Thursday, April 14, 2011

Airgun Finds at the Toys that Shoot Show Findlay, Ohio.

Not quite ready to get back to the Haenel 303-Super just yet, so I thought I'd share some of my finds from the Toys that Shoot Airgun show held last Saturday.

Bought several items from Ted Summers. Among them were a couple diopter sights.

Didn't know what kind this was at the time, but the quality was obvious. Turns out it's a relatively recent one from Weihrauch. Guess it's about 20 years old.

The front stop pin was missing. The pin threads into the sight body and a post fits into one of the 2 (or 3) recoil stop holes in the top of the compression tube. I had a Weihrauch scope stop in my parts box and the pin fit the sight perfectly. Mounted this up on my HW35E.

The second diopter was missing the aperture. It's completely unmarked but also conveys a sense of high quality manufacture.
Update from reader Duskwight: This is from Russian manufacturer IZH. It's typically found on their model 7-4 biathlon rifle. Thanks for the info.

Anyway, the aperture thread is M9 x 1mm--not the typical M9.5 x 1mm. Wait, I don't mean to suggest that M9.5 is a "typical" size--it's certainly not--but many of the high end sight companies have adopted this oddball thread size as a standard for the apertures. On this sight, there's not enough metal in the sight block to tap the M9 hole to the "standard" size. Already checked. I'll probably just turn a replacement aperture. The M9 die is already on the bench.

Yet another Crosman 2240. I don't recall who I got this one from. It was too inexpensive to pass up and I always have something I want to try with one of these as a base gun.

This was sitting on Don Raitzer's table. It's a Crosman 116. It's filled from a separate CO2 tank. Given the cosmetic impression, I almost passed on it, but the grips are in almost perfect shape and the action functioned flawlessly. The price was so right, couldn't lose. I got it home, found a tank and it gassed right up. Been holding ever since. It also hits to point of aim at 35 feet.

A holster for a Predom Lucznik.

Ted Summers was responsible for this IZH-60, too. He had a pile of these at the end of his table at fire sale pricing. Unsure where he got them, but he warned that they all needed internal work. Finally, Ted's speaking our language! This gun was on Nick's hit list so I found the best looking one and bought it for him.

But Nick had to pay my finder's fee--the metal cocking handle is going on my IZH-61 to replace the plastic one.

No sights. I have a front tunnel from my IZH-61, but I don't think it'll fit. The muzzle is finished differently from my newer model. I'll send it along when I ship the gun.

Forend cover is missing. Nick'll have fun with this one.

This .177 cal IZH-SJ22 was the big score for Nick. John Groenwald had it in the rack.

I can see now why this was on his list. It's got great lines.

The set back on the trigger makes the gun very comfortable to shoot.

Like the IZH-60, this one also needs work. It won't push a pellet down the barrel. I'm guessing that the piston seal is toast.

Raitzer got me again with this Belgian Hy-Score in .22 cal. I'd look at the gun, walk away, walk a lap of the show, look at the gun...always hoping someone else would buy it. In the end, I was glad it was still there.



This scratch is about the worst of the stock damage. I'll do minimal repair to this gun.

The checkering is everywhere. Literally, every single place you touch the gun is checkered.

Ha! Checkered.

On the way home from Findlay, I stopped at the Medina County gun show to pick up this .22 cal TF79 target gun from Guy Guzzo. I posted his Walther LG55 a few weeks ago and he worked out one heck of a deal on this gun as a thank you.

Really a nice rifle. The action is based on the old Crosman 160.

This model runs on two 12g Co2 cartridges or it can be bulk-filled.

Still has the preservative on it. Really appreciate it, Guy. I can't thank you enough.

Now, if I can just get them to hold the airgun show closer to home and 6 times a year...

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Toys that Shoot Airgun Show in Findlay, Ohio 2011

Yesterday, April 9th, 2011 was the sixth edition of the "Flag City Toys that Shoot" show in Findlay, Ohio. And again, show promoter Dan Lerma just knocked it out of the park. The tables were completely sold out and attendance was way up. For many of the sellers, it looked like old friends getting together again. The airgun community is remarkably tight-knit like that. In order to get this post up timely, I'm just gonna dump a bunch of pics with minimal text and let you guys just see a small portion of what was there.

Hey! I got the Sawmillers to smile.

Webley Senior

Vintage Hammerlis and Walthers

Hammerli Master CO2 target pistol.

Couple nice Walthers and a Haenel.

FWB 65...

Crosman 150's were in abundance, as were Smith&Wesson 78/79G's

Tons of Benjis, Sheridans and vintage Crosman pneumatic rifles.

Dennis Baker (wearing the hat)

Dennis Quackenbush with a few of his big bore PCP guns.





The Pyramyd Air table was jammed all morning. PA isn't hosting an open house this year, so I suspect that they packed for this show accordingly.

By 10Am it was hard to walk around the side aisles.

Richard Gentry

Randy Mitchell



Theodore Summers--professional airgun afficionado. Always one of my favorite guys to see. He manages to find the coolest stuff.









Saw quite a few MK1 and 2's

Don Raitzer (not pictured--????) Made me buy a beautiful Belgian Hy-Score 801 and a Crosman 116--also not pictured. Yet.

Ingvar Alm had tables full of guns, each rarer than the next. MK 1's, 150's, Acvokes, ball flask pistols, a Giffard pistol...









Well known Yellow Forum member Steven Joseph was there again with a few really sweet guns. But he tells me that his son was outselling (and out horsetrading) him all day. He was pretty proud of that.

Oh, there were a couple Daisy's, too. Hundreds of them in fact.

Just racks and racks of airguns

I was in heaven.

Ed Dohse

BB guns, tinplates, bugelspanners, you name it.







Vic Lanzotti and Pat Keebey



Kevin Hull was out on good behavior.

Tom Slocum had his submarine commander watch going on and kept me laughing the whole time. I really enjoyed talking to him. He was actually fixing a gun for someone during the show!

John and Linda Groenwald. John sold me a neat IZH SJ22 for co-blogger Nick at a great price. --Don't tell him, It's a surprise.

I absolutely missed getting pics of so many great people and interesting items.

Dan, I can't thank you enough for all your hard work. Congrats on a fine show.
If you think you want a table (or tables) for next year, I'd encourage you to contact Dan Lerma at
419-422-9121.