This little chinese gun has many names... like SPA (Snow Peak Airguns) PR900W or mrod Varmint Airmax or Onix Initzia. In all cases, its the same gun with just another name.
Today, I received my SPA PR900W in .22 and I am beyond impressed. I mean... what would you expect from a 219 dollar PCP with a magazine? It features a nice Monte Carlo type beech stock with a cheek piece only on the left side but from the form of the stock I think a left handed person would have no problems shooting this gun. It even has a manometer on the underside of the gun. The checkering is done quite nicely but it is almost as if it wasn´t there as it is covered in thick clear laquer - more of an optic thing than really for grip. The machining isn´t bad. Not top notch but certainly way way beyond what you would expect from a super cheap Chinese gun. Impressive! The crowning was done perfectly so accuracy is not in danger because of a bad muzzle. The safety is in front of the trigger and thank god not automatic. A push from left to right - safe. A push from right to left - fire. Simple and effective - similar to AirArms.
The accessories that come with the gun are remarkable. Better than with most guns that cost twice or even three to four times as much. You get a 7 shot rotary magazine in .22 or a 9 shot magazine in .177 - it is worth to note that the magazine is large enough that even classic Predator Polymags fit in there but you have to loosen the screw a bit or they will sit too tight to rotate the magazine correctly! And the magazines are machined of aluminum - no plastic crap except for the "lid". Further you get a single shot tray, a spare air transfer port (one sub 12 fpe and one full power 25+ fpe - in Europe, in the US you seem to get only the high power one already installed in the gun) and a complete set of spare O-rings. The gun has a moderator with open sights attached to its barrel which is held in place by an allen screw below the barrel. Its not the quietest gun but is isn´t too loud, either. In sub 12 foot pound it is super backyard friendly and in 25+ foot pound it is bearable with about 75 decibels.
The gun shoots at around 550 fps in sub 12 foot pound and between about 700 - 860 fps in 25+ fpe with 15.89 gr JSB Jumbos. I haven´t had the opportunity to shoot long range yet but it was one hole at 25 yards after thoroughly cleaning the barrel so I would expect sub inch groups at 50 yards. Accuracy is not an issue with this gun - it seems to shoot just as good as any other PCP out there.
The gun is ultra light and weighs just about 5 pounds unscoped and it is more of a carbine with an overall length of 38.6 inches from stock end to muzzle. The outer diameter of the barrel is only 0.48". The stock is just 1.5" thick so it will fit every childs hand. I believe it is the lightest PCP I ever held in my hands. It is also very short and thin which makes it an ideal brush gun or a gun for kids. It almost looks and feels like a toy. The air reservoir holds just 100 cc (its just 22 mm or 0.87" in diameter - look at it in relation to the 30 mm scope tube!) but it will give you at least 25-30 good shots, about 4 magazines worth. Looking down the barrel it is flawless - hard to believe that it is Chinese made. It has a nice floating barrel with a barrel band to hold the rear sights (which probably need to be removed when you scope the rifle).
The trigger is not adjustable and made of aluminum (again... I´ve seen guns for triple the price with a plastic trigger!). It is a single stage trigger and has a bit of creep but it really is not that bad. Not a match trigger but a really good hunting trigger. You get used to it very fast and the slight amount of creep becomes predictable. It breaks at 3 1/4 pounds so it is more on the heavy side but still far from super heavy. The machined aluminum trigger has quite sharp edges but it feels comfortable and this can easily be helped with a Dremel or a piece of sand paper.
The 12 mm scope rail is a little bit of an issue as it is very short and limits your adjustments as far as scope positioning goes but I found a Raven 6-24x50 scope with a standard mildot reticle that does the job fine for me. I´ve had some misfeeds (not many and not terrible though) so overall, the magazine works well. You might need to put a drop of Loctite in the threads of the screw in the middle of the magazine so it will not come loose. I noticed that the misfeeds will not happen when the screw is positioned right. (EDIT: Now, after a few days and a few hundred pellets the magazine performs flawlessly - seems to really have been just the screw) The filling probe needs to be connected to a threaded quick fill adapter and it is a bit too long so you have to kinda position it in the port so that you don´t blow out the O-rings when filling. I saw that on some guns, it goes through the air reservoir and is held in place by the barrel - not on my gun. But this is just a minor issue and very easy to fix with a bit of tape or large O-rings that will hold it in position.
Overall for a PCP gun with a 7 shot rotary magazine and super accessories you really don´t find anything where you could make a serious complaint with regard to the 220 dollar price tag it simply is a great gun! Certainly... it has features like the filling probe and the short scope rail or the magazine screw where I would be seriously pissed off on a 1000 dollar gun - but hey... a accurate and great working gun for 220 bucks? Screw these minor annoyances...
Stripping the gun is super easy and when you see it taken apart you will realize that there is not much that could go wrong. It really is as simple as it can be. No unnecessary bells and whistles that will bite you one day. Beautifully engineered! Changing the transfer port is literally a 15 min issue. If you just want some backyard plinking and squirrel smoking in the middle of a town where you are worried about overpenetration and/or sound - just put in the backyard friendly sub 12 foot pound transfer port and you´re good to go - more than sufficient to kill a squirrel, rabbit or pigeon at 25 yards and with a good ol´ Polymag you don´t have to worry too much about overpenetration. It will probably still go through the critter but certainly not hundreds of yards beyond it. Wanna go out for some serious long range hunting? Put in the 25+ foot pound transfer port and you have energy to spare...
You need to empty the gun in order to take it apart. First, you have to unscrew the manometer (can be done with pliers), then take out the three screws on the bottom side that hold the stock in place. After that, unscrew the screw of the barrel band and just push the whole barrel band forward towards the muzzle. Then unscrew the allen screw at the very bottom end (towards the stock) of the gun and take out the spring and spring centering rod, then unscrew the allen screw in the breech and lift up the barrel from the air reservoir and here you are - the small 0.39" round brass thing with the hole in it between the breech and the air reservoir is the transfer port. Change the .125" to the 0.055" to make your rifle shoot at sub 12 fpe or the other way round to go over 25 fpe. If you are a skilled machinist, you can even make your own metal transfer ports on a lathe and tweak the gun to shoot at a specific velocity. Assemble in reverse direction and that´s all there is to it, very simple. Be careful not to lose the trigger stop (just a small bar behind the trigger) in the process. Mine was loose so you might want to take it out as soon as you lift the barrel off the stock and put it in when you´re about to drop it back in the stock.
There are no sling swivels or studs attached. Want a bipod? Buy some 20 buck bipod and 2 dollar studs on ebay, no problem. The stock is thick enough to securely hold a bipod stud.
My honest opinion - with this price tag and what you get for it you simply can´t go wrong. It is a great beginners PCP and a nice plinker and hunter for serious PCP freaks and probably the best entry level PCP for young kids. A PCP gun with a wooden stock, a good 12 groove barrel, fully adjustable open sights, 12 mm scope rail, a moderator, a manometer and 7 shot magazine for just over 200 bucks... Watch out, Benjamin! The Chinese are coming! lol
I can heartly recommend this gun to anyone. Bearing in mind what it costs and what you get for your hard earned money you will not be disappointed and you will probably even be very positively surprised.
Here is a 25 yard shot group (I pulled one shot, that was not the guns fault). The photo is actually tilted, so the pulled shot at the left went up in reality. Its in cm not inches lol.
Today, I received my SPA PR900W in .22 and I am beyond impressed. I mean... what would you expect from a 219 dollar PCP with a magazine? It features a nice Monte Carlo type beech stock with a cheek piece only on the left side but from the form of the stock I think a left handed person would have no problems shooting this gun. It even has a manometer on the underside of the gun. The checkering is done quite nicely but it is almost as if it wasn´t there as it is covered in thick clear laquer - more of an optic thing than really for grip. The machining isn´t bad. Not top notch but certainly way way beyond what you would expect from a super cheap Chinese gun. Impressive! The crowning was done perfectly so accuracy is not in danger because of a bad muzzle. The safety is in front of the trigger and thank god not automatic. A push from left to right - safe. A push from right to left - fire. Simple and effective - similar to AirArms.
The accessories that come with the gun are remarkable. Better than with most guns that cost twice or even three to four times as much. You get a 7 shot rotary magazine in .22 or a 9 shot magazine in .177 - it is worth to note that the magazine is large enough that even classic Predator Polymags fit in there but you have to loosen the screw a bit or they will sit too tight to rotate the magazine correctly! And the magazines are machined of aluminum - no plastic crap except for the "lid". Further you get a single shot tray, a spare air transfer port (one sub 12 fpe and one full power 25+ fpe - in Europe, in the US you seem to get only the high power one already installed in the gun) and a complete set of spare O-rings. The gun has a moderator with open sights attached to its barrel which is held in place by an allen screw below the barrel. Its not the quietest gun but is isn´t too loud, either. In sub 12 foot pound it is super backyard friendly and in 25+ foot pound it is bearable with about 75 decibels.
The gun shoots at around 550 fps in sub 12 foot pound and between about 700 - 860 fps in 25+ fpe with 15.89 gr JSB Jumbos. I haven´t had the opportunity to shoot long range yet but it was one hole at 25 yards after thoroughly cleaning the barrel so I would expect sub inch groups at 50 yards. Accuracy is not an issue with this gun - it seems to shoot just as good as any other PCP out there.
The gun is ultra light and weighs just about 5 pounds unscoped and it is more of a carbine with an overall length of 38.6 inches from stock end to muzzle. The outer diameter of the barrel is only 0.48". The stock is just 1.5" thick so it will fit every childs hand. I believe it is the lightest PCP I ever held in my hands. It is also very short and thin which makes it an ideal brush gun or a gun for kids. It almost looks and feels like a toy. The air reservoir holds just 100 cc (its just 22 mm or 0.87" in diameter - look at it in relation to the 30 mm scope tube!) but it will give you at least 25-30 good shots, about 4 magazines worth. Looking down the barrel it is flawless - hard to believe that it is Chinese made. It has a nice floating barrel with a barrel band to hold the rear sights (which probably need to be removed when you scope the rifle).
The trigger is not adjustable and made of aluminum (again... I´ve seen guns for triple the price with a plastic trigger!). It is a single stage trigger and has a bit of creep but it really is not that bad. Not a match trigger but a really good hunting trigger. You get used to it very fast and the slight amount of creep becomes predictable. It breaks at 3 1/4 pounds so it is more on the heavy side but still far from super heavy. The machined aluminum trigger has quite sharp edges but it feels comfortable and this can easily be helped with a Dremel or a piece of sand paper.
The 12 mm scope rail is a little bit of an issue as it is very short and limits your adjustments as far as scope positioning goes but I found a Raven 6-24x50 scope with a standard mildot reticle that does the job fine for me. I´ve had some misfeeds (not many and not terrible though) so overall, the magazine works well. You might need to put a drop of Loctite in the threads of the screw in the middle of the magazine so it will not come loose. I noticed that the misfeeds will not happen when the screw is positioned right. (EDIT: Now, after a few days and a few hundred pellets the magazine performs flawlessly - seems to really have been just the screw) The filling probe needs to be connected to a threaded quick fill adapter and it is a bit too long so you have to kinda position it in the port so that you don´t blow out the O-rings when filling. I saw that on some guns, it goes through the air reservoir and is held in place by the barrel - not on my gun. But this is just a minor issue and very easy to fix with a bit of tape or large O-rings that will hold it in position.
Overall for a PCP gun with a 7 shot rotary magazine and super accessories you really don´t find anything where you could make a serious complaint with regard to the 220 dollar price tag it simply is a great gun! Certainly... it has features like the filling probe and the short scope rail or the magazine screw where I would be seriously pissed off on a 1000 dollar gun - but hey... a accurate and great working gun for 220 bucks? Screw these minor annoyances...
Stripping the gun is super easy and when you see it taken apart you will realize that there is not much that could go wrong. It really is as simple as it can be. No unnecessary bells and whistles that will bite you one day. Beautifully engineered! Changing the transfer port is literally a 15 min issue. If you just want some backyard plinking and squirrel smoking in the middle of a town where you are worried about overpenetration and/or sound - just put in the backyard friendly sub 12 foot pound transfer port and you´re good to go - more than sufficient to kill a squirrel, rabbit or pigeon at 25 yards and with a good ol´ Polymag you don´t have to worry too much about overpenetration. It will probably still go through the critter but certainly not hundreds of yards beyond it. Wanna go out for some serious long range hunting? Put in the 25+ foot pound transfer port and you have energy to spare...
You need to empty the gun in order to take it apart. First, you have to unscrew the manometer (can be done with pliers), then take out the three screws on the bottom side that hold the stock in place. After that, unscrew the screw of the barrel band and just push the whole barrel band forward towards the muzzle. Then unscrew the allen screw at the very bottom end (towards the stock) of the gun and take out the spring and spring centering rod, then unscrew the allen screw in the breech and lift up the barrel from the air reservoir and here you are - the small 0.39" round brass thing with the hole in it between the breech and the air reservoir is the transfer port. Change the .125" to the 0.055" to make your rifle shoot at sub 12 fpe or the other way round to go over 25 fpe. If you are a skilled machinist, you can even make your own metal transfer ports on a lathe and tweak the gun to shoot at a specific velocity. Assemble in reverse direction and that´s all there is to it, very simple. Be careful not to lose the trigger stop (just a small bar behind the trigger) in the process. Mine was loose so you might want to take it out as soon as you lift the barrel off the stock and put it in when you´re about to drop it back in the stock.
There are no sling swivels or studs attached. Want a bipod? Buy some 20 buck bipod and 2 dollar studs on ebay, no problem. The stock is thick enough to securely hold a bipod stud.
My honest opinion - with this price tag and what you get for it you simply can´t go wrong. It is a great beginners PCP and a nice plinker and hunter for serious PCP freaks and probably the best entry level PCP for young kids. A PCP gun with a wooden stock, a good 12 groove barrel, fully adjustable open sights, 12 mm scope rail, a moderator, a manometer and 7 shot magazine for just over 200 bucks... Watch out, Benjamin! The Chinese are coming! lol
I can heartly recommend this gun to anyone. Bearing in mind what it costs and what you get for your hard earned money you will not be disappointed and you will probably even be very positively surprised.
Here is a 25 yard shot group (I pulled one shot, that was not the guns fault). The photo is actually tilted, so the pulled shot at the left went up in reality. Its in cm not inches lol.
