AIR SHOT GUNS - Low power , How many , Legal , Any use ?

[Jimny4x4]

Was reading through some old issues of Airgunner and Airgun World and it seemed back in the late 80's and 90's that AirShotguns were all the rage .
One called the Pegasus , was a Tac / Bac so now fallen by the wayside .

But traditional Airguns that are smoothbore and use 'shot' ammo instead of pellets ?
Oddly the Pegasus makers also seem to have done a air shot shell conversion on a HW break barrel model using little shells loaded up with wad and lead shot and power provided by the spring ..

Falcon Pcp had similarly some mods done to a batch of actions by L.J Cammell in Merseyside . Ugly looking thing but interesting called the Ulti-Shot

Most recently , like 10 years ago , I remember the Crosman 22xx Air Shotgun 'kit' , you could remove your barrel and stick the smoothbore tube in its place ..quite a neat conversion and power was okay for blattin tins . Think it loaded 3 bb's and were held by a magnet that came as part of the Kit .

So Airshotshell airguns - why is nobody making them anymore , in UK sub 12 ft/lb spec - not seen any for ages - are they still legal ?
Low power was always the issue with them so popularity rather than any legal issues surely ?

I can see the fun interest - at Clubs outdoors you could have a mini clay range

[Turnup]

Never heard of that idea before - interesting. How is the shot held in place prior to firing?

[steve B]

I remember them. As the total me had to be less than the legal limit more of a novelty than anything else. Accuracy was lousy too iirc.

[Rich]

When I was a "young person" and didn't know any better, I experimented with my BSA Meteor to see if it could be used as a mini shotgun. I cut up lead pellets into fragments and held them all together with asbestos.

In those days, in the 1950s and 60s we had no idea that asbestos was bad for you, and Rawlplug used to market a kind of asbestos fibre that you could buy in a tin, like a 2oz tobacco tin. It was useful stuff for fixing screws into a wall, if the hole was too ragged for a conventional Rawlpug, and they were fibre at the time, not plastic.

You would mix a pinch of the fibre together with a few drops of water, it would consolidate into a mush that you would press into the hole, and then allow it time to dry before inserting the screw.

My best mate's dad was a keen DIY man although we didn't call it DIY as such; Ernie had loads of fascinating tools and kit like blowlamps and the apparatus to make wiped lead joints, a skill to behold in wonderment.

Sorry I digress. This fibre stuff was ideal as a carrier medium for my shot, and Ern was kind enough to let me have some from his tin.

It didn't have much strength of course, and acted just like wadding, falling away from the shot fragments.

Did it work? Well, the Meteor was good for about 9 ft.lb if you were lucky. I think I managed to get my shot to make tiny holes in a sheet of paper at about 4 or 5 yards range, so this was hardly going to qualify as a weapon of mass destruction.

Edit: maybe it got closer than Blair did.

[Logunner]

When I was a "young person" and didn't know any better, I experimented with my BSA Meteor to see if it could be used as a mini shotgun. I cut up lead pellets into fragments and held them all together with asbestos.

In those days, in the 1950s and 60s we had no idea that asbestos was bad for you, and Rawlplug used to market a kind of asbestos fibre that you could buy in a tin, like a 2oz tobacco tin. It was useful stuff for fixing screws into a wall, if the hole was too ragged for a conventional Rawlpug, and they were fibre at the time, not plastic.

You would mix a pinch of the fibre together with a few drops of water, it would consolidate into a mush that you would press into the hole, and then allow it time to dry before inserting the screw.

My best mate's dad was a keen DIY man although we didn't call it DIY as such; Ernie had loads of fascinating tools and kit like blowlamps and the apparatus to make wiped lead joints, a skill to behold in wonderment.

Sorry I digress. This fibre stuff was ideal as a carrier medium for my shot, and Ern was kind enough to let me have some from his tin.

It didn't have much strength of course, and acted just like wadding, falling away from the shot fragments.

Did it work? Well, the Meteor was good for about 9 ft.lb if you were lucky. I think I managed to get my shot to make tiny holes in a sheet of paper at about 4 or 5 yards range, so this was hardly going to qualify as a weapon of mass destruction.

Edit: maybe it got closer than Blair did.

Remember the fibre stuff... my grandad had some. Used to lick my fingers and dab them into the fibre to make paste balls for my elastic band gun


Air shotguns are about as good an idea as Asbestos hole filler imo

[oling]

I recall this being released fairly recently onto the US market: http://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2015/...g-shot-review/

[Geezer]

They are a novelty with no practical use at sub-12. Gamo make or recently made some sort of springer air shotgun contraption - not sure if they were ever sold here.

I think there was briefly a sub-12 PCP air shotgun made in tiny numbers in the UK about 20-25 years ago.

In the 90s, the Crosman 2100 (a standard .177" multi-pump) was marketed here as the Triple Strike, the idea being that you pumped it up to full power, then loaded three BBs at once (held in place by the magnet on the end of the bolt probe) and then blasted a can with it. Which was fun, until you got tired of the pumping.

My youthful experiments with 12 ft/lbs springers involved (a) loading two light wadcutters at once, (b) chopping the tails off cheap pellets and firing four to five of the heads in one load. Also fun - at least when you are fifteen.

[secretagentmole]

I remember being able to buy that Rawplug filler in the 1970s!

[grumpygit]

Yes i remember using it when i was a Telephone engineer with the GPO in the 70s.

[piggy589]

Saw a Crosman item advertised for sale by a dealer down south.

He claimed that in the United Kingdom it is deemed a section one firearm.

[clarky]

Saw a Crosman item advertised for sale by a dealer down south.

He claimed that in the United Kingdom it is deemed a section one firearm.

I tried out a Crosman 1100 Trapmaster around 89.
It worked pretty well....Bulk fill not disimilar looking to a 2100 pumper but with real wood forend which did not pump but simply hid the bulk fill tube inside....screw nozzle to front of tube ..
It could take a low or hig feed of bb....pattern was pretty good.....about 8 inch to 12 inch across at 15 yards and the balls making 4 ftlb or so .....perhaps the odd bird at close ranges but not rabbits...
The guy who owned it had successfully dropped a few squirrel cleanly at usual tree ranges and a rat.
I think perfect placement pellet at 11 ftlbs saw it off really....lots of shot wasted in one shot i think...and gas illegal here back then...
Never resurfaced after gas legalised here.

[Geezer]

According to the interweb, the Crosman Trapmaster 1100, loaded with a single projectile, makes anything from 23 to 40+ ft/lbs, so definitely FAC territory.

[Jimny4x4]

Keep it coming folks ... Yes the Americans with zero power resrictions have all the fun ...and some appear here and as stated are regarded as Fac ...but really was talking about UK ...Falcon /UltiShot plus the others ...Crosman kit got a review in our airgun press and was surprsingly effective but shorter range than pellets ...... and yes remember that Rawlpug Asbestos - kept it in a paper bag that oozed fibre dust every time you went to pull some out

[SuffolkRifle]

I can remember being shown some .22 'shot shells' a few years back, the idea was to load them with lead 'dust', place into the breech of a .22 airgun and as they had a small hole in the rear of them, the air would push the 'dust' out as 'shot', can't remember much about them though, wasn't really interested in them so didn't take much in on them - might be able find something on the web about them though?
Edit quick look & found these http://www.sportsmansguide.com/produ...-ammo?a=585839 though I can't find anything for the UK, yet.

[clarky]

According to the interweb, the Crosman Trapmaster 1100, loaded with a single projectile, makes anything from 23 to 40+ ft/lbs, so definitely FAC territory.

im pretty sure you will find that was the collective power of the entire mass of shot run past the usual velocity equation....coming out big numbers because of the entire weight in grains of the collective.
In reality quite anemic, each shot running around 4.3 ftlbs or so at 15 yards..
Still a useful tool though.
The shot pattern matched that of a 410 out to be about 15 yds or so and plenty capable of dusting down a Starling if you could raise your bead on him with the right lead..as per usual with a 410