Topics

1

General Discussion / I met my new neighbors

« on: July 30, 2009, 09:02:38 PM »

they are a nice older couple. It isnt often when people encourage you to shoot all the squirrels you can!  It wont be much sport with an airgun, you can practically walk right up on them and smash them with a rock. I think a blowgun will make it a bit more sportsman like. I also found out that cat I mentioned before belonged to the people who used to own the house I bought, so I guess it is open season on him too. Kinda feel bad about that one, since it was abandoned by its owners, but I really dont want a stray cat killing the rabbits around my place.

2

Hunting / Deer

« on: July 18, 2009, 09:17:29 PM »

I finally finished a long week at work and was showing my new place to my younger brother. We heard a crashing in the woods behind my house and saw a nice 8+ point buck. He was followed by 2 other ones every bit as nice.  I'm thinking a treestand and food plot on my own 4.5 acres is all it will take to bring down a nice deer with my airgun. I'll try to get a picture of them if I see them again, we were quite surprised to see them.

3

General Discussion / Happy 4th of July

« on: July 04, 2009, 06:17:09 PM »

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July.

4

Hunting / Feral Cats

« on: July 03, 2009, 08:04:49 PM »

Man, I can hardly wait until the end of September, when we move into our new house. The last time I was there, there was a feral cat on the back deck. I'm thinking a load of 4 slingshot (3/8") bearings travelling 400+ fps should do the trick nicely.
Back when I lived in an old trailer court, we had a major feral cat problem. Animal control did nothing about it and the cats were tearing up the insulation and bringing in fleas. I talked to a local cop about it and he told me to use a pellet gun and throw the carcasses in the woods behind my trailer (gotta love when the local LE doesnt care if you shoot airguns in the city limits!). Tuna for bait and a modded 2240 for business, and the cat problem was solved in a couple of days. I guess I couldnt post a vid of that on youtube, I just might have to set up a secret video feed off my website. 

5

Homemade Ammo / Arrow vs Round Ball

« on: June 29, 2009, 06:19:27 PM »

I've been thinking about deer hunting a lot as I've been working on a airgun designed for that purpose. I really like to get the cleanest kill possible, which usually means I get as close to my prey and take as open a shot as I can. The last deer I shot was with a 30-30 at about 10 paces. I could have shot him 50 yards away, but he kept coming closer and closer.  When shot, he ran straight toward me (I nearly wet my pants lol) and fell about 50 yards away. The bullet (Remington Core lockt) didnt expand, passing right through him like a needle through a cloth. Upon field dressing, you could tell almost none of the kinetic energy was passed to the surrouding tissue.
I guess what I'm getting at is if penetration and a subsequent blood channel is what will kill the deer, as opposed to blowing up the lungs with a huge energy transfer, a arrow would probably be better than a round ball for a clean kill. I'm thinking the arrow will be more accurate than a roundball, and possibly give me a longer effective range. A full sized carbon arrow tipped with a 100 grain expanding blade broadhead would weigh less than the roundball, which means with a good seal behind it could be traveling at 450+ fps.
Of course, I'll have to talk to my local conservation agent about the legality of such a setup. A couple of years ago, I spoke with one about the very thing and he seemed pretty excited about the concept, so I'm hoping for a good response.
What do you all think would be more effective, a roundball or arrow and why?

6

General Discussion / There goes my money for awhile :(

« on: June 26, 2009, 12:59:57 PM »

Well, I just bought a house, so there goes my airgun money for 2 months. The great thing is I get a huge shop with a 2 car garage in addition to a house and 4.4 mostly wooded acres! So far, I've seen 2 rabbits and a few squirrels  Finally a place to call my own, build airguns, and hunt!

7

Homemade Ammo / Scored on a piece of equipment!

« on: June 12, 2009, 03:44:54 PM »

Went to an antique store today and found a nice 3.5" cast iron lead ladle for $8. That will sure beat that flimsy stainless steel spoon I've been using! I should be able to melt enough lead in it to cast several bullets at a time. I just wish I could have found a good scissor mold. 

8

Air Systems / The ultimate air system

« on: June 02, 2009, 08:50:36 PM »

This has been the most elusive aspect of airgunning for me - having a reliable, fast air source. One that I dont have to rely CO2 or HPA tanks needing refills. One that doesnt cost too much. One that produces the pressure I need. The list goes on and on. Here is a link to my page that shows some of my systems that have worked for lower (sub 200 psi) pressures: http://www.airgununiverse.net/multishot.html. Now I'm using higher pressures and those systems don't fill the bill. So the experimenting goes on... Back in the old days, people used up to 3 seperate pumps to charge their air tanks.
Well, looks like another thunderstorm is rolling through, so I've got to get off for now. Guess it gives me more time to solve this problem. 

9

General Discussion / More SKS ammo!

« on: May 20, 2009, 08:03:08 PM »

I just stumbled across some 7.62x39 for my SKS and picked up a case of it! Ammo has been hard to find around here. Oh well, I'm off tomorrow, so I'm going to get more stripper clips to load up my new ammo. For the same price I could have bought over 150 lbs of lead to cast my airgun bullets.  That's a lot of cast bullets, but I can get that stuff any time. lol

10

Homemade Ammo / 948 grain homemade slugs

« on: May 02, 2009, 11:40:19 AM »

Since I dont have a roundball mold yet, I decided to cast some slugs using an oak board as the mold. The board itself is 3/4" thick, and I drilled a hole in it with the same circumference. This creates a slug that weighs in at 948 grains. I just had to try it out in the garage, so I beefed up my backstop by placing 3/4" particle board in front and behind the trap box. I placed a plastic cooler behind that to kinda prop everything up. The airgun was pressurized to 150 psi, according to GGDT, the slug should have 92.7 fpe. I felt pretty good about my backstop's ability to do the job, so I took the shot. The slug tore through the first board and went all the way to the back of the trap box and stopped. The whole backstop moved several inches back. The momentum of such a huge projectile is simply amazing. I can't imagine what it would do at 400 psi! The slug itself went into the board sideways as there was no stabilization, but I can fix that by casting the base hollow, called a foster slug.  This will drop its weight down to 667 grains. Here's a picture of the slug after I dug it out:

11

Homemade Airguns / The quest for a deer airgun

« on: April 28, 2009, 08:37:18 PM »

Deer season is coming faster than I'd like to admit (7 months away). The good news is my quest for an airgun suitable for deer hunting is becoming more of a reality than something to shoot for. Tonight, I built a airgun almost like my air pistol, just bigger. The air chamber is 12" length of 3/4" type L copper pipe and the barrel is a 17" of 1/2" type L copper pipe. The piston is fully serviceable and the airgun itself would be easy to repair in the field if needed. In this configuration, it will produce 54 fpe at 400 psi firing a .54 cal roundball. If I triple the volume of the air chamber and increase the barrel length to 36", the muzzle energy will theoretically jump to 122 fpe, enough to do the job I need it to out to 45 yards. If I use a spring actuated ball valve like in my ball valve airgun to pilot the piston valve, it might even be a bit more powerful. This will give me a normal firearm trigger pull, a very desireable characteristic.
In the mean time, it is fun to have a airgun 22" long that can push 54 fpe! I'm thinking of adding a stock built from copper pipe to function as an airtank, hopefully giving me 4 or 5 shots before needing to repump. Instead of using .54 cal RB, a 1/2" ball bearing would shoot at 419 fps, or nearly 51 fpe. Any wild game coyote sized or smaller will quake at the sight of me 

12

Homemade Airguns / Incredible little air pistol

« on: April 17, 2009, 10:39:34 PM »

I just got done with the prototype of a air pistol and it actually works really well. It is 10 inches in length and goes up to 400 psi. It is a coaxial, very similar to a lot of spudguns, in fact, right now, it is pretty much a mini spudgun. The outer tube is 1/2" type L copper pipe and the inner tube (barrel) is 1/4" type L copper pipe. It is loaded through the muzzle. My next step is to refine it and make it look a bit more like a handgun. Anyway, according to GGDT, at 400 psi, it will fire a .25" slingshot bearing at 515 fps, putting it at 9.4 fpe. If I use #2 buckshot, it will produce 10.6 fpe at 406 fps. Either way, if accurate enough, it will take down squirrel and rabbit with ease. Might even have to put some darts together for it.  Its getting late, so the pictures will come later so stay tuned...

13

General Discussion / Distractions!

« on: March 10, 2009, 08:53:49 PM »

Man, the weather has been so nice here, I just havent had the time to work on my airgun projects. Fishing has been great the last week or so. The smallmouth bass are spawning and are really agressive. Nothing like fishing topwater and watching them attack! Catch and release only as their season starts in May, but that is what I normally do anyway. The nice weather stops tomorrow, only supposed to be 20 degrees in the morning. Back to building my airgun stock. lol

14

Homemade Airguns / Ball Valve Airgun

« on: February 27, 2009, 08:30:48 PM »

Alright, I had to build another one after using ball valves only as pilots for a couple years. It has a 8.5" air chamber made from 1/2" type M copper pipe. The barrel is made from the same pipe and it is 40" long. I have yet to build the stock and trigger system, but I do have the wood and spring for both. Firing it by hand is fun, it is really quiet. In fact, I think the typical silenced firearm would be louder. I've tested it up to 400 psi, the max of my new shock pump. It takes a whopping 77 pumps to get it up to that pressure! Yeah, you can get more power from pneumatic valves, but I like the simplicity of the good old triggered ball valve. I'll post some pics when I get the stock and trigger done. It looks like a promising coyote hunter...

15

Homemade Airguns / 10 Round Burst Airgun

« on: February 24, 2009, 01:19:30 PM »

While I cant hunt game animals with a full auto, it would be cool to tear up some cans with a more powerful modified version of a cloud. I've been impressed what my simple BBMG can do with 1/4" slingshot ammo at only 100 psi. Perhaps I can up the pressure and up the caliber and get even better results.
My plan is to use a 400 psi shock pump (currently on its way!) to fill homemade reusable air cylinders that will fuel each burst. They will attach to the valve via a QD fitting. I'm going to use a very small ammo chamber, basically small enough to house 10 3/8" slingshot ammo or 0000 buckshot. I'll probably use a ball valve at first to test the idea and then switch to a qev piloted by a ball valve for the finished product. My idea is to be able to get 3 bursts per minute. We'll see what happens.
In the mean time, I need to buy some copper to build my airgun I plan to hunt deer with this fall...