Electronic .22 from the '80s

J

jmorris

New member
I remember back in the mid ‘80’s there was a bolt action .22 target rifle that fired electronically and used a 9 volt battery in the stock. I want to say it was made by Beman. Does anyone have any more information on this rifle?
 
The rifle in question is a Krico. I think the model was the Kricotronic. Guns and Ammo did an article in the mid-80's.
 
electronic

There were, as I recall, several. If I'm not mistaken I think Walther had one (UIT BV-E) as well as their free pistol.
However, a company known as Electronic Trigger Systems made an after market electronic trigger for Anschutz, Remington (40x/700) and Winchester 52 in the 70's. This unit used an 11 volt camera battery. The trigger for the Anschutz was especially nice as it allowed horizontal adjustment (LOP) and verticle adjustment.

bjm
 
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a friend of mine has one of the krico's in a .223
also has an fas pistol and a couple of pellet guns
that have electronic triggers. he told me he got them
in the 80's through beeman they were the importer then.
 
Fwb

jmorris said:
I remember back in the mid ‘80’s there was a bolt action .22 target rifle that fired electronically and used a 9 volt battery in the stock. I want to say it was made by Beman. Does anyone have any more information on this rifle?
Click to expand...

The rifle that you are referring to is a Feinwerkbau (FWB) 2000 Universal. Beeman was the importer of FWB's in the 1980s and I believe into the early/mid 1990s.

The electronic trigger was an option (about $500) on the top end free rifle and was indeed powered by a 9v battery. I fired one during a training session at Ft. Benning and it had a very different feel versus a mechanical trigger.

E-triggers were also offered by several other manufactures, but I have not seen any other than the FWB, that discontinued this option around 1988.

For a picture:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Eq...&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result
 
some of these electronic trigger gun used an oddball battery
i think 18v looks like a fat AA but has posts that stick out at
both ends, had a heck of a time finding one, finally a guy at
radio shack crossedover one to everready. it worked. anybody
needs one pm me i'll get you the part number. my friend has one
of the fienwerkbau rifles, it is a shooter, very high quality.
 
trigger

Tom,

Sounds almost like the 9 volt that ETS triggers used, though only 1-1/4" long, Eveready # 504.
I still have two new ETS triggers as well as one that needs a solinoid, as Benny said they have a different feel than a mechanical trigger and right at "0" movement.

bjm
 
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Robert Beeman sent me this the other day.

" Beeman was the exclusive importer for Krico firearms from about 1986-88. What you are referring to is the Beeman/Krico Model 340 ST Kricotronic - listed on page 961 of the 27th Ed. of the Blue Book of Gun Values for $550 in 60% of new condition to $1295 in 100%.


The Blue Book GV has three errors regarding this - they will be correcting them in the next issue. 1. The Kricotronic system is not (as listed in BBGV) an electronic trigger as found on several brands of match guns but rather it is electronic ignition of conventional primers. An electronic spark instantly and without any mechanical movement ignites the primer when the trigger is pulled. (This surely would give forensic investigators fits - no firing pin mark on fired cases!). 2. Several of the Krico centerfire rifles also displayed this astonishing system- evidently ahead of its time, it was not well accepted and was not produced after 1988. 3. Beeman Precision Arms Inc. was the U.S. importer of Krico firearms about 1986-88 but was not listed as an official importer by BBGV. Also, we imported very few (ten??) of these special guns, and extremely few (50??) were made - so the values are probably well understated."


It doesn't look like I'm going to have much luck finding one.

Thanks for the help everyone.
 
One of the guys that posts on the Yellow forum (Net54 airgun forum) has one. If it makes you feel any better, he is not a bit impressed with the gun but it does have some collector value.
 
i checked with my friend what he has is a hammerli pistol and the olympic
grade feinwerkbau rifle, also a feinwerkbau olympic grade pellet pistol.
the feinwerkbau's use a 15 volt battery the hammerli uses a regular 9 volt.
excuse my errors please. tom
 
Matzeder, I'm surprised you didn't mention the still available Daystate airguns which have very sweet electronic triggers and other electronics built into the rifle. I have four of them myself and looking for more.
Dale McClure
 
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Just trying to stay on task here. He was asking about the rimfire. I've shot the Morrini quite a bit and had a AD with it that scared the hell out of me. If you try to pull the trigger with the safty on, realize your mistake and then take the safty off, it goes bang. Not a good thing.
 
I was just sitting here thinking, what if you had a rifle that had a trigger without a shoe, instead you had a remote (or a switch/wires)? You get your shot aimed and then sit back and push the button. Probably wouldn't be much fun, but just thinking out loud. Thanks, Douglas
 
Hammerli had that on their free pistol until it was outlawed. Most put the button in their off side pants pocket where they put their off hand when shooting.
 
Douglas,

You could/can do that with the ETS units. They were built as three separate units, Sear&solinoid/battery/trigger.

bjm
 
Don -

Not sure which Morini you are referring to. On mine and all others I have seen, the "safety" is always on. It works by use of a light beam from the bottom of the trigger guard to the top. When finger is placed on the trigger, the beam is interrupted and disables the "safety" allowing the gun to fire. You just cannot close (slam) the chamber with your finger resting on the trigger when loading a round otherwise the force may cause the trigger to release if weight is very low. Not a problem in real life once familiar with the gun. Used to win most medals in recent years at World Cups and Olympics. Release triggers are outlawed in competition events.

Dennis
 
After I posted that, I got to thinking about it and I don't think it was the saftey...I had not turned it on. I pulled the trigger, it didn't go off, I then turned it on and it went bang....however it happened, it was unexpected. I like the trigger on my Pardini better anyway.
 
Shot silhouette with a guy who used an electronic trigger on his 40X... until he got to a match with a dead battery and was forever after called 'jump start'.
 
trigger

Yes,

They did have a tendency to go dead at the most inopportune times.

bjm
 
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