I'm shooting 10-shot groups at 50 yards to get a true picture of the rifle's capability with each type of ammo, and suddenly I find myself in the middle of a pretty good group. With 7 shots fired, the group appears to be well under a half-inch. I don't have a scope level mounted, which is essential for the best accuracy, so I'm bisecting the bulls above and below the targeted bull with the vertical reticle (NRA 10-bull smallbore target). It doesn't matter whether or not the target is plumb - so long as every shot is fired with the rifle in the same attitude. Anyway, I notice that the vertical retical has rotated a small amount and THAT'S WHEN IT HAPPENED! I caught myself twisting the pistol grip to realign the reticle instead of repositioning it on the sandbag.

Fortunately, I didn't take that shot. I realized what I was doing and eased back off the trigger, then repositioned the rifle so the reticle was in the right place. When the group was finished it proved to be the best one of the day.

Had I taken the shot with the reticle twisted into position, the rifle would have thrown that bullet in the direction of the twist. If might have only been a quarter-inch, but this was a super-tight group that would have suffered from that small an error.

And thinking about that got me wondering how many airgunners pay little or no attention to their shooting technique. It makes all the difference in the world, yet to read the forums, the latest PCP from Sweden or England will make up for all your sins.

Well, it won't! Shooting technique is more important than the pedigree of your barrel. Only when you have mastered how to shoot are you ready to fully appreciate high-quality shooting tools.

And when I say "master," what I mean is know and understand. Because a lifetime of shooting isn't long enough to make any of it second nature. You have to work at it all the time. As I rediscovered today.

By the way, the group did not turn out to be under half an inch!

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!

He's going to jail!

by Tom Gaylord

Michael A. Crooker was found guilty on Wednesday, July 15, 2006 of illegally manufacturing a silencer. He faces a mandatory sentence of 15 years. This link has the report:

Airgun silencer case

Crooker made a silencer for a Korean Big Bore 909, a .45 caliber air rifle. In 2004 he sold the rifle and silencer to another party and he shipped it through the U.S. Postal Service, where it was intercepted.

When ATF tested the silencer on a firearm, it silenced the report. That is the legal definition of a silencer.

Making a silencer is a violation of several counts of the same law. Because a silencer is considered to be a firearm by federal law, the maker has just made a firearm without a license to manufacture - count one. Firearms that are sold are required to have serial numbers, and this one didn't - count two. And possession of an unregistered silencer is also a crime - count three.

The jury did ask for additional clarification on what constitutes a silencer, but the judge was unable to give them anything beyond the law. I have written an article about silencers for Pyramyd Air. It should be up on their web site soon. I included the definition of a silencer in that article, so you can read it for yourself. When it goes up, this is where it will be:

Articles

For 12 years I have maintained that silencers and airguns do not mix. People who play with the law open themselves to prosecution. Even if you win your case, the experience will not be pleasant. Now that BATF has a win under their belts, I expect them to prosecute other silencer violations more vigorously.

This was a jury trial.

Seasons of an airgunner's life

by Tom Gaylord

When I started writing about airguns in 1994, I was interested in ALL types of guns. I didn't know it at the time, but mine was a minority viewpoint. It took about five or six years of writing The Airgun Letter before I realized that most people are only interested in one kind of airgun at a time, and the kind is usually related to their age and their experience with firearms.

Stage One!
The youngest and newest airgunner often wants "the powerful-est airgun in the world." They only think in terms of velocity, until the day they learn that velocity doesn't always mean power. Then they go crazy for foot-pounds. You can't talk to these people about target guns because they aren't powerful enough.

There is a strong correlation between this type of airgunner and a newbie firearms enthusiast who only wants the biggest of anything - hence the BFR and the .50 BMG rifle. If and when they actually shoot their dream guns, they fall away from the shooting sports like flies in a shower of Raid.

After the initial fascination with speed and power, the airgunner can go in an almost infinite number of directions, but as I said, they usually go there specific type of gun at a time. This is where you get the CO2 guys, the field target guys the target shooters and so on. Now a shooter doesn't have to go through the first phase at all - they can go directly to the type of gun they will love for the rest of their life, but I've seen a great number of them pass through Stage One first.

My pet peeve
I have a lot of pet peeves and I find that I'm getting more all the time. As I grow older, my patience for some things wears out. I guess that's normal, as a factor of repeated exposure. Anyway, the peeve I refer to here is the airgunner who wants it all and is unwilling or hasn't the brain power to comprehend that there must be compromises. They want a spring rifle (don't want all the "stuff" that goes with precharged guns), yet they want minute-of-angle accuracy, zero recoil and the power that only a PCP delivers. AND, they want it for under $200 - $100, if possible!

GROW UP! You don't get it all. If you want the accuracy of a PCP - buy a PCP. And be prepared to PAY FOR IT! If you want no recoil, get a pneumatic. If you want to pay less than $200, buy a Gamo CF-X and be content with two-minute-of-recoilling-angle-that-takes-technique-to-shoot!

I told you, this is a pet peeve.

Update on the airgun silencer issue

by Tom Gaylord

For more than 10 years I have been advising U.S. airgunners to go easy on installing silencers on their guns. I have recently written an article that addresses the specifics of the law governing silencers for Pyramyd Air, but it isn't up on their website as of the date of this posting. They are extremely busy with the buyout of Airgun Express and I think that will dominate their work for many more weeks, but when that silencer article does go up, it will walk you through the law and how I view it.

Many of you know that I bought a legal firearm silencer to write about the process for Shotgun News. That article was published last year, as part of my "What Can You Do With a 10/22?" series.

I get calls from federal and state law enforcement agencies from time to time regarding airgun laws and various technical aspects of the guns, themselves. A few months ago, I was called regarding a felon who had shipped a big bore airgun with a removable silencer through the mail. I'm now following the court case as it unfold in Massachusetts.

As I've always said, I prefer to learn about the law through news agencies rather than from the defendant's table!

This is required reading!

Airgun silencer case

A new shooter shoots a Condor

by Tom Gaylord

I was out at AirForce this afternoon and a new employee wanted to watch me test a customer's Condor. I test-fired it at 40 yards on a very windy day and shot one group a dime covered and the other was hidden by a nickel. Then the new employee sat down to shoot her very first airgun!

I coached her on the first shot at 40 yards and after that, I left her to her own devices. Ten shots later, she had a group that could be covered by a nickel!

Not only was this her first air rifle, she had never before looked through a scope sight. She was surprised by how much the crosshairs move, even with the rifle rested solidly on a bench. She was so proud of her group that she took it home to show her husband.

We were both shooting JSB Exacts on power setting 6. I set the gun that way because I wanted a quick check of the potential accuracy. When I worked at AirForce, I could sight in a gun and shoot a group inside of ten minutes. I had to be fast because time is money!

By the way, the particular Condor I was testing had been sent in by a customer who complained it shot all over the place. In the three years I tested AirForce air rifles as an employee, I only found one gun that didn't shoot as it is supposed to. We changed the barrel on that one and it was fixed! But on today's rifle, all I had to do was air it up and start shooting. I don't know why some owners think their guns don't shoot, but they always seem to when I get them.

Another new site!
I just opened my second blog, called "Remembering when." It's a reminiscing blog where I get to write stories about airguns and the good old days. Nothing relaxes me like writing these short stories, many of which are based on something thaqt actually happened to me or to someone I know.

That's what is happening in my life right now. I'll make a concerted attempt to keep this blog updated more frequently from now on.