Going old school

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Tominco

Tominco

Member
Apr 1, 2015
3,072
429
Colorado, United States
Hey guys,
I've basically been taking a temporary break from shooting the high end, high price, super accurate dream guns ever since EBR ended. I wanted to take a step back from where I was at and, in some way, get back to my roots of how I was shooting when I was a kid. No tuning, no sorting, no long distances... no pressure. Tin cans, sticks, dirt clods, ice cubes, pine cones, and the like out to about 20 yards max. It's been a LOT of fun and has allowed me to re-focus and re-evaluate my thoughts on many different levels. 
I'm not just talking about taking a high end rifle out and goofing around with it. I'm talking about taking an old school rifle out, forgetting almost everything I've learned about shooting, and truly plinking with barely a care in the world. 
During this time, I've also had the opportunity to repair all of these old rifles. We're talking 50-60 year old Crosmans with such brittle O-rings that they would almost crumble with pressure from a fingernail! Almost makes me shudder at the thought of it! I found those processes to be enjoyable and frustrating, as well as extremely gratifying. 
Since I was talking them apart and rebuilding them anyway, I decided to break out the video equipment and make some quick how-to's just in case any of you guys were going down a similar path at some time. So, if your subscribed to me, you'll see this video followed up by 6 more. If your not subscribed, you might not ever hear about them because I'm not going to post them on the forum, unless I see someone that could use one, of course. :)
I hope you are all having outstanding holidays! 
Happy Shooting!
Tom
 
I’m with you Tom in that tinkering and shooting that old iron is just fun. It also brings back a lot of nostalgia from days past. Some of you guys that own only the latest/greatest are missing out on an inexpensive, fun way to shoot. You can repair a lot of vintage airguns yourself, which takes you out of the dealer/repair loop with YouTube vids like the above for help. Parts are also readily available.

A slower moving .22 pellet(350-500 fps) will really make plinking targets like water bottles react more than a 18g pellet moving at 900 fps(pellet will simply pass right through). The “old school” airguns make great shop guns too with a much lower fpe, and can be surprisingly accurate.
 
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I don't own and probably never will own any "high end" air rifles. In fact I only own two, both springers, a Diana 48 in .22 and a RWS 34 in .177. I bought the 48 first and should've listened to several guy's advice and bought the 34 first. If I had I probably would've never purchased the 48. I have a ball with the 34, I pack it around and just shoot stuff, pine cones, leafs, twigs, pretty much anything that strikes my fancy. Reminds me of when I was a kid and picked up coke bottles on the side of the road and sold them back to the store to buy .22 shorts.

We didn't have air rifles growing up, but one of my big brothers did have a daisy bb gun that he used on me pretty regular. One day he made the mistake of leaving it propped up against a large wild cheery tree in our yard and went into the house. All it took was a few baseball bat swings against the tree and he was never able to shoot me again. Yes, he beat me up for doing it but it was worth it. lol
 
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I like old school, like tiny bore also.
Had all three you showed, love those little CR180's , mine had hi/low cocking, made a ton of power and it bleeds it's self down when the Co2 gets too low, I like that design. Your 160 has the auto safety?
My newest and my favorite together:
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A Haenel MOD III DPR gifted to me by Roz Sumpter and it is an absolute keeper.

John
 
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Nice feeling Video Tom. At the beginning of this year we were visiting a mate on his farm. Cut a long story short he had an old BSA Meteor in his safe, belonged to his son some 20 plus years ago. I borrowed it and restored it, new spring, new seal, new breach seal, polished the piston and lubed it. Shoots like a dream and very quiet. 

Nothing like bringing an old springer back to life. He is going to give it to his grandson when he is old enough to get his gun licence.
 
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Great memories of the good ole days, shooting cans and anything else that made a likely target. I have a couple of friends I meet up with about every 2 months. We meet at his place since he has a nice long warehouse with no wind. We set up all kinds of stuff to shoot. We bring old hard drives, old phones, tin cans, spray paint cans, paintballs, and the latest fun, shooting old votive candles .. Virtually anything can be a target where "let's see what happens when we shoot this" mentality is encouraged :) Yes we have a few regular backstops with dots for targets just to "one up" each other. But the time spent just shooting stuff is good for the spirit not to mention just a lot of fun.

I agree with you Tom. Sometimes we get so focused in on hitting that tiny dot, we miss the entire forest.
Thanks for the reminder

Crusher
 
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Thanks to all of you. I'm really glad you are all enjoying the message of this video! There's something very satisfying when you get that nostalgic buzz going. 
I bought an '83 Toyota pickup about 6 years ago it's almost the same truck I had when I first started driving. When I tell you that "every single time I drive that truck it puts a smile on my face," it's not an exaggeration. Even more so before I realized the rear shocks were blown! lol
Tom
 
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I agree that sometimes the constant nitpicking in the pursuit of shooting accuracy and precision can wear you out after a while and the solution to that is just get out shoot for the fun of it and leave all that behind for a bit.

Case in point this fall I went up to our family cabin with my nephew and his two boys, they had been bringing their break barrels along with and we usually setup a small rang near the cabin where they can plink away at spinners and paper targets and such. This year I decided to try something different as they are getting old enough to start hunting so I set up a makeshift field target course up on a hill out in the woods to simulate hunting in the woods only we didn't use actual field targets. Instead I used a bunch of soup and sauce cans of various sizes I had been stockpiling over the year and stuck shoot-n-see type targets of various diameters to them, setup ten lanes with two targets each and man did we have a ball with that!

Basically if you hit the bulls-eye your earned three points, the middle ring was two and the outer was one and if you hit any part of the can outside of the shoot-n-see then it was minus one point(was trying to reinforce the idea of ethical hunting). You had two chances to hit each can and if you managed to hit the can on the first shot that's the score you stick with for that one. On a couple of the cans I had two targets, a larger and smaller. The smaller was to indicate and opportunity for a head shot and if you managed to connect the points doubled respectively, of course you had to call your shot as to which you were going for before taking it.

A great time was had by all!
 
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I shoot bench rest and field target with RAW rifles. At least once a month I get out the Daisy 953 and plink around outside or in the basement. Single pump, one shot, simple. So, I know what you mean Tom. It's helpful to get back to those first air rifles and just enjoy without the pursuit of absolute perfection. Great thread, thanks. 
 
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"Rioshooter"Ok so you are gonna be shooting Daisy pellets also right!
Click to expand...
What is amazing is just how good these guns are with a good pellet. It is not unlike any other projectile flinging device out there.....there is so much more that goes into it then just the gun.

It would be fun to see the results of these guns at 25 yards and his "high end" guns at 25 yards.
 
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