bsa airsporter's review

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Picture courtesy of Keith Maunder.

Average Ratings

Accuracy	8.8/10
Handling	8.3/10
Value for Money	8.2/10
Reviewer Rating	9/10
Overall Rating	9/10

81% Recommended38 out of 47 Reviews

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By Oli Trainor on 21st Sep 2007

Oli Trainor's Ratings

Accuracy	9/10
Handling	8/10
Value for money	10/10
Overall value	10/10
Oli Trainor's recommendation

Good Points

ALL AIRSPORTER MARKS
Fantastic looking rifle.
Produces close to the UK 12ft/lb limit without much tinkering.
Reliable to the degree of an AK-47.
Spares Availability.
Good balance.
Muzzle is about an inch recessed, making the gun look like it's an actual firearm.
Heavy.

AIRSPORTER S MODELS ONLY
More sturdy zinc alloy open sights.
Lovely oiled walnut laser cut chequered stock.

Bad Points

Only works well with Eley Wasp 5.6mm pellets.
Major scope creep problems with two-piece mounts without recoil pins.
Far too much eye relief.
Single stage trigger.
Tap loading system.
Silencers ineffective.
Heavy.

General Comments

The BSA Airsporter is one of the most characteristic and best looking air rifles on the market. I got given a .22 Airsporter S, made between 1979 and 1983, and it still shoots as well as the day it was made. It even has the brilliant design innovation of having the muzzle recessed and a much larger second "muzzle" visible, making an air rifle look like a high-power firearm.

As mid-range spring piston air rifles go, I firmly believe it's one of the best available. It has a smashing, crisp trigger pull, despite it being only a single stage, made lighter if it's well polished and oiled.

The weight is both a blessing and a curse. My personal specimen weighs in at around 4kg or 8.8lb with a 4X32 scope. The weight will negate a lot of the recoil inherent to the spring piston design, but it's a real nuisance to haul around for anything past a couple of hours.

Not only does it shoot well, it's reliable to the Nth degree. You can put it through almost as much punishment as you want and it'll still keeps those pellets coming. Even on one of those rare occasions where you do happen to break something, you'll not have to spend weeks sourcing that vital part. In fact, you're spoiled for choice, with plenty of gunsmiths making parts for this time-tested design, itself beginning life in the '40s.

Now to shatter this image I've created of the perfect air rifle... I have only a few major gripes with it. The greatest problem, I feel, is the weight. It's an incredibly heavy thing to cock and load, weighing in at around 3.75 kg or 7lbs for a standard model without a scope. As mentioned above, it becomes a real pain to carry around after a few hours.

Another problem is the fact that the only pellets I've found that work well with these guns are Eley Wasps of the 5.6mm variety. There is, of course, the possibility that it will work with other over-size pellets; I just haven't found them yet. I was, however, told that BSA designed the .22 Airsporter specifically around 5.6mm Wasps.

This isn't an essential accessory, but telescopic sights are a major boon to both hunter and target shooter alike, and with two-piece mounts without recoil pins, the scope isn't secure. The pins are actually grub screws protruding from the bottom of the bracket and are designed to push against the cylinder, thus securing the brackets more securely, and are necessary to counter a problem inherent to all spring piston air rifles; the fact that they have both a backward and a forward recoil.

This double recoil effect happens as the spring pushes against the gun to move the piston forward, causing the gun to push backwards and compressing the air inside the cylinder, and when the piston head hits the end of the cylinder, kicking the gun forwards again. Both of these jolts make the scope mounts jump back a fraction of a millimetre a time, but enough that when the rearmost bracket reaches the end of the groove, it will begin to "climb" the upward taper in it, bringing your point of aim down. Although these climbs only alter the scope itself by a fraction of a degree, the difference is accentuated vastly at the target, moving the zero by up to 2' at 50yds, if left unchecked.

This problem is rectified easily by getting one-piece mounts. There are some designed specifically to bring scopes further back and closer to the shooter's eye, thus killing two birds with one stone, as the grooves are too far forward, or the stock is too long to provide reasonable eye relief, dependent on your point of view on the situation.

The tap loader is only a small problem, along with the single stage trigger. The tap is just about perfectly fitted to the Wasps, so if it gets a bit grubby, or there's a pellet even slightly misshapen or too large, it will stick half-in, half-out of the tap, requiring a stick to be pushed in to push the pellet the whole way in. The trigger sear is, like the tap, nothing more than a minor irritation, not allowing you to feel precisely when the gun will fire. I'm quite sure, however, there will be some way of buying or making an aftermarket sear, judging by the popularity of this particular gun.

Silencers are relatively ineffective with this and all other springers alike. They're good at reducing the muzzle report, but the slap of the piston hitting the end of the cylinder is still fairly audible. This isn't a huge problem, however, as an unsilenced Airsporter is around as loud as a silenced .22 cartridge rifle.

All things considered, the BSA Airsporter is one of the best spring piston air rifles conceived, and over 40 years of production can't be wrong. I'm prepared to overlook its few faults, to see the rifle for what it is; a truly legendary instrument of precision and accuracy, a testament and a credit to BSA's already fine arsenal and engineering genius.

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