Air Arms S200!

by Harley Ayre



How many of you are sitting on the fence, wanting to get into precharged airguns but afraid of what you don't know and all the extra equipment you have to buy? Well, let's look at a true alternative to the more expensive PCPs: the Air Arms S200.

Developed by talented amateurs!
Unlike the other precharged rifles, the S200 was not developed by an airgun manufacturer. It was created right here in the United States by a talented group of field target enthusiasts who wanted to see what was possible when you started with a good CO2 target rifle. The Tau 200 from Brno was turned into a precharged rifle by simply modifying the firing valve of the CO2 target rifle to work with air. At the time (the late 1990s), the Tau 200 sold for a very good price. Those were the days before the euro was established, and the dollar began slipping against it in international trade.

Even today, you can still see the target rifle beginnings in the S200. The target profile in the buttstock is suited to offhand shooting, and the scope mount dovetails are very short because a 10-meter target rifle doesn't use a scope. Still, the butt also happens to work well for a shooter in the classic field target seated position, and the scope mounting points are adequate to do the job because the gun doesn't recoil. The trigger was already good because of the target rifle's beginnings, so nothing was lost.

Good business sense!
What Air Arms did was capitalize on a very good idea and had the rifle built to their own specifications. The result was what you see here - a low-priced precharged rifle that still has accuracy, a good trigger and reasonable power. That's not all!

Lower operating pressure
The S200 uses a fill of 190 bar instead of the normal 206 bar. In psi, that's 2,755 psi, instead of 3,000. If you have never filled a precharged rifle using a hand pump, 2,750 is a lot easier to achieve than 3,000. If you plan on using a scuba tank, you'll get many more full fills from a gun that tops out at a pressure lower than 3,000. As a veteran of both hand pump and scuba operations, I can tell you that the small air reservoir on the S200 means a lot less work for every fill. You will get closer to one shot per pump stroke with this rifle than you will with a gun with a huge air reservoir, such as the Talon from AirForce. Your scuba tank will be drained a lot slower, too! That's still not all!

Comes in .177 AND .22!
Although the S200 started out as a field target rifle, it wasn't long before people began thinking of other uses for it. Like hunting. Because of the straightforward design of the rifle, it is very possible to adjust the power output somewhat. In .22 caliber, it's possible to get the gun up to around 20 foot-pounds, give or take with heavier pellets. Here's why that's a very important fact for those of you who haven't yet bought a precharged rifle.

You've probably read a lot of things about shooters wanting more power and guns being designed to give it to them. You don't really need that power if you know what you're doing. Several years ago in Airgun Illustrated magazine, there were articles by two guys in California who hunted pest pigeons for farmers. They were taking dozens of pigeons with one-shot kills at distances up to a measured 58 yards. They shot rifles that developed only 6-7 foot-pounds at the muzzle! No doubt, these guys were excellent shots and certainly knew their guns, but that's my point. The S200 is a rifle capable of up to nearly 20 foot-pounds in .22 caliber and 14 foot-pounds in .177. Even that's not all!

The barrel
Lothar Walther is a good barrel maker, make no mistake, but the Czechs are world-renowned for their barrels, too. Remember, this rifle started out life as a 10-meter target rifle. Sure, they turned up the fire in the boiler, but that barrel is still as precise as it was when the gun was made to win matches. In fact, that's the main reason the American shooters chose it in the first place.

So, fence-sitters, the holiday season is upon us and here is an attractive and affordable alternative to the more expensive precharged rifles. It has power, accuracy and easy filling to its credit. For an entry-level gun, that's quite a lot.