“BB Mania knows no loyalty” otherwise know as why I own 3 Thomas Air Rifles

“BB Mania knows no loyalty.” Ralphie, from the movie Christmas Story, never spoke truer words. I assume most have seen this movie classic. If you haven’t, it is not to be missed. And, if you were already into air guns from your youth as I was, then this movie is an absolute must!

I was 14 years old and it was Christmas morning. I had unwrapped many of the typical gifts, a set of walkie-talkies, socks, a model airplane, etc. Then Mom and Dad pointed out there was one more box behind the tree for me. I kid you not it really happened that way! Inside the box was the 5mm/.20cal multi stroke pneumatic Blue Streak with Rocker Safety. Again, just like in the movie, I threw on my robe and house slippers, stepped out into the December Michigan weather, grabbed a ¾” pine board from my Dad’s shop, pumped up the gun to full power and proceeded to blow a hole clean through the board! I was the happiest kid on earth to have this type of power and precision. I knew my Dad’s single pump Daisy I'd been using would soon be permanently retired. 

 

The early stuff:  Blue Streak and Daisy have been retired. Jump forward 40+ years, the names have changed. The original Sheridan, as we knew it, is gone. Current names like Daystate, FX, RAW and Thomas (to name a few) are some of the new top dogs. Today, I'll be focusing on the Thomas Rifle and as Ralphie would have said, it is an awesome “shooting iron”. This is the reason (excuse) I give to my wife why I own three Thomas Air Guns and why they each have their own personal names. The first one is Red (hence the name Red Rider). This isn’t your average BB Gun. Black Bart is set up for bench rest only and Old Blue is my field target version. Old Blue and I made a good enough team to tie for first place with Mike Nitsch (manufacture of Thomas Air) at the 2016 AAFTA Nationals. Mike did win the shoot off, as well as a couple of other trophies that weekend.

A little background on Thomas Air.  Mike hand builds, assembles and test fires every rifle. In case you haven’t heard, Mike has hand delivered rifles to customers at shooting events, they scoped the rifle and proceeded to win the event. That is the definition of out of the box, competition ready accuracy. Most rifles include jets for two power settings. LV (light varmint) which is 12fpe and HV (heavy varmint/open class for FT with a 20fpe setting). Colors, bottle lengths, and barrel lengths can vary. The new mid-length, as shown in pictures, is popular as is the standard full length for bench rest competition. 

 

The latest shipment of Thomas Guns arrived and all Pre-Orders have been filled.  We have a few left for sale. 

Having new Thomas guns not spoken for in the shop is a rarity. I thought I would take this opportunity to test fire one of Mike's newest production runs. Pictures of the 5 shot groups @ 50 yards off of bags shot with the Green FT and JSB Monsters are shown below. All dime size groups, with four being aspirin size, show the built-in accuracy potential these rifles have.

Excellent shooting, considering the breezy conditions. We are so lucky to have a company like Thomas Air to produce such fine shooting rifles.  If you are need of a new high end "shooting iron" you may want to consider the Thomas.