Palmer WWII BB machine gun trainer.

[Vee3]

About 20 years ago I received a Palmer BB machine gun from a friend who wanted it restored so he could sell it. Story I got from my friend was that he received it from a guy who claimed to have bought it at auction from (IIRC) Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, CA some time after WWII. Santa Monica airport had an anti-aircraft battery during the war years. I made several new parts and with a lot of elbow grease, got it into good condition.

I'd never seen one before, and haven't seen one since. There's a Wiki page on it but the info is all wrong; it's cloned from another Wiki page about the more common McGlashan trainer...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_BB_Machine_Gun#cite_note-2

The picture in the reference section is the very gun I restored, that I took of it in my shop...



The only other pics I can find online of a Palmer are also of the gun I restored. They were taken by the collector (Jon Jenkins) at Mac-1 on the day that I sold it to him...











https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/AmericanVintageAirguns/need-info-about-wwii-palmer-electric-bb-machine-gu-t6163.html

Any other pics or info on this model would be appreciated.

[Wayne52]

Very cool stuff there Victor !!!

[DevilsLuck]

That's cool!

[45flint]

Wow, would that get rid of a pest problem in a hurry!!  I want one.

[bubba zanetti]

There has to be a stack of these things mothballed somewhere!

BZ

[bantam5s]

Wow, that thing is cool.
I'm sure it took some real smarts and skill to make parts for it and get it running again.

[mentolio]

So...stinkin'...COOL!

[Renfield]

Good grief!
I can’t stop looking at it.

I can only imagine how fun it must be to shoot!

[Rob M]

that's incredible , and I always thought the carnival BB machine guns were rare. wow

[Vee3]

An interesting design for sure. It's actually a motor-driven springer. Been a while, but here's what I remember about it through my dementia...

You plug it in, turn on the motor and when you want to fire you squeeze the grip. That engages a clutch that turns a shaft, the chain goes to another shaft attached to a cam arrangement. The spring is compressed, piston driven rearward, a sear is engaged and a BB drops from a hopper into the barrel. A split second later the sear is tripped and the piston goes forward, launching the BB.

It even had a small fiberboard box and a "clapper" that hit it every time it fired. Sound effects to make it seem more like a real machine gun.

[Vee3]

that's incredible , and I always thought the carnival BB machine guns were rare. wow

Speaking to Larry Behling (author of Air Machine Guns) back when I was working on the gun, he told me that these started out as coin-operated, self-serve carnival guns with a large BB hopper on them. Drop a coin in the slot and it tripped a timer that let you shoot until time ran out.

Side note - I have one of the "shoot out the star" BB guns.

[bavaria55n]

That looks like a heavy duty air gun. Bet it was a lot of fun to shoot.
Gary

[DevilsLuck]

That looks like a heavy duty air gun. Bet it was a lot of fun to shoot.
Gary

Makes me wonder how hard it would be to make something similar...?

[Vee3]

That looks like a heavy duty air gun. Bet it was a lot of fun to shoot.
Gary

~90% of the parts are cast iron or steel. Weighed about 50#.