I’ve been at this for quite a while, spent $500 on air rifles and spent $2500 on air rifles. In that time, a hand full of those rifles were amazing and checked off a bunch of boxes for me. The majority of them were just mediocre.
Being in the bird abatement business, I’ve got to have compact, light weight , packable, decent shot count , no POI shift and above all else, ACCURATE. I’ve been fortunate enough to find all of that in a few guns, but my findings show most every rifle I’ve ended up keeping , ends up with a Huma regulator installed, or me installing one myself. Second thing I’ve figured out is that the majority of rifles that passed the test, ended up with a CZ barrel. Coincidence? Maybe, but I’m going to guess not. The exception to that rule has been most anything BRK related, which I believe has always been LW.
Which leads me to the title of this thread. At the moment, everything in my stable is either AIRMAKS or BRK, and they are there because of the reasons mentioned above. These two rifles are built like absolute tanks, have almost unbelievable chrony numbers, great shot count and just all around accurate rifles.
I listed the Pathfinder for sale a week or so back and thought I’d grab one in 177 or an Airmaks in 177 for 12 to 15 FPE, but the more I thought about it, the pathfinder is made exactly for my low power needs and I just hadn’t lowered the power wheel and got to tuning. Turns out , it’s perfect. 14fpe on low power with 16gr JTS pellets is EXACTLY what I needed for occasional warehouse work. Amazingly accurate out to 50 yards ( although most warehouse work takes place inside 30) and Unbelievable SD and ES no matter where the power is set. The rifle can easily be turned back up to full power and 25 FPE with just the click of the dial. What else could a man want?
Now enter the Katran. Although not as quite as adjustable, it may be possibly the best air rifle I’ve owned in all my years of airgunning. Craftsmanship is the best I’ve seen to date. Accuracy is above par and the Huma regulator has it spitting numbers that don’t look real. Everyone is different, but for me, I’ve not found a better shouldering rifle. Probably has a lot to do with the adjustable cheek riser, but shouldering the rifle , for me, is blissful.
I’ll leave with you a few pics and and numbers, but mainly come here to share my experience with each platform. I know a lot of us chase numbers and I’ve been guilty of it myself, but if you want a rifle that does what it’s supposed to, when it’s supposed to do it , do yourself a favor and pick either of them up. Or better yet, do what I did and grab them both! On a side note, I lucked up and BOTH rifles prefer the 16gr JTS on any tune I pitched at them.
Pathfinder results at 14 FPE And Katran at 24 FPE.
Being in the bird abatement business, I’ve got to have compact, light weight , packable, decent shot count , no POI shift and above all else, ACCURATE. I’ve been fortunate enough to find all of that in a few guns, but my findings show most every rifle I’ve ended up keeping , ends up with a Huma regulator installed, or me installing one myself. Second thing I’ve figured out is that the majority of rifles that passed the test, ended up with a CZ barrel. Coincidence? Maybe, but I’m going to guess not. The exception to that rule has been most anything BRK related, which I believe has always been LW.
Which leads me to the title of this thread. At the moment, everything in my stable is either AIRMAKS or BRK, and they are there because of the reasons mentioned above. These two rifles are built like absolute tanks, have almost unbelievable chrony numbers, great shot count and just all around accurate rifles.
I listed the Pathfinder for sale a week or so back and thought I’d grab one in 177 or an Airmaks in 177 for 12 to 15 FPE, but the more I thought about it, the pathfinder is made exactly for my low power needs and I just hadn’t lowered the power wheel and got to tuning. Turns out , it’s perfect. 14fpe on low power with 16gr JTS pellets is EXACTLY what I needed for occasional warehouse work. Amazingly accurate out to 50 yards ( although most warehouse work takes place inside 30) and Unbelievable SD and ES no matter where the power is set. The rifle can easily be turned back up to full power and 25 FPE with just the click of the dial. What else could a man want?
Now enter the Katran. Although not as quite as adjustable, it may be possibly the best air rifle I’ve owned in all my years of airgunning. Craftsmanship is the best I’ve seen to date. Accuracy is above par and the Huma regulator has it spitting numbers that don’t look real. Everyone is different, but for me, I’ve not found a better shouldering rifle. Probably has a lot to do with the adjustable cheek riser, but shouldering the rifle , for me, is blissful.
I’ll leave with you a few pics and and numbers, but mainly come here to share my experience with each platform. I know a lot of us chase numbers and I’ve been guilty of it myself, but if you want a rifle that does what it’s supposed to, when it’s supposed to do it , do yourself a favor and pick either of them up. Or better yet, do what I did and grab them both! On a side note, I lucked up and BOTH rifles prefer the 16gr JTS on any tune I pitched at them.
Pathfinder results at 14 FPE And Katran at 24 FPE.
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