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VALUE FOR MONEY This is really easy! At a Street Price of $49.99 for a magazine-fed, CO2-powered pistol with adjustable open sights, upper and lower Picatinny rails and semi-target grips, the Avera has to be a bargain. Oh, plus it includes no less than three magazines. That makes it even better. All you need is to buy some 12 Gram CO2 cartridges, pellets and you’re ready for serious plinking! As you can see from the photo above, I added a Leapers UTG OP3 Micro Green Dot Sight. Doug Wall has better eyes than me so he shot the gun with open sights for testing. BUY FROM PYRAMYD Umarex Avera CO2 Air Pistol 0.177 SPEED AND ACCURACY The Umarex Avera CO2 pistol tested by Hard Air Magazine produced a maximum average Muzzle Velocity...

Extreme Benchrest Special Savings are now available both for those attending the event and those who will be reading about it from the comfort of their homes! Airguns Of Arizona has announced that orders of greater than $150 will accrue a 7% saving, if placed before October 13th 2025. Just enter the code EBR2025 at checkout to save… Many competitors call-in at the Airguns Of Arizona store either before or after Extreme Benchrest, so they will be very happy with this announcement! So what to buy? Well, AoA has so many HAM Gold Award-winning models, that’s it’s tough to choose. One possibility is the HAM Gold Award-winning KalibrGun Cricket 2 Tactical. At $1,695.99 for the wood-stocked version (shown below), it’s an accurate...

Pyramyd has just added some last chance Refurb Airgun Deals to the company’s “Fall Into Christmas” Sale. You can save 11% OFF using the promo code: FALL. That applies even to the refurbs. Refurbished products can offer outstanding value. Generally they’re returns of one sort or another, often with no problems, just a customer changing his mind! Pyramyd explains that their technicians inspect, repair, test, and re-inspect every open-box and refurbished product here to ensure it leaves their warehouse fully functional. When I worked at a large corporation, all the employees purchased refurbished products for themselves, the feeling was that they offered great value and benefitted from being “double checked” in this way. The company...

Before starting this review of Hawke Frontier LRF Laser Rangefinding Binoculars, I probably should give a little personal background… I’ve always been interested in optics, mainly associated with photographic cameras. I value high optical quality. But optical quality is something like accuracy in shooting, it means different things to different people, so I try to quantify it wherever possible. However my experience has mainly been with “single lens systems” – cameras and riflescopes, rather than binocular “twin lens systems”. So that’s my background to this review. What did I find? Hawke Frontier LRF Laser Rangefinding Binoculars – Product Overview Hawke Frontier LRF Laser Rangefinding Binoculars are available in two...

Hard Air Magazine readers first heard about the new JTS AirStryke PCP air rifle in our report last week from the 2025 Pyramyd Cup. Well, JTS certainly didn’t waste any time, as one has arrived here in the HAM offices already. Plus, they are already in stock at Pyramyd! So let’s take a first close look at the AirStryke… The AirStryke is available in a choice of .22 and .25 calibers. It’s a sidelever, regulated, silenced PCP firing from a rotary magazine. That’s a comprehensive list of features for an air rifle with a Street Price of just $249.99. In order to become acquainted with the AirStryke, I mounted a Leapers UTG 3-9×32 AO Bugbuster scope onto the receiver’s Picatinny rails. This produced a compact, comfortable rig that...

The Barra 400e is the most accurate BB gun ever tested by HAM. And now the company has introduced 400e barrel kits as a new upgrade option for this selective fire plinker. In fact, there’s two kits: Standard and Precision Barrel Kits. These kits let you swap your rifle’s performance, whether that means optimizing for speed and accuracy with the Precision Barrel Kit or maximizing compatibility with bulk ammo using the Standard Barrel Kit. Why Barrel Kits Matter The Barra 400e has gone through a few different internal setups since its original launch. Over time, the company has shipped rifles with two different barrel types, each designed with a specific purpose in mind: 1. Standard Barrel. This is designed to be more forgiving...

HAM readers have read about the Gem Air Pistol in a previous post. But now one has arrived in our offices and we can really take a close look at this tiny airgun. The Gem is billed as “the world’s smallest commercially-available air pistol”. And – when you actually have it in your hands – it’s easy to believe this! Let’s compare the size to a small item that’s familiar to most airgunners: a 12 Gram CO2 cartridge. WOW! In base form the Gem is powered by an 8 Gram CO2 cartridge. This is the “non-threaded” type of cartridge that is typically used with soda water machines and other non-airgun equipment. So they are not unique, however they are unusual in the airgun world where 12 Gram CO2 power is the standard. Of course, that is for...

The year is 2025 and Weihrauch is 126 year old. Moreover, it’s still a real “family company”, run on a day-to-day basis by the direct descendants of the original founders. It’s never been sold-out, taken-over or absorbed by some big, soulless corporation or venture capital group. That’s an incredible achievement for any company and – in particular – for the Weihrauch family. Felix Weihrauch, the CEO since 2023, is the fifth-generation representative of his family to run the business and he’s made a great start! Above, Felix Weihrauch with his father Hans-Hermann (right) and Thilo Schallenkammer (left). Anyone who has any interest whatsoever in airguns knows the name of ”Weihrauch”. They also intuitively understand that this brand...

Today, we’re shooting the Umarex Primal 20 big bore airgun. It’s an air rifle – or if required – an air shotgun. All you do is use different ammunition and change the barrel’s choke. We covered most physical and operational details of the Primal 20 in this previous Hard Air Magazine post. So this time, we’ll concentrate on the shooting experience… As a reminder, the Primal is a 20 Gauge PCP which – in its shipping configuration – is a .625-Inch caliber big bore hunting rifle. It shoots dedicated 395 Grain pointed sabot slugs from a two-shot magazine. At 44.25 Inches long, the Primal is a large air rifle. Fitted with the Sightron S-TAC scope, the rig weighed-in at 11 Lbs 5 Oz. So it’s heavy, too. That HPA tube up-front makes it...

2025 Extreme Benchrest is coming soon! In fact, the dates are October 9th to 12th. So there’s just three weeks to go! Here’s an update with the key information for this year’s event… 2025 Extreme Benchrest – Overview First, EBR will be taking place from October 5-8, 2025. It’s the 14th annual event and both organizers and competitors are gearing-up, ready to go! EBR features no less than six shooting disciplines. That’s more than for any other major US airgun competition. As follows… – The headline Extreme Benchrest event, with the finals shot at 100 Yards. – 50-Yard Benchrest, – Extreme Field Target – Extreme Bigbore – Speed Silhouette – Steel Scramble (NRL22-style shooting) As usual, the venue will be the Rio Salado...

Benchrest shooting competition is very exciting for the competitors. But it’s less so for spectators. So this is where Longshot Camera Systems delivered at the 2025 Pyramyd Cup. See those little white things at the lower left of our heading photograph above? Those are Longshot cameras. They allow competitors and spectators to have the sort of target view that can otherwise only be achieved 100 Yards down range after a “cold Line” has been called. Below we have a close-up of a single Longshot camera. One is pointed at the target, sending its signal back to the firing-point area. In the case of the 2025 Pyramyd Cup, Longshot company Founder Clay Rhoden and his team set-up a 48-camera system at the Cardinal Center range in less than...

To continue from a previous post, here’s more new airgun news from the 2025 Pyramyd Cup. In fact, I have to say that – from an airgun perspective – the Pyramyd Cup is almost as full of new product news as the annual SHOT Show! Today we’ll cover JSB/Predator International, JTS, Saber Tactical and Macavity Arms… All attendees at the Pyramyd Cup were given a card – that’s mine below – with 21 squares on it. Those 21 squares corresponded with the number of exhibitors. When you visited an exhibitor’s table and checked-out their products, they placed a sticker on their square on the card. If you visited 15 or more tables, then Pyramyd gave you 20 free raffle tickets for the post-banquet draw on the Saturday night. Free is good, right...

Alongside the 100 Yard Benchrest competition, Pyramyd Cup Field Target is the other highlight of the event. Indeed, Field Target was the original core of “The Cup”, going back a number of years. The FT course here at the Cardinal Shooting Center is almost entirely in the woods. That makes for a beautiful competitive environment. This event is still continuing as I write this, but we’ll have the full results after they are announced at the banquet this evening. But what on earth is that red and black FT rig in our heading photo above? Somewhere under the bling, Otis is using a Daystate Alpha Wolf with a Kahles scope and probably the most extreme hamster I have ever seen. WOW! Just to show the huge variety of equipment used by...

The 2025 Pyramyd Cup Benchrest Competition remains a highlight of this event. Shooting targets at 100 Yards makes maximum demands from competitors, airguns, scopes, pellets and shooters! Join me as we take a look down the firing line to get a feel for the event… First off, we need to say that there’s no less than 48 targets. This is a BIG competition, with the event being shot in two stages. Four groups of shooters took part in two separate cards over two days, Thursday and Friday. Then there was the two-card final shot consecutively on Saturday morning by the high scorers. Each target has 25 bulls, with one shot being made on each bull. There’s sight-in bulls as well, across the foot of the target – as you can see from our...

Today we’ll look at the Air Venturi new products at the 2025 Pyramyd Cup. Yes, “The Cup” is a shooting competition, but it’s also a trade show, with a lot of new products to be seen for the attendees. Let’s take a look at what Air Venturi has been showing… For reasons that everyone understands, there’s a number of Chinese-manufactured airgun products that have been announced, but availability has been delayed. But they’re still coming and today I talked to the Air Venturi team about progress. Below, Cody from Air Venturi showed me the new Air Venturi MicroStrike. HAM readers have read about this before. However the Air Venturi MicroStrike is really getting close and availability should be this year – 2025. It’s easy to say that the...

Today was registration day for the 2025 Pyramyd AIR Cup. And what should we see but a first sighting of the new 2026 Benjamin Marauder! Our photograph above shows the designer John Solpietro (left), along with Shawn Pragel, who runs the Crosman/Benjamin PCP assembly operation. If you want to see two key players in this new product, here they are… Now it’s VERY important to say that what we are seeing here is a PROTOTYPE of the 2026 Benjamin Marauder. There almost-certainly will be differences between the gun – actually there are two samples here – and the final production version. Basic details include availability in three calibers – .177, .22 and .25 cal. There’s a side-lever action, as you can see, combined with a substantial...

The new Alpha Wolf Shadow is the latest version of the electronic-action Alpha Wolf PCP air rifle. Designed specifically for hunting and pest control use, it’s just announced today! The company says that the Shadow is available now in 12 Ft/Lbs form in .177 and .22 calibers for the UK home market. High-power models are in development for the US and other countries. The Alpha Wolf Shadow is compact, just 28 3/4-Inches long, while incorporating a 17-Inch Lothar Walther barrel.That makes it ideal for pest control duties, especially in confined spaces like farm buildings, vehicles and hides. The weight is low, at about 6 Lbs 11 Oz, plus optics, flashlights and any other accessories that may be desired. As a part of the compact...

How old is my Benjamin Marauder air rifle? That’s a common question that I am asked frequently. So today we’re re-publishing a HAM article that answers that question and was originally published back in March 2021. Here it is… Some time back, I was talking to Phillip Guadalupe, the Product Manager at Velocity Outdoor. He told me the secret to understanding the build date of my Marauder, so I’m sharing it with you here. Like most airguns, Benjamin Marauder air rifles are allocated a serial number during assembly. This number is recorded on the air rifle itself using a laser engraver. In fact the characters are made up of a series of dots, rather than as “solid” letters or numbers. That serial number holds the key to understanding...

Black airguns are so yesterday!!! As if to prove this, Pyramyd now has in stock the Reximex RP and RPA models in a huge variety of colors. Both guns are PCP sidelever-cocking air pistols that are available in .177 and .22 calibers. However the RP model is configured with a synthetic pistol grip and detachable buttstock extension. The RPA has a wood target grip only. You have read about the Reximex RP and the RPA in Hard Air Magazine previously. Now they’re in stock and also available in a HUGE range of colors! The RP is available in – wait for it! – Bronze, Desert Wind, Flat Dark Earth, Gold, Safari Camo, Silver, Titanium and Turquoise. Oh, and there’s plain old black, if that’s what you prefer… The RPA can be had with...

The special, limited edition HW50 Jubilee Model is a one in a thousand opportunity! It’s produced to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the introduction of Weihrauch’s longest-running air rifle. In fact, Weihrauch produced it’s first air rifle, the HW Model 50V, in 1950. This airgun had a smooth bore because of Allied Occupation Government rules. Eventually, the the production of rifled barrels was allowed, resulting in the HW50S that we know today. This exclusive model features a striking blue-grey laminated wood stock, adorned with unique checkering and laser engraving, including a “75” on the pistol grip to commemorate the milestone. The “75 Years” theme is repeated on the compression tube, together with the serial number of...