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El Gamo 68/68-XP – A futuristic airgun from the past: Part 2
by B.B. Pelletier
El Gamo 68 is a futuristic breakbarrel from the past.
Mac and I couldn’t stay away from the El Gamo 68 once we started looking at it. The first thing we did was adjust the trigger so it would catch positively every time the rifle (carbine?) is cocked. When I got the gun, it failed to catch the sear several times every time the barrel was broken, but all that turned out to be was a trigger adjusted with too little sear contact area.
Trigger adjustments come in two different types. One adjusts the spring tension of the trigger return spring, and adjusting it will give a somewhat lighter trigger-pull. The other adjusts the actual sear contact area and makes the trigger release crisper without affecting the pull weight. That’s the type of adjustment the 68 has. It also has an adjustment for the length of the first-stage pull; and on this gun, I found stage one had been adjusted completely out. So, you started the pull on stage two — effectively giving the rifle a single-stage trigger.
Adjusting the trigger
The following instructions for adjusting the trigger are taken from the El Gamo owner’s manual for the 68 and 68-XP that David Enoch was kind enough to supply. They might also apply to the El Gamo model 300 rifle, which has the XP action in a conventional wood stock. I don’t know that the 300 has the same trigger adjustments, but I assume that it does.
The forward screw (closest to the triggerguard) is a locking screw that should be loosened before any adjustments are made. After all adjustments have been made, tighten the locking screw to lock the adjustments in place.
The larger screw in the center adjusts the length of the first-stage pull. Turn counterclockwise to lengthen the pull and clockwise to shorten it. As I mentioned, it’s possible to eliminate the first stage altogether.
The screw in back adjusts the sear contact area. It does not lighten the trigger-pull, so be careful not to over-adjust it or the rifle will not cock, as mine did not. Turn counterclockwise to increase the sear contact area and clockwise to decrease. Ostensibly, this adjustment would give you a crisper trigger release, but I didn’t see any difference at all. But when the contact area was adjusted too small, the rifle failed to catch when cocked.
Three trigger adjustment screws are located at the back of the triggerguard.
I was able to put back a long first-stage pull that I like; so now when the trigger stops, I know it’s at stage two and ready to break. Stage two was set with much more contact area, and now the rifle catches every time it’s cocked. I can’t detect that the pull has changed in weight or crispness. After it breaks, the trigger blade is at the end of its travel. It feels like there’s a trigger overtravel adjustment, but there isn’t.
The trigger blade is much too thin for the pull weight, which is between 7 lbs., 14 oz. and 8 lbs., 10 oz. This trigger can really benefit from the installation of a trigger shoe. I have a couple of them around somewhere, so I’ll try to find one and see if it benefits the rifle as much as I think it will.
Firing behavior
The 68 fires very quickly and ends with a sudden small jolt. The feeling is strange, because you don’t expect a rifle this small to be so quick. It’s definitely not an R7! On the other hand, there’s virtually zero vibration with each shot. You might expect it to buzz a little because it’s an El Gamo, but you’d be surprised. Clearly, this rifle’s action is made much smoother than the current crop of Gamo spring rifles.
Since I own the rifle, I’m tempted to take the action out of the stock to see what I can do to smooth the firing cycle even more. If I can get the trigger to break reliably at 3 or even 5 lbs. and still be as crisp as it is, this would be one of my better spring-piston rifles.
Balance
The 68 appears to be butt-heavy, but that’s only an illusion. In fact, it’s somewhat muzzle-heavy, which stabilizes the rifle in the offhand position. The lack of a forearm means you have to hold it more like a pistol that has an attached shoulder stock, and both hands are centered around the vertical pistol grip. I don’t care for that hold, which is why a more conventional model 300 would suit me more, if all other parts of the action remain the same.
Velocity
The gun seems to have a leather piston seal; but even if it doesn’t, it might benefit from the application of some silicone chamber oil dropped through the air transfer port behind the breech. I tested it with three pellets, both before and after oiling.
RWS Hobbys
The first pellet I tested was the 7-grain RWS Hobby. This lightweight lead pellet is often very accurate in lower-powered spring guns and gives the highest velocity consistent with accuracy. Before oiling, Hobbys averaged 612 f.p.s., with a range from 604 to 615 f.p.s. They produced an average 5.82 foot-pounds of muzzle energy and the total velocity spread was a tight 9 f.p.s.
After oiling, Hobbys averaged 592 f.p.s. and ranged from 582 to 598 f.p.s. They produced an average of 5.45 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. The spread opened to 16 f.p.s.
Crosman Premier 7.9-grain
Next came the 7.9-grain Crosman Premier domed pellet. Before oiling, this pellet averaged 570 f.p.s., with a range from 558 to 588 f.p.s. They produced an average of 5.7 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. The total velocity spread was 30 f.p.s.
After oiling, the Premier lite pellets averaged 551 f.p.s., with a spread from 545 to 564 f.p.s. The average muzzle energy was 5.33 foot-pounds and the spread was 19 f.p.s.
RWS Superdomes
The last pellet I tested was the 8.3-grain RWS Superdome. Before oiling, the velocity averaged 534 f.p.s. with a spread from 522 to 545 f.p.s. That produced an average of 5.26 foot-pounds of muzzle energy.
After oiling, the same pellet averaged 524 f.p.s. with a spread from 519 to 527 f.p.s. At the average velocity, this pellet produces 5.06 foot-pounds of muzzle energy.
What have we learned?
The first thing we learned was the need to properly adjust the trigger for contact surface. It didn’t change the pull weight, but it did correct the gun’s inability to cock positively.
Was it necessary to oil the gun? Probably not; but as the oil wears off, the velocity will increase again. Does the gun shoot any smoother as a result of oiling? I can’t tell any difference, so maybe this gun was working okay as it was.
The trigger could probably benefit from some lubrication and perhaps from more careful adjustment. I’ll have to see it closer to know if there’s anything that I can do to make it better.
The tarantula dance
by B.B. Pelletier
Announcement: Rodney T. Hytonen is this week’s winner of Pyramyd Air’s Big Shot of the Week on their facebook page. He’ll receive a $50 Pyramyd Air gift card. Congratulations!
BSOTW winner Rodney T. Hytonen and his Beeman P17.
Some call it negotiating or the art of the deal or something else, but it means the same thing. It describes what happens whenever two or more enthusiasts get together and try to trade.
Imagine two hairy tarantulas meeting on a trail in the woods somewhere. When they meet, they instantly go on the defensive, each knowing the other could either kill him or make a very satisfying meal. Unless something overpowering happens nearby to break their concentration, these two competitors are certain to follow through on their intentions! They’ll dance backwards and forwards, maneuvering for an advantageous position.
And so it is whenever two or more airgunners get together. If one has something the other wants, or worse — if they each want something from the other guy, you’re in for the human equivalent of the tarantula dance.
I see it at all the airgun shows, but not so much in the main show area as in the shadowy places around the fringes of the room or out in the parking lot or perhaps at a restaurant before or after the show. Being both an airgunner and an alpha competitor myself, I’ve danced many times myself and, of course, I’ve watched others. Today, I’d like to describe some of the more common steps in the dance.
The straight two-way deal
Two guys each want something from the other. Or in some cases, one of them wants something the other guy has, so he postures and maneuvers until he convinces the other guy that he also has something worth wanting. Once that’s established, they begin the straight two-way deal.
The steps are pretty straightforward, though there are almost infinite variations and regional modifications to add interest. Neither guy will admit how much he wants what the other guy has. If one of them does indicate an interest, he also says that it isn’t worth what he has to offer.
As the dance unfolds, each person is allowed time to present his case, free from comment by the other party. Making a comment when the deal is being explained is the equivalent of a baboon displaying his red buttocks. You might as well sock your opponent in the kisser with brass knuckles!
After both parties have presented their case, the negotiations can begin. While they talk, it’s best for each person to hold the object they’re trying to acquire. They can then nervously putter with it, trying all the levers and buttons, or they can scrutinize it in close detail, looking for flaws.
When you find what you believe to be a flaw, it’s best not to blurt it out. Instead, slip it into the conversation subtly by saying something like, “Did you know this gun is refinished?” or the even more insidious, “Do you think this finish is original?” A good counter for that is to answer quickly, “Yes, I’m pretty sure it has been refinished.” Then stop talking. Do not defend your item any more, because you only lose ground if you do.
Then come numerous other moves, ranging from the ever-popular, “I’m cash-poor at the moment, so I really need to trade,” to the equally scintillating, “I’ve got another guy who’s serious about this, so I don’t really have to trade today.” You can say whatever you like in a negotiation — nobody expects you to stick to the script, much less make sense. Tell jokes, swap lies; you can even discuss politics during this emotion-charged period — everything will be either forgotten or forgiven when the deal is done.
The straight two-way deal is the most rudimentary type of negotiation, but don’t think that it isn’t complex or fascinating. If, for instance, one of the competitors knows that he has something the other guy wants, he can play him like a sport fish for quite a long time. This happened to me just this week.
A more complex deal
I went to a trading “party” last week, knowing beforehand that I had something one of the other guys wanted. This guy is a very sharp trader, so having this knowledge gave me a rare and valuable advantage over him.
My trading parties are informal events, set up at a range so we can try the guns we like; and we set up our wares on picnic tables. In the beginning, I could get only three people together at one of these parties; but now that we’ve held several with good success, it’s usually no trouble to get 7-10 guys together at once. If each person brings 15-20 things to trade, you have a mini airgun show.
No emotions!
Let’s say the sharp trader wanted the FWB 150 I’d laid on my table. When he asked what I wanted for it, I said I really didn’t want to trade it at all. It’s one of my favorite airguns. That was entirely true, but it really set him off! Why did I bring it if I didn’t want to trade it…he wanted to know. So, from just this one maneuver, I knew I had him. Whenever you’re trading, try not to show your emotions.
To keep the fish on the line, I encouraged him to take my 150 to the firing line and shoot it. I even provided the ammo! When he returned from the line, the look on his face told me that he really wanted the gun. He then asked if there was anything I would take for it. I told him I might consider selling it, which was true, and then quoted a price that was the top retail. Since he likes to buy things with a profit margin, he was stumped. He wasn’t going to pay my high price, but he still wanted the gun. If this guy had been a swordfish, I had just set the hook and let him start his first run!
At this point, I walked away and let the guy stew over the situation. I pretended to be interested in shooting some of my own guns and left him alone for 20-30 minutes. This is a dangerous maneuver, because he could have made a bunch of deals with the other guys at the party and walked away satisfied. But he didn’t.
Then Mac told me privately that he liked a particular gun on the sharp trader’s table. And Mac also had an airgun that I had been interested in for several days prior to this trading party, so he told me that if I could get the gun he wanted, he would give me the gun I wanted. Gentlemen, welcome to the three-way deal!
The three-way deal
The sharp trader’s gun Mac was interested in was worth much more than my rifle, so Mac said he would pay the difference if I managed to make the deal. In other words, I would trade my rifle, plus possibly some money to boot for the gun Mac wanted, and Mac would then give me the airgun I wanted, as well as paying the extra money I had to put up to make the deal. Are you following this?
So, at a time when he was otherwise occupied, I mentioned to the sharp trader that I might trade my 150 for one of his guns (the one Mac had privately indicated to me). I wish you could have seen what happened then. My interest took the guy by complete surprise! The swordfish now realized there was a boat on the other end of the fishing line that was stuck in his mouth!
He instantly turned all of his attention to me; and from his reaction, I knew the deal was done before it started. His gun was worth more than mine, and when he mentioned that, I immediately agreed. That was another surprise for him. The gaff was now in the water and the big fish was tiring fast.
He said, “Make me an offer for the difference between our two guns,” and he smiled. Big mistake! The fish had one more thrash left in him, but he was already alongside my boat…and I was moving the gaff toward his gills. So, I turned away from him and then said over my shoulder, “No. I said I didn’t care if I got rid of my rifle or not. You make me an offer!” The point of the gaff slid into the gills and the big fish was caught.
A minute later he said to me privately, “Give me $50 and we have a deal.” The fish was now in the boat, and I was getting ready for photography!
His gun was brand new and worth at least $100 more than mine. I expected to have to negotiate to get him down to the $100 difference in our guns, so I had signaled Mac to see if he was okay with paying that amount. He nodded yes. He later admitted that he felt the other guy’s gun was worth a minimum of $100 more than mine, but he wanted it enough to pay the difference.
When the guy said $50, I quickly shook on it and the deal was made. And that, I thought, would be the big story to tell today, but I was wrong. It was only the preamble to the main event.
The four-way deal
One of the guys at the trading party, let’s call him the old man, still owed Mac a gun for a deal they had made a year earlier. They had agreed on a certain airgun as payment, but the old man had been unable to find one in the interim. However, Mac spotted something on the sharp trader’s table that he really wanted, and it was close to the same value.
However, the old man didn’t have anything the sharp trader wanted. But then I made a deal with another trader I’ll call the big guy and gave him something the sharp trader wanted. So the old man took the big guy aside and they held held a private pow-wow. It was at this moment that I elbowed Mac in the ribs and said, “This is going to be my Friday blog! We are about the see a huge tarantula dance!”
After these two conferred for about five minutes, the old man came over to me and said, “The deal is done. Watch this!” The big guy he had been talking to went over to the sharp trader and made his offer of the gun we all knew the sharp trader really wanted. We knew that because he had openly denigrated it to everyone just minutes before.
When their deal was made, the gun the sharp trader gave up was passed (behind his back) from the big guy to the old man. The old man then gave Mac the gun he owed him. A four-way deal had been made! The sharp trader got the gun of his desires, the big guy got whatever it was that he wanted from the old man (sorry, I couldn’t keep up with everything) and the old man who owed Mac was absolved of his debt as he handed Mac the gun he wanted. The gun in play was “owned” by two of its three new owners for just two or three seconds each — the time it took to pass it from hand to hand — like a water bucket in a fire brigade.
Everybody wins!
When all the deals were done and everyone had packed up, each person was certain they had done the best they possibly could. No one would admit to letting someone else get the best of them. Everyone feels they’ve triumphed after making deals like this. Remorse doesn’t set in for at least an hour after all trading is over. Then, the second thoughts begin. This is not a good time to have an indecisive personality.
How to prosper in a trade
Despite my candid descriptions of events, I’ve always found it best to be completely honest during these deals. And that includes not feigning ignorance of the faults of my guns. I figure the finish of the gun speaks for itself; but if there are other faults that I know of, I’m sure to tell them, just as I’m certain to point out the positives of anything I bring to trade. I expect others to do the same, but I’ll also watch for those who are less candid in their dealings.
And here is my biggest tip of the day. You know how art appraisers are always telling us to buy the art we like? Well, the same thing holds true for airgun trades. I pity the person who uses the Blue Book of Airguns to find out whether he should feel bad or good about a deal.
We’re trading cats and dogs. I’m offering my pair of $2,500 cats for your $5,000 dog. If you have a gun I want and I have something you want, we really shouldn’t care if we come out absolutely even on what the price guide says. If you’re happy and I’m happy, the deal was a good one.
Crosman MAR177 test report: Part 6
by B.B. Pelletier
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Crosman’s new MAR177 upper is big news!
Today’s test is shooting the Crosman MAR177 at 25 yards, both with and without the magazine. We’ll also shoot it with the best wadcutter target pellets and the best domed pellets to see what differences there are.
Rather than shoot the rifle myself, I let Mac shoot it this time. He is the better rifle shot between us, and I just wanted to see what the rifle would be like in his hands. He shot it off a bag rest at 25 yards indoors. Ten pellets were shot from the magazine, then another 10 of the same pellet were shot using the single-shot tray. Mac tested both domed and wadcutter pellets, so we get to compare the relative accuracy of both today. And the results did not turn out as I expected.
Magazine
I’d noted in an earlier report that the particular 10-shot magazine I’ve been using has two chambers with tight entrances. Mac found the same thing without being prompted by me. I had him use the same magazine as I did so I could compare his results with all other variables remaining the same.
You’ll recall that I mentioned not liking magazine guns because of how they handle the pellets. So, today was also a test between the magazine and loading each pellet as you shoot. I’m not saying that all pellets have feeding problems, but that some magazines may have a problem. But when you load each pellet singly, you have less chance of damaging the pellet.
Single-load tray
That said, the MAR177 has a gap at the front of the single-load tray that can catch the nose of certain pellets and make it very difficult to load. The H&N Field Target pellets that were the most accurate in an earlier test had this problem and had to be exchanged for a different domed pellet. The H&Ns have a semi-wadcutter rim around the head that just catches in the gap on the tray and causes the pellets to flip up and possibly get damaged on loading. I substituted 7.3-grain Air Arms Falcon pellets that fed perfectly through the tray.
On to the shooting
Let’s get right to today’s test. First, Mac tested the domed pellets at 25 yards.
Through the 10-shot magazine, 10 Falcon pellets made this 0.667-inch group at 25 yards. This is very good!
When the single-shot tray was used, 10 Falcon pellets made this 0.429-inch group at 25 yards. This is clearly better than the group made using magazine-fed pellets.
Mac tried the H&N Field Target pellets first, and they were very accurate, but a couple of them refused to feed through the magazine. But the Falcon pellets fed flawlessly, so we changed the test to use them as the domed pellet of choice. Once again, I want to say that in another magazine this pellet might have fed better, but this is a quirk you get with mags that you don’t get when loading singly.
Clearly the single-loaded pellets are more accurate than those loaded by the magazine. That may not hold from magazine to magazine; but for this one mag, you’re better off loading the pellets one at a time. Let’s see how the rifle does with wadcutters at 25 yards.
Using the magazine, 10 RWS R10 7.7-grain pellets (an obsolete weight for the R10) grouped in 0.484 inches at 25 yards. That’s great performance.
When each pellet was loaded singly, the R10s grouped 10 in 0.402 inches. This was the best group of the test!
The trend continued with the wadcutter pellets. The R10s grouped even tighter than the Falcons at 25 yards, and those that were loaded singly did much better than those that fed through the magazine.
What have we learned?
First, we’ve learned that some magazines do influence the accuracy of the gun with all ammunition — or at least with the pellet types used in this test. A different magazine might well give different results, but one thing it will never do is outshoot loading the pellets by hand, one at a time. As a 10-meter shooter, I knew this going into the test. But it was nice that we were able to demonstrate it so clearly.
Next, we see that wadcutters were more accurate than the domes in this test. Even though both pellets were very accurate, the wadcutters had the edge. That was the part that surprised me. I’d expected the domes to take over at 25 yards.
The bottom line
The Crosman MAR177 is a valuable addition to an AR and a wonderful target rifle in its own right. It was held back in this test by the use of an AR National Match trigger, which is by no means as good as a target trigger on an air rifle. Even so, we see accuracy that any 10-meter precision rifle would be proud of.
I think Crosman has made a winning rifle in the MAR177. And when they bring out more powerful versions of it in the future, it’ll be all the greater justification for owning an AR! My thanks to Crosman for the loan of this MAR177 for both this test and for the feature article I am writing for Shotgun News!
Hatsan Torpedo 155 underlever air rifle: Part 4
by B.B. Pelletier
Hatsan’s Torpedo 155 underlever is a large and powerful spring-piston air rifle.
Today is the day I mount a scope on the Hatsan Torpedo 155 and test its accuracy once more. Knowing how much interest there is, I decided to pull out all the stops and mount the best scope I have on hand — the Hawke 4.5-14×42AO Sidewinder Tactical scope. Because the Hatsan scope base allows me to mount either Weaver or 11mm rings — and because the Hawke scope has a 30mm tube — I decided to use a set of two-piece Leapers high rings made for an 11mm rail. The straight line of the Hatsan stock coupled with the high comb made such a high mount work perfectly.
Trigger-pull
I promised to measure the trigger pull during this test. It broke at 5 lbs., 11 oz. with a lot of creep in stage two. I don’t think this trigger is going to break-in the way I’d hoped.
Accuracy
The rifle was tested at 25 yards off a bag rest using the artillery hold. Each new pellet was seasoned with several shots before shooting the group.
The best pellet last time was the Gamo TS-22 dome. This time, not so much. I know they should have been at least as good as they were in the last test with open sights, but for some reason I couldn’t get them to shoot this time. When you’re testing a rifle that cocks at 54 lbs., you don’t have all day to test different pellets; so three groups were all I shot. I’m showing the best one with no comment about the size. Suffice to say, this is not a good pellet for this rifle.
This time the Gamo TS-22 pellet didn’t do so well. This is the best of three groups I shot.
Next, I tried the RWS Superdome. I was worried they would go supersonic and make too much noise for the house, but they never did. However, they were all over the paper. I tried several variations of the artillery hold, but nothing seemed to work.
The last pellet I tried was the 5.6mm Eley Wasp that’s no longer available. I figured if it would shoot well, there might be another pellet on the market I could try. They did better than the TS-22 pellets did, but not as good as they did in the open sight test.
Ten Eley Wasps shot better than 10 TS-22s, but only by a little bit. This is still no group for a hunting rifle at 25 yards.
Bipod
The rifle comes with a plastic clamp-on bipod. You just clip it onto the underlever at any point. It slips forward and back on the lever as the gun is moved, and it also allows the rifle to rotate from side to side a little. It does steady the rifle, but you have to remove it before you cock the gun. So, there’s no chance for it to settle in. I found it was just one more step added to cocking and loading the rifle. When I tried to shoot a group with it, the shots went everywhere. I stopped before putting one in the wall.
The plastic bipod clips onto the underlever as shown. It can be slid from one end of the lever to the other to change the balance point.
Conclusion
I find the Hatsan Torpedo 155 underlever to be too inaccurate to recommend. It takes a lot of technique to shoot it as well as I have shown here, plus it’s a bear to cock and the trigger is extremely creepy. I think I’ve given the rifle every chance to shine in this review…and it hasn’t. It’s a very powerful spring gun, but power without accuracy is meaningless. It looks great, but it needs about 10 foot-pounds less muzzle energy to really shine, I think.
El Gamo 68/68-XP – A futuristic airgun from the past: Part 1
by B.B. Pelletier
El Gamo 68 is a futuristic breakbarrel from the past.
I told you that the Arkansas airgun show was unique in yesterday’s report. Today, I want to start a report on an airgun I bought at the show. It was on the table next to me throughout the show, and I thought for sure someone would snap it up before I got the money to buy it; but as fate would have it, the gun waited for me until the end of the show. Literally, an hour before it was due to be packed up, I made an offer to reader David Enoch, the gun’s owner, and he accepted. I now own an air rifle that I’ve been wondering about for the past 32 years.
I first noticed the 68-XP (it’s a little hard not to notice!) in the pages of a 1979/1980 Air Rifle Headquarters catalog. I was still in the Army, living at Fort Knox with my young family at the time, so the discretionary funds were too tight to buy many of the things that caught my fancy, but this gun was so odd that I both hated it and wanted to get to know it at the same time.
Note: My gun is clearly marked as a model Gamo 68. A bit of Google searching came up with an old forum posting that the 68-XP was sold only in America, but the same gun was sold in Europe as the 68. If the guns were actually marked 68-XP when they came to the U.S., then mine was made for the European market since it lacks the “XP” initials.
You could tell that the description in the ARH catalog was mostly hype (not really, but I will explain as we go); but there seemed to be a thread of truth that ran through all their tests, and this rifle was reported as being fairly accurate. I already owned a Beeman FWB 124, so I didn’t need aspirin-busting accuracy; but the thought that a $90 spring-piston air rifle that looked like something Buck Rogers carried — but could also be a shooter — was enticing. It was offered only in .177 caliber, of course, because the powerplant was barely up to launching even those light pellets, to say nothing of the much heavier .22s. Of course, things like that never stopped companies like Diana, but El Gamo was a Spanish company that seemed wedded to the smallest caliber.
In those days (around 1979), Spanish airguns were looked upon like Chinese and Turkish airguns are today. We knew the companies were able to make good guns, but they often seemed to lack the willpower to actually do it. So, I considered El Gamo to be a junk brand, and in retrospect I believe that was a serious misjudgment on my part. What they really were was a non-German airgun maker that was building accurate and solid airguns at a time when most of us couldn’t see past Weihrauch, Webley, BSA and Feinwerkbau. And when I say “most of us,” I really mean just me, because there were no airgun magazines on the market (that I knew about), nor had Al Gore invented the internet, yet. It would be another 14 years before I started writing The Airgun Letter and attending airgun shows to discover that others shared my misguided opinions.
Robert Law, the owner of Air Rifle Headquarters, did his best to convince us that El Gamo rifles were good, but he was fighting unreasonable opposition. For some reason, we all (I later learned) believed every word he said about a Weihrauch HW 55 target rifle, but thought the copy about El Gamo was nothing but hype!
He would say things like, “All El Gamo models feature a rifled steel barrel,” which sounded suspiciously similar to “Each Yugo automobile features four perfectly round tires filled to capacity with factory air.” I think that we (I) had chips on our shoulder(s) and were daring Law to be right about anything he said regarding Spanish airguns..
El Gamo?
Before anyone asks, El Gamo used to be the name Gamo used for their company. Sometime in the 1990s (I believe), they dropped the El from the logo.
The crackle finish held up well over time.
El Gamo’s logo is a stylized stag.
The action
The 68/68-XP is based on the model 300 action. ARH sold it as the 300 Target and considered it to be an informal target rifle. They claimed an accuracy of 0.22 inches for 5 shots at 10 meters after their free conditioning, but all 68/68-XPs should shoot about the same after break-in. After they’re accurized, they said the rifle would group in 0.15 inches.
Beeman also sold the model 300, and they gave an accuracy potential of 0.22 inches — so they agreed with ARH. That’s not surprising, since they bought their guns from ARH in the beginning.
The gun is a strange one. It has no true stock, as you can see. What is the stock on most breakbarrels is a cast-aluminum frame on this one. The butt is synthetic — made of two halves screwed together around the cast-aluminum frame.
The trigger has three adjustment screws. Since David Enoch was kind enough to send me the manual, I’ll know how they work when it comes time. At the forward end of the triggerguard is a hole that leads to a large screw that might look like an adjustment screw but actually is the bearing point for the cocking linkage. I’ll pull the action out of the stock to see how this works and maybe why it’s there.
Three trigger adjustment screws are located at the back of the triggerguard. The one screw that’s in front of the trigger seems to adjust the cocking link bearing point.
The little gun feels heavy. It weighs 6 lbs., 2 oz., which isn’t much, but seems like a lot for a carbine whose overall length is only 37 inches. And yet the barrel is 17-9/16 inches long, which helps bring down the cocking effort to just 22 lbs.
The sights are old-school — no nasty fiberoptics to contend with. The rear sight adjusts in both directions, and the front sight is a crisp, wide blade with sharp edges. It fits the rear notch nicely, so you can aim precisely.
The rear sight is adjustable both ways. Though it looks like most modern open sights, it seems crisper than most.
The front sight is exactly what you want in a sporting front sight. Why did they ever change?
The ARH catalog says the gun holds well for offhand shooting, and I saw that when I shot it twice at the Arkansas airgun show. I was surprised when my pellets went into the same hole at 15 yards, because I’m not normally that good offhand. So I hope there’s a real surprise in store for us as far as accuracy is concerned.
There’s a scope rail on this one, so I’ll mount a scope after trying the open sights. They had scoped air rifles back when the gun was new; but they were still in the very early days, when not a lot was known about scoping airguns. Today, I have access to BKL scope rings, which overcome the lack of provisions for a mechanical scope stop.
The butt frame is aluminum, with two-piece synthetic shells that are screwed together.
Bottom line
You can’t buy one of these except as a used airgun, but it has so many of the features that I want to see in every lower-powered spring rifle that I wish it was still being made. If you don’t like the unconventional look of the 67/68-XP I’m testing, the action is identical to the model 300 that comes in a classic wood stock. So, let’s see how El Gamo made themback in the 1970s!
2012 Arkansas airgun show
by B.B.Pelletier
Every airgun show is unique. I’ve said that many times before, but it’s always true — and this one was no different. What I look for when I try to describe an airgun show is how it stood out from all the others. That’s what I’ll do today.
An airgun show is small, in comparison to0 a regular gun show, but there are more airguns on a single table then you’ll see at most big gun shows. And the guns range from inexpensive Daisys and Crosmans to then most exotic airguns imaginable. So go to gun shows for and crowded aisles, but to airgun shows to find airguns.
I didn’t get away from my table for the first half of the first day. When I finally did, the show immediately began to reveal itself. It was jam-packed with big bore air rifles! I mean jammed! Dennis Quackenbush and Eric Henderson are always the mainstays of the show; but this time I met Robert Vogel, whose business is Mr. Hollowpoint. Robert casts each bullet by hand from lead as pure as he can make it. His bullets mushroom on game perfectly and rip huge holes in living flesh, making the most humane kills possible. I bought a bag of 68-grain .308-caliber hollowpoints for the Quackenbush .308 test I’m conducting, and he threw in a second bag of .22 pellets for free. These will have a special debut in a smallbore test in the near future.
Robert Vogel (standing) is Mr. Hollowpoint. He has thousands of different bullets for big bore shooters to try.
But Mr. Hollowpoint wasn’t the only bullet maker at the show. Seth Rowland, the show’s host and promoter, also supplies the big bore airgunning community with cast bullets in numerous sizes and shapes. And their customers can hardly appreciate the untold hours they spend at the lead pot, casting and sizing these silver slugs one by one.
Need bullets? Seth Rowland has them in different sizes, shapes and weights.
10-meter guns
Another theme that’s common to all airgun shows is 10-meter target guns. This year’s Arkansas show had plenty of them, both from dealers like Scott Pilkington of Pilkington Competition Equipment in Tennessee, as well as numerous private individuals. I mentioned several weeks ago that Mac was bringing some recently overhauled FWB rifles to this show, and on day one an interested buyer sought him out. This man was serious about buying a target rifle, and he had done his research on the internet. But this was the first time he’d seen, felt and shot these rifles.
Mac took him out to the shooting range to try out an FWB 150 and a 300; and from his testing, he decided the 300 was the gun he wanted. Because it lacks the barrel jacket, it’s lighter than a standard 300S. He was buying the rifle for his wife to shoot in competition. They made a deal, and he went home with the exact target rifle he wanted — an overhauled ex-club rifle at a price that was several hundred dollars below what he would have paid for a gamble on the internet. For this man, driving all the way to Arkansas made good sense.
I’m sure that same scenario was played out numerous times at this show, because that’s what happens at an airgun show that also has a shooting range. You get to try out the guns before you buy — something that’s impossible at a regular gun show.
The odd and wonderful
You never know what you’re going to see at one of these shows, but there are a few people who always seem to have interesting things. Larry Hannusch, the top airgun writer for the past 30 years, is one person who can always surprise you. This year, our tables were together, giving me the opportunity to look at his guns more closely than normal. He had a Crosman 113 bulk-fill CO2 rifle, which isn’t unusual, except the owner of this one had inlet a pellet box into the right side of the stock — much like the patchbox found on certain muzzleloading rifles.
Some owner made this patchbox in the stock of his Crosman 113 bulk-fill rifle.
He built the “patchbox” with a built-in spring. There were pellets inside.
When was the last time you saw one of these? A French ball-flask pistol from the 1700s.
The big find
Often there will be a big find of some certain airgun that shows up at a particular show. I remember one year someone was selling piles of brand-new-in-the-box S&W 78G and 79G pistols. There were at least 50, but as my memory serves there might have been as many as 100 brand-new guns that were at least 20 years old at the time. Another year, it was Scott Pilkington who brought almost 300 club target guns for sale. You could buy an FWB 300 for $150-$200! Of course, it would have been a beater and would have needed to be resealed, but it certainly was the budget way into a 10-meter gun.
Then there was the year that someone had over 20 Johnson Target Guns, the submachinegun-looking plastic catapult BB gun from the late 1940s. They were all new in the box, and the cloth backstop that was in the box to stop the BBs inside the box lid that also served as a backstop had turned to dust. But they were complete. To collectors, they were a wonderful find. I actually saw two of these at this year’s Arkansas show; so even after more than 10 years, they’re still slowly dissolving into the collector population.
Two brand-new Johnson Target Guns in the box with all the literature and accessories.
When I walked into the second large room in this show and turned the corner, I ran into Randy Mitchell’s booth, where he was selling a pile of recently discovered TS45 sidelever air rifles for $20 each! I blogged this rifle several years ago, and Vince also wrote a guest blog about the same rifle. Until now, there were no new guns you could buy. You had to find one by chance and would always be one somebody had owned and possibly modified. Now, Randy Mitchell, who runs his Adventures in Airguns store, has a huge pile of these rifles to sell. They aren’t very safe and are the very guns that chopped off thumbs when their anti-beartraps failed; but if you cock them safely and load while restraining the sidelever, they’re fun to shoot and are often accurate.
Randy Mitchell found these old/new TS45 sidelevers and brought them to the show. It’s stuff like this that keeps me going to every airgun show I can make!
Collectibles
Of course, there are too many modern guns to name here, but know that at any show you’ll find almost every modern classic airgun for sale. If you’re looking for good TX200s or old R7s, they’re usually available — and they were at this show, too. But what you also see are airguns that are so rare and hard to find that some of them won’t even be seen in airgun books. This yearm Ingvar Alm had both a Winsel CO2 pistol in the box and a Giffard CO2 pistol from the 1870s on his table. Giffard invented the application of CO2 for gun use, and Winsel made only 50 guns in the early 1950s. Neither gun is represented well in any airgun book I know.
The Winsel pistol was a bulk-filled CO2 pistol that required the owner to mail his tank back to the company to be filled. Yeah, that’s going to work! They made 50 and quit. Today, they’re a prized collectible.
Giffard pioneered the use of CO2 in guns in the 1870s. His pistols are many times rarer than his rifles. The empty pop bottle is for contrast — like Cindy Crawford’s mole.
Big bores
There were more big bores at this show than I see at other shows. Perhaps, that’s because the focus of big bore airgunning seems to center around Texas, where the LASSO match is held. Dennis Quackenbush delivered his guns to eager buyers, but the only rifle he had to show was his own .308, which he doesn’t want to sell. Eric Henderson and Big Bore Bob Dean were both there with some guns to sell, as well as Robert Vogel. But the one maker with a lot of guns on display was Jack Haley, whose table was a rainbow of laminated stocks.
Jack Haley’s table was a colorful display of big bore rifles.
Oops!
Then there was the big bore that has been a joke in the airgun community for many years. The gun itself is fine. It was made back in the 1980s by Ben Patron, whose name is clearly on the side of the receiver. Somewhere along the line, some person got ahold of it and displayed it at the Springfield, Missouri, gun show as a “U.S. military .50-caliber sniper air rifle.” The label for that display was still inside the guitar box that held the gun, and Dennis Quackenbush remembers seeing it at the Springfield show. After that, it somehow ended up in an Arkansas pawn shop where Big Bore Bob found it and bought it.
Some previous owner had concocted a colorful background story for the Patron big bore of the 1980s.
The drawing
Many shows have a drawing, but airgun shows are so lightly attended that you actually have a chance of winning! This year, they gave away several very nice prizes at the close of the show, including a scoped TalonP pistol from AirForce! Then came the drawing for the frame-extended silencer for the Talon SS. I knew before the little girl picked my ticket that I would win it. How ironic is that? I’m testing a Talon SS with a bloop tube right now, so of course I’m going to win another one! But the supreme irony came when Randy Mitchell, a big bore hunter, won the .50-caliber Dragon Claw donated by Pyramyd Air.
Randy Mitchell (right) won the Dragon Claw. Show host, Seth Rowland, standing, ran the drawing. The young lady added a lot of sparkle and enthusiasm to the show. I see an airgunner in the making!
On the trip home, Mac and I relived the show many times. That’s another benefit. I can remember snippets from most past shows, and this one will now be filed away in the library.
Nelson Lewis combination gun
by B.B. Pelletier
Announcement: Chris Moreno is this week’s winner of Pyramyd Air’s Big Shot of the Week on their facebook page. He’ll receive a $50 Pyramyd Air gift card. Congratulations!
BSOTW winner Chris Moreno is shown with his first PCP.
This Nelson Lewis combination gun was made in the mid-19th century.
A little more than two years ago, I traveled to Maryland to see Mac and to help him drive back to Texas for the Malvern, Arkansas, airgun show. We visited a friend of ours who was loaning me some vintage photos to scan for articles. While there, we were admitted into his gun room, or as Mac and I refer to it — the Holy of Holies! This guy has collected odd and unusual guns all his life and, just like the Pawn Stars TV show, you never know what you’re going to find. It was there that I found the airgun pogostick repeater that Vince is attempting to make operational.
But there was another gun in his collection that intrigued me, even though I didn’t act on it right away. It was a combination gun made by Nelson Lewis, a well-known gun maker from Troy New York, who made muzzleloading guns from some time in the 1840s until at least the 1880s.
The gun came in its original oak case.
Lewis was a very prolific maker, and his guns still abound today. They’re of fine workmanship but not the absolute top tier. As far as accuracy goes, an N. Lewis gun can hold its own at 40 rods (220 yards) with all but the very finest rifles; and as far as I’m concerned, there are only three in the top rung — Schalk, Warner and Pope. Nelson Lewis belongs on the next rung down with makers like Billinghurst, Perry, Brockway and others of equal fame. His guns are never finished as fine as those of Billinghurst, but they’re equal in accuracy. They were among the first rifles selected for sniper duty in the American Civil War and made confirmed kills at ranges beyond 1,000 yards — surveyed distance.
The other kind of gun Lewis was noted for was the combination gun — with a rifle barrel on one side and a shotgun barrel on the other. That’s the gun I saw in Maryland. What intrigued me wasn’t the quality of the arm, though it’s very fine, but the condition. This gun is still in its original box after 150+ years and is in NRA Antique fine condition. The patchbox contained two round patches of thin linen material, and Lewis was known for sending a sample of the proper patching material with his guns. I can’t prove these patches are original to the gun, but they’re appropriate to it.
When it was new a gun like this cost between $50 and 60, with engraving extra if you wanted it. For that you got the gun in a wooden case, a powder measure and a bullet swage. Lewis made this gun without the use of power tools. He had a local machinist make the parts requiring a lathe, and he made the barrels, locks and triggers. His son stocked the gun in finefigured walnut.
Look at the fine joining of the shotgun and rifle barrels.
Also packed with the gun are the original dies for swaging lead picket bullets for the rifle barrel. And there were two bullets in the box along with everything else.
The swaging dies are also handmade by Lewis.
Picket bullet was the first elongated bullet that was popular. It lasted from about 1840 to 1880.
The box isn’t a presentation type box. It’s entirely functional, as though Mr. Lewis had shipped the gun yesterday and this is how it arrived. It’s designed to hold the gun when it’s broken down by removing one cross key and lifting the barreled action out of the stock. It has a patent breech with hooks that allow quick disassembly, so the gun can be transported safely to the hunting grounds.
Drift out the one key, and the barreled action can be lifted out of the patent breech. Each barrel has a separate hook that locks into the breechplate.
The ramrod appears to be original to the gun, which is quite rare for two reasons. First, this gun was probably made in the 1860s or ’70s. For anything wooden as thin as a hickory ramrod to have survived that long is remarkable. Second — a muzzleloading ramrod undergoes the most strenuous life you can imagine. Modern muzzleloaders almost always have fiberglass ramrods for this reason. Because this ramrod has lasted this long, we can surmise that this gun has been particularly well cared for.
The rifle barrel is .39 caliber and just under 28 inches long. We know that the six-grove rifling is cut with a gain twist because Nelson Lewis refused to cut any other kind of rifling. Because the picket bullet is a conical, it’s heavier than a round ball, making the rifle appropriate for deer and even black bear hunting.
The shotgun barrel is 14 gauge and is probably without a choke, as they were not popular when this gun was made. Also, a blackpowder shotgun will throw a tighter pattern just by the nature of how it functions. What we have is a cylinder bore that’s probably good out to 30-35 yards, depending on the game and shot size.
Sights
The gun has two different rear sights. On the tang is a lollipop peep sight that elevates by turning the disk on its threaded post. Halfway up the barrel is a sporting-type rear sight that can be used for a faster hunting situation. Sporting was the 19th century term for hunting.
The front sight has to be seen to be believed! The thin post is steel filed into the shape of a tiny post and bead. It’s thin but strong, because the post is an I-beam with thickness front to rear. The sight is protected by a small steel globe.
Sporting (hunting) sight is adjustable for elevation. It is a semi-buckhorn.
Folding lollipop rear target sight adjusts for elevation by turning on its stem. Windage adjusts by loosening the screw and sliding the peephole sideways.
Front sight post and bead is protected by a small globe. Entire sight can be drifted to either side to correct for windage.
General characteristics
The gun is 44 inches long and weighs 9 lbs. Until I received it, I had never seen it together — but it fits together tightly with a cross key and a hooked or patent breech. Once the gun is together, you can’t tell that it comes apart — it still fits that tightly.
The left barrel is the rifle barrel, and the right is the shotgun. There are no set triggers, but the rifle trigger (rear one) breaks at about 2 lbs. The rifle hammer is somewhat loose, indicating the rifle was used more than the shotgun.
Gun has a deep, crisp maker’s mark, indicating it hasn’t been refinished.
I found an oiled patch at the bottom of the shotgun barrel, which was considered the right way to store a gun in the 19th century. It had dried out and could have caused some rust if it had absorbed moisture from the air, so I removed it with the worm screw on the ramrod. The breech plugs are both removable, making both barrels accessible for cleaning. I plan to do that before long.
Both nipples appear new and would certainly have been replaced over a century and a half of use. If they were original, they would both show signs of pitting from the flame of thousands of percussion caps. One of them has the number 10 on it, so I’m guessing that’s the correct cap size.
In the patch box on the right side of the butt, I found two cloth patches that appear to be the correct size. It will take a lot of experimentation before I discover the right bullet and load for this gun, to say nothing of the shotgun side; but initially I’ll just be examining it for clues to its history!
This is an example of a fine hunting gun in very good condition from the 19th century. It shows lots of use, but the bores are clean and bright, and the action is tight and crisp, except for the hammer that was noted. It’s a wonderful window on the past that’s been preserved exactly as it was in its heyday.
Over the next few months, I’m going to get more familiar with this gun, in preparation to shooting it.
Ballard update
Some of you may be wondering what has become of my Ballard rifle. Well, my great idea of the special Hudson bullet didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. Apparently, I spec’ed the bore diameter a thousandth too large for the mold-maker, and the bullets are too difficult to push into the rifling. I have a bullet seater that’s supposed to work — and does with my smaller Lyman bullets that only go to 0.381 inches — but they don’t fill the bore all the way.
I’m going to try a couple different things to fix this. First, I’m going to shoot the rifle with loaded ammunition, using a 0.379-inch bullet so it’ll chamber and loading the cartridge with black powder to obturate the bullet. I’ll have to wipe the bore after every shot, but that was the way most shooters did it when this rifle was new.
If I get the accuracy I hope for (10 shots in a half-inch at 100 yards and 10 in two inches at 200 yards), I may invest in another hand-made Hudson bullet mold. But the rifle will really have to shine before I’m going to do that.
I’ve also found a place that will fit double-set triggers to my gun without modifying the original parts in any way. The current 7-lb. trigger-pull is one aspect that is keeping me from shooting my best.
I should have an update on shooting the Ballard sometime soon.
