American Airguns Blog
Friday, August 10, 2007
Air Arms MPR
After shooting my Walther LGR for almost a year now I have been wanting to try a 10 meter PCP on my 35 yard range. I decided to save up for a Steyer LG110 and have been doing so for a couple of months now. Early in July I contacted Bori at Top Gun Airguns to purchase a factory spring for my TX200 and found out that he had about a dozen of the Air Arms MPR 10 meter rifles on hand that he was closing out for $580. The normal going price is about $800 so I thought I would buy one and shoot it until I had enough money for a Steyr.
The rifle arrived right before I was scheduled to go out of town for the weekend. I only had time to unpack the MPR and check to make sure it survived the shipping. The rifle was packed up nicely and arrived looking fine. I pulled it out of the box and plastic wrap and shouldered it. My first impression was that it felt really light and small. The length of pull seemed really short so I grabbed my tape measure and sure enough, the LOP was 12.25" and that was with one butt pad extension in it. I did try the trigger and it was a bit heavy on the second stage pull weight but it broke clean and crisp.
After arriving back from my weekend excursion, I put my new Swift 8-32x scope on the MPR using a one piece BKL cantilever mount on top of a BKL riser mount with .004" droop. With out changing a thing on the rifle I took it out to the garage and started shooting. It was actually pretty close to being on the mark. With just a few turret adjustments the rifle was putting pellet after pellet through the same hole.
It shot fine but the LOP out of the box was just to short for an adult. There were two buttpad extension pieces but the buttpad screws weren't long enough to use them. I went down to Lowes and got a couple M5 x 35mm screws that allowed me to put in one of the extension pieces but not both. It really needed a 40mm or 45mm screw to add all the extension pieces. With the one extension installed the LOP is now 12.75" which is pretty close to the 13" I like in my rifles.
I have been shooting the MPR now on my home range for a few weeks and really enjoy it. The rifle is light, easy to point, and compact. It would be a very good rifle for a youth or lady shooter as well as most adult men. The trigger is really good, I have it adjusted to a light but predictable setting. There is very little movement on the firing cycle so I can see the pellet fly down range and hit (or miss) the target. It is an enjoyable rifle.
Bori told me that he still has several of these rifles at the $580 (as of 9/2007) so if you are interested in getting a nice 10 meter match rifle you might look into the MPR.
The rifle arrived right before I was scheduled to go out of town for the weekend. I only had time to unpack the MPR and check to make sure it survived the shipping. The rifle was packed up nicely and arrived looking fine. I pulled it out of the box and plastic wrap and shouldered it. My first impression was that it felt really light and small. The length of pull seemed really short so I grabbed my tape measure and sure enough, the LOP was 12.25" and that was with one butt pad extension in it. I did try the trigger and it was a bit heavy on the second stage pull weight but it broke clean and crisp.
After arriving back from my weekend excursion, I put my new Swift 8-32x scope on the MPR using a one piece BKL cantilever mount on top of a BKL riser mount with .004" droop. With out changing a thing on the rifle I took it out to the garage and started shooting. It was actually pretty close to being on the mark. With just a few turret adjustments the rifle was putting pellet after pellet through the same hole.
It shot fine but the LOP out of the box was just to short for an adult. There were two buttpad extension pieces but the buttpad screws weren't long enough to use them. I went down to Lowes and got a couple M5 x 35mm screws that allowed me to put in one of the extension pieces but not both. It really needed a 40mm or 45mm screw to add all the extension pieces. With the one extension installed the LOP is now 12.75" which is pretty close to the 13" I like in my rifles.
I have been shooting the MPR now on my home range for a few weeks and really enjoy it. The rifle is light, easy to point, and compact. It would be a very good rifle for a youth or lady shooter as well as most adult men. The trigger is really good, I have it adjusted to a light but predictable setting. There is very little movement on the firing cycle so I can see the pellet fly down range and hit (or miss) the target. It is an enjoyable rifle.
Bori told me that he still has several of these rifles at the $580 (as of 9/2007) so if you are interested in getting a nice 10 meter match rifle you might look into the MPR.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Acquiring a Swift 8-32x Scope
On Saturday of Memorial day weekend this year my wife and I went to nearby Hartselle Alabama to spend the day visiting some of the shops in the historic downtown area. As I tend to do when ever I travel to a new area, I searched the internet to find out if there were any gun shops in the area. I found one right in the downtown area so I paid them a visit while we were there.
It was a small shop but they had a lot of guns and most of the long arms were out where you could pick them up and examine them without having to ask the sales person. In the back of the shop they had a variety of hunting optics but amoung them was a Swift 8-32x scope. I had seen these scope on line but I hadn't seen one in person. I took a bit of time to examine the optics and the focusing capabilities and was fairly impressed with the clarity of the image. It appeared to range find pretty well too. I thought about buying it but they wanted $300 for it and I knew that I could get it for $235 on-line so I decided to hold off buying it for the time being. I did notice while I was there that they had the exact same oak gun cabinet that I had in my gun room back home.
The wife and I meandered through the interesting little shops. At the last shop we visited we came across an antique wardrobe cabinet. The cabinet had some beautiful burl panels and we decided to buy it as a gun cabinet (I'll have more on that in another blog). We got it home and I replaced the oak gun cabinet with the new antique wardrobe cabinet. After a month went buy I decided to sell it the oak gun cabinet. I didn't have much luck with selling it outright and then a couple of weeks ago I remembered that the gunshop in Hartselle had the exact same cabinet. I gave them a call to see if they were interested in buying my oak cabinet to go along with the one they already had. The owner was interested but wouldn't be able to purchase it outright and wondered if I would like to use the cabinet in a trade. Well, the Swift scope came right to mind and the next day I took the cabinet down the to the gun shop and with a bit of money I went home with a new Swift 8-32x scope.
I was very happy with the trade (I saved a lot of money) and so far I have been happy with the scope. I will have more to say about the scope in another blog. I find it interesting how things like this work out sometimes.
It was a small shop but they had a lot of guns and most of the long arms were out where you could pick them up and examine them without having to ask the sales person. In the back of the shop they had a variety of hunting optics but amoung them was a Swift 8-32x scope. I had seen these scope on line but I hadn't seen one in person. I took a bit of time to examine the optics and the focusing capabilities and was fairly impressed with the clarity of the image. It appeared to range find pretty well too. I thought about buying it but they wanted $300 for it and I knew that I could get it for $235 on-line so I decided to hold off buying it for the time being. I did notice while I was there that they had the exact same oak gun cabinet that I had in my gun room back home.
The wife and I meandered through the interesting little shops. At the last shop we visited we came across an antique wardrobe cabinet. The cabinet had some beautiful burl panels and we decided to buy it as a gun cabinet (I'll have more on that in another blog). We got it home and I replaced the oak gun cabinet with the new antique wardrobe cabinet. After a month went buy I decided to sell it the oak gun cabinet. I didn't have much luck with selling it outright and then a couple of weeks ago I remembered that the gunshop in Hartselle had the exact same cabinet. I gave them a call to see if they were interested in buying my oak cabinet to go along with the one they already had. The owner was interested but wouldn't be able to purchase it outright and wondered if I would like to use the cabinet in a trade. Well, the Swift scope came right to mind and the next day I took the cabinet down the to the gun shop and with a bit of money I went home with a new Swift 8-32x scope.
I was very happy with the trade (I saved a lot of money) and so far I have been happy with the scope. I will have more to say about the scope in another blog. I find it interesting how things like this work out sometimes.
