Winter 2021-22 Antique Pistol Restoration Project

Antique "Sterling" .38 cal.rimfire restoration project update...

  It seems that I could have bought an E.L.Dickinson "Parts gun" a couple of weeks ago, but I passed, not realizing a the time, th...

Friday, September 21, 2018

Benjamin model 317 multi-pump pneumatic .177 cal. Air Rifle













Thanks to Mr.Marvin "The AirGun Guy", I will have this vintage multi-pump pneumatic .177 caliber pellet single shot bolt-action air rifle sometime next week 😎

UPDATE: my new vintage .177 caliber Benjamin model 317 arrived yesterday!
It shoots well, and looks great, but might shoot better with a good cleaning & polishing as well as some pellgun oil treatment for the pump seals and external moving parts.


Northwest AirGuns demonstration with a cutout Benjamin model 312, which is the .22 caliber variant of the 317, or vice versa:

                                     

In another Northwest AirGuns video, a model 312 air rifle is disassembled. The 312 is the .22 caliber pellet variant, the 310 is the "BB" caliber model and the 317, which I have, is the .177 caliber pellet model:


"Trev's AirGun scrapbook" had jpeg's of the original user manuals for these old Pump pellet & BB rifles, as well as other vintage advertisements & photographs.





Below, is a near mint condition Benjamin 317 with most or all of the black nickel finish on the brass parts:

The original Benjamin Airgun factory in St.Louis, Missouri:




Baker Airguns, in Ohio, is a super resource for vintage AirGun parts, like this Benjamin peep sight, and seal & pump repare kits: Baker Airguns




I have been cleaning up and shooting this Benjamin 317 for a few weeks now and it functioning as well as it did over 60 years ago when it was new!

Since I am working on the air rifle indoors, I am only using lead free ammo, to avoid any trouble with lead.
This has given me a chance to try out the various lead free "sabot" style AirGun pellets that I have.
I have found that lead free H&N excite Prometheus pellets and crosman PowerShot penetrators perform marvelously with this pneumatic air rifle.
The 6 grain H&N Prometheus pellets are tight fitting in the breach, and the crosman 5.4 grain & 8.5 grain penetrators both have a loose fit.
I have ordered a thousand rounds of H&N Apollo pellets, which are the heavier version of the Prometheus pellets.

The 6 grain H&N Prometheus pellets look cool with their black polymer skirts:


I have spent quite a bit of time cleaning the exterior of the air rifle with oil, rags & q-tips and the AirGun is looking Sharp!








                                      
The Benjamin 317 next to a Sheridan "Cowboy" BB gun!

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

SiG-AiR M17 Co2 pellet Pistol & "Super Target" pneumatic air pistol




The Sig-Air M17 Co2 air pistol is going to be very popular with the replica air pistol world!
It shows that Sig Sauer is listening to what airgunners want from a replica air pistol!


I am really looking forward to the Sig-Air "Super Target" .177 cal.pellet single stroke pneumatic air pistol.
It certainly looks like it was based on the Sig P-210, and that is exciting for the AirGun community.

Crosman's Revolvers pt-1: 357




Crosman's "357" .177 caliber Co2 pellet revolver was not the company's first Co2 revolver, but it has been the one in production the longest.

I bought a model 357-6 when I was 22 years old, it was my first AirGun.
I purchased my 357-6 and additional rotary magazines plus the rare full metal 8" rifled barrel at Canadian Tire.
Unfortunately, being young & poor, I was forced to sell my 357 less than three years later.

The Crosman 357(1st picture) is styled after the legendary Colt 357 Python(2nd picture).

A Crosman 357GW Shooters Kit popped up on Kijiji for $100 CDN in 2014, and the seller turned out living four doors down the street from me!
My 357GW kit included the 4" barrel & an 8" full metal rifled barrel, plus a copperhead red dot sight + removeable dove-tail mounts, a number of rotary magazines, a pellet case with belt loop and the Revolver.
My 357GW is pictured below:











Monday, September 3, 2018

Socom Gear Kel-tec PMR-30 airsoft replica





The fibre optic sights are phenomenal! They make aiming the PMR-30 a breeze...









I love this air pistol.
I first bought one from pyramydair last year. It was the last one they would ever have in stock, and being from the USA, it had an orange barrel.
I shot it nearly every day for six months, and it shot .30 gram .24 cal/6mm aluminum BB's over 400 fps and .25 gram polymer BB's as high as 460 fps and .20 gram polymer BB's over 500 fps!!!
One day the blowback action caused the slide to crack, and I was heartbroken.

A year later, I was looking for help to repair it, or buy a replacement slide at the "socom gear" website and linked to the authorized Canadian parts and repair company called airsoft parts.ca, and sent an email explaining my situation with my Kel-tec PMR-30 Co2 pistol.
The owner surprised me by offering to sell me the factory demo model he had stashed away since it was a new product over 5 years ago for $100 including shipping!!!
Obviously I couldn't refuse, and within a couple of days I opened the package, and upon inspection I discovered that this factory demo model had an all black barrel, NO ORANGE barrel!!!

This I one of the most realistic replica air pistols that I have ever seen.
The real steel PMR-30 is chambered for .22Magnum, and the co2 replica is .24 caliber/6mm, it's actually a tiny bit larger than the original handgun!!!

Anyhow, now I own two SocomGear Kel-tec PMR-30's, and I still plan to repair the slide myself, and disable the blowback action so the slide won't break again.
The blowback is basically just recoil simulation, and has no other function. It is a double action only pistol, so disabling the slide won't affect anything important.
If this fails, at least it will be good as a spare parts gun.

I did some chronograph testing with my newest .24cal/6mm Kel-tec PMR-30 Co2 air pistol last weekend, and was very impressed with how consistently it shot .25 gram polymer BB's around 450 fps.
I decided to see if it could handle 1 gram 6mm steel slingshot ammo.
All I can say is WoW!
This air pistol shoot  6mm steel ball slingshot ammo as high as 312 fps & over 4 fpe(foot-pounds of muzzle energy)!
I am not going to shoot this ammo on a regular basis because it may damage the guns barrel, but out of curiosity, I had to try it out.



My new factory demo Socom Gear Kel-tec PMR-30 Co2 pistol is a sharp looking air pistol: