New Air Rifle - Industry Brand QB79

My girlfriend, Debbie, got me a fantastic, early birthday present in the form of a .22 caliber air rifle. I had been ogling over this rifle for quite a while and she was only too happy to “pull the trigger” for me. The QB79 is the Chinese version of the Crossman 160 which is no longer produced. The gun was purchased from Archer Airguns, which is owned by Stephen & Cornelia Archer operated out of Fairport, NY. As a quality assurance engineer, I am very pleased with the level of care and quality put in to their company. They offer a “gold service” for an additional $20.00, which entails a personal quality check of the gun’s operation to include a functional check of the rifle; a ten-shot qualification of the rifle at a distance of 10 yards where muzzle velocity is chronographed and recorded, along with average trigger pull. All of this data is recorded by Stephen Archer himself and provided to you on a record sheet neatly packed in the box with the rifle. Like I said, as a quality assurance engineer, this objective evidence is a personal perk. The only way this service could possibly be more pleasing, would be if they actually included a certificate of calibration from the chronograph used to sense muzzle velocity and for the scale used to weigh the pellets used during this qual-testing (But that’s just me being me). Hey, they even record the ambient temperature during testing. I think their operation is top-notch and worth every bit of $20.00.

The rifle, itself, is made in china by Industry Brand (Shanghai Air Gun Factory). There are no plastic pieces on this rifle, just steel, brass and hardwood which looks like cherry, though I am not certain. The rifle I spec’d out was a QB79 Custom, a .22 caliber rifle which features a “gold” trigger & bolt as well as a “target” barrel. The target barrel is free of open sights ad has a factory muzzle weight installed, thereby relegating it to be a scope-only rifle. Per my order, Archer Airguns installed a 9oz CO2 tank adapter and provided an empty 9oz tank. A full tank holds enough charge for 630 shots at 515fps, and cost me a whopping $2.99 to fill at my local Dick’s Sporting Goods. I also ordered a $40.00 UTG scope in 4X32 with a nice crisp mil dot reticle. I mounted the scope and had it zeroed in 15 minutes. Now I can sit on the back porch and land nickel sized groups on my target 40’ away. Never having owned a CO2 or pre-charged pneumatic rifle before, I can’t emphasize how nice it is to simply work the bolt and drop a pellet in the chamber rather than break the barrel or pump the rifle before each shot. Instead, I can sit back and put shot after shot down range at a consistent and reliable muzzle velocity! I very highly recommend this rifle and Archer Airguns. Thanks Debbie!

Video from yesterday's target practice

Death of an egg

I spent a little while this afternoon, trying to sight my Sheridan air rifle a bit more accurately. The other day I installed a scope and zeroed it shooting with 5 pumps worth of pressure behind each pellet. Today I decided it ought to be zeroed using the maximum amount of force; 10 pumps. And so I set the targets up again, at exactly 15 yards. This time I made a make-shift shooting bench from a pile of bricks and a towel. This greatly improved my accuracy. Below are the results.

I was able to put 6 pellets in the bull, four of which were overlapping, so I decided to have some fun. I placed an egg on a log and took aim. The egg was pretty much the same size of the bull so I had no problem smacking it on the first try. I perched my camera next to the egg to capture the desctruction. Below is a video I made with Adobe Premier Pro. Enjoy:

Punching paper

I spent a little while tinkering with a great air rifle this afternoon. My father gave me this fantastic .20 caliber Sheridan air rifle which, going by serial number, was made at the Sheridan factory in Racine, Wisconsin in 1981. The quality of this air rifle is paramount. In my humble biased opinion, its clean lines, solid feel, smooth operation and classic look, simply cannot be beat. I can't vouch for the quality in today's Benjamin-Sheridan rifles as I see, in stores, that they are made with plastic pieces. I can, however, vouch for the quality of this particular rifle. It's all-metal construction (brass barrel, front site & air chamber, steel bolt, trigger and trigger guard) and a nicely stained wooden stock and forearm set it apart from most mass produced air guns of today. Perhaps its form is only exceeded by its function. I consistently grouped shots in the bull from a distance of 20 yards. It's a powerful rifle and there are at least two comical family stories involving the death of one woodchuck, and one “Corner Market Kitty” who met their makers at the hands of this rifle and my father's careful aim.

Over a cup of coffee I removed the Williams peep sight and installed a nice Beeman 1.5 X15 scope, also given to me by my father. I then took it outside and zeroed it which was a lot of fun. My frist couple of groups were consistently high and to the right. A quarter turn of the elevation adjustment screw brought it down and I was able to consistently group to the right of the bull. A quarter turn in, on the windage adjustment screw had me hitting dead center with regularity. It has been a long time since I've shot through a scope and I had a great time with it. It's really nice to be able to sit in the back yard and punch holes in paper without fear of neighbors getting nervous. Living in the city for so long, has denied me this simple pleasure.

My father taught all of us kids to shoot airguns at a young age. I fondly recall shooting at soda cans on the wood pile when I was ten years old and it was always a thrill to sit at the edge of his bed polishing my bb gun while my father wiped down his Winchesters and told hunting stories by the soft light of his desk lamp. The fantastic smell of Hoppe's No. 9 would hang in the air as he'd pluck dirty patches of cut-up tee shirt from the end of his cleaning rod. Often he'd ask: Want to take a vacation? He'd then twist the lid off of a bottle of Old Woodsman bug repellent and wave it under my nose. Fishing for brook trout up at Bear Creek would instantly pop into mind. When we were old enough to go on hunting trips with him, he'd let us carry our Red Ryders, though they were treated just as equally deadly as a real firearm. His rules were simple: no loaded guns in the house, keep it pointed down range at all times, and no horsing around. Thanks Dad.