Sunday, March 23, 2008
Field Target Tester
Last fall I developed a very simple but rough field target tester (ft tester roughcut) after a suggestion by Nick Jenkinson. We were talking after the Worlds match and he suggested that a simple device that you could put up to a field target and fire it to test it without actually having to shoot it. It was a great idea and I came up with my first rough design. Over the weekend I finally took the time to develop a prototype unit that I believe I can make reliably.
Last week there was a discussion on one of the FT forums about AAFTA testing targets. Somewhere along the line I saw a thread about the Croman 2240 air pistol and I noticed that the CO2 tube was very close in size to my target tester and BAM, the light went on. I went down a day later to my local Gander Mountain and bought a 2240. Man, the 2240 is a simple gun to tear down. With three minutes I had all the pistol stripped and ready for developing. With a few hours of play and testing I was able to make the parts and tweak the springs and had a nice working prototype.
It is simple to use, to cock it you just push in on the plunger until it cocks. Then you put the plunger up to kill zone and pull the trigger. The safety even works. The plunger doesn't shoot out of the end hard enough to hurt anyone so the safety really isn't necessary. I still have some work to do to the design but I think it will work out pretty good.
ft tester prototype video - large
ft tester prototype video - small
Last week there was a discussion on one of the FT forums about AAFTA testing targets. Somewhere along the line I saw a thread about the Croman 2240 air pistol and I noticed that the CO2 tube was very close in size to my target tester and BAM, the light went on. I went down a day later to my local Gander Mountain and bought a 2240. Man, the 2240 is a simple gun to tear down. With three minutes I had all the pistol stripped and ready for developing. With a few hours of play and testing I was able to make the parts and tweak the springs and had a nice working prototype.
It is simple to use, to cock it you just push in on the plunger until it cocks. Then you put the plunger up to kill zone and pull the trigger. The safety even works. The plunger doesn't shoot out of the end hard enough to hurt anyone so the safety really isn't necessary. I still have some work to do to the design but I think it will work out pretty good.
ft tester prototype video - large
ft tester prototype video - small
