SMK air rifles

[Siberianfury]

SMK air rifles can be found in most Gun shops in the UK and are proving to be highly popular with begginer air gunners as they are cheap, the SMK state that their rifles are full power and suitable for hunting small game.
I have just recently started hunting with air rifles (ive been shooting them since i was about 9) and decided to buy a more powerful and accurate air gun than my old .177 BSA cadet. as i am a student and had a tight budget of around £100 i went for a look around the gunshops in my area (buying from BBS was not an option as i cant register). after looking in a few and lookng on the internet i bought a smk19 in .22 for around £90, i was so pleased, some reveiws on the internet said that this gun was of poor build quality i should have listened. i found the quality ok but the trigger was hellist and the recoil was similar to that of a 12bore. after zeroing my scope, practicing and practicing untill i could hit a grape at 20 yards i aquired permission from a local farmer and off i went after rabbits, crows and pigeons.

scope zeroed at 30yrds i could see it was innifective at this range as very few of my kills were clean and often required a second shot. the first one to be wounded was a rabbit shot 25yrds away in the head, having done this it upset me, i hit the rabbit in the exact place but the pellet just didnt do the job i didnt hunt with that rifle after that.

After just one and a half tins of bisley lrg's and the pellets were clearly visible when shot and bounced off wood at 20 yards (full power my ar*e), then the spring broke, i had the rifle replaced thinking that my last one was faulty but no after a couple of weeks the same thing happned, thinking it was mabye the model of the rifle i bought an SMK xs36-2 underleaver claimed to be very powerful, nope it to lost power plus upon inspection the new rifle had a nice layer of rust inside the breech, that was it, i took it back and got a full refund.
After looking around a bit more and saving up some more money i went for a BSA lightning in .22, its unbelivably better, im now able to hit a hazel nut from across my garden (35m) and take everything cleanly in one shot, its my pride and joy and will keep my freezer full.

i will never buy from smk again and deeply regret ever investing in their products.
Rant over

ATB
Josh

 

[stevesteve]

Interesting... I saw a bolt-loading, CO2 powered SMK rifle recently and wondered what it would be like. It looked too cheap for the machining to be any good.

Anyone tried one of those?

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Siberianfury]

Interesting... I saw a bolt-loading, CO2 powered SMK rifle recently and wondered what it would be like. It looked too cheap for the machining to be any good.

Anyone tried one of those?

Cheers,
Steve

ive never owned one but a freind of mine does, he bought it for corvid control a while back, he dosent use it much anymore because the compressed gas is annoying to keep buying but i had a go and its quite accurate, however the finish isnt the best and its not very powerful im guessing 8ft/lbs not realy enough for hunting, but hes done ok with it for magpies in his garden. out of the smk rifles its one of the better ones and i hear you can tune it to the legal limit, so its fairly good when tuned up.
on a budget of under £90 its the best you can get new.

ATB
josh

 

[welshwhit]

I shot a friend from my clubs, but hes a bit of a genius when it comes to springers and re worked the internals extensively, and he only purchased it for a chinese rifle only competition.

I personally wouldn't use one now, but I have owned a couple which gave mixed results, BUT I know of people that do regularly hunt with them.

As for the CO2 powered rifles, they generally are sub 10 ft/lbs and if you leave the cartridge in they can degrade the seals, making them uneconomical.

But the Lightening is a cracking gun! You'll do well with that one!

Drew

 

[Siberianfury]

But the Lightening is a cracking gun! You'll do well with that one!

Drew

i love it, cant stop shooting it.
its favorite food seems to be accupells and AA feilds.
do you own one?

 

[welshwhit]

No, but I have a friend who used to shoot regularly with it!

Try Mosquitos in it as-well,if they are accuarate, as they are lighter they give you a slightly flatter trajectory which is always useful!

AA Fields are a good pellet though! I use these for competition and hunting with no problems!

Drew

 

[Siberianfury]

Try Mosquitos in it as-well,if they are accuarate, as they are lighter they give you a slightly flatter trajectory which is always useful!



Drew

i might just order a tin as i have heard good things about them, do you know if a lighter pellet would be more effective at stopping rabbits ect? i hunt in famland so my ranges are frequently 40 yards and i need a good hard hitting flat trajectory pellet
what rifles do you shoot with?

 

[welshwhit]

I shoot .177 and have no problems with how hard my pellets hit and thats right out to 45 yards with fast humane kills

Like any other aspect of shooting, accuracy and shot placement are the key!

Saying that, the mosquito will hit plenty hard enough for you!

 

[Siberianfury]

I shoot .177 and have no problems with how hard my pellets hit and thats right out to 45 yards with fast humane kills

Like any other aspect of shooting, accuracy and shot placement are the key!

Saying that, the mosquito will hit plenty hard enough for you!

do you think that hollow points are word bothering with? most of them are too solidly made to expand any more than a round head.

 

[welshwhit]

Hollow points are shortrange things really, and at short range I think the energy transfer should be fine.

I'd only use them for short range pestcontrol if I knew I wasn't going to any other type of shooting, in other words something like the AA Field will deliver in all scenarios

I have a lot of pellets in my shooting box. . . .none of them are hollow points, thats not to say they are no good, I just don't use them as I may be taking a 30 yard corvid, then a 15 yard rat then a 45 yard bunny!

Drew

 

[Siberianfury]

Hollow points are shortrange things really, and at short range I think the energy transfer should be fine.

I'd only use them for short range pestcontrol if I knew I wasn't going to any other type of shooting, in other words something like the AA Field will deliver in all scenarios

I have a lot of pellets in my shooting box. . . .none of them are hollow points, thats not to say they are no good, I just don't use them as I may be taking a 30 yard corvid, then a 15 yard rat then a 45 yard bunny!

Drew

what rifle do you shoot with?

 

[welshwhit]

At the moment I'm hunting with a HW100K or TX200 thats been tuned real nice

I also have a daystate, but i shoot that in comps mostly, it does make an appearance hunting every now and then though!

Just sold on my Theoben MFR still kinda regret that one but you can't keep them all!

All in .177 flavour too

Drew

 

[Crafty]

Can I ask what models you bought?

 

[Siberianfury]

Can I ask what models you bought?

sorry, is that queston directed at me or at Drew?

 

[welshwhit]

If it was me I had a pump up precharged [sorry don't remember the model ] and a model that was called the 'Lion'! However this was over 10 years ago now and they could be very different!

I have seen a model that has a moderator / barrel weight on it that looks quite descent though

Drew

 

[sapper1]

I recently bought a lightning xl,cracking bit of kit .Lots of people reckon the quality isn't there,but I've had no problem.

 

[Siberianfury]

I recently bought a lightning xl,cracking bit of kit .Lots of people reckon the quality isn't there,but I've had no problem.

its a purdey compared to an smk, i have the standard lightning with a checkerd walnut stock, imo the quality is excellent and it feels so good to shoot. i took another rabbit with it this evening, 30-45yrds bang on headshot, instant kill, now its preped and in my freezer what more do you want from an air rifle. i also dug the pellet from its skull, the accupell crumpled like a hollowpoint. excuse for gory details.

how do you get on with yours?

 

[Crafty]

sorry, is that queston directed at me or at Drew?

Sorry, You.

 

[Siberianfury]

Sorry, You.

ahh, well had two smk 19-18's in .22 smk clams these rifles are full power and are
"assembled in england by skilled gunsmiths" both of these claims are false, they are made in a factory in china, according to my local gunsmith, cometas, gamos and crossmans are made in the same place =o , and the power goes after a couple of tins, the springs also break very easily.
i also had a XS36-2 underleaver, which was a great big heavy lump of a thing, smk claims this is a " massivly powerful underleaver" which i guess in the real world translates to terribly finished (there was rust inside the new gun) and
so underpower it would bounce off a peice of pine at 20 yards, i was so appauled by the weapon that i took it back to the shop 3 days later and got a full refund, the pellets i fired with it were 13.8gr bisley practice, these were visible in flight, the weapon was also horribly inaccurate, i could watch the pellets go down the scope and they twirled like they had been thrown at the paper, i wonder if an airsoft gun would have been more effective.
smk states this rifle fires at 600fps, however im guessing 350fps with an effective mouse killing range of 10 ft. the rifle was also badly assembled with the underleaver at an angle so it scratches and wears away at the stock whilst you cock. such quality and attention to detail is just what is expected of a manufacturer like SMK.

 

[Matt.S]

Ya get what you pay for, just like with any other tool. If you get a decent quality gun and maintain it, it can last you the rest of your life and possibly more. Buy cheap, buy twice (or more). Of course 'cheap' is not the same as 'inexpensive' as there are some real bargains out there -- Mora knives for instance. However an airgun is a precision device, and in many ways the fit and quality of the parts are more crucial than those of a rimfire or centefire gun. Considering that a sub 12 ft/lb air rifle is on the fringes of marginal in regards to power levels (relying largely on precise shot placement and fieldcraft to get close) and that here we are discussing the taking of game (where a quick, clean kill is a moral/ethical requirement) saving a few quid by buying a low quality air rifle is, IMO, a poor choice.

I've heard that the SMK 78 (there are two versions), the one powered by two CO2 capsules and its cousin the 79 which is powered by one large CO2 capsule, are favourites of home gunsmiths. They can be tuned up to the legal limit without too much difficulty, accuracy tuned, stock reshaped and refinished, adapted for paintball bulk CO2 bottles and all sorts. However they are, unsurprisingly, a little lacking out-of-the-box. It's probably worthwhile mentioning that the 78 is a clone of a Crossman CO2-powered air rifle which was developed with an American target-shooting group (either the NRA or CMP I can't remember) as a rimfire substitute trainer; a target get designed to be fairly close to a single-shot bolt-action target rifle in .22LR.

As for myself I've been considering an Air Arms TX200 for a little while now... in .177" of course! It's not a 'cheap' gun nor is it inexpensive, but divide that £300-odd by the many thousands of pellets I'm likely to send downrange over its lifetime and it works out to be quite the bargain. Compare that with the £100 for a SMK rifle with a lifetime of a few hundred pellets...