The beginning of February, I started looking for a youth size barrel brake air rifle for the son to call his own. I have a Hercules B-12 that was purchased about 10-12 years ago. It doesn’t have a safety on it and for a young boy that is important to me. I started looking at the new XS-B12 from Xisico USA. I did a search of the web to see who had them in stock. Nobody had one in stock and I didn’t want a case of them from Xisico which they don‘t have. I posted on the China Gate about my dilemma and got a reply from Mike. He would check with Xisico to see what they have. It was a couple of days later he emailed me and said he had one B-11, two B-12 and some D-18 Canadian Hunter which are like or near a copy of the Diana 24. I was interested and ordered a B-12 for the son and a D-18 for the family (for ME and Diana 24s are hard to find)
Well the rifles arrived and I was very impressed with the little D-18 Canadian Hunter. Here is a short review of the rifle. To begin with the rifle is all metal except for the rear end cap, the rear sight blade and the rear sight elevation screw cap.
Finish: The stock is of good quality hard wood with a nice grain and smooth semi-gloss finish. I do not see any sand marks and only one small wood puddie fill at the cocking lever channel. The stock has no recoil pad, but is cut nicely with a curve section for the shoulder. It is not cut with sharp contour, but with flats to contact surfaces when touching the ground. Metal parts are blued well. The only part that has a deep bluing is the air tube. You can see the sanding marks in the barrel, but no tooling marks on the parts. Has the parts been polished before bluing and the answer is no. The bluing is about the same as a RWS rifle. The fit of the air tube/chamber to the rifle is very good, but the trigger guard area could use some work. The rear part is not inlaid in the wood. The screw holes look to be lined up fairly well and even.
Sights: The front sight is hooded and of metal construction. It’s a simple affair. It has a piece pressed through the tube for the front blade sight. The tube is ribbed to a small channel iron piece with a screw through that which clamps to two channels cut into the barrel. If you would like I maybe able to take a picture of it, if you are interested. The rear sight is screwed to the breach block with two screws. It is also metal construction except for the sight blade and elevation screw cap. On the sight blade it has four different size slots you can rotate to use with the front sight post.
Barrel: It looks to be of good overall quality. The crown passed the Q-tip test. The breech end needs work because it is not countersink for the pellet. The rifle will probability not get a scope so I don’t know about droop. It seems to be straight and shoot POA a 10 yards out of the box. The bore is dirty and I have not cleaned it. I don’t believe that Mike has cleaned it either, for I purchased the rifle stock, not tuned. The rifling looks good, after clearing and maybe lapping it will be okay. I believe it may need a breech seal, its flat on one side.
Shooting: At it’s present state it would not be fair to the rifle for it is stock right out of the box. I have shoot it at ten yards and it has the potential to be a good shooting air rifle. The rifle was $45 shipped to the house and it will need some work just like a B2, B3 or any of the other low end Chinese air rifles. It’s shooting just about ¾” groups at ten yards. It is also in need of some lube, very dry.The trigger on the gun has a direct link to the piston and needs to be polished for good shooting. I’m not sure, but I think I’m having some blow by around the piston seal. The Gamo match pellets are not going into the Sears catalog as deep as the B12. I not sure either if it has a leather seal or updated synthetic seal. I’m shoot it some more before I tear it down and look at it.
The main thing I would like this gun the by able to do is a 8 ft lb with 700-750 fps velocity and I think with a little work it can be done! Mike said it is for the Canada market and is shooting in the 500s.
