Father-Son (and family) Bonding Via Airgun

As much as I'd have loved to have had this with my son, it wasn't/isn't destined to be. He isn't particularly land-sport oriented (although he's quite good in the water), and as someone who's been a professional coach most of my life....I'm a little too intense to do that with my own son. 

So, our father-son bonding time has come by way of the "air-gun". As I discussed in my last post, our neighborhood squirrels led to the purchase of a pellet/bb pistol....the Umarex licensed Walther PPQ....and it turned out that my son absolutely loves to shoot it. Well...as it turns out....loves to shoot period! Who'd-a-thunk-it! A teenage boy loves to shoot things.....

 It turned out that I was right....and wrong. The PPQ is a fine shooting little gun, but I'm not really comfortable with it's accuracy and power (mostly power) as related to squirrels. On top of that, I got really interested in airguns. My wife would use the word obsessed, but I think she's over stating my new little hobby. It could be worse: I could have gotten into Harleys! Although I must say that she might have a bit of a point....as we shall see....

 

.....so anyway.....I got interested in airguns and also the various Walther P99/CP99/CPSport replica. As it turns out, there are a variety of them that range from "Airsoft" to BB only, to BB/Pellet, to Pellet only to the truly weird and interesting.....

"Nighthawk"... I guess, it's the gun you'd use if people put out "contracts" on squirrels!

 

Which apparently is "out-of-production". Yeah....you guys know that's like waving a red flag in front of my face! Before I get into the Nighthawk, I'll discuss why my wife rolls her eyes and talks about my "arsenal". First I tracked down the highest spec'd version of the P99 which as depicted above is the military green variant. It is (like the 9mm firing) P99 is "double-action" as well as "single-action" complete with the functioning decocker on the slide. It's very accurate, but pellet only. They were made in Germany, mostly of metal and feels every bit like that description. It's also somewhat more accurate than the PPQ. Don't know if it's the feel, the single-action trigger, legendary Germany workmanship or what. It just is. Then came the Airsoft P99....why? Ahhh.....because it was like $12 after shipping so I picked it up. No....I have ZERO thoughts of becoming one of those Airsoft "warriors" running around in the woods shooting each other. The version I'm really interested in is the Nighthawk. 

As you can see, there are quite a few interesting parts to it. The basis of it was an in-between model of the Umarex CP99 otherwise called the CPSport which is just like my other CP99 except there's no single-action feature (I know: weird for the concept). As you can see, other than the case, it comes with a Picatinny/Weaver rail mount, electronic Red-dot sight, and a pressure-switch activated "tactical flashlight. Oh, there's also a mock suppressor. 

And now, through the magic of eBay; I've picked up all the versions. I got the green DA/SA CP99 for $75 which is half what they normally cost, albeit that it didn't come with the original case, spare backstrap, and spare magazine. Then yesterday, I picked up the Nighthawk for roughly $27, although again; it's missing parts, but chasing down the parts and assembly my own will be part of the fun. 

 

In the meantime, I found these. What are "they"? It replicates a category of gun called a personal defense weapon (PDW) and the subcategory of pistol conversion kits. The above is the airgun version called the Umarex TAC Converter (more on this later).

In the real steel/polymer world they look like this; most famously by a company called CAA (spin-off of the Israeli armaments world) RONI, which are typically made to work with the various Glocks since those guys are now the ubiquitous side-arm of the world. Jumping back up to the Umarex version above, it comes with the parts to convert several of their airguns to mount in it and to be used as a shoulder-fired weapon. As you can see, it comes with the commonly seen Picatinny rails allowing it to mount stuff and the muzzle has a 1/2" by 28 thread suppressor attachment point as well (which is depicted in the images). As you've probably surmised; I bought one. I actually bought it for my son since it comes with a smooth-bore gun that allow him to shoot cheap BBs till his heart content at the target box I built..... yes, I build a target box.....

Then came this.... the Bear River Sportsman 900

Then this.... the Black Ops Sniper. My version of the story-line isn't going well is it? Anyway.... I was in a pawnshop..... when I saw the Sportsman pump rifle on the wall. They wanted $25 for it. I didn't even bargain. It's a pump-action, .177 pellet/BB gun that will allow my son to go out and shoot without having to burn up CO2 cartridges. He can pump it anywhere from 2-3 times all the way up to 10 depending on what (and how far) he wants to shoot. It came with a little scope, but it wears an inexpensive Daisy red-dot sight now (another story). Then, not too long thereafter, I saw an ad for the Black Ops Sniper that you see depicted below. It's what's called a "break-barrel" spring-piston design. The pump gun will do 600-800 feet per second with a pellet. The Sniper will do 1000-1200 feet per second....... yeah. It's a lot of firepower (in airgun terms) and it was a steal at $80. It comes complete with bipod and scope as you see it, although I've already installed a much nicer 3-9x scope that was picked up at another (you guessed it) pawn shop for $20 "out-the-door". The squirrels haven't got a chance!

Although our family isn't exactly this yet, we seem to have come up with something new to do as a group. I do mean we, since I've gotten my wife to shoot the pistol and hit some cans, plus now my daughter is campaigning to have her own BB gun as well! I don't know if this is going to send some of my reader running since I've revealed myself as part of a "lunatic fringe element of society", but it is a part of us these days and I'll take the trade-off if it means that my kids are likely to do something other than have there noses stuck in an electronic device all day.