Author Topic: B40 review  (Read 64462 times)

Offline Brutuz

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B40 review
« on: May 17, 2010, 05:05:04 AM »
To be honest: I've bought this rifle for it's looks - it turned out to be a gem worthy of it's looks after a few tweaks.



It's not for sale in the Netherlands (where I live, without airgun power restrictions): I bought my .22 cal from a Belgian branch of an airguncompany located in Poland: www.cheapguns.eu  .
It was the very last one they had in stock.
Due to Polish law it arrived with a clipped spring to reduce performance to < 12.5 fpe.

Since I've seen pics of the clipped spring (clipped as in clipped, with the clipped end uncompressed) before I bought the rifle, I started looking for an oem spring and ended up at Mike's door www.Bestairgun.com   in the USA. One AA spring local would have cost me about 30 euro and for that amount I received three B40 springs from the US.

Next there is the issue of the cocking arm passing the front "pull located base spring ball". It was wiggling a bit upon closing. After dremeling a groove in the "pull colar" (the end of the cocking arm) that was sorted.

There was a small bit of play between the cocking arm and the "pull board", a thin (lubed) washer did the trick.

The spring assembly is an interesting item. After dropping in an oem B40 spring performance was good but with quite a bit of recoil.

Taking a few coils off of the spring, heating and compressing the end, flattening and polishing both ends smoothed it out quite a bit. Not much loss in performance but a better shooting rifle.

An English RFD I know from http://ukchineseairgunforum.myfreeforum.org  (who had helped me before tweaking Chinese airguns) had bought a B40 at about the same time as I did. Will from www.woodfield-gcp.webs.com  shared his experience and sold me a custom made delrin washer that had been dome shaped on one side and the mating side of the delrin tophat had also been made dome shaped. That improved performance a lot.

I started fiddling May 1, after helping someone with his B30 I decided to give the B40 a lube-tune. Before I was satisfied with performance, after the lube tune it performs even better. Why didn't I do that day one.... Lesson learned.

Consistency 50 shots after the lube tune:



So much for the tech part, the part that interests me most in Chinese airguns.

I'm not going to compare the B40 with it's copy, the AirArms TX200. Blasphemy, it's the other way around. Sorry. As a matter of fact I can't compare it since I have never seen an AA TX200 in real life.

The main issue is: when you are looking for an airgun that shoots perfect out of the box and has a gourgeous stock that makes you drewl and a superb finish, you wouldn't even be reading this topic. The B40 looks great, the stock and finish are good but no match to the original I guess. So no need discussing that part. If you haven't got or don't want to spend a lot of $$$'s or €€€'s or £££'s you will love the B40.

It's accurate, has a shrouded barrel (low sound level), nice finish, replacement parts are cheap, but it's heavy. It weighs 4.2 kgs.
An SMK/B19 weighs 2.7 kgs and a basic .22 cal rimfire rifle stays below 3 kgs.
The B40 is not the type of gun to roam around the countryside with all day, unless you are a healthy and big bloke.

Operating the rifle doesn't require a sience degree. Pull the cocking arm all the way back untill the safety pin pops out, load a pellet, push the release button on the right side, close the cocking arm, aim at your target, release the safety and shoot.

After a while you won't even notice pressing the safety button and resting your triggerfinger on the stock above the trigger before taking the shot.

The trigger doesn't need attention, it's very light, crisp and predictable out of the box.

Grouping is best using Crosman Premiers and JSB Exact Jumbo's, the RWS Superdome is the most consistent pellet. Conclusions like that may vary as no airrifle is the same, like a fingerprint.

The three groups below shot indoors/supported at 11 yards:







I hope you have enjoyed reading this review written by someone that was a springer noob untill a few months ago.

If you'd like to see it feel free to watch the video I've made about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cXW4HI3zeI

cheers
Brutuz
Crosman 1300 1377 1377c 2100 2289G 2240 2300KT 2400KT
Haenel III 284 & Shanghai B1
.22 SMK XS78 & XS19 & B40 (BMK) & Lider45TG
My airgunvids on Youtube

Offline geewhiz380

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Re: B40 review
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2010, 06:32:55 AM »
Great review brutuz as i have the same one and cant complain,its accurate,powerful,nice stock,noise level,no twang,heavy but balanced,for the price u will be very content as i was .thanks for sharing the review and chrony numbers with us ...jorge

Offline Brutuz

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Re: B40 review
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2010, 07:41:46 AM »
Thanks
Crosman 1300 1377 1377c 2100 2289G 2240 2300KT 2400KT
Haenel III 284 & Shanghai B1
.22 SMK XS78 & XS19 & B40 (BMK) & Lider45TG
My airgunvids on Youtube