Smith & Wesson 78G and 79G - Part 1

by B.B. Pelletier

I know I've mentioned these pistols before, but I cannot find any report on them. The other day, I wanted to send a link to a reader who asked about them, and was surprised to see I hadn't done a full report. Then, before I could even say that in a reply, several other readers chimed in to mention they love their pistols as well. So, I knew I had to do this one.

This is part one, and I will try to finish in part two, so velocity and accuracy will be in the same report. I have a 78G today, but I've owned several of these in both calibers over the years. The 79G is the .177. They used to show up at airgun shows new in the box for $100, which is where my first one came from. And that one was different from the norm, so I'd like to mention the differences now.

That 78G was a very early one--made in Springfield, Mass., before S&W moved production of the pistol to Tampa, Fla. Production lasted from 1970 to 1978, according to S&W historian, Roy Jenks. The Blue Book of Airguns differs just a little. The box and literature is where you will see the different addresses. All the guns say Springfield, I believe.

The early guns had some distinctive points. First, they were finished matte black. Later guns had a shiny black paint. Second, the early guns have an adjustable trigger. Reader Twotalon was kind enough to forward pictures of his gun so you can see these things.


Twotalon's early 78G has a matte finish.


Early 78G and 79G pistols have an adjustable trigger.

The other feature those early guns had was one I reported in Airgun Revue 3 but caught considerable flack for it. They had two stages of power--controlled when the gun was cocked. Stop at the first click for low power. Two clicks were high power--the same as for the Crosman Mark I and II pistols, which the S&W pistols functionally resemble more than a little. People told me their guns had only one power level, and I must be mistaken. Well, I no longer owned an early pistol when I wrote that report, so I figured I had made a mistake, but Twotalon reported yesterday that his early pistol does have two power levels. So, the early guns have it and the later guns, which are the most numerous, do not.


Pull the two triangular knobs forward (left) to cock the gun.

All the guns have adjustable power. A screw under the barrel at the front of the gun controls the tension on the hammer spring and can move the power up or down by screwing in or out.


The power adjustment screw is under the barrel.

My current 78G is one that the former owner had to repair. He did a wonderful job, fixing the loading bolt lock on a potmetal gun. It wasn't holding gas when I got it, so I sent it off to Dave Gunter, a custom airgunsmith in Oregon. Dave specializes in power tunes for CO2 guns and pneumatics. Where a normal 78G might get 390 f.p.s. with a .22-caliber Crosman Premier on high power and 290 on low, my gun now gets over 500 f.p.s. Or at least that's what it got when I first tested it years ago. We shall see!

Dave does some non-standard things when he tunes one of these pistols. One thing he does is thin the bolt probe for better gas flow. His full-time job is setting up racing engines for performance sports cars, so efficient gas flow is something he knows well. You can contact Dave here.


With the bolt back for loading, you can see how Dave Gunter thinned the bolt probe for better gas flow. This is just the loading bolt. It doesn't cock the gun.

The 78G is the .22 caliber version and the 79G is the .177. After S&W stopped production, they sold the tooling to Daisy. They continued making the guns for several years as models 780 and 790. Their triggers were much worse than even the later Smith pistols. Later, Daisy changed the designation to model 41 and further cheapened the gun in every imaginable way.

Physical description
The 78G is a very realistic copy of the S&W model 41 target pistol in .22 rimfire caliber. The weight and dimensions are very close, with the air pistol's 43.5 oz. being slightly heavier than the rimfire pistol's 42 oz. with the 7.5" barrel. The external dimensions are very close, and the wood grips on the firearm are faithfully reproduced in plastic on the airgun. But it's the realistic kind of plastic that fools people!

My current pistol came in a factory box with five S&W powerlets and a tin of 250 pellets. This is the most common presentation I have seen of this pistol in the years I've been in airgunning. At some airguns shows, I've seen 50 of these boxes stacked up at a show awaiting a sale. Today, though, people are starting to pay good money for one, even without the box and papers.


This is how it came from the factory.

The trigger on this example is a single stage with some creep, but it's not too bad. Many of my firearm handguns are not as nice. And I will report on accuracy next time, but I know from past experience that this is an accurate airgun. There's more to come!

Knowing what to do - Part 2

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

Before we begin, Pyramyd Air is running a new video contest.

Well, the last time I wrote on this subject I failed to take into account the television schedule that has me running all the time. So, I haven't done anything yet with the two Czech rifles I talked about last time. They're still on hold, so I'll keep the series alive with other nuggets of airgun information.

Starting with pneumatics
Remember the rule of keeping a pump of air in every pneumatic rifle? About 0.05 percent of the airgunners know to do that--maybe less. So, it isn't getting done. Consequently, most vintage pneumatics you encounter are suspect as leakers. But not all of them leak.

A Crosman model 101 may not leak, but it also may not shoot. That's because its owner has overpumped it beyond the point of valve lock and doesn't know what's going on. The gun will never shoot, but every so often he puts in another pump, just to see if it has healed.

A rifle like that needs to be partially disassembled and the valve stem needs to be rapped with a hammer to exhaust the excess air. It's a common fix, but only to those who know airguns.

And on the 101, I unscrew the hammer weight, which is at the back of the gun, to keep pressure off the valve stem. My gun holds a pump of air for years at a time.

A Sheridan Supergrade (officially called Model A) will not pump from empty unless you cock it first. To store this rifle with air, you must cock it first, then pump, then ride the bolt down slowly so the hammer doesn't hit the valve stem.

Many people have seen CO2 leave a vapor trail from the muzzle on a warm day, but pneumatics can do it, too.

And then CO2
A Walther PPK/S may lose its charge over a period of two weeks. But if you put several drops of Crosman Pellgunoil on the tip of the next cartridge you pierce, it may hold for the next 12 months.

Vintage CO2 o-rings may swell in the presence of CO2 gas. They will look huge and the end caps are difficult to remove right after a fill or when the cartridge is exhausted. You can tear a vintage o-ring by being too aggressive when it's swollen this way. That corrects itself in a few hours, and they'll be back to normal in all ways.

Many barrels on CO2 guns are brass to avoid corrosion when the chilled gas condenses water vapor while shooting. You don't have to do anything about them. No cleaning. In fact, they're easy to damage when being cleaned.

Don't leave CO2 guns or tanks in a hot car in the summer. They can build pressure to dangerous levels and blow up, damaging the car.

Spring forward
The stroke length of a spring-piston gun is important to its power. Stronger springs often don't increase power, while guns with long strokes are difficult to tune down.

Oiling a mainspring is an infrequent job. Most spring guns never need it. If the coils bunch and spring during cocking, the mainspring may need some oil. Spring gun oil is good for this. Silicone chamber oil isn't good because it's too thin to protect the inside of the powerplant from galling (metal-to-metal scraping).

Oil a gun with a leather piston seal every month or 500 shots, whichever comes first. Oil a gun with a synthetic piston seal every 3,000 shots or whenever the piston honks like a goose when the gun is cocked.

Cleaning your airguns
The barrel is the part most people want to clean, and it isn't required most of the time. As long as the gun shoots accurately, leave the barrel alone.

Wipe outside blued steel parts with Sheath or Barracade or something that neutralizes fingerprints. When a gun gets wet, be sure to wipe it dry before storing it.

A cloth impregnated with silicone is good for wiping metal parts.

"We have met the enemy, and it is us!"
The following is made-up, but based on things I have actually witnessed over the years.

Sharky is hot for a Flabbengaster 190W from all he has heard on the internet. So, he springs for one.

His initial report:

I bought the Flabbengaster 190 from Plumbum Pushers, and I had it drop-shipped to Idaho Ike whose tunes everyone says are the best. I wanted screamin' power, so I had him put in the Red-Butt Baboon seal with the Kooky Kangaroo mainspring. Based on the advice of Dreadful Doug on this forum, I had him clip three coils off the spring and install a stack of five power washers. I also opted for Snail Snot on the mainspring.

When Ike finished, I had him send the rifle to Robert Bobbet to have the barrel cut back to 10 inches. Then I had him silver-solder one of his Hush-A-Boom moderators on the end, so the gun will be super-quiet. I live in an apartment, and I set up field targets next to the dumpster in the parking lot. I live on the third floor and shoot out my bathroom window, so I rigged a remote control reset for the targets, because I don't want my neighbors seeing the reset string.

Report number two:

This thing is a bear to cock! How do you guys do it? I figured the 19-inch factory barrel was overkill and that the three-inch can I installed would make up for it, but it doesn't. Also, the trigger is way too stiff, so I disassembled it to stone all the surfaces and put moly on everything. Now I can't get the gun to close without firing unless I block the safety lever with my finger, so that's how I shoot it. I put my finger between the trigger and the safety lever and just slip it out when I want to shoot.

By the way, my Red Star scope is shifting something bad! Any recommendations?

Post three:

This Flabbengaster 190 is a P*S! I don't see what all the good reports are about. Mine didn't shoot from the start! I'll sell it with a Red Star scope for $100, shipped.

Poor Sharky never even shot a Flabbengaster 190, did he? He shot a butchered mess that he created and then sold when it didn't work.

Like I said, I've seen every one of those things before. Just not all on one gun.

Gamo Extreme CO2 - Part 1

by B.B. Pelletier

As I go through all the airguns on hand and get ready to report on new ones, you readers are generally ahead of me, urging me to test this one and that one. I thought I was going to surprise you with the Gamo Extreme CO2, but just yesterday, Dallas from Australia asked for it. How strange, because it was slated for today a week ago.

How many of you remember that Gamo had a CO2 rifle back in the 1990s? The G1200 was a pump-action (slide action, actually) repeater powered by 12-gram CO2 cartridges. The Blue Book of Airguns has precious little information on that rifle, but I was around when it was new. I don't know how well it sold here in the U.S., but the advertised velocity in .177 was 560 f.p.s., which is pretty reasonable. I would expect a velocity of not above 620 f.p.s. from a hot .177 CO2 rifle with any size cartridge or reservoir. But the Extreme CO2 is not a .177. It's a .22! So I find Gamo's claim of 700 f.p.s. to be extremely interesting. I will be certain to explore it for you.

Of course, it's summer now and CO2 guns are summer guns, so this is an appropriate rifle to test and use. The Extreme CO2 uses an 88-gram cartridge that gives the rifle the potential for a great number of shots. They will not be more powerful than those from a 12-gram cartridge, of course, because the size of the container has no bearing on the pressure of the gas. But this is a plinking gun and more gas is very desirable for lots of continuous shooting.


This "thousand-word" picture shows where the 88-gram gas cartridge goes, which is under the sliding forearm. The long, sloped rear sight is also visible.

This is a repeater, too, and not just a repeater--it's a slide-action repeater or what is best known in the firearms world as a pump gun. I use that term with care because I find that it confuses new airgunners, who equate the word pump with a multi-pump pneumatic. The Extreme CO2 runs on CO2, only. The term pump in this case refers to how the circular clip is advanced and how the rifle is cocked. The synthetic forearm slides straight backward, advancing the clip and cocking the hammer. Then it returns forward again in preparation for the shot. Once you get accustomed to the movement of the forearm, a pump gun is almost as fast to shoot as a semiautomatic.

Okay, 700 f.p.s. and .22 caliber. What does that tell you about the sound? This rifle will be LOUD, make no mistake. It has to be, with that volume of gas being exhausted from the muzzle. Even if it doesn't reach 700, it's still clear that Gamo intends for this to be a powerful rifle--and power in a gas gun means noise, as a rule.

This is a 10-shot repeater and comes with two rotary clips. To load, you have to pull the forearm back, then pull back on a locking lever to unlock the clip.

The forearm removes by pressing two buttons--one on either side, and pulling it straight forward and off the gun. It must be removed to install an 88-gram CO2 cartridge. Both the forearm and the piece it attaches to that remains on the gun are made of plastic. I will watch them both for signs of stress, because they operate the action. The safety is a crossblock type that runs through the bottom forward part of the triggerguard.

Most of what you touch on the gun--butt, forearm, barrel casing--is plastic. But the receiver is annodized aluminum with a black finish over a heavily bead-blasted surface. Therefore, the Extreme CO2 is not a light airgun. It is both large and heavy--at least for a CO2 rifle. The length of 43.3" overall and weight of 7.7 lbs. don't convey the sense of largeness felt when the rifle is in your hands. The CO2 cartridge and scope that come with the gun boost the weight to over 9 lbs.

The stock is fully ambidextrous, and so, of course, is the pump action. Lefties should really enjoy this one. The synthetic stock is hollow, so many of you will want to fill it with foam to deaden any vibration.

The open sights are quite unique. The front is a red fiberoptic bead, which is not uncommon, but the rear is a long, sloped ramp with a yellow arrow to align with the front. It looks like it will be quick to acquire. Of course the scope that comes with the rifle will probably be mounted in the preponderance of cases. It's a 3-9x40 scope that appears clear enough after the first examination. It comes with a one-piece mount already on the scope, so all you have to do is clamp it to the receiver dovetail.


The rear sight is a long, gentle slope. The yellow arrow points to the red bead front sight when you sight over the receiver. It looks like a landing pattern when you see it in person!

This has been a boom year for new airguns, and this would appear to be one more to add to the mix. Of course, we have to test it to be sure, but I like this rifle already--just from the feel.

Crosman's new Nitro Piston Short Stroke - Part 2

by B.B. Pelletier


The Nitro Piston Short Stroke is a handsome breakbarrel. My .22 is finished in digital camo, but there's also a charcoal gray carbon fiber stock, as well.

Part 1

Today, I'll look at the velocity of the new .22 caliber Crosman Nitro Piston Short Stroke breakbarrel rifle. There was a lot of interest in part 1, and I see that a few other writers are starting to test the guns, as well. So far, the interest seems to be all positive.

Cocking effort
I measured the cocking effort by pressing the muzzle down on a bathroom scale and breaking the rifle to the cocking point. This was a tricky rifle to measure, because if I went fast the effort increased by 8 lbs. If I went slow and deliberate, the rifle cocked with just 30 lbs. of effort through almost the entire cocking stroke. It actually falls off by a few pounds toward the end of the short stroke. As the shooting continued, I found that I was cocking faster every time, so I'm not so sure the slow part really does anything useful, but the deliberate part sure does!

So, there you are! Cock a gas-spring gun slowly but deliberately, and it'll be lighter than if you try to horse it. By deliberately, I mean don't mess around. Hold your hand as far out toward the muzzle as possible to get maximum leverage, which isn't difficult considering that there's no front sight. Once you start the cocking stroke, don't stop.

Crosman Premiers first
The 14.3-grain Crosman Premier averaged 712 f.p.s. The spread went from 695 to 727, so a total of 32 f.p.s. Premiers loaded easily and flush with the breech. The average velocity develops a muzzle energy of 16.1 foot-pounds, making this pellet the clear power champion of the test

RWS Superdomes
RWS Superdomes weigh 14.5 grains and are pure lead pellets. In the Nitro Piston SS, they averaged 694 f.p.s., ranging from 680 to 709, for a spread of 29 f.p.s. The loaded easily and fit the breech well. The average velocity generated a muzzle energy of 15.51 foot-pounds.

RWS Hobbys
RWS Hobbys screamed out the muzzle at an average 771 f.p.s. At a weight of only 11.9 grains, these pure lead pellets generated an average energy of 15.71 foot-pounds at the muzzle. The velocity spread went from 761 to 781, for a total of 20 f.p.s., which was the second-tightest of the test. They loaded easily but were the tightest pellets in this test.

Air Arms domes
Air Arms domes are supposedly 16-grain pure lead pellets, but my scale says these weigh 15.9 grains. At that weight, they averaged 673 f.p.s. out the muzzle for an energy of 15.99 foot-pounds. The spread went from 664 to 679 for a total of just 15 f.p.s.--the tightest of this test. They fit the breech loosest of all pellets used in this test.

More on the trigger
I have to comment on this trigger, as it is one of the nicest I've seen on what is essentially a budget breakbarrel. It is two-stage and so crisp and positive! The second stage on my test rifle breaks at a repeatable 3 lbs., 12 oz. and is so crisp that I guessed it was a full pound lighter. If you like nice triggers on your rifles, you should like this one.

Just for fun, I adjusted the screw a full turn in each direction, but the only thing that changed was the length of the first-stage pull. The pull-weight remained constant. The second stage was also mushier after adjustment in either direction until several shots had been fired. Then, the crispness returned.

I also praise Crosman for leaving the safety manual. Nobody likes or needs an automatic safety. The safety on the NPSS works so smoothly and easily when you want it, yet it never forces itself on you. If I'm ever asked to testify about how safe I think automatic safeties are, I will say that I think they're dangerous. They foster practices where a shooter cocks and loads the rifle, then immediately takes the safety off. I would rather have the responsibility of putting on the safety left up to the shooter, because they know when they need it and when they don't. An automatic safety makes them take the safety off automatically without thinking. So, it might as well not be there.

This will be a fun gun to test for accuracy because it shoots so smoothly!

Hammerli Pneuma - Part 3

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2


Hammerli's Pneuma has turned in an impressive test! I really enjoy the MTM shooting bench and rifle rest. They make my job so much easier.

Today, we'll look at the accuracy of the Hammerli Pneuma, and I know from the comments there are several of you hanging around to hear what I have to say. Let me make it simple for you--buy the rifle. In my test that follows, I found the .177 Pneuma to be very accurate.

I did not follow my own plan of shooting enormous groups this time, because I was under time constraints to test a couple of different airguns and one .22 rimfire. The day was very nearly perfect, which was a blessing, because the past two times at this range I had to shoot in high wind. So, I made only five-shot groups on this day, so I could finish the testing for all the guns before the wind picked up.

I mounted a Leapers 3-9x50 scope (similar to this CenterPoint 3-9x50 with ill. reticle) in medium-high Weaver rings, despite all that people say about that being impossible. The Pneuma receiver is low for a PCP, so scopes with larger objective bells have trouble clearing the top of the barrel. In this case the scope barely clears the barrel, and you can feel it brush the barrel as the parallax ring is turned for adjustment, but it's the perfect height for my eye. I discovered that the Pneuma's thumbhole stock has a very high line, which helps elevate the eye to the scope.


The 50mm scope objective barely clears the barrel with these medium-height Waever rings. Yes, I know they're nickel. Sometimes you have to use what you have.

Loading was okay but with the scope as low as I had it, I had to watch what I was doing. This is another good reason to use high rings.

The sidelever functioned smoothly every time. In fact, the entire rifle seemed to be dead-stone reliable. I say that because one of the other guns I was testing (the scope on it, actually) was giving me fits! It was so nice to have a gun that just did what it was supposed to that day.

I filled the reservoir to 200 bar, as we learned to do in Part 2 of this report. But I shot longer strings than the velocity numbers predicted that I should. What I mean is that the velocity numbers had indicated the gun really liked Beeman Kodiak pellets, but that lighter pellets started varying in velocity quicker. According to the numbers I recorded, there were fewer useful shots with lighter pellets. Well, on the 50-yard range that didn't turn out to be the case. Just when the pellets should have been dispersing wildly, they were grouping tighter than ever. So, I kept right on shooting down below 150 bar, and the good groups kept coming.

Kodiaks first
I expected Kodiaks to be accurate, and they did not disappoint. At 50 yards on this breathless day, I managed a best group of 0.734" for five shots and an average group size of less than one inch.


Best ghroup of five Beeman Kodiaks at 50 yards went into this group measuring 0.734", c-t-c.

JSB 8.4 grain pellets
I didn't think a lighter pellet would do as well in this rifle, but that was incorrect. With JSB Exact 8.4-grain domed pellets, I shot three five-shot groups that went 0.736", 0.772" and 0.808". That's extremely consistent shooting. I have to report that those groups were not all centered in the same spot, so if I had combined them they would have been about 1.5" between centers. But, once again, I was shooting in a place on the power curve where the velocity numbers predicted the pellet strikes would shift.


Second-best group of five JSB Exacts at 50 yards measures 0.772" between centers.


Worst group of five JSB Exacts at 50 yards measures 0.808" between centers.

The Pneuma shot without a problem. I found it easy to scope, easier to sight-in; and once it was sighted, it was a bullseye drill. Kodiaks deliver the best performance of both power and accuracy, making them well worth trying. But the word on the street is this rifle does well with almost anything.

Conclusions
The world now has another low-cost PCP with remarkable performance. The Pneuma is well worth a place on your short list of pellet rifles. It's a single-shot, which I will always prefer to a repeater, and it has the power needed for small-game hunting. I would buy the .22 for hunting and the .177 for general shooting and the occasional pest.

Tactical flashlights and some other light stuff

by B.B. Pelletier

I always feel guilty when I get this far off track, because I know fewer of you will be interested. But Fridays are my "play days," and I try to write about light topics, because I know you just enjoy chatting with each other all weekend.

Having said all that, I think most people need at least one tactical flashlight. The reason? Simple! Tactical flashlights are the highest form of flashlight and they have more than one purpose in life. A regular flashlight is for seeing in dark places, but a tactical flashlight is for something else. A real tactical flashlight can also be used to temporarily disorient and even blind an assailant, giving the user time to either run away or defend himself in some other way. Here at Pelletier Acres, we are armed with the .45 ACP, so anyone who hears me yell, "FREEZE, DIRTBAG!" would be well-advised to cease and desist. Actually I plan to yell something more colorful than that, but Edith advised me not to print it here.

Edith once asked me to demonstrate how I would do that (the yelling, I mean) and even though I warned her what I was about to do, she was still visibly shaken when I did it. So I still got it, and it still works!

The part the tactical flashlight plays in this drama is it overloads the optic nerve and disorients the person. When combined with a persuasive command, this can force many people to comply with the verbal order. Even those less inclined to cooperate cannot avoid temporary night-blindness caused by the intense light.

So what?
Okay, you say, but everybody knows that B.B. is a paranoid dinosaur who fantasizes that he's living in the wild west. I'm perfectly safe in my apartment here in Gotham and, if there is trouble, well, isn't that what 911 is for? Boy, will I be glad when these paranoid old silverbacks are all dead and gone, so society can finally progress as it was meant to.

All right, you and I see life differently. But you still need a tactical flashlight! Check THIS out.

Old B.B. likes to ride his bicycle in the mornings before the sun rises. He wears a helmet and has lights on both the front and rear of his bike, plus he stays within the safe confines of his housing development. What could possibly go wrong?

Dogs!

I have used my most powerful tactical flashlight on several mean dogs who seemed to be out to get a piece of me. I started with the cute little white terriers down the street who like to bark and chase my bike as I ride past their house. When I hit them with the light early in the morning, they stop running and whine for a moment. The next morning they are right back at it, with some reluctance to leave their yard. These little cuties are no real threat, but they demonstrated that the light worked.

Then one rainy morning when I was walking the neighborhood and a large dog came at me in absolute silence from the rear on an intercept course, I was relieved that the light had the same effect on him. After he stopped I walked up and spoke to him in a low, commanding voice. He remained in place, presumably blinded for a few minutes, and when he started moving again, he walked away from my path. I was already about 500 yards away, but I kept my eye on him, just in case.

So, the light worked as intended. But that's not the only reason for owning one.

Other pests

Things that go "bump" in the night
One morning, Edith woke me at 1:30 a.m. because of a disturbance on the back porch. She thought someone was breaking in, so I took my tactical flashlight and gun and went to the window. There in the light was a large possum! I shined the light on it for about a minute, then went to the back door to the porch. As I passed the living room, I saw that both cats were glued to the floor-length window, watching the porch in rapt silence. Just what I always wanted--silent watch cats! They note everything that happens around your home and keep it in the strictest confidence!

When I opened the door to the back porch, mister opossum had left the building. That was good, because I certainly was not going to shoot him with a .45 at two in the morning! As far as I can tell, he has never returned. The cats tell me nothing.

A tactical flashlight is an intense spotlight that can be used for general seeing as well as forcing compliance. Many of them are rated in lumens, and 100 lumens is considered the bottom threshold for forcing compliance in the way mentioned above. But I can tell you that a light with 65 lumens used correctly can do a lot. My first, second and third lights were all from Crosman. The first came with one of their guns, but number two and three I picked up at the Roanoke Airgun Expo for $5 each. The two CR123A batteries inside them cost more than that, so it was a no-brainer. The switches on two of them have already failed, so I am down to just one at present. My most frequent use for them is as a fill light in long-exposure photos. Remember my report on "painting with light?"

It seems that Crosman no longer sells their light separately. But all is not lost!

UTG tactical flashlight
My friends at Leapers make the UTG tactical flashlight. It's sold in the airsoft equipment section and flashlight section and costs just $30. I know that's a lot more than the $5 I mentioned before, but that was apparently a one-time, you-had-to-be-there special deal. This one has 95 lumens, so it's pretty much the real deal. It has a regular pushbutton/twist-on switch in addition to the pigtail gun switch you see in the description, so you can use it normally.

For more power, this flashlight/laser combo puts out 126 lumens for just over $50.

Want even more? This UTG light puts out 260 lumens and has a police-rated body configuration that makes for easier handling. It's the highest output I have found for under $50.

Beamshot
While at the 2009 SHOT Show I was given two Beamshot lights to evaluate. One is a one-cell (CR123A) PD3 compact light that puts out 180 lumens. It has a switch for the full-power light, a strobe effect or you can adjust the light down to 15 lumens for just seeing. With the latter, the battery lasts a lot longer. The strobe is highly effective in producing compliance, because the human eye cannot adjust to it. This one is a serious light with law enforcement recognition. Expect to pay around $80 on the street.


Beamshot PD3 uses just a single CR123A cell to generate 180 lumens of light. It is compact and feature-filled.

I also have the Beamshot TD4, a 240-lumen light with the same operational features as the smaller light, only instead of a single button on the end controlling it, there are three--one for each function. It also has a built-in SOS signal function. Set it and it continues to flash the distress signal without your intervention. This larger light uses two CR123A cells. This is the most powerful light I own and it is certainly capable of rendering a subject blind temporarily. The bezel has hardened points for breaking glass in an emergency. Expect to pay around $150 for this one.


The larger Beamshot TD4 uses two CR123A cells for 240 lumens. The bezel has pointed spikes to break glass in an emergency. Three buttons operate the multiple functions.

Fenix
I saw the Fenix TK10 light at the SHOT Show and was so impressed that I asked for it for Christmas. It's a 225-lumen light housed in the most rugged body on the market. I watched a video of the light still functioning under 20,000 lbs. of crushing pressure. The switch is simpler than those found on either of the two Beamshots. There is an on/off button that doubles as a pulse button. That's it. What you lose in functionality you gain in a lower cost, ruggedness and reliability. This model sells for slightly less than $80.


My Fenix uses two CR123A cells for 225 lumens. It has a pushbutton pulse switch that also turns the light on and off.

This is my go-to tactical flashlight. A year ago, all I had were the Crosman lights, but I've made it a point to gather as many as I can. I use them to augment my defense firearms, and these are weapons I can use with no lasting effects. I have already told you how I use them.

Other survival lights
For more than a year, I've been using a dynamo flashlight from John Deere. You wind it for 2 minutes and it shines for 20 minutes. I just got an NRA dynamo flashlight to add to my collection. It even has a DC outlet port for charging your cell phone! I use these flashlights around the house exclusively to save the batteries of my tactical lights.


This John Deere dynamo flashlight never needs batteries. Just wind the crank, shown here but normally tucked flush with the body. Two minutes of cranking gives about 20 minutes of light.


The NRA sells this dynamo flashlight that also serves as a cell phone charger. This one is larger than the John Deere and is the right size for the glove compartment or tackle box.

Small wonder!
The Streamlight nano is a tiny flashlight just larger than a quarter and puts out a full 15 lumens of light. That makes it as bright as a standard flashlight using two D-sized cells.


A Streamlight Nano is tiny but puts out about the same light as a flashlight running on 2 D-cell batteries. It uses watch batteries and operates for 8 hours on one set.

Flashlights are mundane until you need them--then they're priceless. I've shown you some here that have multiple purposes, including defense. This is just one category of equipment that belongs in a bugout bag.

Crosman's new Nitro Piston Short Stroke - Part 1

by B.B. Pelletier

Well, nobody can say that moss grows on the Crosman Corporation! In two years, they've set the pneumatic world on edge with their price-busting Benjamin Discovery and their feature-loaded Benjamin Marauder. But they haven't put all their eggs in the pneumatic basket, either. While the airgun world was watching them break ground there, they were quietly developing the new Crosman Nitro Piston Short Stroke series of spring-piston guns with gas springs. And now they're bringing them to market.

History
I first saw the new gas spring rifles during a visit to the Crosman plant earlier this year. Ed Schultz, their director of engineering, asked me to step outside on the back side of the plant. What he had was a prototype breakbarrel that, frankly, didn't look any different than a hundred others I'd seen. It had a fabricated Delrin can for a muzzlebrake, but knowing that springers don't make much noise at the muzzle, I was unimpressed. Then Ed said to me, "Tom, what part of a spring rifle makes the most noise?"

The answer was obvious--the powerplant. But did Ed know that? In fact, he did! He then proceeded to cock and load the .22 caliber rifle and handed it to me to shoot. He directed me toward a high hill across the empty parking lot. I fired and almost nothing happened! The rifle did pulse, and I knew it had fired, but the sound was so low it didn't sound right.

Then he handed me a Gamo Whisper and told me to shoot it. Now as everyone knows, the Whisper is a quiet spring gun, but that .177 example was noticeably louder than the .22 I had just fired.

Ed explained, "Everyone knows that the powerplant of a spring rifle makes at least three-quarters of the noise. So putting a silencer on the gun does very little. We've put a silencer on, but more importantly, we have managed to also reduce the noise made by the powerplant."

By this time, I was cocking and firing the rifle while Ed was speaking. I noticed that this was a gas spring gun, but one with a difference. Yes, it had more cocking resistance from the start--a characteristic of all gas springs, but this one seemed much easier to cock than most. Once my arms got up to speed with the power required, it never increased (gas springs never do); and toward the end of the short cocking stroke, it seemed to diminish a bit. This was something new!

Three months later, while filming the Crosman plant tour for American Airgunner, Ed showed me another new gas spring rifle. This one had a shrouded barrel and was covered with a digital camo pattern that felt rubberized and grippy. This was the first pre-production Nitro Piston rifle! Ed asked for comments on the cocking, the feel of the stock and the general impressions of the shooters. Paul Capello was shooting this one with me, so here was another person seeing the Nitro Piston system for the first time. We were both pleased with the performance of this stunning new spring rifle, and now I want to include all of you in the experience.


The Nitro Piston Short Stroke is a handsome breakbarrel. This one is finished in digital camo, but there's also a charcoal gray carbon fiber stock, as well.

General description
What we have here is a spring piston air rifle made in East Bloomfield, New York. They're made in both .177 and .22 and sport either a digital camo or all-gray stock. The model I'm testing has an ambidextrous thumbhole stock coated in a rubberized digital camo pattern. Inside, the rifle sports a gas spring that Crosman prefers to call a Nitro Piston, in reference to the nitrogen gas fill. And that gas is one of the things that makes this rifle so relatively easy to cock. The other things are patented, and nobody has told me anything--but I know that micro-fine surface finishes are at least part of the secret.

The barrel is fully shrouded with an aluminum shroud that extends from the baseblock to the muzzle. It's tapered at the baseblock end and parallel out to the muzzle that it capped with a non-remnovable cap. A peek inside with a strong light shows the possible presence of technology, though as I have already mentioned, a spring rifle hardly needs it.

The rifle is light, weighing just 7 lbs., but it comes without sights and Centerpoint's AR22 series 3-9x40AO scope that comes with the rifle boosts that to just over 8.25 lbs. Speaking of scopes, this is a good one. Usually, rifles that come bundled with a scope have the cheapest model obtainable, but this one isn't. It's one many of you would buy for your other rifles.

The top of the receiver has a scope stop hole to accept a vertical anchor pin. It's a small feature but a necessary one that some other airgun manufacturers don't seem to grasp. I'll cover mounting the scope and the full specs of the scope in the report on accuracy.

The trigger is adjustable for the length of the second-stage pull. The safety is manual and workable with just the trigger finger.


The trigger is adjustable for length of second-stage pull. Safety is manual and can be worked by one finger.

Speaking of noise!
I couldn't wait for the second and third reports, either, so I stepped out my back door and fired several Crosman Premiers into the ground. As I remembered, the rifle is quiet. The action is quick like all gas springs, and the recoil is very minimal. But I want to discuss noise for just a moment.

If you're an experienced airgunner, you'll think this rifle is pretty quiet. If you have no experience with spring-piston guns, you probably won't. If you compare this gun to a Marauder, the Marauder will be quieter every time. But if you compare this to a silenced .22 rifle shooting CB caps, this will seem very similar. How the rifle sounds depends on your experience with airguns.

Last week I was at the firing range, and a boy and his grandfather were shooting a .22 rifle next to me. The boy was afraid my Hammerli Pneuma would be noisy. I told him that while it was noisy for an air rifle, it would seem quiet to him. Everyone had hearing protection on, and the Pneuma was just a tiny fraction as loud as the .22 rimfire. So, don't listen to those who say PCPs are just as loud as rimfires, because most of them aren't. And, when it comes to the relative noise a Crosman Nitro Piston makes, it's less than a Gamo Whisper, but just about the same as a Whisper with an Air Venturi gas spring installed. And the only way to completely appreciate this is to shoot the rifle outdoors, away from buildings with reflective walls.

Summary
The Nitro Piston Short Stroke is lightweight, quiet, relatively easy to cock, comes with a quality scope, and finished with an attractive and grippy camo pattern on a thumbhole stock. Now, we need to see how powerful and accurate it is.