Xisco B-40 .177cal Review

Overall Rating

Good power and accuracy, good finish-wood and metal, ease of disassembly/assembly, pleasing to shoot.

Internal metallurgy could use improvement- spring and spring guide.

The Xisco B-40 competes with my TX200 proportionately to price. The insides are a little less robust, yielding about 14.5 ft-lb. energy compared to 15.5-16 for the TX. I like trying for 1.25 inch circles at 50 yards. At right around 900 fps with 8 grains, the ballistics put this one ahead of 13+ fpe class guns like the CFX and HW77 (both fine guns) and make it just feasible for the 50 yard experience. My specimen was made after the barrel and breech were opened further (early models were reported to have tight breech and barrel) and likes a little larger pellets like the Crossman Premiers, both light (short) and heavy (long). Of course, the 10.5 gr. heavy takes the ballistics down to 800 fps or less. I run "contests" with a small battery of what I consider good rifles (TX200HC, HW77, RWS 48, CFX, and now B40, all fixed barrels). On occasion, the B40 will win. After about 1000+ rounds, the mainspring broke. A new one with seals is cheap and available from Xisco. Not long after replacement, the washer on the mainspring guide came loose from the tube. This was apparently press fit without flaring the tube. This too was easily fixed, all this leading to the discovery of how easy repair is on this design. Some of this sounds bad but I really enjoy and recommend this rifle from China. By now, some of these "bugs" may have been remedied. One more thing, since the spring is so easily replaced-A slightly smaller wire diameter spring will smooth the piston release and firing action with no measurable loss of power, probably by avoiding "stacking" in the full-cocked position.

Members' Comments onpellhead's Review

• rc12ls on 25th Dec 2007

  I did make a smaller diam spring (.125" wire). It shoots a heck of a lot nicer but the fps On CP lites dropped to 800. I might have been able to add a few more coils. I also machined a new spring guide with thrust bearing. Shoots smooth as silk. Although the FPS dropped the accuracy came up.

• pellhead on 3rd Jan 2008

  The "English" spring I used was only slightly smaller in wire diameter than the Xisco (larger than 0.125 inches)and measurably and noticeably smaller in outside and inside coil diameter, just brushing the spring guide on the inside diameter. The temper felt better, resulting in less of a stacking feel on the back end of the cocking stroke. I later tried the same stock with the maximum number of coils which resulted in an instant engagement and non stacking and stronger feel on the cocking stroke. I would have bet a small amount of money that the velocity would increase, perhaps rivaling the TX-200. It didn't and the increased jumping decimated the usable accuracy. It's not surprising that your gentler rifle is more accurate with terrific usable accuracy.