air arms pro-elite review

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Picture courtesy of Corey White.

Average Ratings

Accuracy	9.1/10
Handling	9.1/10
Value for Money	9.5/10
Reviewer Rating	9.3/10
Overall Rating	8.8/10

93% Recommended13 out of 14 Reviews

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By wvhunter. on 16th Jul 2003

wvhunter.'s Ratings

Accuracy	10/10
Handling	10/10
Value for money	10/10
Overall value	10/10
wvhunter.'s recommendation

Good Points

Awesome crisp trigger, beautiful stock, VERY accurate and powerful, very smooth cocking and firing behavior.

Bad Points

A tad bit heavy...but it adds to its steadiness and keeps it tame during firing. A bit 'hold sensitive', but expect that with all springers! Rough on scopes...not a gun issue though...seems that scopes rated as heavy air rifle recoil are not living up to its expectations...from all accounts from talking with scores of air rifle nuts...there are only 2 scopes that stand the test of time with this rifle....the Weaver V16, Leopold 3-9 Air Rifle and the Bushnell Elite Air Rifle series.

General Comments

The Air Arms Pro Elite (.22 cal)....wow....I've owned an RWS 52, RX1 and RWS 45 and this powerful Spring Piston Air Rifle is by and far the highest quality magnum air rifle I've ever owned.

Awesome high quality stock, beautiful deep blue finish, an actual METAL trigger and trigger guard, a nice bull barrel (a stainless steel insert is the actual barrel with a blued thicker "oversert" and baffling system that gives it that bull barreled "look" and keeps noise level down.

Many advertised velocities from different sources, and you'll hear many overinflated claims, but expect 14.3 grain Crosman Premier pellets to average 770-780 FPS after your gun is broken in (500 shots or more) Talking to guys on the chat room at www.straightshooters.com (which by the way is an awesome place to find teh Air Arms line of rifles as they are the #1 importer into the US!!) reveal some batches of rifles coming out of England that top out at 820 FPS. That comes at a price to seal wear and accuracy I would assume, so I am happy with this 'bit' lower velocity.

Yes the RWS 350 is a bit faster...but did I tell you about the trigger and accuracy of this gun?? At 10 yards and with a proper hold one hole groups are common, at 20 yards I'm getting .307" groups (without much testing and in the Field Target Sitting Position) and 60 yards I shot a 1.00" prone rifle rested 7 shot group with one flier for a total of 1.75".

Overall if you can afford the additional $100 over the RWS, seek out a ProElite and don't look back, just get a high quality scope like the Weaver V16 or Bushnel Elite and the Leopold 3-9 air rifle scope or you will be sending in the scope for repair every 1000 shots or less.

Total Respect: +4