Just weighed it…I put a new scope on it since the last photo. A hair under 12 lbs. I really love the ranging ability of the Sightron scopes..JSB 13.4s at 805 all day long…
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Thomas Air Rifle
- Thread starter Welldone
- Start date
I’m going off memory with a conversation I had with Mike last fall so this may not be 100% accurate. The HPX has a slightly longer air tube and on board regulator. It also has twin side plenums which looks like the Starship Enterprise. The tethered model has a shorter air tube and must be regulated by an external regulator between the gun and tank. The external regulator doesn’t come with it but Mike will provide info to order parts.
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They say you can’t take it with you…..
I’m just worried I won’t spend it all by the time I hit my expiration date!
I’m just worried I won’t spend it all by the time I hit my expiration date!
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Here's one without being in that gun toteIf you know your going to be into airguns for a long time, kinda like it's your jam, then do it. I've owned 2,,,the longer barrel one is the one I settled on in .177 for Field Target. Mike is meticulous and your rifle won't leave his shop unless it meets his very high standards. Put a nice piece of glass on top of it to...it deserves it.
Mine weighs 19lbs. With the additional weight added to the front and back
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Crowns are important... I'm getting ready to set up to re-crown mine... I've done nothing to destroy it, yet when I look closely at it, and I compare it to the crowns on My wife's Thomas (barrel smithed by another party) and I look at my sons Thomas (two years newer than mine), I get a funky feeling that may explain why mine doesn't seem to shoot.... I'm told by Mike that all the good pellets are gone, and the ones he sent me with my rifle weren't the ones he used for my test group. Amazingly I had recently bought 20,000 pellets of that exact lot number.... That's nice... he now makes .22 slugs and more powerful tethered air rifles for N50, and is concentrating on 50, not 25, so I'm just here with a great antiquated Thomas gun with a resurrected organization and a crown that makes me want to puke, and a ton of "junk" pellets, making things happen the best way I know how... "have machines, will work for food".
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Paul…I said all of the good pellets I have are no longer made when you asked me how to obtain some. Most all of mine are from 2015-2017 when I was very active in 25m. I have one newer lot from 2019 that I currently use to test guns and they perform nearly as well as my best. Those are die # 59070019.
Is this the die number you bought 20,000 of?
If your number is not identical…they are not the same. If your number is identical and yours do not shoot well, they could have been damaged in their travel from Czech Republic to you.
There are surely still plenty of other good pellets available…but you may have to do some looking for them.
You will not be able to make poor shooting pellets into good ones by sorting them.
Every crown I produce is square to the internal bore of the barrel within a 1-2 tenths and burr free. Your rifle shot as well as any I have produced here, and you reported it shot fantastic when you got it, so clearly something is different.
Mike
Is this the die number you bought 20,000 of?
If your number is not identical…they are not the same. If your number is identical and yours do not shoot well, they could have been damaged in their travel from Czech Republic to you.
There are surely still plenty of other good pellets available…but you may have to do some looking for them.
You will not be able to make poor shooting pellets into good ones by sorting them.
Every crown I produce is square to the internal bore of the barrel within a 1-2 tenths and burr free. Your rifle shot as well as any I have produced here, and you reported it shot fantastic when you got it, so clearly something is different.
Mike
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Hey Paul…I dug up this club match report that you wrote.
Your gun seemed to shoot well for Francis back in 2021.
Mike
Your gun seemed to shoot well for Francis back in 2021.
Mike
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Mike the pellets I have 20,000 of are all marked 22070019 2 4.52... newer pellets I have aren't marked but are 4.52, all are original 13.43 job cylindrical. I have since gotten these other pellets, but I haven't even begun playing with those yet.
Dad may indeed had done better than the other guys on that card...but really a single 250 in 3 years... be serious! something's wrong! None of our rifles here ever score like those out west, in fact when we thought Greg Vaughn had set a record, because he did so well for our range we looked up the records... Hell he wasn't even close.
When I got my rifle you sent a partial tin of those JSBs 13.43, cylindrical original design and when I looked at the back of the tin it was the same as my tins that I had bought in anticipation of the rifle... which means you bought pellets at similar time as me in order to end up with the same lot. When I made that mention to you you simply said it was a coincidence. I had also received a picture of a test target of 50 shots... I was to think those shots came from that tin... later I was told by you that it wasn't. I shot the rifle and it did shoot well... well better than the 10Meter Anschutz rifles my friend was shooting and we were sharing... truth be known and as we would find out his rifles were very poor for the 25M game. you see I knew your rifle or a RAW or a USFT would be the rig to use for 25M... he was convinced that the Euros were better fit and finish and would be the way to go... he had over 20 European rifles by Anschutz and Steyr. what we didn't realize that by me gauging my rifles performance against the best of his was basically useless because as we would learn, his just didn't perform well at all at distance. Once we got to real world shooting the RAWs and Daystate rifles crushed mine regularly. Ive been shooting BR for about 30 years and have lots of equipment that can work either rimfire, centerfire or Pneumatic. I have lots of experience and I just can't believe our scores aren't near what you guys are shooting and posting out west. Something else is going on.
Then Eric got his rifle... his regularly crushes my rifle. and when we switch rifles his rifle wins... Mine just isn't shooting. We got Rons rifle, and he uses 8.4 diabolos JSB, AA, or FX.... they all work, but the JSBs perform better... In the basement his rifle crushes mine no matter who is shooting... we haven't tested that rifle against Erics, but that's not the point.
We've cleaned the rifle, we've inspected the rifle all seems to be in good working order but the crown which I haven't done anything to mess up just makes me feel sick... It's going to get fixed, probably this week.
I am sorting pellets we have discussed that... and while you say and I believe that "you won't make bad pellets shoot well by sorting them", I can say this, "by sorting the pellets we have and using the best ones... we are shooting better pellets".
I also have a tuner that has shown very good promise. The rifle shoots average groups without the tuner, but I can always make it shoot better with the tuner. So I have better pellets and better groups, but when this rifle goes to a match it regularly gets beat no matter who's shooting it!
A person can only shoot as well as he thinks he can shoot and until I fix that crown...I'm convinced, this thing is topped out!
Now how did this thread start? It started because a guy was considering ordering one of your rigs and asked what our thoughts were on the Thomas rifle... Your rifle, Your build, Your mechanism... Is probably the best the world has ever seen. I said that to you when I purchased mine. Everything is there for it to work as a benchrest rifle should work. He asked if there is a downside and while many shooters chimed in and gave him all the good sides... I would like to give him the good side, But mine doesn't work and we've discussed it... It's up to me to get my head around that crown.
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Paul…you’ve never mentioned this to me in the 3 1/2 years you’ve owned yours. You’ve emailed me plenty about other things.
I stand by my rifles. If there’s a problem send it back for me to go through.
Mike
I stand by my rifles. If there’s a problem send it back for me to go through.
Mike
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Hello fellow Thomas owners !!! Yep, that’s right. I found a Thomas set up for benchrest and bought it. I’m getting my components together and wondered what pellets shoot the best in my .177 barrel. Any help or comments are very welcome and appreciated.
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Contact the member who posted right before you did. @thomasair, and have your serial number handy.
He may be able to shed some light since he built it.
And CONGRATULATIONS !!
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Mine was set up for JSB 13.4 gr. He sent me a photo of a 25 shot group….straight out of the tin…not sorted…when I can duplicate that I might try a different weight. John
Depends on the small business type.Really wish that small Business was easier to conduct and make profitable here in CA.
Tho said, did end up holding one back to make my own R&D platform to take the rifle beyond as delivered spec.
Said ... Base rifle now likely $4500+ then add top shelf optics ( SCHMIDT * BENDER ) at @ $3500+ with Butt plate etc you end up with an insanely costly $8000 + dollar Competition Pellet gun
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Have any of you HV Thomas gun shooters that use 13.4g JSB's cylindrical Originals noticed that a tight or loose pellet depending on lot shoots better or worse in your rifles? I did some testing tonight not only with the re-crowned barrel, which worked well, but also with a few different lots of the same pellets in that barrel and found some newer lots that fit quite a bit tighter than older lots. Also rolling and weight sorting still seems to be increasing the quality of all my crappy pellets. Maybe someday I'll get some good ones !
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