Airgunning

     Air Arms Pro Sport .177      

Introduction

For years and years, I read on the airgunBBs how extremely good a Pro Sport was, and what a beautiful gun it was. But for some reason I didn't like the looks of it, and I was very suspicious about that "weird" way for cocking the rifle. So when I was in the market for a AA springer some time ago, I decided to go for a TX200HC instead of that unconventional Pro Sport.
Time went by and I lived happily after all with that TX200HC. Nevertheless I sold the TX200HC, mainly because it was too loud, I bought and sold a few HW97K's and in the end, I decided I should have kept the TX200HC (after all, it had been love at first sight,... and second, and third ...) and ordered a new walnut TX200HC at BAR which was put aside until the MFR would arrive. End well, all well (that's a dutch proverb, I hope it's the same in English).

A few days later I unexpectedly got the chance to shoot a Pro Sport. During a SAR Belgian Style (don't ask !) shoot in Ostend, organised by Ivan Corneau (thanks Ivan, great event !), one of the shooters brought a Pro Sport which I was allowed to shoot (thanks Erwin). To my surprise, that gun was rather good looking, and you may consider this as quite an understatement as this gun looked better than most other guns I've seen. This particular Pro Sport was a FAC .22, fitted with a Maccari kit, doing a modest 15.5 fpe. The gun shot deliciously smooth with little recoil, but above all the balance was brilliant. Within seconds it was clear I had to have a Pro Sport.

So the first thing I did on monday was picking up the phone to ring BAR. Lloyd was as understanding as ever (thank god for that) so it was no problem to cancel the TX200HC and buy a Pro Sport .177 instead. To my surprise Lloyd told me they had a walnut Pro Sport in stock (I thought they were as rare as you know what I mean, especcially in walnut and .177), so a few weeks later (I decide to wait for the MFR to get both guns shipped together as I am a tight git) I got my Pro Sport.

First impressions

Well, one thing I learned is to never buy 2 guns at the same time. It's just too overwhelming and too difficult to decide what gun to pick up first ! Anyway after I got myself together again, I took the Pro Sport out of the box and I really liked what I saw and felt. Wiping the dust off the gun and giving it a good wrap-over with ballistol instantly transformed it in a shiny beauty. The finish is, as for all Air Arms rifles, excellent with deep blueing of the metal. There were a few dark spots on the blank metal of the compression tube, nothing major though so I could remove most of it with a bit of steel wool.

The walnut stock is, without being astonishing, much better looking than a beech one. It's rather dark but I like it this way.

Getting ready

Since this gun is mostly going to be used for target shooting, I wanted a high magnification scope on it. I tried both the Deben Mil Pro 6.5-26x52 and the Hawke Varmint II 6_24x44 on it. I do like the Mil Pro on top of the Pro Sport and how it looks, but even for my taste, this combination is way too heavy. So at the moment I have the Varmint II on top of it (not on the pics).
 

Operation

Although the figures indicate that the Pro Sport is a heavy gun, it absolutely doesn't feel that way. To me, it actually feels lighther than a TX200HC or HW97K. I assume the perfect balance accounts for that. And the balance is perfect; due to the lack of an underlever directly under the barrel, there isn't the slightest hint of front heaviness. This is how I think a gun should balance.

Despite the peculiar design of the underlever, cocking is easy and doesn't feel unusual at all. The typical tac-tac-tac of the TX is not present so cocking is virtually silent. Loading the pellet is easy when you're used to underlever rifles. Just close the underlever (no buttons to push), and after pushing the safety, the gun is ready to fire. The integrated moderator does keep the muzzle report of the gun down to a modest "plop". Nice !

The trigger can be adjusted for both length of the first stage and weight of pull, but it is necessary to remove the trigger guard to adjust the weight of pull. Out of the box, the trigger was a little bit heavy (the story of my life) but crisp. However, for my taste, the length of the first pull was too long, but I'm nitpicking here. When adjusting the trigger for a shorter first stage, I had the impression the trigger became a bit rough (the nitpicking goes on), so I decided to take the trigger apart and polish it. This improved the feel of the trigger so now I am quite happy with it (end nitpicking).

Out of the box, the gun shoots really nice and smooth, with a short lock time and to my delight there is not a bit of spring twang present. Again, very nice. The gun did 780 fps with JSB Exacts (AA Fields) 4.52 or about 11.4 fpe which is very acceptable for the UK market I think. When the gun breaks in, it will probably go up a bit as well but there's a fair margin for that to keep it on the safe side of the UK limit.

As I am quite a bit of a tinkerer when it comes to springers, I decided to open the gun to see how it looks inside. Taking the stock off needs a bit of attention with that hidden underlever, but apart from that, taking the gun apart is very easy, almost identical to the TX200.
 

I expected the internals to be the same as for the TX, with maybe a few modifications as I heard the Pro Sport is factory tuned (I don't know whether this is true or not, to be honest). At first sight the internals look identical to the TX internal, apart from the compression tube. The compression tube has some "lazaglide-like" buttons in the front which probably make the sliding process smoother. An unexpected feature, but very nice nevertheless.

Because the gun had no twang at all, I expected a rear spring guide to fit tight in the spring but to my surprise, it had a very loose fit; the spring and guide look identical to the ones from the TX200HC which had the same "problem". Since my TX200HC had a bit of spring twang right out of the box, I feared the Pro Sport would get some twang sooner or later so I picked up the phone and ordered a 12 fpe Venom spring and guides for the Pro Sport.

The spring I got from Venom had 25 coils. Being used to 27-28 coil springs for a HW97K, I was a bit suspicious about the power this spring would generate in the Pro Sport. I installed the spring, and cocked, or better, tried to cock the gun. The cocking felt way too heavy ! I loaded a pellet and shot the gun which resulted in the typical venom characteristics: very short lock time, very smooth shooting with little recoil. So, despite the heavy cocking cycle, there seemed nothing wrong with the shooting behaviour. Then I chronoed it: 875 fps or 14.5 fpe ! Not really what I was looking for and probably explaining the difficult cocking cycle. So I picked up the phone and gave Venom another ring. I had the pleasure to talk to Steve Pope who turned out to be a nice, friendly and knowledgeable guy. I have tuned quite a few guns myself and I know all guns are different and react differently to identical tunes. Anyway I told Steve what happened and he told me to send the spring and guide back so he could get me what I needed. Within a week, I got another spring, counting 24 coils and a bit of spacing, together with a note from Steve and a tin of Webley Lazadomes (thanks Steve). I installed the new spring and guides which resulted in a much easier cocking cycle (still heavier than stock, but easily manageable) and 800 fps with JSB Exacts, bang on the 12 fpe limit (not a problem since I live in Belgium and we don't have a power limit; the 12 fpe is a self-induced limit for target shooting).

The Venom spring and guide turned an already excellent gun into an even better gun. The venomized Pro Sport has now an even shorter lock time and the recoil is very limited (but this was already the case right out of the box).

The gun definitely likes the JSB Exacts (AA Fields,...). With these pellets, the accuracy is outstanding. At 25 m (27.5 yards) 5-shot groups around 0.25" ctc are no exception. With FTT's, the accuracy is still acceptable, but groupings are a little bit bigger than with JSB's. I haven't tested other pellets yet.

   5 shot group at 25 m (27.5 yard) with AA Fields 4.52
 

Conclusion so far

So far I am really impressed by the Pro Sport. Its build quality is excellent and the accuracy is outstanding, especially taken in account it's a springer. The Pro Sport performs very well out of the box, with no spring twang at all. Although it doesn't really need a tune, putting a venom spring and guides in it, turns it into an even better gun. It has been said before, and now I know what has been said, is true: the Pro Sport is about the best springer available on the market. If you want the best, you now know what to get.


February 5, 2005 by Mario Severi