Air Arms TX200 HC

The Air Arms TX200 HC; it has the reputation of being the best air rifle in the market, so my expectations where high, when I decided to sell off a few of my other (.177) air rifles to buy this .22 hunter carbine. On forums people who own one all talk about the bluing, the walnut stock, the trigger, and overall build quality. According to them it's the holy grail of airguns. And having handled one myself a couple of times, I have to admit, they aren't just making stuff up. It is what they say it is, the most excellent spring piston (non-match) air rifle on the market.

I had the chance to get one for a very reasonable price, so I went out and bought it. All my springers up until now where .177 caliber, but sometimes they just lack that extra bit of knockdown power on long distance shots, so after selling a few of those .177 springers, this .22 beauty entered the collection.

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Except for some tiny rust speckles on the barrel, the rifle is in pristine condition. This particular rifle is shoots 16 grain pellets consistently 558 ft/ps at 11 ft/lbs. The cocking effort isn't that heavy, and the locktime is exceptionally short. Sound wise, it's back yard friendly by all means, and the recoil isn't what you'd expect from a springer, just a nice dry 'TOK' sound and small kick to straight backwards. I'll be taking this baby out to the range to see what she does at 55 yards, but I like her already!

Oh, and the checkering... Man, love it! 

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To be continued!
 
Well John, I have quite the collection of premium rifles now, all amazing pieces of engineering.Most of them will go with me to the grave. ;) The only (non-match) PCP I still own is also the only rifle I own with a synthetic stock, the FX Independence. The rest is all wood, and walnut is amazing to the touch and to look at.

It's a keeper for sure Dirte, what a great rifle! 
 
The TX200 may be the easiest and quickest to break down and service(if you like that kind of thing). No need for a spring compressor. Mine is not the HC version but I'm happy with its accuracy at 50 yards. Also its the .177 version. The blued part of the rifle looks more like black chrome. I have been thinking about putting a rail on the bottom of the stock just behind the cocking cutout. 

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"Goodtogo"The TX200 may be the easiest and quickest to break down and service(if you like that kind of thing). No need for a spring compressor. Mine is not the HC version but I'm happy with its accuracy at 50 yards. Also its the .177 version. The blued part of the rifle looks more like black chrome. I have been thinking about putting a rail on the bottom of the stock just behind the cocking cutout. 

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That's a pretty one. Has it been refinished?
 
Yesterday we had some fun with a couple of friends and my boy, shooting all afternoon in the sun. My recently bought HW77 and AA TX200 HC where a s-load of fun to shoot. We had various targets set out at 40 yards, including my home-brewed steel gong (upper plate for pistol, lower plates for rifle). My son kept on hitting the small plates with the HW77 with open sights (the boy can shoot!), and dad was punching paper and hitting plates with his TX200. I must say that both rifles are truly excellent and tremendous fun to shoot. And jaws dropped when I took both rifles out of their bags. They are not only gorgeous, but pretty darn accurate also.

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The smallest plate on the right is just 1.5 inch, and my son just kept on hitting it with open sights. Did I mention the boy can shoot? :D 
 
"Dirte"
"Goodtogo"The TX200 may be the easiest and quickest to break down and service(if you like that kind of thing). No need for a spring compressor. Mine is not the HC version but I'm happy with its accuracy at 50 yards. Also its the .177 version. The blued part of the rifle looks more like black chrome. I have been thinking about putting a rail on the bottom of the stock just behind the cocking cutout. 

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That's a pretty one. Has it been refinished?

I don't count it as a "refinish" like I would do some stocks. The stock was a little too flat looking for the shine from the bluing. So I used some 600 steel wool and tru-oil. I would guess about 8 coats? Here is what the stock looked like"stock".
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Okay, time for a small update on the TX200. I've taken this baby apart, and the piston and spring where literally swimming in grease. I cleaned it up and installed a Tinbum delrin guide rod, top hat and some preload spacers, and it now shoots a lot quieter and faster. The muzzle velocity went up to 191 m/s or 627 ft/s. Good for 18 joules or 13 ft/lbf. This flattens the pellet curve a little more, but doesn't influence the recoil in any way. Actually, the recoil has even dropped a little. Although the gun is quiet, it's not really backyard friendly if you live in an urban neighbourhood. So I bought a Huggett silencer in .22 caliber. This made the rifle extremely quiet to my great surprise, but the groups opened up by 4 to 5 inches at 15 meters. It seemed that the Huggett's are extremely narrow, and the TX200 doesn't like that at all. So I traded it in for a .25 caliber version. These silencers are pretty compact, so the rifle still remains it compactness.

The Tinbum set and the silencer make this gun an even greater joy to shoot with little to no recoil and sound. I'm getting to know the rifle, and am now able to shoot single hole groups at 30 yards with it. So I'm extremely happy with these modifications. Next phase is to get a slightly heavier spring and see what that brings me, because I like to shoot at 50 and 100 yards also. And though 50 is no problem, 100 is.

To be continued...

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It sure is, cheers! The TX200 HC has a 1/2 UNF female thread in the shroud so it's just a matter of screwing it in.

With springers the piston sound is the louderst, so normally a silencer on spring piston airguns doesn't really make sense. But since I replaced the metal guide rod and top hat with a delrin Tinbum set, the gun is a hell of a lot quieter, making the muzzle bark a lot more noticeable. With the silencer screwed in, the noise is just 57 dB, without it measured 67 dB at 2 meters distance. So that's well over 3 times quieter. Pretty amazing IMHO.