Recoil In Amazement!

This month, Dave Barham spends some quality time with the Air Arms TX200 Hunter Carbine

- Dave Barham

After reading various reviews and reports from HFT championships about the TX200, I thought it was high time that I took one out for myself to see what all the fuss is about. This is by no means a new rifle, although since its inception many years ago, this MKIII Hunter Carbine version has had numerous improvements.

CHUNKY MONKEY

When I took the TX200 HC out of its box I was quite surprised at how much it weighed. It’s not excessive, but it just feels heavier than I expected it to at bang on 4kg (or 8.8lbs). I think the fact that it is a carbine adds to the ‘illusion’ that is should weigh less than it does.

That said, the weight certainly helps when shooting this springer, making it feel incredibly solid, which could be just one of the many reasons why this rifle performs so well in competitions, having been taken to World Championship HFTwinning levels in recent years.

SAFE-LOK

Before I dive into the review, I must mention Air Arms’ ‘Safe-Lok’ loading system. It’s essentially a second safety feature in the form of an anti-bear trap device that helps to prevent the rifle from being fired and the cylinder accidentally sliding forward whilst you’re loading a pellet directly into the barrel, after it’s been cocked.

For those who don’t know how a sliding breech works, it’s basically a smaller cylinder housed inside the main one, which moves backwards as you cock the rifle. As the rifle is cocked, the inner cylinder moves back to expose the breech, where you push your pellet in.