Quackenbush Air Guns
.458 LA Outlaw
Air Rifle
A powerful, big bore air rifle suitable for
hunting
click on pictures to enlarge
The long action Outlaw is a 500fpe .458 caliber hunting rifle.
There’s no magic or
secrets involved in making a powerful airgun, it’s just simple physics, the
rifle has to flow more air. The
energy source is compressed air and you have to use a lot of it to make a higher
power airgun. To
flow more air you need a bigger valve and a heavier hammer and a stronger spring
to open the valve against increased resistance.
But when making things bigger, you have to make sure that you’re
thinking of the shooter and the proportions necessary to make it feel right to
the shooter, otherwise you end up with an oversized, clunky rifle.
The solution is to optimize air flow using finesse instead of force to
make a usable hunting rifle. With a
25” barrel, this rifle is 44” overall.
It weighs 8lbs. 6oz. The
stock is familiar to tens of millions of shooters because the stock is the same
shape and proportion of modern center fire rifles, like the Winchester model 70
and the Remington 700.
The LA Outlaw shoots a
430gr bullet at 732fps, which is 509fpe. This
rifle will produce two 500+fpe shots from its reservoir on one fill.
It doesn’t need to be line fed from a scuba bottle, it doesn’t have
the dependency of life support from a remote air source. Configured as a single shot, single fill rifle it will exceed
600fpe.
The .458 cal. barrel is
made expressly for airgun use. It
is not a firearm barrel. This
barrel has the correct rifling configuration and twist rate for an airgun.
I chose .458 cal. for this rifle so the shooter could use any of the
ready-made bullets or bullet molds intended for use for the 45/70 cartridge.
Because the barrels are made from solid bar stock they are machined to
the exact bore size without exception. This
way the standard size bullets fit the barrel; it is not some oddball caliber.
The Outlaw rifle is tremendously adaptable. I shortened up the Outlaw rifle and made a pistol. Now I’ve stretched the Outlaw to make a 500fpe rifle. During testing the rifle exceeded 600fpe, so I had to make the valve a little smaller because my target was 500fpe. When building an airgun a balance must be struck between size, weight and power. This describes how the gun can be used and the number of shots per fill. I’m not after ultimate power, all of the rifles and pistols I’ve made have been capable of higher performance, but what good is ultimate power if the gun can’t be carried or used readily? I have certain energy levels as a mark that I think are ideal for the purpose. That’s why I build them to that level of performance. The LA Outlaw, with a 25” barrel, at 3000psi, launches a 430 grain bullet at 732fps, which is 509fpe.
Prices for the LA Outlaw:
Service grade $650.
Standard
$695.
Select
$745.
with Laminated stock
$765.
Checkered add $75.
