" World's Most Powerful Production Air Rifle "

[Bullpup]

I see airgun registration sneaking up on us, if its not already happening somewhere.

[bluethunder]

I owned a .457 Extreme Big Bore Hunter. My problem with the .457 Extreme was the thin barrel. It had an outside diameter of .625" inches and barrel vibrations were a big issue. When you drill a .457" inch hole through a .625" inch barrel the remaining barrel wall is only .083" inches thick. I had to place shims between the air tube and barrel and then squished the barrel tight against these shims with a leather wrap and worm screw clamps. I think my best average with the barrel shimmed was a 2.73" inch average for five consecutive five shot groups at 100 yards. At 50 yards it would stay under 2" inches easily. Certainly acceptable for a 50 yard deer shot but I was looking for long range accuracy.
      When I look at the Texan and it's extremely thin barrel, I totally believe that 3" inches is the best it's going to do at 100 yards. And their probably counting 3 shots as a group. Engineers have to walk a tight rope when setting up an airgun like this. The hunting crowd will whine if the air rifle is too heavy. And accuracy shooters are going to be the minority purchaser because this is primarily a hunting tool. I would strongly suspect that people looking for long range accuracy are either going to have to sleeve the barrel in carbon fibre or replace the barrel altogether with a heavier steel barrel.

[Allen A]

Good day gentlemen, regarding our .457 extreme rifle, the bullets tested in our guns that worked best for tight groups were the 280 gr. hp. and lighter bullets that Mr. Hollowpoint makes... bullets touching at 50 yds and with 1" groups at 100 yards, many  our customers are getting these groups easily, for a hunting rifle this is very good...many of our customers also cast their own bullets and have excellent results also...we find that when shooting over a 350 gr. bullet accuracy drops off with certain bullets, needless to say as with any rifle shoot the bullet that the gun is capable of shooting accurately...the Airforce .457 will shoot as good as long as the customer tests different weights, outside dimensions for fitment...I personally own a Airforce .25 condor rifle that was custom built by Talon Tunes and with proper pellet selection will shoot a ragged hole at 30 yards...I know that custom tuning with the Airforce .457 can be real tack driver...kind regards, Allen

[ToRmEnToR]

I owned a .457 Extreme Big Bore Hunter. My problem with the .457 Extreme was the thin barrel. It had an outside diameter of .625" inches and barrel vibrations were a big issue. When you drill a .457" inch hole through a .625" inch barrel the remaining barrel wall is only .083" inches thick. I had to place shims between the air tube and barrel and then squished the barrel tight against these shims with a leather wrap and worm screw clamps. I think my best average with the barrel shimmed was a 2.73" inch average for five consecutive five shot groups at 100 yards. At 50 yards it would stay under 2" inches easily. Certainly acceptable for a 50 yard deer shot but I was looking for long range accuracy.
      When I look at the Texan and it's extremely thin barrel, I totally believe that 3" inches is the best it's going to do at 100 yards. And their probably counting 3 shots as a group. Engineers have to walk a tight rope when setting up an airgun like this. The hunting crowd will whine if the air rifle is too heavy. And accuracy shooters are going to be the minority purchaser because this is primarily a hunting tool. I would strongly suspect that people looking for long range accuracy are either going to have to sleeve the barrel in carbon fibre or replace the barrel altogether with a heavier steel barrel.

Just sayin that if your getting close to two inches at 50, and 2.73" at 100.. OK that makes sense.. AF texan does 1" at 50, but 3" at 100, that doesn't add up.. Unless boolit tumble, or wind, but anyway.. Using the 4x32 fixed AO at 50yd and taking 100yd shoots would explain that.. I'd bet a dollar that you were shoot your hundred yard groups were with parallax at 100, not set at fifty..

[KnifeMaker]

I learned a long time ago when GayLord was working at AF to take anything he says with a HUGE grain of salt! Especially when it comes to accuracy or anything to do with AF guns.

Back in the day when we were developing and testing .25 pellet shooting AF guns, he ran the practice down incessantly.

When any one sent a gun in to AF for problems with low velocity, he would return them saying nothing was wrong with them. If ask what the velocity was on his chrony, he was quick to tell us that he didn't use a Chrony, as he could tell exactly how fast any AG was shooting by simply hearing it! LOL!!! Right Gaylord. He never once admitted that the early guns had problems. It was always the owner not being able to read a guage. (Wonder if he used a guage, or just listened to the fill sound, as I'm sure he could tell fill pressure by the sound of the air alone.

Then he tried to tell us that the more coatings a scope had, the lesser quality,and darker it would be. WT* 
Never could get him to understand what the coatings were for, nor could anyone get him to understand light index -VS- actual light gathering ability, or the differences.

 I gave up on him years ago.

Knife   

[Monkeydad1969]

Wow!  That is actually very interesting to read about Gaylord.   

[KnifeMaker]

Wow!  That is actually very interesting to read about Gaylord.   

I'm beginning to think it may very well be the "Old Dog, New Trick Syndrome" He was very well versed in the inner workings of Springers, but the modern PCP's or Optics seem to baffle him. LOL 

[Monkeydad1969]

Hey KnifeMaker,

Did you work at AF and if so, are you still there?

Joe

[Bwalton]

Yes Mike your are right being a thinfilm engineer, and designing coatings for lasers or what ever the customer is working on, a lot of times the do not say what it is. Scope optics enhance the visible spectrum from 400nm to 700nm blocking out the Infrared and UV, then there is also the substrate that they use and how well it is grind and polished.

[YEMX]

Hey KnifeMaker,

Did you work at AF and if so, are you still there?

Joe

If Knife were working at AF, all the guns would still have the original trigger group, left or right ONLY feeding, w/a side cocker, there would be better LDC's than the "sound loc" system, there would be a better designed "Texan", it wouldn't be called the "Texan", the tanks would all be 500cc 4500 psi...  Should I go on?   

[Monkeydad1969]

Hey KnifeMaker,

Did you work at AF and if so, are you still there?

Joe

If Knife were working at AF, all the guns would still have the original trigger group, left or right ONLY feeding, w/a side cocker, there would be better LDC's than the "sound loc" system, there would be a better designed "Texan", it wouldn't be called the "Texan", the tanks would all be 500cc 4500 psi...  Should I go on?   

Yes, yes you should...

[YEMX]

Hey KnifeMaker,

Did you work at AF and if so, are you still there?

Joe

If Knife were working at AF, all the guns would still have the original trigger group, left or right ONLY feeding, w/a side cocker (i.e. single side feeding), there would be better LDC's than the "sound loc" system, there would be a better designed "Texan", it wouldn't be called the "Texan", the tanks would all be 500cc 4500 psi...  Should I go on?   

Yes, yes you should...

Okay!

M1913 rail instead of a dovetail, 20 MOA angled scope rail, a section of M1913 rail on the bottom for a bipod, there would be two screws for the end cap, the whole extrusion would be much more precise with a thicker wall, 1 piece solid barrel bushing....

Actually, there's more improvements all the guys over at the TAG have come up with to list here...

[KnifeMaker]

Thanks Tom! And Yep! And the darned breach area wouldn't "BE Machined away to a thin flexible floor!

Monkeydad, What I did for a living required a bit more precision. LOL!!! And had NO moving parts, yet sold for a LOT more. Not because of what I charged, but what collectors the world over ran the prices up to. To put it bluntly, they couldn't have touched my hourly rate. They are making a name for themselves in the US and UK. I did that World Wide years ago. but sadly, am now medically retired. Man I miss it!

But maybe if I were a TV Celeb, they would take my thoughts on their designs more seriously. I mean, just think of how many things those Celeb's have designed and sold world wide.  What? None you say? LOL, Well, I forgot all that But wait, there's more, just pay additional shipping and handling!!! So I guess Celebs can sell stuff. Just please keep them away from the designing. PLEASE!!!

The tag is a wealth of design and improvement on the AF design.  Of course AF always put any and all of us down for fooling with their designs.

But it never stopped them from ripping off any of our members designs and calling it their developments.

Kinda helps when you know a little bit of the history.  come visit us at the TAG. It's all there for the research!

Knife   

[KnifeMaker]

Yes Mike your are right being a thinfilm engineer, and designing coatings for lasers or what ever the customer is working on, a lot of times the do not say what it is. Scope optics enhance the visible spectrum from 400nm to 700nm blocking out the Infrared and UV, then there is also the substrate that they use and how well it is grind and polished.

Don't tell O'l BB, he'll blow a fuse!  I guess he thinks those Hi-Tec coatings are some kind of sunglasses for scopes to add Bling. lol

He's on a blog this week telling folks that it is the Dia. of the scope tube that lets all the light in. LOL!!! Poor Guy!

[Tofazfou]

BUT IT SEEMS THAT AOA'S 600 FPE IS THE MOST POWERFUL PRODUCTION GUN.

RIGHT?!

[blackdiesel]

BUT IT SEEMS THAT AOA'S 600 FPE IS THE MOST POWERFUL PRODUCTION GUN.

RIGHT?!

 I'm guessing AF will argue it's not a production rifle but a special order rifle?

[rsterne]

This isn't the FIA, Homologating cars and required 500 units (or 5000) a year.... Pretty much a joke, IMO.... Any rifle you can buy off the shelf, without putting your name on a waiting list, is a production rifle, IMO.... Just because it's out of stock at a dealer any given time doesn't matter....

Bob

[Tofazfou]

Yeah, well, if AoA is making it, its a production rifle.  Im sure they will have many on the shelves at some point like Airforce will.

Its just funny that companies always have to LABEL something like that.  "The most powerful production rifle".......lol!  You gotta know that the competition is gonna GUN for ya when you say that.  So what will AoA's gun be labeled FPE wise.........?   "THE NEW MOST POWERFUL PRODUCTION RIFLE"....LOL?

Just call it a 500 fpe big bore (TEXAN).  600 FPE (WARTHOG).  700 FPE (NITRO MAGNUM BUFFALO THUMPER.....making this up of course) and leave it at that.  But they market the newbies........i get it and keep hearing that.

And its funny cause the FPE record is held by custom makers so to me, flaunting 500 FPE is funny.  Like its NEW.  Yeah, new for Air force and AoA the companies but owners of Air force Condors and knock off QB look alikes did this a long time ago and i'm over it.  What we need to know MORE than anything is the performance of the gun on paper and over the Chrony.  We know it will kill.  And we all know Air Force guns have some weaknesses.  Did they address them?

Trust me, i know guys, custom guns are NOT production guns.  But the 500-600 fpe race was over a long time ago.  just sayin.......

Sorry for my slight rant, i've just been at this for a while now and i'm more interested in actual performance vs HYPE!  Same with the Rogue and the same with the New Benjamin BullPup.  Make a video of its total performance instead of showing pictures of dead animals and the hunter.  And yes, i love hunting i just don't BUY hype!

[jessered]

AOA didn't make airguns, goes bushbuck hunting in Africa with a 45 Ranger XP that does 600 fpe and now they are releasing an AOA branded 45 named bushbuck that does 600 fpe.

Seems to me like they might have licensed the gun and either XP is manufacturing or more likely they bought the design outright and have someone else building them?

[ToRmEnToR]

Does anybody have a Bushbuck?