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SIG SAUER has just launched a range of Red Training Guns. So is this the end of SIG Airguns? These non-functional, inert ASP RED GUN products are stated by the company to “replicate the size, design, and handling of the real firearms for the most accurate training”. They “accurately replicate the size, design, and feel of real SIG SAUER pistols”. For example, including removable magazines for practice reloading to simulate any scenario”. For example, the M17 Red Training Gun With 2 Magazines shown above has a MSRP of $119.99. In addition, they are “ideal for all training levels – law enforcement, security professionals, martial artists, and responsible firearm owners. They are also holster-compatible. SIG says that they fit...

The Umarex Primal 20 Gauge PCP Air Rifle is shipping-out from the company’s Fort Smith, AR, headquarters. You will be able to buy it very shortly… Umarex Primal 20 Gauge PCP Air Rifle System – A Big Bore Slug Gun Actually, we probably should describe the Primal 20 as a system. Yes, there’s the Primal 20 Gauge PCP which – in its shipping configuration – is a .625-Inch caliber big bore hunting rifle. However, by simply changing the Invector choke at the muzzle end of the barrel, the Primal can function as a slug gun or a shotgun. To support these two modes of operation, Umarex USA has also introduced two dedicated types of ammunition for the Primal. First there’s a dedicated 395 Grain pointed sabot slug. Fired at up to 725 FPS...

Precihole airguns are manufactured by Precihole Sports, a division of the ISO 9000-certified Precihole Machine Tools company that’s based in India. Precihole Machine Tools is a multi-million Dollar turnover business that’s a serious player in the precision deep hole drilling solutions market. The company manufactures state-of-the-art machine tools and special purpose machines for multiple industries worldwide that need precise, deep holes precisely created in metal. Among them are barrel-making machines. Interesting! At the 2024 IWA OutdoorClassics show in Germany, Air Arms announced that it would be distributing a range of models from Precihole Sports in a number of key territories. This would utilize the British company’s...

Air Venturi and Nielsen Specialty Ammo have announced a tie-up. The announcement has been made public today in the form of a “Strategic Partnership to Deliver Premium Airgun Ammunition”. Val Gamerman, President of Air Venturi said, “By combining NSA’s expertise in ammunition design and metallurgy with Air Venturi’s operational scale, we’ll be delivering unmatched value and performance to our customers. I have deep respect for what Nick has built over the past decade—his focus on automation, quality, and customer care is exceptional. It’s a true American small business success and I’m honored he chose us as his partner for the next chapter.” Air Venturi says that this strategic partnership with Nielsen Specialty Ammo unites NSA’s...

Today we’re looking at some simple Umarex Komplete tune possibilities. Why? Well I think that the Komplete is one of the best airguns in the market at $200 or less. It’s also an ideal first airgun for newbies and thus a great learning platform. “But surely there’s nothing to tune with the Umarex Komplete?” I hear you say. My response is that the Komplete is very well set-up by the factory. I agree that there’s no external tuning capabilities, such as we have become used to with many recent PCPs. However there are still some simple steps that can be taken to improve this versatile airgun. Also, I’ll say that these “tuning” possibilities are simple ways to make the performance better and more consistent. So I took a regular...

Long-established Spanish airgun manufacturer Norica has launched a new pair of PCP air rifles. They are the Norica NTX 30 and NTX 35. In fact, Norica is located in the city of Eibar, in the Basque area of northern Spain. It’s a center for the Spanish arms industry. The Norica NTX models are developed and manufactured there. The Norica company has been manufacturing airguns since 1917 and is very proud of that fact! Norica already has a higher-end range of PCP airguns in the market, under the Viriatus name. The Norica NTX 30 and NTX 35 are seemingly almost-identical models. The difference between them is that the NTX 35 is regulated, while the NTX 30 is not. Both are available in .177, .22 and .25 calibers and are playing in the...

There’s a new PCP air rifle at Airguns of Arizona. It’s the BRK Saguaro. (BRK Saguaro Performance, to give its’ full title). The Saguaro is a large, tree-like cactus that’s native to the Sonoran desert. Everyone who has shot at Extreme Benchrest has seen them, but fewer know it’s official Latin name of Carnegiea Gigantea. Anyhow, this new air rifle is named the “BRK Saguaro”, not the “BRK Carnegiea Gigantea”. Phew! The Saguaro is a development of the well-known, classic BRK Sniper XR. Hard Air Magazine reviewed this gun in its “Magnum” form back in 2020 and liked it a lot. It easily earned a HAM Gold Award for its performance on test. Compared to the “base” Sniper XR, the new Saguaro sells for just $96 more. But it offers a huge...

There’s a great deal on the Crosman Prospect PCP air rifle now at Pyramyd AIR. It’s just $229.99. That’s a massive $150.00, or 40% saving against the previous selling price! Here’s how we described it in our HAM review. It was a Hard Air Magazine Gold Award winner… “The Crosman Prospect air rifle is a perfectly good airgun. It’s accurate and shoots well with a variety of pellets. The feature set is comprehensive and it’s definitely good value for the selling price. The traditional, all metal, construction will appeal to many and gives a definite solidity to the feel and handling of the Prospect. The action is efficient, giving a good shot count from the relatively low capacity HPA tube. So, yes, the Prospect earns a HAM Gold award...

Blackwolf or Ghost? That’s a question that many air gunners have asked. When in the market for a top-grade PCP air rifle, should I buy a new Daystate Blackwolf, or a BRK Ghost? So HAM Tester Doug Rogers and I sat down one sunny afternoon recently and discussed just that question. We were in the outstandingly fortunate position of having an example of each air rifle in front of us. So we made the most of it and compared them side-by-side! Specifically, we compared the Daystate Blackwolf “cylinder model” with 17-inch barrel and the latest “Blue Ghost” special edition. Now this is not a regular, standard Hard Air Magazine test review. We have tested the Blackwolf and Ghost exhaustively already. Both are HAM Gold Award winners, the...

The Seneca Dragonfly Mk 2 Synthetic is a forthcoming new version of this multi-pump air rifle. For me, the big news is the price. It’s just $159.99. That’s $40.00 LESS than the original Dragonfly Mk 2 when it was introduced back in 2022! What, lower price? Yes, it’s true. The reason is that the wood furniture of previous Dragonflies has been replaced with a black synthetic buttstock and pump handle. Hard Air Magazine reviewed the wood-stocked Dragonfly Mk 2 in March 2022. It was a Gold Award winner! In that HAM review, we concluded that – “particularly in Mark Two version – the Dragonfly is almost certainly the best multi-pump air rifle out there. And at $200, it’s great value for what it offers.” We see no reason to change that...

This is the first part of a Hard Air Magazine review series on the ATN X-Sight 5, 5-25 Smart Day/Night Hunting Scope. Why a series? Well, this is an exciting, complicated product with a TON of features. As a “digital scope”, it’s also a completely new concept to me and – I suspect – many HAM readers. Actually, I have never actually even looked through one before! So I mounted it onto a KalibrGun Snipe 2 air rifle and began to investigate. Let’s start slow and work our way into it together… ATN X-Sight 5, 5-25 Smart Day/Night Hunting Scope Basics – 1 Well, the first thing to say is that you don’t actually LOOK THROUGH the X-Sight 5. You LOOK INTO it. What? Yes, it’s true! You can’t look in through the eyepiece and see daylight at...

AEA Center Punch Pellets are now in stock at Pyramyd AIR in a range of calibers from .177 to .35 cal. These pellets have been gaining strong endorsements from some airgun shooters, so now could be a good time to try some with Pyramyd’s “buy four tins, get one free” program. Starting with the largest caliber, AEA’s .35 caliber pellets are available in 100-count tins at 79.77 Grain weight. There’s also 110 Grain versions in 80-count tins. Interestingly, while a choice of two weights is available in most of the calibers carried by Pyramyd, there’s a choice of three in .30 caliber. The .30 caliber range starts with 150-count tins of 45 Grain pellets. There’s also 150-count tins of 50.5 Grain pellets and 100-count tins of the heaviest...

OK, now that we are one quarter of the way through it, let’s ask a question. What are the top three most influential PCP airguns of the 20th century? And why? Of course this will likely be a somewhat personal choice. So I encourage you to add your suggestions in the Hard Air Magazine Community. We can discuss them there! By limiting this question to the past 25 years, we’re excluding airguns manufactured before 2000. So the Girardoni is out. Likewise the pioneering early Daystate and AirForce designs. Then there’s the question “what do you mean by influential?” I’ll leave that one open to leave room for some lively discussion. So – in order of first introduction – here’s my top three most influential airguns of the 20th century. Oh...

Today we’re talking about airgun warranties. Specifically the warranties on high-end PCP air rifles here in the USA. Why? Well in our review of the HAM Gold Award-winning Daystate Black Wolf last week, I said that the warranty for this gun is 3 years and implied that this is low. Actually this is not true. In the USA, it’s 5 years. I stand corrected. And I already made the change in the review. Although the HAM Team goes to great lengths to get everything we publish correct, I made an error here. And if anyone doubts that I can be wrong, they can check with my wife. She will soon set them straight ;-) Secondly, I received the comment that it’s not appropriate to compare the warranty period provided on a simple product – like the...

Since the beginning, people have been asking for a Umarex Komplete PCP air rifle conversion system. And now one is available Air Venturi. How does it perform? Let’s take a look… Umarex Komplete PCP Conversion From Air Venturi – Overview As we can see, the Air Venturi PCP Conversion for Umarex Komplete comprises a black, anodized High Pressure Air tube. It’s around twice as long as one of the original NitroAir cartridges and about 3 Oz heavier. The scoped gun used in these tests weighed-in at 7 Lbs 11 oz. The PCP conversion uses an identical screw mounting thread to that of the NitroAir cartridges. It screw directly into the Komplete. At the other end is a standard 1/8-Inch NPT “Foster” male quick disconnect. There’s a...

VALUE FOR MONEY The Daystate Blackwolf is an all-new, all-mechanical design and has the shallowest profile of any Daystate rifle. It boasts no less than 16 new and unique features, the company says. It certainly felt svelte to me! The Daystate Blackwolf PCP air rifle range is available with either an air cylinder or carbon-wrapped buddy bottle in three different but equally beautiful wood stocks – Walnut, Carbon Grey and Blackwolf Laminate. For this review, we’re examining the lowest-cost model in the range, the “cylinder” gun with carbon grey stock and 17-Inch barrel. Well, at $2,599.99, “lowest-cost” is a relative term. This is still a very expensive air rifle. For reference, the comparable HiLite model with 480 cc carbon fiber...

The Reximex Daystar is another new Turkish PCP air rifle that’s scheduled to land at Pyramyd AIR at the end of August 2025. HAM reviewed the Reximex Throne Gen 2 Compact in September 2024. We liked it a lot and it earned a 87% score and Gold Award for its performance on test. The Daystar takes an unusual position in the market by being available in multiple stock versions. There’s a choice of black synthetic stock or Turkish Walnut. In addition, there’s laminated stock models available in both orange and blue colorways. All stocks include an adjustable cheek piece and buttpad. They are also equipped with sling swivel studs, which will please many hunters Whatever the stock, the action is the same! The Reximex Daystar is available...

This Diana Outlaw Gen 2 review does not follow the normal, standardized Hard Air Magazine format. There’s two reasons for this: Firstly, as the product name indicates, the Outlaw Gen 2 is closely based on the original Outlaw (photo below). When we reviewed the original model in 2018, it earned a HAM Gold Award with a score of 87% on test. Both our test guns have been in .22 caliber, so they are easy to compare. Technically, there’s very few changes between the two generations of Outlaw. One is the inclusion of a regulator pressure gauge in the Gen 2 model. This replaces the de-gassing screw of the original. It’s located in the underside of the buttstock, just ahead of the trigger guard. The other is the new-style magazine with...

Airguns of Arizona has made a large increase in the number of Precision Rifle Systems (PRS) accessory products they are carrying for Daystate air rifles. Among the more interesting is a single shot loader for the Alpa Wolf and Delta Wolf. That’s it in our heading photograph above. CNC-machined from Aluminum and black adonized, this flip-out loader is designed to have with easier access for pellet loading than other versions. An O-ring is incorporated for pellet retention, specifically designed not to cause damage to pellets when loading. It’s available for .22, .25 and .30 calibers. Another useful accessory for the Alpha and Delta Wolf is this Arca and Picatinny Rail Adapter. It’s manufactured from 6082 aluminium and stainless...

More Kral PCP air rifles are coming to the US at Airgun Depot in the near future. In addition to the Mortal and Empire models announced in Hard Air Magazine recently, there’s two more: the Kral Bighorn and Kral Jumbo Dazzle. (Where do they get these names?). But seriously folks, before going further I have two basic questions about Kral PCP air rifles… 1. Why do they give all of them the name “Puncher”? For example, the full official product name of the Bighorn is actually the “Kral Puncher Bighorn”. The other is the “Kral Puncher Jumbo Dazzle”. It seems to me that the whole “Puncher” thing is somewhat superfluous as it’s applied to so many models. Does anyone have an explanation? 2. So far as I can tell, no Kral PCP air rifle is...