When higher velocity is combined with selective fire, you need one thing: power. To borrow Roy Scheider’s famous line from Jaws, “We’re going to need a bigger CO2 capsule!”

Enter the 88-gram cartridge and two of the hottest air pistols on the planet to use them: the Baikal MP-66 1K, better known as the DROZD, and the Umarex Electronic Burst of Steel, or EBOS.

• RELATED STORY: Spot-On Airspray: 3 of the Top .177 Machine Pistols

While bigger than most pistols, they provide integral shoulder stocks, and both offer multiple selective fire modes—single, three- or six-round bursts for the DROZD, and single, four- or eight-round bursts for the EBOS. Both have 400-round capacities and both are electronically operated, using six AA alkaline batteries to power the trigger and firing systems. 

In appearances the EBOS, priced at $174, looks like a 21st century tactical weapon and handles like one. The pricier Russian-made DROZD Blackbird, retailing for $350, looks like a prop from Star Trek.

Both have a design aesthetic that screams “form follows function” because there has to be a place for a CO2 cartridge that is 8 inches long and 4.5 inches in circumference. Neither is a traditional, historically based pistol, but rather something that takes air guns into a new era that undoubtedly will create a following of air gunners who want something truly original. The select-fire DROZD and EBOS are certainly that.

For more information on the EBOS  visit umarexusa.com, and for more on the DROZD visit pyramydair.com.

• RELATED STORY: Top 16 Air Pistols From Gun Buyer’s Guide 2015

This article is from the August 2015 issue of COMBAT HANDGUNS. To subscribe, please visit PersonalDefenseWorld.com.