Air Guns

Hot salt bluing is the only true bluing, anything else is paint or dye.

True hot salt blue is not a chemical finish, it's an oxide coating formed by the reaction between the metal itself and the specific salts in the bluing solution, it is essentially rust under highly controlled conditions.

It's not for the faint of heart to do the process at the hobby or DIY level. The metal salts used in bluing are nasty corrosive and poisonous, as are the vapors. De-greaser and the de-greasing process is almost as bad. Bluing requires lots of dedicated space and effective ventilation. It requires pans or vessels that will allow all parts to be submerged completely, and a method to heat and maintain the temperature of the solutions and rinse vats.

Cost of the service is variable and dependent on a few factors. Much akin to a good paint job, a good bluing job begins with the preparation which is labor intensive, the poorer the condition, the more labor.

Also, the type of final finish you order will have the most affect on the final price. A high polish will be the most costly, buffing blue to a high polish is an art, and not for the novice. If you make a mistake polishing, that part has to go back to the beginning of the process and start over.

Since it is such an involved process, you will often be looking at long turnaround times. The gunsmiths i worked for would only set up to blue a few times a year once they had 10 or 12 jobs to blue.

I don't miss bluing, at all.
 
The $5 rattle can job is looking better at this point.

Anyone shoot larger caliber, like .25 cal., and up?
 
The $5 rattle can job is looking better at this point.

Anyone shoot larger caliber, like .25 cal., and up?
Firearms, almost never. Cost, location, and frankly lack of interest. Home defense primarily.
Airguns, no, haven't gone bigger than .22 cal.
 
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The $5 rattle can job is looking better at this point.

Anyone shoot larger caliber, like .25 cal., and up?
Honestly until I received a Pyramid Air catalog awhile back I didn't even know there were .25 cal air units but since I do now, I'll probably have to have one.

BG has gone on intruder alert and we have one this morning. He was sitting on the fence and she's already turned her water bowl over.:confused: I spoke too soon the other day, peace and quiet is over.
 
You and me both. I've been fighting this one for a while. must resist,...
I was thinking about a .25 for the distant shot; making the Beeman .22 to be my closer range; and, maybe even retiring the Crosman.
But, the Beeman has done its job, and the long distant shot is now many days apart. So, justifying the added everything to go that route,.... must resist - better use of money on Drip Irrigation system,...
Back to looking at them, for now.
 
Anyone shoot larger caliber, like .25 cal., and up?
I have 2 pcp platforms in .25. 1st is a mildly modded Hatsan BT-65 that's been bullpupped in a custom walnut stock from Poland. It has a 22.5 inch choked and rifled Walther/Lothar barrel, 9 round magazine, bolt action. It has a good sized reservoir and is good for about 25 shots in the sweet spot.

This fella made the stock for the BT-65: http://guntuning.com

2nd is a mildly modded Hatsan ATP2. This is my go to airgun for most occasions now, technically a pistol as it has only a 10-1/2 inch barrel made by Walther/Lothar, it is also choked and rifled. The ATP2 uses the same 9 round magazines as the BT, and is a side lever action. It's smaller reservoir needs to be pumped or exchanged after each magazine change for optimum performance. This gun is a consistent 1 holer at 40 yards, and will keep them in a dime size group out to 60-65 yards. At 700fps that's about the limit for humane hunting shots. For plinking it lobs them surprisingly well to 150 yards. I have an old alarm bell hanging at 150 for when i get the urge.

The pellets i use in the .25's are JSB Exact Kings, exclusively.

I'll get some pics and post em up.
 
A bullpup essentially moves the action and barrel as far rearward as possible. Instead of being located just forward of your trigger hand, the breach moves rearward to about under your ear effectively shortening the entire gun by that distance.

The two main advantages are that it's much shorter for getting thru brush and thick woods, and it greatly reduces muzzle swing from the natural effects of breathing and pulse.
 
I've been noticing the pulse/breath bounce thing lately.
Does this breach by ear thing have any effect on hearing? IOW, do you need to wear ear plugs or anything like that?
 
do you need to wear ear plugs or anything like that?
Negative.

The loudest sound by far is the impact of the pellet at the target, even 100 yards away.

Important note, my BT65 is the QE(quiet energy) version with a fully shrouded barrel. I run a very effective moderator on the ATP2.
 
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Holey cow, bowtie's got some fire power!
Maybe cause I'm a Crosman fan but I love the looks of the Discovery in the middle plus I need a long barrel for accuracy - I'm not near as steady as I used to be as a young man. That's another reason I only use about 1/2 of my scope's power. If I dial it up too high seems I'm just not near steady enough.
That's a great looking spread above!
 
Power comes from the British made Hill MK IV pump. This pump is capable of up to 4500 psi. I will tell you, at 3000 it's starting to get hard to push down all the way even though it's a 4 stage pump. I'm too far inland to have practical access to SCUBA air supply. So, this is the way we do it out in the country.

hill mk4 a.jpg hill mk4 b.jpg
 
That's a great looking spread above!
Thanks!

It's been an evolving hobby over several years. i assure you the BT65 and the Disco looked nothing like that the day i took them out of the box. But, i think that's one of the attractions to the hobby... is that you can easily customize and personalize. These represent the current end for me, i started as a kid with a .177 pumper. i still have a couple, a pretty modded and tweaked Crosman 1322 .22 cal and a very stock Benjamin 392 .22 cal.

Even though it's not dealing with the pressures and energy level of a fire breathing powder burner, one must respect working pressures in excess of 3000 psi. Absolutely no petroleum based lubricants can be used on your gun or your pump. Diesel occurs at ~2600 psi. I have seen pictures of the results of an exploded steel braided fill hose. The gentleman would have been well served by leather work boots and/or knowing the dangers of petroleum around high pressure. As much fun as they are, these are not toys.
 
Alrighty,.. efficient spot watering, "drip" irrigation system installed in lime grove.
back to lusting over toys.
nice ones, bowtie!
 
Power comes from the British made Hill MK IV pump. This pump is capable of up to 4500 psi. I will tell you, at 3000 it's starting to get hard to push down all the way even though it's a 4 stage pump. I'm too far inland to have practical access to SCUBA air supply. So, this is the way we do it out in the country.

View attachment 1303429 View attachment 1303430


That is the way that we do it here in the heart of scuba diving land.
 
A bullpup essentially moves the action and barrel as far rearward as possible. Instead of being located just forward of your trigger hand, the breach moves rearward to about under your ear effectively shortening the entire gun by that distance.

The two main advantages are that it's much shorter for getting thru brush and thick woods, and it greatly reduces muzzle swing from the natural effects of breathing and pulse.

The phrase has a colorful origin. A bull would birth a pup backward.
 
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