Two rifles HW95 / SMK 20S Comparison - An honest test -

[hotversion]

The finish isn't as good as a HW, the blueing is very grey and not that deep and they are very rough around the edges but if you spent a couple of hours just finishing them off they are perfectly capable of lasting for years of good shooting, don't knock the Chinese because they have the balls to copy other manafacturers designs, yes I know and othes know that it is moraly wrong to do what they do but if people wish to buy them then they will, some of us like to tinker and try to improve and they are perfectly fine for that use, surely it's better to get someone into our sport by getting them on the shooting ladder by buying a cheap Chinese or Turkish air rifle and then at a later date when they've saved and improved they can then buy an Air Arms or HW.
Also like has been said in the past, not to long ago HW's where having bad QC problems and people were having to replace cut off springs, at least with Chinese rifles springs they were finished properly, fair enough the spring may have been made from fuse wire but at least it didn't chew up the innards.

Pete

I do understand that we all like a bit of tuning,i myself have a b2,i dont think ive shot it in 2years,ther ok £30 but when they try and step it up a notch they just wasting there time,and the turkish guns are poor miles better than the chinese but still poor,and air gun reviews dont help,when i got back into air guns i bought a webley ags...the reviews would have you belive it was a capable air gun in truth it was CRAP,why not support are own fantastic guns,my advice would be get a b2 if your having fun and want somthing better,save up and buy a top end springer.

[Bookamp]

The XS208 and Synsg are copies of the Diana 34. I have the TH208 (which has the same action as the XS208 just different stock), and find it very sweet to shoot. I also have a HW95k Luxus and although the trigger is not quite as light as the HW trigger, it is still crisp and predictable.

[PCPShooter]

I do understand that we all like a bit of tuning,i myself have a b2,i dont think ive shot it in 2years,ther ok £30 but when they try and step it up a notch they just wasting there time,and the turkish guns are poor miles better than the chinese but still poor,and air gun reviews dont help,when i got back into air guns i bought a webley ags...the reviews would have you belive it was a capable air gun in truth it was CRAP,why not support are own fantastic guns,my advice would be get a b2 if your having fun and want somthing better,save up and buy a top end springer.

I was hoping to give the smk a hard time, but actually the hw has since had to have the spring out and reduced in size as it kept going up ......

If you pick up the xs20, or Diana copy at a fair price, and know you will have to spend a bit on them they are accurate rifles, albeit a bit more pellet fussy. Really HW Diana AA are going to have to make sure that at the prices the stuff goes out at, that a tune is an improvement rather than necessity, like it is as the moment. In fairness the AA stuff shoots ok 'out of thebox', but they only make lumping great under levers.

There was a time when everyone slated Japanses cars, remember early Datsun's ??

This was my thread, to give an honest take on the current state of play, as there are people in both camps who simply don't give an even handed review of stuff. The xs20 is not as good as the 95, but it's pretty well made and accurate, and didn't come with a factory flaw in the main tube either .....