Air Arms S310

Here is the story of my Air Arms S310. I hope you enjoy it.  Reading it may allow you to experience some of the pleasure that I get from it. 

I purchased my Air Arms S310 since Mid-2005 and I love it.  Typically these have a beech stock, painted black.  I purchased mine primarily for the stock, as I love beautiful wood.  Doesn't matter the type of gun, if it's a pellet, firearm, or even antique furniture, I appreciate a "Nice Chunka Lumba".  My S310 has a Jim Maccari stock made of Myrtle wood (one of 3).  While I had a passion for dark wood, this stock may have made a convert of me.

 Just click on a thumbnail and you will see the larger pictures. Here it is as I bought it.

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The first thing I did was purchase a scope.  I put out a "want" advertisement and Ray Roznowski responded.  He had a brand new BSA Platinum 6-24x40 with AO he said he'd sell for $65 (with shipping).  What a steal!  Add to that the fact that he shipped prior to receiving payment and I was truly impressed with this gentleman.  Thanks Ray!  So here it is, a recent picture with the scope mounted.

The rifle is a dream to shoot. One thing that I added was a pair of machined aluminum magazines (the pair at the bottom of the picture). These are very well made, high quality pieces of machinery and function flawlessly in the S310. I've never had a problem with feeding from these magazines.  Note the two different names on the front covers. That's an interesting story in itself. If you look closely you'll see I have the magaznies indexed between two pellets.  This helps to prevent the pellets from falling out when the mag is tilted or in my pocket.  The one on the upper right is an original S310 magazine and the upper left is from a 410.

My wife, son, father and I went to visit family in Pennsylvania and we went to Cabellas. One word "Wow!"  Each store has a HUGE bronze figure out front depicting some historical act from that area. This one is either Davey Crockett or Daniel Boone paddling with native Americans in a canoe. It was quite impressive .  In addition they have a bunch of full size dioramas with mounted animals from all over the world. Here is a picture of one of the African scenes.

I went with the intentions of purchasing a Chronograph so I could see what MV & FPE I was getting.

Here it is.  35 shots at 785 FPS +15 FPS (21.9 Ft-Lb) from a fill of 200 Bar (2900 PSI).  I haven't Chrony'd it with Kodiaks yet.

One thing about the FX & Air Arms air tubes is they frequently make a significant "Ping" when firing.  I have a lead dust collector that also slightly quiets down the report.  This allowed the ping to be quite noticeable, though not objectionable.  I had sent my Rapid WildKat to Allen Zasadny and shared my design for a De-Pinger.  He was so impressed with the difference it made for my Rapid WildKat with FX tube that he made another for me for my S310 (shown below).   Here is a video with sound of the AA S310 Prior to installation of the "De-Pinger" , and here is a video after installation.

The De-Pinger prior to installation

Disassembling to install the De-Pinger

One nice bit I like on my WildKat was the scope level. It has value when shooting at longer distances as rifle cant is not good in conjunction with a loping trajectory.  I decided to add one to my S310.  I put out "Want" advertisement and Jag Rajpal responded saying he'd send one for $14 shipped (From Toronto yet!).  You can't that price.  Well Jag sends it out sight unseen and without so much as getting a nickel in advance (another great person with whom to deal).  It isn't the kind that wraps around the scope tube (my preference), but it works fine.  I was always leery of bumping the kind of scope level that stick out, but it's all aluminum and quite solid.  Both scope levels can be used without moving the head to view the scope level

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The shooters view.

One future upgrade might be to add a pressure gauge to determine how many shots I have left.  I don't always shoot until empty.  Sometimes when I've put it away I forget the number of shots left.  The two issues that hold me back from installing one are a gauge that is consistent, and I DON'T WANT TO DRILL THE STOCK.  I'd only get a professional like Mike Abernethy, or Jim Maccari to do it.

If you enjoyed reading this, or have questions, please let me know with an email to AAS310 at HamContact dot com (no link, due to spam, You'll figure it out)

This last pictures are of our (then 15 month) son on my dad's 13 Acre miniature horse ranch in South Lancaster (Peach Bottom) PA.  About the only relevancy to this article is it's from the same week we bought the Chrony.   

Adios