The Growth of Air Arms

Love your rifles ! I have your Ultimate Sported FAC, Quality second to none! General consensus though is you need to offer regulators in your high end guns if you want to stay up with the times. 

Agreed if you don't offer regulators in your rifles you will never be caught up with the current market trend and customer expectations in a high end pcp.

As an owner of a 30th Anniversary s510, I whole heartedly agree that your "quality is second to none ." If you were to offerregulators in your rifles, I believe that, in addition to "quality," your product would also be "second to none."

Air Arms, it’s always great to see manufacturers active in forums like AGN! 

Having owned (yes, past tense) an Air Arms s510 in .22 caliber, I offer these opinions and suggestions for you to consider.

Note: I have not owned any AA springers, so I can only comment on your PCP line. I currently own a FX Royale .22 and several RWS/Diana springers. 

Great characteristics of your s510 platform include:

• Great accuracy (equal to my FX)
• Outstanding bluing and overall build quality (surpasses my FX)
• Outstanding side-lever action (equal to my FX)
• Outstanding trigger (almost on-par with my FX)
• Manual safety
• Logical placement of air pressure gauge
  (Please don’t make me look down the barrel to check the pressure!)
• Easily available ambidextrous stock
  (However, having an ambidextrous stock in walnut would be nice. If Daystate made it easier to get their Regal in an ambi stock I would have chosen that OVER my FX.)

 
Weaknesses of your s510 platform include:

• Poor air efficiency and consistency
  Arguably, comparing the s510 to a regulated bottle gun like the FX is not fair. However, like @whitefox545 already said, this needs to be addressed. Yes, it could be fixed with a regulator, but after seeing what Travis from Jefferson State Air Rifles (http://www.airrifletechnology.com/parts.html) is doing with his “Balance Valve” for the Marauder, his results are nothing short of astounding!
  
  If 40 (or more…) consistent shots can be achieved with your current air tubes with better valving/regulation applied, then that would be fine. However, offering a 500 CF bottle-based platform would also be a great option.
  
• Power adjustment (FX adjustment is superior)
  Adding detents in your current power adjuster is a “no-brainer” and should be done. But I do have other thoughts on this. 
  
  Both FX and AA give you adjustments where the “HIGH” setting is the ideal setting for most shooting. In .22 this is about 30 to 32 FPE. I would strongly argue that if a rifle can be designed where this ideal setting is actually the “MEDIUM” setting, your product would be better future-proofed with the advent of heavier slug style projectiles that are beginning to be used in air rifles.
  
  This area of power and strength is where manufacturers like Hatsan seem to do well. Specifically, their Gladius platform comes to mind. Please give us a strongly built platform (are you listening Kral?) with easily adjustable hammer spring tension which gives us the ability to ramp up the energy in .22 to 40+ FPE when desired.
  
• Air fill connector (FX uses a standard male foster)
  NO MORE FILL ADAPTERS OR PROBES PLEEZE! Enough said.
  
•  Picatinny rails (FX is guilty of this too)
  No medium or high-end rifles should be sold without some factory-installed method of mounting a bipod. I would also argue that picatinny should replace dovetails for scope mounting.
  
• Magazines
  Should be designed to accommodate longer pellets and potentially slugs.

 
Other thoughts:

• Price point – Your high-end rifles need to be kept UNDER $1300. Essentially, I would like to see AA quality at a Hatsan price. And yes, I would like World Peace too while you're at it... ;-) 
  
  Honestly, I spent more time than I should have creating my “wishlist” during Pyramyd Air’s recent "Win Your Wishlist" contest. It became clear while going through this exercise that the mid-priced guns sold by PA (above Marauders but below Atamans) are all old in technology. 
  
• Simplicity – I give FX high marks for this with the Royale platform. (Also kudos to @Tominco for the videos he had produced showing the guts of some FX rifles and giving me courage to take it apart!) I can easily disassemble my Royale without losing the air in my bottle and access the main block in short order. Getting to the regulator is absolutely no big deal. The trigger is also brilliantly simple on the Royale.
  
  PLEASE make guns that are user-serviceable with common tools! In a perfect world, I should be able strip and replace every o-ring in my rifle with one or two hex keys. (Again, bonus points would be offered if the hammer spring could be adjusted with a hex key without taking the action out of the stock!)
  
• Barrels – I know LW barrels have a great reputation. But as I look at many eastern European airgun makers (kalibrgun, Taipan, EdGun, etc.) their CZ barrels seem key to their success.
  
• Bolt vs. Sidelever – From a cost savings perspective I would imaging the bolt is going to go the way of dinosaur. How many people would choose a bolt action over a sideliver?
  
  And while I have never shot a Galahad, the AA paddle action seemed innovative. However, the rifle seems to have flopped in the marketplace. I wish I had opportunity to have shot one to offer a more informed opinion. On paper the Galahad seemed like a decent gun. Its weaknesses seemed to be low-ish power and not that high of a shot count. Oh yeah, it was also REALLY expensive! :-(
  
• Loss leader (gateway gun) - I have made a bunch of suggestions that all cost a lot of money to put into production. And I do understand that these costs need to be recovered. I'll again bring up my PA Wishlist as an interesting experiment. It made me realize just how appealing a high-quality entry-level gun could be. I actually had an Air Arms S500 in .177 as one of the two rifles in my list. I suggest that keeping a bare-bones gun (no magazine, no regulator, etc.) in your lineup would be a good thing IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT. The closer you get this price to a Maurader (the 10/22 of the airgun world) the better. Selling the basic s500 for the same price (OR LESS) as a Crosman Custom Shop Marauder would make AA a real player again. 

 
Wow, this is longer than I ever would have imagined… Hopefully some of these comments will make it up the corporate ladder at Air Arms. 

And if you ever need a beta tester or reviewer, I would be glad to oblige! 

Air Arms, I believe mcoulter has issued to you the praises that perhaps you’ve been given over the years, and I agree with them. But, all that he has stated that need to be addressed are spot-on. I own two AA rifles, but I hesitate to purchase another AA PCP unless those things have been addressed. For the price of your guns in the US, your competition seems to be the better option for many people like me relative to features-to-cost-to-quality.

With respect to your sporter PCPs, a regulator and the user’s ability to adjust the hammer spring tension would be a step forward.

As a consumer, it is my personal belief that customer (plural) desires should guide a company into producing a product that meets their needs. Especially if there is numerous competition, I think a company will fall behind in light of what is being offered by its rivals. While it is true that a company can have its loyal customer base, success that is based on such is limited no matter how much touting and prodding is done. I am an example of a consumer who cares nothing for product promotion and advertising if the product fails to offer the features I seek...with the (competitive) price to match.