Hatsan 1000S Striker 3 Month Review - $100 .22 Break Barrel any good?

It has been 3 months since I got this rifle and I think its time I do a extensive review on it. 

Firstly, as a disclaimer, I would like to say that when it comes to quality control I understand that Hatsan (and most companies in that budget) kind of well are 💩.

Unboxing



The box (from field supply) came in a standard long cardboard box. Inside the box were some loose pellet tins that I ordered with the rifle and the Hatsan 1000S box. 



Inside the box was a piece of Styrofoam, the gun, a manual, and a hatsan optima 3-9x scope. Ill get to the scope part later. There were no dents, scratches, or any signs of wear on the rifle.

Externals

The externals are not bad, the stock is a pretty solid feeling pol-... sorry, let me correct that: plastic stock. There is no play (on the rifle I got) but there is some flex at the end of the stock where the barrel breaks. I don't really mind and don't think that is a problem. It weighs a nice 7.5lbs with the scope, which was heavy for me (a 12 year old) three months ago but now I got used to it and it helps with holding the rifle still when aiming. The rubbery pads do help with getting a nice grip and they look nice. My only worry with that rubbery pad is sticking out a little bit and (though i have not had problems with it) might catch on to things. Its 43" long by the way. My issues with the externals are that the barrel shroud wears down with time after bumping into things. 

The sight post on the front is holding up just fine, but I don't know if it would survive more then a few bumps or even one bump with a hard object without breaking. The rear post has a elevation and wind-age adjustment wheels that work fine and have little stick. The "tru-glo" fiber optic sights are fine, but they don't "tru"ly "glo"w in the dark, so don't use them if you are planning to shoot in the dark. They do not light up at all. 

The trigger is fine for me, but if you are used to nice triggers, you'll probably find it to be terrible. It moves up in a weird angle and your finger has to be on the bottom of the trigger (and it's curved by the way) to be able to pull it from front to back. Otherwise, your finger will be on the part of the trigger that disappears into the stock. This does not have the hatsan Quatro trigger, and is not adjustable even though the manual (that is also used for other models) says so. The trigger guard is plastic and works just fine. 

The safety I actually quite like. Its a safety where you push a nicely rounded tab at the end of the receiver to disengage. Its very easy to push it forward and I don't have to get out of my shooting position to push it at all. Now, pulling the tab into safety is a different story. When you cock the gun, it comes onto safety (which is a great feature in my opinion as you can't pull the trigger if you are a person who doesn't keep your hand on the barrel when cocking it) the moment you get the barrel out of it's seal, but when you want to pull it out after your done shooting it is not that easy and has a lot of stick to it. 

The receiver has a nice smooth finish and is made of steel


Breaking the barrel is fairly smooth. Not once have I lubed the spring and it still cocks with minimal crunch. 

Now I have run into one problem that made me want to smash the gun when one day I just go out to casually shoot and I can't break the barrel. I hit it really hard many times and it just didn't take the barrel out of its seal. Eventually after walking around in circles thinking about how will I return the gun I try again and it magically breaks. I still don't know why that happened. 

Also, the gun is super easy to cock, and this is coming from a twelve year old so you can count on it 👍. (Interested about that cop who said that he returned the gun because he literally could not cock it.. and I am twelve... and he is a cop... 😐 (Walmart review))

Accuracy, power, and the scope.

Firstly, I would like to say that I do not have a chronograph so I don't know the fps. 

When it comes to accuracy, its pretty good. Its not like those obvious trolls who say they can hit a rat every time at 100 meters and they only miss because the rat moves (sigh). At 25 meters I can get a pretty nice 2-3" grouping with the scope freestanding, not from a bench rest position. From a bench rest position (w/ field target trophies .22) I got 1" groups at 17ish meters, but that was before the gun broke in and when I wasn't yet used to shooting with a scope, and now I don't have time to even do a quick 5 shot group like that (in other words, I want to work on my freestand). At 70 meters, I can hit a 7x8" target 99.9% of the time (freestanding), but I don't know how groupings would look like from a bench rest position. Yesterday I hit a 3"x5" block first try freestanding, so I think that's pretty good. Anyway, I think I will test that this or next week and give you guys an update. 

When it comes to power, this gun is fine for small game hunting and having fun. It can go through a 3/4" block of wood, bunch of cans in a line, tin cans, etc. Not much to say here.

The scope. The scope is well, interesting. When I got the gun I new the scope was going to break and I thought it did (the groupings were all over the place) after a few hundred shots and so I put it away. A month later, I take the scope and just for fun try it with the gun. I think it's still going all over the place, because at that time I was not doing bench resting stuff but freestanding and quick shooting. For my purpose, its fine. Saves me $30 so really I don't care. 

I have not taken the gun apart yet by the way, I will soon but the screws holding the stock look as if they are really super-glued in there, so I don't know how that will go. 

Conclusion:
I don't think I have said this yet but this rifle cost me $100 flat on field supply. And for that price, I think its really great as a beginner rifle. Yes, you might (most likely) get a lemon (which was what I was expecting) but you can buy it NOT from field supply and a place like say pyramid air and have a fairly nice long warranty if you don't like it or get a lemon. 

I give this gun a 8/10 considering everything. Its good for the price and I don't think it could be beat. Just don't get the .25 version and you should be fine sending back broken ones when they come to you until you get one that works well. It works great for what I am doing right now (speedshooting, running with it a few laps and then shooting at 70 meters, and generally really active things with it). So, hunting out to 25 meters at squirrels is fine (but I would not advise shooting at game any further then that). 


Anyway, I am starting to ramble so I'll finish it here. 

Thanks,

Antoni
 
This is a great elaborate review. I'm 23 and my first air rifle was a hatsan model 95 .22 that I got when I was 14. Just recently I got into pcps, after finishing up school. I can honestly say that the 150 dollars spent on my hatsan was an amazing investment. It sparked my initial interest in airguns and provided me with hundreds of hours use. Throughout the years I have been able to take out countless of ground squirrels that tear up my parents yard. When I first got the gun I did little maintenance since I was barely learning. However, I just recently ran it through a chrony and it was still pushing a jsb 15 grain in the low 700s. Yea there are small things that they could do better, but for the price I think they make relatively nice guns. Im glad you are happy with your gun and getting enjoyment out of it. From the sound of your in depth review it seems like this will be a lifelong hobby for you as well lol. Big thumbs up. 
 
Single stage trigger with a 6-8lb pull?

I don’t really know, but I’ll try to say how it feels here:

I guess it’s a single stage but it’s really weird. When you start pressing it, it begins with a super duper light trigger pull that “retains” its spot, so, when you release it and press it back again, there will be no force against the trigger until you reach the point where you stopped pressing the trigger. Anyway, you hit a wall and it takes a not that difficult squeeze to get it to shoot. There is pretty much 0 travel after that wall, you just press it a tiny but further and it releases the spring. If I’d have to guess, then I’d say it’s around 4-5lbs at that wall, and 1-2lbs before it. But that’s just my guess - I don’t have much to compare it too so don’t take my word for it :)




 
.. this powerplant of hastan's is great .. i've had it in all four calibers (the .20 webley vmx is a striker 1000 variation) and it's great - especially for $100 wood stock .. and .25 cal in this gun shoots harder or just as hard as several other more expensive break barrels ( 646 fps with 20 grain ftt's vs 644 fps from a uk tomahawk , and 640 fps from a .25 cometa 400 - same ftt pellets ) .. in .22 , my webley vmx xs (has a silencer like the sniper model 85 or 125) shoots 804 fps with those benjamin destroyer pellets 14.3 gr - and the gun loves them .. that's pretty damn hard for a $100 gun - any break barrel , really ... but this weighs 6.5 lbs with mossy oak stock .. but the .20 caliber webley vmx versions shoot around 820 fps with 11.4 grain ftt pellets .. and try to find ANY other 5mm / .20 caliber out there for under $200 ..... maybe a sheridan , yeah .... but the one i saved shoots 835 fps very consistently and i dare not open it up for any tuning .. it's the hatsan springs - they are superhero-springs .. you dont see macarri trying to improve on many hatsan springs ... also - they make good barrels ... yeah , they might over look deburring or some assembly - line poop ... but not many have barrel droop , and they still better than the chinese (barrels especially). - cheers . - paul .
 
We own a lot of Euro pcp guns and a couple euro spring guns, 2 TX200s, HW95 and a HW97KT.

Hatsan can produce very good guns as our .25 Airmax and .22 and .25 Super Novas are extremely good guns and when you factor cost in they are superb.

We have done tunes on a fair bit of Mod95s spring and gas spring versions for friends and customers.

The triggers are in no way good and can't be adjusted to good but that's coming from someone who is spoiled with match grade triggers. Out the box the triggers are really bad with some adjustment you can get them to a very heavy 2 stage trigger that has a light returnable first stage that is right at .75 pounds and a clean define stop BUT that's where the good trigger ends and then you are met with about 3/16ths inch of creep before the shot and that 3/16th of creep is very rough and HEAVY about 5 to 6lbs is as light as you will get the second stage without opening the trigger group up. It's not the worst trigger but it's not good IMHO and takes A LOT of work to make it pretty good if you don't mind polishing and swapping the adjustment screws 2mm longer screws on both. If you just change the screws you can make a lot of the creep go bye bye but it's still heavy and rough and that's only taken care of with polishing internals, not worth it imho just shoot it as you get it and that's it. Adding the longer screws is worth it because it's cheap and easy to do and will give enough adjustment to make most if not all the creep go away.



If your buying a mod 95, you will only want to get a .22, the .177s are ok but out of the 6 or 7 we have did tunes on they are all so dang pellet fussy it's not even funny and literally the only pellet any of the 177s would group (pre and post tune, BTW a proper clean, deburr, light polishing, new piston seal and breech seal after break in and moly really REALLY smooths the guns out to the point of making it feel like a totally different gun... A much higher end sweeter shooting gun) Baracuda match 4.52mm head size and that is it.

The .25 is totally unshootable. With the pellets it likes the best you are looking at 25y 5 shot groups that are in the 4 to 5 inch range and with pellets it don't like 5 shot groups at 25y will not put all pellets on a 12x12 target. I have NEVER seen a airgun that will throw pellets as wildly at a Mod95 .25. For real RWS Super H points would literally shoot a 20 inch group at 25y in one we was asked to tune not to long ago. We shot 5 or 6 5shot groups with it at 25y with the Super H points and we had groups from 17 inchs to 20.5 inches lol, it was ok with 19.91 FTTs grouping 5 at 25y in about 3.5 inches (i know that's horrible but for the .25 mod95s that's fantastic)



Im not hating on the gun and I fully believe its the best 100 dollar .22 BB. It's solid, the stock is finished decently and most of them have pretty wood.

The trigger is no better or no worse then other 100 to 150 dollar BBs. The shot cycle is twangy and harsh but that's just what it is, the Vortek Gasram version is MUCH smoother shooting but imho the spring version is the better of the two and if you take your time and do a tune on it or better yet send it out and have one done the Springer version will have a super slick shot cycle and will be less hold sensitive then the Vortek version. The shot cycle is quicker and snappier then the spring version and much smoother out the box so if you plan on never opening then up or having a tune done then get the gas ram version, if you think you will want to tinker or have a tune done then 100% get the springer.



Once tuned the .22s end up being a pretty dang good shooter when you factor in a 100 for the tune and a 100 to 120 for the gun... You have a very sweet, smooth shooting .22 that most will be capable of 5 shot groups at 30y that run right at a inch once you learn the gun and right pellet also after a proper tune the gun will be farrrrrrrrr less hold sensitive then it was and farrrrrrrrrrrrrrr less hold sensitive then the fam ram version. The slower shot cycle on The Springer will deform the pellet skirt less then the much faster more violent on the pellet skirt gas ram and in most cases will make for a less pellet fussy gun not always the case but most times the Springer is less fussy then the Vortek pre tune and post tune.



The gun is better with open sights imo as well, unless you are going to buy a decent scope for it. The stock scope is throw away quality and will hurt your shooting much more then help it. The open sights are decent and very shootable. The PA Mantis scopes are fantastic for the coin and hold up to Springer recoil no problem and no erector tube float and can be had for not much money and preform very well for what they are.



If you have any questions about tuning one or anything feel free to message me.

Xoxo

Lacy.
 
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