The next gun going through the review process: Brocock Concept Lite XR in .177.
I’d like to thank Airguns of Arizona for supplying the guns and letting me hang onto them long enough to do thorough reviews. In previous reviews, AOA has primarily supplied the gun, with the exception of some pellets and slugs for the Red Wolf review. This one is going to be different.
The entire AOA package:
You’re looking at a Concept Lite XR in .177, with a 0DB moderator, and a MTC Optics Viper Pro Tactical 5-30x50.
Current price on the AOA website is $1299.99 for the gun without the pictured accessories.
This complete AOA-supplied, package-deal experience will be covered in-depth in the coming weeks but here are some of my first impressions and what I know about the gun so far.
(As mentioned in my previous reviews, AOA does not pay for my thoughts or time spent working with their guns. What you read here is my unfiltered opinion. There is no review or approval process before any of my comments are posted on the forums. Other than AOA supplying the guns, and the scope and moderator in this instance, these reviews are independent from any financially-inspired embellishments. What I think about a product is what you will read.)
Manual
The paperwork that came with this gun and scope are excellent. Nice thick paper with glossy, highly detailed images. Lots of good info though, and this review started with a thorough read of the manuals.
My favorite images:
(Gotta love schematics)
General
I’ve had the gun a week and have shot it a little with a 4x scope, initial chrono testing type stuff. Have not done any qualitative accuracy assessment yet though.
My impression when I first handled the gun was that it is small, light, compact, and very solidly built. Literally built like a brick, just a SOLID gun. It has a billet piece of aluminum making up the frame. Which is probably where the light but solid impression is coming from. The frame/chassis makes me think of those chassis only pickup truck options where the structural steel frame of the vehicle can be seen prior to placing an aftermarket flatbed or toolbox bed onto the truck. It also is pretty similar to the chassis that RAW came out with not too long ago. The Concept predates the RAW version. In keeping with the “black gun” AR aesthetic and theme, I guess the proper term for this billet chassis would be the lower receiver. When the size of the gun is taken into account, the billet lower receiver is substantial, making up a large percentage of the overall bulk of the gun (albeit diminutive “bulk”). Having the main component holding the gun together built from a solid piece of aluminum has got to help with rigidity, consistency, durability, longevity, etc.
(The trend of the airgun industry moving towards AR styled guns is somewhat controversial, and I’ve seen the arguments both ways. The opinion of the tacticool pervasion into airgunning seems quite polarized. Some hate it. Some love it. For myself, my yea or nay is about intended use and fringe benefits. I can appreciate a nice walnut stock, and really enjoy laminate stocks, but I’m mostly interested in performance, and just cuz a gun has a straightish 1911-type grip and is made from steel/aluminum doesn’t mean it won’t outshoot some classy eye-candy high grade walnut stocked gun with curves in all the right places. Some even call the AR style ugly, but beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. I personally own two airguns that fall into this “black gun” description. They are both very accurate and can be made to fit the shooter quite nicely. They are beautiful in their performance. It’s kinda like the Redwing boots I started wearing to work a few years ago. I have to do “business casual” for work, basically slacks and a button down, collared shirt. I’d been wearing dress shoes/loafers for a while, with pain in my feet. Grandfather was a carpenter standing on cement slabs all day and my dad said grandpa swore by Redwing boots with the white crepe soles. Bought a pair and love them, have had them resoled. They’re a little more rugged looking than the dress shoes, but offer a much improved performance level for what I’m most concerned with, foot pain. Same concept for me with these AR styled airguns, they may look a little rougher, but offer different benefits than being aesthetically pleasing. Then there’s the modular nature of this type of guns; butt stocks, front picatinny rails, and grips are all usually interchangeable if the owner desires something a little different. I’ve found that the AR styled guns can be made to fit better than they look like they should.)
Weight/size
The Concept Lite XR is advertised as weighing 6.5lbs and this particular scope weighs 30.65oz for a total weight of a little under 8.5lbs. I imagine with the moderator and the scope side wheel and lens covers, I’m in the 9lb area. This is a bigger scope than most would probably put on this little gun, but I plan on shooting it for field target and need the magnification. The package doesn’t feel heavy or cumbersome, even over-scoped.
Air tube
The air tube has a gloss finish, while the rest of the gun is matte. Fill pressure = 250 bar and air tube volume = 180cc (lots of shots for small tube, stay with me for the continued review and you'll see what I mean).
There is also some gummy residue on the face of the manometer that I need to get off with some alcohol. (Guessing that’s simply from the clear protective plastic most gauges come with). The gauge matches my fill station and has 10 bar increments so it’s easier to read than many dumbed-down gauges I’ve seen that lack sufficient graduations to know with certainty what the pressure is.
Butt stock
The butt stock is adjustable for length of pull. At its most compact, with the 0DB moderator in place, the overall length of the gun is 38.5inches. This particular moderator is 6.5inches long, so we’re talking about a gun that is only 32inches long without a moderator. Most non-bullpup guns are 38.5 or more inches BEFORE the moderator is added. With the buttstock at its longest LOP, the guns overall length is 41.75inches, including moderator. The LOP with the buttstock completely reduced is 13.25inches. With it fully extended, LOP measures 16.5inches (way too long for my 5’10” frame). I’m liking it with a 14in LOP and overall length of 39.25inches. Again, that sub 40inches is WITH moderator. Short little gun.
The butt stock adjustment feels solid too. I expected it to have some wiggle but it doesn’t. Neither does it feel cheap or possibly short-lived.
Breech
It has a funky riser breech. When first inspecting the gun I thought it came missing the other section of riser, behind the loading portion of the breech. We were actually digging through the packaging to find the rest of the riser when a friend pointed out on the manual cover that it’s supposed to be this way. I didn’t understand this feature until I mounted up the scope. For the correct eye relief, the scope needs to be forward of where I thought I was missing a sections of breech riser. It’s actually nice because it offers easier access to the pellet loading area. Would like to see picatinny rails for the scope mounting of a gun with this design too (it is dovetail).
Here’s the riser
Side lever cocking
The cocking effort is pretty small, surprisingly small actually. I’ve got a little Benjamin Discovery that I cut down for my son to shoot. It’s a bear to cock and I have to do it for him most of the time with that gun. So my first thought was that he’d be able to easily cock this Concept, and that he can.
I actually bought a trigger gauge just a few days ago, and used it to measure cocking effort. 5 shot average cocking effort for the Concept, as measured by Lyman digital trigger gauge = 7lbs 7.2ounces.
Was curious to see if that cocking effort was different for each power levels so repeated it with the other two. Same effort for all three levels. So it would appear that the power is reduced through a restriction in the transfer port instead of a reduction in hammer spring (makes sense considering where the power wheel is located). For comparison, my Taipan Veteran cocking effort requires 6lb, 9 ounces in its current 20fpe configuration. Nice, easy, smooth cocking with the side lever for the Concept.
Trigger
I was completely underwhelmed by the Concept trigger. It is two-stage but feels REALLY heavy to get it to break and doesn’t break that cleanly. This niggle was my main reason for buying the trigger pull gauge mentioned above. So, I first measured the trigger pulls on the three guns that I own that I shoot the most; 0lb 3.9oz on one, 0lb 6oz on another, and 0lb 5.6oz on the third. So all three less than 6oz. And after just coming off the review with the Red Wolf, I guess I’ve painted myself into the corner of trigger snob. I surprised myself with coming to that realization as I’ve always felt like I could make just about any trigger work. So, what did that Concept trigger come out to? Well, 10 shot average for Concept trigger weight = 2lb 5.5oz.
I’ll be using the directions in that manual to lighten this trigger up at some point. After all that trigger bad-mouthing…..with the 4x scope testing, I was able to poke holes where I wanted easier than I thought I’d be able to. Will be interesting to see how much I can improve it. (I realize that a light trigger is not necessarily a good trigger, if I can get it a little lighter but a lot crisper on the second stage break, I’ll feel pretty good about it)
Power adjust
Somewhere I thought I read that the Concept Lite had 4 power levels but I’m only finding three (multi model manual says 2-5 power levels, depending on model). There is a nice firm click at each detent but I’m only feeling bottomed-out one way, click in the middle, and then bottomed-out the other direction. I can usually count to 3 okay and that is as high as I’m getting for the different power levels.
Have only tested with JSB 10.34 so far but
High = about 925fps for 19.6fpe
Medium = about 880-890fps for about 18fpe
Low = about 680-690 for about 11fpe
I like that power output breakdown. High for flat, long range (relative to .177) if the pellets like that speed. Medium for the sometimes reported more optimal fps range of JSB 10.34. Low for backyard pest bird or barn/house duty with reduced risk of poking holes in barn roofs/fences/etc. Both High and Medium are high enough powered to be useful for FT, but neither are over the limit. It becomes a “shoot at the more accurate power level” scenario, without compromising and giving up much flatness of trajectory.
Mounts
AOA set me up with a new set of Sportsmatch high, 30mm rings. This will be my first experience with this brand. Install went straightforward, but that’s just the nature of scope mounts. Found these guidelines from Sporstmatch on their website and went with it.
Scope
First impressions of the MTC scope……..Should be interesting. I’ve not researched the MTC brand at all, or even looked through one yet in daylight (package with scope got here late last night). 30mm tube, weight mentioned previously. 16.42” long but I added a roughly two inch sunshade so bout 18.5inches long. Second focal plane. Focus down to 10meters. 1/4moa clicks. Resettable turrets that have a neat mechanism (the turret marks are on a band like a wedding ring, unlock the turrets, spin the wedding band for zero to be where you want it, lock it back down). Paperwork says mil reticle is true mil at 10x so it appears to be a mismatched mil/moa configuration. Illuminated reticle, but only the center section. The scope caps thread in (vs tension fit slip-on like I’m used to), which is nice. I was curious how it’d work if the threads got tight with the flip up cap portion cockeyed but it’s not a problem as they have a lockable ring that can allow “tight” to be moved to correctly orient the flip up.
Reticle is a modified Christmas tree type, and pretty thin.
AOA included a sunshade and small side wheel. I like how the side wheel attaches (three set screws and pretty stout feel). But it’s pretty small in diameter for FT (3 inches I think). If the factory printed distances are anywhere near accurate, 10 to 15 yards is nearly half the diameter of the circle, that’s a good thing.
Not a typical field target scope. I’ve not shot a match with a scope that had an illuminated reticle but have come across a few really dark lanes where I thought it would have been nice. So that will be cool to try out. It’ll also be interesting to see how it ranges for distance by focus determination, whether or not the turrets are repeatable enough to be a clicker, if temp shift is a problem, etc. Basically all of the demands FT shooters place on their scopes. The results of all of that will be reported.
Moderator
Also my first experience with a 0db moderator. Feels like a quality unit, has a little heft to it, more than the Huggett. When I saw that it is red I groaned a little as I didn’t think it would even sort of match. Once I got it on the gun I thought to myself, “hey now, that looks pretty sharp.” It’s kinda like the accent wall your wife talked you into painting a very different color than the rest of the walls. It sounded like a really bad idea and you thought you’d hate it, but once it was all done it looks pretty good in a spice-things-up sorta way. I’ll report on what I think about its efficiency in the hushing department (the only reason to even put one on a gun).
Plans
Currently hoping to have time in the next few weeks for lots of accuracy testing and working up the scope and gun for a field target match on the second weekend in July. Although he often accompanies me to summer matches for the camping, my 6 year old kiddo has not ever shot in a formal match. I’m really hoping that we can spend some time together shooting this gun, practicing and figuring it out so that we can both shoot it at that July match. It’ll be his first match and I’ve got high hopes for it. It’s a good size and weight for him, cocks with minimal effort, and the ease of increasing/decreasing the length of pull with that adjustable buttstock will make it just about perfect for us to shoot the same gun together at a match. However it turns out, should be fun. And I’ll do continued reporting on what I learn and find out about the gun.
(I already have a complete chrono string with it on HIGH with JSB 10.34, that’ll probably be the next report…pretty consistent and lots of shots for a 180cc tube).
I’d like to thank Airguns of Arizona for supplying the guns and letting me hang onto them long enough to do thorough reviews. In previous reviews, AOA has primarily supplied the gun, with the exception of some pellets and slugs for the Red Wolf review. This one is going to be different.
The entire AOA package:
You’re looking at a Concept Lite XR in .177, with a 0DB moderator, and a MTC Optics Viper Pro Tactical 5-30x50.
Current price on the AOA website is $1299.99 for the gun without the pictured accessories.
This complete AOA-supplied, package-deal experience will be covered in-depth in the coming weeks but here are some of my first impressions and what I know about the gun so far.
(As mentioned in my previous reviews, AOA does not pay for my thoughts or time spent working with their guns. What you read here is my unfiltered opinion. There is no review or approval process before any of my comments are posted on the forums. Other than AOA supplying the guns, and the scope and moderator in this instance, these reviews are independent from any financially-inspired embellishments. What I think about a product is what you will read.)
Manual
The paperwork that came with this gun and scope are excellent. Nice thick paper with glossy, highly detailed images. Lots of good info though, and this review started with a thorough read of the manuals.
My favorite images:
(Gotta love schematics)
General
I’ve had the gun a week and have shot it a little with a 4x scope, initial chrono testing type stuff. Have not done any qualitative accuracy assessment yet though.
My impression when I first handled the gun was that it is small, light, compact, and very solidly built. Literally built like a brick, just a SOLID gun. It has a billet piece of aluminum making up the frame. Which is probably where the light but solid impression is coming from. The frame/chassis makes me think of those chassis only pickup truck options where the structural steel frame of the vehicle can be seen prior to placing an aftermarket flatbed or toolbox bed onto the truck. It also is pretty similar to the chassis that RAW came out with not too long ago. The Concept predates the RAW version. In keeping with the “black gun” AR aesthetic and theme, I guess the proper term for this billet chassis would be the lower receiver. When the size of the gun is taken into account, the billet lower receiver is substantial, making up a large percentage of the overall bulk of the gun (albeit diminutive “bulk”). Having the main component holding the gun together built from a solid piece of aluminum has got to help with rigidity, consistency, durability, longevity, etc.
(The trend of the airgun industry moving towards AR styled guns is somewhat controversial, and I’ve seen the arguments both ways. The opinion of the tacticool pervasion into airgunning seems quite polarized. Some hate it. Some love it. For myself, my yea or nay is about intended use and fringe benefits. I can appreciate a nice walnut stock, and really enjoy laminate stocks, but I’m mostly interested in performance, and just cuz a gun has a straightish 1911-type grip and is made from steel/aluminum doesn’t mean it won’t outshoot some classy eye-candy high grade walnut stocked gun with curves in all the right places. Some even call the AR style ugly, but beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. I personally own two airguns that fall into this “black gun” description. They are both very accurate and can be made to fit the shooter quite nicely. They are beautiful in their performance. It’s kinda like the Redwing boots I started wearing to work a few years ago. I have to do “business casual” for work, basically slacks and a button down, collared shirt. I’d been wearing dress shoes/loafers for a while, with pain in my feet. Grandfather was a carpenter standing on cement slabs all day and my dad said grandpa swore by Redwing boots with the white crepe soles. Bought a pair and love them, have had them resoled. They’re a little more rugged looking than the dress shoes, but offer a much improved performance level for what I’m most concerned with, foot pain. Same concept for me with these AR styled airguns, they may look a little rougher, but offer different benefits than being aesthetically pleasing. Then there’s the modular nature of this type of guns; butt stocks, front picatinny rails, and grips are all usually interchangeable if the owner desires something a little different. I’ve found that the AR styled guns can be made to fit better than they look like they should.)
Weight/size
The Concept Lite XR is advertised as weighing 6.5lbs and this particular scope weighs 30.65oz for a total weight of a little under 8.5lbs. I imagine with the moderator and the scope side wheel and lens covers, I’m in the 9lb area. This is a bigger scope than most would probably put on this little gun, but I plan on shooting it for field target and need the magnification. The package doesn’t feel heavy or cumbersome, even over-scoped.
Air tube
The air tube has a gloss finish, while the rest of the gun is matte. Fill pressure = 250 bar and air tube volume = 180cc (lots of shots for small tube, stay with me for the continued review and you'll see what I mean).
There is also some gummy residue on the face of the manometer that I need to get off with some alcohol. (Guessing that’s simply from the clear protective plastic most gauges come with). The gauge matches my fill station and has 10 bar increments so it’s easier to read than many dumbed-down gauges I’ve seen that lack sufficient graduations to know with certainty what the pressure is.
Butt stock
The butt stock is adjustable for length of pull. At its most compact, with the 0DB moderator in place, the overall length of the gun is 38.5inches. This particular moderator is 6.5inches long, so we’re talking about a gun that is only 32inches long without a moderator. Most non-bullpup guns are 38.5 or more inches BEFORE the moderator is added. With the buttstock at its longest LOP, the guns overall length is 41.75inches, including moderator. The LOP with the buttstock completely reduced is 13.25inches. With it fully extended, LOP measures 16.5inches (way too long for my 5’10” frame). I’m liking it with a 14in LOP and overall length of 39.25inches. Again, that sub 40inches is WITH moderator. Short little gun.
The butt stock adjustment feels solid too. I expected it to have some wiggle but it doesn’t. Neither does it feel cheap or possibly short-lived.
Breech
It has a funky riser breech. When first inspecting the gun I thought it came missing the other section of riser, behind the loading portion of the breech. We were actually digging through the packaging to find the rest of the riser when a friend pointed out on the manual cover that it’s supposed to be this way. I didn’t understand this feature until I mounted up the scope. For the correct eye relief, the scope needs to be forward of where I thought I was missing a sections of breech riser. It’s actually nice because it offers easier access to the pellet loading area. Would like to see picatinny rails for the scope mounting of a gun with this design too (it is dovetail).
Here’s the riser
Side lever cocking
The cocking effort is pretty small, surprisingly small actually. I’ve got a little Benjamin Discovery that I cut down for my son to shoot. It’s a bear to cock and I have to do it for him most of the time with that gun. So my first thought was that he’d be able to easily cock this Concept, and that he can.
I actually bought a trigger gauge just a few days ago, and used it to measure cocking effort. 5 shot average cocking effort for the Concept, as measured by Lyman digital trigger gauge = 7lbs 7.2ounces.
Was curious to see if that cocking effort was different for each power levels so repeated it with the other two. Same effort for all three levels. So it would appear that the power is reduced through a restriction in the transfer port instead of a reduction in hammer spring (makes sense considering where the power wheel is located). For comparison, my Taipan Veteran cocking effort requires 6lb, 9 ounces in its current 20fpe configuration. Nice, easy, smooth cocking with the side lever for the Concept.
Trigger
I was completely underwhelmed by the Concept trigger. It is two-stage but feels REALLY heavy to get it to break and doesn’t break that cleanly. This niggle was my main reason for buying the trigger pull gauge mentioned above. So, I first measured the trigger pulls on the three guns that I own that I shoot the most; 0lb 3.9oz on one, 0lb 6oz on another, and 0lb 5.6oz on the third. So all three less than 6oz. And after just coming off the review with the Red Wolf, I guess I’ve painted myself into the corner of trigger snob. I surprised myself with coming to that realization as I’ve always felt like I could make just about any trigger work. So, what did that Concept trigger come out to? Well, 10 shot average for Concept trigger weight = 2lb 5.5oz.
I’ll be using the directions in that manual to lighten this trigger up at some point. After all that trigger bad-mouthing…..with the 4x scope testing, I was able to poke holes where I wanted easier than I thought I’d be able to. Will be interesting to see how much I can improve it. (I realize that a light trigger is not necessarily a good trigger, if I can get it a little lighter but a lot crisper on the second stage break, I’ll feel pretty good about it)
Power adjust
Somewhere I thought I read that the Concept Lite had 4 power levels but I’m only finding three (multi model manual says 2-5 power levels, depending on model). There is a nice firm click at each detent but I’m only feeling bottomed-out one way, click in the middle, and then bottomed-out the other direction. I can usually count to 3 okay and that is as high as I’m getting for the different power levels.
Have only tested with JSB 10.34 so far but
High = about 925fps for 19.6fpe
Medium = about 880-890fps for about 18fpe
Low = about 680-690 for about 11fpe
I like that power output breakdown. High for flat, long range (relative to .177) if the pellets like that speed. Medium for the sometimes reported more optimal fps range of JSB 10.34. Low for backyard pest bird or barn/house duty with reduced risk of poking holes in barn roofs/fences/etc. Both High and Medium are high enough powered to be useful for FT, but neither are over the limit. It becomes a “shoot at the more accurate power level” scenario, without compromising and giving up much flatness of trajectory.
Mounts
AOA set me up with a new set of Sportsmatch high, 30mm rings. This will be my first experience with this brand. Install went straightforward, but that’s just the nature of scope mounts. Found these guidelines from Sporstmatch on their website and went with it.
Scope
First impressions of the MTC scope……..Should be interesting. I’ve not researched the MTC brand at all, or even looked through one yet in daylight (package with scope got here late last night). 30mm tube, weight mentioned previously. 16.42” long but I added a roughly two inch sunshade so bout 18.5inches long. Second focal plane. Focus down to 10meters. 1/4moa clicks. Resettable turrets that have a neat mechanism (the turret marks are on a band like a wedding ring, unlock the turrets, spin the wedding band for zero to be where you want it, lock it back down). Paperwork says mil reticle is true mil at 10x so it appears to be a mismatched mil/moa configuration. Illuminated reticle, but only the center section. The scope caps thread in (vs tension fit slip-on like I’m used to), which is nice. I was curious how it’d work if the threads got tight with the flip up cap portion cockeyed but it’s not a problem as they have a lockable ring that can allow “tight” to be moved to correctly orient the flip up.
Reticle is a modified Christmas tree type, and pretty thin.
AOA included a sunshade and small side wheel. I like how the side wheel attaches (three set screws and pretty stout feel). But it’s pretty small in diameter for FT (3 inches I think). If the factory printed distances are anywhere near accurate, 10 to 15 yards is nearly half the diameter of the circle, that’s a good thing.
Not a typical field target scope. I’ve not shot a match with a scope that had an illuminated reticle but have come across a few really dark lanes where I thought it would have been nice. So that will be cool to try out. It’ll also be interesting to see how it ranges for distance by focus determination, whether or not the turrets are repeatable enough to be a clicker, if temp shift is a problem, etc. Basically all of the demands FT shooters place on their scopes. The results of all of that will be reported.
Moderator
Also my first experience with a 0db moderator. Feels like a quality unit, has a little heft to it, more than the Huggett. When I saw that it is red I groaned a little as I didn’t think it would even sort of match. Once I got it on the gun I thought to myself, “hey now, that looks pretty sharp.” It’s kinda like the accent wall your wife talked you into painting a very different color than the rest of the walls. It sounded like a really bad idea and you thought you’d hate it, but once it was all done it looks pretty good in a spice-things-up sorta way. I’ll report on what I think about its efficiency in the hushing department (the only reason to even put one on a gun).
Plans
Currently hoping to have time in the next few weeks for lots of accuracy testing and working up the scope and gun for a field target match on the second weekend in July. Although he often accompanies me to summer matches for the camping, my 6 year old kiddo has not ever shot in a formal match. I’m really hoping that we can spend some time together shooting this gun, practicing and figuring it out so that we can both shoot it at that July match. It’ll be his first match and I’ve got high hopes for it. It’s a good size and weight for him, cocks with minimal effort, and the ease of increasing/decreasing the length of pull with that adjustable buttstock will make it just about perfect for us to shoot the same gun together at a match. However it turns out, should be fun. And I’ll do continued reporting on what I learn and find out about the gun.
(I already have a complete chrono string with it on HIGH with JSB 10.34, that’ll probably be the next report…pretty consistent and lots of shots for a 180cc tube).
.