Sheridan What is a Sheridan? Really

[6gun]

Well, at the high end, my Steroid 392 develops close to 30 fpe at 20 pumps with heavy pellets and my .25 Aspen makes around 36 fpe for every 6 pumps. So long as a multipump can make around 16 fpe though, I consider it adequate.

The Aspen is really the gun that should have checked all the boxes for being this ultimate pumper, but they really weren’t built very well and had a lot of issues of their own.

I think that the concept of an air conserving pumper is a very good one. There’s just so much efficiency to be gained by not dumping all the air with every shot and we’re at a point with PCP rifles these days where variable power can be achieved easily by controlling the hammer or transfer port.

What mods are done to the 392? I was thinking about making a flat top piston and valve cap for mine with a little greater internal volume. If my 392 made it into 8-900 fps range especially with 18 jsb pellets id be ecstatic

 

[Sawney Bean]

What mods are done to the 392? I was thinking about making a flat top piston and valve cap for mine with a little greater internal volume. If my 392 made it into 8-900 fps range especially with 18 jsb pellets id be ecstatic

To tell the truth I'm not entirely sure. Part of what was done to this one was to replace the forearm lever with a billet forged one and the forearm was then moved about 4" to the rear to make a stronger lever with more leverage. The Steroid tune was what Tim McMurray used to do and likely entailed reworking the transfer port, boring out the chamber and some alteration to the piston. I'm not sure on the exact details, and it's my understanding that you don't really start to see the difference between it and a standard 392 until you get to around 8 pumps or so, and at that point a standard 392 will be peaking while the Steroid modded ones just keep building more power.

I really wanted one of them back around 1999, but I didn't have the funds at the time, but around 6 months ago or so when I saw one on ebay I went ahead and bought it.

I've been on my own little quest now for the past couple of years to try and find the best MPP and that Steroid 392 is the closest I've come to it. If it had better optics mounting capability and a threaded barrel it would be pretty close to ideal.

 

[Treefrog]

To get back to the original question...

I'd never seen one in person until I noticed one on the rack at K-Mart in '78. Ads in Popular Mechanics (maybe) American Rifleman, or National Geographic had piqued my interest. (Someone really needs to document Sheridan's history of advertisement.) I'd had a number of Crosmans by that time, but the Sheridan's higher level of quality sold me on the first one I had hands on. Once it was in my hands it was a week before I could find and buy pellets for it. K-Mart didn't carry them, but a local gun shop did.

Cheers,

J~

 

[Michigander]

Here is my Blue Streak, my first rifle and a Christmas present after completing the NRA hunter safety course at school as a 13 year old. I whittled away the pump handle to make it look more like a Mannlicher, and a next door neighbor mounted the 5D sight for me. Countless pellets were put through it by me and my brothers target shooting and hunting squirrels, pigeons and rabbits. Sometime in the 70s the seals finally gave out and I rebuilt it. It still works and produces as much power as it ever did. I might take it squirrel hunting this winter just for old times' sake. A great little hunting gun, light, accurate and with enough power for short range hunting of small game.
Chuck

 

[.20calguy]

The one that’s currently on my wish list is a rocker safety Silver Streak. They came in a variety of models, but the nickel plated pumpers were Silver Streaks and the blackened ones were Blue Streaks. The earliest models had a safety to the rear of the receiver that was awkward to operate and had to be held down to fire and those got replaced with the rocker safeties somewhere around 1960. Later on they adopted a push pull safety.

In general, the Silver Streaks are harder to find and more desirable than Blue Streaks. I’ve never heard that they were functionally any better though and neither one will ever rust.

The Vulcan and Beeman Carbine are collectible too, but I’m not really familiar with them.

I've got a Vulcan, 3 Bluestreaks and one Silverstreak. I'm not sure what they have in common, but my son took the Webly squirrel hunting, then The Sheridan He never took the Vulcan on another hunt, but brought back squirrels with the Sheridan. If we're in the presence of anyone who hadn't heard it, he says I killed my first squirrel with that gun.