Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2021 i Airgun Shooter

Most shooters take their sport pretty seriously, but there’s definitely a time and a place to let off some steam and shred some tin cans, and the blowback Crosman R1 and its 25-round magazine will let you do just that as quickly as you can squeeze the trigger. The R1 is modelled on the M4/M4A1 carbine, a battle rifle in service with most branches of the US military, and its AR-15 style civilian variants. The R1 really does look and feel the part, with the standard controls all present, even if some of them carry out a slightly different role to the powder-burning originals. Crosman’s latest backyard blaster is powered by two 12 gram CO2 capsules that sit alongside each other inside the drop-down magazine, which accepts up to 25…

Good shooting stems from good gun fit, and Form Rifle Stocks has made a name for itself with some really outstanding stocks offering plenty of options and adjustment, mainly for fullbore rifles, but also for airguns in the shape of the brand new Chieftain. This eye-catching ambidextrous thumbhole stock has a unique interchangeable cheekpiece system which allows the shooter to customise the look of their stock with a range of coloured laminate cheekpieces and hamsters. Devon-based Form sources the laminate hardwood timber it uses from a company called CWP in Finland, which has a great reputation for dying and manufacturing Scandinavian birch veneers. A hot glue press is used to ensure a solid and stable structure to the laminate. The Chieftain can be fitted to a number of different air…

LETTER OF THE MONTH DOUBLING UP I write with regards to “Scope Considerations” by Andy McLachlan in issue 141 (apologies I’ve fallen a bit behind with my reading recently). In the article, Andy talks about the various features, advantages and disadvantages of different scopes and comments upon the increased difficulty in target acquisition when using a higher magnification scope, as well as developing the wobbles on higher magnification. This got me thinking about offset scope mounts that I occasionally see advertised on the internet. These allow either a single scope to be mounted off to the side of the rifle, or if you gun will allow it a second scope besides the first one on the top of the gun. There are also mounts I’ve seen rarely that will allow…

Most people who enjoy shooting air rifles also enjoy shooting air pistols. Even the most serious 10m shooter competing at national, or even international, level can enjoy shooting up tin cans in the garden. One of the most popular sectors in air pistol shooting is the replica pistol. These air pistols shoot mainly BBs using CO2 as a power source and are not designed to hit a bullseye at 10m. But they are usually close replicas of their steel counterpart, and most importantly they are great fun to shoot! I am fortunate enough to live in a country where handguns are legal, so I’ve been taking a close look at some of the popular air-powered replicas and comparing them with the original, and this time it’s the Glock. But first,…

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“Hi Roger, I understand you like shooting slugs. How do you fancy being the first to shoot a new slug from Daystate?” was the call I got from Airguns of Arizona. “Yes please!” I shouted back down the phone – I could hardly say anything else, could I? But before we get into my testing phase with the new Howler slugs, it’s time for a bit of backstory. I’ve written extensively about slugs before, as I am sure you are aware. I’ve shot almost every slug on the market and have learned a whole bunch about them in the process. These new Howler slugs from Daystate are actually made by Nielsen Specialty Ammo, a company run by Nick Nielsen in the United States. I have used NSA slugs before and…

Few things are more pleasurable in airgunning than submitting to the exquisite torment of choosing a new rifle, and surely there’s nothing more tortuous than deciding which underlever you want. We’ll pore over magazine and YouTube reviews, ask the opinion of people we know – and many more that we don’t through faceless internet forums – and often descend into a spiral of indecision. Fixed-barrel springers have an advantage over break-barrels as they do not rely on mechanisms to hold the barrel still once cocked. And yet underlevers, and to an even greater extent sidelever springers, are few and far between. The options for a new, full-power underlever spring rifle are somewhat limited, although that’s not to say choosing one is necessarily easier. It really comes down to a rivalry…

NEED A REMEDY? VISIT THE DOCTOR Owners of the mighty Theoben Rapid will be well aware of Dr Bob’s Gun Bits, as this bespoke British manufacturer started out by building a bipod clamp for the buddy bottle-equipped hunting rifle way back in 2006. Many more items have been produced since then, and the firm has a new website so you can check out the range for yourself. There’s still plenty of focus on supplying enhanced or replacement parts for the Rapid, such as a hi flo exhaust valve, trigger and brand new magazine. But there’s plenty on offer for shooters of other marques, such as a Weihrauch HW100 buddy bottle conversion kit and a quick-fill kit for the BSA SuperTEN. Go to www.drbobsgunbits.com to find out more. GAUGE THOSE PELLETS…

The Winchester 4.5 Special lives up to its name as it really is a rather special type of CO2 pistol, shooting .177 pellets from a rifled barrel, rather than ball bearings from a smoothbore. This Winchester takes its aesthetic inspiration from the old school stainless steel revolvers of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, being of all-metal construction apart from the plastic grips. The frame and cylinder have been given a beautiful polished finish, giving it quite a luxurious look and feel, especially considering its relatively modest price tag of £139. This handgun represents the conventional style of revolver on which it’s based, where the cylinder swings out from the frame for loading, unloading and cleaning. The 4.5 Special uses an eight-shot rotary magazine that slots into the rear of the…

On the farms in my locality, fields of maize grown for cattle feed are usually harvested in the late autumn and new crops are then quickly drilled in their place. However, wet weather made last year’s harvest extremely difficult. Some farmers had to leave it much later than usual and many fields were then too wet to use the heavy machinery to sow the following crop. Today I am shooting over one of these late harvests that is yet to be redrilled. Lots of corvids and a few pigeons have homed in on the remaining maize kernels, which offer them an easy food source at a time of year when natural pickings are hard to come by. Although the birds aren’t doing particularly costly damage to the remnants of last…

Hawke’s Sidewinder scopes are often touted as being suitable for shooting multiple disciplines – and with multiple types of rifle in mind as well, incorporating rimfires and centrefires as well as air rifles. This is quite a tough feat to pull off, as some shooters demand a telescopic sight that’s light enough to be carried around all day, others want a higher magnification for precision or long-range use and still more want an optic that works well at both dawn and dusk. But covering multiple bases is something the Sidewinder has been pulling off with great success for more than a decade, and the latest versions are the best yet. These new models are lighter and stronger than before, and have improved illumination and a new locking turret system. These…

FOR SALE: FX Impact MkII. Black, .177 calibre, 11 months old. Andy Hunt (West Sussex). Tel: 07761 063442. Email: andyhunt0627@outlook.com FOR SALE: Two custom stocks. HW95 CS500, lLeft-hand with rosewood caps. £140. HW99 CS700, left-hand thumbhole with adjustable butt pad. £160. Both in very good condition. R Woodgate (Isle of Wight). Tel: 01983 566634. Email: OzzieBob@outlook.com WANTED: Theoben gas-ram barrel in .177 or .20, Slimline or EVO silencer fitted. R Woodgate (Isle of Wight). Tel: 01983 566634. Email: OzzieBob@outlook.com FOR SALE: As new BSA Silver Star. New May 2020, complete with hard case and an unused Optisan Mamba 12x44 scope. Cost £599. £350. John Lane (Norfolk). Tel 01366 386329 or email john.lane19@gmail.com FOR SALE: Theoben Sirocco .22 with Bushnell scope. Excellent condition as little used. £400. No offers. Brian White…

We’re all more than well aware that last year wasn’t great, and this year hasn’t exactly got off to a good start either, but one of the few positive things to come out of lockdown has been an influx of people to our sport. Some are brand new to airguns, while others have returned after a long absence, possibly not having handled an airgun since their youth. It’s an exciting time to be a part of the airgun community, with many people now heading straight for a pre-charged pneumatic rather than going the more traditional route of starting off with a spring-powered rifle. So I thought I’d offer a few tips to anyone grabbing a PCP for the first time, letting them know just what to expect when they open…

Maybe we have a lot to thank the grey squirrel for. It gives us an incentive to get out of our beds on cold early mornings and catch the splendour of first light, a justification to be about in woodland and the opportunity for us all to partake in a national conservation project by assisting in the control of a destructive invasive species. That said, the term “invasive species” is potentially misleading when you think of how this small tree-dwelling mammal actually came to be on these shores. It is not that the grey squirrel scrambled onto beaches from longboats landed on the north coast, ransacking and burning red squirrel tree villages to the ground along the way. More so they were unwittingly deposited in this country as unwilling pets…

Target shooting of one type or another is a sport that has stirred the imaginations of thousands, if not millions, of keen shooters for as long as humans have been walking on two legs and worked out how to use a bow and arrow. Long ago, shooters practised their skills to enable them to either secure meat for their families, or for the purpose of protecting them. For those of us keen to improve our shooting skills, the practice of trying to land a projectile upon the target is rarely a chore and is something that we all enjoy. These days, it doesn’t really matter if we occasionally miss the dead centre of the bullseye as our lives don’t depend upon it as they would have done in the past.…

Swedish gunmaker FX Airguns is known for making some of the finest PCPs in the world, and the Impact MkII bullpup has an almost legendary status among airgun aficionados – especially high-power shooters who demand a high degree of tunability in their guns. FX also has a reputation for taking an unconventional approach, and not being afraid to do things differently from the rest of the crowd. The new FX Maverick will reinforce that reputation on both fronts. This innovative airgun burst onto the scene just a few months ago and quickly became the gun that everyone is talking about. And for good reason too, because not only does it combine winning elements of the tried and tested Impact and Wildcat models, it also has a very unusual dual regulator…

Webley Mosquito Express pellets were a big hit when they first came out, but then to the dismay of many shooters they went out of production for a while. Luckily they were reintroduced a while ago, and are now available in both .177 and .22 calibres. I’ve looked at the .177 variety previously, finding these pellets to be consistent over the chrono and turning in some sub-five pence piece-sized groups downrange at my standard three distances. But that was then, and it was now time to put these pellets to the test once more, this time in the larger calibre. Mosquito Express are made for Webley by JSB and follow the Czech manufacturer’s own Express concept of offering a pellet that’s slightly shorter and lighter than normal, in this case…

Long before CO2 became popular again, Daisy were known here in the UK more for their BB long guns for youngsters. Their CO2 range didn’t reach us for years until the late 1990s. Then, for a period, the airgun press carried adverts showing many new unseen Daisy imports, each a CO2 marvel, one of which was this amazing air pistol. The Power Line 45 is a .177 fast-fire repeater, but with no BBs in sight. A true pellet repeater this, with Colt 1911 styling with a drop-in linear magazine that slides onto the top of the frame. The firing mechanism is astonishing in its complexity and relies on the equally complex magazine that at first glance looks so simplistic, but in reality is anything but simple. Through a series of…