Bugelspanner - what sort of price range and what kind of accuracy do they give?

[Hsing-ee]

as above ..

[Phil Russell]

Very surprised no one has replied so here goes. I am only aware of the 'fairground' 0.25 Buggelspanner with the two convolute springs as power source. I have never chrono'd one but can say that from firing one in the garden you can watch the pellet in flight as it curves downrange. At 30 yards and aiming straight at (as far as I was able) an A4 sized target, the pellet dropped so much it did not reach the target. But then I guess they were only meant to be used at max 6 yards ... or should that be 6 feet ... in fairgrounds.
Price will clearly depend on condition ... some were nicely chromed / nickeled so I will stick my neck out and go for £150 - £400.
Cheers, Phil

[Garvin]

Very surprised no one has replied so here goes. I am only aware of the 'fairground' 0.25 Buggelspanner with the two convolute springs as power source. I have never chrono'd one but can say that from firing one in the garden you can watch the pellet in flight as it curves downrange. At 30 yards and aiming straight at (as far as I was able) an A4 sized target, the pellet dropped so much it did not reach the target. But then I guess they were only meant to be used at max 6 yards ... or should that be 6 feet ... in fairgrounds.
Price will clearly depend on condition ... some were nicely chromed / nickeled so I will stick my neck out and go for £150 - £400.
Cheers, Phil

What Phil says. Plus, you can sometimes get them cheap on eGun.de when there's a glut, although I think sales of bugelspanners are thinning out now and they are not so common. They were made over a long period (up to the '50s, I think?) so there's a lot out there. The volute springs (like on old-style secateurs) are no match for coil springs. I've never chronoed one but I'd be surprised if it made more than 300 fps in .25 cal. You do see them occasionally in .177 cal and they are the successors to the old crank-wound parlour rifles, so they were definitely designed for short ranges. See here for lots of pics.

[Unframed Dave]

Accuracy isn't anything to shout about, weren't they originally intended for use with darts? I had some made up for mine in. 25, they'd generally bounce of a quality darts board.

Dave

[deejayuu]

One on egun attracting interest at the mo'

[Airsporterman]

'Fairground' rifles were not renowned for their accuracy!

ASM