FABARM air rifles

[Geezer]

A new one on me (and no entry in the VAG). It appears that FABARM (best known for good value shotguns), made an air rifle (including perhaps for other brands, though that reference in the link below may be to shot guns) in the 1950s. A very conventional underlever along pre-WW2 Diana lines.

http://www.fabarm.com/web_eng/storia.asp

Anyone seen one, or know more?

[Garvin]

A new one on me (and no entry in the VAG).

There is now! Well spotted. Who would have thunk it?

Does anyone on here speak Italian? I'd love a translation - there's a mention of the Diana mods 22 and 25.

[Geezer]

There is now! Well spotted. Who would have thunk it?

Does anyone on here speak Italian? I'd love a translation - there's a mention of the Diana mods 22 and 25.

Not really, but I can combine a bit of French and schoolboy Latin.

That bit about the Dianas I don’t understand.

The rest appears mostly to be a standard description of how a tap-loading underlever works “when the lever is returned, the gun can be fired” kind of thing.

It says the basic model was the “Barton” and the deluxe version was the “Redcastle”. I think.

Feeling slightly smug to have discovered a - to us - previously unknown vintage rifle, and therefore expecting someone like Frank to pop up and tell us he has seven of them, with pics.

[Garvin]

Not really, but I can combine a bit of French and schoolboy Latin.

That bit about the Dianas I don’t understand.

The rest appears mostly to be a standard description of how a tap-loading underlever works “when the lever is returned, the gun can be fired” kind of thing.

It says the basic model was the “Barton” and the deluxe version was the “Redcastle”. I think.

Feeling slightly smug to have discovered a - to us - previously unknown vintage rifle, and therefore expecting someone like Frank to pop up and tell us he has seven of them, with pics.

Actually, I have just done it using Google translate. I think it says roughly:

The fabarm carbines are built in two models, namely normal 'Barton' and luxury ‘Redcastle’ and a compressed air rifle in which the barrel is fixed and both the loading mechanism and the cocking mechanism are controlled simultaneously by a single lever suitably articulated with the cocking strut and with the magazine.

The photographs show the rifle in elevation, for the part needed to illustrate the open or closed position and how it looks in the ready or unloaded position.

The Fabarm rifle in the open position, that is when it is ready to load by means of a dart or pellet, it has the magazine raised in which a hole is uncovered in which the load is introduced, the strut has already armed the piston. By returning the lever to its initial position, the rifle is ready for shooting.

The aforementioned company also builds rifles similar to the Diana mod, 22 and mod 25 and ammunition for the above mentioned

[Garvin]

Not really, but I can combine a bit of French and schoolboy Latin.

That bit about the Dianas I don’t understand.

The rest appears mostly to be a standard description of how a tap-loading underlever works “when the lever is returned, the gun can be fired” kind of thing.

It says the basic model was the “Barton” and the deluxe version was the “Redcastle”. I think.

Feeling slightly smug to have discovered a - to us - previously unknown vintage rifle, and therefore expecting someone like Frank to pop up and tell us he has seven of them, with pics.

I think you may have discovered at least three - an underlever with pop-up breech (I wonder if the BSA engineers saw one before the Merlin was produced? Anyway, GLJ was experimenting with pop-up breeches years earlier) plus the two Diana lookalike break barrels (or was there one?).

[Geezer]

I think you may have discovered at least three - an underlever with pop-up breech (I wonder if the BSA engineers saw one before the Merlin was produced? Anyway, GLJ was experimenting with pop-up breeches years earlier) plus the two Diana lookalike break barrels (or was there one?).

I feel fulfilled.

You’re right - it’s a pop-up breech. I’d assumed it was a badly-drawn rear sight with protective wings.

Reading the translation, it can be read (though is open to interpretation) to suggest that the Barton was the D22 style, the Redcastle the 25, both described as carbines, and then there was the u/l rifle.

[Garvin]

I feel fulfilled.

You’re right - it’s a pop-up breech. I’d assumed it was a badly-drawn rear sight with protective wings.

Reading the translation, it can be read (though is open to interpretation) to suggest that the Barton was the D22 style, the Redcastle the 25, both described as carbines, and then there was the u/l rifle.

Not sure I agree with this interpretation. Why would the say "also" instead of mentioning the Diana-type guns in the first paragraph? And the Fabarm website blurb says the Flobert guns were carbines.

This may stay a mystery until some contemporary literature emerges... Is there an Italian airgun forum?

[frakor]

Not really, but I can combine a bit of French and schoolboy Latin.

That bit about the Dianas I don’t understand.

The rest appears mostly to be a standard description of how a tap-loading underlever works “when the lever is returned, the gun can be fired” kind of thing.

It says the basic model was the “Barton” and the deluxe version was the “Redcastle”. I think.

Feeling slightly smug to have discovered a - to us - previously unknown vintage rifle, and therefore expecting someone like Frank to pop up and tell us he has seven of them, with pics.

Actually .. no!
All credits are on you Sir, never heard of these ones either.
Getting info from Italy about airguns is allmost impossinble, I have tried with the Breda airguns I have.

=======================
Frank

[Geezer]

Actually .. no!
All credits are on you Sir, never heard of these ones either.
Getting info from Italy about airguns is allmost impossinble, I have tried with the Breda airguns I have.

=======================
Frank

Good stuff Frank. I still think that if anyone can find one, it will be you!

[ogilkes]

Yes, it is describing a pop-up breech mechanism. But this is an announcement of the system, not really an advert? I would have thought this was put out to gauge interest, though there must have been a prototype at least.