B2-1 Air Rifle In .22 Cal.

I'm looking for a inexpensive brake barrel .22 cal. air rifle to fool around with. I might shorten the barrel, make a new stock, turn it into a short carbine or maybe a pistol. I saw this B2-1 .22 cal. at South summit for around $32.00 shipped with a advertised velocity of 650 fps in 22. I know that $32.00 isn't much money but I don't want something that will fall apart when I open the box. Just wondering what your take on this gun is, will it hold up to doing a few mods on or is it a waste of money ?

Thanks Bill

[DanoInTx]

Can't comment on the b2-1 directly, but have read some stuff here and there saying that they're not much of a bargain.  Do you have a Fast Deer?  That one is real fun to mess with, and the B3 is too.  My Fast Deer was $23 or so from Sportman Target, and the B3's can be had from Cummins tools for $20.  Good luck and be sure to give a review of whatever you get.

BTW: in .22, most of these guns are a bit weak, I'd stick with the .177

Dan

[vinceb]

I've had a couple of B2's, and one B1 (the shorter version). They are not very well made, and while some may shoot fairly well - others are absolute dogs.

A healthy one will shoot about 650 - in .177. I can't imagine that the .22 does better than 500's. In the examples I've seen, the trigger sear can wear quickly causing a failure to cock or unintentional firing, the rear pin that holds everything together can bend under the stress of a stock spring, and the breach-to-compression tube mating faces can be poorly machined. They can also be hard to sight in.

Why do you want .22?

[shadow]

I've owned my B3 over three year now, they are cheaply made and have alot of rough edges to them but can be tuned and hopped up alittle.I've tuned my B3 , smoothing all the rough edges , polishing and cleaning up the chamber. Theres even a piston seal mod for them but I perfer to stay with the leather seal.my B3 has performed great for me and have taken alot of game with it. Watch the main spring guide, it's plastic and begins to crumble under heavy use, I hunt alot. Russ Sauer (GURU1) works on em and has a B3 downloadable guide to rebuilding and tuning them.My B3 has been good to me but sometimes you'll get a diamond in the rough or a chunk of coal. This hunt pic was taken before da tune and paint job for the B3 contest,new pics coming soon. Good luck, Ed

I want a .22 cal because it will be used for very short distances, within 25 yds. and I find a .22 more effective at that distance even if the velocity is low over a .177 with maybe 100 fps more velocity.

Bill

[Black Mamba]

I have my B30 on the way to Russ right now.


Oh....but the critter are going to be sad when I get it back.  I'm hoping for 90% of the RWS 350's power.  That would be nice.

Russ does some fine work indeed.

I have B2's in both calibres and I can tell you now that the .177 is way better than the .22

A 100ft/s may not be no big difference when the gun is shooting over 700ft/s, but at that low velosity it is the difference between a kill and a bruise. My .22 was shooting fine for awhile, but unless you want to do a tune after every tin of pellets, stay away. The poor quality springs just can't cope with the heavy .22 pellets. It drops down to under 400ft/s every once in awhile. That is hardly enough to make a hole in a beercan at 10m.  I'm actually going to give mine away, because the thing just spoil my day everytime I shoot it, and as long as it is lying around, I will try to use it.

No use in putting in a bigger spring either... the trigger WILL FAIL, that I can guarantee you.  

Actually, now that I'm thinking of it... I'm getting rid of all the B2's. They are crappy little guns.
We don't even sell them at our shop anymore. It's the type of product that can ruin your reputation.
The few that we have left, we'll probably give away for free.

We have other Chinese rifles like the QB36-2, the QB23, QB18 etc.  Don't know if you have those over there, but here the QB18 or QB23  is about $55 (rifles are expensive here) but it is way better than the B2 ( at about $35 ). The wood finish looks nice. It has a proper recoil pad and sights. Accuracy and quality is very good for a cheapy.  For a few dollars more the QB36-2 is the best rifle in it's price range. Untuned we get over 850ft/s with Pro Magnums and just over 1,5" groupings at 65yards.

The Chinese improved their quality a lot, but the B2's suck. I'm not happy about the B3's we have here either. Most of them are finished after about 1000 shots.  

http://all-about-airguns.co.za/qb.html