Shanghai Airgun Factory Tour - With Pix

[Stephen Archer]

While Cornelia and I were in China recently, we visited the Shanghai Airgun Factory. Of course this was a highlight of our vacation and - now that we've shipped all the orders that arrived while we were away (THANK YOU!) - I've posted a report on the Archer Airguns blog (link below). You might find it interesting as most of us don't get the chance to see inside a functioning air rifle factory and we were given an extensive tour of the facility. As you can see, the operation is clean and modern. It looks very much like other manufacturing operations I've seen in Japan.

And folk were friendly, even though the only Chinese words I can say are "Hello", "Thankyou" and "beer". Hey, you have to have your priorities in order!

Stephen Archer
Archer Airguns Inc.
Website  http://www.archerairguns.com
Videos  http://www.youtube.com/ArcherAirguns
Blog  http://www.archerairguns.info

[daveshoot]

Stephen, thank you for the pictures. I hope you can follow up with more! The blog was interesting and I see that the QB36 series is still selling well.

Let us know if you can share any more pix or gossip from Shanghai. Anything new on the horizon we can know?

American shooters would benefit from seeing this. Not enough people are aware how far China has come in the last decade, and why. Whether they (or we) recognize it, much of their progress has been from opening up opportunities for the individuals, including ownership and incentives. The eastern provinces look more American every day, in many ways.

[Stephen Archer]

Dave,

Thanks for your comments. I have more pictures and I'll make another blog post to show more in a few days time. Obviously the factory people want me to keep much of our discussions confidential, but they are certainly working on some new products that sound very exciting. I provided input that I hope will be useful for all of us.

And you certainly are correct. China has been making huge progress in the past few years. Walking around Shanghai or Beijing (as we did) you would identify these cities immediately as "First World', high-tech, modern places. There's a "buzz" in the air. Everyone is aware that they're making great progress. And I believe that this is shown in the improving products that we see in the airgun world and elsewhere.

As for the Shanghai Airgun Factory, the management there is well aware that they still have some product quality improvement opportunities. But they're committed to making them and guns like the QB78 Deluxe show how far they've been able to progress. The people there understand what's required to succeed on the world stage and they're working on it...

Stephen Archer
Archer Airguns Inc.
Website http://www.archerairguns.com
Videos http://www.youtube.com/ArcherAirguns
Blog http://www.archerairguns.info

[Tdubya]

Stephen,
Thanks for the informative blog. And thanks for all the information that you provide on your site and YouTube.
I have been very satisfied wth my QB36-2, TF97, and QB57.  My next purchase will be one of your QB78 or 79's.

Thanks again!
Terry

[Stephen Archer]

Terry,

Thanks for your support. I'm glad to hear that you find the information of value. We'll have two more YouTube videos coming soon...

Stephen Archer
Archer Airguns Inc.
Website http://www.archerairguns.com
Videos http://www.youtube.com/ArcherAirguns
Blog http://www.archerairguns.info

[thebookdoc]

Being owner of several chinese guns, and knowing how they have improved in just the past few years, I think the 'learning curve' for chinese manufacturers has mostly been put behind. Guns I've gotten recently (AR1000, AR3000) have been wonderful improvements over previous versions. I'm looking forward to seeing what the AR2000 really does!

[Jaymo]

I think they're all garbage. So hurry up and send them all to me for proper disposal. And send all yer pellets, too. ;-)

[daveshoot]

Always the diplomat, my friend... when you've got more Chicom hardware than a boatload of Somali pirates!

Are those pellets really worth a dang? Maybe I'll try some (you're talking about the Peaks, I presume?).

[Stephen Archer]

"The Peak" pellets are not make by the Shanghai Airgun Factory, but by some other outfit. I don't know much about their origin but I do find that they work pretty well in relatively slow air rifles - under about 800fps. And I use the wadcutters for our Gold Service testing with good results. There's a lot of comparison data posted on our website in the Technical Specs and Extended Information tabs. I'd say they're good value for money and worth trying.

Stephen Archer
Archer Airguns Inc.
Website http://www.archerairguns.com
Videos http://www.youtube.com/ArcherAirguns
Blog http://www.archerairguns.info

[Jaymo]

The peak pellets look just like the Daisy wadcutter pellets I have, that are also made in China, and my 22SG LOVES them. I'm thinking about getting a case of them in .177 for my HW30S when it arrives.
Y'all do realize, of course, that I was kidding about them all being junk.
I was not, however, kidding about y'all needing to send them all to me with plenty of pellets.

[daveshoot]

Ya, we realize you were kidding, so was I. It's cool. I have heard good stuff about the Peaks hereand they are not the split shot they include with some of the package deals. I just never tried 'em.

[Jaymo]

I still have a bunch of that split shot that was included with my B3-1 underlevers, 15 years ago. I'm thinking about running them through my .45 cal swaging die and making frangible bullets for my Sam Yang.

[Magnum]

Stephen, Thanks for sharing your trip, it is great to see all this inside info and pics of the factory:)  I have 2 -QB57's and both fun and accurate.Thanks again, Tony.

[Graham]

Looking at the news today. Looks like you missed some awesome fireworks. I'm not too sure about the military arms parade though, that looked pretty awesome too.