Beeman GS950 .22 Review

Overall Rating

Fiber optic sights, rubber recoil pad, nice appearance.

Poor packing, hard cocking, plastic trigger and trigger guard.

First impression when opening the box was not good. The rifle was not wrapped in paper or plastic and had a covering of fine brown dust from the cardboard. The muzzle and front sight were unprotected from the rough handling of shipping. After wiping the rifle off with a silicone treated cloth things began to look up. All metal parts are nicely polished and blued with no visible tool marks. The hardwood stock is also nicely finished with a walnut stain, although there seems to be some grain that didn't absorb enough stain. This gives the wood a somewhat mottled appearance, something you may or may not like. Fitting of the rubber butt pad was good with only a very slight amount of excess. The pressed checkering looks good but is not very functional. The fiber optic sights are great and one of the reasons for my choosing this rifle. The click adjustable rear sight has white reference lines. The plastic trigger is adjustable. The trigger guard is also made of "plastic". Plastic or Polymer, how does one tell. I just read a review of a $1695.00 m1911 .45 auto pistol the counts among its custom features a "skeletonized light weight polymer trigger". Although I prefer blued steel and walnut we are talking about an under $200 rifle. The rifle seemed lighter then an RWS 34 and is well balanced.
The first several shots resulted in loud cracks that sounded like a .22 rimfire. Opening the breach released a plume of smoke after each shot. This lasted less then 10 shots and after 50 or so shots the rifle is beginning to smoothout. Accuracy has been somewhat erratic, perhaps due to my use of cheap Daisy pellets (all the gun shop that sold me the rifle had). At approximately 25 yards from a solid rest groups have been anywhere from great to dismal. Some groups having two shots touching with the third shot " away. Other groups are nicely rounded if somewhat large at 1 " . The force required to load these Daisy pellets varies greatly and I suspect is the reason for poor accuracy. That and the fact that breakin of a springer may take several hundred shots or so I'm told. The fiber optic sights are very fast to line up and stand out very nicely. Cocking force is stiff. It's listed at 40 lbs. This is not an all day shooter. I do not have the means to test velocity. But I can tell you this factory rated 750fps .22 rifle shoots clean through empty coffee cans. Were as my Chinese .177 side cocker rated at 800 fps merely dents them. But that's not really saying much.
All in all I'd say this rifle is as nice as any in it's price range and has the features I was looking for; fiber optic sights, rubber recoil pad, .22 caliber, scope stop.

Members' Comments ondjhilly's Review

• flyfisher228 on 29th Mar 2004

  Give Beeman a call and order the Crow Magnum Pellets they are awesome. Also Try the RWS Superdome Pellets they give excellent results. I wouldnt be using Daisy pellets on this puppy you may break the piston due to hard slamming against the breech. Too much power for cheap pellets.

• djhilly on 7th Jul 2004

  Update; I have taken your advice and purchased some higher quality pellets. Dynamit Nobel Superdomes, Beeman Crow-Magnum as well as some Crossman Copperheads.
  
  The Copperheads are much better then the Daisy. The quality of the Crow-Magnums and the Superdomes are easily seen. But my shooting has not improved all that much. I’ve shot another 200-300 round mixture of these pellets and still I am not getting the groups I think I should be getting. Best groups are still around 1” but not consistent with too many flyers. It could be the rifle is still breaking in or more likely I am not shooting this rifle well. Strangely the cheapest pellet (Copperhead) seems to be the most consistent. Also the Crow-Magnum show signs of instability. They tear paper targets and leave a lead smudge mark in wooden boards. More shooting is in order. Perhaps I’ll try another scope.