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25 February, 2012

Sidelever Breech Kit Upgrade for QB78 Family Now Available


Now you can convert your QB78, QB79, AR2078, AR2078A or AR2079B air rifle to sidelever operation - just like the super-rare AR2078B and AR2079B models. This new Archer Airguns Sidelever Breech Kit for QB78 Family includes all the official Shanghai factory parts that you need to make this conversion, together with replacement barrel O rings and a high flow breech seal.

The sidelever breech is shown installed on a QB78 Deluxe in these photographs. Above, the gun has the bolt open for loading and below it's closed and ready to fire.


The sidelever breech makes these guns easier to cock, and it looks really cool. There's just a couple of limitations.

The main one is that it's available for .177 caliber only. The factory doesn't make a .22 version as they use this breech for their top of the line target models only.

Also, as the bolt itself is a different design, the Archer Airguns XP Tune Kit will not fit the sidelever action. But you will gain a muzzle velocity increase of about 40fps compared to a standard factory gun if you install this sidelever breech kit together with the high flow breech seal supplied, instead of reusing the standard factory breech seal.


Again, Archer Airguns special relationship and contacts with the Shanghai Airguns factory allows us to offer this unique up-grade for QB78 family air rifles. I hope you find it interesting!

Read more...

21 February, 2012

Interview With Stephen Archer in International Shooting Industry Magazine

The latest (March) issue of Gun Trade World, the international industry magazine for the shooting sports, featured an interview with Stephen Archer. In the interview, I discussed some insights behind Archer Airguns, as well as share thoughts about where I see the airgun business moving in future.

You can see the interview on page 19 of Gun Trade World, March 2012. A snapshot is included here (double click the image to make it larger).

The same issue featured a review of the international airgun business - starting on page 44. It makes interesting reading to see how airguns are viewed by professionals "in the trade".

Are you surprised by the industry perspective on our sport?

Read more...

20 February, 2012

Beeman 1073, RS2, Grizzly X2, Walmart Beeman Dual Barrel Test Review Results - Part 2

This time we're looking at the muzzle energy produced by the Beeman model 1073 air rifle, also known as the RS2 and Grizzly X2.

Muzzle energy represents the "hitting power" of the air rifle. It's a very different thing to muzzle velocity. A heavy pellet shooting slowly may have a higher muzzle energy than a light pellet shooting much faster. As an extreme example, a cannon ball traveling at walking pace may demolish a stone wall, yet a (much lighter) ping pong ball traveling 1,000 times faster will simply bounce off the same wall.

In my opinion, muzzle energy is a much more meaningful measurement of air rifle performance than muzzle velocity, as muzzle velocity is a more or less meaningless number unless the pellet it's achieved with is also specified.

As you can see from the chart here, the Beeman produces somewhere between 14.5 and 18.5 ft/lbs of muzzle energy - which is about what would be expected. A typical muzzle energy, attainable by a wide range of pellets, is around 16.5 ft/lbs, as the line of best fit shows.

The data that produced this chart is listed below.
Interestingly, the highest three muzzle energies were produced in .22 caliber.

18.6 ft/lbs muzzle energy was achieved using light .22 caliber Stoeger X-Speed lead-free pellets with a weight of 10.22 Grains.

17.7 ft/lbs muzzle energy came from very heavy .22 caliber Stoeger X-Power pellets with 21.14 Grain weight.

17.3 ft/lbs was achieved by .22 caliber Crosman Premier domed pellets weighing 14.4 Grains.

The pellets with the highest muzzle velocity - Stoeger X-Speed lead free pellets in .177 caliber - weighing a mere 5.66 Grains were next highest with 17.1 ft/lbs. This proves that the lightest pellets - with the highest muzzle velocities - do not necessarily translate into the highest muzzle energy.

So, a final conclusion is that the Beeman 1073, Grizzly X2, RS2 typically gives about 16.5 ft/lbs of muzzle energy in both .177 and .22 calibers, although it will tend to produce higher muzzle energies in the larger caliber, depending on the pellet being used.

For the price being offered at Walmart for this air rifle. It's a bargain!

Read more...

14 February, 2012

AR2078B and AR2079B Both Now in Stock.


Now in stock again at Archer Airguns is the very rare AR2078B - the sidelever cocking, competition version of the popular AR2078A CO2-powered target air rifle that uses 2 x 12 gram Powerlets to propel the pellets for about 60 shots from one fill.

The AR2078B scores with its easy cocking and accuracy. A factory test target and quality inspection sheet is included with every gun - as is shown in the photograph above.

But wait! There's more...

Also available at Archer Airguns - for the first time - is the AR2079B model.

Even more rare than the AR2078B, the AR2079B is a very similar CO2-powered target rifle with sidelever cocking. But it is designed to be used with either 9-ounce paintball tanks or 88 gram AirSource tanks - both require an adapter that is also for sale in our store. Using these larger CO2 supplies increases the number of shots per fill into the hundreds and also gives somewhat more consistent muzzle velocities due to the greater volume of CO2 stored in these tanks.

Very limited quantities are available.

Read more...

12 February, 2012

Beeman 1073, RS2, Grizzly X2, Walmart Beeman Dual Barrel Test Review Results

First off, I apologize for the long gap in posting! Normal service is resumed as of this post...

This post contains the first results of a significant test review on the Beeman dual barrel air rifle sold at WalMart and known by a number of names including 1073, RS2 and Grizzly X2. This time we're looking at the muzzle velocity capabilities of this Beeman air rifle.

The photo shows the Beeman RS2 with the Archer Airguns Sniper Upgrade Kit.

Because the RS2, 1073, Grizzly X2 - or whatever you call it - is available with interchangeable barrels, it provides an excellent opportunity to test the comparative performance of the same gun shooting both .177 and .22 pellets. The barrels were simply swapped to compare the two calibers!

As you can see from the data presented below, there is a very interesting graph showing the relationship between muzzle velocity and pellet weight. The "line of best fit" on the graph shows the basic general trend of the individual point results.


The data creating this graph looks like this...

As you can see, the highest muzzle velocity was achieved - unsurprisingly - by the lightest pellet, the Crosman Silver Eagle. But the .22 caliber Stoeger X-Power pellets weighing nearly 5 times greater than the lead free Crosmans, were still fired at half the muzzle velocity.

Yet note that lighter pellets are not always necessarily faster than heavier ones.

So, we can say that the Beeman Dual Barrel air rifle is capable of muzzle velocities around 1,200fps with lead-free pellets in .177 caliber. This close-up of the .177 caliber data shows that the Beeman is still producing 772fps with the heaviest .177 caliber pellets tested, the 11.7 grain Stoeger X-Magnum pellets. This means that the claim of 1,000fps for this air rifle in .177 caliber is justified.


And here is a focus on the .22 caliber performance.

Note that most of the .22 pellets tested had quite similar weights, hence the grouping in the middle of the graph.

This information, in itself, shows the difficulty of answering the "how fast does this airgun shoot?" question. It also leads us to consider that muzzle energy - rather than muzzle velocity - may be a better method of assessing the performance of an air rifle. We'll look at the muzzle energy performance of this Beeman air rifle in future.

Read more...

About This Blog

This blog shares information, ideas and knowledge about air rifles. It compliments the information Stephen publishes on the Archer Airguns website, on YouTube and the Chinese Airgun Forum.

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