A Tale Of Two Halfs

[Skot Ruthless Teale 1,701]

Hw for the win!!

At least your happy now mate.

Great write up, im probably going to be ten mins late for work after reading all that LOL!

[RiverRomper 15]

Thank you for the jnformative and concise writeup about your Prosport. Was considering to pop 575 quid on one myself last week. My internet RFD, 600 miles north of here in Michigan, gave me some good reasons he wouldn't get one. Twenty miles north of here a new AA TX200 sits in Earth City, MO, Having arrived at 10:30 PM.(It's 12:30am Wed. right now.)

Have never seen an Air Arms springer. Only seen two Weihrauch springers. (HW95 & 55.) Your narrative is the sort of thing that is needed here to help make decisions about what to get.

Have a Beeman 97 Blu-Lam and a Beeman R1(HW80). The R1 is thirty years old and came out of an estate sale in Crystal City, MO. It is the oldest, the cheapest, and the best air gun of the lot. (am betesten). Your HW97KT should last you as long as did the R1 for it's original owner. (now resting in the arms of the Lord)

kind regards from Missouri,

RiverRomper

[fry 209]

milegajo and zini did i hear right that youboth had had a pro?? do yours squeek? out of intereset when i v-mached mine i did loc tite the bolt that holds the alloy block that slides and left it over night before cocking it! i am wondering if this block is twisting under load and rubbing on the slot in the action! not that that is any excuse for it on a rifle costing that kind of dollar!

[milegajo 595]

I can't speak for Si, but I bought one secondhand that was six years old. No problems with mine.

 

Bought it as it was a good deal, but even £250 proved too much of an indulgence and she had to go to fund family stuff. I'm gutted to hear not only of Mawders' woes but that his is not an isolated exception.

I strongly believe air arms need to read this and BUCK UP!

[fry 209]

yeah have to agree! the more i think about it the more it points to the hole in the alloy block attached to the lever not being a perfect 90 degrees and twisting under load! or the hole in the lever off causing the same effect. it would be good to hear a response from air arms concerning this issue! after all this is their flagship sprung rifle!

[Mawders 595]

Thanks Simon, Skott and river romper. Fry in both new rifles I received there was play in the lever, it would rattle from side to side but what I think was the main problem was it looked like AA hadn't milled enough off of either side of the alloy block or the lever itself that straddles it held in place by that pin. The marks along both alloy parts were deep and long representing the whole cocking motion. What's worse is on both rifles I found small fragments of alloy in the loading port when I cocked the gun because of the see through port system they use which means as minute as they were they could of got down the barrel and been fired out the gun if I didn't notice them.

 

I must stress this wasnt just a slight rub on the block it was shredding little specs of alloy off! I think with continued use it could have caused damage elsewhere!

 

Very disappointing like I said. From speaking to si I don't think he's encountered the same problem yet although I could be wrong. My theory is it happens after prolonged use, I was putting roughly 100 pellets or so through in a single range session so maybe it didn't like to be worked. I wouldn't say I was being rough with it either as anyone who knows me will tell you I treat my rifles very very well! Almost OCD like lol.

[fry 209]

sounds nasty i must say! was the chap from sfs intending to take this up with air arms? sounds like someone needs to.

[Mawders 595]

I might send my contact an email who dealt with the original air rifle. I think if the pro sport shifted as many units as the faithful tx then you would hear of more problems. The few people I did talk to at the range said they had owned a few pro sports over the years but got rid due to quality control with the levers. One bloke said he cocked his rifle one day and the black pin had slightly come loose where the lever attached to the block so when he went to push the lever back up it caused massive deep damage to the bespoke walnut stock. He quickly fell out of love with it and traded it for another rifle. Scary stuff!

[milegajo 595]

So essentially, at present what we have is an expensive wall piece with bags of potential to be a rifle...

[fry 209]

So essentially, at present what we have is an expensive wall piece with bags of potential to be a rifle...

dont think i would go that far yet ! i would say they have sent a batch out with a common fault. a crime of which most manufacturers are guilty of at some stage ! would still be interested to hear of other peoples tales of woe though. still will be hanging on to mine as i love it ! but will be keeping eyes peeled in the future for a s/h 77 with a sfs stage2 tune in mind!

[milegajo 595]

I really truly sincerely hope and pray to that airgun god in the sky you are right fry.

 

I want to love the prosport so much, I've longed for one ever since i was aware of their existance and I'd especially like a shiny new one that's all mine.

[Mawders 595]

Like I said it could just be a faulty batch but then I had two of them from different sources and both produced the same result. I hope it gets fixed or addressed and future rifles go back to how they used to be as the older ones from a few years ago don't suffer the same problem it would seem from doing my own research.

 

Essentially it would be the most awesome springer out the box! Accuracy wise and looks wise they are at the top of their game!

 

I think I posted in another topic that's why I buy new so I get warranty and the ability to return a rifle for refund or swap! Imagine if I had purchased that second hand and the problem came up. It would have sent me potty!

[A1WOC 212]

Nice account of your experience, it will make Pro Sport owners examine theirs for the same fault. Let’s hope Air Arms R&D is doing something about it to prevent it happening again.

 

With reference to the HW97; I left my new one with SFS yesterday for a stage 2 tune. They come highly recommended and I haven’t heard a bad report about them yet!

 

Regards, Steve

[Mawders 595]

Steve I've been using them for the past year, you have made the right choice! Tony and the team are awesome! You WILL be impressed with the results my friend!

[spring3r 2]

Thank you for sharing your experiences of both rifles, Mawders, and in particular for giving Tony at Sandwell Field Sports the recognition that he deserves.

 

I had the pleasure of visiting Tony having seen Si Pittaway's coverage on YouTube and will be a customer for as long as Sandwell Field Sports is open.

 

I am sorry (and was surprised) that you had issues with the Air Arms ProSport - This is certainly enough to put me off considering this model in future.

 

The HW97KT that you bought looks fantastic, so congratulations on your choice, and to echo the thoughts of others here, I would love to see your review.

 

Would be great to hear how the ProSport compares to the SFS Stage 2 tuned HW97KT (aside from the AA design / engineering issues).

 

I imagine that the KT stock - great looking in my opinion - feels as good as that of my HW100KT.

 

Enjoy your new gun, and again, thanks for the detailed post.

 

Cheers,

 

Spring