34 AIRGUN WORLD http://www.airgunshooting.co.uk
AS AMERICAN
AS IT GETS!
Stephen Archer gathers his cowboy
gear and grabs a BB gun - what else?
AIRGUNS IN THE U.S.
O
ver the years, there has been a good
number of iconic American firearms. They
are guns that have caught the imaginations of
both shooters and the general public, making
their way into popular consciousness on this
side of the Pond.
More recently, there has been – and
continues to be – a swathe of firearms replica
airguns. Of course, these tend to be replicas of
iconic powder-burning originals. Few people
want to buy an airgun replica of some firearm
they’ve never heard of, or seen before.A TRADITION OF REPLICAS
This airgun replica craze is not a new
phenomenon, though. For example, back in
1966, Crosman introduced a very popular
replica air rifle, an airgun version of the M1
carbine. Pellet-firing, it was cocked by
pushing the barrel down onto the ground,prior to loading a pellet. It sold for 10 years, in
spite of the potential for some ruined barrel
crowns.
There are more replica airguns, too, in the
Crosman museum at their up-state New York
headquarters, but the current craze for
firearms replica airguns has been based
around CO2-powered, BB-firing models, and
they’re mainly pistols.
Standardising on 12 gramme CO2 capsules