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At the recent 2024 Pyramyd Cup, I was pleased to meet-up with Tom and Janine Simmon. They are the owners of High Pressure Pneumatics, a specialist airgun dealer that is creating a high profile for itself among serious shooters. That’s the two of them in our heading photograph above – they’re very friendly, knowledgeable people :) Tom explained to me that High Pressure Pneumatics – or HPP for short – was opened back in July 2017. The company is based in Harrison, a small town approximately in the center of Michigan. It’s a family concern, run primarily by the couple themselves. As a business, HPP’s value proposition is based on three core values: product range, specialist knowledge and top-quality service. The photos accompanying...

CenterPoint Optics, the optics brand of Crosman/Benjamin, has unveiled the CPNV01 night vision monocular. Designed for hunters and outdoor enthusiasts, the company says that the CPNV01 offers unparalleled performance at an accessible price point. The MSRP is just $129.99. “The CPNV01 is a versatile night vision monocular that offers exceptional performance and ease of use at a competitive price point,” said Jesse Newman, Director of Product Development. “With its superior optics, long battery life, and convenient features, the CPNV01 is the perfect tool for anyone who needs to see clearly in low-light conditions.” The CenterPoint Optics CPNV01 has both day and night vision modes, ensuring clear visibility around the clock. With both...

The Umarex Iconix PCP is the latest of the slew of new PCP air rifles that were announced at the 2024 SHOT Show. And it’s available now. Pyramyd has it in stock! This means that the Iconix joins the HAM Gold Award-winning Komplete and the Zelos in being both announced, launched and available inside 10 months of the SHOT Show. That’s VERY good going for any airgun company. Well done Umarex USA! At an MSRP of $189.99, the Iconix is a sidelever PCP air rifle that uses the existing, common, Gauntlet magazine. Like many other recent PCP introductions, it’s available in .22 caliber only – a sure indication of how .177 cal is fading from the PCP scene. Certainly this is a light, easy-to-handle air rifle. Searching for a suitable scope, we...

If you looked carefully, there was a new PCP airgun being displayed at Extreme Benchrest 2024. It’s the new Western Airguns Mordax Carbine. That makes it the second new product to appear at EBR. The other was the new, “secret” Daystate we have covered already. In fact, the Mordax was displayed openly and undisguised. One lucky person even won one as a raffle prize! And, boy, was there a lot of hopeful tickets in the box for this one, before the winner was called. This is it… The Mordax was also available for anyone to shoot. So I did, of course :) With that little red dot sight mounted, the Mordax was certainly a fun proposition to shoot! Accuracy is anticipated to be a strong suit as the gun will be fitted with a SubMOA...

The new BRK Pathfinder O.D. Green Package is a new version of this popular, HAM Gold Award-winning air rifle. It’s a regulated PCP with sidelever action. Initially available only as a package, the Pathfinder O.D. Green features an olive drab green finish to the shroud, body and butt stock. It also includes a BRK MF-121 silencer and backpack case, also in matching olive green. 2024 Extreme Benchrest attendees were able to see and handle a sample of this gun, just a few days ago. It definitely looks good and – I think – has the potential to be a big seller for the company. Note that the scope shown in the above photographs is the compact Copperhead 4-16 x 44 from MTC Optics. The company says that – since its launch last year, the...

These new 33 Grain H&N Precision Slugs are the latest airgun ammo introduction from the famous German manufacturer. They are available in both .217 and .218 sizes for use in .22 caliber airguns. H&N says that these new slugs expand their product range for .22 caliber and is designed for long-range target shooting with high power airguns. It is even more reliably accurate than the other H&N Slugs, they explain. The claimed average BC is 0.140. H&N says that this makes these new H&N Precision Slugs significantly less susceptible to wind. They also maintain a flatter trajectory. The higher Ballistic Coefficient results from and optimized shape of the ogive and the cavity. The cavity is also deeper than on H&N’s first slugs, bringing...

For this story on EBR 2024 shooters and their airguns, it’s appropriate to start with Tom Costan, “Mr American Air Arms and SubMOA barrels”. That’s Tom in our heading photograph, shooting one of his own compact EVOLs in the Extreme Field Target competition. Of course it was Tom’s latest EVOL model that achieved success in the 100 Yard Benchrest competition, being shot by Claudio Flores. Congratulations to both! Jared Clark from AoA is always in contention at the 100 Yard benchrest. Above he looks please with his score. Again, Jared was shooting an American Air Arms EVOL. Fadi Kiwan traveled from the Lebanon to participate. As usual, he was shooting his favorite BRK Ghost. Another BRK Ghost was being shot by Tony Pellegrino...

Now this has to be a first. It’s the Extreme Benchrest honeymoon. Yes, it’s true! Allen Scoles and his – now wife – Debbie traveled all the way to Phoenix Arizona to attend the 2024 Extreme Benchrest. And the day before the competition started they were married. That makes it the first ever Extreme Benchrest honeymoon! That’s the happy couple in our heading photograph above. Congratulations!!! In fact, Allen and Debbie have attended EBR before. Allen won the “One Gun” award at EBR in 2019, as you can read here. Now they’re planning to make EBR their annual anniversary destination :) Next we’ll take a look around EBR 2024 and see some of the other attendees… Above we see Team RTI. They traveled all the way from Slovenia in Europe...

Today we bring you the Extreme Benchrest 2024 full results. Yes, Hard Air Magazine carried the results of the signature 100 Extreme Benchrest Pro Class yesterday, but this is the complete list of classes and winners. Extreme Benchrest 2024 Full Results 1: Action Armour Steel Scramble The Scramble Match consists of five lanes of Precision/NRL22 format stages shooting against reactive steel targets. Position Winner Score Prize First David Thorton 470, T = 31.01 $500 AoA Certificate Second Cyrus Larijani 470, T = 75 $250 AoA Certificate Third Holden Ivey 470, T = 78.43 $100 AoA Certificate Full Results 2: Big Bore “Heavy Hitters” Patches There was a record number of competitors in the Extreme Big Bore competition this...

The big news from Extreme Benchrest 2024 is that Claudio Flores wins the 100 Yard Benchrest Pro Class finals! He was shooting an American Air Arms EVOL HPS in .30 caliber. Above, Claudio looked cautious after finishing his card. Of course, winning the signature Pro Class 100 Yard Benchrest event at EBR is always a momentous achievement for any shooter. But Claudio’s win is the most significant in the 13 year history of the event. This is because it makes Claudio the first person ever to win the event TWICE!!! Below. But he looked much happier after the results were officially announced! Claudio won previously in 2018 shooting a Brocock Bantam Sniper XR. This time it’s clear that he can shoot an EVOL just as well. Further...

In our second report from Extreme Benchrest 2024, we spotted a previously-unseen, secret Daystate air rifle. It was being shot in the 75-Yard Extreme Benchrest Card One. This new Daystate air rifle could actually be a BRK (formerly Brocock) prototype. Or it could actually be a forthcoming Daystate-branded model. Nothing was being revealed and the gun was shot disguised with camouflage wrapping to confuse observers. EBR has been used once in the past for such a clandestine outing for a new Daystate or BRK model. That was in 2022. In fact, that gun turned-out to be the future BRK Ghost. So, what can we say about this secret new airgun? Well, we can make some comments based on what we saw. As follows… Secret Daystate Air Rifle – 1...

It’s Extreme Benchrest day one for 2024. In fact that makes it the “Lucky 13th” EBR. So let’s take a look around at what’s happening… For the first day of the sporting airgun world’s most famous event, there were two competitions happening. One was Extreme Field Target, the second the Steel Scramble. In addition, folk were registering for the event and competitors could sight-in at the 50-, 75- and 100-Yard ranges. The weather was brutally hot! The blazing sun was giving a temperature of 108 Degrees F. In fact, it was so hot that my camera overheated on two occasions – something that has never happened before :-( Extreme Field Target is one of the most popular events with competitors. So we’ll see what was happening along the...

Today we’re taking a look at the Buck Rail Tactical Chassis for the Barra 1100z PCP air rifle. I met up with Buck Rail owner Terry Harman and his eldest son Atticus at the 2024 Pyramyd Cup recently and was impressed with the range and quality of products they were showing. This week a Buck Rail Tactical Chassis for the Barra 1100z PCP air rifle arrived at the Hard Air Magazine offices. The Barra 1100z air rifle earned a HAM Gold Award when we tested it back in March 2023 so I was interested to install it and try-out the new look. The Buck Rail chassis is “3D printed” from laser-fused PA12 Nylon. It’s designed to be used with an AR15-style buttstock which is purchased separately. Buck Rail can supply a pistol grip if required and...

Well, OK, this is actually a second look at the new Barra 250z PCP air rifle! Hard Air Magazine readers actually first saw it in our report from the 2024 SHOT Show back in January. But now we have a pre-production gun here in-house and can give more information for the first time. Plus – as of today – HAM Readers can place a pre-order on the Barra website to get yours as soon as they are available. The HAM testers were very impressed with Barra’s first move into the PCP market. The Barra 1100z was a HAM Gold Award winner as it offered an excellent balance of price with quality. Now the company is moving further upmarket in the PCP world with the 250z. This is unusual on two counts… Firstly it is a bolt action gun, unusual in...

There’s a new Pyramyd Air Contest that’s easy to enter. The winners are in line for a ton of airgun products, plus some crossbow stuff too. And yes, the name really is “Show Us Your Rack”! That sounds like a good, “politically correct” name, for sure :) The basic rules are pretty simple… If you tagged a deer, elk, moose, or other animal with antlers (legally and ethically) in the 2024 hunting season, this gives you a chance to win BIG! Simply submit a photo of you with your harvest and ask everyone you know (they’re not kidding, they want you to ask everyone) to vote daily. The three submissions with the most votes by Friday, December 13th at 11:59pm ET will win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes, respectively. That’s it! New Pyramyd...

Doug Wall is back with part two of his 50 years with Diana saga. This time he’s covering the current 34 EMS model. You can read part one here. 50 Years With Diana – A New, New 34 EMS As received, the Diana 34EMS was in direct from the factory condition. It hadn’t been shot at all. As with most spring or NP powered guns, there was quite a bit of oil in it that had to be shot off to start to break in the gun. It can often take up to a few hundred shots to break in a gun properly. Since this is just a quick evaluation, I’ll be giving my impressions on a gun that’s still pretty raw. Below. Model 27S on the left, 34 to the right. My first thought is that this is a moderately powerful gun, but not up to current “Magnum Class” guns. At...

Three-Position Air Rifle (3PAR) is the most popular junior rifle program in the USA. That’s why these new Three-Position Air Rifle Rules are important! The rules and this summary have been produced by Gary Anderson. Three-Position Air Rifle Rules Background An estimated 250,000 to 300,000 American youths participate annually in 3PAR marksmanship programs, with many of them engaging in 3PAR competition events. Its massive participation base includes more than 2,000 high school JROTC programs, hundreds of 4-H Shooting Sports clubs and several hundred junior rifle clubs. The primary national governing body for this major youth sports program is the National Three-Position Air Rifle Council. The Council governs this discipline through...

Announced in May 2024, the latest Hawke Frontier 30 FFP riflescopes are now available. In fact, Hawke was displaying them at the recent Pyramyd Cup and now we have one in our hands at the HAM offices. It’s the 5-25 x 56 model. To try out the scope in an appropriate manner, we mounted it on the KalibrGun Snipe 2 that we have here also for review. Those rings are Hawke Tactical Ring Mounts, by the way. They certainly give a solid way to mount a high magnification, long range scope such as this. There’s a long – 4 Inch – sun shade supplied with the scope, together with metal flip-up covers for both objective and eye lenses. Personally, I always fit a sunshade if one is available as I find that it helps to improve contrast, particularly...

This is a very different HAM Review! In it, Doug Wall takes us through 50 years with Diana air rifles. He compares his Diana 27S from 1974 with a brand-new classic air rifle, the Diana 34 EMS of 2024. Take it away Doug… 50 Years With Diana Air Rifles – How I Started Why 50 years? That was my first Diana. It was 1974, I was in my mid-twenties, and after already having been an airgun shooter for a decade, I wanted something better. The “European” type spring piston airguns had been around the US for a few years, but the market was dominated by Crosman, Benjamin, and Daisy. Since that was way before the internet, the process for finding, and buying things was a lot harder and longer. First of all, you had to find the companies...

The Crosman M1 Full Auto Air Rifle is the latest product to appear from the company. It’s a selective-fire BB shooter that’s powered by two 12 Gram CO2 Powerlets. Of course, this is not the first time that Crosman has sold a M1 Carbine lookalike. Back in the 1960s, there was an M-1 Carbine that fired BBs but in single-shot mode. In that model, cocking was undertaken by pushing the muzzle down onto a hard surface. By contrast, the new M1 offers a choice of semi-automatic or full-automatic fire, using the selector/safety switch ahead of the trigger. Crosman claims a selective-fire rate of up to 1,400 rounds per minute in the “happy mode”. And no, this one doesn’t require the user to push down the barrel for cocking! The new Crosman...