I bought one of these last year (mail order, when that was allowed) because it was a gun that I had, once, always wanted. I didn’t use it much then because it seemed a bit of a disappointment, however I’ve been trying it a bit recently and it isn’t too bad after all.

It’s quite compact and very light, which back yonder were the features that attracted me (now, of course, long and heavy is the way to go) but it is probably a bit too light; the overlever, for example, doesn’t feel quite as solid as that on the PR45/Compact.

There’s no breech seal, as far as I can tell it seems to rely on the barrel butting against the plastic valve housing. For all the effort you put in, the power seemed very low, so it now has a diy seal from a cut to size rubber washer glued in front of the transfer port, with the barrel slid forward to accommodate it (when closed, the barrel seats against the washer). This has meant removing the magazine as well, no great loss to me really – especially since access to the barrel for loading single pellets is very good (the overlever is held by a catch on each side, meaning the rear of it, below the rearsight, is completely open).

Using RWS Hobby, muzzle velocity is now about 300 fps (about 1.5 ft.lbs), still a bit low perhaps but perfectly adequate to deal with those Umarex 4 knockdown duck targets at 10 metres. Groups are about the size of the black on a 10m pistol target, but low – the rearsight only has windage adjustment. Filing the foresight down a little has started to move things in the right direction though. Again, in comparison to the PR45, the sights are very narrow and not the easiest to see (widening the rearsight notch, with a file, might help); like the PR45, there are no scope rails to fit a red-dot.

Considering how simple it is, the trigger is really quite good, not too heavy (manual quotes 3.5 lbs) and, after the initial slack, a nice smooth pull. One thing you can’t do though, for practice, is set it by opening and closing the overlever just a bit – this just doesn’t give the same feel.

Iain