Accles & Shelvoke "Acvoke" Air Pistol

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Certus
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Accles & Shelvoke "Acvoke" Air Pistol

Post by Certus » Wed May 29, 2013 4:38 pm

Hi,
A few pictures and a little bit of information regarding another interesting English spring powered air pistol the Accles & Shelvoke “Acvoke”.

The “Acvoke” is a relatively rare air pistol marketed by Accles & Shelvoke situated at Talford Street , Birmingham between 1946-1956.

Accles & Shelvoke had previously made the “Warrior” air pistol under a business arrangement with the inventor Frank Clarke so had some experience in the production of air pistols.
The pistol was designed by John Basil Arrowsmith an employee of Accles & Shelvoke and patented in 1946 it featured a grip cocking mechanism with a concentric rifled barrel (unusually anticlockwise). Available in .177 only, the pistol was made in blued steel with black plastic grips. Around 25,000 examples were made with about the only variation being a change of the grip closure mechanism from leaf spring to ball catch around Ser No 13000. As with the Abasmajor, the pistol had a neat little pellet sizer incorporated in the cocking lever (see picture). Accles & Shelvoke originally specialised in the manufacture of humane killers and still market cartridge driven tools to this day.

The “Acvoke” bears a strong resemblance to two other air pistols produced much earlier in mid and small frame sizes. The mid size pistol was the “Thunderbolt Junior “ (see picture) another Frank Clarke design made between 1947 -1949. The small frame pistol was the German Tell 2 made between 1925-1940 (see picture) which has the honour of being the second smallest production air pistol ever made. The Tell 2 is the only German air pistol I own and was bought just to make up the trio of very similar design pistols. Interestingly , there is a documented report of one of these little pistols being taken from a member of a German U boat crew during WW2.

The “Acvoke” is a pleasant pistol to cock and shoot and compares quite well with the Webley for accuracy but looks far less elegant and compact. On a good day I can usually group this pistol into around 2” at 10 metres using a precision single hand hold.

Image
The Acvoke

Image
Pellet Sizer integral to Cocking Lever.

Image
The "Thunderbolt Junior".

Image
The Tell 2.

Regards

Brian

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pmh
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Re: Accles & Shelvoke "Acvoke" Air Pistol

Post by pmh » Wed May 29, 2013 5:01 pm

Add other excellent post on pistols only normally ever seen in books.

What is the spring/piston configuration in these pistols, it is difficult to try and work it out sometimes.

Kind regards,



Phil
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Tank
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Re: Accles & Shelvoke "Acvoke" Air Pistol

Post by Tank » Wed May 29, 2013 5:35 pm

One of the terrific things is the nievete of some of the names. The "Thunderbolt" - it sort of jumps right out there!
graham.
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Certus
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Re: Accles & Shelvoke "Acvoke" Air Pistol

Post by Certus » Thu May 30, 2013 12:04 pm

pmh wrote:Add other excellent post on pistols only normally ever seen in books.

What is the spring/piston configuration in these pistols, it is difficult to try and work it out sometimes.

Kind regards,



Phil
Hi Phil,

All three pistols are cocked and fired as follows:

Firstly the little cocking aid is folded down from the rear of the grip. This opens the breech slightly after which the barrel can be pulled down using the cocking aid for leverage until the sear engages. The spring is compressed in a forward direction using the front part of the trigger guard as an actuator. Once cocked, a pellet is inserted directly into the breech and the barrel is returned to the closed position. The cocking aid is then folded back up into the rear of the grip locking the breech into position and rendering the pistol ready to fire.

Regards
Brian

Certus
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Re: Accles & Shelvoke "Acvoke" Air Pistol

Post by Certus » Thu May 30, 2013 12:12 pm

Tank wrote:One of the terrific things is the nievete of some of the names. The "Thunderbolt" - it sort of jumps right out there!
Hi Graham,

There was an extremely rare variant of the "Thunderbolt Junior" which sported wood grips and was believed to have only been sold in New Zealand called "The Big Chief".

Also a nice little German air pistol was sold in this country in the early twenties and marketed as "The Dare Devil Dinkum". Sadly, nobody seems to use quirky names like that these days.

Regards

Brian

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Re: Accles & Shelvoke "Acvoke" Air Pistol

Post by cinedux » Sat Jun 01, 2013 11:52 am

Produsit made the Thunderbolt Junior and the wooden-gripped Big Chief pistol.I'd imagine the latter was to compliment their dinky round-shot shooting " Big Chief" rifle...

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