air gun technology

[DON WALKUP]

I, for one, intend to stay in airguns...I believe the current white house 'occupant' will bring so much pressure on firearms it will make it not worth one's while to even purchase ammo; costs will become prohibitive. especially if you favor military calibers such as .308 or .223

Airguns are nothing new in the history of, non-human powered, driven projectile arms. The U.S. Navy used air powered cannon on board ships during the Spanish-Amercian war, Lewis and Clark used an air rifle to hunt elk and deer with, the Barvarian army used air rifles against Napoleons army during the Napoleonic wars...it goes on.

I've owned and hunted small game with airguns for many years and have watched in awe as they've progressed from a pump pistol that would barely disfigure a pellet upon impact with a target to highly engineered arms that will take big game like deer and elk. I've seen a commercial that leads one to believe a javelina was taken with a .177 Gamo barrel break, springer, on the outdoor channel.

At the moment i have two air rifles that are good hunting arms...Beeman R1 (gas piston*) in .20 cal and a beeman R10 (springer) in .177. Both are quite capable of taking small game at reasonable distances (mostly within 50 yards) and i've 'built' one QB-78 by converting it to higher volume CO2 and relieving it's internal valves and orifices to increase power; increased the power by an estimated 20% but at the cost of more CO2 per shot and an increase in noise of discharge...a great air rifle though...abosolutely no recoil what so ever and highly accurate.

*The beeman R1 may be charged with a hand pump to high pressure levels but it makes the cocking effort difficult, too...I can barely cock it by using both hands when fully charged.

In the very near future, i'm getting into PCP or HPA as i feel that actual firearms will become so regulated it will make it prohibitive for the average person to afford to go thru the process of owning/purchasing.

Right now, most agencies and legislators do not realize how effective air powered arms may be and i'm certain they will become alarmed when they see; they will raise their level of paranoia to another level..."Let's ban airguns...they've become much too powerful"

I have my eye on a Theoben or the new "Discovery" from Benjamin right now. both may be charged via hand pump and are capable of over 900 FPS in the .22 cal. and possibly a larger caliber PCP/HPA in the .25 to 9mm size.

Casting of projectiles may be accomplished at no where near the price of firearms projectiles if one wishes to...

time is limited for the firearms culture...possibly; a new era of air arms may be dawning.

my opinion...