The Hy-Score 800 the best of the old school blued pistols?

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45flint
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The Hy-Score 800 the best of the old school blued pistols?

Post by 45flint » Tue Apr 19, 2016 1:57 pm

I like the old school blued steel air pistols of the 30s and 40s. No pot metal, they look and feel like firearms. The Haenel 28, the Webley models, are examples. I recently purchased a Hy-Score mainly cause I could, they are still very available in the States. I expected a fun toy but was surprised by its quality and design. I found a paper written by the inventor on line.

https://archive.org/details/ECL-134" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here it shows him using four guns of this period and trying to best them. As I look at it he took the Webley rear traveling piston and its full length barrel and moved the barrel inside the tube. This idea was also taken from earlier guns. But by doing this he got a sleek single tube and a 10 inch barrel with a gun looking much like the Luger influenced Haenel. But his gun had no long tube extention like the Haenel.

My Hy-score is over 400 fps with a 8.2 grain pellet, certainly acceptable. The accuracy has been criticized but I find that not to be the case if you take the time and learn its quirks. The bluing is equal to any good firearm. But I must admit I dislike the look of the trigger, though it's very functional.

Dave Bingham
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Re: The Hy-Score 800 the best of the old school blued pistol

Post by Dave Bingham » Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:27 pm

Totally agree! For an even finer example try the Hy-Score 700. From the late 40's, this one has machined features instead of the folded steel.

45flint
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Re: The Hy-Score 800 the best of the old school blued pistol

Post by 45flint » Fri Apr 29, 2016 10:20 pm

Dave Bingham wrote:Totally agree! For an even finer example try the Hy-Score 700. From the late 40's, this one has machined features instead of the folded steel.
While I agree on the machining, I really can't get over the fact that the 700 has a fake barrel which gives it 3 inches less barrel length than the 800. One of the most unusual aspects of the gun as it is with the 800 is that you have a barrel the entire length of the gun.

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Re: The Hy-Score 800 the best of the old school blued pistol

Post by Oldtimer » Sat Apr 30, 2016 10:47 pm

I can only imagine that the short barrel was used to maximise muzzle velocity, and the barrel extension was there just for cosmetic purposes (it didn't help the cocking effort). The fact that the 700 was quickly displaced by the 800 suggests that the improved accuracy of the longer barrel was soon appreciated to be more important than a small loss in pellet velocity.

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