A Journal of Modern Airguns, Air Pistols, and Air Rifle Technology & Sport

One of my favorite airguns of the many I’ve owned was the Daisy Model 1894, a spitting image replica of the classic Winchester 1894 rifle. It had a heft that made it feel like a real gun, an attractive blued finish, and a real wood stock.

Back in the 1980s Beeman sold an 1894 replica that fired pellets and also had the look and heft of a real gun. It was an obvious replacement for my Daisy, but it was very expensive and soon dropped from the Beeman catalog, and I hadn’t seen another gun of similar quality until Walther introduced their version of the 1894.

The gun- actually made by Umarex- is not quite up to the standard of the earlier Beeman-supplied rifle, but then that gun cost over $150 back then, and would cost a lot more today. The Walther isn’t cheap- it’ll cost you between $350 and $400- but it’s the closest thing in the pellet rifle market to a real 1894.

Power is supplied by a pair of standard 12-gram CO2 cartridges that fit into a clever carrier in the rear of the stock. This clever arrangement allows the makers to produce a gun that more closely resembles the Winchester original without having to fit a CO2 reservoir into the receiver. It uses a standard Umarex 8-shot clip that allows the shooter to get off 8 pellets as fast as he or she can work the lever.

Accuracy is fair, but good enough for plinking (under 3/4″ at 10 meters) and power is modest. This isn’t a gun for hunting or target shooting. Rather, it’s a great trainer, as well as a great collectible for the shooter who enjoys collecting and using a wide variety of different air rifles.

Crosman is of course one of the oldest names in American airgunning, but until now, they’ve mainly been a maker of pump-up pneumatics and CO2 guns, and to a lesser extent, spring piston guns. But not too long ago they introduced their first pre-charged pneumatic (or PCP) air rifle.

Pre-charged pneumatics were first introduced in England in the 1970s, and the first guns were created from modified tranquilizer darts guns. The Brits were the leaders in this technology for a long time, with most of their effort going into making guns for hunting and field target use. Gradually, though, makers in other countries took notice, and now just about every top-grade target pistol is of the pre-charged design, and there are a great many high-powered guns using this system.

According to Tom Gaylord, this gun had its genesis in his exhortations to Crosman to build a PCP gun starting with one of their CO2 guns. At a retail price of under $400, the gun offers a lot of features, and reportedly, a lot of quality. It shows goo attention to detail, too, like the built-in pressure gauge. That’s a touch usually only seen on high-end target guns made for international competition. It also offers a feature I think is of quaestional value- you can also use CO2 as a propellant.

I don’t like using CO2. Outdoors, which is where a gun like this is meant to be used, you have problems owing to the fact that the vapor pressure of CO2 varies drastically with temperature. Simple guns like the Discovery depend on the self-regulating nature of CO2- it has a constant vapor pressure at a constant temperature. But as the temperature varies, so does the pressure, and hence the velocity, and trajectory, of the gun. As the gun warms up over the day the pressure goes up, and as gas is exhausted over a series of shots, it goes down as the gas reservoir cools.

So I’m not crazy about CO2. But as a PCP gun, it should be a winner. First reviews say accuracy is exceptional, and did I mention that the under-$400 price includes a hand air pump? That’s pretty amazing, considering I paid close to $300 for a hand pump for the PCP gun I used not that many years ago. Looks like a winner to me.

If you’re old enough to recall watching The Man From Uncle on TV in the 60s, you’ll know why I chose that title for this essay. The Chinese-made Q-57 side lever spring air rifle would be right at home in the arsenal of that show’s hero. Bullpup design, attache carrying case, integrated scope- it’s all here. This gun has a very high coolness factor, and a very attractive price, with most outlets selling it for between $60 and $70.

What it doesn’t have is a reputation for super high accuracy, but it’s plenty accurate enough for plinking. I’ve seen it advertised as a hunter, but with only 650fps advertised velocity in .177 and 480fps in .22, energies are on the low side for that. But really, you don’t buy a gun like the QB-57 for hunting or target shooting. You buy because it’s an incredibly cool looking gun.

How did I miss this great airgun related story last year?

San Francisco Chronicle
Chicken rescue probed
Air gun used by cop to burst balloons

(08-07) 04:00 PDT San Francisco — A San Francisco police lieutenant who used an air pistol to pop balloons that kept a chicken stuck in power lines is being investigated for possibly breaking department rules by firing a nonregulation weapon.

Lt. Mark Swendsen thought he was a hero June 21 for using his Daisy Model 777 pistol to save the Rhode Island Red hen that a prankster — apparently copying a stunt promoting a TV show — had sent aloft with 100 helium balloons.

“I was doing my job,” he said Wednesday. “I was trying to save the chicken, and I was trying to prevent other people from being hurt.”

Now, he said, he feels like the target of a “bizarre inquisition” by the department.

The air pistol that the 30-year veteran used to rescue the chicken at Broderick and Fell streets was Swendsen’s, not something that the department issued. Swendsen says the pistol is used in 10-meter Olympic competition.

“It’s meant to shoot things from about 38 feet away,” he said. “It’s meant to put all its shots in the space of a dime. . . . It’s pretty accurate.”

The chicken, dubbed Amelia by animal welfare workers, was adopted by a Concord woman in June.

Lt. Mike Slade, who runs the department’s internal affairs unit, said the investigation was simply a routine response to an anonymous complaint and that Swendsen had little reason to worry.

“We knew it was a nothing,” Slade said. “We wanted to make sure there was no merit to the case. If somebody makes a complaint, we have to look at it — it was something very minor.”