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Weihrauch Sport is celebrating 125 years in business! That’s a HUGE achievement for any company, let alone for one that has been manufacturing airguns since the 1950s. During that time, the company has been run by four generations of Weihrauchs – with the fifth generation entering the family business in 2023. Above we see – right – Hans (actually Hans-Hermann) Weihrauch, the fourth generation who joined the company in 1982 and still runs it. Left is Felix Weihrauch, his son, the fifth generation and future for the family firm. We are at an exclusive – by invitation only – event at IWA OutdoorClassics 2024 that was held to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Weihrauch Sport. Weihrauch used this event to announce three limited...

British PCP manufacturers were well represented at IWA OutdoorClassics 2024. All the expected names were exhibiting: Daystate, BRK (Brocock), BSA and Air Arms. That’s Tony Belas from Daystate showing us the latest Alpha Wolf Silver. This had been launched just a few days before at the British Shooting Show. The new model adds contrasting, brushed nickel metalwork to the HAM Gold-Award-winning Alpha Wolf, combined with the striking, red laminate stock. Below we see the line-up of Daystate models, showing the multiple iterations of – in particular – the Delta Wolf and Alpha Wolf ranges. Tony also showed me the “Safari” version of the MTC Copperhead 4-16x44F2 riflescope. This is finished in an attractive brown top complement “Safari”...

The “IWA Show” is the largest airgun show in the world. There’s a huge number of companies exhibiting. So what was it like at IWA OutdoorClassics 2024? But first I need to apologize. This coverage should have started a week ago. However I was knocked-out by some sort of nasty virus and have been out-of-action since. Oh well, better late than never… After the dust settled, the IWA OutdoorClassics 2024 organizers announced that around 40,000 visitors from 120 countries had attended the four-day show. That’s a 15% increase over last year. Out of the 1,072 exhibitors, many of them were involved with airguns and associated products. I had a personal “must see” list of over 60 companies and that was far from all the airgun exhibitors at...

The new Daystate Alpha Wolf Silver air rifle was launched at the 2024 Great British Shooting Show in Birmingham. This new model adds contrasting, brushed nickel metalwork to the HAM Gold-Award-winning Alpha Wolf, combined with the striking, red laminate stock. There’s no doubt that Daystate leads the pack in providing its customers with a choice of “pre-customized” models. Most shooters like to make their air rifles look “their own” and Daystate definitely makes that easier with their range of Alpha Wolf models. In the United Kingdom, the Daystate Alpha Wolf Silver is available now. It will be available in other countries as soon as possible. In the USA, Airguns of Arizona expects to see the first models arriving at its doors in...

The Diana Two Forty breakbarrel air rifle is a classic-looking gun. It’s a sleek, simple design with a hardwood stock and a single shot action. At just 40.25 Inches overall length and a weight of 7 Lbs 4 Oz – including the scope – it’s compact, light and easy to shoot. And right now, it’s selling at a Street Price of just $99.99, which has to be great value! Before going any further, we should next explain that the Muzzle Energy of the Diana Two Forty is just 5.5 Ft/Lbs. So no, this is not your average 1,000 FPS breakbarrel. It’s waaay less powerful than that! Why then, would anyone purchase such an anemic airgun in the USA? Well, there’s actually a number of very good reasons. Firstly, the low power rating makes the Two Forty...

VALUE FOR MONEY OK, this one’s simple. The Crosman 3622 is a PCP air rifle selling for just $130. Actually $129.99. It works well. It comes with a 5-year warranty and it’s made in the USA. Not only that, but – due to Crosman’s modular design process – it can accept a wide range of third-party custom parts, upgrades and accessories. These already exist for the 1377, 362, Discovery and similar models that use common parts with the 3622. So how can it possibly not be outstanding value for money? The Crosman 3622 is – at the time of writing – the lowest-priced PCP air rifle that’s available. By far! First announced at the 2024 SHOT Show, the 3622 is becoming available for purchase just two months later. This test review was...

Back in December 2023, HAM readers first heard about the new JSB Monster pellets. Now they are shipping and we can take a close look at the new Monsters in real life! “Monster”, is a designator for JSB pellets which are heavier than “Heavy”. You can see the Hard Air Magazine guide to JSB pellet names here for more details. In fact, we have received samples of four new JSB Monster pellets. These are as follows: – 25.39 Grain Jumbo Monster Redesigned Shallow – 25.39 Grain Jumbo Monster Redesigned Deep – 28.55 Grain Jumbo Monster Grand – 25.39 Grain Hades Monster .22 Note that the Hades pellets have a 5.50 mm head diameter, indicated by this label on the bottom of the tin. The Jumbo Monsters have a head diameter specification of...

VALUE FOR MONEY Hard Air Magazine reviewed the BSA R-10 SE PCP air rifle back in August 2017. We liked it then and it earned a score of 88% on test. So why are we testing it again? Well, because now it’s about half price! When we tested the R-10 in 2017, it was selling for $1,300. If we were to factor-in the inflation that’s happened between then and now, that price should be around $1,650. But it’s not. Instead the base model is selling at Airguns of Arizona for just $800! That’s a remarkable 52% saving against that $1,650 price that we might reasonably expect to pay. Even the fancy, thumbhole-stocked model we have here is selling at just $900. That’s 46% less than that $1,650 number and probably 50% less than the 2017 price...

HAM readers first saw the new Crosman Prospect PCP air rifle in our report from the 2024 SHOT Show. Now it’s already in stock and ready to ship from the Crosman online store. We can expect general retail availability in March 2024, Crosman tells us. That’s like, very soon… The company is positioning the Prospect as a hunting air rifle. It’s a regulated, side-lever action PCP. At a time when very few new PCPs are being offered in .177 caliber, the Prospect is. That could be an attraction to some shooters. The Crosman model numbers are CPP7RS (for the .177) and CPP2RS for the .22 caliber guns. The magazine holds 12 shots in .177 caliber. In .22 cal, the capacity is 10 shots. Another attraction is that the magazine projects only a...

No, we’re not finished with Hard Air Magazine’s coverage of the 2024 SHOT Show! Let’s look at the range of new products being shown by JTS Airguns. JTS had an exciting range of four completely new PCP air rifles on display at the show. The JTS StealthHawk is a completely new, “tank around barrel” model. This means that the barrel is surrounded by the HPA “tank”. There’s a 4,500 PSI fill pressure that can give somewhere between 15 and 40 shots per fill, dependent on caliber and power setting. It’s being shown to us in our heading photogaph above by Travis Whitney of JTS Airguns. The StealthHawk has a bolt action that feels very much like that of a Mauser 98 firearm. There’s a wood stock and regulated action with external regulator...

Hard Air Magazine brings you an exclusive first look at the new Crosman 3622 PCP air rifle. A lot of shooters are going to be excited by this new airgun! The 3622 was formally launched at the 2024 SHOT Show and HAM brought you the details then. Now we have a real, live gun in our hands. To be clear, this is NOT a prototype, or a pre-production gun but an early, full production sample. In fact, this gun was given to me directly from the assembly line in Bloomfield New York. Yes, it’s manufactured in the USA and it’s clearly going to be available to buy very soon. As a reminder, the Crosman 3622 PCP air rifle will be selling at a Street Price of around $130. Yes, just one hundred and thirty Dollars! That’s an un-precedented price...

In this post we’ll follow-up on the previous one about borescopes. This time, we’ll look down a variety of air rifle barrels and observe some basic differences. And, there’s a kick at the end… The guns chosen here for inspection are simply ones that were ready-to-hand in the HAM offices. The selection was no more scientific than that! BSA R-10 Air Rifle Barrel To set a benchmark, let’s first go back to the BSA R-10 barrel. As is well-known, this is produced by the company’s cold hammer-forging process. Looking straight down the bore, it’s clear that there are 12 lands and grooves in this .22 caliber barrel. Again, here’s the side view of the same barrel. The grooves look to be pretty deep. Umarex Notos Barrel Now, let’s look...

What’s inside your airgun barrel? Yes, I know that may sound like a stupid question. However it’s very rare to see photographs taken of the inside of an airgun barrel – until now, that is! This post shows the first photographic results of some investigations inside airgun barrels using a borescope. I think they are very interesting and hope that you will agree. There will be more to come, too… What Is A Borescope? Well, it’s a device that enables you to look inside a barrel. The clever part is that the borescope provides both a bright source of light inside that very narrow tube, plus the ability to see – or photograph – the results. In fact, the HAM Team has been experimenting with borescopes inside airgun barrels for a while now...

Now let’s look at the latest offerings from Barra Airguns at the 2024 SHOT Show! In our heading photograph above, Jake Wagner of Barra Airguns is showing us a forthcoming new version of the Barra 1100z PCP air rifle. This has an elegant Turkish walnut stock that definitely enhances the look of the gun. As you can see, there some nice checkering, sling swivel stud and an adjustable cheek piece. The 1100z is another HAM Gold Award-winner for Barra. The new wood stock should add to the popularity of this PCP air rifle. Barra has also made available an Altaros regulator for this gun, together with an installation video that you can see below. Of course Barra was showcasing their new 1866 CO2 air rifle, as reviewed exclusively in HAM...

There’s a new Daystate Performance Catalog available from today. Actually, it’s a catalog for Daystate, BRK and MTC Optics products and their performance-enhancing accessories. But we’ll call it the Daystate Performance Catalog for short… First off, this 40-page “flip book” is a beautiful production! There’s superb photography, layout and writing. This is definitely a “coffee table book” approach that many will want to view at leisure. Not only that, but there’s links to useful videos about the products, plus – most important, of course! – links to the HAM reviews of many of these Gold Award-winning air rifles. It’s also available as a download to store for reference on your computer. Many of us like to customize our air rifles...

Survival with an airgun is is a topic that is currently receiving much attention due to the introduction of the Black Bunker BM8. You see, this product is specifically positioned as a “survival tool” – rather than an “air rifle”. HAM specialist PCP tester Doug Rogers is a vet with many years spent in the US Army. He’s also interested in survival: a very practical guy with the experience and knowledge to be a survivor. So HAM Publisher Stephen Archer asked Doug for his thoughts on survival with an airgun – using an air rifle as a survival tool – with a focus on the BM8. Here’s how the conversation went… Note that the BM8 is available in multiple configurations. The model being sold by Pyramyd does not have a threaded muzzle or...

As always, there were many new Hatsan airguns at SHOT Show 2024! Cecil Bays from Hatsan USA showed them to me, starting with the new Velox semi automatic PCP pistol shown above. It’s also available in black… The chunky-looking Velox is available in .177, .22 and .25 calibers with magazine capacities of 14, 12 and 10, respectively. The number of shots per fill “at optimal velocity” as the manufacturer puts it, is 22 in .177 caliber, 20 for .22 and 19 for .25 cal. Muzzle energy peaks at 15 Ft/Lbs in the .25 cal version. Here it is from the other side. Then there was a new version of the Jet pistol. The Jet 2 QER is regulated and comes as a combo with a removable buttstock. There’s a shrouded barrel, integrated silencer and...

AirForce Airguns was showing a number of new products at the 2024 SHOT Show. Among them was the RAW TM1000 FT Pistol. That’s a new model that I had not seen before. Like other RAW models at the show, the TM1000 FT Pistol carries the name “Theoben” on the breech, acknowledging the design heritage linkinking back to the classic British airguns of the 1980s. Note also that the breech is the same as the TM1000 target rifle. Interestingly, the RAW TM1000 FT Pistol is to be available in .20 caliber, in addition to the expected .177 and .22 calibers. It’s a single-shot pistol with a fill pressure of 3,000 PSI. Overall length is 22 Inches and the barrel is 15 Inches long. The weight is 5.5 Lbs. Thanks to Steve Loretto for showing me...

The new Labradar LX doppler radar chronograph is another entry into the rapidly-growing portable chrony market. It has been developed by the Canadian company that produced the “Gold Standard” Labradar unit that is used by HAM for all our pellet Ballistic Coefficient testing. The Labradar LX is far smaller and lighter than the original Labradar. Judging from the “aiming tube” on top of the unit, it will likely be easier to point easily in the correct direction. As with the original Labradar, the LX model has an accuracy specification claim of +/- 0.1%. That means a reading accuracy between a minimum of 999 FPS and a maximum of 1,001 FPS for an actual shot of 1,000 FPS. That’s certainly accurate enough for airgun testing! Compared...

We’ve already seen the new AirJavelin FishR, launched by Umarex USA at the 2024 SHOT Show. Now let’s look at some more new products, including the Umarex Zelos PCP air rifle. That’s Umarex USA Marketing Manager Scott Faldon showing us the new PCP in our heading photograph above. And here’s a close-up of the action. Scott explained to me that the Umarex Zelos is a “big brother” to the HAM Gold Award-winning Umarex Notos that has become so popular in a short time since it’s introduction last year. The Zelos is a regulated, sidelever PCP that’s to be available in .22 and .25 calibers. There’s high-capacity magazines holding 20 rounds in .22 cal and 18 rounds in .25 caliber. The 3,625 PSI HPA tube is fed into the action via an...