I was looking thru my "collection" of about 1800 gun pics (both pyro and pneu ) that Ive saved over the years. Reviewing them can help solve design issues, or tell you the design is not gonna work......

When I metntioned it, I had it down to about 200, and these below show, I think, what I was looking for: aesthetic interest, ergonomics and manufacturability. Yes, thats a real word. It refers to how easily something can made, or what efforts have to be made to make it easy to produce.
So with that in mind..... (think I got them all on here...)



The first two here show a couple of EDGun's bull pups. They are essentially the same design (some detail is different), but rendered in different materials. ED (his real first name, he's russian) is using a CNC machine to cut the stocks. But I figure as blocky and linear as the design is, a set of templates and plunge router can recreate something like it..



This one could easily be cut from a pattern.Notice though its not as "sharp" or as well executed as the EDGun design. One of the yellow tubes is the air resevoir, and the other is the barrel shroud.




These left and right images are of a DaveG design. If you study them hard, I can visualize being able to cut the basic shape with router, and them a fair amount of hand work with files and rasps and lots of sandpaper. Unlike some other builders, DaveG has been fairly silent on his processes



This is the buttstock of a 10 metre stock. I included it cuz it shows how you could reduce the mass of a stock and still keep the lines and manufacturability. Sometimes simple design changes can make a huge difference in the ease of fabrication



The Skorpion. Developed by ComBlock countries, this .32 machine pistol has become the favorite of assassins in the South Americas. Its included here because of the routed slots in the pistol grip. Looks like another template is in my future.



Gary's Yukon buttstock hit me with 3 things (4 if you count how gorgeous it is, but we're not talking about that right now )
First is the "wedding band" stock attachment. If you cant hide the attachment points, celebrate them and make it obvious bling. Second is how the concave area behind the trigger assembly reduces how massive the stock would have looked, and lastly, the concave area serves an ergonomic function for your trigger hand



Disregard for a moment how beautiful this gun is. Considering it from an ergonomic standpoint, its almost perfect (except for the wieght, but this is not a gun you would hump in the woods all day).



Another of Gary's seemingly simple designs, but if you examine it carefully, you'll see alot of complex curves that would be impossible to replicate with a router setup. I included this one purely for the aesthetics.



This gun is pure attitude, and adjustable ergonomics. the buttstock can be adjusted for all sizes and shpaes of shooters, helping to ensure repeatable consistancy--hoepfully manifesting as great accuracy. It also has along linear shape that I like, and red is cool.


Another of Gary's. Stretching the psuedo-tryolean detail from the Prairie buttstock makes a more traditional cheekpiece, but still full of complicated curves. Pleasing to the eye, not to the fabricator........



This guns reeks of "Old West Minimalism". about as plain and simple as it gets, yet note the ergonomic elements of buttstock and hook.



I like the long simple lines of this gun. Those lines could be made fairly easily with the router. Dan Kueng (pronounced "king".... he's swedish or something....) from bluelinestudios.com makes a series of semi custom guns based on his stock designs and highly reworkd RWS 52 actions.



While not possible to build from templates and routers, the guys over at rimfirecentral.com have figured a way to build very cool stocks by adding and shaping wood to existing Ruger 10/22 stocks. Smooth and fill with bondo, a hot rod paint job and this is what you get. Thumbholes and pistol grips are also built using the same build up technique.




These two pics are conceptual designs I found on a Russian forum (yes, the russians have been a big design influence. Dont know why...). What intrigues me is the buttstocks. The red/blue gun has a competition feel to it (think 10 meter) and the other has a more tradtional hunting feel. Both could be done with templates and ye old plunge router. Note the shape of the pistol grips.



This grip set caught my eye because of the roundness. Very derringer like. Was thinking maybe something like this could be created off the rifle, then attached later after the rest of the stock was fabricated. Different than the AR15 ergo grips that seem to dominate the pistol grip crowd...


This on set me back for three reasons: one, the finger groove on the fore stock, second the long clean grain of the gun (and we all know how Gary feels about wood grain) and for the biggest trick all day, the stock attachment screws are hidden or relocated. Look close, its a break-barrel



This pic shows 3 stocks for Benji Sheridans from a guy in England named Ora. He came up with a way of "laminating" diminsional number into stocks that are, well, ugly in the traditional sense, but way cool in terms of fabrication and ergonomics. the stocks are known as "stick stocks" and anre made in such a way to help pumping efforts. Was thinking that building one in a way that could be disassembled, and use the pieces as your pattern for shaping and machining


I dont understand why people would buy a gun like the monsoon when for not much more money you can get a Barnes.... but thats just me. No way a pattern and router setup could get this going, but some hand work could. The thumbhole seems small compared to some, but the over all affect is beautiful.


So there are the pics Ive been studying. Design, always the hardest part of building........... My trouble is, anytihng Ive built has always wound up somewhat different than the orginal drawing/design. and thats one of the reasons I'd like to work from a pattern, so I can reproduce them true to the original design intent........



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2008 09:59PM by dan_house.

Thanks for posting Dan. There are some very interesting designs there. You are clearly not stuck in a rut!

WOW!! That's about all i can say. You even made those springer look Fantastice and totally unique. Thanx for posting those.

Hey Gary ........look, bullpups!!!!!

Joebill

Hey Bill ...

I thought of you when I saw those. Wondered when you'd notice those ...

Gary

Bullpups? Gary?

soemthing Ive missed? oo oo a Barnes bullpup? Ok, spill the beans you two....

Here's an idea...

not my idea but an idea!

This was a quick CG rendering. But the details are in the files for it.

Joebill is waiting for one, as one of his ledger spots.

Gary

Actually .... the #2 Barnes (have to dig up the pic) was a type of Bullpup. I'll look.

Here ya go: [www.glbarnes.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2009 11:08PM by barnespneumatic.

I thought to add this one, because I found it very interesting (and it's one of those EDGun based bullpup designs). Edguns are very inventive sort of airguns, though now when I have became incresingly familiar with Barnes designs I could say that no airgun is as inventive as Barnes airgun.

have a look for bobcat airguns , i dont have a link , or xbandm in a google search , bulls are reall cute , i have a pic somewhere of a savana , i think , one of garys older designs that was as nice as any of them ,,, but ,,,, hint , hint , id still like to see garys take on a styer alutech styled stock ,,, in carbon and alu ,,, oh err , just as bad for you as wallnut ,, lol

Oh yeah! Grinding Carbon fiber??? No thanx.

Hey ... great ... ... I've been looking for a "project" ... haha. You trying to get me killed???

Gary