Welp, after some long deliberation and a trip to visit my buddy Steve and his PCP guns, I finally took the plunge over into the Darkside!!!
Now mind you, the Darkside is daunting when you consider the gun price, then the scope, then the pump, the fittings, etc, etc, etc....and who wants to pump their guns up when they can just crack open the barrel and shoot, or plunk in a fresh CO2 cartridge and shoot with no headaches??? Well, you have to shoot one to understand, once you get past the pumping and the empty bank account, you have got power at the tip of your fingers with very little felt recoil...it's sureal, really, really enjoyable to shoot. So I began shopping and reading and deciding, and selling off my other guns, until I had some cash built up. Not a ton of cash, but enough to start doing some serious looking around. The problem with buying a PCP for me was all of the extra stuff I had to buy to make it shoot, like a pump....pumps aren't cheap, but I looked around and found a used FX pump used for $150 shipped! Once I had the pump found, I needed something to pump up with it, so now I'm $150 poorer, and still need fill nipples and such...hehe, I said nipples:) I looked at the Sumatras, the BSA Techstar, the Careers, and even the Air Force guns..one gun looked real promising the Air Arms S200...but then I started looking at the Chinese BAM 50/51 guns. $300 for a B50 in .177, brand spankin' new, and there are TONS of mods for this gun....I'm a tinkerer, cannot forget that I love to tinker. So I put that guy on order, the only thing I still needed was the fill adapters....contacted Roy Weid at Mountain Air and he pointed me to Pyramid where I got the quick disconnect adapter for $16+ shipping. Finally got everything shipped and assembled last thursday and got a chance to really shoot it yesterday.
Took the gun out to my yard and ran it across the chrony so I'd have some clue as to how it might work out. Shot about 20 shots with CPHP's and ran from 1060fps down to 997fps. That took me from 200bar down to 150 bar. Not very efficient, but this is just out of the box, no tinkering yet. It takes me about 30-35 pumps to go back up to 200bar, so about 2 pumps per shot, I can live with that. I think if someone is in halfway decent shape once past the initial 200 bar charge, as long as you don't let the gun drop down to nothing, pumping it back up is no problem. I quit smoking 3+ months ago and have gained some extra weight, I have a few issues with damaged elbows, knees, back, etc.....and I can pump this thing up without too much complaining, it's not that hard.
I DID tinker a little bit, I did a trigger tune/adjustment because out of the box the trigger wasn't bad, but it was poorly adjusted. I have no trigger pull gauge, but this triger is pretty nice!!! My biggest complaint with the trigger is once you get it really adjusted right, the safety doesn't work so well...and I've been reading that I'm not the only person with this issue. I bought the standard sporter B50 rather than the thumbhole, so I can't comment on the thumbhole, although I'm guessing most of the stock issues I have would be the same regardless. The length of pull (LOP= distance from center of butt pad to the face of the trigger blade) I did NOT measure it, but just comparing it to my other rifles, I would guess it's about 16 inches. I am 6 feet tall, and I found this stock very uncomfortable primarily because of the long LOP. The other issue I have with the stock is the placement of the trigger from the grip area....I've been lucky enough to get my hands on some really nice stocks and grips, so I could be a little biased, but man my hands are NOT big enough for this stock to work, and I don't think ANYONE has hands that big. The thumbhole stock may be different, I've only ever seen pictures...but I doubt it fits much better. I took my gun to visit my airgun bud Master Stockmaker Steve Corcoran yesterday. He held this thing and said,"Man, this thing is HUGE!". A quick trip to Steve's shop, his bandsaw, sander, and Voila!!! A stock I can shoot with!!!! Took him about 10 minutes to cut about an inch off of the stock and reshape the buttpad to fit, I played with the cats running all over his yard while this was going on....I'm alot of help:) Fixing the LOP did not fix the grip to trigger issue, but at least I don't have to pretend I'm a giraffe to snake my neck around this thing anymore. This WILL get new wood once I can afford it.
So how does it shoot? Well I'd love to say it shoots dime sized groups at 20 yards, but I can't because I shot no groups with it. What I can say is that I can hit a soda can at a distance where I can't see the soda can without a scope. Steve had his range estimating scope focussed in on 4 cans that we set way out on his property....that scope focussed in at just under 200 yards. I tried my range estimating scope and got just under 200yards also. I know these things aren't perfect, but man, it was a long way out there, and I was hitting the can 1 out of 5-7 shots with a huge amount of holdover. Steve was shooting his Air Arms S410 .22 and he was able to hit the cans slightly more oftenned than me, but the scope I have on the B50 is only a 3x9x32...so it was pretty hard to even see those cans clear at that distance...I think Steve's scope is a 4x16x40. I don't know if it was really 200 yards, but even if it was only 150, that is incredable!!! I have to say I am hooked!!! This gun is too loud for me to shoot in my suburban backyard, but it is great to shoot where you have space. I think eventually I WILL fork over the dough and buy the Air Arms S200, as it is moderated from the factory, and has a better power range for my backyard. This doesn't mean I will get rid of my B50, this is a sweet shooter, and for what I paid for it, it is definately a tinkerers dream! The stock issues I will overcome, the trigger is sweet albeit without a proper safety, and the raw power is nice and with a proper heavy pellet my 20fpe would probably go a bit higher. I think I will detune it a little for more consistancy, replace the wood, and then it will be a great gun that I can shoot year round unlike my CO2 guns.
pump $150 shipped
gun $299 shipped
quick adapter from Pyramid Air $16 - $1.60 (10% coupon code) + $8.19 shipping $22.59
+___________
$471.59
Scope and rings I had, but I need something bigger me thinks.
For under $500 this was a good transition to the Darkside, and now that I have the pump my next one will be easier to buy:)
Dan
