Daystate Huntsman Mk 11 Review

Overall Rating

Accuracy, build quality and great aftersales service.

Some very ordinary woodwork as standard.

The Daystate Huntsman Mk II air rifle

I used a Mk.I Huntsman to great effect in FT during the late 80's and early 90's. I won a championship, finished 11th in the Grand Prix series and won a few trophies at local level. Selling that particular rifle back in 1992 is something I've regretted ever since!

Back in August 2001, I started looking for a rifle to practice with to get back into the swing of FT again. I have owned a wide variety of air rifles over the years from a BSA Meteor to the top end Sportsmatch GC2, but I knew that there could only be one rifle to start with, the Huntsman Mk.II. Why choose the Huntsman? Because it's well engineered, accurate, consistent, gives a good number of usable shots per charge and is reasonably priced. I knew that I wasn't going to buy a brand new gun until I was sure the bug for FT had truly returned, so I started looking around for the right rifle. I didn't have to look far, as my local gun shop, Devizes Airgun Centre, had just what I was looking for. This particular rifle has a beech skeleton stock, Airstream silencer and looked to be in good condition. A deal was struck there and then and I took it home.

The first thing I did was to give it a thorough clean, including the barrel, as I wanted everything to be right when I zeroed it. I still had an old Tasco 6-24x40 TR scope and a set of mounts, so I fitted those to the rifle and headed for the range. Something I immediately noticed about this rifle was how sweetly the trigger was set up. My old Mk.I never had a very good trigger but this one feels almost as good as the one on my new CRX! The next thing I noticed, or rather my father noticed, was how quiet this rifle was with the Airstream silencer fitted. Some people say they aren't as good as the Logun, but my father would disagree. The loudest thing about this rifle is the 'TWANG' from the striker. Something that Daystate has sorted out on newer guns.

After an initial zero session, I put in two, five-shot groups at 35 yards that you could cover with a five pence piece. At 50 yards I could still produce half-inch groups with it, which isn't bad considering this was my first practice session for nearly four years! My father also produced some excellent groups with this rifle, so that must show what an easy gun it is to shoot.

After the day at the range I was keen to get out in the field to see what both this rifle and I were capable of. A phone call to a friend and I was on my way to his farm. When I arrived, my friend greeted me and seemed very interested in my rifle. We had a quick zero check before we started our hunt. My friend was very uncertain about hunting with my rifle as it's in .177 calibre, but I assured him that it's as happy hunting bunnies as it is on the range. We stayed on the farm for about an hour and between us we shot seven bunnies in total. My Huntsman had accounted for three of these and I was happy with that. My friend also had a bunny with this rifle and was surprised by its performance.

So, all in all, I think that I have a good all-round rifle that is as happy hunting as shooting FT. I'm sure that over the coming months I will have lots of fun and enjoyment from this rifle, although it will be doing more hunting now that I've purchased a new CR-X, but that's another story.

Daz Ford
February 2002