29 replies to this topic

[Brant]

About 25 years ago I used to own a BB machine gun called a Larc that ran off of freon or an air compressor and didnt work very well. I went through two of them and many barrels as they were extremely unreliable. For xmas I decided to relive the memory with the modern equivalent which is the new Drozd Blackbird with an upgraded chip and conversion to High Pressure Air. The Blackbird is the latest generation of these guns and they have become pretty wild. With a 15" barrel upgrade and 4500 psi tank with the right regulator, they are cpapble of shooting BBs at over 800 FPS 20x a second. The magazine holds about 900 and a 68" cu inch paintball tank is good for about 1500 shots. It does 1 shot, 3, or full auto and 600, 900, or 1200 rounds per minute. They use the electromagnetic solenoid technology from the paintball gun world for the rapid fire.A kid could bust out every window in the neighborhood in a hurry. My running chipmunks around the house be warned that I always miss with my single shot airguns. I ordered it from Ray at Drozdmax.com located in CA near LA. Very good reputation with these and they are legal in most places.http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

[ShooterJohn]

I used to have one of the freon powered ones called the Annihilator BB gun. It was fun for awhile but you had bb's everywhere.

[Brant]

Yea - someone already told me they were shooting at a flying pigeon and not paying attention and shot out their neighbors tempered glass sliding door glass who was nearly 200 yards away. 800 fps is fast for a BB and one little hit with steel on tempered glass shatters the entire pane.

[ShooterJohn]

That SWAT version in the picture above is cool but not $748 cool! I see you have to add some chip sets to get all of the features. Did you order any of them?

[Brant]

Yea I didnt need the flashlight, laser, bipod, or extra weaver mounts for $250 more. I just went for the basic powerplant.

[Air Rifle Hunter]

Looks like a pretty dangerous BB gun. I sure wouldn't want to get in front of the muzzle, no sir!

[mtn dog]

Careful, you'll put your eyes out with that thing!

[Brant]

Well I shot the Blackbird for a few seconds at lunch time today taking a work break. Since it is 31 F outside I stuck the barrel out the door. I found out you really dont see the BBs when it is cloudy and they travel over 700 fps. You only hear the 1200 rounds per minute bouncing off of the tree branches. The remote HPA coil is nice because the little air tank sat inside on the dresser. It is not as loud as I expected. I still need to mount the red dot sight and sight it in. I have an unused laser in my closet that might be useful as the light drops outside. The gun is typical Russian. Simple, reliable, and tough. The steel parts are machined well. I shot roughly 400 BBs in about 20 seconds w/o any issues. Accuracy is hard to judge. I had no trouble directing the stream onto my close targets at 30 yards. It sure beats the tar out of my machine airgun from the past that only did about 350 fps. Chipmunks be warned.I will post some better pictures.

[Air Rifle Hunter]

Looks nice and sounds like it would make a mess out of starlings or english house sparrows.

[Brant]

Thats funny. I was just told by a guy with one that he uses it to nail pigeons around his barn. He says they cant take off fast enough to escape its deadly bite and they fly apart in the air.

[Air Rifle Hunter]

I bet it does shoot them full of holes. 400 BB's in 20 seconds is quite a few projectiles flying at something or even just in it's general direction. I sure wouldn't want to be that pigeon!

[Brant]

I guess one could rig 2 or even 4 guns on a mount and then on maybe a Polaris Ranger type vehicle with my larger tanks. It would be a mini mini gun like a Dillon M134. I can see 1000 fps and 4800 BBs per minute.

[CA Desert Dog]

That sure looks like fun.

[mackeralboy]

Wow. I could have got into so much trouble with one of these as a kid.

[ShooterJohn]

What do you mean as a kid Mike!

[Brant]

I am just finding out the upgrades possible for these things. My old 4500 CF 68" paintball tank has a 800 psi HPA regulator on it but they are using regulators up to 1500 psi output to get over 1000 fps out of them. I may upgrade the regulator to about 1200 psi to get the velocity to 900 fps. The 68" tank will still have enough air to empty the 900 BBs in the magazine and they say the gun can handle it just fine.The design of these things is amazing. There is not much to the gun other than the barrel. board, and the selenoid. The magazine contains the air and BB feeds and the valve that the selenoid impacts. There is an electric motor feeding BBs also at the bottom of the magazine. I am using the coiled cord air feed now but one can remove the rear stock and use a straight adapter I also have to make the air tank rigid where you hold it under your arm. It is slightly heavier with the tank but then doesnt require a fanny pack for the tank to be mobile. More like a paintball gun.Drozdmax.com sells the tanks and lets you select the regulator you want....http://www.drozdmax....ey-ghost-1.htmlMy gun is using 6 (AA sized) Eveready Lithium Ultimate batteries but they want you to use 15volts if you go above 1000 psi output on the tank regulator.

[Brant]

I have about 2000 BBs through the Drozd and it is one mean machine. It has worked flawlessly. My kids wanted to get me something for xmas so I have a 68 cu 4500 psi tank with a 1400 psi regulator coming which will increase the velocity about 175 fps. That gives each BB about 5 fpe at 50 yards and 9 fpe at the muzzle which is quite a bit of energy as far as chipmunks go. One good hit will do it. I am using lithium batteries for duration. I still need to decide on a red dot sight. Lasers work well on these things too.Here is another video on an expanded board a guy makes which adds additional control and features. http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

[Brant]

I picked up a cheapie red dot sight for $30 but it works really well on the Drozd for directing the stream. They sell these sights under many different labels for as much as $100 on Cabelas but the best price I found was on Amazon.http://www.amazon.co...f...8939&sr=1-3

[Brant]

The family finally let me touch my new tank with the boosted output for kicking velocity up on the Drozd. Sure has a nice paint job.

[Air Rifle Hunter]

Wow! You are getting geared up there! Chipmunks beware .

[A17Shooter]

You're ready for a Massed Chipmunk Charge! Do the kids get to shoot it??

[Brant]

You bet but the "kids" are in college

[acousticmood]

Brandt - this is way cool. do you think it will dispatch pidgeons at 30 to 50 yards?

[Brant]

Perfect. I know someone with one just for pigeons around barns. I just added a hard tank setup like his which makes the tank act like a stock instead of the remote cord I was using. Pigeons are big and slow to get going so he peppers them before they can take off and get going. With my new tank (1400 psi regulator) and Xeno lithium batteries mine is shooting about 900 fps and will go right through them - maybe two lined up at 9 ME and about 6 out to 50 yards. It is deadly on squirrels.

[ShooterJohn]

Boy Brant, you are really tempting me to get one of those. I see lots of uses for one.

[Brant]

I am on my second 6000 pack of BBs and the gun has been 100% reliable so far with no jams. My shoebox 4500 psi compressor is getting more of a workout with the Drozd around. I definitely recommend the 68 or 90 cu inch Ninja tank with the 1400 psi output regulator. A full 68 cu in 4500 tank at 1400 psi pretty closely matches the 900 BBs the Drozd Blackbird actually holds.

[ShooterJohn]

If kids would have had those when I was younger I would have felt out gunned. Plus there wouldn't have been a window anywhere for miles around. But we could have opened a glass buisness and made a killing.

[Brant]

A two second burst across one side of a house would pretty well write the ticket.These are definitely not your grandpas Red Ryder!

[Brant]

We did some Drozd blasting today and had a riot. I had been waiting for a special high pressure whip line and gauge assembly for loading the HPA tank directly from the compressor since it is 4500 psi and it runs the SCBA tanks down quickly making a full fill a pain. The new whip line works great!

[Brant]

Found a video of a competing electronic board called the "Sergey" board being tested about a year ago and used to create a full auto version of these beast guns. My gun has the BBMax board. The difference is you have to install the Sergey board in the gun where the vendor preinstalls mine. The Sergey board is about $120 and the current version does up to 2000 rounds per minute.