Best Production Air Rifle of all time?

[Blackrider]

Heck, there's been so many superb production air rifles but personally for what I got out of it, the Theoben Rapid 7 !

All in all, I had four in various guises so I'm being a bit Collective in grouping them into the above term but they were so well made, so accurate, so tough and constantly performed brilliantly !

[ZAKDINGEL]

As we all have a different view on this for me its a BSA airsporter stuzten for looks ----but for lightness the mk1 sharp innova and all in .22 "cause that's more powerful"!!!!!!!!!!

[Big Seth]

The pre-war BSA underlevers were a decade ahead of their time and blew everything else away
The Airsporter was the same, rather later
The FWB sport & HW35 were the same, but maybe just 5 years
The HW77 was the same

So all of them in terms of changing the game.

And PCP ? AA Shamal / GC2. Then AA S300/400

Not sure this means "best", but all defo game changers that set the standards in their respective decades...

Totally agree with your choices!

[airgun]

Theoben rapid 7 mk1 surely an icon

[Roundshot]

BSA Improved Model D and like variants before and after.

[Geezer]

The pre-war BSA underlevers were a decade ahead of their time and blew everything else away
The Airsporter was the same, rather later
The FWB sport & HW35 were the same, but maybe just 5 years
The HW77 was the same

So all of them in terms of changing the game.

And PCP ? AA Shamal / GC2. Then AA S300/400

Not sure this means "best", but all defo game changers that set the standards in their respective decades...

Agreed, JB, but surely an honourable mention for the BSF55? Lighter, shorter and handier than the HW, and no contemporary 1960s/1970s springer could beat it for power.

[lafayette]

Definitely the HW 77k closely followed by the Webley Omega.

[32:1]

For me the mk1 airsporter and the Iconic Theoben rapid

Chris

[noz1]

Hw100

[TonyL]

The pre-war BSA underlevers were a decade ahead of their time and blew everything else away
The Airsporter was the same, rather later
The FWB sport & HW35 were the same, but maybe just 5 years
The HW77 was the same

So all of them in terms of changing the game.

And PCP ? AA Shamal / GC2. Then AA S300/400

Not sure this means "best", but all defo game changers that set the standards in their respective decades...

When I first saw Paul's OP, I thought, "That's easy, it's the HW77".

But I'd agree with this from Jon.

And I've had the absolute pleasure of shooting a few of the Lincoln Jeffries / BSA pre-war underlevers and they're beautiful rifles. Still relevant today and so pleasurable to shoot.

Oh, and I'd simply have to put the FWB 300S in there, too, for the sheer engineering quality and precision.

[Barryg]

BEST in terms of what ?

Accuracy
Ergonomics
Value for Money
Build Quality
Efficiency

That's right.
And many more things like best in

Safety
robustness
power
looks
and so on, so the best is just what you personally like and your favorites

My favorites are

HW80 .22 older type

TXHC mk3 .177

Diana 460 .22 T06

Although there are many others

[clueless]

Must be the Theoben Rapid for me, i was gobsmacked when i first got on in 1991.

I recently bought an unmolested early one and its still on a par with anything you can buy today in my opinion

Brilliant

[Huttles94]

Chinese B2. The AK47 or Sten gun of air rifles. Simple, cheap, and reliable (and a B2 is more reliable than a Sten gun).

But the 77K runs it close with its rather finer construction standards and performance. Just more expensive.

Define "production". Does it include Whiscombes, ISP and other semi-custom small outfits?

Being vaguely serious for a moment, I guess the "best" is probably whichever German or Austrian aluminium-chassis PCP is currently winning 10M or FT matches.

You can make a case for the old pre-WW1 Lincoln-Jeffries BSAs. Compared to everything else at the time, they were streets ahead, which is why everyone else copied them for the next few decades.

I had a B2 custom when I was young, my first air rifle...... I hated it, horrible to shoot, under powered and overall crap build quality.

Well lets be honest, it was cheap and you get what you pay for. If you just want a really cheap air rifle for whatever reason, you could do worse that an old B2.

[lensman57]

HW100 all the way. Sorry to the springer lovers including myself but that gun has set the bar so high that even HW itself can not climb higher.

A.G

[yorkiets]

HW100 all the way. Sorry to the springer lovers including myself but that gun has set the bar so high that even HW itself can not climb higher.

A.G

Reluctantly agree, but the 77 gives me more of a fizz to shoot.