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Chameleon
New Post at bottom
of page 5-31-02 (32 kit)
This is the latest development from
Barnes Pneumatic.
Christened "Chameleon" because
it can take on many appearances and be formatted in many power
ranges and calibers. The rifle you see here weighs approx. 7 lb.
with scope and is approx. 39" long total. And, this is with
solid materials and a quality solid wall steel pressure reservoir.
This is the prototype. This stock design
will be called the "Classic", but it's only one of dozens
of possible styles the rifle will accept. Various reservoir/barrel
combinations are possible. The action can even be set up as a
hunting sized pistol.
Chameleon can be crafted in .177, .20,
.22, .25, .30, .32, and 9mm. There's quite a few unique features.
Let's take a look.
The receiver section of the Chameleon.
The first format I'm testing is the .177 sporting format. I've
mounted a nice short 4 by 32 long eye relief scope. Very quick
to acquire targets. A nice little scope which fits perfectly on
the rear dovetail section. For bigger glass, the front receiver
section is also dovetailed in standard 11mm 60 degree rails.
My new test pilot "Kelly"
... we've created a threat here boys. She's a darned good shot!
And she likes the Chameleon. Hummm.
Here Kelly shows you the loading port.
That center receiver section rotates aside to reveal the direct
loading port.
Yes, you can load it either side and
the stock is ambidextrous. Just drop the pellet in the trough
and scoot it into the breech. Rotate closed. Done. Nice to also
be able to check and confirm if the breech is actually loaded
if you've paused to chat (or if you are over 45).
Barnes logo is machined into the solid
aircraft aluminum receiver housing. The aluminum is all polished
out. (This is my "Chrome Camo" finish)"
Action is an exposed rear hammer design.
Rifle mechanism is adjustable for power.
I've enjoyed shooting this format from about 300 fps to well over
1,000 fps with CP 10.5 grain pellets. Modifications, adjustments,
and swap outs are simple and easy. Turn it down to around 600
fps and this thing just doesn't seem to use air!
I'll make up some price grids soon.
I'll be playing with this one for some months to come. Configuring
it in many formats and many calibers. It's been great fun. I thought
some of you guys might like something like this. It's hardly a
duplicate of any factory product and it expands your shooting
opportunities when you can't get to the range. A great little
hunter around the property and a toy you can buy accessory items
for in years to come.
Kelly and I sat in the back yard and
"plinked away" silently with the Chameleon for hours
this afternoon. Yet the same rifle can be formatted for serious
varmint work when the opportunity and range becomes available.
There you have it. Another model from
an idea, to paper, to steel. It's been a fun project.
Another Optional Format ...
The Great Memorial Day Challenge!
Weather turned nice just in time. We
broke out the Chameleon and set up the range. Now, here at home,
we can only shoot light small bore alittle over 20 yards. It was
enough.
The Chameleon is currently set up in
a "home varmint/sporter" mode. A 4 power scope works
fine for quickly finding pests. It's not what you'd call a "Target
Choice", but - it added a sporting quality to the challenge
@ 20 yards.
The contestants: Kelly Barnes (challenger),
Gary Barnes (defending champ).
Targets: 3/4" sticky dots with
"hole reinforcements" pasted over the center. Makes
a wonderful target. Try it.
The prize: Looser cooks dinner.
We shot a few rounds and then the challenger
was up first.
Let's score this ... We agreed to a
center of 10 points, a white ring of 5 points, and a outer ring
of 1 point per hit. Touching a ring (lead stain) counts for score.
One shot at each of five spots. So .... She's got three centers
(3 x 10 = 30). And two white rings (2 x 5 = 10). Total: 40 points.
The Defending champ is up ...
And delivers this card. Let's see ...
3 centers (3 x 10 = 30), and 2 rings (2 x 5 = 10). Total 40 points.
hummm .... tie. We'll do another round.
And Kelly's up again.
let's see .... 3 centers (3 x 10 =
30), and 2 rings (2 x 5 = 10). Total 40 points.
Pc. of cake ...
Gary's up
And, ahhh .... 3 centers for (3 x 10
= 30 points), and 2 rings (2 x 5 = 10) ... for 40 points!!! Tie
again??
Then, as we were about to start grilling,
the phone and Standing Stone business tied me up for about half
an hour or so. At the end of which, the burgers were done. he
he he. Very sneaky ....
Thanks for dinner and nice shooting
Kelly. Next time we'll have to use a bit more than 4 power glass.
But, it was great fun. And this little PCP shoots great!
Posted 5-31-02
Initial 32 Kit Testing
Part of today's production was the
functional completion of the 32 caliber kit for the Chameleon
project. It's not cosmetically complete, but mechanically complete
enough to assemble and shoot. The rifle switches over from .177
to .32 in less than five minutes. It's a "tailgate"
job. A few lock screws loosened, slip this off, slip that on,
align, snug down, put the previous kit away. I spent a good bit
of thought to make it all work so smoothly.
So, what's it do?
This particular barrel is my own 32.
(That will be an option - Barnes barrels that is). I had this
one which I finished up at approx. 22 1/2 inches. This set-up
brings the rifle to approx. 41" total overall length. The
barrel is on a carrier/mount. For major caliber/power changes,
such as .177 to .32, each barrel has it's own carrier. Swapping
the carrier swaps the barrel. Once again, for such a broad jump,
the center rotational section is swapped out as well. If you just
wanted to jump from say .177 to .20, you could just swap barrels
and nothing else.
As set up for today's tests, the 32
kit shoots the 49 grain 32 round ball at approx. 850 fps. You
get eight good level shots, stretch that to 10 with one at each
end of your string with just alittle wider velocity spread. I
make a 64 grain 32 caliber slug called the Hornet. Tom Basile
casts bags of them for me. They fly at approx. 775 fps. as tuned
tonight. That makes the round ball about 75 foot lbs. and the
Hornets about 85-90 foot pounds. A very nice power bracket - all
off of just 2,600 psi. Once again, I target this psi bracket in
order that your tanks last longer. If you design a PCP to "Need"
3,000 psi, then you starve it after the first tank fill.
I know, you are waiting on the price
grids. As I promised, it will be a bit less than the state of
the art bench PCP's.
What we have here is a very versatile
handmade PCP. With a few kits, it can do 90% of anything you'd
probably want a PCP for.
Thanks for watching. More soon as I
fill in the testing among the orders.
Posted 6-15-02
The first Falcons through the 32 Chameleon.
This is five shots, in the rain, at 35 yards with a little 4 power
scope on it. I rested the rifle over a bunny ear bag on top of
a couple of sandbags. Rear just against my shoulder. Couldn't
even see where the the slugs were striking with that little 4X.
I was amazed when I saw the group. Take a look at the web.movie
of this session if you wish. It's long - might take 15 minutes
to load with a 64K modem. You need Quicktime 5 and a current web
browser. You can download both, free, from http://www.tucows.com