This site is devoted to showing off the best performing air rifle that I've yet found: an AR-6 converted to bulk CO₂ operation! I've used and owned a lot of airguns over the years, but I gradually lost interest in shopping for them or following the latest trends -- it just doesn't seem likely that I'm ever going to find anything better than this rifle. It's the ultimate. (Update: Yes, I eventually found something better.)

First some history. . . The AR-6 is made by the Duk Il Arms Co. in Korea and sold under the name "Hunting Master". Korean airguns were pretty much unknown in the USA until Air Rifle Specialists (ARS) began importing the AR-6 to the US, so it became widely known as the ARS/AR6. (In their literature ARS doesn't hyphenate the "AR-6" name, possibly wanting to avoid confusion with AR-series rifles of Armalite Inc.)

The AR-6 made quite a splash! Pre-charged pneumatic air rifles were just starting to take off, but all the available models up to that point had been imported from England and were considered too expensive by many airgun shooters. The AR-6 was not only more affordable, but it performed well and was a six-shot repeater! It could be operated from either high-pressure air or liquid carbon dioxide, the latter being an option no English guns claimed. The AR-6 helped fuel the pre-charged revolution. A series of newer Korean air rifles have come into the country since then, but the AR-6 is probably still the most widely known.

Here is some promotional material from the time of the ARS/AR6 introduction. . .

You can click those thumbnails to see the larger images. I'm not sure what "GOLD 90A" is supposed to mean. Note where I scribbled conversions next to the metric specs. Note also the elk targeted on page three, which I found hilarious. This rifle is suitable for taking game up to the size of jackrabbits, not elk.

This following image is my personal AR-6 rifle. . .

In this picture you can see the extra six-shot cylinder (it works just like a revolver), and my 12-ounce CO₂ bottle used for filling the rifle. A previous owner re-finished the stock with thick, stippled, black epoxy. This turned out to be a good thing, as I think it perfectly matches and enhances the rifle's brawny look. It's a big gun that nobody will mistake for a toy or a "youth gun", but it's not too long and not nearly as heavy as it looks.

By the way. . . The rifle can also be fired double-action like a revolver, but the trigger pull is so heavy that I've never had the guts to actually shoot it that way. I can only imagine the accuracy would be dreadful, so it's no loss. When the hammer is cocked manually for each shot, then the trigger is OK. The convenience of quick repeat shots is great for both plinking and hunting, as compared to the more typical single-shot air rifles.

My rifle came from its previous owner without any rear sight, but this I also counted as no great loss. I mounted a Leopold 3-9X E.F.R. scope on it. It's the same model I have mounted on my Theoben Classic rifle, and I've had good results with it.

When choosing pellets, slightly oversized ones work best. If they are undersized, they have a tendency to fall out of the cylinder. Oversized ones get resized by the act of loading them into the cylinder chambers, and friction holds them in place. Beeman Kodiak pellets are my favorite for this gun, as they are just the right size, fairly heavy, aerodynamic, and I've had good accuracy from them.

When the AR-6 first appeared in the US, it was promoted as being usable with either CO₂ or high-pressure air. Ron Robinson used one loaded with CO₂ and was completely happy with it, as he documented in his book, The Manic Compressive.

Some time after that I stopped hearing about anybody using CO₂ in their AR-6 rifles. I'm not sure what happened. ARS no longer describes the ARS/AR6 as being anything other than a pre-charged pneumatic rifle. It's true that air generates more power than CO₂. . . According to ARS, the gun can develop over 50 ft-lbs of energy when used with air, over twice the power that you get from CO₂. Okay. . . But how much power do you need? Here are the results I got with CO₂:

The air temperature was 83 degrees Fahrenheit when I did this test, and I gave the AR-6 a fresh fill. The Beeman Kodiak pellets average 21.5 grains, and I chronographed five of them. The average came to 695 ft/sec. After doing the math, that works out to an honest 23 ft-lbs of muzzle energy!

By way of comparison, airguns in Britain can't produce more than 12 ft-lbs without being licensed (they require a Fire Arms Certificate, or FAC), and thousands of shooters are hunting and competing successfully with their non-FAC rifles. Here in the USA, for many years the top "magnum" air rifle was the Beeman R1 which produces around 15 ft-lbs in its factory trim, depending on the caliber and choice of pellet.

That was before PCP guns took over. Many PCP guns can produce far higher power levels, but the AR-6 remains the only one I've found that can accept CO₂ as a power source. Even the Korean guns that followed the AR-6 have no CO₂ option. In any event, the AR-6 is the most powerful airgun that I own, and I feel no desire for one stronger -- if I need more power than this, I'll grab a firearm rifle.

So, why use carbone dioxide? Why not just switch to air like everybody else? The most obvious reason is availability. High-pressure air is usually available at dive shops, but there aren't any of those in central Texas where I live. Compressors are very expensive, and hand pumps are way too labor-intensive. Meanwhile, I can get CO₂ bottles filled at any place that supplies it for paintball games. Fire extinguisher companies can also fill them, and I can fill the bottles myself from a 20-pound tank -- and my local welding shop can get the tank filled for me.

Another point is that 10-ounce or 12-ounce CO₂ bottles are a lot handier than SCUBA tanks! I can easily toss a 12-ounce bottle in my tool box or in a backpack and go off hunting. And although the power is lower, CO₂ gives more shots per fill than air. It's loaded in the gun as a liquid, so the pressure remains constant as long as there is liquid in the reservoir. PCP guns drop pressure with every shot fired.

Comments are welcome, as I always love chatting with other gun cranks. You can return to my home page and find my e-mail address there.