By Will Dabbs MD
Originally in published on Field Ethos
The Escape PCP (Pre-Charged Pneumatic) air rifle from Air Force Airguns represents a significant departure from the typical fare at your local gun emporium. A single-shot design powered by an onboard rechargeable high-pressure air tank, the gun is offered in either .22 or .25 calibers. The Escape is optimized for target shooting, survival, and small game hunting. Lightweight, lithe, sexy, and cool, the Escape is also refreshingly weird.
Airforce Airguns offers a bewildering array of PCP rifles ranging from little micro guns all the way up to massive .50-caliber shoulder-thumping beasts. The .25-caliber Escape is arguably the most elegant of the lot. The gun shoots unnaturally straight, and recoil is not real. It is easy to get carried away and burn an entire afternoon behind this thing.
ORIGIN STORY
I was seven years old when I accompanied my dad to the local Otasco hardware store to pick up some widget or other. While there, I naturally scampered back to scope out the guns. There, hanging among the bolt-action deer rifles and large-bore scatterguns, was a tiny, no-frills Daisy BB repeater. The stock was molded plastic with faux wood grain, and the metal bits were painted blue. That sexy little smoke pole was calling to me, and my dad could tell.
Ours was a robust clan. We spent most weekends out in the wilderness either fishing, hunting, or just enjoying a relative dearth of civilization. I already had a properly-scaled bow and slingshot, but I had not yet graduated up to anything more serious. Dad broached the subject over dinner on Friday.
I can only imagine the conversation that my parents had the night before. Mom had likely been reticent. Regardless, by the time the dinner table was bussed, we had an accord. The little Daisy cost $7. Dad said if I could scrape up half the purchase price, he would cover the rest. I tore back to my room, gutted my piggy bank, and proceeded to disassemble the living room furniture looking for absconded pennies.
When the dust settled, I had $3.50 but only just. I squirreled away my miniature fortune in a brown paper sack and retired to bed praying for sunrise. At nine the following morning, Dad and I were there when they unlocked the door.
In my enthusiasm, I tripped over my own gangly feet. My little bag hit the floor and exploded, spilling pennies literally everywhere. There was no way I was going to find them all. My world had ended. I descended into a decidedly unmanly display of sobs. My Dad then pulled me up by the hand, directed me to find all I could, and explained that he would make up the rest. He was and is the archetype by which all proper fathers are judged.
I shot that little putt-putt BB gun until it died a natural death. I then retired it to a place of honor in the gun room alongside the truly expensive stuff. That first anemic little lever action Daisy sparked a fire that eventually led to assault rifles, machineguns, cannons, helicopters, tanks, and these very words. There is just something about launching a projectile against a distant target that sets my heart aflutter even today. The Air Force Escape PCP air rifle shoots like a laser and captures a bit of that secret sauce yet again.
A WEE SPOT OF SCIENCE
Just what does it mean when a word monkey like me deploys the term, “Shoots like a laser?” Well, ballistics are arguably the purest expression of physics. Your favorite smoke pole’s performance at long ranges is a simple function of the acceleration due to gravity and time of flight. Everything else is fluff.
Ignoring parallax between your bore and your optic as well as the trivial aerodynamic characteristics of your projectile, how far your bullet drops is simply a function of its time of flight. Calculate the time it takes for a bullet to move from your muzzle to the target. Now drop a rock and measure how far it falls in that same time increment. That’s how far below your point of aim your bullet will strike when it hits the target. It’s all just physics.
In the case of the Air Force Escape, those charming little quarter-inch projectiles move pretty fast, up to 1,300 feet per second for the light stuff. That’s spunky for an air rifle. Combine that with a 24-inch precision barrel from Lothar Walther, and, at reasonable ranges, the Escape shoots nice and flat.
DETAILS
The Escape weighs 5.3 pounds. The 213cc onboard air tank lives at around 3,000 psi to drive its manually-activated action. The 3-pound trigger breaks like a prom queen’s heart and clearly has divine origins. Just touching that thing will make you get religion, swear off fast food, and think uncharacteristically convivial thoughts about your mother-in-law.
Feeding the beast requires either a hand pump, a scuba tank with an adaptor, or a dedicated high-pressure air compressor. My Nomad air compressor set me back about $800 from Pyramyd Air. The hand pump is great preparation for Delta Force Selection. The scuba tank lasts about forever on a fill but weighs as much as Rosie O’Donnell’s picnic basket. Pick your poison.
Accessorizing any modern gun is half the fun, and Air Force offers anything you might want from mounts to bipods to optics. Unlike your favorite 9mm defensive heater or tricked-out AR, invest in a couple of decent boxes of ammo and you’ll still be sucking off those things two years hence. A handy thumbwheel on the left side of the chassis lets you manually select your velocities, but I cannot fathom why. As any proper man-child can attest, whether it is muscle cars, power tools, or spouses, there’s either wide open or off. Anything else is just unnatural.
TRIGGER TIME
I tightened all of the Allen screws out of the box. Figuring out how everything runs was a voyage of discovery, but we all enjoy inculcating new skills. If you can feed yourself without getting Count Chocula in your ears, you are overqualified to run the Escape. I could coax around thirty decent shots out of a full tank.
How straight does it shoot, might you inquire? I taped a bunch of pennies up at 25 meters. Once I grew weary of wiping that frown off of old Abe’s perennially dour visage, I used the Escape to snip the branches off of backyard trees to remove bagworms. I actually own a flamethrower and would have preferred using that, but my wife inexplicably objected. I swear I will never understand women.
As it typically runs at supersonic velocities, the gun is loud. Shooting the rifle is like having a benchtop reloader. My previous rantings notwithstanding, manually dialing in your velocities and gauging the downrange effects is kind of cool. Using the hand pump to throw rounds driven solely by sweat is admittedly also pretty neat. However, your relatives better not come whining to me if you have a stroke and die.
WHAT”S IT GOOD FOR?
Don’t know, don’t care. It would kill the crap out of a rabbit, squirrel, skunk, or coon, should you ever catch one of those guys talking bad about your momma. It will also kill a lovely Saturday afternoon at the range. The Escape pre-charged air gun from Air Force looks a bit like what a Star Wars Stormtrooper might pack while venturing downrange on Tatooine.
Air Force products are made in America by Americans. I could find no fault with the execution despite seriously trying. As sleek as a stealth fighter jet and as straight-shooting as your prom date’s Dad, the Air Force Escape PCP air rifle is a refreshingly different ballistic experience. With a hefty price tag, the base Escape will set you back about what a decent black rifle might.
Cost: $740
Pros: Dude, did you even look at the pictures?
Cons: Requires more support gear than Paris Hilton at Burning Man.
