Hatsan 60 GS

Edgar Brothers have long been associated with the Turkish gun manufacturers Hatsan, being sole importers of their shotguns, a host of lower price spring air rifles and their one and only PCP rifle.

The Hatsan 60S was the flagship of the springer range, and now things have taken a major up-turn as Edgar Brothers are not only supplying the usual spring/piston powered model but also as a rifle with a gas ram power plant – and it’s this new ‘GS’ model that we have on test.

Turkish Walnut

The benefits of the gas-ram system are well documented, and have featured in many Theoben rifles and the Weihrauch HW90. The gas struts on the Hatsan 60GS are manufactured for Edgar Brothers in the UK and fitted here replacing the original spring and piston power plant.

Before looking at how this changes the performance of the standard 60S, let’s look at the practical stock design.

The rifle has a Turkish Walnut stock which helps it rise above most other wood stocked Hatsan springers both cosmetically and due to the upgraded design. Hatsan have obviously upped their game when it comes to quality of manufacture and it shows.

Though it has the lines of a traditional full length sporter, there’s no cheekpiece, just a raised comb. Other features include a chunky and lengthy forend which will suit most builds for a leading hand hold, and a ventilated rubber butt pad to finish. A relatively steep drop down ergonomic pistol grip puts the hand in a very comfortable position for precise trigger control. There’s also a generous amount of chequering in two opposing panels at the grip and forend.

Quattro Trigger

Having experienced the standard 60S, the cocking stroke of this gas ram model is much smoother but does require a progressive amount of ‘heft’ as you reach the lock back point, whereupon the rifle engages with the sears and the automatic safety. On inspection the reason for this is the quirky shaped one-piece non-articulated cocking linkage which being so long means a lot of the underside of the forend is cut away. However, the length of the 60’s barrel gives more leverage for cocking and direct barrel loading is made easy due to the well exposed breech when open. Here, when in the open position, you can clearly see the breech sports a heavy duty O-ring to give that all important airtight seal when closed and a large wedge shaped catch to lock the barrel in position. In fact, after thumbing a pellet directly into the breech and swinging the barrel back up it was good to feel and hear a solid reassuring ‘clunk’ that everything is locked and loaded.

The rifle uses the ‘Quattro Trigger’ (having this etched on the right of the air cylinder). This 2-stage adjustable trigger unit is a big step forward in the manufacture of these ‘higher spec’ Hatsan air rifles and the metal blade is well curved and proportioned within the metal trigger guard. The automatic trigger safety protrudes rearward from the cylinder when the rifle is cocked. Return the barrel to the closed position and push the auto safety in and the rifle is in ‘live fire’ mode, this being visually indicated with a red dot shown on both sides of the safety catch. It can be reset at any point just by pulling back to the rearward position.

The level of trigger adjustment is quite impressive as you can adjust length of travel through first and second stage of pull, and when the trigger trips the sear it does so cleanly and crisply.

Fibre Optic Sights

The 60GS can be shot straight from the box due to the in vogue ‘Tru-Glo’ fibre optic open sights. These are seen as a hooded raised red fibre optic foresight bar while the fully adjustable rearsight notch is flanked by green fibre optic rods. Elevation is adjusted by a large serrated edge and numbered thumbwheel while windage is adjusted by a much smaller ridged finger screw. The rifle also has a lengthy run of dovetails milled on top of the air cylinder for mounting a scope. At the rear there’s a removable scope mount arrester strap.

Before scoping up I did play with the open sights and they proved effective for closer range work with ragged ¾” groups at 12-15yds quickly becoming the norm for this .22 rifle.

For the main accuracy test I kept it in the family and scoped up with an Opti-Mate 3 – 9 X 50AO scope from Edgar Bros. set in high mounts. I found this complimented the rifle very nicely indeed and added extra weight for a more solid feel.

Once scoped up, with a set zero of 25-yds, the rifle had no trouble creating the same ¾” groups with reassuring frequency and after becoming accustomed to the rifle it’s certainly capable in the right hands of making clean kills out to 35-yds.

To sum up: the overall build of the Hatsan 60GS is of a much higher quality than I expected - even the finish of the metalwork is well presented.

Also, we now have a gas ram powered air rifle with open sights – which means you can shoot it straight from the box. That in itself, as well as the price, will appeal to many shooters. 

Handling

Though a full length sporter the 60GS does feel lighter than it actually is but handles and balances very nicely, shooting with or without an optic. Compared to the spring powered version, the firing cycle is obviously different and you feel it on discharge. Recoil was quite low and the ‘SaS’ (shock absorbing system) of the very comfortable ventilated light brown ‘soft’ rubber butt pad soaked it up at the shoulder and I was again pleasantly surprised at the low muzzle report - even though it isn’t silenced.

In my opinion Hatsan in conjunction with Edgar Bros. have created a rather special air rifle here, and it’s one that’s very accurate, handles well and could quite possibly be what some sectors of the airgun shooting fraternity have been waiting for…

PRICE: £229