Make your own 'Air Rifle'

A brilliant book by H M Buckley on how to build your own PCP air rifle.

I am now well into making my own airguns and this book has been of incalculable help.

The title :' The Modern Pneumatic Airgun'

Written by Mr H M Buckley comes with all drawings and photographs. If you want a really fine airgun then this book should help you to produce one.

Regards all

MSPF.

For over 18's only in the UK.

Made many Pcps over the years, all i can say is anyone having a go at making a pcp, make sure you use proper hydraulic tube for the air cylinder and pressure test it , its the equivalant of having a hand grenade in your hands if all went pear shaped, nasty!!

Hi there where did you get the book, I can't find it at the usual places, looks interesting.

And in the UK, make sure the power stays within legal limits or you will fall foul of firearms law.

Quite so Stuart.

If the police see a home made "firearm" they will take it to chronograph it.

Are rules changing on owning an air rifle soon? I have an old webley and I am not too sure if i should keep it or not?

Bri

Edited By Boiler Bri on 14/07/2015 21:05:47

H.M Buckley does two different designs of air rifle, one has a tube fore-end which is a tank to store the air, the other design use's a divers buddy bottle as part of the stock, you rest your face on it and it screws into the back of the action.

I would assume Mr.Buckley has factored in power when he designed his airguns so they are sub-12ft/lbs.

From what i have heard, it is only scotland which is going to introduce licencing for airguns , as if the police hadn't enough to do.

http://airgundevelopment.com/custombuild/schaefer.html

Edited By ronan walsh on 14/07/2015 21:34:23

Bri, do nothing until there is legislation, the thought of compensating all those millions of airgun owners will soon sober up any Politition. Scotland being seperate has different legislation and not to be confused with the England and Wales legislation. Just as Northern Ireland allows the ownership of center fire pistols whereas we cannot own one.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 14/07/2015 21:36:26

I was at our Oldham shoot quite a few years ago now, when the first known field target PCP exploded. It happened whilst the owner had the Sportsmatch GC2 held between his legs whilst charging it to 200bar. Lucky to be alive and in one piece was an understatement.

Like others on here i have done much of my own special build and development, especially with my own regulators at the time. As stated, tube must be both pressure tested and ultrasonic tested for flaws. Also as stated it is dabbling in firearms manufacture if you end up over 12ft lbs ( rifles ).

Personally, I would advise leaving well alone as there are many other areas where engineering integrity can be used without infringing on firearm laws. Just saying.

Plus if these are the books on Ebay then they are about £35 i think.

Well if you look in the link on my last post , you will see a 400cc bsa buddy bottle is used, none of the parts you make store compressed air. Buckley does not sell the book online, as you know what would happen, someone would buy it, scan it and have it up on the web within the day giving it away free, or someone in china would be knocking them out by the boat load.

Clive, any idea how many airguns are in the uk ? 5million ? 10 million ? more ?

Regarding the GC2 exploding that was Tom Waltons, i have only ever heard of two cylinders actually failing on pcps and both had alloy cylinders, hence most of the German made pcps with alloy cylinders are date stamped and recommended to be replaced after ten years much the same as the bottles fitted to Theobens, bsa etc, There is currently no law that requires pressure cylinders that hold under 500cc of air to be tested. hence not many pcp are individually tested.

I believe the licence in Scotland does not come into play until april next year, No one as to lose there air rifles just apply for a licence.

Unlike steel, where there is a 'knee' in the fatigue curve, it is not possible to totally design out fatigue failure from aluminium items subject to cyclic loading - no matter how low the stresses are. Hence the time limit on service life mentioned above.

Ronan, from the popularity of air guns with the young and going back many years I would say your figure of around 5 to 10 million would not be far out. With some costing £400 plus a pop it would cost many millions to compensate though that did not deter them with pistols when compensating. I never did find out the total paid out to all and sundry as dealers also got compensated for stock and hardware.

They do not want to take them away from us but more likely want to make us buy a licence at no cost to them, for what purpose I cannot fathom as its just more beaurocracy. Its bad enough having a Shotgun Cert renewed which took this time 17 months to appear due to staff cuts. This is a manufactured situation so that they can up the price of Firearms Certs. for their own delight.

The Legislation at the moment is adequate and to fiddle with it would need changes to the basic structure. Its the nub that if they start meddling then I would immediately apply for an FAC for a .22 rifle and cause as much bother as I can.

Clive

Years ago I saw a poachers gun on Antiques Roadshow. It had a hollow butt made from soldered sheet metal. It ran at a relatively low pressure and needed a stirrup pump. It's amazing what can be done. The barrel is the hardest part to make.

Amateur gun making even when legal totally freaks the police out. It would be unwise to do so without consulting the local firearms licensing department.

I left the army in the late sixty's, since then I have made many guns and when 'They' took them away from us I started making air guns! The police know and have never bothered me , maybe because they know I will not make them for anybody who is the slightest bit iffy.

It was the air gun manufacturers who are to blame for our wimpy 12ftp for air rifles and 6ftp for air pistols.

At the time the British air gun producers could not make an air gun with more than approx. 11ftp. They just did not have the foresight or for the most part skills to make more powerful air guns. (DUH!). It was the British manufacturers who advised the legislators what power level to set to protect their sales. I'll bet many have kicked themselves in the rear for those pearls of wisdom!

I am 70yrs. young and am still learning about gunsmithing, some people put a few years in and think they know it all. These amazing people do not need to read or do any research because they can do everything without further study.

Let's see how the manufacturers screw up the licensing laws this time.

For those among us who say that licensing is not yet cast in stone I have this to say. 'It may not be cast in stone but it is at the stone masons being chiseled'.

Regards all

Mike

Edited By MSPF. on 15/07/2015 12:39:35

I don't have a problem with licensing if it reduces misuse of air weapons as long as the cost is not too high.

One of the best books you can get on air rifles is "The Airgun from trigger to target" by Gerald Cardew. He really new the subject. The biggest problem is getting a decent barrel. Most of them seem to come from Germany and they simply aren't vey innovative, preferring to produce the same old stuff because it works well enough for them. FX Airguns in Sweden are trying some new ideas on some models though.

Vic, presumably you are talking about FX's smooth bore twist barrels, where only the last two inches or so have any rifeling. I think Ben Taylor is the engineer who developed this type of barrel for Swedens FX air guns but way way back men like Fosberry and Metfordwere were adapting and designing this type of barrel with strange twist shapes and rates.

Why hammer forge the whole length of a barrel when you can get excellent accuracy results just by hammer forging the muzzle end. Metford I think it was who designed slugs or bullets with rifeling stamped into them. From the studies I did way back in the day this was not a very successful way to impart spin and thus increase both range and accuracy.

Whoa. This I am remembering from studies I did as a young man, I'm 70 years old now and am having a little difficulty remembering what happened last week!. I look for break barrel rifles that are practically irreparable but the barrels are still serviceable. Quite a few of todays air rifle barrels are only about 16 inches long in any case. So a used break barrel of 17 to 19 inches long can be cut and recrowned or a new lead cut in if the barrel has a decent choke at the muzzle end.

Regards

Mike.

Edited By MSPF. on 15/07/2015 16:03:08