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Thread: Use of plastic in top competition pistols

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    Use of plastic in top competition pistols

    I have recently learned that the Morini 162 and the latest Feinwerkbau have plastic trigger guards.

    I believe the trigger blade on the Steyr LP2 is also made of plastic. I've even read that the trigger housing on the LP10 is made of plastic.

    I assume this has to do with weight reduction and balance. And the use of good quality plastic is not a problem for me. When I lived abroad I owned a Glock, and loved it.

    However this got me thinking about just how much synthetic is used in modern target guns, and where it is found, apart from in obvious components like seals and o rings.
    Arthur

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    I would think there's also a very significant profit incentive too. Injection moulded and more recently, high quality 3D printed parts, must be so much cheaper to produce.. Any manufacturer will try and produce an acceptable item at the lowest possible manufacturing cost..

    I see there's now a company that will 3D print a "wooden" grip. Printed in wood fibre filament and measurements taken from a scan of your hand.

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    I don't think that plastic is acceptable in a pistol costing £1400+ although my Hammerli AP40 does have a plastic grips, but it is a very good grip and not part of the pistol you expect to be made of metal. if they want to save money it means they are not trying to produce the best pistol possible.
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    Similar letter in a recent Guns and Ammo magazine but in fullbore pistols and rifles. Saying the plastic is strong enough and wears too easily.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bjacobs571 View Post
    I don't think that plastic is acceptable in a pistol costing £1400+ although my Hammerli AP40 does have a plastic grips, but it is a very good grip and not part of the pistol you expect to be made of metal. if they want to save money it means they are not trying to produce the best pistol possible.
    I don't think they are trying to produce the best pistol possible.
    They are trying to produce a pistol that that gives maximum profit for the company - That is their "raison d'etre ". They produce a pistol that keeps up with the competition in that price bracket for the minimum price.

    If they were trying to make the best pistol possible the bits that are plastic would probably be made of Titanium etc. the pistol would then cost £5,000 and no one would buy it.

    The Chinese could probably produce a fake that would be almost impossible to tell from the real one and sell for about £150.

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    Quote Originally Posted by 1066 View Post
    I don't think they are trying to produce the best pistol possible.
    They are trying to produce a pistol that that gives maximum profit for the company - That is their "raison d'etre ". They produce a pistol that keeps up with the competition in that price bracket for the minimum price.

    If they were trying to make the best pistol possible the bits that are plastic would probably be made of Titanium etc. the pistol would then cost £5,000 and no one would buy it.

    The Chinese could probably produce a fake that would be almost impossible to tell from the real one and sell for about £150.
    Who do we ask in China?......sounds like a good idea
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    The Boeing Dreamliner and the Airbus XWB have a lot of 'plastic' in them to save weight...
    Too many guns, or not enough time?

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    Quote Originally Posted by zooma View Post
    Who do we ask in China?......sounds like a good idea
    http://shop.ehobbyasia.com/target-sh...l#.WP5lxYWcHcs

    Just need to add a Walther barrel for about £50 and adjust the internals and away you go.

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    harvey_s is offline Lost love child of David Niven and Victoria Beckham
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    Don't know where you got your info from - but the Morini 162 trigger guard is metal...no plastic anywhere.

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    This is the reason I love old match guns over newer ones. Sure newer one can out perform. I just appreciate the materials and craftsmanship in the older models. I don't believe anything that costs that much should use a cheaper process without passing that manufacturing cost savings on to the consumer.
    If you are already aiming for the exact center of everything, then the target’s size shouldn’t matter — the center of a beach ball is just as big as the center of an aspirin tablet. -Byron Ferguson

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    Thanks for pointing that out.

    Read it on here, Post No 6.

    http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php?t=35445 Post No 6.
    Arthur

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    harvey_s is offline Lost love child of David Niven and Victoria Beckham
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    I stand corrected ...having just checked my own I can confirm the trigger guard is indeed some kind of polymer.
    Could have sworn it was metal, so it's obviously fit for purpose.

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    Often difficult to tell these days, especially with the top grade polymers.

    Still, at least it isn't an essential part.

    Are you happy with your Morini? Have you any experience of the Steyr? Andy idea how they compare for feel and balance.

    I'm saving up for one or the other. I had an LP10 about 10 years ago. Lovely gun but not sure that it was the one for me. Felt a little uncomfortable to hold at times.

    Now that I am an old geezer, I would go for the Steyr Compact or Morini Short.
    Arthur

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    harvey_s is offline Lost love child of David Niven and Victoria Beckham
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    I'm very happy with the Morini - the only thing I changed was the trigger blade to a multi-adjustable TEC-HRO one which is lovely.
    I can't really compare it to the Steyr's as I have a large grip and although I've shot them they usually have medium grips so they invariably feel too pinched for me so not really fair of me to comment.
    I know the LP2 compacts are quite light however and they are very LOUD too!
    The LP2 grips are more adjustable than the Morini - but they don't have the electronic trigger.
    I have heard a couple of complain of the trigger position on the Steyrs - from memory something about running out of adjustment rearwards I think?
    On the Morini the short option only lops off 30g - 17g of which is the cylinder...you could do this of course https://www.flickr.com/photos/harvey...posted-public/ ...but I prefer the weight up front for stability and most of the LP2 shorts I see have a barrel weight on them anyway
    At the end of the day, they are both far more capable than I am and it always makes me smile when I see others with £1500's worth of the finest air pistol money can buy - but shooting cheap pellets that I know don't group well in their guns.
    I use JSB SCHak in mine which I know produce ragged one hole groups.
    Last edited by harvey_s; 25-04-2017 at 10:17 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by PAXIL View Post
    This is the reason I love old match guns over newer ones. Sure newer one can out perform. I just appreciate the materials and craftsmanship in the older models. I don't believe anything that costs that much should use a cheaper process without passing that manufacturing cost savings on to the consumer.
    Many of the "older" match pistols (and rifles) also made good use of plastic mouldings with all of the top quality manufacturers using moulded plastic in one way or another and have been doing so since the second world war when target shooting with .177 airguns started to become a more popular pastime.

    I have a mint condition Original Model 6 date stamped October 1978 that has the large brown moulded plastic grip - one of the later ones (of its type) I believe. This pistol has had all the internals updated by Dave Mercer (the early plastic seals tended to rot over age - even faster if they did not have regular use) and we have now invented a "one pistol competition" at RMTC as an excuse to get a lot of pellets through it to get it "run-in" nicely.

    The pistol is an example of the type that probably made the most extensive use of moulded plastic and it is beginning to perform well as its small oil clouds become less frequent, and is a pistol of the type that I shot in various national NARPA, EALY and NSRA competition in the early 1970's with some success.

    Not only is the main grip moulded in a fairly large lump of brown plastic ( earlier ones were moulded in a light grey coloured plastic) but the trigger and trigger guard as well as the complete front and adjustable rear sight assembly are also moulded in plastic - although some of the very early types had a small stamped metal reinforcement strip along the top of the rear sight before confidence in plastic improved and the design was modified to the later type that was used on the majority of all Model 6 pistols produced..

    Look inside many "classic" match pistols and rifles to see plastic pistons and seals being made extensive use of.

    As an aside, I have been collecting match airguns of all types since I started in the 1960's and have noticed the use of plastic in many "top quality" and highly desirable early match rifles - Walther especially made very good use of plastics - so this is not a new idea and is most certainly not restricted to "modern" or "current" match pistols and rifles.
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