Jim Chapman
Glover/DAQ 9 mm
This report has been a long time in coming! It took me over a year to get the parts, then several months to get this cool air hunting pistol put together, then more months to get a chance to shoot it. But finally I’ve got enough to give you a rough idea of how this gun performs …. But first a bit of background.
Early on I’d decided that I wanted an air powered pistol to hunt with, as I’d been an avid handgun hunter for many years. Searching around for a gun that would be suitable, I came to the conclusion that I’d have to build what I wanted. That’s how I became acquainted with the Crosman 2240 and a group of guys modifying this platform to build more powerful CO2 pistols adequate for small game hunting and pest control. I started to modify these guns and built quite a few, but while I was getting these guns up to around 11fpe, I wanted something more powerful still. On a squirrel hunting trip down in Kentucky I saw a gun that had been built on a 2240 platform by Walter Glover for Randy Mitchell and decided right then and there that I wanted one of these guns. The pistol was generating around 16 fpe and was a compact (relatively speaking) package.
I contacted Walter to discuss building me a valve and reservoir to use with a .25 caliber barrel and receiver that Dennis Quackenbush had sold to me many months before. After a couple of false starts (related to customs not Walter) we finally got the Glover lower ito the states and into my workshop. Unfortunately by the time it arrived I had given up and traded the .25 caliber upper in one of those gun swaps that always seems to be in the works. Luckily, Dennis had called me just a couple weeks earlier to say he had found a 9mm barrel/receiver in his inventory and asked if I wanted it. So I now had the DAQ upper and the Glover lower, and was ready to put it all together. But to my chagrin I found once it was together, the gun shot but also had a slow leak. After a little more work everything was put in order and I was ready for the range.
The gun is built on the 2240 platform, and the specifications are;
Caliber 9mm
Barrel Length: 12 inches
Reservoir Length: 13.5 inches
Trigger Pull: 2 lb
Fill Pressure: 2000 psi
Velocity: 525 fps (with a 77.1 grain eun jin pellet)
The grip frame was originally a standard 2240 grip I had laying around, which had served the purpose well enough. But later it was upgraded by the Crosman Custom Shop with a grip that had a set screw towards the rear of the trigger guard that prevents over travel, and the trigger set at a light 2 lbs. To top this off, a trigger shoe was mounted and gives a very nice tactile response.
The gun is filled using a probe that slips into a port at the distal end of the reservoir. While a quick release Foster type fitting is more convenient for somebody with many (too many according to my wife) pcp airguns, there is no denying that the filling port arrangement does give the gun much cleaner lines. I fill the gun to 2000 psi, with the the sweet spot occurriing at shots 3 - 5. Having said that the variance between shot 1 to shot 6 is only about 35 fps, which I think is quite good. I can get 9-10 usable shots while out hunting, however I usually carry a small carbon fiber tank in my daypack and will recharge after the sixth shot.
The pistol is an excellent hunting tool capable of putting 5 shots into a twenty yard group that can be covered with a nickel. And it hits hard, generating around 30 fpe energy. To put this in perspective, it is almost 3 times more powerful than a non FAC hunting rifle used in the UK for rabbit and small game hunting. This gun is capable of anchoring a raccoon at 20 -25 yards, and is more than up to the job in terms of accuracy.
I’ve now taken this gun along on hunts for jackrabbits, squirrels, and groundhogs, and have found it an easy package to carry in the field. If you want to build up a similar package, contact Walter and Dennis to see if/when they’ll have parts available. If you are a bit more handy, you can take a look on the Mac 1 website to find the materials needed to fabricate a reservoir and build one from scratch. There are also a few new small scale operations around that might be able to build a gun for you if asked nicely.
