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Thread: Restoring an antique strike-pump air gun

  1. #16
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    Green with envy again John!

    Never mind,off to a St Patrick's DO on the 17th!

  2. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by DT Fletcher View Post
    Hoff is Danish.

    At the intro of chap three, Hoff explains how he came to use the term "strike pump."

    'Systematically different from the bellows gun is a type which is generally called a spring gun, where the momentary air pressure is created by a spring-propelled piston rushing forward in a pump-cylinder. The term spring gun is rather unsatisfactory as it ought to indicate a gun where the projectile is expelled by the direct action of a spring. In the following, the gun with spring-propelled piston will, therefore, be called strike-pump gun.'

    Thanks. That explains it. It was the strike part that threw me off. I thought it referred to the energy from the spring being being passed to the projectile by way of a stiff rod

  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by DT Fletcher View Post
    Hoff is Danish.

    At the intro of chap three, Hoff explains how he came to use the term "strike pump."

    'Systematically different from the bellows gun is a type which is generally called a spring gun, where the momentary air pressure is created by a spring-propelled piston rushing forward in a pump-cylinder. The term spring gun is rather unsatisfactory as it ought to indicate a gun where the projectile is expelled by the direct action of a spring. In the following, the gun with spring-propelled piston will, therefore, be called strike-pump gun.'
    That explanation would apply to virtually all spring piston airguns!

    I'd say 'strike pump' is a weak term for a spring piston design and there must be a better way to distinguish spring piston airguns from direct spring guns. It's the sort of thing a Dane with English as his second language might come up with!

    'Spring-powered air compression' would be more accurate, though it's a bit of a mouthful... 'Spring air' gun would be a possible compromise.

    I suppose that at the time Hoff was writing, he was thinking of those horrible anti-poacher spring guns, which I think did not employ air at all to drive a missile, more like a spring-powered animal trap.
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  4. #19
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    Great work. These days I enjoy restoring basket cases more than I do actually shooting
    Always looking for any cheap, interesting, knackered "project" guns. Thanks, JB.

  5. #20
    ccdjg is online now Airgun Alchemist, Collector and Scribe
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    Quote Originally Posted by Garvin View Post
    That explanation would apply to virtually all spring piston airguns!

    I'd say 'strike pump' is a weak term for a spring piston design and there must be a better way to distinguish spring piston airguns from direct spring guns. It's the sort of thing a Dane with English as his second language might come up with!

    'Spring-powered air compression' would be more accurate, though it's a bit of a mouthful... 'Spring air' gun would be a possible compromise.

    I suppose that at the time Hoff was writing, he was thinking of those horrible anti-poacher spring guns, which I think did not employ air at all to drive a missile, more like a spring-powered animal trap.
    After re-reading the chapter in Arne Hoff's book, it seemed clear to me that he did indeed intend the term "strike pump" to cover all types of spring (or rubber band or hand) driven piston air guns. The first use of the term after his book was published, was to the best of my knowledge in Germany by the Hermann Historica auction house. They seem to have annexed the phrase for their own convenience to describe specifically spring piston airguns where the cylinder is in the stock and the system is cocked by a winding chain mechanism. They probably did this because there wasn't an easy alternative available. Already they had words like Bugelspanner, Hebelspanner, Kurbelspanner, Hebelschieber-Verschluss, Laufeindrucker other types of cocking system. Whatever the demerits of such a term, it seems to have caught on and has appeared increasingly in auction catalogues and articles.

    To show the language problems you can get with descriptive terms for guns, take the direct spring propelled guns (i.e. those not using air compression) for example. In the USA these are referred to as "catapult guns". In the UK this would conjure up a picture of something quite different, something that would be translated back into America English as "sling-shot gun".

  6. #21
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    Great restoration!

    I can't work out how the trigger works though, does the sear connect to the crank somehow?

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by ccdjg View Post

    To show the language problems you can get with descriptive terms for guns, take the direct spring propelled guns (i.e. those not using air compression) for example.
    One of those fiendish anti-poacher spring guns (apologies to whoever gave me this pic - I didn't note who it was).

    Vintage Airguns Gallery
    ..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
    In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.

  8. #23
    ccdjg is online now Airgun Alchemist, Collector and Scribe
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    Quote Originally Posted by magicesperanto View Post
    Great restoration!

    I can't work out how the trigger works though, does the sear connect to the crank somehow?
    I couldn't put more than 12 pictures in my original post so had to omit a description of the cocking mechanism, but I will do my best now. This picture shows the axle/sear block being removed from the stock. Inside the block, the axle has a notch in it which engages with a spring loaded sear. You can see the end of the sear lever protruding from the block. When the mainspring is fully compressed and the axle is held by the sear, a sharp blow on the sear lever will release the axle and fire the gun. There is thin steel striker rod (not visible in this picture) that runs through a hole along the full length of the stock from the trigger unit to the sear lever.



    The next picture shows the set trigger unit.





    The main arming trigger is pulled back, so compressing the leaf spring and pulling back the striker arm until it is locked by a sear. There is a pivoted,right-angled bar that holds the end of the striker rod (the rod itself is not shown). When the hair trigger is pressed the striker arm smacks smartly into the right-angled bar and the blow is transmitted by the striker rod to the sear in the base of the stock that is holding back the mainspring, and so firing the gun.


    NOTE: It seems that I still can't add extra pictures, so the system must be recognising me as the original poster and not letting me go over the 12 pictuer limit. So here are direct links to the two pictures:


    https://imgur.com/a/IhRKw

    https://imgur.com/a/0m2tO

  9. #24
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    Thank you, quite an ingenious mechanism.

  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by greenwayjames View Post
    Thanks. That explains it. It was the strike part that threw me off. I thought it referred to the energy from the spring being being passed to the projectile by way of a stiff rod
    Hoff closely follows Wolff, so, he tends to be a stickler for terminology: see Wolff's Air Gun Batteries.

    By the way, there are very few proper antique air gun references available. Hoff's work and Wolff's are absolutely essential. Not much else is.

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