person who wants to fi t a sling swivel onto the cocking lever. I would prefer a synthetic cocking aid to eliminate rust- ing and sharp edges. To prevent rust, I use a rag on it all the time but it seems to be literally eaten, because of the cocking aid’s sharp cross-hatched profi le. I do not like having to do a hefty
second tug on the cocking handle every few shots because the safety does not engage. I certainly hope this is only a running-in problem. Firing from the start was much
nicer than the HW. There is almost no dieseling noise or any petroleum-like fume or smell. It seems that Air Arms put an additive into their lubricants because the smell is even very nice! On the shot, report was muted and the insert moderator seems to work well. Although with a longer stroke, the piston action seems very quick and smooth and there is no kick. All in all, action noise is much less than on the 97. I could not detect any spring twang noise and the synthetic piston bearings seem to work very well. The front and rear of the piston are supported by Delrin bearing rings, eliminating all metal-to-
metal contact. The rear bearing sits on a piston ring larger in diameter than the rest of the piston. This slides within the main action tube and supports the part of the piston remaining outside the compression chamber. Thus, straight piston travel over its full stroke length is secured. Recoil is very moderate. Unfortunately, the sliding compression chamber has a bearing ring only at the front. A second bearing at the rear (like on the Air Arms Pro-Sport) would make cocking still easier and more silent. With its piston being free to rotate around its length axis when released from the sear, the de-compressing spring does not impart any spring torque to the rifl e. Torque normally causes the rifl e to twist around its length axis on the shot, but no such thing was perceived here. With its famous choked Lothar
Walther 12.5 inch barrel (of which 9.5 is rifl ed) on board, I expect great accuracy from this TX. Accuracy certainly looks to be comparable with the 97 K, but I have not fi nished testing a lot of pellets as yet. Like the 97 K, it seems capable of 0.5 inch center-to-center groups at 40 yards with H&Ns, FTTs, and JSB Exacts. An
option for a .20 calibre barrel would be nice, especially for hunters in the USA. The cocking slot underneath the
fore-end does not allow me to put the tip of the index fi nger into its widest area. It is too narrow and too shallow because you immediately touch the cocking lever linkage. Apart from the trigger, I like to touch wood, not metal, when shooting. Hex socket screws all around give
it a very nice touch, but the front pair could do with a set of cup inserts to protect the thin wood of the fore-end. A less obvious but very important
detail is in the TX’s favour: it is mechani- cally much easier to take apart, and in fact this makes working on the internals very comfortable. This is a nice feature when you need to re-lubricate, re-seal, replace the main spring, etc. By design, its barrel is much easier to change than on the 97 K, since it is a glued-in and screwed-in job, but I’m afraid it still is not a real do-it-yourself job, involving heating and a special wrench. Fit and fi nish of the TX is certainly one notch up from the 97 K, I would say. My overall impression of this car-
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