Shanghai QB88 Review

Overall Rating

Fairly good trigger

Pretty worthless rear sight. Requires a good scope mount or rings. Stock finish is UGLY and may have blemishes in the wood.

Shooting procedure:
Push small lever on the top of the cocking lever to release the cocking lever.
Pull cocking lever back as far as it will go.
Insert pellet directly into breech.
Push red button on the underside of the forearm to release the anti-beartrap safety, and ease cocking lever forward, until the release lever clicks.
When you are ready to shoot, push the safety lever forward out of the way to disengage it.
Pull trigger, and follow through.
Make sure you're scope didn't slide back if you have one mounted.

Apparently, I got an older version with no adjustable trigger, at least there was no instructions for adjusting it in the manual. I know for sure that it had no scope stop, because if it did, I would have been spared a lot of frustration. They claimed that it had an automatically resetting safety, but either mine didn't work, or they just mean the anti-beartrap safety.

I was so not impressed by this rifle. There were so many problems with it, I got really frustrated and sold it. The biggest annoyance was the roll pins holding the cocking lever assembly together were always coming loose. The iron (actually they were mostly plastic) sights were utter crud, I could hit the general area of the target, but there was no precision. Recoil isn't too hard compared to some magnum springers, but I had trouble keeping a scope where I put it. This rifle, by the way, is no where near a magnum springer. Once the rifle stops dieseling, velocity will probably be in the 500-600 fps range. I can't really say what specific scopes will survive it, but the BSA 2-7x32 survived, and survived on my B21 for a while.

The stock was a mess, there was a crater on the cheek-piece that was about an inch in diameter, and it "looked like it was dipped in brown laquer." It didn't take too long to make a very unsightly scratch in it. I would have preferred the plastic stock of a Crosman.

The stock would come loose all the time, and accuracy would go to hell. I finally figured out that the front of the stock was making contact with the barrel. I filed it to free-float the barrel, and that pretty much ended that problem, but the screws still worked loose. Being older and wiser now, I would degrease the stock screws and holes, and thread-lock them.

On the upside, the trigger was not all that bad the way I got it, probably about 3-5 pounds, creepy, but with a fairly crisp release. I intended to use it for hunting, so that was about the best I could ask for from a cheap rifle. The front sight assembly had a false crown, so damaging the actual crown would take some effort.

Stay the hell away from the rough grey colored Chinese pellets that come in the white plastic "tins" with a green sticker. I think Compasseco still gives away 200 free with all the Chinese air rifles. Either throw them away or, after inspecting each pellet individually before loading, use them for very short range plinking or breaking-in and waiting for the dieseling to end. They are so inconsistent you will never get any kind of accuracy out of them. A lot of the skirts are bent too. Later, I tried melting the pellets, for a stock weight, and the damn things would not melt, I have no idea what they're really made of. That being said, using expensive pellets in this rifle is a bit of a waste too. Ordinary Crosman flats should make for good hunting and target pellets.

I'd suggest a QB78 or a Crosman 2260 or 2250 over this rifle.