“THE PIONEER AIRBOW™ is an all-new category of big game weapon featuring full length arrows and full weight broadheads, all driven by air,” crosman.com proclaims. “Based on Benjamin’s proven American-made PCP platform, the Pioneer can be cocked with two fingers (and decocked just as easily), fires 8 shots in the same amount of time it takes to fire three from a crossbow, all at a blazing 450 FPS.” What the video above doesn’t really capture is just how fugly this thing is. Check it out . . .

Pioneer Airbow (courtesy crossman.com)

Holy shave my dog’s butt and make it walk backwards, Batman! The Crosman looks like the product of an unholy union of an FN-SCAR and a UTAS shotgun, complete with the world’s tallest scope mount. Although Crosman uses GLOCK-like capitalization for THE PIONEER AIRBOW, they deploy the word “gun” or “rifle” for its description exactly no times when describing it. Wonder why that is….

Crosman’s taking pre-orders for this, uh, thing, at $849 a pop. Want one?

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57 COMMENTS

    • No way to resupply the air. Unless they’ve got a fat tank in Alexandria and it hasn’t been a complete loss yet..

        • There will be plenty of filled SCUBA tanks to be found when scavenging in the Zombie Apocalypse. Walkers won’t be doing much diving. Well, if TTAG’s Tri-Mix diver O2 were to become a walker… Dive-Walker? Fuggit.

          Anyways, back to reality…

          Quite frankly, if they wanted to sell something to take big game, why not just make a modern interpretation of the Girardoni air rifle?

          Big bore, hard-hitting, and multi-shot capable. I would think hunters could really dig something like that…

        • Delivery on a Quackenbush is looking like 2 years out at this point, according to his status page.

          Pyramid Air page has some interesting stuff…

        • Geoff PR, Enjoy. Despite the popularity with a certain fraction, the vast majority of forearms owners have no idea what is actually out there regarding PCP rifles. I had no reason to know, and had no idea myself until just randomly searching one day.

          int19h, Yup Dennis makes some nice rifles. Wish he’d take on some help, his delivery times (or even his web updates) are kinda ridiculous. But I do salute his dedication to making it right, and worth buying. Just wish he’d be a little more of a businessman. Oh well, he is what he is, and that ain’t bad.

          edit: Yeah Geoff, Dennis is not your choice for speedy delivery. Look around, there’s some neat stuff, and maybe not exactly of the Quackenbush caliber, it’s pretty good.

      • Stop in a fire station and in most will find 4 to 8ea 6000psi cascade cylinders and a bunch of SCBA cylinders.

    • I think they misunderstand that most archers love the challenge of actual archery(and longer hunting seasons) and others that don’t like archery like me stick with guns. So who this will interest I do not know.

      I see some of the most cruel, lingering kills from archery. Truly some of those most pathetic exuses for humane kills I have ever seen have been from archers. This is part of what kills my interest in it.

      • I’ve shot a buck with my bow that had one of its back legs shot off. Gun hunters make as many if not more crippling than do archery hunters.

  5. Looks like an Airsoft gun, seriously – but really lethal. I commend Crosman in not sitting back in fear of and introducing something relatively innovative despite someone likely trying to ban it from the start.

  6. It wouldn’t be legal to hunt game with here, but I like it!
    (Oregon is pretty bass ackwards when it comes to hunting rules. They just this year “allowed” lighted nocks)

    • Washington too, a cross bow has to have a certain size of limbs and lb. to be legal. It would be great for my daughter starting out with a cross bow though.

    • Tom, what season/ regs do you see on this thing for hunting purposes? Do you think its gonna fall in the crossbow category or is it going to get stuck in the “gun” category. The only thing that I don’t like about this thing is that it seems like a poachers wet dream. No real way to tell if someone killed that monster with this or actual archery gear.

      • So if you have supressors you will poach as well? Same lame argument our state is using to keep us from using supressors for hunting…better to just go deaf like I have. If poach, you break the law and should be punished, regardless of the method of kill

      • 2 inches at 50 yards is very good. Usually 3 inch groups at 20-30 yards is acceptable to hunt with.

  9. Seems like it shoots like a crossbow. I’d buy one if the price was right.

    I sure hope he does not try and call what he was doing hunting, cause it ain’t.

  11. I think it’s in the 40 watt range.

    Seriously though, if you really think about it very cool in terms of function. 450fps may not seem like a lot but a bolt has a lot of weight compared to a faster moving bullet. I’d love to see an exploded diagram and get an idea of how they propelled the bolt. I’d think a piston but what do I know?

  13. Costs 3 times as much as a crossbow, and doesn’t meet the definition of a crossbow in most states. This makes it an expensive novelty with no practical purpose.

    On most big game hunts you only get one shot anyway, so extra speed is a moot point. If you miss, you can only watch as the animal spooks and runs away.

    • It costs less than a Barnett Ghost 410 or a Scorpyd RDT 165. And it shoots faster. If the velocity claims are correct, this is a very powerful arrow / bolt launcher.

      Apparently a lot of folks here don’t understand the crossbow world. Blazing speed, like 400 FPS or more, comes at a high price.

    • If you’ve got a crossbow that costs 1/3 of $845, so a big whopping $282, then you’ve got nothing but a piece of S to start with. Take it back to K-Mart where you got it and get yourself a top of the line Excalibur crossbow. And then get ready to shell out over $1000 too. No wonder you’re bad-mouthing the air gun, you can’t afford to buy one anyhow.

  14. The hunter did not reload immediately after his second shot. Instead, the two guys stood around BSing. They were lucky that the bison was hit too hard to come after them.

    • About as much as a hunt as a farmer “hunting” a cow. Mind you I’m not say it’s wrong what he’s is doing or illegal, but it sure as hell ain’t hunting.

  15. I’ve always kind of wondered why you don’t see more pneumatic arrow weapons. Even in fiction the only really notable ones I can think of off the top of my head are some vehicle mounted weapons from The Road Warrior and the helsing launcher in the Metro 2033 video game.

    I’m intrigued but will wait to see some more about it before I decide if it has a place in my collection.

  16. Ban Assault Air Arrow Gunz!! Call your regressive CONgressperson today!

    I volunteer for testing a free one 🙂

  17. Hmm lets see here. Tactical Camo finish, pistol grip, fires faster than a single shot crossbow.
    That’s not an airbow fellers, that’s an ASSAULT BOW.
    The Sheriff of Nottingham wouldn’t have allowed them and neither will Obama.

  18. I just saw another report on this recently – I like it! It’s kind of clunky in an HK G11 sort of way; like a Samsonite suitcase with a scope, but overall not bad looking. The scope does sit pretty high, but that riser is removable and lower mounts are available if you need to lower it to get a better cheek weld. The price is about median for a quality crossbow, which go to well over $1000 in the Cabela’s catalog. And, this projectile launching device is the first I’ve seen that actually has a shoulder thing that goes up!

    It’s supposed to get multiple shots from one fill, and you can get multiple fills from a scuba tank – so lots of shooting for a few bucks. Or at a few bucks. Until the .gov regulates air as ammo.

  20. Anyone read the Youtube comments? What is it with Europeans and Australians obsessing over a “fair” fight? So many comments of “just use a bow” or “hunting should only be legal with a knife”. Even on DGUs they are like “Only wusses use guns, I fight with my fists/baseball bats LIKE A MAN!”. Is their masculinity been robbed that much that they have glass fragile egos?

    • That seems contrary to the idea of minimizing the animal’s suffering, which I thought was an idea both sides could agree with. Hunters should be forced to use exploding harpoons, like eskimo whalers have to now.

  21. This is not an original idea. FX, another (more reputable) airgun manufacturer, has had a rifle that was capable of this years ago, called the verminator and IIRC it wasn’t limited to shooting just arrows. You could swap out the barrels and shoot pellets or arrows. I never understood what made some of these guys famous hunters or why companies decided to use them as the face of their company? I’ve seen more impressive and personable hunters on YouTube.

  22. Pretty cool. Alabama just last year made air rifles over .30 caliber legal for deer hunting.
    I’ve been using a Benjamin Discovery PCP .22 for rabbits,coons,possums and tree rats for the last few years. Fitted with a TKO “lead dust catcher” the pellet hitting the target can be heard.(otherwise the rifle ckacks like a .22 rimfire) For plinking I use a 14.3g pellet. for hunting I up the weight to 22g. The 22g pellet hits at 25 foot pounds for a solid whack easily killing small game. For referance to kill a turkey it takes 2.5 ftp. one #6 pellet(wayyy smaller) in the neck.

    The Discovery is charged to 2000 PSI and provides 20 full power shots before needing to be pumped back up using a special hand pump. I fitted mine with an EOtec red dot designed for rimfire rifles. (traded some russian subgun ammo for it or I would never had bought this overpriced thing) It’s a single shot bolt action so you have to make your shots count. I never take any shots over 100 feet. I could but don’t want to chance wounding anything. I will take shots at starlings cause I hate them.

    Triggertime and smallgame hunting for 10$ for 500 shots.

  23. If it had quicker loading and was cheaper it’d be great for an aquantance with a felony to have for defense, and also for groundhogs….

  24. This is just an American copy of Swedish FX Airguns gun. FX has been doing these PCP-based arrow launchers here in Europe for some time. They actually have one that comes with two barrels. One for the arrows and one for the ordinary air rifle ammunition. And you can quickly change the barrel without tools. Only difference is that Crosman version is lot more powerful.

    Concept itself is solid. Because air pushes the arrow from tip, not the back part, there is no wobble. This results vastly more accurate weapon. And it truly is a dangerous weapon. With well chosen tip, that arrow (well, bolt actually), launched at 450 fps, penetrates all the normal bulletproof vests.

  25. This technology has been around since the 1980s. Swivel Machine and FX Airguns make plenty of models. The Airrow Stealth is actually much faster.

  26. I like the concept of it personally. Less maintenance than a crossbow by far, easier to walk through the woods with than a crossbow for sure, but man are they putting it to the consumer with that price or what? I don’t mind shooting the roll out for top shelf hunting equipment and for the most part you get what you pay for, but when it comes down to something that is mainly a combination of fittings, seals, washers, o rings, and uses compressed air as the means of propulsion, it would be hard for me to pay that much money for something that isn’t legal to hunt with in my state anyways. Cool concept, overpriced, and impractical, until it’s approved for hunting in all states, but definitely has a future in zombie land fantasy worlds.

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