For some guns, when you buy them you are realistically going to need something to go with it. A loud gun is going to need a silencer, a beautiful laminated stock is going to need a protective case, a hunting rifle is likely to need a set of swivels. This gun is no different, well apart from what you are going to need.....
Ihave a Remington Airacobra, which has more than a Weihrauch thumbhole stock look about it. You aren’t going to need a scope, or a silencer and the stock is not a delicate laminate, And is already fitted with swivels. But you are going to need something if your looking to get this rifle, your going to need someone to carry it around for you, preferably someone who is built like a brick built out house. Either that or your going to need a gym membership.
Because, whilst this looks like it’s made from And has a nice walnut finish to it, it feels like it’s honed from pure granite. You see the manufacturer claim is 3.8kg but when I put it on the weigh bridge this thing registered 4.6kg or 10.2 lbs, so it’s not for lightweights if you are looking to need to carry this around all day. And of course if you add a bipod it’s going to be even heavier.
Now it’s not very often I pick a gun up which starts on the back foot so to speak, you see normally from this position you start to look for bad points.
But, this one is a real oddity because whilst it does have its down sides, once you start shooting it you realise the potential this thing has. But for now let’s get this on the desk for a closer look and a walk around.
It is 101 cms long which is about 40 inches it is heavy with its large thumbhole stock, the quality of which is surprisingly good for its low £400 retail price, granted it’s not a Minnelli item, but it’s not Minnelli price either. There is a high cheek piece, or should I say chick peas for the out takes... sorry in house joke!
There is no thumbs up shooting option with this stock though. The stippling is not too heavy, but does the trick and has a rather nice Remington “R” in the bottom of the grip. The stock is fitted with swivel studs as standard and if your carrying this thing around for any period of time you will need to bring those into play. the gauge is quite a nice item on the underside and is simple and easy to read. The trigger guard is metal and houses the safety “a la Gamo style” and is simple and solid to use. The trigger is a two stage item and is adjustable, this one definitely needs adjusting, because it has as much travel in it as Sir David Attenborough! The filler port is “a la Daystate” And requires no adapter, it also has a clip on dust cover, again “a la Daystate” why can’t all manufacturers use this style rather than need a dozen different filler probes.....
This one is the .22 calibre and there is a .177 available also. The bolt action on the side is a traditional style and could be described as solid, or rugged l would probably affectionately call it agricultural, and here again that gym membership would come in useful. Ordinarily a slightly stiff bolt action wouldn’t bother me, but from that you go to the trigger and by the time you’ve got through a few shots, you will have an index finger, ... well, let’s just say your going to hit several letters at the same time when you next send a text message. The magazine is a 10 round item and resembles an Air Arms mag, but with one major difference and improvement, it has a shot count indicator on the side, which is a really nice touch, and is simplicity itself to load. No complicated twist, drop, reverse pellet whilst standing on one leg.. it is a simple drop in and twist. Slotting the magazine into the gun has a satisfying click to it, so you know it’s fully home.
The barrel is about 40cm or 16 inches long and is a tapered rifled item finished off with a silencer or moderator on the end. Now normally it is down to volume of a silencer that reduces volume in other words the bigger it is the quieter it is, which would have you believe thiS isn’t going to be a lot of use, and I was very wrong, this is amazingly efficient at keeping the sound level down.
The other thing that is supplied with this is a set of mounts and a 3-9x 50 scope. Now I have reviewed a lot of scopes in the past, and it’s not one of those things people get excited about normally, but a good scope can improve a guns accuracy greatly. I’ll come back to this later.
Power levels then. Chrono out and let’s see what it has in it. Well, I shot this quite a lot, and was quite surprised. It showed a maximum of 565 fps in this .22 calibre using 15.89 JSB’s which is a respectable 11.27 ft/lb or 15.27 joules, which is about right for the U.K. market at least. It also has a spread of only 7 FPS, which is pretty darn good. By this time Mr heavy and i are starting to gel.
Let’s get it out at some target work and see if we can build on that relationship, this could be a tall order with that budget scope fitted at 40 m on a pretty calm November day.
Yes mr heavyweight and I are starting to become friends, I was impressed at the results specially with the small magnification scope that could suffer from parallax problems potentially. I was using “shoot-n-see” targets , because out at 40m I was struggling to see where it was hitting initially, but it was pretty bang on. Great fun and pretty rewarding too.
I must admit, this gun does appear to have raided other manufacturers ideas, with filler ports, heavy Weihrauch stock, Air Arms style magazines etc, but it has to be said, this is a fraction of the price of the brands it is copying. Yes it is heavy and there is no getting around that and yes I would want to change the scope if I was going to use it for any target work and the trigger needs adjusting, but the shop your buying it from should be capable of helping you out there.
I know I’ve had a bit of fun with this review and appeared to be less than complimentary at times, but, this isn’t a bad budget gun and I have grown to like this, it would be right at home for some vermin and target work alike, but don’t go carrying it for any great distances or for any great periods of time. Sit and wait for them to come to you!
see the YouTube review here:
https://youtu.be/DDNFVlUoPMk
Brilliant article Well covered and revued