WHAT'S NEW?
Finished Photos
Below 2-13-02
return to home page
Everything Old is
New again!
You may have heard some of this story
before, but; since you've tuned in to this page, I know you have
the time to hear it again. So ... the story goes like this ....
There once lived a very handsome airgunsmith who made a Ranger 97/25
magnum. In the same forest lived an evil "Hacker" who
bought the rifle, from the handsome airgunsmith, and proceeded
to do unspeakable things to it. Worst of which was to sell it
to the next guy and represent it to be in "As New" condition.
Well, the "Next
Guy",
realizing he'd been "Had" by the evil hacker, sent the
rifle back to the handsome airgunsmith. "What's up with this
poor PCP, handsome airgunsmith?" asked the "Next Guy".
Upon which, the
handsome airgunsmith (I love that part), examined the poor PCP and almost
dropped his magnifying glass in his bowl of porridge! "Holy
Pipe Wrench!!!" said the handsome airgunsmith. An "Evil
Hacker" hath wrought mischief upon this poor PCP. And thou
"next guy", beist screwed royally indeed".
Whereupon the "next guy",
scratching his chin thoughtfully, began to wonder what wheat might
yet be saved from among the chaff ....
**********************
Fast forward ....... a few months.
It's been decided to bore out the ruined receiver from 25 to 32
caliber. A new 32 cal. Barnes barrel will be fitted to replace
the suspicious 25 Barnes barrel showing evidence of being poked
and prodded with a hard object. The old bolt was toast as was
the tracking lug. New parts were fabricated. A new billet machined
barrel clamp (to handle power upgrade) and trigger guard (to match)
were fashioned. The receiver/lower body interface was upgraded
to handle the greater power on tap. Power plant and trigger block
remain the same.
As yet incomplete (cosmetics and bluing
of barrel and bolt assembly to come), but you get the idea.
This was a range session to determine
the outcome of the rebuild.
Very nice and light. Even with the
original small schedule reservoir, we now have a solid three shot
sweet group on tap @ approx. 100 ft. pounds of muzzle energy.
That's shooting a custom designed Barnes slug of 70.6 grains @
801fps. And.... since the handsome airgunsmith had
had the foresight to design the original pcp as a medium pressure
power plant, the fill for these neat ballistics is a meager 2,350
psi. A SCUBA tank lasts sooooo much longer.
How's it group?
_
_
_
Not too shabby! I robbed a scope off
of the Ranger 2002 and clamped it on for this test.
Those are all 50 yard 3 shot groups.
Various scope settings.
And now ... for
one of the morals of our story. When
I began offering these Ranger 97 models about six years ago at
a base of $495US, I'd often get all manner of helpful suggestions
regarding the design. The suggestions covered that narrow bracket
from A-Z. And pretty much everything was deemed to need help by
the "Pundits". That base cost "included" the
custom stock (a source of much hand wringing by those who claimed
to know).
Here we are in 2002. The $495 base
is ancient history. I hear the rifles are being resold at 3 to
4 times that price. Even after rough treatment. Here you see the
story of one that was "toast" which I've rebuilt for
it's new owner. Why bother? The rifle was solidly built. It's
pedigree was deemed worthy of the additional re-build expense.
The current wait on a new order is significant. Still, I hear
stories of customers being offered profits on their rifles before
they have even been delivered to them. In 2002, for the quality
of work delivered and the performance displayed, I constantly
hear that the work is a bargain.
Here's the reason for the wide bottom
shelf which tapers to the reservoir tube.
Rebuild complete
... final Pics.
New Bolt and Barrel
.... ready for the range or the fields.
Original Taffy Color
Rock Maple stock untouched
Bored and reamed
to 32 caliber.
Refinished Action
The inspiration
for the new Ranger 32 series
Link to Pricing
Grids on Ranger Series
Back to Barnes
Pneumatic Home Page