Wham-o made firearms

by Tom Gaylord

I'm writing this to collect my thoughts for an article I'll publish in Shotgun News later this year.

Wamo or Wham-o ?
Wham-o, also known as Wamo (they are the same company) made three conventional firearms and three additional powder-burning muzzle-loading arms that fall loosely into the BB-gun category. In this report, I will look at the three firearms, only. Before that, however, here is a magazine ad from Science & Mechanics that is proof of the dual names. I have lots of this material, so don't believe what you hear about these being two different companies - they're not.


Here is an ad from a 1956 Science & Mechanics magazine that clearly shows both spellings of the Wamo name in one ad. There is much additional proof that Wamo and Wham-o are the same company, but this will suffice for now.

Dating these guns is still a problem for me. I would like to discover the start and end date for each of the three firearms, as well as the BB guns that I will also cover here in the future. If any reader has information that can help me date these guns more closely, I would enjoy hearing from you.

Wamo Powermaster
The best-known of the three firearms made by Wham-o/Wamo is the Powermaster. It is a single-shot pistol chambered for the .22 long rifle cartridge. From advertisements in magazines, I know this gun was offered in 1956. Both spellings of the company name are on the box and the literature inside.


The Wamo Powermaster is the best-known and most plentiful of the Wamo/Wham-o firearms. It's a single-shot pistol chambered for the .22 long rifle cartridge. This photo is used with permission of 45Broomhandle, a member of The High Road firearms discussion group.

The Powermaster operates from an unlocked bolt, using mass, alone, to retard the bolt until chamber pressure had dropped to a safe level. The bolt blows back with the shot and remains open. The empty cartridge is blown out of the chamber and it tipped by a steel spring in the bolt channel that functions as the ejector.

I have shot a Powermaster with .22 long rifle standard speed cartridges and it functioned fine. There was no violence in the action and ejection seemed no different than any regular .22 rimfire semiautomatic. Though I didn't spend much time with the gun, it was apparent that it was reasonably accurate, at least at a plinking level.

I don't currently have a Powermaster of my own. I would like to acquire a nice example in a box, if possible, though that's not essential. I see them for sale from time to time, but one recent one had a reserve of $600 on his, which is ridiculous. They should be worth about $250 in very good condition - $300 with a box. I have an excellent one being held for me at $200, but it will take about 8 months to get.

Wamo Hamilton pirate pistol
I only know of three of these guns, and I'm guessing they predate the Powermaster, though the actions show remarkable similarity. I do not have any literature or box information. I have no ads for them. I call them pirate pistols because of their look. They have the name Hamilton engraved on an anodized aluminum plaque on both sides of the stock. I once thought they might be the prototype for the Powermaster, but they are too developed for that. Also, the three I know about are all identical, which seldom happens with a prototype.


The Wamo Hamilton pistol (top) looks old at first glance, but the action is a close copy of the Powermaster below. Note the large bolt handle for mass. I would give credit for this photo, but I have misplaced the name of the man who sent it to me.

I would like to acquire any information on this pistol that's out there. And, if someone wants to part with one, I'm interested.

Wamo Tommygun
This is the gun I know the least about - despite owning one. I only know of one other, which is pictured here. It has the same action as the two pistols, but I chickened out when I fired mine. I used CB caps, which cycled the action. The barrel is rifled and the only marks on the exposed surface of the gun are these two lines:

Wamo Mfg. Co
San Gabriel, Cal.


The Wamo Tommygun is a crude long gun that uses the same operating mechanism as both pistols. I have misplaced the name of the man who sent me this photo.

I have no ads, no paper of any kind and no mention of this gun in any publication. I would really like to hear from someone who may know something - anything about this gun.

Well, that's it. My article in Shotgun News will be very large and contain lots more details and photos. If you help me with my research, I will be only too happy to give you credit in the article that should be out in July.

What do you feed your airgun?Found in a Crosman 1377

by Tom Gaylord

This report came from a reader, Darry Hartsock, who referred me to the man who actually wrote the report, did the work and took the picture.

Mark Orn is the Manager and Buyer of the Hunting and Fishing Department at Canfield's Sporting Good in Omaha, Nebraska. This is his story.

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This picture shows you can try to use a Swiss Army knife to clear the barrel of a Crosman pistol.

A customer purchased this pistol from us over a year ago. Brought it back saying that it wasn’t shooting and wanted another one. I asked if it was loaded he said he didn’t know.

I took the gun back to our pellet trap and tried to put a cleaning rod down the barrel. It only went down about two inches before stopping. Having pushed multiple pellets (16 in .22 caliber is my record) from airguns before, I told the customer that there was a pellet stuck half way down the barrel and that I could push it out for him. That was when he told me that he had let his 6-year-old cousin play with the gun while he and his friends cleaned other guns.

I told him how irresponsible it was to let kids “play with guns” and that airguns are guns. Every year people are hurt or killed by “just a BB gun”.

After 25 years selling them I have seen nails, coat hangers and wood dowels, but this was a first. I found a toothpick, ink pen, tweezers and 5 .177 pellets.


A lot of Swiss Army Knife went in after those five stuck pellets.

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Thanks for that report, Mark. You top anything I've ever seen in a barrel, though I have found several finishing nails and about five pellets dropped down the transfer port of a Hakim air rifle.

The ass-blaster

by Tom Gaylord

I had to put this one up. It's really funny! Please overlook the poor English. I think the author was attempting to sound scientific.

United States Patent 6055910

Link to this page

Abstract:
A toy gas-fired missile and launcher assembly whose missile is composed of a soft head and a tail extending therefrom formed by a piston. The piston is telescoped into the barrel of a launcher having a closed end on which is mounted an electrically-activated igniter, the air space between the end of the piston and the closed end of the barrel defining a combustion chamber. Joined to the barrel and communicating with the chamber therein is a gas intake tube having a normally closed inlet valve. To operate the assembly, the operator places the inlet tube with its valve open adjacent his anal region from which a colonic gas is discharged. The piston is then withdrawn to a degree producing a negative pressure to inhale the gas into the combustion chamber to intermix with the air therein to create a combustible mixture. The igniter is then activated to explode the mixture in the chamber and fire the missile into space.

You never hear it all!

The most powerful airgunPart 3

by Tom Gaylord

The most powerful big bore airgun is something that will always be in flux. Whatever I say, it will be wrong tomorrow when somebody tweaks a design or shoots a bullet that is 100 grains heavier.

When we held the Big Bore Airgun Championships in Maryland at the Damascus Airgun Show, we got to see a lot of great ideas. But one by Ray Apelles sort of typified what I just said. He took a Career 9mm single-shot and loaded a 275-grain lead slug in it. Through the chronograph he got credit for a lot more energy than that rifle is usually capable of. But at 50 yards there was not much accuracy. It wasn't a combination anyone would choose to hunt with. So on paper it was powerful - but not a combination anyone would ever use.

I am also talking about guns that can move autonomously in the field and can be fired from the shoulder. There are air cannons that are much more powerful than what I'll mention, but I would not consider them because they are mounted on a gun carriage.

Today, however, there are large-caliber airguns that do have accuracy. You can hunt with them and they will not fail you in the field. So I'm going to nominate one of them as the most powerful. Big Bore Bob has made a .79 caliber rifle that shoots a 1,005-grain lead slug generating over 1,000 foot-pounds. A bison was taken with this airgun.

There may be another gun I have overlooked, but this is the most powerful big bore I know about at this time.

If you have read all the postings to this topic, you begin to see why it is impossible to answer the often asked question, "What's the most powerful airgun in the world."

The most powerful airgun Part 2

by Tom Gaylord

The most powerful CO2 gun I know about is a cannon named CO2Much, built by Mike Chilco. It shoots a 3,123-grain cylindrical lead slug that's 1.12-inches in diameter (112 caliber). That is almost twice the size of the largest elephant rifle bullet known, which was a Holland 4-bore that weighs 4 ounces. It registered 395 f.p.s. through a Oehler 35P chronograph, which gives a muzzle energy of 1,082 foot-pounds.


It's a cannon, but CO2Much is the record-holder for powerful CO2 airguns.


A 7-ounce lead bullet shot from a long barrel is where the power comes from.

The gun weighs 16.5 pounds and has to be supported on a rest because it's too long for a man to hold comfortably. It kicks like a .50 BMG. It is smoothbore and only "barn-door" accurate at 50 yards. However, due to the mass of the bullet, if you were hit by it it would likely tear a hole clear through you or tear off a limb, like the Civil War cannons often did, when soldiers reached out to touch them and they bounced past.

The most powerful airgun Part 1

by Tom Gaylord

People like extremes, and new airgunners are always asking me what the most powerful airgun is. I will attempt to answer that today without being too cute.

You have to look at the powerplant
The type of powerplant determines the potential maximum for all airguns. Unlike firearms whose variables are few, airguns have one additional variable in the way the compressed air or gas is either generated or supplied. That variable makes all the difference in how much power can be generated by a gun.

Airguns come with many types of powerplants. The "big three" are spring piston, pneumatic and CO2. And right away, we have an "air" gun that doesn't really use air. The CO2 gun should actually be called a gas gun, I suppose, but then you'd have to differentiate between that and Freon, green gas, red gas, propane and I don't know how many others. So for this discussion, a CO2 gun is an airgun.

But it doesn't end there. There are also catapult guns that launch the projectile mechanically. Some are like slingshots, which is where the name catapult comes from.

And pneumatics break into three main types - precharged, multi-pump and single-stroke. So each of them has to be considered separately.

And let's not overlook the classic BB gun action seen in the Daisy lever action guns. It's a hybrid combination of a catapult and a spring piston powerplant. And, as long as we are talking BB guns I suppose we should consider the Crosman 350's strange poppet valve. The same valve is found in the M1 Carbine from Crosman. It's a type of spring piston in which the compressed air is restrained by the valve until the pressure rises over a certain point. Then it bursts through the poppet and blasts the BB on its way.

Let's consider spring piston guns first.
The most powerful spring piston airgun that I know of is the JW80 by Whiscombe. It has opposing pistons that come together like clapping hands. Each is powered by a separate mainspring and the rifle is cocked by three strokes on the cocking lever. I don't own a JW80, whose dual pistons are separated by 80mm, but I do have a JW75, which is nearly as powerful. I have seen 32 foot-pounds from my rifle, though 35 are possible with the heaviest pellets. A JW80 should exceed that by a foot-pound or two.


This JW75 is an underlever spring piston air rifle with dual opposed pistons. Separate springs drive them together like the clapping of hands, producing more power than any other spring piston gun, to the author's knowledge.

John Whiscombe has stopped making airguns, so the few that he made (a few hundred of each model, I'm guessing) are all that exist. Expect to pay at least $2,500 for a nice one with one barrel today. Many of them have interchangeable barrels and the one I own has all four calibers, which makes testing different caliber pellets in the same gun a breeze.

"It's a Daisy!" book is back in print!

by Tom Gaylord

Every new Daisy collector has to have this book that highlights the history of Daisy from the start through 1976. The author is Cass S. Hough, grandson of the founder of Daisy and, parenthetically, the first pilot to break the speed of sound.

Please buy several!
The original paperback book has been selling for $60-100, because so many people are interested in this subject. Here is a chance to get one for under $10 - something that probably won't happen again for another 30 years. If you buy several you'll have spares to sell at high prices in five years when people start asking where the book is again. Daisy has made this a 30th anniversary edition, which means there is a limited printing. When they're gone, they're gone for good and the prices start to climb again.

You can buy your copy(s) at the Daisy Museum store. They don't have a shopping cart, but just call 479 - 986 - 6873, 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday.


A book every BB gun enthusiast must have!

To protect collectors, this book is marked as a special edition, so we'll always be able to tell it from the first printing. And to protect the book, it was made 1/8-inch wider so the gutters could be larger. The original books often cracked at the spine from being opened too far.

This book has provided me with inspiration for my writing ever since it was first published. There are behind-the-scenes anecdotes on how Daisy grew, some of the competition they battled and even how certain pivotal decisions were made. If you have an interest in BB guns you must read this "It's a Daisy!".