PUNCHING ABOVE ITS WEIGHT!

The Editor applauds the expansion of Kral’s former PCP pistol

I first saw the Kral NP-O1 pistol at a shooting show – I think it was IWA, Nuremberg, about three years ago – and I thought then that, fitted with a buddy-bottle butt, it would make a seriously handy carbine. At last year’s Northern Shooting Show, there it was, the Kral Puncher NP-O2, and after having a play with it on the Ronnie Sunshine’s stand, I nodded my approval and asked for one to test. Such is the moveable feast that is the lot of an Airgun World editor, it took me over a year to pin down a test sample, and even then it was a well-used, ex-demo model. As it turned out, that was fine by me, mainly because this isn’t a brand-new model and it’s often good to test a rifle with some mileage on it. I think we’ve waited long enough; let’s crack on.

OVERVIEW

In the rack beside me as I write is an ambidextrous, multi-shot, magazine-fed carbine, with a buddy bottle inside its adjustable synthetic butt, a conventional air reservoir under the barrel and an expertly stippled, oiled walnut stock. It offers a two-stage, adjustable trigger, probe charging, and a vari-power action which is cocked and loaded by a stubby sidelever on the left-hand side of its action.

The position of that sidelever harks back to the NP-O2’s former role as a pistol, where most shooters would aim it with their right hand, and find it easier to cock with their left. In its present incarnation, the finger-contact arc of the lever sits squarely against the protruding magazine, which seems a bit odd when you look at it, but is decidedly less so in use. More of that after this tour of the Kral’s features is concluded.