Went to the SHOT show in Orlando last week. An underlever clone of the tx200 has been out for a while, but the real news is a clone of the Diana 350 that looks great. Can't wait for it to hit the stores. It was from Xisico and BAM. Quality has come way up over previous offerings.
Chinese guns are a decent value. I've got three, but they needed tuning to get decent power and accuracy. Two of them needed trigger-jobs, badly.
As "kit-guns" they can teach you alot about tuning springers. Once they are 'fixed' they offer alot of shooting value for very little hard-earned coin. All metal and wood for the most part.
Kind of like the reverse of the old Heathkit electronic kits you used to could buy. You got a bunch of parts and assemled them into some sort of electronic gadget. Only difference is that these guns come assembled and you have to take them apart. You have to disassemble them, repair everything that was done wrong, and then you had a gun that was worth the 35.00 you paid for it.
Good practice if you want to become an airgun repair man.
You take a second-rate "Beater" and turn it into a bulls-eye drilling, rabbit killing machine...
Surely the urge to take gadgets and improve them is firmly engrained in the psychological make-up of every red blooded Cro-Magnon male?!
For about the price of a plastic Crosman, you can have a solid wood and steel "Fast-Deer" delivered to your door. True, it will be drenched in what resembles axle grease, have a 14 pound trigger-pull, and smoke like Vesuvius every time it is fired... but, with very little work, you will be the proud owner of a very decent air rifle.
Now, tuning springers isn't everyone's cup-O-tea, but I find a perverse enjoyment in it. For my part, I like taking things apart and seeing how they work but will not presume to judge those who feel differently.
I challenge you, Brother Terry, to buy just one Chinese springer and see what you can make of it. If you are like me, it will become somewhat of an addiction.
Skillet--I have had several chinese airguns and you are
January 29 2007, 10:01 AM
correct, they are fun to work and learn on. I've had two Fast Deers, returned one because it had broken sights and wouldn't shoot in the same place twice. I tuned it and it didn't make any difference in the accuracy. I tried a B7 which was really a piece of crap. The rear sight was broken and the front sight was glued on the barrel crooked. Shot about as hard as my Daisy Red Rider. I had a B21 that came in with a chipped stock. I traded it for a B18 which was the best of the lot. It doesn't shhot too hard but is fairly accurate out to 25 yards. I've tuned the present FD and it's fairly accurate. The thing that burns me up is that when you buy one of these cheaper chinese guns its a toss up as to whether the gun is going to be delivered in one piece. I also have an RWS 48. All I had to do was shoot it.
My experiences with Chinese air guns has been less than favorable. I have owned 4 and kept only 1. I had a B21 .22 , B19 .22cal, B-7 .22 and the AK-47 look alike. I kept the AK look alike. Too many QC issues for me. Yes, I agree they can be made into decent rifles, but 2 of mine (the B19 and B21) were horribly inaccurate. I could have sent them to a tuner and had them worked on, but by the time you spend the money, you've paid for a better German or Spanish gun. Personnally I'll wait and see. I was tempted by the B26 as supposedly it was the best yet from china along with their TX copy. Again, I'm not knocking the guns or people who like them. They have a place in he airgun world and have changed the market place for the better as a whole. MY experience is not that great. Maybe I will get anoher gun that will be much better and I will change my overall opinion
I aso heard to keep a watch for China's new airgun offerings.
Back in the early days of Chinese airgun importation, some pretty decent Rifles made over to the USA and to Great Britan! This trend continued through the Millenium and gave us such "wonderguns" as the B-3 , Marksman 2004 and the Fast Deer. Each a true value in their own right!
Some of the early 1980's models came with good triggers, well made Barrels and produced suprisingly consistant high velocities! I was lucky enough to inexpensivelly land a wonderfull Chinese Sidelever from the 80's and treasure it's preformance.
Yes, we ought to keep our eyes open. Asian Q/C has advanced by leaps and bounds and some air rifles come out of the box with nice wood grains and good fit and finish.
The guns you are refering to are on a lot of airgun websites: Compasseco, Best Airguns, Sportsmantarget.com, and many others. You can see pictures there. I have never seen a clone of a Diana 350 though, if you know a link let me know please I would like to see it.
As far as quality goes, I believe that the most successful clone is the Bam B40, also known as the Tech Force 40 made by Xisico. The others like the Bam B30 and B21 are sidelevers that mimic the RWS48, 52 types and have mixed reviews in terms of quality replicability. They are, however so cheap in comparison that makes them very tempting to buy. The stock alone is worth the price!
Others like the contender series, and so on, leave a lot to the individual gun's attributes wich in some cases is good and others not so good.
All in all the Chinese clones are a very tempting option given the low cost and the promise of landing a very good gun.
and all they really were was practice guns. They all needed stock work, internal fixing, etc, and were great for learning the mechanics of springers. I've since gotten rid of them and pretty much got what I paid for them with the added benifit of using them as learning tools. I only have one left, a Marksman 2004 which I'll keep since it's been nearly perfect out of the package, save for a couple pins that needed to be secured, other than that it's performance is worth more than I paid for it. My B22 was the worst as far as I'm concerned, really poor interals that broke after very little use, and it seemed like the whole gun was just slopped together at the factory without regard for any kind of QC. That said, no more for me thanks.