The future of the pneumatic air rifle has never looked brighter. New life has been pumped into the genre by the latest developments in the technology which has taken place in Turkey.
A pneumatic air gun which holds a charge of compressed air in a reservoir is nothing new; they were in use as early as 16th century. Essentially, they used the same system as modern neumatic air rifles and pistols. Some of these early pneumatic arms had .30 to .50 calibre bores and quite large air tanks to hold the necessary quantity of compressed air. As hunting arms air rifles enjoyed some success in European forests. One advocate of their use was Louis VIII of Hesse (1691 to 1768) who used his big bore air rifles to bag among among other game, a 227 kilo stag.
In their constant quest to smooth up and smooth out the firing cycle, air gun manufacturers have eventually come to look on the pneumatic gun as being the wave of the future. Multi-pump pneumatics like those from Crosman, Daisy and Sharp have been around for many decades, but they’ve never enjoyed the degree of popularity that spring-powered rifles achieved due to the tedious chore of using the multiple strokes to pump them up.
Since the advent of pre-charged pneumatics (PCPs) they’ve become as much a part of the hunter’s armoury as any other traditional type of air rifle. The new Hatsan AT44-10 is not only extremely powerful, but calls for the minimum amount of effort by the shooter. The recoilless action makes accurate shooting so much easier and its self-contained power source offers large number of shots before it needs pumping up again. Unlike Co2 guns which need to be fueled from relatively expensive and cumbersome scuba bottles, the Hatsan can be had with an optional pump, at extra cost, that’s easy to assemble and smooth to operate, making it easy to refill the large capacity, removable underbarrel reservoir with air.
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