air arms sideleavers

[FattMann]

I have an Air Arms Woodsman in .22 and find it a powerfull accurate rifle in use, in the past have ownded the Jackal Parrabelum and the Hi- Power. Ok the early ones a re a bit rough here and there but a product of there time or a useable and effective rifle even today

[cptman]

Hi I picked up a secondhand woodsman, did they originally have open sights, there is a hole just In front of the loading port that looks like the foresight could have been located there, if there was a rear sight would it have been located on the scope rail?
I can't find any pictures showing a new complete one, if they did come with open sight does anyone have any they'd like to sell me?

[colin57]

I think early AA side levers had a three post front sight and a peep sight mounted at the back of the cylinder.

[FattMann]

Hi I picked up a secondhand woodsman, did they originally have open sights, there is a hole just In front of the loading port that looks like the foresight could have been located there, if there was a rear sight would it have been located on the scope rail?
I can't find any pictures showing a new complete one, if they did come with open sight does anyone have any they'd like to sell me?

no the woosdman is basicly a ar7 fitted in to a wood stock, it never had open sights, it was designed to use optical sights only

[cptman]

no the woosdman is basicly a ar7 fitted in to a wood stock, it never had open sights, it was designed to use optical sights only

Hi thanks for the info, I can give up looking for them now!
Cheers,
Cptman.

[leostar]

iirc open sights were optional extra hence not many about.And the front was a three post one and the rear as said a peep sight looked very similar to webley vulcan mk2 rear sight.It was fixed by a single screw into the hole at the very rear of cylinder giving maximum distance between front and rear for improved accuracy.The hole you mention near the loading tap may well have been a fixing point for a self load tube . the action on these were all the same just different stocks and barrel lenght of which is held in by a grub screw somewhere i beleive hth.

[FattMann]

iirc open sights were optional extra hence not many about.And the front was a three post one and the rear as said a peep sight looked very similar to webley vulcan mk2 rear sight.It was fixed by a single screw into the hole at the very rear of cylinder giving maximum distance between front and rear for improved accuracy.The hole you mention near the loading tap may well have been a fixing point for a self load tube . the action on these were all the same just different stocks and barrel lenght of which is held in by a grub screw somewhere i beleive hth.

the woodsman is a much earlier model, well before the autofeed on the firepower, good guns actually and lets be fair it went on to make Air Arms Crazy thing is I am not a big fan of the newer Air Arms designs like the TX or Pro Sport, and yes before any one says try them I have I have had A Prosport which I couldnt hold on target due to its f/t stock and the 40% use i have in my one hand and the TX I needed 3 hands and didnt like the fish scale finish The TX Sr series 1 I had was awesome, its now in the hands of Mr John Parry founder of Nelson Airgun club and my very good mate, it was sold has I needed to repair my car, and when money allows will be replaced with another SR series 1.

[leostar]

Pretty sure woodsman is same era it shares the same barrel as the ar7 which was autofeed could be wrong

[scrapman]

I think this gun was designed for telescopic sights from the outset, at least in the early days when mine dates from. There is no provision on the barrel for a front sight, just the bit of plastic trim, and I've never seen one with open sights. Thr hole in front of the loading tap is for the grub screw that locks the barrel in place.

The short barrel makes it a noisy little bu**er, and mine has had a moderator on it for most of its life. Until I bought a much quieter BSA Lightning XL a few years ago the woodsman was my main rat gun, and did a sterling job. Actually, I think it is probably quite a bit more powerful than the Lightning, but as I'm shooting mainly at 20-30 feet thats not too important.

[Happy-Harry]

air arms sideleavers:

I much prefer the front or back door myself.
The house where I grew up had a side door, with an internal corridor from it leading to the kitchen, pantry and garage, referred to as the back passage. As children we were restricted to this door to prevent muddy boots wrecking carpets.
These years of being ordered to "don't' get the carpet mucky, make sure you come in the back passage" are probably responsible for my distain of side entrance and exit. They certainly caused sniggers from my friends in teenage years.

[Hsing-ee]

I have an Air Arms Woodsman in .22 and find it a powerfull accurate rifle in use, in the past have ownded the Jackal Parrabelum and the Hi- Power. Ok the early ones a re a bit rough here and there but a product of there time or a useable and effective rifle even today

The fact they never ever featured in the top ten of any early FT shoot ever shows how great they weren't.

An agricultural copy of the Hammerli sidelever they served the purpose of getting Sussex Armoury/NSP Engineering/Air Arms going so that Ken Turner could finesse the HW77 and give people the TX200, which is what they actually wanted.

Richard Welham has an interesting story about trying to get accuracy out of one of the older sidelevers, apparently alot of them have a gap between the front of the loading tap and the breech throat which the pellet has to jump, with a predictably catestrophic effect on accuracy. If the gap is closed up the accuracy goes from terrible to OK.

The rifles are interesting, but of historical interest only. The last Air Arms ones were OK like the SE90, but like all tap-loaders, not as good as break-barrel or direct-loading fixed barrel types.

Enjoy the history!

[FattMann]

The fact they never ever featured in the top ten of any early FT shoot ever shows how great they weren't.

An agricultural copy of the Hammerli sidelever they served the purpose of getting Sussex Armoury/NSP Engineering/Air Arms going so that Ken Turner could finesse the HW77 and give people the TX200, which is what they actually wanted.

Richard Welham has an interesting story about trying to get accuracy out of one of the older sidelevers, apparently alot of them have a gap between the front of the loading tap and the breech throat which the pellet has to jump, with a predictably catestrophic effect on accuracy. If the gap is closed up the accuracy goes from terrible to OK.

The rifles are interesting, but of historical interest only. The last Air Arms ones were OK like the SE90, but like all tap-loaders, not as good as break-barrel or direct-loading fixed barrel types.

Enjoy the history!

Yes the Hammerli inspired the Jackal/Air Arms and its probably more accurate( my model 2 is like a match rifle) but its fragile compareded to the Woodsman. I like the Woodsman a lot, never was in to F/T and not really in to it today to tell the trouth just like shooting my springers, odd maybe but dont really care, just love my old guns, enjoy.