Air Arms is a legend in the airgun world, and the tx200 is a legend in the field target community. I believe at this time it is the most common model in the spring piston category. The reason I believe, is it's consistent accuracy in an affordable package. Now, I am reviewing here what I think is a one of a kind field target rifle: the SR version or the semi-recoiless. Recoilless or semi-recoiless spring-piston rifles have been on the shooting scene for decades, but mainly confined to the 10 meter competitors. The basic mechanism is the action on a sliding rail that moves when the piston moves. I liken it to the recoilling artillery pieces where the barrel slams back but the carrage remains essentially in the same place. The only difference with the tx200sr is the action moves forward first, and then back. The purpose of all this moving is accuracy. The artillerists of the past figured this out over a hundred years ago; it is crucial to have a recoilling gun exactally repeat it's movement during the firing sequence to maintain consistancy. Tom Gaylord of the Airgun Letter has coined the loose hand hold as the 'artillery hold'--allowing the gun to easily move. This is just applying the same theory. That is the beauty of the tx200sr--it has a recoilling rail so the hand hold on the gun is not as important. This is an important point. The standard tx2000 has the same powerplant and barrel, and essentially has the same intrinsic accuracy, it's just harder to shoot as consistantly. This is not to say the SR will shoot off a bench well. It still needs a hand hold, and the same every time. I have tried it off a bench and the pellet goes to another zipcode, compared to when I held it.
Let's talk about specifics. The gun cocks very easily with an underlever, and is rachting indicating an antibeartrap mechanism. The pellet loads from the right side, and can be kind of tricky to place in the breach if your fingers are large. A safety latch must be released to close the breach. Then another safety must be pushed in to release the trigger. This is one safe piston gun. The trigger is two stage adjustable and confusing. Mine was quite light at the factory setting so I have not ventured inside. It will go down to a few ounces. It comes with the unclear British instructions. The amount of recoil is adjustable as well by screws below the inside rail. Basic blued steel with no sights. There are scope grooves on the receiver; which by the way is rounded on top. I much prefer a flat top receiver to aid in leveling the gun. Stocks are variable. I bought mine unfinished and corrupted it on my own as you can see from the picture. If you have seen a tx200 stock the SR is almost identical.
Accuracy. This is the where you get the bang for the buck (or pound sterling depending on what country you are in). With practice and some super tuning it may be possible to get 1/4" groups at 25 yards, and 1/2" at 50. Out of the box I achieved 1/2" at 25 yards and 3/4"-1" at 40 yards. My velocities are 865 fps with 7.9 grain Crosman Premiers, which I suprisingly found better than the Beeman Trophys. I have noticed the velocity does change with break-in and will vary day to day, depending on the temperature. This has made figuring out the scope settings quite a chore. I also tried RWS superdomes, because the airgunletter had very good results with this pellet. I did not. After almost six months of FT shooting I noticed a decline in accuracy and an increase in the spread of velocities. First I blamed myself, and then I sent it to Ken Reeves for a tune. I hope to get the pellet velocity spread down to 10 fps and the standard deviation to 4fps. If this is confusing to you, all it means is I want to get it to shoot consistantly; for that is the key to accuracy.
I used this gun in the Florida State Championships and scored an 88/100, which was close to the top precharged shooters. The only advantage a pcp gun has is it's consistancy in terms of fps velocity. A good pcp gun will have a standard deviation of 2-3 fps. The spring piston guns may vary 10-15 fps. at 40-50 yard distances this separates the two types of guns easily. The SR shoots the pellet at about 12 fp (foot pounds). This is a measure of energy. A competitive precharged gun shoots at about 20 fp.
I now believe the tx200sr is no longer being made, though the regular tx200 is still on the market. Why? I don't know. There are many SRs on the used market in good condition. Prices hover in the $400-600 range. Pretty good I think for arguably the most advanced spring-piston "field target" rifle ever mass produced.
The Steyr LP10 is clearly a world class competition 10 meter rifle and not for everyone. What makes it so? Well, let me give you my humble opinion. First off I want to state I am far from any type of top competitor, and it has been a few years since I moved all the furniture in my apartment so I could have a 10 meter range for day and night practice. My gun of choice has been the FWB C60, from which I will compare the Steyr.
Right from the outset the Steyr is striking because of the multi-color laminated wood stock. I have heard this construction gives the gun great rigidity and protects against the dangers of humidity. Maybe so. It has no checkering or texturing on it's surface and is really quite smooth. I find I need a forward hand shooting glove and a cloth to cover the cheek piece to avoid slipping in these contact areas. This is not a problem since this is the way most shoot anyway. The cheek piece is adjustable for plenty of height, cant, and level, via three elevation screws all via an allen wrench from below. The butt plate has the usual plastic arch piece which slides up and down and tightens in place with a flat head screw driver. I guess you can use a coin too. This demo gun hd a butt spacer and an angled spacer as well. The grip is quit full (fat), and again very smooth. in front of the trigger guard is a level area I use to support the gun, and in front of that the standard anschultz type rail.
I would like now to comment on what I consider to be one of the most important features of a 10 meter or any rifle: balance. It is a rarity to find a target rifle with a built-in moveable weight system; and when it is present it is only designed for small adjustments. This basically means a rifle's balance point is set in the design stage, and often a shooter ends up prefering one gun over another because he/she likes it's balance. This is often refered to as :"I really just like the way it feels...". The balance point of the Steyr is about two inches in front of the trigger guard. This is impressive considering all the pneumatic hardware up front. My C60's point is slightly foward of the Steyr's. The diference was noticable in a standard 10m offhand position. I would still prefer it back further though. There are two barrel weights: one on the tip of the barrel around the front sight, and one doughnut shaped weight that can be moved along the barrel to change the above mentioned all important balance point. There is no removable stock weights such as that which installs under the C02 cylinder of the C60. You can always add weight via the rail below the stock.
Cocking the rifle is easy and can be done all day. It has a nice ratcheting mechanism, and the loading gate flips up at the end of the stroke. There is the ability to dry fire the gun to practice trigger control. Why can't they put this feature on field target rifles? The usual match grade multi-adjustable trgger is a fine example of just how light you can make such a thing. The peep sight was another standard feature of high quality, though the mounting rail was quite shorter than the FWB's.
Overall the rifle was quite comfortable, olympic quality, with a handy pneumantic power plant.