I ordered my Christmas present to myself the weekend before Christmas. I had been looking at the BAM B40 for quite some time and when I saw Mike Melick of Flying Dragon Air Rifles posted that he was getting a case of B40s in .177 I knew it was time. I asked Mike to hold one for me when they got in and he was very acommodating. I asked Mike for one in stock form from the factory. He shipped it out last Tuesday and I was delighted to receive it on Friday afternoon, in time for Christmas. Mike was very good about communication and the rifle was packaged well.
I pulled the rifle out of the box, the B40 comes in styrofoam molded packaging. The finish on this rifle is upscale Chinese, bluing is good, even, dark satin. The finish is comparable to my B26s, maye just a bit higher gloss. The stock is the Chinese mystery "beech" with a satin dark oak finish. The gun is well constructed, all metal, no plastic. This is a very solidly built rifle, and it shows up in the weight of the gun. As I recall, the rifle is listed at 9.3 lbs, unscoped. You can feel the heft of the weight, but the rifle is fairly compact and balances well.
Whe I got the rifle out to look at it, I decided to pull it apart to check the action out of the stock. The action was typical of the high end Chinese rifles, not loaded down with any mystery grease. When I pulled the action out of the stock I noticed that the factory had applied locktite to the screws. I will note at this time that I think it is a must to pull the rifle apart and thouroughly check all the screws and mounting points. The cast aluminum mounting lug for the forestock screws was a bit loose, so I pulled the screw that mounts it out, cleaned it with alcohol and applied more blue locktite to the threads. When I pulled the action out of the stock the main rear mounting lug came out of the rear action plug that the trigger group is attached to. The lug acts as the retaining screw for the receiver end cap and is what allows the mainspring and action to be removed from the receiver. (as a disclaimer I did ask Mike to send me this rifle without him having gone through it.) I can comment that this rifle is ridiculously easy to pull apart, and would be very easy to disassemble for application of lubricants. The end plug can be removed on this rifle without a spring compressor as there is very little preload on the spring. the mainspring, receiver and compression tube seemed to have a decent level of lubrication out of the box. (Another disclaimer, this applies to this model rifle only and is not an endorsement to try disassembly of any rifle without the safety of a spring compressor). I got all the screws in the action cleaned up with alcohol, loctite applied and the rifle reassembled.
I mounted my Center Point 3-9 x 50 AO IR scope on the rifle in a Beeman 5036 one piece high mount. I got just a few shots through the rifle on Friday and Saturday. I have been putting quite a few more pellets through it over the past couple of days. This rifle has been very challenging to shoot. This is a high powered springer, most of the velocities I have seen have been in the 900s. I tried a few different pellets through it, and have settled on BSA Wolverine FTs. I have read quite few of the reviews and comments on the B40 and it seems to be very common that it needs quite a bit of break in time to settle in and shoot well, I think I can concur with this observation. I think I have about 200 pellets through it now and am just getting to where I can get it to group well. The rifle does seem to be sensitive to hold, and have found that it likes to rest on my cupped hand just behind the slot for the cocking rod in the stock. This rifle has been challenging to learn to shoot well. This is a powerful springer, the shot cycle is strong, no twang, quick and has heavy springer recoil, but doesn't seem to torque.
The underlever on the rifle is held in place by the ball detent on the end of the barrel shroud. The cocking action is firm, I would guess in the 40 lb. range, so this is not an easy all day plinker. The anti bear trap is very secure and functions well. I would consider this a very safe sliding breech action. The breech on my rifle seems to have a slight crown from the factory so I have had none of the tight breech loading issues that I had heard about on some B40s.
The trigger is quite good, with a very short first stage and creep free second stage. The second stage is breaking at about 2lbs, as a guess. The trigger is good enough for me that I am not compelled to adjust it.
All in all I am pleased with the rifle, but would say that it is a challenging, powerful springer rifle. I would not recommend this as a first spring powered rifle. I would consider this a rifle for an experienced spring rifle shooter. The overall fit and finish are at the top of the heap for Chinese built guns. The gun will need some attention out of the box, and due to the ease of disassembly would be very easy to maintain and lube tune at home.
Pics below of the rifle and a 6 shot group at 10 yds.