AEA reports

The description is a little terse, so I'm not really sure of the questions but I'll give a shot -

Gun for me, regardless of price - Reproduction - useable Girandoni or something similar.

At a price I can really stretch for, accurate to 100 yards with pellets and lots longer with Slugs, Impact with the 600mm barrel, and another one with a 500mm barrel. Probably .22 caliber.

Why .22? so many people shoot it, the variety of ammunition available is tremendous. Slug choices seem to come to .22 first. Might be the South African caliber limit or just so many people shoot it. I don't know, but lots of choices. Also, it's a cheaper ammunition by 1/3 in the JSB lineup. Impact tuned for slugs has plenty of power, approaching a 22LR. Just a good all around airgun caliber.

How close was that?

Good gun for the price but not for me. No adjustment at all, difficulty adding moderator and loud mechanically make it not ideal for my use. I had AEA HP semi auto, great fun aa a semi auto plinker though.

I own the .357 terminator. For the price(I paid $950) it’s a great gun. Plenty accurate for medium sized game. Haven’t stretched it to 100 yet but at 50 I’m able to get 3/4”-1”. I’m sure I could get the groups smaller if I smoothen the trigger a bit (trigger is heavy). Customer service has been excellent dealing with Bin. There are a few different companies selling them but I only have experience with Bin. He’s quick to respond and has parts available. Build quality isn’t as good as my huben BUT the price is significantly lower and there’s nothing like it on the market at that price. .357, semi auto for a thousand bucks. 


*I got mine discounted because it was an older model with some brass parts that I had to upgrade to steel parts, which were supplied for free by Bin. The new ones have the upgraded parts and retail for $1100 which is still a decent price for what the gun is.

I've owned 2, the Challenger in .30 and the Backpacker self-auto in .22. I like the Challenger! It's very accurate with JSB 44.75 and 50.15 grain pellets, and after a little trigger work is a great hunting rifle. I didn't much care the the Backpacker. It was an early version and did not automatically cycle if filled over 2500-2600 psi, even though it would hold 3400 psi. The trigger was much heavier than the Challenger, which hurt accuracy when trying to do quick follow-up shots. Otherwise, it was accurate and light weight, just not for me. So, from my perspective, AEA makes some nice air guns, it just depends on what you are looking to get from them. I felt if the semi-auto had been regulated to around 2300-2400 psi, so it would function properly from a full 3400 psi fill, the trigger would have been tolerable, but manually racking the action for every shot until you were within the range where it would cycle as it should, or never giving it a full charge (at the sacrifice of shot count) was more than I wanted to mess with. Maybe the new model has addressed this issue and works (cycles semi-automatically) at a full fill now, and if so, then it might be worth considering.

Just picked up this in .30 cal, thus far its done nothing but impress me.

It's everything I want in a compact package, semi cycles as its designed to, and decent barrel from what I can tell, very good crown.

Sighted in scope and will be doing more testing in the next couple days.

I've been waiting to post the very report you're asking for until my testing is more complete Key Man, but I wrapped it up in response to your request. However since it deserves a thread all its own, here's the link to the post answering your questions-

https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/30-caliber-32-barrel-41-overall-moa-at-100-yards/

I have a Challenger 357 and an HP SS 30+

Let's get the problems out of the way first.

The HP SS 30+ has had occasional jams. I'm working these issues out and it seems to be a combo of adjusting the magazine right, lubricating the gun well, and *only* using JSB or FX pellets. Putting weird ammo in these mags is asking for trouble.

The Challenger recently blew an o ring out of the breach but that was very easy to put back in with a pair of chopsticks. I was told by Pete at AEA Northeast that sometimes shooting slugs can dry it out or cause that to happen. So I gave it some silicone grease and will continue to keep it lubed now that I know that can happen.

Now my general impressions of these guns.

The HP SS 30+ I put a red dot with no zoom. Put a DonnyFL FX on it too which made it pretty indoor friendly with neighbors downstairs. I didn't buy it to shoot long range, more of a fun toy for back yard and indoors. It packs a punch and, aside from the issues I mentioned above, cycles fast and always hits the red dot right on the nose. You can get 4 magazines (9 shots each) before you really need to refill. I'd say if using for defense or something refill after 2 magazines for peak power. That's pretty great for a little semi tac. You asked about the price. So obviously an FX Dream-tact is better in every way, and more powerful (75 FPE on the FX vs about 47 FPE on the AEA). But that's $1300 vs $600. And if you wanted to match that power you could get an AEA Backpacker or longer barrel SS for still way cheaper. It all depends how much you want to spend. From what I can see from shooting the SS 30+ this will certainly get the job done unless you bought it for the wrong reason like long range hunting of larger game.

The Challenger 357 is sick. Has an Athlon 6-18 x 44 IR scope on it now. I've tricked it out with some Bison Workshop accessories and have a ton of different slugs. All the slugs I have were recommended for this gun so it shoots right where it's aimed. Supposedly 130ish grain slugs will do 230 FPE. I don't have a chrono to test but I trust the reviews I've seen. I don't think this gun even has any competition for the price until you look at a Benjamin Bulldog which is still several hundreds more expensive. Worth it for the price? No contest.

Last thing.

I've dealt with Pete at AEA Northeast & briefly met Bin as well. I've bugged Pete with so many emails & questions... they are 100% focused on customer service and standing behind what they sell. It's good to know if there's any issues you can be confident about the resolution. I hear Zach in Georgia is just as good.

Better with pictures right?

I just lubed the s**t out of the HP SS 30 and broke it in good. Shot 3 mags JSB zero issues. I really do recommend both these guns. Long term, who knows.

i have the .357 SL model.

its a power house and very accurate at my max hunting distance for deer and hogs at 50yrds.

i have a few bison goodies on it as i removed the useless shroud.

also, i like the proslug 109gr mag compliant slug's accuracy and cycling thru the mag.

plus its a RNFP, just what i like. i searching for a mold for this but no luck yet.

i can have one made to produce this slug but its costly. so i bought 300 of the 109gr and that

should get me by for a good while hunting.

when plinking, i use jsb and vortex pellets with just about the same POI.

oh, i bought it used and i think i have got my money's worth enjoying it !!

try one keyman, you might like it !!



50yrd group with the 109gr slugs.

i have the .357 SL model.

Click to expand...

Wow our wood stocks look like from completely different kinds of trees. I do like that your wood burl is right where the grip is.

I have a .30 challenger bullpup with a 32" barrel and for the 375$ I paid I'm am really happy with it. The trigger is stiff and it loud even with a ronin on it but it shoots where it's supposed to. 

I have the AEA HPBP .25 cal. The pros are as follows:

• Accurate
• Compact
• Sexy

I have experienced a few mag feed issues, but it was hard to determine what caused them. I did end up with a bad jam that I had to send back for service, and it was unclogged and works like new. The thing that I dislike about the gun is the very stiff trigger. If I shoot it for an extended period of time, I can get by with it. But once I shoot another one of my guns, I just can't stand the trigger on the AEA.

It is for this reason that I have placed this unit up for sale.

Better with pictures right?

I just lubed the s**t out of the HP SS 30 and broke it in good. Shot 3 mags JSB zero issues. I really do recommend both these guns. Long term, who knows.

Click to expand...

AaAnd... two months later .30 SS still going strong?

I think AEA has a bright future

I had a aea custom standard 25 cal regulated was supposed to have a light trigger it was 3 pound and can’t b adjusted it could have been accurate except for the trigger and no adjustments on anything 

Silver shooter, did your hp ss .30 have a moderator on it ? Mine does and to put the donnyfl on it I removed the end cap off of the moderator, put the donnyfl adapter on and then the ronin, does that sound correct?