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whm1974 · Veteran Member

Forgive me if this is already old news but I was just at Archer Airguns and found this gem:

http://www.archerairguns.com/QB78-repeater-s/80.htm

I just might get this instead of the "plain" QB78 when they release it.

Can't wait... Mr. Green

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

It's been coming for a long time now! Rolling Eyes

Al

whm1974 · Veteran Member

How long? I wonder how much it will be when it's released.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

whm1974 · Veteran Member

So right now they are just teasing us? That's not nice....

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

According to Archers it will be available in a couple of months, but no price yet. We shall see ?

Al

whm1974 · Veteran Member

I want one so bad!!! Crying or Very sad

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

whm1974 · Veteran Member

AirGunEric · Site Admin

In North America, there are few sellers of the QB line.

Archer may be one of the very few in the US, there is one primary seller in Canada ( www.scopesandammo.com ), and a couple other vendors with old inventory still on their shelves.

The issues Al mentions have mostly been eliminated- at least on the QB78D's, AR2078 units built in the last year- but two things that do pop up are the occasional mis-aligned tube holes (i.e. the transfer port hole on top and the valve screw hole on the bottom, meaning the transfer port may not be fully exposed/flow as well, and on the .177 rifles, interference between the bolt and the barrel- seems the 'V' entry into the bore with the bolt is not always machined quite precisely. Both of these can be worked around- by elongating the valve transfer port or the tube (necessitating the use of a poly tube seal or some other customization) or filing the bore opening a bit on either side to allow the bolt to feed properly.

The problem is if you hit one of the vendors that hasn't had new stock in a couple years, you may end up getting a unit with more of the issues Al describes (and yes, there are some dealers than must have purchased an entire pallet of products a couple years back and are stilling selling them). One thing to watch out for is anyone still selling QB rifles with the 'TechForce" name on them as they are definitely old stock units (Compasseco/Pyramyd dropped the QB's with the TechForce name about 18 months ago- they are the TechForce name-owner).

That being said, it is still a solid platform and performs quite well once any of these things that may be present have been sorted out. The biggest problem is, it's a copy of a Crosman 160, and Industry Brand hasn't changed any of the design in the 10 years (maybe more) they've been building it- and it was always a copy of the original Crosman from the early '70s. If someone doesn't like the "classic" look to it, they're pretty much stuck. The factory has been asked/told to update the look a bit, but they only thing they have talked about doing is perhaps building a thumbhole wood stock for it- which has not yet appeared for the QB's.

Maybe that's something we should do around here- take the basic QB platform and re-design it for what would be a more modern look/feel and re-ignite interest in it generally. Any takers on posting up re-design ideas? If we can pull something like this together- I can feed it directly to the factory with the idea that "this is the rifle that will sell"- i.e. 'build it and they will come'.

whm1974 · Veteran Member

I'm looking at the QB78D, and I like the classic look. So that's not a problem.

Anyone know if Archer's HDD is worth getting?