Icon Logo Gun Mart

Kral Puncher PCP

Kral Puncher PCP

Turkish gun manufacturers, Kral, first came to the UK’s attention with a couple of budgetpriced spring powered air rifles. I remember testing one a few years back, the break-barrel action Kral Devil, which, despite its bargain basement price tag, proved to be a more than capable general-purpose air rifle. However, the big news is that the company has made such headway in airgun development that they’ve recently launched their first ever PCP – the niftily named Kral Puncher.

As the rifle’s country of origin is known for its quality of Walnut, it’s no surprise then that the company have launched the Puncher in Turkish walnut livery. Although not boasting a stunning well-defined grain pattern often associated with stock wood that originates from the country, it’s however good to see they’ve concentrated on offering a very practical design; something which for an air rifle intended for hunting is far more important than dazzling cosmetics.

The fully ambidextrous stock has a high, ‘double sided’ Monte Carlo style cheekpiece plus a chunky and quite distinctive ventilated black rubber butt pad, which gives a snug, comfortable fit at the shoulder. The relatively steep drop down pistol grip has a slight palm swell and the neck is quite slim. The forend has a well-rounded underside and is suitably proportioned to be in keeping with the rest of the woodwork and ends in a semi-Schnabel tip. To aid grip, chequering has been applied as two panels set either side of the pistol grip and three are seen either side of the forend. In fact, you could say it has a very traditional sporter look, feeling both good in the hold and it certainly compliments the action that sits in it.

The rifle is filled via the inlet valve at the front of the air reservoir, which has a rotary collar to protect the access hole from dirt and grit. The barrel is supported by a substantial barrel band and the threads of the ½-inch UNF screw cut muzzle are protected with a stylish muzzle weight. The Puncher takes a recommended fill of 200-bar and gives approximately 120 shots in .177 and 140 in .22 as per rifle on test. Also, there’s a very deeply recessed air gauge positioned midway in the underside to keep a check of your air status.

Nice action - surprise inclusion

The Company has chosen what is now possibly the most popular cocking mechanism, especially on higher-end PCPs, that being a side-lever. On the Puncher it sits neatly flush to the relatively high action block when in the closed position and operates very smoothly and efficiently. The lever is directly attached to the centrally positioned pellet probe, so once in the open position, the rifle is not only cocked but also the probe is fully drawn back out of a chamber of the auto-indexing magazine, which can then be slid out of the left of its housing. Now it might look similar to certain other magazines, but it’s definitely a company design and on closer inspection and in use is a very precise and well-functioning unit.

story continues below...

But before I begin detailing the loading procedure for this nifty ammo store I want to first highlight something I really wasn’t expecting – that’s the fact the rifle comes with a removable pair of Hi-Viz open sights. Yes, the option to use open sights on a PCP, something I’ve often wished more gun manufacturers would consider because ‘irons’ can be very useful for certain hunting situations, such as closer range ratting and feral pigeon culls.

Opening time

The open sights consist of a foresight assembly with a raised and height adjustable red fibre optic bar, while the rearsight is fully adjustable for windage and elevation – the sighting notch being flanked by a green fibre optic band. The rifle comes with them ‘off’ the gun should you wish to scope up from the very start but the Puncher has been ready machined to accept the ‘irons’ in specific places that Kral have allotted for them. In the case of the foresight, you first need to remove the screw on muzzle weight. Then, the complete foresight assembly simply pushes onto the barrel and sleeves back over it, covering the muzzle threads to secure in place by a small grub screw, which seats into a pre-drilled recess on the top of the barrel that also ensures it’s aligned properly.

The rearsight fits onto a ‘platform’ just forward of the magazine housing, which is pre-drilled to accept a forward positioning lug under the rearsight base and is also predrilled and threaded to accept the grub screw that secures the unit in place. Fitting the foresight is simple but the rearsight first needs to be ‘opened out’, as it’s hinged so that you can access the grub screw in the units base section. Once screwed down in place, you then return the foresight over back to its original position, first ensuring the small ‘tensioning’ spring is back on its ‘cup’ shaped holder directly above the securing screw, then the elevation adjustment wheel can be screwed back on to give a very useful open sight set-up. In use, these fibre optic enhanced opens combine to give a lengthy sight picture and due to the recoilless action, they offer a surprisingly high level of accuracy. While on the subject of ‘adjustable extras’, on inspection of the action block you can’t fail to notice that there’s a ridged edged brass dial on the right of the action that corresponds to a small +/- Vernier on the opposite side. This is a power adjuster but only works on FAC rated models of the rifle, but keep it set to the highest setting, because even on 12ft/lb legal limit guns it does have a small effect on reducing the full power output and as we all know, any deviation in power will cause inaccuracy. Before moving on it’s also worth noting the action block has been machined to accept both 11mm and 22mm scope mounts – I opted to use the 11mm rails to fit a Nikko Stirling Panamax 5 – 14 x 50AO optic and one that proved a nice compliment for balance and handling.

Mega magazine

At long last I now come to the removable magazine used on the Puncher, which, at first glance, has some resemblance to other popular rotary action systems but is definitely a new and very cleverly designed unit. To recap, once the side-lever is in the open position (fully drawn back) you can slip the magazine out from the left of the action. Different calibres have different capacity magazines with the .22 on test having 12 chambers the .177 having 14; the operation for loading of course being the same for both, you need to follow a few important guidelines but it’s a very solid system. Firstly, with the magazine out of the action, you need to ensure the inner rotor has returned to the start position. This can be determined by looking at the exposed chamber at the bottom; note that this isn’t the chamber you load pellets into. Now, if you can see a ‘metal tab’ showing at the top of this chamber, then the ‘sprung’ rotor needs to be manually reset. This can be done using the straight bar end of a small Allen key; this can be placed under the tab and pushed upwards whereupon if the magazine isn’t in the un-sprung position it will unwind (index around) clockwise until reset. Now the tab will stay in the ‘up’ position, whereupon pellets can be dropped into the exposed chamber that appears on the left-hand side (at the nine o’clock position) of the magazine. Once you load the first chamber, you manually rotate the magazine’s drum around anti-clockwise placing a pellet into each empty chamber as it appears and audibly clicks and stays in position until manually moved on to show the next empty chamber. When all are filled, you place it back into its housing and return the side-lever to the closed position. The magazine is a very positive and precise unit; where the escapement mechanism (the spring-actuated indexing system or as referred to ‘metal tab’) is activated by the pellet probe as it cycles back and forth. When it’s slid out of the chamber it has formerly taken a pellet out of, pulling it back allows the magazine to click around to bring the next pellet in line to be probed into the breech on return.

The trigger mechanism is a 2-stage adjustable unit, consisting of a well curved gold anodised blade and a similarly finished manual ‘rocker style’ safety lever positioned directly above and set on the right of the action block. The letters ‘S’ and ‘F’ boldly etched in white on the action clearly indicate its status – it’s generously sized and easily accessed (should you be right handed) by the thumb of the shooting hand without hardly having to adjust your hold at the grip. As set from the factory I found it operated very positively, tripping the sears without any noticeable creep. Most hunters will choose to fit a silencer, and after using several popular brands on the 19-inch tube, muzzle report was ‘hushed up’ to a level we’ve come to expect; in other words, it’s very quiet when using a can. I also soon discovered it’s an accurate ‘slugger’, as at my 25-yard set zero, groupings could easily be covered with a 10p piece and it didn’t show signs of being overly pellet fussy either.

Conclusion

I must admit initially I wasn’t expecting the Kral Puncher to impress as much as it has. However, with more foreign manufacturers beginning to launch their first PCPs, maybe I shouldn’t have been, as there are few airgun manufacturers that aren’t in a continuous state of rolling development. Also, I say full marks to Kral for cleverly managing to give the shooter the choice of either opens or scope sighting options.

To sum up, the Kral Puncher is a well-appointed, highly efficient, lightweight, user-friendly, accurate and practical multi-shot PCP aimed at the hunting sector. It certainly won’t disappoint even experienced hands (such as mine) and in my opinion offers as much, if not more, than some PCPs that are already well established and cost at least another hundred quid or so to boot!

  • Kral Puncher PCP - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Kral Puncher PCP - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Kral Puncher PCP - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Kral Puncher PCP - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Kral Puncher PCP - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

gun
features

  • Model: Kral Puncher
  • Type: Side-lever action PCP Multi-Shot
  • Stock: Ambidextrous Turkish walnut sporter
  • Sights: Yes
  • Grooved for scope mounting: Yes
  • Overall Length: 37.5-inches
  • Barrel Length: 19-inches
  • Weight: 7lbs un-scoped
  • Trigger: 2-stage, adjustable
  • Safety: Manual
  • Calibre : .177 and .22
  • Price: SRP £475 inc. 2x magazines, fill adaptor and open sights
  • Contact: Range Right Ltd www.range-right.co.uk
Arrow