Large Caliber Airguns

[Professor]

Does anyone know about people in the UK either shooting or building large caliber air rifles?

I was interested to discover that the Lewis and Clarke expedition in the pioneer days of North American exploration was at least partly armed with air rifles. They may have been .32 or .50 caliber, air reservoir types. Fans operate and build both muzzle and breach loading air rifles in the States, some of them using 300 foot pound specimens for hunting elk?

I'd be interested in any links to such activities in the UK, if anybody has them.

Thanks.

[zebedee71]

There was a thread reguarding a guy using a 9mm air rifle on this forum but the name eludes me. I am sure someone will step forward and name the guy OR gal. I know the Yanks are bu99ers for bigger cal rifles and have exceeded even the 9mm cal.

Zeb

[tpe]

Checkout mikebike's 9mm, he has some nice pics up as well via the second link. then there is dennis quackenbushes .308 and.50, he da man in the next link.

http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/index.html

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....=large+caliber

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....=large+caliber

and a couple of links that were kindly pointed out to me on a similar question beautiful, expencive and custom

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~targetts/

http://www.glbarnes.com/

and of course there are the .25 9mm and.50 carerras, you can check them out on pyramidair.com

tim

There is a fair bit of modification going on in scandinavia, some of it very interesting but alas in danish or sweedish so wont post it here, but will see if i can get them to make a couple of english friendly sites later

[Professor]

There was a thread reguarding a guy using a 9mm air rifle on this forum but the name eludes me. I am sure someone will step forward and name the guy OR gal. I know the Yanks are bu99ers for bigger cal rifles and have exceeded even the 9mm cal.

Zeb

Thanks Zeb - I've got to go out now, but I'll do a search later. They certainly have exceeded 9mm - .72 and probably more. I've seen reference to 700fps with bullets weighing more than 150 grains. Must make quite a crack! I quite fancy a .45 Trapdoor Springfield. I used to shoot a repro one at a black powder club I was in once upon a time, but it could make your nose bleed if you fired it with factory loaded .45/70 cartridges and it cost a mint to shoot. Air would be nice and soft and the bullets would be cheap to cast.

Picture here:

http://www.militaryrifles.com/US/73-88Allin.htm

[Professor]

There is a fair bit of modification going on in scandinavia, some of it very interesting but alas in danish or sweedish so wont post it here, but will see if i can get them to make a couple of english friendly sites later

Thanks Tim. Great links!.

Now this is what I call 'Airgun Hunting' -

http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/kyleaxis2.html

[Professor]

Checkout mikebike's 9mm, he has some nice pics up as well via the second link. then there is dennis quackenbushes .308 and.50, he da man in the next link.

http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/index.html

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....=large+caliber

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....=large+caliber

and a couple of links that were kindly pointed out to me on a similar question beautiful, expencive and custom

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~targetts/

http://www.glbarnes.com/

and of course there are the .25 9mm and.50 carerras, you can check them out on pyramidair.com

tim

There is a fair bit of modification going on in scandinavia, some of it very interesting but alas in danish or sweedish so wont post it here, but will see if i can get them to make a couple of english friendly sites later

Thanks again for those links tpe - especially the Denis Quackenbush ones. That site is a mine of information, and I really fancy the .308 caliber Exile. I know it's about personal taste, but that gun looks the business to me. I'd love one, but then there's the fact that he won't ship them abroad, quite apart from the importing problems. I'm not sure how one would go about that really. Do you think it would stop a rabbit at 40yards like my TX200 does? LOL... The downside though is having to fill them up every four shots.

Cheers and thanks again - I really enjoyed that site.

[Raygun]

Try Stalker Rifles (U.K.)
Barnes (States)

ATB
Ray.

[Professor]

Try Stalker Rifles (U.K.)
Barnes (States)

ATB
Ray.

Thanks Ray - I checked out the Barnes stuff. Some of the styling is a bit zany for me, and the prices are off the wall, but understandable, given the hand built nature of his work. More worrying though are the terms of business, you pay upfront for three years - I'd be worried he might fall under a truck before he'd finished mine, I think.

Career do some interesting guns, but ugly as could be. Not too expensive though, except here in the UK some dealers are selling them as if the dollar price was pounds. How an object can be selling in the states for $550 and trading here at £550, I'll never understand... They should be around £300 if people weren't ripping us off.

[Thunderbolt A10]

Hi,

If I remember correctly, you can also get the Daystate Air Ranger in cal .30 or of course in cal .25. For more information contact Alfred De Vries in Holland.

[English]

There is a book called Airguns and Air Pistols By L Wesley. It's been updated and revised and re-printed by Dennis Hiller, but the first editions had a lot of historical information that pointed out the first airguns were blowpipes and then it moves on to consider the first airguns of significance where larger caliber reservoir rifles that were used for hunting and by the military. Indeed it said they were often thought of as assassins rifles.

I dont think that you will find there is much happening in the way of these larger calibre rifles here in the UK because they would not meet the criteria for the Deer Act, the expense and the fact that it would be much easier to lay your hands on a powder burning gun?

That book is well worth a read if you can find one? And if you do find out more about this in the UK then I'd be interested to hear about it.

Good luck,

English

[Professor]

Thanks for that English. Sorry I didn't get back earlier to acknowledge your info. I've heard of that Wesley book. I wish they'd put these out of copyright / out of print books on the web, instead of letting them disappear altogether.

If I find out anything interesting, I'll PM you with the details. I'm not sure how the FLOs will take to the idea of shooting pests with a 9mm air rifle, though low velocity (comparative to cartridge weapons) might be a selling point. In practical terms, maybe a heavyweight .22 with capapility of pushing a heavy pellet faster, would be better, I just remember the fun of my old blackpowder days, and yearn for some bigger bore stuff without the stinking mess of cleaning out blackpowder rifles - talk about bad egg smells - my wife almost left home over it.

[Velocette]

Have a look on www.Swotbooks.co.uk. There hasn't been a book yet that I couldn't find there in the S/H section.
Good luck.

[Velocette]

Just checked,,,,there are 20 copies there from a tenner upwards.

[Professor]

Thanks Velocette. I'll take a look after lunch.

Did you take that name because of an interest in Veocette motorcycles? I remember lusting after them in the sixties when I had no money to buy one.

[Velocette]

Its a typical story of idle students wasting the Governments money. My first term as a mature student at Uni. in the early 70s came with a startlingly generous grant,,,so I spent most of it on a 1966 500 Venom Clubman. LWS 13D if its still out there. This led me to add to the stable with a 500MSS and eventually I made a Norton Velo which was used for Classic racing,,along with the Clubman in the Production class. Absolutely first class machines which always repaid the effort put into preparing them with some good results.
Unfortunately,,I was persuaded that Ducati's were the way to success and bought a Mach 1 and a 900 Desmo,,,and as a result had little success and even less money.
So,,the name is in memory of the sort of engineering that has made me gravitate towards a Stealth project now,,odd,fussy,strange to look at but with the promise of great things to come.