Airguns, rifle scopes and my reading glasses.

Seeing is believing or believing is seeing?  I was thinking about air gun suitable optics when I misplaced my reading glasses.  It is becoming clear to me  (even without my glasses) that there is much confusion about scoping air powered guns.  And while I can pick up a pair of cheap readers at any supermarket you need to be mindful of a few things about scopes for air guns.

Nikko Stirling Diamond 10x50x60

The first documented telescopic rifle sight was invented between 1835 and 1840 by John Ratcliffe Chapman an engineer working with Morgan James. In 1855, William Malcolm, a telescope builder, used achromatic lenses and worked to make the windage and elevation adjustments more effective. His scopes were between 3X and 20X in power, these and ones made by Mr. L.M. Amidon of Vermont were used during the Civil War. Around 1880 August Fiedler (Stronsdorf), the forestry commissioner of the Prince of Reuss, built the first “modern” telescopic sight. This was followed by early commercial manufacture by Kahles, an Austrian company.

I cannot find any reference to the first marriage between air rifles and telescopic sights but the pre charged nature of the period guns seem to be a natural match.  No smoke or powder residue!  Lucky for us we have only to choose from the features we desire to add a scope to our modern airguns. So heres a couple of things you need to know about airgun scopes.  Parallax pre set at air gun appropriate ranges or adjustable objective lenses to correct Parallax. If the scope is for a spring piston or gas ram rifle the scope should be rated for bi directional recoil. Here are a few of my favored air rifle scopes:

Bushnell: Banner 4-12x40 and Trophy 6-18x40 bright and clear optics, smooth focus and can be used on springers. I have had both these scopes on a R9 and Beeman airguns sells the R1 combo with a Banner 4-12x40.

Hawke: SR6 3-12x44. Innovative multi aim point, cross wind "correcting" and range estimating reticle. Ballistic Reticle Calculator (BRC) and Chair Gun ballistic computer program "programmable". I have one of these on my HW 100 T.  Airmax 2-7x32 compact and featuring the MAP6 reticle which is also "programmable". I have one of these on my R7.

Nikko Stirling: Diamond 10-50x60, one of the most popular field target scopes.  Side parallax adjustment. I have tried this scope on a couple of rifles and it is my first choice for extreme magnification.  Suitable for astronomy (if you don't find MIL dots distracting).

Leapers: 3-9x32 full size, Value priced, tough as nails. Proven able to stand up to heavy recoiling springers and gas rams like Diana 48 and Beeman RX2.

Air gun scopes are one subject that a knowledgeable airgun shop can help you with.  Making an ill conceived choice on a scope can be frustrating and costly. By the way, have you seen my glasses? 


Rick Klages

Some small air rifle adjustments.

Sometimes small things make all the difference.  Small things like a small turn of an allen key. Have you ever heard the old saw “speed kills”?  Air guns that have been “tuned” for velocity as their primary goal tend to sacrifice accuracy. Diablo pellets are largely drag stabilized projectiles and require clean steady airflow across their surfaces to perform consistently.

As diablo pellets approach the speed of sound (1100 fps approximately) the forces upon the pellet change, drag force is increased ex potentially  and the flow of air is more chaotic. The result is the destabilization of the pellet.  This effect begins as low as 925 feet per second. This is why bullets which are primarily designed to travel above the speed of sound look so different than air gun pellets. So is too much velocity the death of your airgun accuracy?

I have an affection for Weihrauch HW 100 air rifles. But I think the factory may have made a small error. Not in design or construction. When I first started shooting my “100” it was launching Beeman Field target  specialspellets at 1050 feet per second.  At thirty yards it would place three shots on the target touching with two “fliers a half to a quarter of an inch away every time.  Moving to a heavy pellet (Crosman 10.5 premiers) helped a bit.  I knew the solution was in decreasing the velocity via internal adjustment. 

Use this information at your own risk: In performing this modification you may void your warranty! I accept no responsibility for damage or misuse.  Check your local laws  if you are thinking of increasing the output power.

So I changed it.  The tools required were a set of metric Allen keys and a chronograph. Remove the air cylinder from the air rifle by unscrewing it from the receiver. Remove the action from the stock by extracting the two allen headed stock bolts.  Remove the receiver end cover with the two small allen headed bolts.  Remove the trigger group’s two allen headed bolts.  While slowly opening the action and looking through the rearmost screw hole that mounts the trigger group you will see a small grub screw. Carefully remove this screw.  Adjustment of velocity may commence when you re install the trigger group and the air cylinder.  Small adjustments of the large allen headed bolt under the receiver end cover will make big differences across the chronograph. I did this with the action out of the stock.  When satisfied replace the grub screw to lock the setting. Complete reassembly. Test the safety,  Enjoy!

So what did this do for me?  My air rifle ( in .177) was shooting about twenty one foot pounds from the factory.  I set the power to about seventeen.  That is shooting Crosman premier 10.5 grain (CPH) also known as Premier Ultra Magnum at an average of 858.8 Feet per second over 56 shots. That's four fourteen shot magazines.  The first Magazine average was: 843.9. The second: 859.9. Third: 866.9. Forth: 864.6.  Highest velocity was 873.2 which is 14.4 feet per second above average. And the lowest which was 835.0 which is 23.8 feet per second slower than average.  This low occurred on the first shot of the first magazine.  The results have been a dramatic increase in accuracy shot to shot and an increase in air use efficiency going from about forty five shots to more than sixty.  

Rick Klages

Springing into the middle of the Air Rifle road.

My first real adult air gun was a Diana 34 followed closely by a Beeman R9.  The R9 was a Goldfinger; a sort of factory custom that came with rings and a Bushnell Banner air gun rated rifle scope.  Moving from the open sighted RWS Diana to the relatively well scoped Beeman  alerted me to two things.  The “Rekord” trigger on the Beeman was better than the “T5” on the RWS Diana.  And my eyes are not as sharp as they once were.  I enjoyed both rifles on their own merits.  Shortly afterward I was introduced to the BSA Lightning XL.

The RWS Diana is a tremendous value and the air gun I tend to recommend to folks just getting started with adult airguns and those who need a pest gun for the shed.  Its rugged, accurate, powerful and inexpensive.  It isn’t as refined as the R9 but it's a good solid piece. Its also well loved by millions of air gunners around the world.  This ramble is not about the RWS Diana 34.

The BSA Lightning XL is the best competition to the Beeman R9 in my opinion.  Its short and handy and possesses a style muscularity that is very appealing to me.  Its trigger is not as refined as a “Rekord” but its good nevertheless.  Deployed as a hunting or pesting rifle its compactness provides a clear advantage in close quarters. This air gun also has a great following but Im not extolling the BSA today.

Today I’m writing about one Beeman R9, a product of the Weihrauch company of Germany.  The Weihrauch nomenclature for R9 is HW95 and it occupies one of the best loved accuracy over power sweet spots in the air gun universe.  Possessing a wonderful trigger and sufficient power to humanly take mammals up to rabbit size; it also has what it takes to make inroads into the target sports. I think the R9 is a best bet in the middle of the road springer class.

My own R9 is a fond memory to me, a casualty to my ultimate desire to pursue the more complicated arena of Pre-charged Pneumatic air guns.  Starting out factory fresh my rifle went about 3,000 shots when the mainspring went.  It was still under warrantee but instead of sending it back to Beeman Air guns I was convinced that as good as it had been overall it could be improved.   Joe M. at Cobra Air guns took on the job of replacing the spring and seals with better than factory replacements from Maccari  springs.  The piston was buttoned and the trigger bearing surfaces were polished. I changed the scope out for a Bushnell Trophy 6x18x40. 

It became the Super Beeman Goldfinger.  So smooth the cocking effort,  the distinct light and crisp feel of the two stage trigger.  The thwack of the shot and the complete lack of vibration. Accurate! Some days when I need to drag my shooting kit to the range or the shop I long for the simple good old days of pellet tin in my pocket and my R9 in hand. 

Rick Klages

P.S.  After posting this blog the current owner has graciously arranged for this rifle to return into my possession.  Thank you Dave.

See my R9 review here!

Airguns, SCUBA cylinders and hand pumps; no dilemma.

Scuba tank my scuba tank what would I do without ye? And while there is a long glorious tradition of pumping air into air guns with muscle power nothing beats the simplicity, ease and convenience of air already pumped up and waiting. In the genteel days of air gunning it was likely the game keepers (or other servants) job to air up the guns.  The high born were never out of breath.

Without the proper hired help to keep me shooting I needed to find a different solution. It came in the form of a steel dive cylinder of 100 cubic foot capacity. Not to say I haven't had many a weary turn at the hand pump. The air cylinder on an Air Force rifle is 490 cubic centimeters and from empty represents a lot of pumping. *

Scuba divers may or not look at air gunners with contempt as we subvert the life sustaining miracle of taking breath underwater just to power our “toys”. Same holds true for the cousin of the dive tank, the SCBA units used by Fire Fighters and Emergency Service personnel. The adoption of these devices free us from the tyranny of manual labour! Without these adjuncts the desirability of Pre charged Pneumatic airguns is somewhat dimmed in my eye.

In the late nineteen thirties, an American, Dr Christian Lambertsen designed a device he called 'Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus' for the US military. It was part of the war effort, and became known by the acronym: 'SCUBA'. The English company Daystate claims to be the “very first Company to produce modern pre-charged pneumatics (PCP) with designs dating back to the early nineteen seventies. I cant help but believe the first use of scuba dive cylinders to fill up air guns happened soon after. You will kindly notice the use of “modern” above.

As I contemplate the joy of having thousands of shots waiting for me tightly packed inside my non diving scuba cylinder I think of the time I spent pumping up air guns. My conclusion? To completely enjoy the benefits of PCP air guns one needs either to embrace the “cylinder” or teach your servants to pump.

Rick Klages

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*If I remember correctly it takes about 250 strokes of a hand pump to fill an Air Force 490cc air "bottle" to 3,000 psi!

Air Rifle Perfection!

HW 100T .177 + Crosman Premiers 10.5 grain

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I'm having a little problem, I have stopped desiring other air rifles. Oh sure a pretty piece of wood will still turn my head; but I cant even imagine picking up anything other than this awesome  Weihrauch! 

Rick Klages

What is an air gun?

What is an air gun? It's a tool and it can even be "toy" like but I cringe whenever anyone calls an air gun a weapon. I am not looking to downplay the potential for personal injury or property damage that could be caused by air guns but the advance of time has long ago negated the threat to world stability that true air weapons posed in their day. Todays post is not to belabor history but to meditate on the place of air guns in the modern (and shrinking) world. So for the love of air guns let me deposit this thought nugget!

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Military air guns reached their pinnacle of development during the 1880s and continued their service until the turn of the century. The Dynamite Guns of the coastal battery and Navel ship mounted variety were the most powerful air guns ever devised and deployed. And yes they were huge, they could propel a 50 lb. projectile 5000 yards! Now thats an air gun! All this on compressed air. Of course this is far removed from the weapons that shook Europe during the Napoleonic age. The same technology accompanied Lewis and Clark on their journey of discovery into the American west. This air weapon was effectively eradicated by international treaty designed to stop its proliferation in an early example of detente! Since then the only air weapons developed were a few air guns camouflaged as something else, mostly gentlemen's canes.

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So what are modern air guns good for? Target practice supporting fire arms training. Hunting and pest control in locations that require limitations in noise and energy. Olympic style competition and general hobby use. This encompasses everything from informal plinking (what is formal plinking?) to the relatively new sport of field target which is a hunting simulation. Other hunting simulations and long distance target shooting (and if I have forgotten your favorite please forgive me).

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So while there are many reasons to get involved in air gunning; personal protection should not be one of them. It should be noted that even though air guns are not fire arms due care should be taken with they're handling. This potential to inflict harm doesn't make them weapons as power tools carry a similar potential for mayhem. Sharp and pointy objects are abundant in every hardware store and some even have a medieval aura about them. If you are thinking of any air gun for self defense I suggest you look to a different tool. Could I interest you in a hammer?

Rick Klages