I Like Big Bores

What sucks wind faster than a corrupt mayor answering the door to a 60 Minutes camera crew? A big-bore airgun, that’s what. In more scientific terms, each time you fling a lead ingot downrange you’re using enough air to have its own gravitational field. That’s OK though because air is free (unless you live in New York City).

Anyway, I recently had a “freedom delivery” — a Gamo TC-45 big-bore air rifle, complete with a suppressor, dropped off right at my front door. No papers, licenses, or cavity searches required.

Under Pressure

The TC-45 is a single-shot, bolt-action with a 480cc carbon-fiber air reservoir that performs double duty as a buttstock — the primary reason the front end is so slender and normal in appearance. Opposite the quick-connect Foster air fill fitting is a manometer (pressure gauge) to show air-pressure status. Reminiscent of a lever-action rifle, the triggerguard acts as a cocking mechanism and opens and closes the breech for loading. It has a “half-cock” for lower power and more shots per fill. Then there’s the “full-cock” for big power to take down a Yeti.

So how much air does it take to get the lead out? The tank itself contains 250 bar (a fancy way of saying 3,600 psi — or 112.5 times as much as the tire on my Toyota Sequoia).

All this pressure will give you maybe five full-power shots with a heavy projectile. If you want more shots, use the lower power setting and trade velocity for volume. But however you shoot it, you’ll need an external air cylinder (think a higher-tech SCUBA tank) because using a hand pump will simply give you a coronary — trust me; in the name of science and journalism, I tried. After leaving the ER I began using a 75-cubic-foot carbon fiber tank from Omega Air Cylinders. It packs 4,500 psi of air and includes its own manometer and a high-pressure fill hose.

Wal-Mart doesn’t sell .45 caliber pellets, so I called Hunters Supply. You know how sometimes you get a feeling something is meant to be? I had this when I finally reached David, the head lead-projectile guru there. It took several tries because he was always on the test range. I figured that was a good omen. David quickly sent a variety of lead “pellets” ranging from 138 to 411 grains, including jumbo pellets, round balls and solid lead slugs. Hunters Supply makes these projectiles with a .457″ diameter, but there’s nothing wrong with trying your rifle with projectiles a bit smaller. Any airgun will have distinct preferences for ammo types and this one was no exception. The best 50-yard groups came from the 150-gr. jumbo pellet (0.87″) and 310-gr. FP slugs (1.22″).

Ft.-Lbs. — Coin Of The Realm

In the airgun world, foot pounds are the language currency, not velocity or pellet weight. By this yardstick, the TC-45 shoots with similar power as a broad range of centerfire handguns. At the lower end was the 138-gr. “Pellet-Zilla” clocking in at 882 fps and generating 238.4 ft.-lbs. of energy — significantly more than the average .380 ACP. Moving on up, the 147-gr. round balls left the not-very-fiery end at 859 fps, yielding 240.9 ft.-lbs.

Things started to get interesting with the 310-gr. HP pellets. Those moved at 723 fps and delivered 359.8 ft.-lbs. As a reference, that’s more than a 115-gr. 9mm zipping at 1,150 fps and just a hair shy of a .45 ACP 230-gr. FMJ at 850 fps. On my test day, however, the big energy winner was the 411-gr. lead brick, which cranked out 370 ft.-lbs. Under the right conditions — and with the right pellet — this “BB gun” will deliver more than 400 ft.-lbs.

So, there you have it. With this kind of power level and using nothing but a bottle of not-very-hot air, you can nail steel, hunt sizeable game, or destroy those old electronic appliances that once frustrated you to no end.

Hunters Supply
http://hunters-supply.com

AOA (Omega)
http://www.omegagunlock.com/

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