Hi Sean, and all ...

No pics yet - but I'm moving the ball along. We'll get there now.

I've decided to go with the modification we discussed, back when. We'll need a new sub-title for this innovation. We're gonna make it a slide breech. This will move the scope rail forward, for improved placement. And, the best thing ....

I'll include the 32 insert we discussed. With the slide breech, we omitt the need for a second complete bolt housing for the sub-caliber. The main barrel will be threaded on the muzzle's exterior. The insert will have a hub to interface with those threads. The breech of the 32, will be accessed thru the same breech cover as the 62 smoothy. You should literally be able to change caliber in a minute.

The upgrades, of which there will be quite a few ... are a gift. I very much appreciate your extreme patience.

Working on the firing valve now. As you recall ... a while back ... I made tooling to draw the interior of your stainless smoothie 62 barrel. I wanted to improve the surface ... and it did. Now that I've completed the details for the breech swap .... I can make the tower and receiver billet.

Thanks for being willing to alter the order. I'm sure that you will find it to be a unique pc. Just for readers ... the orig. said nothing about a sub caliber insert. Based upon the extreme testing done by Jerry, with his Woodsman Prototype and subcaliber insert ... I've really become sold on the concept. (Wish I had one too .... hahah)



Gary

Hey Gary,

Why is it that every time I hear of one of your improvements I think, " I want one of those too!"

Hi Sean,



Boring a valve body casing for you ...



Needed a special boring/reamer ... made this for your job ..



Worked a bunch on your stainless frame/reservoir tube. Here it is on the sanding lathe ...



Gary

All I can say is WOW! It's pretty exciting to see cut metal with my name on it, but it's even more exciting to see that it's going to be the prototype for the new sub-caliber insert system. The fact that it's simpler than the existing system is a bonus as well; years of flying helicopters has left me with an appreciation for simplicity when it comes to mechanical systems.

What's not there can't break, doesn't go out of adjustment, and never needs maintenance.

I sense anticipation in the force...

We're gonna do the insert in 308.

Barrel is already pulled.

Remember the old ketchup advertisement on TV?

Aaaannnnnticipaaaaationnn.....it's making me wait.....

I guess this means that I'd better get off my duff and nail down a committment from the fire chief about getting tanks filled. They're the only game in town for high pressure air, and the nearest dive shop is a five-hour ferry ride away.

Hi Sean,

A five hour ferry ride is a small price to pay ... to shoot ... ... hahaha.

You need to save your Starbucks money for a compressor. OR ... you can always shoot it on Nitrogen. Do you have a welding supply business anywhere? I'd think you might. The guns operate the same on Nitrogen. You rent a big nitrogen tank - park it in your garage. Fill small tanks off of that base station.

Gary

No luck on nitrogen either, it's a shipping issue. Due to geographical issues, almost all of the freight is hauled up here by barge from Seattle/Tacoma. While it is possible to actually just drive to my town (a distinct rarity in S.E. Alaska) there's a lot of Canada in the way when coming up from the lower 48. Pretty much all the mail is flown in by small planes, and UPS and Fed Ex are standing jokes around here. The nearest "brown truck" is about 750 miles and two border/customs crossings from here. FedEx is the worst, since they just ship stuff to Anchorage, and then literally mail it to where I live via the US Postal Service.

There are a couple of guys that do welding in town, especially aluminum, since there are quite a few aluminum fishing boats in Alaska. They all have the same problem, which is that it's very expensive to get argon here. Pretty much anything in a pressurized cylinder is considered hazmat for shipping purposes, whether it's oxygen, acetylene, nitrogen, CO2, or whatever. That means that it can't ship with the regular freight, and has to travel up on specific barge shipments at specific times. I don't think it's really a safety of life issue like it is with shipping by aircraft, since the barges are pulled hundreds of feet behind the big tugboats. I think it's more of a "let's consolidate all the onerous hazmat paperwork into one big batch for the Coast Guard" issue. It's a pain in the ass, either way. For some gasses it's possible to get tanks filled in Whitehorse, Canada, the capital of the Yukon province. It's only about a five or six hour drive when the passes are clear. Unfortunately, they also have to truck their stuff up quite a ways from Edmonton or Calgary, and then you have to deal with the border crossing coming back into the U.S. The local microbrewery gets it's CO2 this way, but they buy enough so that they only have to do it once a year.

Don't ask me what you have to do as far as getting reloading supplies up here, especially primers.

But now the good news, I talked to the local fire chief and he said "no problem" with getting fills at the fire station. They have a big Mako compressor with an eight bottle cascade system for storage. Their air pacs have carbon wrapped bottles that they fill to 4500 psi, just the ticket! He apologised that they can't go any higher than 5000 psi...

On the other hand though, they have some used aluminum scuba tanks that I can get for a very good price that are out of hydro. I can take them down and get them tested, and could be into air in the 3000-3500 range for far less than a new carbon tank...hmmm.....

Hello Sean,

I have a bunch of old SCUBA tanks too. The aluminum 80s will not last long. They are 3k fill tanks. Very heavy. Not much air for a big gun. All the Al80s use K valves. You need a fill yoke to use those.

An aluminum 100 is usable. Alot more air ... and the fill psi is 3,300 psi. That helps. I think my AL100 is a DIN valve.

Don't pay very much for a used tank that's out of test. Really.

There's no comparison of the old tanks to carbon fiber. Even an aluminum 80 seems ten times the weight of a carbon tank. Also, make sure you get the bigger carbon tank ... if it is going to be your only tank. A smaller carbon ... say 30 .... might be a good hunting tank. Not a main tank.

There are old steel SCUBA that fill to 3,500 psi. Those are DIN head tanks. Might be decent ... but heavy.

Excellent that the fire buds will fill for you. That's the way to go. Ask them when they rotate out a carbon tank that they have. They might sell ya one.

Gary

I recommend going with a CF tank right off the bat, you save all the money you would spend on the AL tanks and then getting a CF tank!

Rumor has it that's it's actually cheaper to run the "cheap" scuba tanks and get a booster pump. Supposedly you more fills per tank as well. I have no first hand experience with this, but it's been discussed quite a bit on some other forums. Here's a link to where some guys have picked up the pumps. They can be run off 1 scuba feeding both inlets for the pump, so you only need 1 tank (but could do 2 if you wanted to lug them around)


Of course this doesn't allow you tether directly the way many do here and it doesn't help with weight. You'll have to decide what's best for you and how you shoot. But it's an idea.

Thanks for all the opinions and options. I'll have to see how big the surplus aluminum tanks are and what they're going for. The volunteer fire department here in town had planned to get a scuba team going....until the borough saw what it did to their insurance premium.

I wish I'd have thought ahead a bit on this one, since Airhog is located in Cedar Crest New Mexico, about thirty minutes away from Albuquerque. I was there just last month visiting family.

hi guys , steer clear of older ali tanks , new ones are better , steel is safe but heavy , cf for shooting , pay the price , often they turn up on flea bay , divers dont touch them so they can work out ok cost wise ,,,
as for booster pumps , far too expensive and way too much hassle , you could buy a second hand small dive compressor for the price of a booster.
just my thoughts , , and a wear a tank a lot of the time