Imaginary Collector's Air-Rifle

[Hsing-ee]

I'm putting this out there to see if anyone will make one. It is an air-rifle with a barrel that runs concentric to the air-chamber, and has a rearward moving piston. Loading is direct at the breech which is sealed by a falling-block or swing-out breech. Cocking would be by an underlever with linkages down and forward, or sideways and forward in the case of a sidelever version. Calibre would be easily interchangeable. The piston could be sealed by TWO 'O' rings, one for the inside and one for the outside edge.

I know there was a pistol with a concentric barrel, was this the Acvoke?

Anyway, maybe it would not make the top of the sales charts but I bet most collectors would want to have one in their collection!

[air-tech]

I know there was a pistol with a concentric barrel, was this the Acvoke?

And also http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/...eusta13op8.jpg

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/...9/DSC03939.jpg

I would imagine that with a rifle issues of swept volume and sealing at the rear would be challenging.

[Rob M]

The Acvoke and the Warrior pistol (Both by Accles and Shelvoke if I remember right) were classic British air pistols in the 'concentric' style. The famous British "ABAS Major" pistol is also a concentric design, an utter classic, very nicely made and cleverly designed.

There's also the classic Hy-Score pistol, that had a concentric barrel. The designers experimented with having an o-ring inside the piston to seal against the barrel but found that with even minimal lubrication it wasn't necessary. I love the breech design on the Hy-Score as well, and particularly like the models that have barrels that can be unscrewed from the muzzle end for quick calibre changes!

The Record Jumbo and Record Champion pistols also had concentric piston/barrels arrangement as well, and they're one of the few airguns that does not have a circular piston! It's an oval piston on those, very unusual.

Then there are the 'Gat' style air pistols, such as the Gat itself of course, the Milbro G50, Phoenix G50 (the G50 was also made by Cammell's of Merseyside as well), and the Lovena Lov2 (sold in the UK as the Webley Gnat), and going back further, the Firefly. There may be others too. I seem to remember that the Tell 2, 'Thunderbolt Junior' or 'Big Chief' (all very similar) was a concentric design too.

I think that the old Swedish "Excellent" pistol is also 'concentric' style as well. There have also been various pneumatic rifles with the barrel concentric with the air cylinder too.

Can anyone else add any more?

[Lakey]

Westley Richards did a concentric barrel/cylinder version of the highest possible. Now that is a rare airgun

Look at the second photo down on the airgun blog for a picture of the Westley Richards concentric model

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur...%3Disch&itbs=1

[Rob M]

Oh yes, I remember reading about that now! I seem to remember that it was practically unheard of, there were no adverts or records of it, until someone actually found one and realised how rare they are. As you say, very rare indeed!