http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/
http://www.glbarnes.com/
Less powerful than centerfire rifles costing a third as much, but interesting, in their own way, I thought...
The manufacturers claim to be able to hunt deer and boar with them.

The quackenbush look alright and are priced OK.
Those glbarnes are just plain ugly and damned expensive.
wonder what the Quanenbush 50cal with a skirted pellet would do vel wise.

Lewis and Clark took a .31 cal air rifle with them on their expedition, and they did take game with it. Though probably not the weapon of choice during their bear encounters.

The Lewis and Clark Air Rifle

�Proceeding On� To The Lewis and Clark Airgun - II

In the Spanish-American war, a naval vessel was equipped with airguns designed to fire dynamite-filled shells that couldn't withstand the impact of normal cannon. It was singularly ineffective.

I used standard about 500fps air rifle but with nitroglycerine filled pellets. Inredible performance after hitting bottle or someones ass ;-) (exploding after impact)

Jiri

FWIW- I have a Sam Yang .45 Big Bore pre-charged pneumatic and I swage 180 gr steep skirted bullets for it using a Corbin press. Accuracy at 3000psi is phenomenal out to 50 yrds. It will hit 750-800 fps. It will fully penetrate 3 inches of pressure treated lumber and I've killed one Black Tail Deer with it to date. Interesting weapon. Notyour basic BB gun.-Rob

This is big bore air gun (maybee not a air rifle )
From the Punkin Chunkin

Robgunbuilder,

Thanks for posting. I was wondering whether anyone would have any independent experience with these air rifles and fortunately one of our most experienced members has!

I would presume hunting animals as big as deer with these air rifles would also be a task for the experts due to their low power compared to centerfire rifles. In any case, any development in the field of gun design is fascinating to a learner like me.

Good hunting everyone and thanks for posting!

Anyone found any drawings of valve systems for such guns? I have wanted to make one for a long time. I am envisionng something along the line of a Benjamin pump up rifle. Maybe use a shock absorber tube for the pump tube and a muzzle loader barrel liner for the barrel?



I did make a demonstration gun to satisfy my curiosity. I used copper plumbing tubing for the barrel. The barrel is inside a piece of 2" tuning. The both ends are capped. The barrel pokes out the cap at the end of the outter jacket cap. The barrel goes almost to the breech end it is centered with three taps of metal that ride on the inside of the big tube. At the breech end there is a slider that is a push fit in the big tube and has a piece of leather bolted to the slider. The slider was made out to another copper plumbing cap that was a sliding fit inside the big tube. I did have to stretch it a tiny bit. The breech end outter cap has a fitting for an air compressor quick connect fitting.



To shoot, muzzle load it. Attach the compressor and charge it to 120 psi. When you do this the slider moves foreward and seals the barrel. Enough air leaks past the slider to charge the barrel jacket. When you release the air supply the slider is pushed rearward, because of the change in pressure on both sides of the slider. This allows all of the air in the jacket to be instantly dumped in to the barrel. I guess it works like quick dump air brakes used in trucks. I would estimate that I get 400 fps with a 50 cal ball. It shoots through 1/2" plywood. the trajectory over 40 yards is minimal, in other words it looks flat to my eye. I have not had the courage to put my chrony at risk.



The idea was to see what happens at low pressure with no restrictions, supplying a large quantity of air to the barrel. I thought it to be quite impressive.