I bought my first two airguns in this past year, a .22 springer and a .357 PCP Quackenbush pistol. I wasn't expecting to have this much fun nor become this interested in shooting, ballistics and the like. It's been a pleasurable year of discovery.
And now I have spent a fair amount of time trying to make a useable airgun out of parts from my local, tiny, hardware store. I know I am not the first to do this but it's my own version and has been a strangely rewarding pursuit. My prototype has about reached the point where I am ready to take what I've learned and make another, sturdier, nicer one.
This gun has 42" PVC barrel...smooth bore and the whole thing is very light. (Haven't gotten to rifling yet.) Loads from the muzzle. I use 214 grain, 19/32" steel ball bearings for ammo as well as 385 grain home made nail darts. The nail darts will shoot through a 2 x 6. The balls will blast through 5/8" plywood or right through a gallon milk jug full of water. Haven't tried 2 jugs yet.
That nail is 24d at least, I think.
My projectiles are very slow, more like bow range (390 fps with the steel balls, about 70 fpe) but...I am only operating at 155psi. I use only a bicycle pump to charge - all part of the challenge. The nice thing about the steel ball bearings is that, though expensive, I can trap them and shoot them over and over so the cost per shot goes way down. Of course, I do occasionally lose them. In the beginning I kept thinking I had made a sufficient trap for my homemade gun and ammo and then kept having to beef it up after losing my darts that went all the way through everything.
I got my best 25 yard group the other day. 2.25" center to center. I know that is not good - but for my homemade PVC smooth bore muzzle loader and being a new shooter I was pleased. To be truthful, I don't do much better than that with my .22 springer.
Four shots pictured here. The missing third shot was a flyer way off to the upper right....course I'm not counting that one.
The adjustment that made the biggest improvement in accuracy was making a solenoid valve out of two carriage bolts and a PVC tee, that I could separate the trigger valve from the main body of the gun with a short air hose. Now I hold the gun against my shoulder with my left hand and my right hand operates the trigger valve with no pressure of any kind on the gun at all. Trigger pull doesn't move anything.
I made a peep sight from a finish nail for a front post and a large screw with a 3/16" hole drilled through the shaft to peep through for the adjustable rear sight.
Hope you found this entertaining.
- G
And now I have spent a fair amount of time trying to make a useable airgun out of parts from my local, tiny, hardware store. I know I am not the first to do this but it's my own version and has been a strangely rewarding pursuit. My prototype has about reached the point where I am ready to take what I've learned and make another, sturdier, nicer one.
This gun has 42" PVC barrel...smooth bore and the whole thing is very light. (Haven't gotten to rifling yet.) Loads from the muzzle. I use 214 grain, 19/32" steel ball bearings for ammo as well as 385 grain home made nail darts. The nail darts will shoot through a 2 x 6. The balls will blast through 5/8" plywood or right through a gallon milk jug full of water. Haven't tried 2 jugs yet.
My projectiles are very slow, more like bow range (390 fps with the steel balls, about 70 fpe) but...I am only operating at 155psi. I use only a bicycle pump to charge - all part of the challenge. The nice thing about the steel ball bearings is that, though expensive, I can trap them and shoot them over and over so the cost per shot goes way down. Of course, I do occasionally lose them. In the beginning I kept thinking I had made a sufficient trap for my homemade gun and ammo and then kept having to beef it up after losing my darts that went all the way through everything.
I got my best 25 yard group the other day. 2.25" center to center. I know that is not good - but for my homemade PVC smooth bore muzzle loader and being a new shooter I was pleased. To be truthful, I don't do much better than that with my .22 springer.
The adjustment that made the biggest improvement in accuracy was making a solenoid valve out of two carriage bolts and a PVC tee, that I could separate the trigger valve from the main body of the gun with a short air hose. Now I hold the gun against my shoulder with my left hand and my right hand operates the trigger valve with no pressure of any kind on the gun at all. Trigger pull doesn't move anything.
I made a peep sight from a finish nail for a front post and a large screw with a 3/16" hole drilled through the shaft to peep through for the adjustable rear sight.
Hope you found this entertaining.
- G
