Hello All,
Just had the first chance to have a session with a Theoben Rapid 7 MK1 I bought recently. I've always fancied one so thought why not, I sold my BSA Super10 in .177 and bought the Rapid in .22. The Scope I use is a Hawke 2-7 x 32 with AO which I need for my night vision. The gun itself is fairly heavy but not unduly heavy although after a long session you would find it a little hard on the arms. The balance of the gun was quiet good but a little "top heavy" with the larger than standard 400cc bottle fitted. The engineering is second to none other than the magazines and it's well made and well put together.
General appearance and upgrades:
The gun has a nice looking oil finished stock which was generally well looked after although it has a couple of dinks from hunting. The blueing for a 20 year old gun was in decent condition. I changed the silencer which was a custom built one for a Weirauch one, it was quieter than the custom one. There are 7 and 12 shot magazines available for it and different size "buddy bottles" in 280cc, 400cc and 500cc are also available for increased shot count up to approx 190-200 from a single 200 bar charge. Mine came with the 400cc bottle and I bought another the same size as a back up. Filling is done with an adapter which screws onto the buddy bottle and is almost the same as the Super 10 one. The Rapid can be taken up to FAC levels if you have the necessary licence very easily and Theoben do state this on their literature.
Magazines and Loading:
The magazines were in my opinion poorly designed. They are made from plastic with a perspex front I'd have preferred them to be more like the Super10 ones and made of metal. The one I had did however cycle perfectly when I was setting the scope up and as an added bonus you can get 7 or 12 shot magazines which I feel would be helpful especially for night shooting using an infra red scope. Loading the magazines was a bit fiddly but not too bad in the light. You had to wind the spring anticlockwise all the way round to the stop drop a pellet in to hold the indexer against the spring then work back clockwise dropping a pellet in each hole until you had you magazine full.
Cocking the gun:
The cocking bolt is fairly long although it only has a small diameter knob which I personally will change to make it easier to handle. It was quite smooth in operation once you'd got the magazine in place although the first time I pushed it home it was not so smooth. The subsequent shots all cycled well and smoothly and of course with a 12 shot magazine it as well a couple would usually see you through a session. The gun does have an unconventional safety catch which is positioned in front of the trigger itself, it's easy to operate and a flick of the finger forward puts it into firing position, flick it backwards and you're on safe.
Shooting:
In use the gun was very accurate and it took me a matter of minutes to zero the scope to my satisfaction before I was putting pellet on pellet. The gun was set at 11.1 ft/lbs by the previous owner and on that setting with the Weirauch silencer it was whisper quiet, the hammer was all that could be heard and of course the bolt as you re cocked the rifle.
Overall I found the rifle to be an excellent tool for hunting purposes in .22 calibre and I would think that in .177 it would compete with the other guns for FT etc admirably. I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy using this and it could easily be a keeper providing the magazine recycling doesn't let me down.
Thanks for reading
Regards
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