I'm asking YOU!

by Harley Ayre

This will be a different kind of blog. Instead of me telling you about some aspect of airgunning, I want to ask your opinions about some important things.

Calibers
There are four smallbore calibers: .177, .20, .22 and .25. There are lots of PCPs in .177 and .22 but a lot fewer in .25. And .20 caliber is pretty rare. Why is that, and what is your favorite airgun caliber? If you have more than one, tell me all of them and what you use them for. Do you have any interest in calibers larger than .25?

Fill pressures
The most common fill pressure these days is 3,000 psi, which is 206 bar. But is that the best pressure? A few German guns now have a maximum fill of 300 bar, or 4,350 psi. BSA has some rifles with a 250 bar maximum fill. On the other end of the spectrum, the American-made US FT rifle uses a maximum fill of 1,800 psi to get 60 shots of 10.5-grain Crosman Premiers at 900 f.p.s. So, the pressure can go either way. Do you wish it would go in a certain direction and can you tell me why you want that?

Regulators
You probably know what regulators do, so do you want one in an airgun? If you don't know, a regulator drops the air pressure in the reservoir to a lower pressure. It then fills a firing chamber with lower-pressure air. The firing valve is tuned to the lower air pressure. As long as it's available, the valve functions the same from shot to shot. Do you want one of these, or do you just want a gun that has lots of shots with very little velocity variation from shot to shot?

Repeaters
How important is having more than one shot? Do you actually use this feature (or wish you could) or does it just sound better than a single-shot? There are tradeoffs with all repeaters. Usually, the feed mechanism dictates what pellets can and cannot be used. Sometimes it limits the length of the pellet, while other times it restricts the type of nose the pellet can have. Today's repeaters are almost as accurate as single-shots, so accuracy isn't the objection it once was, but a repeater can jam if the pellets don't feed smoothly. That fact can limit your pellet choices, too. So, how important is the repeating function to you?

Size and weight
Do you want a big, heavy rifle or a small, lightweight one? You probably know that the longer the barrel the more efficient the airgun. Is that more important, or is a portable, lightweight gun what you want? Are exotic materials like titanium worth the extra cost to keep the weight low?

Materials and finishes
Is a highly polished wood and metal gun with deep bluing important, or do you want a matte black or camouflage finish on your airgun? Is figured wood more important than a stable stock made of fiberglass? Does the use of engineering plastic matter? What about aluminum?

Pellets
Do you like using diabolo pellets, or do you wish airguns could use solid bullets, instead? What is the greatest distance you usually shoot? How accurate do you want to be at that distance?

Accessories
Besides a scope, what are the most important accessories? Bipod? Night vision? Laser rangefinder? Pellet holder? Scope with digital imaging/video capability? Visible laser? You tell me.

Anything else?
Have I left anything out? Is there some other feature you would like to see, or one you wish would go away? I'm trying to learn how good today's crop of airguns is and what improvements are needed to make them better. You are the only ones who know the answer to that.

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.