by B.B. Pelletier
I was discharged from the hospital on Friday, June 4. I’ll continue my recovery at home. I get daily visits from a visiting nurse and see doctors weekly to track my progress. Thank you for your prayers and concern!
Now, on to today’s blog.
This is my last report on the MP655 BB/pellet pistol. Today, we’ll look at accuracy for both BBs and pellets.
I want you to pay close attention to the BBs, because I think the test shows a lot about how well the pistol is designed and manufactured. Mac used a 15′ range and shot Daisy Premium Grade zinc-plated BBs. He shot using a 6 o’clock hold, and only one target is necessary to show what this phenomenal pistol can do. Since there are 90 shots available per CO2 cartridge, he could have torn a big hole in the target. But he fired only 10, and you can see where they landed.
Loading BBs
It’s pretty easy to load BBs in this gun. The operation goes this way: Open the accumulator on top of the slide and pour in the BBs.
As BB pistols go, I don’t know how you could ask for more. It has accuracy, shoots to the POA and holds 100 BBs, 90 of which can be fired on a single CO2 cartridge. What a gun!
Now with pellets
With pellets, Mac moved back to 10 meters and used the circular pellet magazine. First were Hobby pellets. They shot pretty well; certainly the gun is equal to an Umarex pellet gun.
H&N Finale Match, Hi-Speed
Next, Mac tried H&N Finale Match High-Speed, which is the pistol weight target pellet. Normally, these would group well, but they didn’t seem to group as well as some other pellets in this gun.
Crosman Premier 7.9 grains
The last pellet Mac tried was the Crosman Premier Light. Surprisingly, they out-shot everything else. They shot almost to the POA, which was a 6 o’clock hold, and were well-centered in the target.
Final assessment
As we’ve seen, this is quite a novel BB pistol. It’s pricey but seems to have all the features that you could ask for and some you never dreamed of.
I just ordered theWalther CP99 Compact.
I am very excited. This gun looks to be the perfect blow back BB pistol I was looking for.
The price is very reasonable too. If anyone has one and wants to tell me more about it,
I wouldn’t mind listening. I have read BB’s blogs already. Very good stuff.
-Ryan
Ryan, I have a Walther CPSport which is a slightly cheaper non-blowback version of the CP99. Mine is a terrific pistol. It is absolutely reliable and deadly accurate when I get the technique right. I’m limited in the technique by the long, heavy trigger due to the revolver mechanism, but you shouldn’t have that problem with blowback.
Your pistol should be very good at target shooting and will really shine at snap shooting and rapid fire like mine. Note, the Rex Applegate technique of point shooting has really proven itself to me. It amounts to extending the pistol arm fully while pointing down from horizontal; raising the straight arm like a bucket handle until the pistol breaks your line of sight with the target; squeezing the pistol convulsively with your whole hand to release the trigger. Works like a charm. My earlier techniques worked okay when I got into a zen mode but were kind of erratic. This method typically blows my Shoot N’ C target right off the backstop before I finish the magazine. Police training have noticed the same results with this method which was developed in WWII by the OSS and the British commandos and refined based on their experience. Today’s BB pistol would also be good for this method I would think.
Matt61
Matt61,
I typically use the sights of the weapon, using my second hand to steady the weapon. I haven’t practiced point shooting, as I’m not going to be put into a situation where I need to discharge my BB pistol quickly. Point shooting is good for self defense training, where it is important to not only discharge your weapon quickly, but also to hit your target. It may be fun to try though, just for kicks. Also, could be good training for future possibility of having a self defense firearm. Thanks you for responding, I appreciate it.
-Ryan
I have an off topic question about the Air Arms TX200. Are there any open sights for the TX200 or scope is the only option? Thanks.
There are no open sights on the TX200. The muzzle end has no dovetail machined into it to accomodate mounting an aftermarket front sight.
The Air Arms TX200 Mark III was designed from the ground up as a field target rifle, as such it is meant to be scoped.
I wonder how hard it is to install open sights on a TX200 which has no provision for them. Probably, there’s an amount of money that would do it, but it would be extreme.
Matt61
This is exactly why I was leaning toward the HW77K instead. I like open sights. Why in the world would AA leave them off the TX200!
-AlanL
BB
Best wishes for an accelerating recovery to you. In that vein maybe the nurse should dress up like a gypsy. 😉
On the subject of air pistols, have you ever heard of a Webley Alecto? It is a variable pump pellet pistol (1 to 3 pumps.) Looks like a winner. PA doesn’t seem to carry any Webley pistols at the present time, maybe this one could fill that hole?
Slinging Lead,
B.B. says this:
I HAVE heard of the gun, though when I heard of it at the SHOT Show this year, they didn’t have a name for it yet. They were in the midst of development and were actually getting more power on 2 pumps than on 3. So, some valve tweaking was still needed. If it hits the market, I’m sure Pyramyd AIR will consider it.
Edith
http://www.bing.com/airgun-videos/watch/airgun-video/welcome-back-kotter/c22dabedf35685db8628c22dabedf35685db8628-55868785129
WELCOME BACK!!!!
B.B.,
Nice to have you back at the keyboard!
I’m sure you haven’t been perusing the Yellow lately, but somebody asked a question about why your R-1 book always commands such a high price. I learned a lot about your past accomplishments by reading the responses. You are one amazing dude. You’ll be happy to know that you rank right up there with Dr. Robert Beeman as an airgun pioneer, according to many people, but most of them like you better. 🙂
From somebody who hasn’t been in the game long enough to see the big picture, it reinforces how lucky we all are not to have lost you to crappy healthcare. Thanks, Edith, for taking good care of him!
– Orin
Orin, very impressive results with Chairgun right down to predicting the pellet’s time of flight. I see that my calculation of drop was actually fairly close at about 10 feet but the energy was off by a factor of 2; not surprising since my pellet weight was only half the actual. At a predicted value of 6.5 ft pds., the terminal pellet energy is still significantly greater than the predicted breaking energy of the bottle at .25 ftpds., so that figure has not been ruled out.
I agree that that the wine bottle drop model is simplified, but I differ with your point that it doesn’t apply to the situation. You’re correct about the formula for work which equals energy. This formula is based on the principle of the conservation of mass and energy which goes back to Einstein’s formula E=mc^2 and basically says that energy cannot be created or destroyed. This is a pillar of modern physics which has survived all sorts of paradigm shifts, and if it is disproven we are all in trouble…. Anyway, this principle leads to a radical simplification. Energy in has to equal energy out. This means that it is not necessary to calculate all the forces involved like the ones that you rightly observed. The energy calculation says that these will all work out in such a way so as to be consistent with the energy transfer. So, I do think the model could be improved, but I expect that the basic assumptions would apply.
As for complicating factors, I’m not a fan of complication for its own sake and think it’s useful to remember that if you really want to consider complications, you will never get to the bottom of things since the effects go on to the quantum level. It’s a question of which complications are important. I’ll go back to Einstein again who said that the key to physics is to separate the important from the unimportant. (A general life guideline too I believe.) So, I would look for complications that definitely and significantly change the picture, and from what I can see of this situation, I don’t see any other than some details about the specific conditions.
Matt61
Thanks, Matt. You might be right about overcomplication. It occurred to me as I was typing my response that the variables could theoretically equalize in the equation (i.e. – the mass of the bottle being heavier with a lower velocity could offset the lighter mass of the pellet with much higher velocity).
However, I’m not totally ready to concede to your logic yet. 🙂 One important factor that can’t be ignored is gravity. If you dropped the bottle from 1″, it would undoubtedly suffer minimal damage – maybe a scratch – while dropping it from 10′ would produce very different results. I would agree that there is one specific height at which the bottle could be dropped that would simulate the amount of force applied by the pellet in the shooting scenario. Similarly, one could determine the threshold of material strength and calculate Force by dropping the bottle at varying heights until breakage occurred (assuming all factors to be equal, like striking point, cant, glass thickness and composition, etc).
In any case, gravity plays a key role in the equation. Without a specific and known drop height, I still don’t believe Force can be adequately determined.
On a different note, you remind me of one of my roommates when I was in the military. We had some very deep conversations, and we used to take advantage of every 4-day weekend to run off to Yosemite or Yellowstone or just any old place we could find in the Rockies to go hiking/camping. He was huge into mountain biking, too. Man I miss those days. He had hiked the Appalachain Trail over a period of 6 months before joining the Air Force, and I was always envious when he would show me the pictures. More than anything else, he taught me how to slow down and enjoy life. Well, insane rock climbing expeditions and almost being eaten by a grizzly bear probably helped with that, too.
– Orin
Orin, yes, gravity is absolutely fundamental to the calculation.
Work = Force x displacement
Force = mass x acceleration
In our case,
Force = mass of the bottle x gravity (32 ft/s^2) = weight
In other words, gravity is subsumed into the weight value which I (thinking hard) estimated at a quarter pound for an empty wine bottle.
Commonsense backed up by the saying about the straw that broke the camel’s back and formalized in the Mean Value Theorem of mathematics tells us that there is some exact height for dropping a wine bottle between 1 inch and 10 stories where the bottle will just barely break. We don’t know what it is without exhaustive experiment, but in principle it is there. And that is the height for determining the breaking energy of the bottle. Whatever this energy is, it is below 6.5 ftlbs as you calculated with Chairgun. (Seeing how one of the bottles in the video seemed to explode, it’s pretty well below 6.5 ftlbs.) That’s good enough for me.
I’m exercised now in coming up with a model for the case someone described of shooting holes through a metal can. The elasticity of the can makes that more difficult to model, and I believe a soup can would survive being dropped out of an airplane. (So will a Glock pistol, according to one account I read.) I visualize a vertical track holding a weight with a point at the bottom that is released from various heights until you figure out the threshold for puncturing the can (held at the bottom of the track). Basically a guillotine utilizing a pointed object rather than an edge. Anyway, it wouldn’t be difficult to build one for the handy people here, but certainly more painstaking than dropping a wine bottle.
Interesting you should mention Yosemite. I’ve signed up to go there for the first time next Monday and Tuesday on a trip led by a colleague who is some kind of outdoors expert. With my natural caution, I’m wondering about what do if we encounter a cougar or a wild animal. I asked the outdoorswoman what she did about safety in her outdoor trips, and she laughed that off. I’m keeping my own counsel and will carry along my Ka-bar in my backpack. I wish I could be a certain Tom Gaylord, in the prime of life (was it while gold prospecting?), hiking around northern California with his 1911 strapped to his waist. Actually, I recently found out that it is legal to carry a firearm openly in California PROVIDED IT IS UNLOADED. Ha ha. Why anyone would want to do that I cannot imagine.
Anyway, the trip should be interesting, but as for good conversations, that’s only a blog away. 🙂
Matt61
Matt,
Ok. My brain is hurting. I’m ready to concede now. 🙂
– Orin
Orin,
B.B. says:
Actually, my fingers haven’t touched the keyboard yet. I’m still kind of weak and resting on the couch during the day. When I’m able to spend some time on the computer, I’ll let all you guys know that it’s really me doing the typing.
Thank you for your kind remarks. It’s nice to know people appreciate what I try to do.
From Edith: While he says he’s resting on the couch, that’s not totally accurate. He provides all the blogs and his Shotgun News airgun column. He also answers a lot of questions that I can’t answer. Each day, I see improvements and he’s able to do more and more.
Edith
BB:
Home is where we all belong….maybe a cruise ship as well.No home is best.
Although think about it,some of those long corridors on a cruise ship would make a great firing range 🙂
DaveUK
Welcome back B.B. and thank you B.B. ,and Edith for this great blog!I have bought air pistol NORCONIA F S2-PG (cheap thing ,low power)and tune it up with double spring(spring inside a spring )i have gain some power but i think that gun powerplant is still deciding factor(too small),so it is still kinda ricochet factory 🙂
Good Morning B.B.,
Welcome Back! Sure is nice to finally be saying that.
If I could shoot a pistol in my back yard, this gun would be part of my collection.
Mr B.
B.B.,
Felicitations on being back on your own sleep number bed. Bet it feels mighty uncomfortable after all that time on great hospital beds 😉
Hopefully the daily visiting nurse makes being back home bearable, and you can slowly learn not to miss the hospital so much 😀 Hope she’s real pretty and gives great foot massages!
Okay on to airgun stuff- let’s put a real smile on your face.
First off, thanks for your confirmation that the TX200 MkIII is still the way to go.
Slinging Lead: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! But telling that to a tinkerer and cycle nut is like telling Barry White to croon soprano.
Ryan: Have you got your balls?! I played with mine, and found they easily roll 2 inches down the barrel of the Bronco, which does wonders for your velocity of course. Fire…. ??? … splat! Big delay in getting to target and accuracy all over the place. For the Bronco definitely go for 4.52 mm (at least!) In the HW30S the 4.50 balls fit snugly and make a very satisfyingly loud splat on target. Surprisingly little sight adjustment needed between CP lights and H&N precision balls. Maybe next weekend I’ll get around to the penetration tests, but I just have a feeling the balls hit hard. I lined up three dead 9-volt batteries at 15 yards and blew them all away dead nuts on. They make great targets.
-AlanL
AlanL,
That little rubber bumper on the TX200 is probably its weakest link. It’s not a necessary component, and I think most TX owners would rather it wasn’t there at all. That would save Air Arms the trouble of drilling a hole in the shroud in the first place.
Many people put an o-ring or two on the end of the cocking lever, as a workaround, once the rubber bumber tears off or is removed. In addition to that, I heat shrank my entire barrel and cocking lever. Not only does this reduce glare, but it covers the hole and eliminates fingerprints (I’m in a dry enough climate that I don’t have to worry about humidity or moisture getting trapped within). Here’s a couple of picture of what it looks like:
http://s954.photobucket.com/albums/ae28/oherndon/Default/?action=view¤t=4.jpg
http://s954.photobucket.com/albums/ae28/oherndon/Default/?action=view¤t=5.jpg
It looks kinda silly, but I left the heat shrink long on the muzzle to help protect it, and the o-rings around the tip of the heat shrink are just spares.
– Orin
Orin,
You’re right, that sure does look hokey. I probably would’ve used glossy heat shrink myself, but if getting rid of the glare was another objective, you sure did that! The more I hear about the TX200 the more I incline toward the HW 77 instead. B.B.’s recommendation notwithstanding. But I have not made up my mind yet…
-AlanL
AlanL,
LOL. The only glossy heat shrink I had was white. That would have really looked bad!
Don’t let my rubber bumper comment discourage your consideration of the TX. I would buy this gun all over again, as many times as I was afforded the opportunity. Shoot, I would have a whole collection of TX’s if my wallet and my wants were more in sync. My point in mentioning the rubber bumper was to let you know that it is a trivial detail for which there exists a simple and inexpensive workaround (o-rings, not gaudy heat shrink).
In the end, you’re probably going to end up picking the gun that most appeals to you aesthetically. That’s what I did, after many long nights spent bouncing between the TX and HW97K. Like I said on Volvo’s blog though, if the HW had been available in that sweet thumbhole stock and adjustable butt pad, I might have made a different decision.
– Orin
Orin,
Did you see the link to the pic of that nice open hole stock I replied with on Volvo’s blog? Now that’s a nice stock!
AlanL
AlanL,
Yup. That’s exactly the one I was drooling over!
– Orin
AlanL,
Here you go, in case you missed it…
http://www.gatewaytoairguns.com/airguns/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=28645&mid=224847#M224847
– Orin
AlanL,
I’m going to wait until much later tonight and have a father to son talk about what you and Ryan were playing with.
Mr B.
Glad you are home and hope your recovery progresses. No matter now nice they make hospitals, I always feel that I’m incarcerated when I’m in one. Home is *so* much better.
Interesting pistol loaded with features. Looks like a winner.
Mrs. Gaylord since you have so much free time on your hands…..you may want to link this latest Part 3 to the “Review/article/latest buzz” link on the PA site. Currently the link takes you to Part 2 and Part 3 (accuracy/summary) is the chapter that I think most potential buyers will find most relevant.
kevin
Oops. Meant to say, provide link to this latest of the series, Part 4.
kevin
Kevin,
Thanks for the reminder. I’ve gotten behind on updating the links to articles for the products. I just updated this one.
Edith
Orin / long distance shooting enthusiasts
Have you checked out this video yet?
https://www.youtube.com/profile?user=airguntv#p/u/6/bm2bZwdwVUo
A woman named Emma Luke blows holes right through corrugated steel cans with a sub 12 foot-pound Weihrauch HW100. At 200 METERS! That’s 218.72265967 yards. Fine shooting indeed.
SlingingLead,
Just watched the video. Wow! I would have believed she could dent or shoot through pop cans, but not steel soup cans. Very impressive.
Thanks,
Edith
S.L.,
I saw that for the first time a couple of weeks ago. The possibility of hitting a target over 200 yards away draws me closer and closer to the Dark Side. Maybe somebody could even do it with a springer, but certainly not me.
I think my biggest enemy, when it comes to long-range shooting, is cant. I don’t currently use a level, and I think I probably need to, but it just doesn’t seem like something very well suited to a hunting/pesting rig. I’ve had my eye on the Microlevel for quite a while now. Has anyone ever used this or any other electronic level?
– Orin
I should have said “The possibility of hitting a tin can-sized target over 200 yards away…”
– Orin
BB,
Good to hear you finally got home. No place like it.
KA
Tom…
Good to have you back.
Have they given you an estimate on how long it will be before you can start eating some good food again??
twotalon
twotalon,
They’ve established some milestones he has to reach before he can eat solid food. One of the frustrating things is that he’ll probably reach that milestone way before his appointment with the doctor who makes that decision. That appointment is on June 29. From what I’ve seen since he came home, he just might reach that milestone by mid-June. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if home time will significantly accelerate the recovery process. Of course, I believe it will 🙂
Edith
Welcome Home B.B.
I’ve waited a long time to say that, and you waited a long time to hear it! Your experience in the hospital was no less than horrific. This is a fine day indeed!
It’s so good to know your home safe and sound once again.
I’m still catching up from the “Oak Alley Shootout”. The 4 day event really was fun and challenging for folks. And I got behind on my office work spending the week before, getting ready and then playing for 4 days. When I catch up, I can comment more here.
Just a quick note on the .22 cal Evanix Rainstorm vs. Marauder in .25 cal. They are both fine air guns, and one can’t go wrong with either in the just under 40 ft lb class.
If you want a smaller carbine, then go for the Evanix, but if quiet is needed, then the much larger and heavier Marauder. Both will do 1/2″ at 50 yards, and they both like the JSB. The Rainstorm, the 18gr. are best, and in the .25 cal Marauder the 25.4gr .25 cal JSB.
Gotta go…
Wacky Wayne,
Match Director,
Ashland Air Rifle Range
Wayne (or anyone),
Have you had the opportunity to try the new shrouded AR6? I’d very much like to hear how it compares to the Rainstorm and Marauder, especially since PA has used .22 cals in stock for less than $600. At 60 FPE, I would expect it to be louder than the Rainstorm, but PA still has it listed as “2” loudness…
– Orin
Orin,
No I haven’t tried that one yet. I had the AR6 long ago without a shroud. VERY LOUD!!! Might as well shoot a rimfire except for distance issues.
But now with a shroud, I’m very interested, when I got the rainstorm, the AR6 was not out yet.
who knows…
Wacky Wayne
BB,
Just wanted to say I’m so glad to hear you are home now. I’m sure this sentence is being repeated in the 10,000 minds that frequent this blog. Edith has been wonderful at saving your job on this blog. Better give her a big kiss for us and shower her with presents.
-CJr
CJr,
I like the way you think 🙂
Edith
Glad to see you’re back home.
B.B., welcome home.
The king is in his counting house
Counting out his money…..
(And we hope)
The queen is in her parlor
Eating bread and honey.
BG_Farmer, better watch that blood pressure. What kind of meetings are you attending?! I dislike meetings as much as the next but not that much. Muhammed Ali at his weigh in for Sonny Liston recorded a blood pressure of a mere 200. Better sleep through those meetings. The problem with waiting for the blood pressure to subside afterwards is that apparently you can get a stroke at those levels. A doctor told me that one of my readings of 130 was at the threshold of a stroke which persuaded me to start the medication he prescribed.
Matt61
cool idea orin……
AJ,
If you mean the heat shrink, you should re-post that up there next to AlanL’s comment. That way I don’t go down in history as having “hokified” my beautiful European showpiece. 🙂
– Orin
Well, finally we hear about accuracy on the IZH MP655. That was like pulling teeth, with the first3 parts stalling. I’m really disappointed with the results. It was supposed to shoot horribly, so I’d lose interest. Great, just great. Figures, another IZH gun that shoots well (don’t the all?).
Welcome back BB.
BB,great news. The whole ordeal took far too long, but at last it is all better now.
HK
Due to the sinking of the Euro and the Pound against the Dollars recently, would we be seeing some ease on prices of the European guns?
Hmmm…open sight, good groups…scoped sight, much gooder groups…what am I missing here (besides a grammer lesson)?
-CJr
Japanese waterstones have arrived! And I’ve tried them out(!) with a certain amount of drama. Using them is fun. When saturated with water, the scraping action of the knife breaks off a kind of slurry of particles. This slurry, washing over the blade, helps refine the edge and is the key to the extra killer sharpness of the waterstones. I felt like I was back in those grade school arts and crafts lessons where I typically did very poorly. But this time will be different.
Anyway, the time came for the moment of truth. I passed the knife edge over my forearm and felt the hairs popping off but I did not see any fall to the table. A couple more tries yielded the same result. Caramba. But then I remembered that the knife was wet. I turned over the blade and sure enough, there were glorious masses of hair. (I may have magnified this in my perception.) Anyway, we’ve got hair although not up to FrankB.’s standard. Anyway, FrankB., I would encourage you to look into the waterstones to enlarge your sharpening experience. They’re definitely something different, and I continue to have high hopes for the final result.
Matt61
I posted this yesterday (early am), don’t know if you seen it. I’ll look more into it.
Edith/Cjr
It is not just with IE8, although I haven’t gone back to IE8 since I started using Safari. The problem is noticeable on Outlook Express (need to find a Mac mail program 😉 ) and has been for a long time, sorry I didn’t mention it earlier just thought it was no big deal. It presents itself with most special characters not just the “and” symbol.
rikib
YEEE HAWWW! BB’s home and camping out in his gunsafe!
/Dave
B.B.
Welcome back. Now that the master has returned I can hang up my keyboard.
It is time for me to live my blog tag line for awhile.
Tom,
Make sure you eat the good food when you can. I’m always one for quotes and this one I just happened to come across:
We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun.
George Orwell
Keep to the healthy stuff! Happy to hear your home and doing well! 🙂
rikib