Walking my dog a couple of months ago I came across an "estate" sale. "Estate" seemed hardly appropriate as it was on the lawn of a modest hundred-year-old bungalow. Propped against a battered table was a pump up airgun. It looked vaguely familiar, so I picked it up for examination. No identification to be seen. I cocked it intending to pump it to see if it held air, but my dog was tugging his leash. The label said $25. A quick bit of bargaining and for $20 I had it and several plastic 35mm film canisters of lead balls.
At home I put the gun aside and went on to the usual business of life. Then came corona virus, and after a couple of weeks at home I was seeking something to do beyond reading and TV. I remembered my old gun and studied my collection to see why it looked familiar. The cocking knob and receiver were almost identical to my Plainsman pump rifle. Some research online and in the Blue Book and I learned it was an Apache, made in California in the late 1940's.
The first couple of pumps took real effort, but there was no sound of escaping air, so I pulled the trigger and heard a bang. I kept pumping and firing and after about ten cycles of pump and fire the effort became more reasonable.
This is a two-caliber gun. The main barrel is .24 caliber (#4 buckshot) and screwed in from the muzzle end is a bb caliber barrel. I inserted a bb, pumped the gun twice, aimed at an old cardboard box and fired. The bb penetrated both sides of the box.
Next came a 4.4 mm lead ball. With three pumps it pierced the bottom of a metal Swedish cookie can. Out came the bb barrel and in went a lead ball which chambered with little effort. Four pumps drove it through both sides of the can and through an empty cardboard box behind. I do not own a Chrono, but this gun may make me buy one.
But here is the mystery. Are the seals in this seventy-year-old gun still sound, or did the previous owner, who I have learned died at 97 late last year have it resealed? And, if so, when, and by whom?
At home I put the gun aside and went on to the usual business of life. Then came corona virus, and after a couple of weeks at home I was seeking something to do beyond reading and TV. I remembered my old gun and studied my collection to see why it looked familiar. The cocking knob and receiver were almost identical to my Plainsman pump rifle. Some research online and in the Blue Book and I learned it was an Apache, made in California in the late 1940's.
The first couple of pumps took real effort, but there was no sound of escaping air, so I pulled the trigger and heard a bang. I kept pumping and firing and after about ten cycles of pump and fire the effort became more reasonable.
This is a two-caliber gun. The main barrel is .24 caliber (#4 buckshot) and screwed in from the muzzle end is a bb caliber barrel. I inserted a bb, pumped the gun twice, aimed at an old cardboard box and fired. The bb penetrated both sides of the box.
Next came a 4.4 mm lead ball. With three pumps it pierced the bottom of a metal Swedish cookie can. Out came the bb barrel and in went a lead ball which chambered with little effort. Four pumps drove it through both sides of the can and through an empty cardboard box behind. I do not own a Chrono, but this gun may make me buy one.
But here is the mystery. Are the seals in this seventy-year-old gun still sound, or did the previous owner, who I have learned died at 97 late last year have it resealed? And, if so, when, and by whom?
