Hatsan's Heavy Hitter

Although the Hatsan brand feels familiar to me, when I really thought about it, I realised just how few of them I’ve ever shot.

They tend to make visually distinctive guns that aren’t likely to be mistaken for any other brand, although a number of their models look just like semi-automatic shotguns. This made me keen to try one for the full Big Test treatment, so I asked Edgar Brothers, the UK importer, if I could try a BT65 SB Elite precharged pneumatic rifle. This again is very distinctive in its looks and I was drawn to it especially because it boasts an adjustable height cheek piece, a feature I value greatly.

This is a big, heavy rifle, best suited to large, strong men. A lady’s gun this is not. The whole feel of the rifle is robust and chunky, topped off with an advanced polymer stock, so you know immediately this is a gun designed to take the knocks in the field and laugh them off. There’s a touch of military styling about it too, with the matte black stock and three sections of Weaver rail attached to the fore end to accept torches and lasers, if they’re your thing.

Complete kit

What arrived for review was a complete kit, comprising; the rifle, three magazines, an Optima 3-12 x 44 AOE scope, mounts, a sling, an Optima II LED torch and mount, spare seals and tools, a plastic flight case and finally a clip-on bipod. Phew! What a list! All you need is some air and pellets and you’re ready for anything. The one thing that I feel British shooters would have liked to have seen in a kit like this is a silencer. The barrel is screwcut ready to accept it, so I attached my standby Weihrauch one, which fitted perfectly. This dropped the muzzle noise to a whisper, which then accentuated the resonance from the hammer spring, which to be blunt, is quite loud under the shooter’s ear. However, any skilled tuner could eliminate that in no time.