Air Arms Prosport

Air Arms Prosport

The Air Arms Pro Sport and TX200 owe their existence to the Venom Arms Company and it's famous "Lazaglide" conversions to, amongst others, the HW77. The Lazaglide replaced metal to metal contact surfaces within the rifle with low friction Delrin bearings and used revised spring rates to produce tuned rifles that were smoother and more consistent than their out of the box siblings. The TX and Prosport are based on the HW77 action but built with Lazaglide type internals as standard. They are generally considered to be the best off the shelf springers available.

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I’ve owned several examples of each and they're all variants of the same basic design. Both have their fans, with the general consensus being that the Pro Sport has better balance and looks while the TX is more robust and comfortable to use.

The TX comes in two forms: The shorter HC (Hunter Carbine) and the full length MK3. They differ in that the MK3 has a longer, sleeved barrel with the last few inches of the sleeve acting as a built in silencer. These rifles are as accurate as my PCPs - particularly impressive considering that the HC has just a 9" barrel. On the down side, the HC is one of the loudest springers I've come across, thanks to that short barrel. Air Arms do a small “Plenum” silencer which screws into the end of the barrel and takes the edge off the report but even with that fitted the HC was still louder than any of my other springers. Of course, you could fit a conventional silencer but the added length defeats the purpose of buying a carbine in the first place, which is why I subsequently bought a full length Mk3.

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Over a few years and approximately 3000 shots the power of my Mk3 crept over 12fpe and remedial action was required. I’ve stripped quite a few rifles but I’d never needed to strip a TX before and the ease with which these rifles can be taken apart was a pleasant surprise. I was hoping to find some pre-load washers fitted as removing one or two would have been the easiest way to reduce power. Unfortunately, there were none on this rifle so I elected to machine a small amount off of the top hat. 1.5mm taken off with the lathe was sufficient to reduce the power back to acceptable levels. While I was in there, I couldn’t help noticing the very high quality of the components: Everything was very well machined and the spring was an excellent fit on the guides.

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Shame the same couldn’t be said for the Pro Sport that I subsequently bought. My previous Pro Sport was one of those guns that I instantly regretted selling and I’d been on the look out for another for some time. I acquired the one shown above secondhand - a recent model which appeared in excellent condition, but exhibited a definite spring twang in use. When tested over the chrono, the best I could get out of it was 10.3 fpe with Air Arms Field. Most of the other pellets that I tried barely managed 9.5 fpe! To put this in perspective, my previous Pro Sport did 11.7 fpe out of the box, as did both of my TXs, and they were all twang free. So further inspection was definitely required.

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On stripping the rifle the internals appeared in good condition. The seals were perfect and the spring was straight but the rear guide was a very loose fit, which at least explained the twang. Overall I was disappointed that no apparent attempt had been made to match up the internals. I machined up some new spring guides. The front was made to provide the correct pre-load and the rear was sized exactly to the spring. I also took the opportunity to thoroughly clean and re-lube the internals - something that I tend to do on most of the used rifles that I buy. The results were pleasing: 11.7fpe, a faster lock-time and a twang-free firing cycle. The usual Air Arms accuracy was also there.

Air Arms quality control does seem a bit variable (although still streets ahead of Weihrauch), but get a good, well sorted TX or Pro Sport and you will have one of the finest spring rifles that you can lay hands on.

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