What's the Next Airgun Revolution?

[18 Wheeler]

Where is the next breakthrough going to come from?
The gradual improvement of our airguns has seen springers reach a high level of accuracy and consistency within the 12fpe limit, then came PCP's, but what is next?
Some thoughts...
-New barrel designs/rifling
-Higher pressure operating systems (and consequently the need for affordable multi stage pumps to get up to say 900 BAR)
-Perfect pellets (only joking, I know some things are impossible)...

I'm now going to put my hard hat on and retire to the bunker to avoid the incoming

[vi11ain]

I'd suggest that you're currently seeing it happen with the development of the Daystate electronic trigger/air metering. Consistency leads to accuracy, so properly controlling the delivery of air behind the pellet has got to be the way forward.

Personally I feel that there ought to be something better in the way of pellet design, but what has already been achieved with the diabolo shape is quite impressive.

Increasing the air reservoir pressure, IMHO, is a dead end - compressing air to much over 300 bar is an increasingly inefficient process. I believe that 400 bar diving cylinders were tried out years ago, but there were problems due to the heavy cylinders and the requirement to use a three stage (rather than the current standard two stage) regulator to step the pressure down. Expanding air from such a high pressure generates some serious cold!

Semi-auto PCPs would be popular, I'm sure, but IIRC there is some bizarre agreement between the UK gun trade and the government not to create them, as they'd just end up being banned. Correct me on this if I'm wrong!

Probably the best way to look into the crystal ball is to step back and think about what's "wrong" with current airguns and if there's any possible way of correcting the "fault".

When I used to hunt, the thing I wanted most on my HW35 was a rapid, low movement reload, for those times when not all the rabbits disappeared after the first had been shot - this has certainly been addressed by the multishot PCP. Apart from that, it'd probably have been more than 12ft lbs power, but that's not a technical limitation - just a legal one!

I'm sure there will be all sorts of interesting and clever developments, some rubbish, others brilliant, but we'll just have to wait and see!

Ben

[Gwylan]

Interesting.... barrells and rifling could be better, but at a price, I think.
The pressure side of things depends on diving bottles, and realistic number of fills.
The diabolo pellet has possibly reached the peak of its design, (dangerous thing to say..!), but there could be better quality control, again, at a price.
There was some talk a while back about making a calibre smaller than .177.
What amazes me is that pneumatics and CO2 systems were around before springers.
I think the next development will be autofocus rangefinding scopes, possibly with auto dialling. I know there was an "April Fool" gag a few years ago, but autofocus camera lenses have been around for ages.

Gus

[sniper22]

the futures bright - the futures daystate

[Mr. Gain]

The ballistic angle seems to me to be pretty much sorted. What keeps us from hitting the target every time are errors in rangefinding and windage estimation and in compensating for range and wind deflection.

Wind is a tough factor to deal with because it's so dynamic and variable, but linking rangefinding technology to digital target-imaging to create a self-compensating scope is much more do-able - and already done in military systems.

Elcan's Digital Hunter and Bushnell's Yardage Pro scopes show that it's almost here for hunters too. And when digital NV gets sorted out I can't see why we shouldn't have rangefinding/compensating digital day/night scopes.

A dual-camera system might also be used like a co-incidence rangefinder with image-matching software to provide a rangefinding function without lasing.

All this technological sophistication seems a bit hard on the bunnies etc. but there may come a day when it is seen as irresponsible to hunt without using all the aids to accuracy available - a clean kill being so much better than wounding.

Of course, in the end, whether we get to use this kit or not will depend on whether we use our votes and our voices to make sure we've still got a sport to pursue...

[baxterbasics]

Tony-you are a bloody daystate obsessive
"The futures bright,the futures Daystate"-you ARE the Brian Potter of the Airgun world

[baxterbasics]

Agreed-leaps in Optic technology next......

[SWAT Strachan]

Battery powered gyroscopic stabilisers. Get the crosshairs over the target, flick the switch and allow centrifugal force to remove wobble, aim shift, muzzle climb etc etc... Sounds viable to me anyway .

[Sam Vimes]

Sadly, I suspect that the next real airgun revolution will be a concerted effort by the government to stop us having them.

[tpe]

the anti shake sounds good, and even easier if you combine it with the rangefinder, functioning something like those on digital camers.

However if you used a multiwavelength high power pulse laser you could probably do away with pelets alltogether .

[I. J.]

Maybe this - maybe not.

ATB
Ian

[ashbo]

May be with all the electronic developments ,we could be using a .177 rail gun

[Murphy]

How about a totally silent air gun??

[u.k.neil]

The design of air rifles just gets better as time progresses.

I have shot six yard ball and ten metre card for more years than I care to remember. Started off with the good old Webley Mk III. Then the first FWB "Recoiless" springer came out and we all thought that that was the pinacle. Then came the 300, 300S, 300SU springers, and then the 600 came out, a single stroke pneumatic. That was followed by the 601, 602, 603, P70 and 700 series, each one better than the one before.

These now are absolutely inert when you fire them and you wonder what will be the next development.

What I have found that this has actually killed the six yard bell target sport in this Country because now the fun has gone out of it and people just take it too seriously and you have to spend about £2000 for gun, charging system, glove, jacket, trousers, shoes etc to stand a chance of being competative and people don't want to spend that sort of money just to get into the sport.

So basically, the equipment is getting better, but is it doing our sport any good?

Neil

[I. J.]

So basically, the equipment is getting better, but is it doing our sport any good?
Neil

Very good point.

ATB
Ian