The "Nighthawk" and Airgun DIY Nirvana

Sitting down at the post office right now is the Walther "Nighthawk" by Umarex. It's undoubtedly a cool and interesting product, but my story related to it is kind of interesting as well. So stay tuned.... 

As you're aware few months ago when I started becoming interested in airguns, the Nighthawk was actually one of the first ones that I found on eBay. As you can imagine, I was hooked, right from the beginning. But for a variety of reasons, I decided against spending the $140 or so that it was bidding at on eBay and went with a brand new Walther PPQ (again, by Umarex). I've certainly not regretted that decision and the PPQ has been an accurate, solid, fun gun. 

Despite, subsequently picking up a wide variety of airguns long, short, more advanced as well as less advanced, I've never gotten the Nighthawk out of my head.

Let's examine it more closely and I'll describe what I ended up doing:

The "Nighthawk" as a product actually began back when Crosman had the Walther licensing and created several products copied from the"real steel" guns of that German manufacturer. These included the PPK, the P38, as well as the P99, a variant of which that was adapted to become the "Nighthawk". I know this because I now own one marked "Crosman"!

What's the story? After I let that first one go on eBay, I kept an eye out for them and found one about a month ago. Unfortunately it didn't have all the parts that make the Nighthawk, the "Nighthawk"......just the gun. But I it was cheap..... $26. Just the "magazine" which holds the CO2 cartridge cost more than that, so it was a good deal. The version that Crosman/Umarex uses as the basis is the CPSport, which is essentially a double-action only version of the more sophisticated (and more expensive), CP99 (which I'll get to later). What makes this airgun so interesting? First, it's barrel is threaded to take a screw-on "device". There's a "Tactical" version that has a compensator/muzzle-brake, or in this case, a faux suppressor. I guess you can call it a muzzle-brake if you'd prefer since there are holes all over it, but if those holes are covered and the space filled loosely, it would in fact function as a suppressor. Although the vast majority of modern pistols whether air or gun-powder driven have a accessory rail today, this one has a cage style mount attached to that rail which then gives it four rails, one of which is a long one above the the slide on which is mounted a "red-dot" optical sight. It also comes with a rail mounted flashlight which has a momentary switch.

So yeah, when fully loaded, this thing look like something from Star Wars Very Han Solo-esque.....  "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."

But, up until today, I didn't have one...... a factory constructed one that is...... 

So I set out to make my own. One that was better than the official version..... the Frugal Propellerhead way! Here's what I did. 

1. I bought a CP99. The most sophisticated version which had single-action trigger ability. It was $60, plus $10 shipping.
2. I found and bought a cage style mount that came from a Crosman C11. It was $15 after shipping and came with a rail-mount laser aiming device that now lives on the PPQ.
3. I tracked down a company in England that made an adapter which had a 1/2" x 28 thread for the CP99 which allows me to mount a "device" on the muzzle of the gun. It was about $20 in dollars after shipping.
4. I found a TruGlo red-dot optical laser sight which a local pawn shop was happy to sell me at $20 "out-the-door" (this means, tax included).
5. On Wednesday, a $30 device came from Wisconsin. It's solid and can't be an actual suppressor, but it looks every bit like one.

So, for $155, I made my own "Nighthawk", although, in fact, it was less since part of the $15 was for a laser sight that didn't end up being part of it and it's a better package period, since the gun is the more sophisticated SA model. 

So, despite the fact that the "Nighthawk" is out of production, it can be recreated with, patience, determination and a bit of luck.It should be a fun weekend comparing the actual thing against my home-built version. Labor Day couldn't have come at a better time!