Browning Airstar not for the faint of heart, lol

[45flint]

Been firing my Airstar with the new battery and it was working fine, then all of a sudden the electric safety didn't engage the trigger. Well at that point you have a cocked gun and no way to fire it. Turned it off and on, and rehit safety, nothing. Unplugged battery and reset, but the electronics now wants you to cock the gun and you can't cause it is already cocked. Well I figured this was a good time to learn how to take the gun apart! Lol. Well there are 10 screws along the stock, all out, did nothing. Remembered the parts diagram and there are two screws that hold the barrel, one at the trigger guard and another under loading port. Those screws out and barrel pops off. Thin wires going into the trigger mechanism to what looks like a miniature electro-magnet? Assume when you hit the safety button, this is charged and is attracted to metal and moves. Played with it but couldn't mechanically get anything to engage trigger. Put the barrel in my large wood vice and just tripped the main sear with a screwdriver. Sprayed some WD40 into the trigger mechanism. Was cool to see all the cocking gears and that mechanism when open, will be easy to lubricate. Put it all back together so now I can go through the cocking sequence and hit the safety. Works fine, hopefully just needed lubrication. Got to know the gun real fast, only two screws to take apart. But does demonstrate the issues of over reliance on the electronics.

[Biker_Bob]

A prime example of an engineered solution to a problem that doesn't need fixing.
You're right though, 29 years as an electronics engineer has taught me not to rely on electronics
Can't wait till we're sharing the road with Google and Tesla's self driving execution wagons.....

[45flint]

A prime example of an engineered solution to a problem that doesn't need fixing.
You're right though, 29 years as an electronics engineer has taught me not to rely on electronics
Can't wait till we're sharing the road with Google and Tesla's self driving execution wagons.....

Don't the top of the line air pistols have electronic triggers?

[Biker_Bob]

It's the cocking mechanism I was thinking of.

[45flint]

Also just some engineering flaws probably caused by the gun just being made too complicated by all the electronics. Though my issue seems to have been cured by some lubrication of the safety mechanism, there is no provision for any manual overrides if anything gets out of electronic sequence. Luckily I enjoy taking things apart, and it took taking off the stock to decock the gun. Any person that just buys guns to shoot would have to send the gun in for repair with the spring cocked for who knows how long. I think I can see why we don't see the Rutten name on airguns anymore. Lol But still goes down as the weirdest rifle I have ever seen, and I can see why you can get them so cheap. As I said before you don't have to be nuts to buy one but it sure helps.

[Benelli B76]

Also just some engineering flaws probably caused by the gun just being made too complicated by all the electronics. Though my issue seems to have been cured by some lubrication of the safety mechanism, there is no provision for any manual overrides if anything gets out of electronic sequence. Luckily I enjoy taking things apart, and it took taking off the stock to decock the gun. Any person that just buys guns to shot would have to send the gun in for repair with the spring cocked for who knows how long. I think I can see why we don't see the Rutten name on airguns anymore. Lol But still goes down as the weirdest rifle I have ever seen, and I can see why you can get them so cheap. As I said before you don't have to be nuts to buy one but it sure helps.

Agree with your conclusion regarding Rutten, my experience with the underlever version, the Winstar left me with a damaged hand, and my mate shot a hole in his front door with it.

Baz