a little long between posting

it's been a while since I've made a post here...but...things are happening. things that have taken precedent over things that MUST be done versus things i WANT to do; things like TAX time...that being said, I'll comment further on my other BLOG, "Don't blame the legislators".

I've had to part with a few of my powder burners as of late and may have to part with more, times have changed...and not for the better.

as an example, i played back an incomplete recorded message on my telefone answering machine recently and it says that "they are trying to pass legislation to registers every long gun and shot gun purchased now"...i did not catch who "they" are...but again, i will address the subject on my other blog.

I've been getting more and more into the PCP air guns as of late. the peripheral support for these arms are not like any other in that there is VERY little in common with other methods of propulsion of projectiles...they're air/nitrogen-driven and utilize a valving system to release the propelling agent instead of igniting a propellant to drive a projectile.

with powder burners one must take precautions involving fire and fire prevention, with the air guns, particularly PCP, one must take precautions of working with HPA (High Pressure Air) the PCP's i have will run on 2500 PSI but are capable of holding 3000 PSI. "oh, that's not much", you say...well, consider this...your workshop compressor that you use to blow chips from your lathe, drill press or fill the wife's SUV tires with uses only about 80 lbs of compressed air to do those mundane tasks. the one i have, a Craftsman, is capable of delivering 150 PSI. that kind of air pressure wouldn't begin to power a PCP in .177 caliber, yet alone a .457, .308 or 9mm.

that's right...i said .457, .308 and 9mm...there are even bigger PCP air guns. air guns that are capable of taking large African game and have proven so. G. L. Barnes makes them in up to .60 caliber.

there are some negative involved, too. Price...and shots per air fill being two of the primary disadvantages.

price? a high quality PCP will usually start in the mid-to-high hundreds of dollars and rise rapidly from there. and that, like most firearms, does not, normally, include optics of any sort and more often than not, no sights of any sort are provided. but, like firearms, it doesn't limit the options...only you and your pocketbook limit them.

shots per fill? the higher the power, the more the air consumption per shot. it's that simple. just like a powder burner, the bigger the caliber/cartridge, the more propellant it burns per shot to drive the bigger projectile. a high-powered PCP will get some where around 5-10 shots per fill. not many considering what you may have to do to refill. you cannot carry the refill gear with you as you can cartridges. even as handy and portable as a hand pump is, it still cannot be comfortably carried with you like putting cartridges in a belt or back/fanny pack and it take considerably more effort than loading cartridges into a magazine of a rifle.

right now, i think one of the biggest reasons i am getting farther into PCP's is the fact they are not in as much of the sight of legislators as are firearms.

also, i can shoot them right here on my property (i live rurally) without fear of reprisal from law enforcement. even though it's not uncommon to hear gunshots here, i still prefer the "shrouded" barrels of a PCP. the paranoid laws of California are still in great fear of "silenced" firearms. California is in the "stone age" when it comes to firearms laws, remember.

my PCP's are powerful enough to hunt small game with and accurate enough to shoot serious accuracy with and yet are affordable and, for the moment, don't have to be "registered".

i guess I'll quit ranting for now and go do something productive