0 A GU O w g g
THE EDITOR’S TEST
ventilated butt pad all the way to the muzzle
tip, with nothing on the way to jar the scanning
eyeball. The Air Arms Pro-Sport looks as
though it wants to be shouldered and shot, and
that’s what I’ll do next.
HOW IT HANDLES
This is no featherweight sporter. The Pro-Sport
weighs in at an aim-stabilising 9lbs-plus, once
a suitable scope and mounts have been
added, and by ‘suitable’, I mean ‘not a dirty
great mega-scope’. I noticed the neat little
Airmax 2-7 x 32 while studying what was on
display on the Hawke Optics stand at the
Northern Shooting Show, and I thought it
would perfectly suit the Pro-Sport. It does,
although truth to tell, I bolted on a trusted 4-
x 40 to extract the test rifle’s full potential
during testing. It definitely didn’t look right,
though, and my own Pro-Sport wears a sleek
3-9 x 40 and I do very well with that. You’ll
make your own optics choice, but do have a
care for the aesthetics ... because they matter.
COCKING METHOD
The geometry of the Pro-Sport’s cocking
mechanism requires a fair degree of effort to
take it through its downward arc into full sear
engagement. The first stage of that arc is where
your required input will be most noticeable, at
least until you become attuned to the most
efficient method of cocking the rifle. You’ll soon
learn the knack of ‘sweeping’ down that lever
and slowing its progress until just before the
‘click’ of the sears tells you to load the rifle and
return the lever. Above all, never, ever let go of
that cocking lever during the loading of the
pellet. Forget the twin safety systems; the real
safety mechanism on any gun is your handling,
so hold that lever, insert the pellet, then return
the lever ... every single time.
WEIGHT ADVANTAGE
Once you learn to use the rifle’s heft to keep it
on target, rather than fretting about holding it
up, relaxation replaces muscle tension, to the
advantage of consistent accuracy. It’s an
accepted fact among many Pro-Sport fans that
this rifle is slightly more hold sensitive
than its TX200 stablemate,
HOW IS SHOOTS BEST
Like all recoiling rifles, the Pro-Sport requires
consistency of technique to bring out the best
in it. This is usually translated as ‘use a light
touch, don’t grip it hard, and allow the rifle to
recoil without interference,’ and this advice is
perfectly correct. What that instruction doesn’t
reveal, is the thinking behind it, and it’s all
about consistency.
The fact is, you can use a tight grip
on a recoiling rifle with complete
success, provided the degree of
tension you apply is consistent.
Muscles being what they are, they’ll
only maintain a high degree of tension
for a short while, after which they
begin to relax, the tension changes,
and the rifle finds itself in a different
set of circumstances – and it reacts
differently to them. This means the
muzzle will usually be in a different
place by the time the pellet exits, and
the pellet will translate that difference byFreshly oiled and
looking splendid.and I’d agree with that, but that knowledge
only reinforces the need to shoot the Pro-Sport
correctly. When you do that, it will group.
pellets inside 20mm at 50 yards ... because
that’s exactly what the test rifle did.Ken said it was ‘special’,
and he was right.