I bought one of these a couple of weeks ago, but have only now had the opportunity to take it down to the club to actually try it out.

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...20Mark/001.jpg

The overall handling of it was very pleasant, in spite of having ambidextrous grips there is enough shaping to them to feel comfortable in the hand. The automatic safety catch was slightly annoying at times – yes, I did come up on aim and try to fire with it still on – but shooting right-handed, and one-handed, it was fairly easy to reach with the thumb without changing grip too much. The trigger isn’t brilliant but isn’t too bad – it has already had a very light polish and a smear of Moly-GN paste, which helped.

One point I don’t like is that the breech isn’t accessible with the barrel broken just slightly (as in, all it will open without starting to cock). I think there are advantages in being able to break open the barrel, load a pellet, and then cock and close the gun in one quick movement – that is not possible. Being able to access the barrel easily is also nice – bear in mind the manual shows the barrel being cleaned with it wide open.

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...20Mark/004.jpg

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...20Mark/005.jpg

Shooting it – this was at standard 10m target cards – once I had the gun zeroed (ahem) I seemed to be getting pretty much all my shots in the black; actually, mostly in the left hand side of the black. I’d used all the windage adjustment to get just to that point, which didn’t seem quite right. There is a fair amount of play in the barrel pivot (this is only obvious once the gun has been cocked) but that in itself can’t be the issue or the gun would presumably be spraying all over the place? I also tried removing and refitting the entire weaver rail assembly, but there are lugs underneath to ensure it does only sit in the one definite spot, and no play evident.

On the other hand, elevation adjustment wasn’t an issue, and while a deeper rearsight notch would be nice to improve the sight picture – to my eyes, anyway – I’ll probably persevere with them as is for now rather than be in a hurry to bolt on a red-dot sight. I haven’t anything to fit, but did get a zip-up case that takes the gun just nicely.

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...20Mark/002.jpg

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...20Mark/003.jpg

Iain

Postscript - the obvious comparison to make?