I am looking for the best .177 PCP air rifle for hunting and general back yard shooting. There seem to be too many to chose from. I live in Africa so back up service is not good. Any ideas
- The AGN App is ready! Search "Airgun Nation" in your App store. To compliment this new tech we've assigned the "Threads" Feed & "Dark" Mode. To revert back click HERE.
Best .177 PCP
- Thread starter Raptaman
- Start date
I started looking at the Air Force Condor but it seems it needs quite a lot of tinkering. I like the sound of the FX Impact but I am worried about it being new on the market and then having issues with it, but it defiantly suits my needs.
Upvote 0
my votes:
Air Arms s510 xtra fac
Hatsan bt65
Benjamin marauder (although they are known to have accuracy issues)
Air Arms s510 xtra fac
Hatsan bt65
Benjamin marauder (although they are known to have accuracy issues)
Upvote 0
Raptaman, I am probably in a similar situation to yourself, I live out in the middle of QLD, Australia, if I need repairs or service for an airgun it's difficult, very thankful for forums such as this one. I have a FX Royale 400. 177 and love it, huge shot count, consistently accurate and has proven to be extremely reliable only needing one breech o-ring to be replaced in several thousand pellets and that was possibly caused from testing pellets that were not necessarily suited to the rifle so I only use H&N Bara Match, no issues just a good honest fun airgun to shoot 
Upvote 0
Thanks guys much appreciated. I like the FX Royale 400, if it works in Aussie it should work in Zimbabwe, if something goes wrong it will have to go back to the place of purchase which for me is the USA very expensive shipping it back to replace an 'o' ring. I will be using the H&N Bara Hunter extreme has any one have comments on them. Thanks again.
Upvote 0
Raptaman,
If you ever watched any of Matt Dubber's videos, he references dealers in South Africa. He has just purchased several FX rifles. I am not sure where he got them, but he may be a good resource as to where to purchase or repair a rifle.
Best of Luck,
NM
If you ever watched any of Matt Dubber's videos, he references dealers in South Africa. He has just purchased several FX rifles. I am not sure where he got them, but he may be a good resource as to where to purchase or repair a rifle.
Best of Luck,
NM
Upvote 0
Yes I have watched all of his videos very good, got me interested in the Impact. Don't know how to contact him though. Thanks
Upvote 0
R400 would be a solid choice indeed, and they are well proven.
Also very easy to work on/rebuild, it's a matter of 30 minutes to replace all o-rings. Very clever, simple and effective design.
In my opinion, the FX guns based on the royale action block are the most reliable. (Royale/Boss/Bobcat/Verminator mkII)
There is very little what could break down, only mechanical thing I can think of is the valve pin, but there are numerous stories of Royales holding up for tens of thousends of shots without any issues.
Good luck with your choice
Also very easy to work on/rebuild, it's a matter of 30 minutes to replace all o-rings. Very clever, simple and effective design.
In my opinion, the FX guns based on the royale action block are the most reliable. (Royale/Boss/Bobcat/Verminator mkII)
There is very little what could break down, only mechanical thing I can think of is the valve pin, but there are numerous stories of Royales holding up for tens of thousends of shots without any issues.
Good luck with your choice
Upvote 0
Probably through his facebook page is the best way.
I have a Marauder in .177 that I quite like, though they're not known to be the most rugged.
The ones I've heard are most rugged and still laser-accurate are Rapid Air Weapons and Taipan Mutant. (though I don't know if the Mutant is made in .177)
FX Wildcat would probably be my choice. The Impact is impressive, but I'd prefer a real stock. (and saving several hundred bucks) I bet if you can get in touch with Matt, he'd sell you his Wildcat, as he seems to prefer the Impact.
Upvote 0
It depends on how much you want to spend and you did not specify what type of rifle you want? A classic rifle? Or a compact like a bullpup?
I would opt for the AirArms S410 TDR which is reasonably priced and superbly accurate and the rifle comes in a neat case. Ideal for your purposes. A magazine capacity of 10 pellets is more than enough for hunting and plinking purposes. And AirArms supports its customers - at least in South Africa.
But as you stated that you want to use the gun for hunting, I wouldn´t consider a .177 in the first place. These are limited in energy by their comparatively light pellets. For hunting, I would at least go with the .22. If you want a compromise, you might look at the Weihrauch HW100S in .20 caliber but the choice of pellets is very limited in this caliber.
So if you ask me: look for a good .22 - more energy and much more smackin´ power. The trajectory will be just as flat as with a .177 and the pellets are almost as cheap as the .177s.
Another reasonably priced, accurate and powerful gun would be the Sumatra 2500 in .22 but I doubt that there would be any kind of support for Africa.
If you have enough money and are willing to spend it, I would choose the FX Impact because it can easily be finetuned in any imagineable way and it has interchangeable barrels in .177, .22, .25 and I believe even .30 cal. If you get all those barrels or, for example, just a .177 and .22, you basically have four (or two) different airgun calibers all in one gun and it is just a matter of adjusting the gun correctly to your chosen caliber. And FX has customer service almost all over Africa, as far as I know.
I would opt for the AirArms S410 TDR which is reasonably priced and superbly accurate and the rifle comes in a neat case. Ideal for your purposes. A magazine capacity of 10 pellets is more than enough for hunting and plinking purposes. And AirArms supports its customers - at least in South Africa.
But as you stated that you want to use the gun for hunting, I wouldn´t consider a .177 in the first place. These are limited in energy by their comparatively light pellets. For hunting, I would at least go with the .22. If you want a compromise, you might look at the Weihrauch HW100S in .20 caliber but the choice of pellets is very limited in this caliber.
So if you ask me: look for a good .22 - more energy and much more smackin´ power. The trajectory will be just as flat as with a .177 and the pellets are almost as cheap as the .177s.
Another reasonably priced, accurate and powerful gun would be the Sumatra 2500 in .22 but I doubt that there would be any kind of support for Africa.
If you have enough money and are willing to spend it, I would choose the FX Impact because it can easily be finetuned in any imagineable way and it has interchangeable barrels in .177, .22, .25 and I believe even .30 cal. If you get all those barrels or, for example, just a .177 and .22, you basically have four (or two) different airgun calibers all in one gun and it is just a matter of adjusting the gun correctly to your chosen caliber. And FX has customer service almost all over Africa, as far as I know.
Upvote 0
Thanks again for all the advice. The reason for a .177 is that it does not require a licence in Zimbabwe. I have a .22 rim fire and it is a painful process re-licencing it. I will be spending about $5000.00 on the gun including accessories, I have no preference on traditional or bulpup. The hunting is only for birds doves etc. I want a gun that is accurate, tired of air rifles that cant group at 20 yards let alone 50 yards, especially the old springers that I have shot over the last 40 years. I do like the Impact but will still consider the Royale 400. I am not in a rush as I have been doing research for about two years, lot of money to spend on an air rifle so it must be the correct choice. I will keep you posted on what I have chosen will be before the end of the year.
Upvote 0
Check out the KalibrGun Cricket. KalibrGun sells standard rifles and bullpups. Crickets use CZ barrels and are regulated. They are one of the easiest PCP's to work on and tune. Many you-tube videos showing how to repair/tune Crickets.
Upvote 0