Vacation Time with the Air Arms Pro Sport

Just checking in. 

Spent the last few days in the George Washington National Forest on the Virginia/West Virginia border.   Of course, we brought air rifles.   This week is always an opportunity to bring out some airguns that don't otherwise get much play time.  

Brought the .22 Pro Sport that I've had for almost two decades.   Not sure I've ever shown it on the blog before.  Set up with a 4-12x Swift AO scope and an Outdoor Connection Super Sling.  

 

Had a great time smacking spinner targets all week with an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous rifle.   

The Restocked Remington Summit Follow-Up

This is more of a "where are they now?" post along with some rambling backstory.

Looks like a Benjamin Trail NP2.  Except there's no gas ram.  I shoehorned a Remington Summit (Sold by Crosman) spring piston action into that stock five or six years ago. 

Here's what my Summit looked like in the original Remington stock.   Glossy!  The Summit was an entry to mid-priced .177 caliber break barrel made in China.  It was probably rated at 1000+ fps or something similarly ridiculous.  And it was glossy. Really, really glossy. But, it was also super easy to cock and shoot all afternoon and that made a fine first impression.

Purchased years ago from Chuck at Precision Airgun -- both sadly now gone.  This was a factory refurb from Crosman who owned the Remington air rifle branding rights at the time.  I liked the clean lines and long forend covering the pivot joint.  Didn't like the high gloss, but figured I could always strip it and do a matte finish later.  Besides, it was cheap.  Maybe $100 including a plain steel muzzle weight, scope and mount.

Initially, I remember the rifle did have some lock-up issues.   It was inconsistent --a bit vague when the barrel clicked home   An overhaul of the power plant, replacement of the plastic pivot shims and a stronger detent spring solved all of the mechanical problems and then some.  The Summit's accuracy turned out to be better than its price or pedigree would've indicated.

There was never a plan or specific role for the Summit.  The rifle got hand-me-down parts from other projects.  I'd throw on a different scope or muzzle brake, shoot it for a week, admire its accuracy, then set it aside.  Several years later, I noticed mister glossy was cracking and I sourced what I had hoped would be a non-glossy, drop-in replacement stock from Crosman.  It wasn't quite that simple--I linked to that a few paragraphs back-- but getting it back in action was worth the effort.  

After several years now in the new stock, the rifle has changed very little from the  original set up.  

The plain Jane factory steel muzzle weight was traded for an early, now vintage, ported brake from Vortek.  In the 1990's, we thought these Vortek muzzle brakes were the height of aftermarket airgun coolness on our R1s and R10s.

The Bushnell 4-12x with an adjustable objective lens is probably mid 2000s vintage.  Probably a Banner model.  Definitely an eBay acquisition.   This is not the scope originally packaged with the Summit. That was a Crosman labeled 3-9x with AO and is currently serving on Volvo's QB78.

A Charlie Da Tuna trigger.  GRT-III 

UTG 11mm dovetail to picatinny rail adapter.   The Summit originally had a single scope stop pin hole in the spring tube.  I'd drilled another at some point, but was still rather limited in setting up the eye relief.   This adapter centers on the dovetails and doesn't introduce any lateral offset.     

One thing I've come to appreciate is modifying/reworking some of my air rifles.   It largely satisfies my desire for a new gun without buying yet another.  And I end up with something a bit more special (at least to me) than an off-the-shelf rifle.  To that end, I'm leaning toward stripping the stock and giving it a nicer finish.  And I don't mean glossy.

We'll see what shakes out.  

 

Modified CO2 cap with a QD Sling Swivel on a Crosman Carbine

I'm always changing configurations with my various Crosman 22XX guns.  Their modular design makes it easy to go from pistol to carbine to rifle and back in a few minutes.  Combined with a few adapters, I've been able to try several interesting combinations.  In the last blog post, I had thrown together a .20 caliber carbine and wanted to use a vertical fore grip from Magpul.   Assembled, it felt pretty good, but there wasn't a spot for a front sling position.  Granted, a single point rear sling worked just fine, but most of these projects come about from trying to solve a unique problem.

A bit of head scratching and I thought a QD front sling socket could be incorporated into to a modified gas tube cap as an inconspicuous attachment point.

Rather than butcher the original cap, 

Started from zero with a piece of 7/8" diameter 12L14.  

Turned the end down to about .8085"

And threaded with a very uncommon 13/16 - 28 die to match the Crosman 22XX gas tube.

The camera angle is bad, but I used a thin parting blade to cut a relief at the end of the thread.

Since I'm using the Crosman mid-length 2250 gas tube, the cap will need an extension to bear against the end of the 12G CO2 cartridge.  Might as well plan ahead for the three different Crosman gas tube lengths--2240, 2250, 2260.

A #3 drill is the correct diameter--

for a 1/4-28 tap.   

More on this later.  

Cut off the excess.

Cleaned up the face.

Drilled 3/8".  This is where several small errors compounded and went slightly sideways.  The tailstock was a bit out of alignment, the drill bit cut a bit oversize, I wasn't paying enough attention and this probably became a version 1 prototype.  

Bored the undercut for the QD swivel.

Some cosmetic clean up.

A piece of sacrificial 1/4-28 in one end and a UTG 1-1/4" QD swivel kinda fits the other.   A bit loose due to the oversized hole.   Tried six or seven QD swivels and had mixed results.   Half pulled right out, and half worked -- with a bit more wobble than I'd hoped, but they do hold securely.  It's not exactly a disaster, but it will limit swapping and might require dedicating a sling.  

Chucking that sacrificial 1/4-28 stud gave enough room to get a knurling tool in there.

Looks pretty good.

OK, back to making the rod.

Piece of 5/16" diameter was turned down and threaded 1/4-28.

A 1/2" carbide bur produced a concaved end.

Some clean up and polishing.

A bit longer than the Crosman cap.

Blackened with G96 paste and finished. 

Updated 9/25/25:

The sloppy fit got to me.  Dedicating a sling got to me.  And I was annoyed at having my QD sling options limited by that machining mistake.   I want quick and easy compatibility.  I opened up the hole in the cap about .125”, then made a thin-walled sleeve and pressed it into place.  With 0.004” of press fit, it’s never coming out.  And after taking a facing cut on the lathe and some blueing touch up, the repair is invisible.   

More possibilities.  The d-ring on the left allows me to use slings that have a clip on the front end.   I find it much easier to clip the sling to the d-ring than fit a QD push button into place.   

A few more pics:

Short set up with a Magpul RVG and sling.

And with the Strike Industries pistol brace.

Gonna roll with this for now. 

I've always used a Magpul QD as the "standard" and done the machining to make that the best fit.  I do wish that the airgun manufacturers would put a bit more thought into how to make their products better interface with some of the other gun "standards' out there.   I think that means making the airguns accept off the shelf AR buffer tubes and stocks, bipods, Picatinny rails rather than dovetails...  Those accessory purchases go further when they fit several platforms and it makes the end user's ability to tailor the gun that much easier.   Or something like that.  

Thanks for checking in on me.