Comment on HAM Posts

Apparently there has been some “fake news” in the U.K. confusing the cancellation of the National Shooting Show there with the – very much running – 2026 British Shooting Show. In confirmation that the 2026 British Shooting Show will be taking place, please read the following Press Release from Daystate. This confirms the company’s participation at the show, together with some information about their plans. Note that – unlike the “industry only” SHOT Show and IWA OutdoorClassics, this is a consumer-focused event that is a highlight of the British airgun enthusiast’s year. Daystate/Brocock and MTC Optics sign up for the British Shooting Show Daystate has confirmed it will occupy its largest and most ambitious stand to date at the...

Pyramyd AIR’s Cyber Week is featuring some great PCP deals. In addition, some combine a direct price reduction with a 14% additional coupon-based reduction. Let’s take a look at a few, selected highlights… Pyramyd Cyber Week PCP Deals – Benjamin Marauder: The Marauder has been around – seemingly – for ever. Indeed it earned a HAM Gold Award no less than 11 years ago, waaay back in 2014. Now Pyramyd has the basic, synthetic Marauder for sale as low as $499.99 – that’s $100 off – in .22 caliber. But use the code CYBER when you check out and the price reduces by a further 14%, bringing it down to just around $430 – at least by my calculations. That’s a great price! BUY FROM PYRAMYD: Benjamin Marauder PCP Air Rifle, Synthetic Stock...

Now here’s a big bore big sale! Currently you can save $949 – $949.01 to be absolutely precise – on Western Bushpig air rifle as part of the 2025 Airguns of Arizona Black Friday Deals sale. The Western Bushpig rifle is a .45 caliber big bore with a choice of two power settings. High power gives in excess of 600 Ft/Lbs of Muzzle Energy, while the lower setting produces around 300 Ft/Lbs dependent of choice of ammo. There’s a maximum of 3 shots per fill of High Pressure Air. This Bush Pig big bore big sale pricing is available on a range of action colors. There’s black (of course!), Tungsten, Olive Drab Green and Flat Dark Earth. It’s your choice… This Big Bore big sale offer is currently running at Airguns of Arizona. Currently...

Air Venturi MicroStrike interchangeable barrels are now available for pre-order on the Pyramyd website. OK, I admit it! I very much like compact, easy-to-shoot, carbine-style airguns like the MicroStrike. As an unashamed plinker, they are ideal for the sort of airgun shooting I really enjoy. In particular, compact PCPs really appeal to me for backyard can-popping and similar low-stress, high-fun types of close range shooting. They’re also an ideal way to share the fun of airgun shooting with family and friends. The small size, light weight and relatively low power also aid with this. The Microstrike itself is available in three calibers (.177, .22 and .25). However Air Venturi has also announced interchangeable barrel kits for the...

If you own a HAM Gold Award-winning Komplete air rifle, you may wish to take part in the latest Umarex Social Media promotion: it’s called the “Bring The Power Giveaway”! Umarex is asking you to share your Komplete photos and videos on Social Media using the Hashtag #UMAREXKOMPLETE. There’s monthly drawings, plus the chance to win the grand prize of a JP Outfitters’ Ignaua hunt. This 1 1/2-day guided iguana hunt in South Florida includes guide, boat and gear, plus a travel and lodgings allowance – a $3,000 value. How To Enter The Umarex Komplete Social Media Giveaway 1. Share your original content created with the Komplete to Social Media with #UmareKomplete to get one (1) entry per platform. Choose from Facebook, Instagram...

Gem CO2 Air Pistol Review – Overview This Gem CO2 Air Pistol Hard Air Magazine review is somewhat unusual, for a couple of reasons. Firstly because this is a very unusual product. It’s the world’s smallest airgun, by a considerable margin. At only 3.5 Inches long and an empty weight of 10.8 Ounces, it’s definitely tiny! Secondly, there’s curiously little hard information to be found on the product. The manufacturer’s website claims a “velocity over 400 FPS using Steel BBs / Velocity over 300 FPS using Airsoft BBs.” Alternatively, the Owner’s Manual also claims “over 375 + FPS” [sic] for steel BBs. That’s about all there is available. Most of the few other reviewers to date have likewise shied-away from providing much hard data...

The new UTG Goliath bipod from Leapers has been well-received by the airgun community for it’s outstanding balance of quality, features and price. Of course, Leapers has produced a range of bipods for many years. However, entering the high-end market against established competition was another bold play by the company. So today, Hard Air Magazine talks to the Goliath’s designer – Jay Yu. Jay is a key member of the Leapers Engineering Team and is based at the company’s Livonia, Michigan headquarters. As a keen shooter himself, it’s highly instructive to hear about the Goliath’s development in Jay’s own words. Hard Air Magazine: Jay, Thanks for talking today. To start, can you tell us about your key design requirements for the...

The flow of new 2025 product announcements from Umarex USA seems unstoppable. Now there’s the new Arrax multishot breakbarrel air rifle! At a Street Price of just $142.99, the Arrax is majoring on value. It’s significantly cheaper than the underlever-cocking, magazine-feed Synergis Elite that was released by the company earlier this year. However it still includes a 4 x 32 scope and Picatinny rings, in addition to a set of open front and rear sights. Internally, there’s a gas ram powerplant that provides the obligatory 1,000 FPS Muzzle Velocity in .22 caliber. In .177, you can make that 1,200 FPS with lead pellets. As you would expect, this is a long air rifle. With a 20.75-Inch barrel, the overall length rounds-out at 47 Inches...

Hard Air Magazine readers first saw information about the new JSB Exact Premium .30 caliber pellets in our report from the 2025 Pyramyd Cup. Now we can take a closer look at this new product. We’ll also understand what that “Premium” designation means and whether it’s important. First, the obvious. These new pellets are supplied in a screw-top tin with completely new packaging design. There’s a new JSB logo, as you can see, with the striking overall black color to both the upper and lower parts of the tin. The pellets themselves are a traditional Diabolo design with domed head. They look nicely-finished, as we can see in these close-up photographs. Supplied in 70-count tins, these new 44.75 Grain pellets are carefully protected...

This is the second HAM 2025 Airgun Gift Guide. For this one, we’re looking at gift ideas from $100 to $200. Again, there’s suggestions for airgun-related gifts for the favorite airgunner in your life – that could be you, of course! This is also a “Top Ten” list, ordered by price. The gift ideas start at $124.99 and go right up to $199.99. But where do the ideas come from? Well – again- they’re things that appeal to me. Either I have them and find them good, or they are things that I have heard good comments about and would like to have myself. I hope that you will find these suggestions useful… 1. The HAM 2025 Airgun Gift Guide – Schofield BB Revolver The Barra Schofield BB revolver is an outstanding replica of the first...

Today we have the HAM 2025 Christmas Gift Buying Guide. There’s suggestions for airgun-related gifts for the favorite airgunner in your life – that could be you, of course! This is a “Top Ten” list, ordered by price. The gift ideas start at $16.99 and go up to $99.99. But where do the ideas come from? Well, they’re things that appeal to me. Either I have them and find them good, or they are things that I have heard good comments about and would like to have myself. 1. HAM 2025 Christmas Gift Buying Guide – AoA T-Shirt It’s cool, smart and stylish! We all need one. Plus, the Airguns of Arizona Black T-Shirt is just $16.99. How can you go wrong? BUY FROM AIRGUNS OF ARIZONA AOA Black T-Shirt 2. HAM 2025 Christmas Gift Buying Guide...

This is Hard Air Magazine’s Complete Umarex Komplete Airgun Guide! We’ve brought together the information we have published about this remarkable airgun to make it more accessible and understandable for both owners and wannabe owners. But what is the Umarex Komplete? It’s a low-cost air rifle that sells for around $200.00. You can find it for sale online, in big box stores and some gunshops. It’s also a fairly new product, being launched in mid-2024. Plus, it’s a Hard Air Magazine Gold Award winner for its combination of usability, quality, value and performance. In fact the Komplete is actually a revolutionary airgun. It is the most versatile air rifle ever in terms of power sources. It’s also a great entry point into the...

IWA OutdoorClassics 2026 is the premier international exhibition for the airgun industry. Sure, there’s some airgun interest at the SHOT Show, but the number of exhibitors has declined over the years. Most of the airgun world makes IWA their focus. Held in Nuremberg, Germany from 26 February to 1 March 2026, it’s a truly international event for the outdoor industry held in a purpose-built exhibition site. Plus, it attracts many manufacturers that are almost completely unknown in the USA. In total, there’s waaaaay more airgun industry interest at IWA than there is at the SHOT Show, as you can see from my many HAM reports from IWA OutdoorClassics in the past. So I talked to Stefanie Leege, the Exhibition Director for IWA...

VALUE FOR MONEY The JTS AirStryke is a new PCP air rifle at a very attractive price point. 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. There’s no way this airgun can score other than 100% in Value For Money! BUY FROM PYRAMYD JTS AirStryke PCP Air Rifle 0.22 SPEED AND ACCURACY As can be seen here, the JTS AirStryke tested by HAM broke the 1,000 FPS maximum Muzzle Velocity barrier when shooting 10.03 Grain H&N Field Target Trophy Green alloy pellets. The maximum with lead was 924 FPS with the 11.9 Grain RWS Hobbys. More importantly for most...

At Extreme Benchrest 2025, Daystate Wolf Pack shooter John Bagakis was kind enough to sit down with me and talk about his air rifles. John is one of those outstanding shooters who is extremely versatile. Sure, he may not win every time (who does?), but he is ALWAYS in contention for a top place in every discipline he shoots in every airgun shooting competition he enters. And that’s going back to Extreme Benchrest in 2017 when he burst into the airgun world with second place in the 100 Yard Sportsman Class. So 100 Yard Benchrest? Field Target? Speed Silhouette? Big Bore? John is always there among the top shooters. That takes real skill and a level of versatility that is attained by very few other competitors in the competitive...

There’s a NSA Slugs Closeout at Airguns of Arizona, with some very attractive pricing! At the time of writing, AoA has thirteen different slug SKUs available on closeout, in nominal calibers .177, .22, .25 and .375. The savings are around 27% per box, so this is very worthwhile. The slugs listed are as follows: .178 Caliber 20.5 grain Hollow Point Dish Base .216 Caliber 23 grain Hollow Point Flatbase .216 Caliber 23 grain Hollow Point Flatbase .217 Caliber 28.5 Grain Hollow Point Dish Base .217 Caliber 31.2 Grain Hollow Point Dish Base .218 Caliber 17.5 Grain Hollow Point Dish Base .218 Caliber 24.8 Grain Hollow Point Dish Base .218 Caliber 28.5 Grain Hollow Point Dish Base .218 Slugs 23 Grain Hollow Point Flatbase .249 Caliber 26.8...

The bell target originated in England in the 19th Century. It was part of a shooting game that involved many enthusiastic men and pubs, combined with airguns. What could possibly go wrong? Well, actually, surprisingly little actually did go wrong, as this authoritative history of the somewhat-surprising sport of bell target shooting explains. In fact, the bell target lives on as a valid target shooting challenge. It may have a new lease of life in the USA with the appearance of this Air Venturi Bell Target that’s coming soon. It’s ideal for the winter indoor shooting ranges that spring-up in basements and garages in the northern states around this time of the year! The bell target is designed to be shot at ranges of 6 or 7 Yards...

There’s a new SIG 1911 Tacops CO2 BB pistol coming soon. At $119.99, the price is attractive and the blowback action will attract many pistoleros. As with most other SIG airguns, the Tacops is intended to be an useful training tool. It has similar size, weight and erganomics to the powder-burning 1911 model. It can also make a great plinker to engage those feral soda cans around the yard! Of course this new SIG airgun is powered by a single 12 Gram CO2 cartridge contained in the magazine. Said magazine also holds 17 BBs and is of drop-free configuration. As can be sen from the photographs, the SIG 1911 Tacops CO2 BB pistol has a skeletonized trigger, a skeletonized hammer and a functional grip safety. Trigger pull weight...

A first example of the Air Venturi MicroStrike PCP air pistol/carbine has just arrived at the HAM offices. So this gives us the chance to take a first detailed look at this very interesting gun. As Hard Air Magazine readers will recall, I was able to shoot the MicroStrike for the first time at the 2025 Pyramyd AIR Cup back in September. But now I can play – er, I mean undertake serious, yet informal testing – as background for the comprehensive HAM test review which will come soon :-) As this is not a formal HAM review, maybe I may be permitted to express a personal, purely subjective, opinion on the MicroStrike? It’s this… I like this type of compact pistol/carbine PCP airgun very much. Sure, I’ll never use it as a pistol as I’m...

Wes Crisp is a Daystate Wolf Pack shooter who has burst onto the competitive airgun shooting scene recently. Although shooting all disciplines, Wes really loves Speed Silhouette. In 2025 he won the Gunslynger speed silhouette competition at the Pyramyd Cup. There he was shooting under the magazine-fed PCP rules and nailed all 25 targets in just 41 seconds, handily beating veteran campaigner Thayne Simmons in the finals. Our heading photograph above shows Wes at the 2025 Pyramyd Cup. Photograph courtesy of Pyramyd AIR. The other photographs illustrating this article were either taken by Stephen Archer or supplied by Wes. He also placed second – just behind team-mate Lauren Parsons – in the Speed Silhouette Open Class competition at...