Bumar
Fabryka Broni

Air Guns from Radom

The first piston-powered air rifle from Radom, the 4.5 mm (.177) kl.87 top-break plinker, was designed by E. Durasiewicz in 1956. The kl.87 remained in manufacturing program until 1980, renamed kl.187 as of 1972. In 1970 a ‘heavy’ export variant, the kl.88 (kl.188 since 1972) with heavier barrel, more precise sight and different woodwork. Between 1971 and 1975 a simplified, cheap kl.141 was also manufactured.

During the 1968-72 period a break-open piston-powered pistol was also designed, patterned after the Walther LP53, manufactured since 1972 as kl.170 pistol. It was also introduced into the inventory of the Polish Army as a training weapon, called the ‘4,5 mm pistolet pneumatyczny wz.1970 (PP-70)’. The kl.170 was manufactured between 1972 and 1977 for both domestic market and export.

Not all Radom-manufactured air guns were simple break-opens: Łucznik also tried to master a more complicated piston-powered weapons with cocking levers: at the bottom (kl.164, developed 1967-73, never manufactured) and o­n the side. The latter branched-out into two models, just like with the earlier kl.87/187 and 88/188 – the ‘light’ model was called the kl.167 and the ‘heavy’ was kl.168. Both were introduced into the military, as ‘wz.82’ and ‘wz.83’ respectively, but their manufacturing was soon moved from Radom to ‘Wifama’ plant in Łódź.

Recently, as of 2005, the FB Łucznik-Radom sp. z o.o. is license-manufacturing British PCP Logun air rifles in 5.5 mm caliber. In contrast to the earlier air guns, the Loguns are marked with the military logo (the FB in triangle) instead of the civilian trademark ‘Łucznik’.