BSA XL Tactical Reviews

RolloD's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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With a long standing love afair with PCP air rifles, used for hunting and HFT competitions, I approached the prospect of selecting a spring gun for my step son with some trepidation. After much research and advice from old friends, I took a long look at the BSA Lightning XL Tactical in .177 calibre and invested my hard earned at the Air Gun Centre in Essex.

The XL is a compact and light weight break barrel rifle with a carbine length barrel and built in sound suppressor. Looks great to be honest. Fitted with a Hawke IR 3-9x50 scope and double bolt mounts it resembles something out of a S.W.A.T team's inventory. All very promising.

Purchased with the idea of teaching a teenage lad gun handling and fieldcraft, I rapidly found a few shortcommings.

Build quality was not as good as I hoped from the Piled Arms Marque, with the barrel / breach seal being off-centre and the rubber washer frayed. The 2 bolts securing the action to the fore-stock were also loose, with one of the allen type bolts having been stripped by ham fisted tightening at the factory..

It also became clear that the cylinder was so short, compared to my old HW80, that the scope supplied with the gun had to be mounted so far back to clear the barrel when opened that correct eye relief was awkward to say the least.

The worst thing however was the rifle's tendancy to discharge without warning when broken for loading... Thankfully, with the barrel held firmly at the time, no damage to the rifle, or barrel bending took place... With this still happening every 40 rounds or so however, it would be a reason to reject the weapon under the Sale of Goods Act. And rest assured, though the instruction DVD provided with the rifle pre-warns anyone that experiences this, that they are most certainly at fault, it is not the case as at no time, when the XL was cocked, was anything anywhere near the trigger! A minor modification to the sear and religious use of the safety catch was essential to guard against this. My step son thought it was great however so it stayed.. All very disapointing.

As with any spring rifle, best accuracy can not be attained when the gun is braced or rested on a solid surface as the action is restricted in it's movement creating vibration which is not condusive to good groupings. However, try as I might, and having tried a variety of pellets, producing a 2" group at 30 yards is proving elusive. I find Air Arms Field, 4.52mm, rounds the best of the bunch but have the feeling that the rubber mounted scope rail or the barrel / breach interface is not up to scratch. My old HW80 can punch a 1.5 inch group at 40 yards without any Jedi like ability on my part, so my surprise isn't too unreasonable.

Friends own BSA rifles of far better quality and I'm left feeling that mine may just be an unlucky "friday afternoon special", but it was sold as a new rifle and I have no choice but to review it as such.

All in all, a disapointment. Looks the business, without doubt. but can not recommend as a serious hunting tool as not of the quality or consistency I'd require to ensure a humane kill every time.

That said, my step son loves it because it looks like a sniper rifle...

What can you do eh?

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Just shot the gun im getting in a few weeks, very light and quite accurate. Getting it for £280 and i really do think its worth the money. I would highly reccomend this air rifle to those who are thinking about buying it

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Right sorry to burst everyones bubble about this rifle but I am not that happy with it.... yes it looks the part, but I'm afraid thats about it from me. I looked for a good springer for weeks and read all these reviews and got advice then went to a shop and got the feel of one liked it and had a few shots,Then the bad part I paid my money and took it home had a play like you do went shooting at my rifle club and found that my Crossman ratcatcher what everyone was telling me was rubbish matched p ...

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I love my BSA and would recommend it to anybody looking for a stylish spring action hunting/plinking air rifle.

The XL Tactical gun is well able to withstand being knocked around as it has a very strong ABS construction. (its withstood the trashing ive given it anyway.)

Mine gets regular hunting use (every day weather permitting) and has accounted for over 50 squirrels within a year.
coupled with a JSR 4x40IR (that i would strongly recommend for £30)you'll easily and efficiently deal wi ...

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i recently got a bsa xl tactical it is a brilliant gun the only bads point for me was that it took me a bit of time to get used to the gun since it is a spring oparated gun when i was used to gas oparated guns

trigerappy's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Picked my BSA XL Tactical up from gunshop yesterday. Works well straight from the box. A full power (12Ft/Lbs - UK) break barrel rifle in .177 calibre. Simmons 3x9x40 sights on top. Spent a while zeroeing it in at 40 yards using AA fields, which it seems to like.Was getting bad groupings until I realised that the little barrel weight at the end of the moderator had worked loose. After tightening it again, I'm back to the pellet going exactly where I aim it, with virtually one on one groupings, f ...

antone 26's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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I recently got a BSA XL Tactical 0.177 for target shooting, a brilliant gun. It's well made, British manufactured, easy to use. I had a basic Hawke scope fitted originally I have now changed this to a BSA compact zoom scope.

I am very pleased that I invested in a springer rather than a PCP AR.

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The BSA XL Tactical is very light, very quiet, feels solid and you can tell the quality, very small !, acuracy 5 out of 5, pellets - rws super dome, copa point, predator hollowpoint ..
i read reviews that it`s loud.. not true it`s very quiet ! I modified a shadow 1000 with a silencer and it`s loud this one even the mechanism is quiet ! I paid 2,5 pounds for this gun without the scope and I have to say it`s worth every penny !!!!
I used to love the shadow 1000 and csi but with this gun you lock ...

pinchy90's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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This BSA XL Tactical is definatly one of the best break barrel rifles on the market and i would reccomend it to anyone. Mine is a 22, the acuracy is amazing on this gun shooting RWS Superdome pelets and teamed up with my Hawke SR6 scope.
The power is right on the legal limit too, mine put out an average of 11.55 lb.
I havn't yet had the chance to see what groupings are like with this gun but let me put it this way, when u get somthing in the crosshairs you hit it lol.

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BSA XL Tactical is light weight, accurate and looks good.
Although it's too noisey ,sounds twangy ,silencer not that good.
Only had this gun a couple of weeks but impressed with it's performance in the field.

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I have recently sold my AA PCP because I wanted to return to my air gunning roots. I no longer wanted the hassle with charging and all the piddling about that goes with the PCP's so after several days of pondering and weighing up, the tactical.22 ticked all the right boxes. It performs so well targeting all the usual vermin that I have asked my self several times why did I ever leave the springers in the first place.

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I am a left handed person, and im using a right handed XL Tactical , Im finding it easy to use , but it starts to hurt your wrist after a while . Light weight, good handling, accuracy is rather good. Im not sure, but they dnt come in a left handed version

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The BSA XL tactical is a good and reliable gun. Its got great weight, its a nice length and has really good power. The only bad point was that I can't get the silencer to work.

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This gun is very accurate when the scope is sighted propley and very powerfull i recomend this to eneyone. The BSA XL Tactical is an amazing air rifle. Its a nice esy rifle to shoot and really easy to zero in.
I cannot find any bad points for this gun.

A1rgunHunt4's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Brilliant gun i fitted my bushnell 4-12-50 on it and i was getting brilliant groupings about 2mm infact at about 42 metres. Its powerful, accurate, low rcoil, smooth action and lightweight

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I use this rifle on a regular basis to shoot rabbits,ferral pigeon and other vermin at a few farms and fishing venues. i also own a bsa ultra multishot and a airarms s200 out of all of them i prefer the tactical because of the synthetic stock, not having to refill and you still get the same power output. lots of people complain about the pistol grip socket falling off, this however has never happened to me. i use an ags 3-9-40 scope with it and it does exactly what is asked of it. many people th ...

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by one they are the best value for money. I have been hunting rabbits for the last 2 yrs on a private site for national grid, I find this riffle excellent for the job I do. The power and accuracy are second to none using air arms hunter pellets, have fun.

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Excellent rifle at a good price. My second .22, that dwarfs my first powerwise. I would recommend this to anyone.

thegreensloth's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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very pleased good valu for money £280. Its quite a powerful gun but the cocking action is still very smooth and very easy to maintain. it is also very light with its synthetic stock easy to zero.

rickyb3's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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I would choose the xl tactical over my webly xocet any day simply because its so much fun