Airgun Mystery Box
Diante Scharsch
Hard Air Magazine Community is the best, fair, friendly Internet destination for everything airgun related. The free HAM Community welcomes members of all experience levels. We ALL have something to learn about airguns and everyone has something to contribute. Comment on HAM airgun news and reviews, ask questions and help others. Enjoy!
The Mystery Box is coming back one more time! At an undisclosed date in May, customers can purchase 1 of 200 Mystery Boxes for $199.99. These boxes contain far more in retail value than the purchase price and 50 of these boxes will feature EPIC ITEMS containing airgun products from manufacturers such as Air Arms, RAW, Hatsan, Diana, and more!
Comparing the two pistols side by side they are almost identical with respect to their dimensions. The only difference is that the barrel of the mystery pistol is wider than that of the MF. The rear sights are in the same position, but the foresights are not. However, the foresights are not part of the casting process and are added at a later stage. Although the foresights are not in the same position, they are identical in shape.
The chequered grips are identical as is the trigger guard. However, the pull rod end has a flat flange just above the ball when compared to the MF. Other than that, there are no other obvious differences apart from the missing floral pattern and the additional stamps. The observant amongst you have probably noticed the ornate knob at the end of the bolt on the MF. This I believe is not an original feature as no other examples appear to have one. Instead, I think this was added along with a replacement bolt lever at some stage in its lifetime.
The piston heads are also different. The MF was designed to include a leather seal held in place by rivets whereas the mystery pistol has no such provision. However, the piston of the mystery pistol has a step cut into its top edge. The purpose of which is unclear. The rear of both pistons has a collar on which the mainspring is located. Although the collar is much longer on the MF.
The compression tube end caps also show a difference. The MF end cap appears to have a lip whereas the mystery pistol end cap does not. Also, the mystery end cap diameter is slightly smaller than the MF example and thus it is not possible to swap the parts between the two pistols. Also, you might notice that the MF end cap profile is flatter than the mystery pistol end cap. This reinforces my theory that this part was shaped specifically for each frame it was destined to become a part of.
Finally, there is one more subtle difference that almost eluded me. I recalled from my MF article that the MF had a recessed transfer port. I had surmised that this may have been to allow a small piece of leather to form a seal between the frame and the hollow bolt that carries the compressed air to the barrel. This is not present on the mystery pistol.
These pictures of airguns that are unmarked in anyway posted here for the enjoyment of all airgun collectors. They are guns we have seen, owned, owned by some of our customers and collector friends. We thought you would be interested in seeing them. If you know any details about one, please contact us and we will forward the information to the owner.
We hope to share some of the items in the Beeman Airgun Collection with you. This section is in preparation and will be changed and enlarged at irregular intervals in the future. The plans are to show photographs of selected vintage and antique airguns in the collection and also to include "Mystery Airguns" which will illustrate items in the Beeman Airgun Collection for which we would welcome inputs of information from viewers. (See also theend of theFor Sale and Wanted section for list of some of the airgun models that we want). Eventually we would like to add sections on our collection of airgun projectiles, the collecting of airgun projectiles, and collecting of airgun literature.
Four large bore pneumatic airguns from the Beeman Airgun Collection selected to represent four different styles of mechanisms made in airgunning's glory days. Left to right: a.) Mortimer butt-reservoir airgun with interchangeable rifle and shotgun barrels. The buttstock air reservoirs of such British air rifles generally were covered with sharkskin. This unusually elegant specimen from gunmaker T.J. Mortimer was made with a reservoir covered with smooth calfskin. Circa 1810. b.) Pneumatic shotgun with ball air reservoir. Made by Bate with a fake flintlock mechanism. c.) Massive pneumatic .58" caliber "flintlock" style air rifle by Bate. The air reservoir is a full length brass cylinder which is concentric around the barrel. A pump is built into the buttstock. About 1780. d.) Girandoni Military Repeating Pneumatic Rifle. .464" caliber. Each soldier was provided with two of the cone shaped, butt-reservoir, air tanks, good for up to 65+ quiet (but NOT silent), smokeless/flashless shots each. These large bore Austrian military rifles were capable of firing twenty two well-aimed lead balls in less than one minute while enemy troops were reloading their muzzle-loaders one shot at a time. They could properly be considered as the "assault rifles" of their period. The stories that they were used against Napoleon or that Napoleon issued a death warrant for carrying one do not seem to have any basis in fact. This specimen is believed to be the airgun thatMeriwether Lewis (click on Lewis name to read about our research on this gun) carried in the famous 1803 "Voyage of Discovery" expedition to the explore the future areas of America west of St. Louis..
The CO2 charge was refilled from small gas cylinders and a connection hose (which often leaked). Accuracy was excellent. Eichstdt reports that he obtained groups of 0.53" (13.5 mm) ctc at 33' (10 meters) with the .177" (4.5 mm) lead balls. Muzzle velocity was about 530 fps (163 mps). German versions had a front sight hood and a sling slot in the buttstock. Those could not be sold in Germany unless that sight hood was cut off and the sling slot was filled - to make them politically correct! Thus Austrian and Dutch versions generally are the only ones to be available in unaltered condition. They are in demand by both European and American airgun collectors and military collectors (esp. M1 Carbine collectors). We finally obtained a lovely new military version! Beeman collection.
Visitors interested in the collection of airguns certainly should obtain a copy of the Blue Book of Airguns and get a perspective of the information available about airguns from the Literaturepages of this website.
Second problem
Believe it or not, some pellets spiral as they travel downrange! On a sunny day at the range when the sun is at your back and the distance is 50 yards or more, you can see the pellet fly downrange through the scope. Many shooters, including me, have seen pellets travel in a spiral path.
the really nice rangefinding scopes have a laser built in and it finds the exact range (to the meter) via laser, and displays it on the lens as you look at the object. very nice indeed, though rather expensive. i use a portable 400m rangefinder, and a seperate scope, thus saving over $1000
How come an airgun doesnt fire a bullet accurately, and yet a firearm never chooses to use a pellet shaped bullet? At what point does one become better suited as a projectile? I assume its speed? but some firearms actually propell their bullet slower than some airguns can send a pellet?
Air is a fluid, and any solid object that passes through it is capable of producing mechanical forces. In aviation we call these forces lift and drag. The faster an object passes through a fluid, the more lift and drag is produced. Because the pellet is spinning on its longitudinal axis, the forces that it produces are in all directions perpendicular to the flight path and to its longitudinal axis, with MOST of the drag acting opposite the direction of travel.
When I first noticed my point of impact changing left or right at different distances, I thought of scope cant, or not having the center of the scope and the barrel aligned vertically. But after witnessing for myself a spiraling pellet on a sunny day, I have discounted my original theory.
Firearms and airguns use two different methods of stabilizing their projectiles. Firearms spin-stabilize bullets with rifling. Pellet guns use a high-drag projectile called a diabolo pellet to stabilize itself. Even though they are rifled, the twist rate is too slow to stabilize a solid projectile (a bullet) at the velocities airguns can generate.
And some firearms DO USE pellet-shaped projectiles for stabilization. The French Balle Blondeau shotgun slug of the 1960s was a remarkable leap forward in shotgun slug accuracy. Big Bore maker Gary Barnes copied the shape for some of his projectiles and has gotten great accuracy out to 200 yards.
Notice that 90 degree line never intersects the hump. In fact, at the 34% fill point, the 90 degree line shows about 1000PSI. When I converted my RWS 850 to PCP, BB figured I was starting to valve lock around 1050PSI because of my velocities. CO2 might valve lock before this since it is a thicker gas.
I have noticed this same spiraling effect with a .22 rimfire. I have a bull barrel 10-22 and a target scope and can see the projectile in flight and it starts an ever widening spiral after 70 or 80 yards. I blame this on loss of velocity and a natural following of the twist on the bullet.
We work hard to get all orders placed by 12 pm EST out the door within 24 hours on weekdays because we know how excited you are to receive your order. Weekends and holiday shipping times will vary.
During busy holidays, we step our efforts to ship all orders as fast as possible, but you may experience an additional 1-2 day delay before your order ships. This may also happen if you change your order during processing.
View Shipping Times
It's important to know that due to state and local laws, there are certain restrictions for various products. It's up to you to research and comply with the laws in your state, county, and city. If you live in a state or city where air guns are treated as firearms you may be able to take advantage of our FFL special program.
U.S. federal law requires that all airsoft guns are sold with a 1/4-inch blaze orange muzzle or an orange flash hider to avoid the guns being mistaken for firearms.
View Shipping Restrictions