Breakin' Fifty....

I'd like to draw your attention to Noli's latest project gun. Seems after our blood pressure raising export order run, he needed to do something to relax.

This Caiman started out with a standard tank and a 17 inch shrouded barrel. It now sports an extended Mid tank and reworked internals that help propel 21 grain .22 caliber Kodiak pellets at 1,050 ft/sec, giving it more than 50 Ft-Lbs. The 600cc, 3,000psi reservoir supplies enough air for 40 balanced shots. The new 24 inch HW barrel is still wrapped in a T3 aluminum shroud, and the black/pepper laminate stock was redone to take the medium tank. I believe the proud owner will be using it to compete in the local airgun benchrest competitions that are growing in popularity lately.



Here it is compared to a standard length shrouded Tornado.


A closer look at the butt plate...


The Mid tank it uses is 40.5mm in diameter, which puts it squarely between the standard (32mm) and the Bigboy (48.25mm). This new size reservoir looks promising as it offers a compromise between the size of the standard tank and the capacity of the Bigboy.

The local benchresters better watch out, this monster is the one to beat =)

The Export Saga Pt 1

Since Noli has finally gotten his buggy digital camera working (kinda), I can now partially relate the loooooong journey we've had in making our first export order a reality. I didn't want to start this essay without pictures, so I waited and hoped that somehow we'd be able to provide them. As our modern technology has provided instant gratification with digital pictures, it has also made sure we suffer the extremes of sorrow by making sure they can be gone in an instant via a hardware failure. So friends, the word for the DECADE is...BACKUP!

All great journeys start with the first step, so they say. Ours was much more complicated. As with most handmade components go, please excuse the mess, hehe.

First, the individual internal parts were turned and assembled.





Note our advanced tracking method: masking tape. =)




These are the one piece T6 aluminum receiver assemblies of the Caiman.


Reservoirs:


Barrels:


And, finally the single greatest feat accomplished by ONE fellow:



That's right, one guy made all that. I'm making sure he gets a big bonus.

So as you all can see, it wasn't easy. Some might be surprised at the seemingly rudimentary ways our rifles are created, but don't let that fool you. Most parts are CNC machined, with great care and precision given to their tolerances. Each airgun is then hand assembled and tuned to spec.

More pictures and the finished products on Pt 2. Stay tuned.