I was sent an air stripper to review and test by a local company called Custom Engineering. The air stripper was made to fit an S400 in .177, which is one of my rifles, and a superb performer. The air stripper was fitted to my S400 classic .177 for the test.
The air stripper arrived packaged very well, I opened the box and was surprised by the quality of the item, even though this was still the prototype phase. Eagerly I set off to my garden range where I have a good 55 yards of uninterupted flat land to shoot over.
I decided to shoot prone off a rest at 35 yards distance to satisfy the consistency of the test. I fired 6 groups of 5 shots at 6 targets. The shots were consistent and well followed through using well aimed shots, with pauses between.
I fired 2 targets for each of the attachments I had to hand, which were:
The results, I must admit were very, very encouraging. The silencer was tested first, the results were very good as expected, pellet on pellet consistency at 35 yards for both target groups shot, all inside a 5 pence piece size grouping.
The Unf adaptor performed terribly, I had shots all over the card for both target groups, a three inch spread grouping at 35 yards, wholly unacceptable.
The air stripper performed on par with the silencer with great grouping, pellet on pellet at 35 yards, it did surprise me a little that the poi changed, I should have known about this, so I re-zeroed my scope with the air stripper and i was away.
Banging out the groups at 35 yards with ease, I must admit, the rifle is loud with an air stripper, but hitting 5 pence size groups at 35 yards 5 out of 5 has made me think one of these would be a worthy addition to any field target or hunter field target shooters rifle bag.
So why should you use one? Simple, ask yourself, do you shoot FT or HFT? or are you a stickler for paper punching? If no, then the silencer option is maybe more appropriate for you. If yes then you definitely should think about investing in one of these air strippers, besides the obvious advantage of accuracy, you are cutting the length of the rifle down maintaining the centre of balance which is very important in target shooting.
Adding weight to your barrel can be a big disadvantage, distorting the centre of balance and upsetting your routine and stance. I could sit here all day and tell you about shot on shot consistency, until you have tried it for yourself you will never know.
Brief Conclusion:
Well worth an investment, it can turn an average S400 into an FT rig, it looks awesome, but more importantly does what it should do, 10 out of 10 times.
The air stripper arrived packaged very well, I opened the box and was surprised by the quality of the item, even though this was still the prototype phase. Eagerly I set off to my garden range where I have a good 55 yards of uninterupted flat land to shoot over.
I decided to shoot prone off a rest at 35 yards distance to satisfy the consistency of the test. I fired 6 groups of 5 shots at 6 targets. The shots were consistent and well followed through using well aimed shots, with pauses between.
I fired 2 targets for each of the attachments I had to hand, which were:
- Swift Silencer.
- Unf adaptor for a silencer - minus the silencer.
- The Air Stripper.
The results, I must admit were very, very encouraging. The silencer was tested first, the results were very good as expected, pellet on pellet consistency at 35 yards for both target groups shot, all inside a 5 pence piece size grouping.
The Unf adaptor performed terribly, I had shots all over the card for both target groups, a three inch spread grouping at 35 yards, wholly unacceptable.
The air stripper performed on par with the silencer with great grouping, pellet on pellet at 35 yards, it did surprise me a little that the poi changed, I should have known about this, so I re-zeroed my scope with the air stripper and i was away.
Banging out the groups at 35 yards with ease, I must admit, the rifle is loud with an air stripper, but hitting 5 pence size groups at 35 yards 5 out of 5 has made me think one of these would be a worthy addition to any field target or hunter field target shooters rifle bag.
So why should you use one? Simple, ask yourself, do you shoot FT or HFT? or are you a stickler for paper punching? If no, then the silencer option is maybe more appropriate for you. If yes then you definitely should think about investing in one of these air strippers, besides the obvious advantage of accuracy, you are cutting the length of the rifle down maintaining the centre of balance which is very important in target shooting.
Adding weight to your barrel can be a big disadvantage, distorting the centre of balance and upsetting your routine and stance. I could sit here all day and tell you about shot on shot consistency, until you have tried it for yourself you will never know.
Brief Conclusion:
Well worth an investment, it can turn an average S400 into an FT rig, it looks awesome, but more importantly does what it should do, 10 out of 10 times.
