A christmas present from my folks (Gun related)

[Lert]

So my mom and her husband surprised me with an unexpected christmas present this year.

 

Beauty.

 

I've always liked shooting, but living in a country where firearms are regulated and licenses are expensive and time consuming to get makes it impossible for me in my situation to really pursue the hobby. Fortunately, air rifles aren't nearly as regulated as firearms are. They're a lot easier to get, don't need a license, and a lot easier to shoot as you don't need to travel to a range to do so. They're not toys, though.

 

So for this christmas, they surprised me with a vintage Air Arms Khamsin air rifle in .22 caliber.

 

Very comfortable walnut stock with a 13.7" length of pull.

 

This gun shoots at around 17 joule. As for ammo seems to like JSB Jumbo best, a 1.03 gram (15.9 grain) roundnose pellet which it shoots at 221 mps (694 fps).

 

The Khamsin is the flagship model of a 1980's vintage series of taploading sidelever spring-piston air rifles from the British manufacturer Air Arms. Other rifles in this range include the SE90 with a basic sporter stock, Camargue with a fancy sporter stock and the Khamsin with a thumbhole stock. They all had the same basic action, the only differences were the stock and the length of the barrel. Mine is the top of the line model Khamsin with walnut stock.

 

Tap-loader. Drop your pellet in, flip lever back, done. You can see the end of the side-lever for cocking the spring.

 

The side lever fully pulled back, which takes quite a bit of strength to do.

 

The scope mounted is a basic, entry level 3-9x40. It's not really needed for what I intend to do with this gun, which is plinking and 10m and 20m target shooting, but this gun doesn't come with iron sights, and they didn't have a red dot or holographic sight lying around, so this is what I got. I'll make do I suppose, until I can get a red dot that I can fit on the 11mm dovetail machined in the action.

 

Khamsins are quite rare nowadays, having not been a very well-selling gun to begin with, and only having been manufactured for a few short years in the 1980s. Mine doesn't have much collector's value, both the stock and the action have been refinished at some time. However, the insides have been refurbished and tuned by a very experienced air gun tuner over here in the Netherlands, and my Khamsin's action and trigger are as smooth and crisp as any spring-piston air rifle I've ever shot, with no twang. The whole gun is solid and superbly finished, but a bit on the heavy side at 9 pounds as-is.

 

Yeah yeah I know, not as 'glorious' or amazing as an AR or Mosin or K98k, 'get a real gun', blah blah, but in my situation, this is a wonderful little piece of British engineering that will give me a lot of fun hopefully for a long time.

[khaenn35]

Meanwhile in Singapore, licenses for any firearm other than Nerf Rifles are from my knowledge near impossible to get (Though my school has a Shooting club with air Rifles). Looks like one hell of a beauty, Lert. Just don't shoot your computer with it.  

Edit: Meanwhile, the gifts I got from my parents are worth less than what online friends got for me...

[Triela50]

nevermind

[Lert]

rifles are firearms

 

Nope. 'Rifle' just means that it has a rifled barrel and a shoulder stock. And isn't a carbine.

[Patriot_games_1]

Very nice, I hope you enjoy it.

[Triela50]

 

[Lert]

 

fire·arm

ˈfī(ə)rˌärm/

noun

 

1. a rifle, pistol, or other portable gun.

    

    

   again not trying to be rude

 

k

 

You're still wrong.

[MexicanPanda]

That a mighty fine rifle Lert. Quite the interesting cocking mechanism. Must not have caught on that much, since I've never seen one that had the handle on the side.

 

Was thinking of getting an air rifle myself, but ended up getting a Sig P226 air pistol so I could shoot at home (have to drive an hour to shoot my real guns) and so my sister could work on her pistol skills since she says she wants to be a cop.

 

 

 

[Triela50]

removed

[Lert]

or you are so vain you refuse to admit you may be wrong?

 

Or are you really the kind of person that you just have to keep hammering on one stupid little word instead of just letting me enjoy my little christmas present thread?

 

It's an air rifle. Look it up and get over it.

[Lonewolfpj]

Nice thanks for sharing. 

[Boomax77]

*Activates haxor skills* GIMME DAT GUN OR I SEND PIZZA TO UR HAWZZ.

[I_Want_More_Cits]

Nice! At least guns are obtainable in the Netherlands, here in Australia it is all but impossible to actually own a gun unless you live on a farm lol.

[Pz_Jager]

That is a beautiful air rifle! Congrats!

[ACEpickles]

Congrats

[Lert]

Quite the interesting cocking mechanism. Must not have caught on that much, since I've never seen one that had the handle on the side.

 

Breakbarrels are still the most common, with underlevers in second place. Sidelevers didn't catch on no, though there's no telling why. Maybe people felt it unbalanced the gun?

[CrazyHorse_Denver]

Air gun Trivia...

I don't know who made the first air gun but they have been around for hundreds of years. The Lewis and Clark expedition took one along with them as hunting insurance incase something happened to their powder supply out in the middle of no where. From the expedition's reports the Native Americans were even more impressed with it then the regular guns.

[Triela50]

I was wrong my bad

[Lert]

I was wrong my bad

NP and merry christmas.

 

[xXxRCADDICT]

Congrats Lert! Air rifles are excellent training tools even for those of us that can own firearms.

 

Be safe they are not toys and can be just as deadly as their counterparts.

 

All that being said everyone should shoot a 50 bmg at least once in their lifetime.

[SirKenshi]

Pretty cool "toy" you got

Me and my cousin used to have similars ones, the two first ones had the actual gun barrel as "side" levers (opening the chamber to introudce the 4,5mm shell) and the last we had was a model very similar to yours, i cant even remember the model's name but it also had side lever like yours, 5,5mm caliber with iron sight, but we ended up adapting a somewhat mediocre scope on it (i managed the record shooting a plastic bottle at 100m) It was a very punchy gun, after firing it emit some gases when you open the chamber to reload(the previous ones didnt). I remember we broke a glassbottle with it, at like 15 meters, was hilarious.

Enjoy it Lert, looks a very beauty gun!

[MexicanPanda]

 

Breakbarrels are still the most common, with underlevers in second place. Sidelevers didn't catch on no, though there's no telling why. Maybe people felt it unbalanced the gun?

 

That would be my guess for it not catching on. It does seem kinda nice from an ergonomic view (if you're right handed), but I can definitely see the downsides.

 

Air gun Trivia...

I don't know who made the first air gun but they have been around for hundreds of years. The Lewis and Clark expedition took one along with them as hunting insurance incase something happened to their powder supply out in the middle of no where. From the expedition's reports the Native Americans were even more impressed with it then the regular guns.

 

 

They used a Girandoni, a repeating air rifle with pressure vessel in the stock.

 

 

Well, I learned something new with these little tidbits. =P

[TabbyHopkins]

Honestly, for not being a "gun", that's a cool looking rifle! With owning a....substantial number of rifles and pistol (44 firearms total o.o), many of them semi-automatic, it can be very easy to forget what joy a simpler weapon can bring. I just picked up a Mossberg 4x4 in .270 win-mag. We took that and a few other things to the range, an AR-15 included, and I could not put down the bolt action rifle. Sure, it's alot different than that air rifle, but "the basics" are fun.

[Hatework]

Nice looking rifle. 

[1Sherman]

Air gun Trivia...

I don't know who made the first air gun but they have been around for hundreds of years. The Lewis and Clark expedition took one along with them as hunting insurance incase something happened to their powder supply out in the middle of no where. From the expedition's reports the Native Americans were even more impressed with it then the regular guns.

 

Wow. However, I'd take the reports of the expedition with a grain of salt. Reports about First Nations peoples from those days aren't generally known for their accuracy (with the notable exception of David Thompson's journals from when he was mapping Canada's interior for the HBC).