Some New Things Going on at Thomas Air, Inc.

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thomasair

thomasair

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Manufacturer
Nov 6, 2016
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Colorado, United States
As most people know, Thomas Air is a one man operation. Over the last few years the demand for rifles has increased beyond my reasonable ability to produce. Lead times have increased to about 1 year. The parts manufacturing is not the bottleneck….it’s the smithing and final tuning that limits me to about 50 rifles max per year.

Over the last few months I have gotten in touch with a group of highly competent smiths that were interested in working with my rifles. These long time smiths will now be available to complete orders for the proven Thomas rifle platform. These smiths will not be under my employ…but operate independently to produce the finished rifle. I will provide them with the unassembled Thomas rifle ….and they will provide the smithing services to complete the rifle and work personally with the customer.

This model of operation is the standard in the competitive firearm world and makes a tremendous amount of sense in a lot of ways. It’s an efficient method of getting the best hands working on the best product.

At this time , the customer can still order a rifle from me…but must understand the long waiting period.

Here is a list of the guys I’m working with in the USA. Most of you are probably already familiar with these guys from the forums and competition circuits. There is a tremendous amount of collective knowledge here….and I’m very proud to have them representing Thomas Air, Inc and applying their craft to my rifles.

Will Piatt (Exitpupil on AGN) of Saddle Mountain Gunsmith in North Carolina at (336) 657-3306. 

Scott Schneider (Motorhead on AGN) of Motörhead’s Airgun Tuning services in California at (916) 201-7237. 

Dave Litt is in Arizona at (480) 577-9344.

Jason Neal (Nervoustrig on AGN) is in Mississippi at (601) 433-2760.



Thanks for your time,

Mike Niksch
 
Thank you for the introduction Mike .... And so we begin the next chapter in getting one of if not the finest Air Rifle brands HAND MADE here in the USA out to a larger collective audience of serious air gunners & competitive shooters.



As for MOTORHEADS AG, we will be starting out offering what I know best ... FIELD TARGET The MHFTS ( Motorheads Field Target Special ) will have some signature custom internal work / mods and be offered in a caliber not done by THOMAS AIR ....... The coveted .20 caliber !!! or in .177 caliber.



Details and much more detailed information will be forthcoming as we All move forward in this Venture working with THOMAS AIR.



Thank you,

Scott Schneider

Motorheads AG Tuning Services
 
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Thank you Mike for the announcement. I am currently building some Thomas FT guns and can do HV and LV BR too. The good news is I will be competing in FT with a Thomas now too! The consistency across a wide temperature range is outstandng. I am excited to eliminate the temperature shift variable experienced in all the "other brands" I have used over the years. My phone number above does not receive texts, but I do answer the phone during business hours if I can hear it over the machines. I return voice mails promptly too. Email from my website.

Will Piatt

SaddleMountainGunsmith.com
 
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This news really is awesome! I appreciate all you do for the sport Mike, and thank you to the other smiths for working with Mike on this.

I spoke with Mike a few weeks ago about this, and then proceeded to contact my local smith, Will Piatt. I have always heard great things about Will, and after talking to him and meeting him, I am very excited. I now have a Thomas on order and the wait time is significantly decreased!!!!

Thanks Mike and Will.
 
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I wanted to give Mike and his new team some love. Will Piatt is local to me and a well known gunsmith, so it made sense to work with Will and Mike to get my new Thomas.

Mike let me know that the wait list was close to a year for him, but he was bringing on a team a guys to help with the final stages “if you want”. After talking with Mike and then Will, the process was very simple. Will and I spoke several times about what I was going to shoot and what I would like. He has been super helpful through the process. (Mike was too) They have been so helpful answering all my questions. For a couple busy guys like they are, to be willing to spend time with me like they have, I am very impressed.

We decided what I wanted and Will let me know that he had the parts for one in stock and it would take a few weeks to do the gunsmithing, setup, and testing. About a month later, after all our talks and meeting up, and me taking a week to do a bit of setup, I have my first Thomas. This thing is a tank. I can’t wait to get out there and spend some time dialing her in.

I haven’t gotten to shoot it yet, only 2 pellets to get an idea of the scope height and approximate adjustment I would need. I have to swap out my rings to fit my top mount focus wheel, so I haven’t spent time setting her up yet. Those two pellets did stack on top of each other at 30 yards with just a quick seat, shoot, and check. Seeing those two quick shots and the testing cards Will gave me during setup, I’m not worried about the accuracy at all. If I can’t shoot with this, it will be my fault! 

I’ll follow up with more later, but I wanted to share how easy and fast this process is with the additional professionals that Mike has brought on to help out. 
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at Smok3y

Russ, thanks for the message and the motivation to follow up on the news. That is one sweet looking configuration you have chosen.

I gotta bookmark this page.

Thanks to Mike, and the great team of smiths for getting these fine rifles into more peoples hands.

Neal, resealed my 6 yr old Thomas a while back. Turned up the reg to shoot the 16.2 gr beast for some 50 yd benchrest shooting. She's putting out close to 29 fpe. Just figured I'd go that route since I don't shoot FT anymore. Haven't shot a card yet. Too many other things going on at the moment.

at Will

Mr Piatt, I had no idea you were in on the mix at the time. Good to know we've got someone as qualified as you right here in NC.





Sure is great to hear all this good news in the world of Thomas Air Rifles! Need to get off my old duff and get some trigger time.

I need to keep up with forum more as well!






 
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Pretty Cool!

Looks like you have the new action/barrel block like on Mike's benchrest HPX rifles.

I should have my Thomas FT in a few weeks.

Which knee riser is that one?
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Hey Steve.

Yep, that is Mike’s new action. Mike mentioned a little bit about it when we talked, but I don’t know many details. 

The knee riser and buttstock are both SubMOA Systems out of Spain. I read a lot of good stuff about them mostly on the UK FT forums, and they are nice quality. They are well made, much cheaper than similar alternatives, and shipped quickly. If you go to their website, there is an English option in the menu.
 
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Thanks for that info, Russ.

Looks like you'll be winning a FT match soon.
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Ha! Not so sure about soon, with these champions I have to shoot with/against in my neck of the woods! But good competition pushes you right? Half of them have Thomas rifles too, and the ones that don’t have shown they can be National champs without them too.

I’m going to focus on beating solo goals first and then I’ll worry about Philip, Will, Keith, Matt, Chris, Paul, and others I haven’t met yet. For a competitive sport, the guys I’ve met have been super helpful so far. 
 
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