IWA 2015 Airgun Special

The vogue for bullpup airguns which has been bubbling under for the last two years finally hit the mainstream this year, and there were plenty of good ‘standard’ configuration rifles available too…

Brocock

Now part of the same group as Daystate, there are welcome signs of a renaissance in Brocock’s fortunes, and nowhere are these more apparent than in their launch of the new Compatto (compact in Italian) at IWA 2015. The is an all-new semi- bullpup rifle featuring a clever trigger that provides a crisp and creep-free break, a resettable safety, a multi-shot side-lever action that uses a new 10 shot clockwork alloy magazine (they look like Daystate magazines, but they aren’t!), a power adjuster, a shrouded barrel with a threaded muzzle, a skeletonised thumbhole stock with a buttpad that’s adjustable for height, pitch and cant, and a choice of black or olive-green soft-touch finishes. It’s great to see that the new Brocock has kept the compact, light, quick- handling virtues of previous rifles, and all backed up by improved quality control and customer support. Better still; prices remain keen, with the Compatto due to retail at just £585.

BSA/Gamo

Launched at the CLA in 2014, the Birmingham-built Gamo Coyote is a PCP with a proper pedigree at a bargain price, but it’s fair to say that quite a few people didn’t like the look of its stock. If you felt the same way, then look again, because it’s now available in a synthetic thumbhole version. Made from black polymer with grey rubber inserts, it gives the Coyote a much more rakish appearance and has a height- adjustable comb for a perfect cheek weld and sight alignment.

Cometa

Two variants of Cometa’s taking on the current trend for bullpup PCPs were on show in prototype form: standard and shorty, in a choice of natural wood or black synthetic, the latter sporting a short Picatinny rail under the forend and a more basic intermount. There is also a carbine version with a stutzen full- stock, complete with dark-wood schnabel tip. Cometa’s current production PCPs show a more conventional build and layout, though their walnut stocks do feature an adjustable cheekpiece.

Crosman

American airgun giant Crosman were rolling out the big guns again this year – literally! Heading the line-up is an imposing big-bore bullpup PCP, the Benjamin Bulldog. It’s fully- railed aluminium and polymer chassis houses a shrouded, suppressed barrel, a 340 cc cylinder, and a reversible (right- or left-hand) lever-operated action that takes five shot magazines in .357 calibre and delivers 200 FPE at the muzzle. It takes over from Crosman’s previous big-bore PCP, the Rogue, yet it is more compact (36 inches), lighter (7.7lb), has a higher shot capacity (10), and does away with the electronic complexity of its predecessor.

Crosman’s other 2015 PCP takes its cue from the definitive rifle design of our times: the AR15. The Benjamin Armada Magpul sees the company’s Marauder model dressed in an alloy chassis featuring a quad- rail hand-guard, a Magpul MOE pistol grip, an MOE telescopic butt-stock complete with a cheek riser and rubber buttpad, and rail covers fixed via Magpul’s M-LOK accessory interface. As well as QD mounting points in the butt and hand-guard, the Armada comes with a Harris style bipod a 4-16x56 AO mil-dot scope and mounts. At its heart is a 10 shot bolt-action PCP with 215cc air reservoir, a power adjuster giving a maximum 32 FPE, a bolt that can be reversed for right or left- hand operation, a 20 inch barrel with a sound suppressing shroud, and an adjustable 2-stage trigger with a metal blade. The Armada Magpul is offered in .22 only and delivers over 30 shots per charge at full power.

Whether either of these two new releases from Crosman arrives in the UK remains to be seen!

Daystate

I can’t remember a better year for new airgun designs, but even in a boom year for bullpups, Daystate’s Pulsar is surely the pick of the litter. In the first place it is a joy to look at and handle. The technical expertise that has gone into designing and making this rifle is simply exceptional, as is the quality of materials, fit and finish. Then there are the little touches: a spirit level built into the rear of the intermount; a laser sight built into the front end; an accessory rail under the hand-guard; a soft-touch polymer cheek- piece insert; a 3-way adjustable recoil pad; a lever action that can be switched around for left-hand use; and of course a digital display on the side.

The first models are in grey or camo laminate, with a special edition Oro (Gold) Series in high-grade walnut with a gold- plated cocking lever, barrel collar, trigger blade, and muzzle detail. These will shortly be followed up with a black synthetic version with a soft-touch stock and carbon-fibre-look cheekpieces. There’s more to say about the Pulsar than I’ve got room for here, but I’m sure it’s going to be a landmark rifle for Daystate, and a benchmark for the industry… though I can’t think of any other company that could make a rifle as sophisticated and stylish. The Pulsar commands a premium price, of course, but compare it to a cartridge rifle or shotgun of similar quality and it quickly looks like an extraordinary bargain!

FX Airguns

FX’s Impact bullpup model sports a skeletonised build with a short-stroke biathlon-style side-lever mounted above an AR-style pistol grip and safety, a removable 480cc carbon-fibre Buddy bottle, a height-adjustable buttpad and comb, a genuinely match-grade adjustable trigger, an action body equipped with Picatinny top side and bottom rails, and a shrouded and suppressed Smooth Twist barrel. There’s also a five setting power wheel, an externally-adjustable regulator, a quick-change barrel system, and hi-cap mags that hold 19 pellets in .177 and .22, 17 in .25 and 14 in .30 calibre. The FX Impact comes in satin silver and black finishes and has an overall ‘wow’ factor that goes off the scale. If the Impact is too radical for you, then there’s the Wildcat, which has a conventional cylinder and slate- grey soft-touch polymer stock.

Kalibrgun

One of my favourite recent airgun designs is the Kalibrgun Colibri (Hummingbird), a neat little bullpup (yes, another one!), with its cocking handle amidships similar thing in their double- on the left, its cylinder ahead of the trigger guard under the shrouded and suppressed barrel, and its 14 round magazine tucked into the butt. Air gets from the cylinder to the breech via a slim transfer tube that hugs the contours of the intermount (FX did a similar thing in their double-reservoir guns… and repeats the trick in the new Impact), and the intermount itself is topped off with a Picatinny rail. The Colibri is billed as a semi- auto, but in fact it has to be manually cocked for each shot and it is only the magazine that indexes automatically, making it UK legal.

Meca Evanix

Korean airgun giant Meca Evanix have a track record of pushing the envelope when it comes to PCP design and this year’s offering shows a new, minimalist, concept; and we like it! Evanix’s new Rex is a modular PCP that is slim and well executed. The Rex is made in pistol (P), carbine (KT) and rifle formats and in each case the stock is a 200cc air cylinder fitted with a buttplate, there’s an AR pistol grip amidships, and up-front a ventilated hand-guard shrouds a fully-suppressed barrel. The action is single-shot only, and the skeletonised trigger guard doubles as a cocking lever. Weight is minimal, at around 1.5kg for the pistol and around 2kg for the rifle and carbine, but calibre choice is literally huge: i.e. everything from.177 to .50! A release date for the UK has not been finalised yet.

Nova Vista

A new name in the airgun scene, Nova Vista are about producing affordable airguns that are fun and full of features. I was about to walk past their stand, but Development Manager Toby Young caught sight of my press badge and made sure I didn’t! His enthusiasm for his products was contagious, however, and I came away thinking that Nova Vista’s strikingly-named, military- styled or brightly-coloured break barrel and multi-pump pneumatic guns, The Phantom Elite, Delta Storm and Spitfire, could play a key role in bringing many youngsters into real- impact shooting from the gaming and airsoft worlds.

Remington Air Rifles

Remington’s remarkably-good, budget, break-barrel air rifle, the Express, is now available in several new formats. There’s a Compact version with a shorter stock and barrel, a Synthetic version with a black polymer stock, an XP version with a hardwood stock and moderated barrel, and a Tactical XP version the sound moderator and a marbled grey synthetic stock. All come fitted with a 3-9×32 scope and mounts.

SIG Sauer

SIG are clearly on a mission to promote their brand in the airgun market and have launched new rifles and pistols for 2015. All are replicas of their centrefire designs, solidly built to match the weight of the originals, with fully-functioning controls, and are available in black or FDE (Flat Dark Earth).

The rifles are copies of SIG Sauer’s MPX PDW and MCX carbine, and are available in both CO2 and PCP format. Better yet, they shoot pellets: .177 and .22 in the CO2 version and .22 and .25 in the PCP version. In both versions, the relevant cylinder is housed in the buffer tube. PCP cylinders even feature a pressure gauge in the base. The new MX guns are ‘semi-autos’, feeding from a polymer strip magazine that holds 30 shots and is housed inside a detachable, full-sized, dummy magazine.

What’s more, high capacity 50 and 70 shot versions are available separately. Barrels are rifled steel, and the guns have an electronic trigger that in its original configuration permits burst and full-auto fire. However SIG will sell ‘semi-auto’ versions in the UK subject to legal approval.

Pistols, meanwhile, are modelled on SIG’s striker- fired P320 and classic P226 models, and come in black or FDE. Available in .177 calibre only, they feed pellets from a detachable, reversible, dummy magazine with an eight shot rotary magazine at each end.

Tesro

Tesro are a name to look out for now that they have a distributor in the UK in the shape of Dave Mills of X-Calibre (and the ATEO). Tesro’s RS100 rifles and PA-102 pistols offer all the performance of the bigger names at a substantially lower price. Each gun is available in Basic, Pro and Signum grades, but impressive accuracy comes as standard and the triggers are truly special!

Walther

Walther’s already fine range of air rifles was looking better than ever this year, with a stylish new stock for the LGV break-barrel, a synthetic- stocked version of its simpler cousin, the Century, and limited-editions of deluxe and super-deluxe LGVs, LGU under-levers and Rotex PCPs. A stand which evoked the décor of a sporting lodge provided the perfect setting for all these guns, which bring together classic craftsmanship, modern technology, mass production and an internationally-famous brand. Prices for the limited editions, which show select walnut stocks and highly-polished, deeply- blued actions are understandably steep, but there’s a lot to like in the standard versions too.

Webley

In 2014 Webley launched a BB- firing CO2 replica of their iconic Mk6 service pistol. At the time I was a little disappointed that it had a plain black finish, but now they’ve added a Battlefield version with a ‘distressed’ finish that gives it an authentic vintage look, as well as a WWI pattern leather holster to go with it. No word of a lanyard, though! All the same, no proper chap should be without one.