By Will Dabbs, MD
Originally Posted on Field Ethos
My first serious weapon was a Powerline 880 pump-action .177-caliber air rifle. Santa Claus brought me that sleek, sexy beast when I was maybe 10 years old. I shot it until it fell apart.
That’s not hyperbole. I pulled down $1.50 every other week cutting grass. Pellets were, relatively speaking, expensive. I’d occasionally cut them in half with my pocket knife and carefully sculpt the malleable lead so I could shoot the fore and aft bits separately to make them last longer. Venomous snakes, trash birds, turtles, tree rats, and the occasional inquisitive alligator gar—nothing was safe from my murderous rampage.
I’ve come a long way since then. The collection now includes top-flight combat handguns, modern sporting rifles aplenty, master blaster tactical shotguns, long-range precision rigs, and a few real-deal stutterguns. I thought I had tasted it all. And then I met the TexanSS from AirForce Airguns. They say everything’s bigger in Texas. This .45-caliber pre-charged, pneumatic, integrally suppressed air rifle would theoretically drop a bear.
PCP Particulars
In case you haven’t had the pleasure, a pre-charged pneumatic air rifle carries an onboard high-pressure tank for motivation. Operating pressures typically hover around 3,000 psi. This is about 10 times greater than that produced by your typical workshop air compressor. There are three options for keeping a PCP gun stoked.
The first is a souped-up hand pump. This thing looks like a bicycle pump on steroids. I have one. Topping off your PCP air rifle with it will either land you that coveted Mr. Universe title or cause your heart to explode.
Another option is a standard scuba tank with an adaptor. I scored mine off of eBay for not a lot of money. That actually works fairly well so long as you have a nearby dive shop to keep your tank frisky. I live in rural Mississippi. We don’t do a great deal of scuba diving here.
The handiest option is a dedicated air compressor. Mine is about half the size of a ten-gallon fish tank and is called the Nomad. It came from Pyramyd Air and sports a 4,500 psi capacity. It will set you back about $800. However, if properly maintained the Nomad should last a lifetime.
What Does a Texan Eat?
This is a .45-caliber air rifle. It shoots the same stuff a .45-caliber muzzleloader might. The bore is exactly 0.458 inches. That means it accommodates 0.457-inch projectiles.
143-grain soft lead round balls of the sort fired by cap-and-ball revolvers are fairly cheap, fast, and accurate. On the other end of the spectrum, you will find 405-grain slugs as big as your little finger. 143-grain balls will flirt with 1,000 feet per second and give you twelve or thirteen proper shots per tank. Those big honking 405-grain monsters still break 700 feet per second from a full charge and hit downrange like Dick Butkus circa 1979. 350-grain solids strike a nice balance. Expect maybe three or four consistent shots from the big rounds per fill.
Now let’s put that in perspective. As you all know, a typical .45-caliber 1911 pistol will push a 230-grain bullet to around 800 fps. Those massive 405-grain Texan slugs weigh nearly twice that at nearly the same speed.
Keeping It Quiet
The tyranny of the unenlightened conspires to make sound suppressors for conventional firearms difficult to own in America. Sound suppressors are utterly harmless. I suppose you could beat somebody to death with one. However, in a proper fight, you’d be much better served with a Louisville Slugger.
Hanging a can on the muzzle of your favorite gat just makes you a more neighborly shooter. They should sell sound suppressors uncontrolled out of vending machines at the local Stop-N-Grab. As it is, obtaining one of these delightful trinkets demands a buttload of paperwork and an onerous $200 tribute to the government. None of that applies to air rifles.
The TexanSS comes with a nice high-volume, integral sound suppressor packed with K-baffles that ships uncontrolled right to your door. That gargantuan bullet still makes a fair amount of racket, but the can certainly takes the edge off of it. For hunting or just general range courtesy, there’s no down side.
Practical Tactical
The TexanSS is 45 inches long, weighs nine pounds, and sports a delightful two-stage adjustable trigger. As this appendage trips a valve rather than a sear, it enjoys a uniquely pleasant personality. The action is a manually operated single via a right-sided lever. The 490cc onboard air tank doubles as a buttstock.
The TexanSS comes equipped with a 24-inch Lothar Walther barrel that is capable of superb accuracy. Air Force offers a full line of scopes, bipods, and support swag custom tailored to the platform. The end result is as sexy as Marilyn Monroe atop a heater grate and projects power like Ronald Reagan in a roomful of Libyans.
Ruminations
None of this is cheap. The gun, the compressor, and the big honking lead bullets will all set you back handsomely. However, the Air Force TexanSS is an elegant piece of kit that is made in America by Americans. While the .45 is a beast, Air Force also offers the TexanSS in .51, .357, .308, and .257 calibers as well.
The biggest appeal for me was simply the weirdness of it all. Running the TexanSS represents a fresh new shooting experience, even for the most grizzled of gun nerds. Learning the gun’s unique eccentricities was half the fun.
You might already have a massive arsenal tucked away at home. Your personal collection might include the tricked-out IWI X95 Tavor assault rifle that Moses himself packed during the Great Exodus from Egyptian bondage. However, chances are you’ve never shot anything quite like this. Huge, powerful, and weird in a sultry intoxicating way, the TexanSS from Air Force is indeed a fresh new shooting experience.
Price: $1,239 for the Stripped Gun
Pros: It’s an air rifle that would, legit, kill a freaking bear
Cons: High-end PCP air guns are both gear-intensive and spendy