.22 Air Arms s410 Carbine Review pt2

I bought and reviewed the s410 very early on this year, which really could only be a cosmetic review. Now that I have owned and used it for nearly a year, I can give a more comprehensive practical review of this classic air rifle.

.22 Air Arms s410 carbine with Bushnell Trophy 3-9x40 scope.

This particular S410 is a pre-anti tamper model from 2002; the serial number to tell you this can be found on the hammer housing below the breech on the right hand side. 

Air Arms will be happy to let you know the age of your rifle.

The bolt handle on the right hand side curves upwards, almost as if someone had put a left handed bolt handle on by mistake, but this was how they were fitted from the factory for a short period. I perfer it this way as it feels a lot more solid and easier to use, it sticks out more but you can just tap it up with your palm and pull back. To cock and cycle the mag you need to use clear defined motions with a firm hand.

Bolt sticks out, but I actually prefer it that way.

There is no safety on the trigger blade which shows it's an earlier model, so I got into the habit of not cocking the rifle until I needed to take a shot. The trigger is two stage and adjustable in both, though it is set up perfectly as it is. There is is a shortish first stage travel and the second stage let off is crisp, predictable, and relatively light. I don't have any equipment to measure the trigger pull but I know a good trigger when I feel one!

Old style trigger with no safety, but still has all the adjustment you could ever want.

The Air Arms moderator is very good and on firing the rifle is whisper quiet, in fact the spring and hammer are heard over the report.  It slips over the end of the barrel and is secured with a grub screw, the fitting is 10 mm diameter.

Air Arms moderator

The barrel band at the front is secured by two grub screws and can shift if the moderator is knocked hard enough; this is sorted by loosening the grub screws, letting the barrel reset itself, then locking it in place by tightening the grub screws. You know this has happened if your POI has shifted over to the left or right for no apparent reason, though you can buy after market barrel bands that have three grub screws to hold it in place more securely.

One of the two barrel band securing grub screws,

Accuracy is very good, with the selection of .22 pellets I have tried in it so far giving half inch groups at 40 yards. Shots were taken sat down with my elbows supported on my thighs so could be improved upon if bench rested.

Pellets in order of accuracy.               Muzzle energy.

Air Arms diabolo's 16gr                            11 ft/lb

H&N Field Trophies 14.65gr                      11.3 ft/lb

Falcon Accuracy Plus 13.65gr                    10.2 ft/lb

RWS Superdomes 14.5gr                          10.5 ft/lb

Falcon Accuracy Plus being a lighter pellet will give less muzzle energy than a heavier pellet.

Until I recently got a new chronoscope I had been charging the rifle to 185 bar, shooting six or seven mags of 10 pellets, then topping up the cylinder when I got back home. The guage on the rifle will only give you a rough idea of how much air you have, after seven mags the rifle guage reads 100 bar but the more accurate pump guage reads 115 bar. One time air pressure in the rifle got so low that it dumped the rest of the air over the two hours before I got home to refill it, and this is why I now shoot no more than seventy shots.

 

On board pressure guage gives a rough guide.

I ran a shot string through the chronoscope recently with 5,51 AA diabolo's starting at 195 bar, pellets were straight from the tin and some of their skirts were not that round either. I measured one shot in every five, removing the mag and dry firing the other four. 18 shots were recorded giving the equivalent of a 90 shot string, I was mildly surprised and very happy with the results as there was only an extreme spread of 12 FPS.

The magazine is indexed by the rifle itself from a unit that runs along the right hand side of the action, and although the mag in it's plastic casing looks like a spring loaded magazine, it's not. 

Pellets are loaded nose first through the hole in the yellow plastic.

The casing keeps the pellets in the mag and helps it slide into the action and lock it in place, though sometimes the bolt slips forwards a little if not held back, and clashes with the mag when loading it. 

The tip of the bolt can get in the way of the magazine if you're not careful.

Pulling the bolt back to change mags also cocks the rifle, so fitting a full mag will leave the rifle cocked and ready to fire. I usually leave the last chamber empty then fit the mag returning the bolt; firing the empty chamber leaves it ready to cock and load the next pellet and acts as a safety. Filling the mag with most .22 pellets is simple as they fall in leaving it free to click on to the next chamber, however pellets that are 5.52 mm tend to need a nudge in from the head of the next pellet to be loaded.

 

The brass pin moves up to cycle the magazine when cocking the rifle.

The rifle is light and has a compact feel to it even with the moderator fitted, with a bipod fitted it would need a sling but I am in no immediate rush for one. I have found that it's size and weight make it easy to carry over the most treacherous of ground, and it comes to the shoulder and aquires target easily whether standing, supported, kneeling, or prone. What would be a vast improvement would be an adjustable butt pad; the rifle tends to sit high in my shoulder most of the time. Everything else fits really well; the length of pull, the fit of the pistol grip, and the chequering on the forestock and pistol grip works well and is not too obtrusive on the laquered beech stock.

Simple chequering gives good grip, even when wet.

The Bushnell Throphy 3-9x40 scope has got to be the best scope I own, most of my other scopes are Nikko Sterling and as good as they are, you can see how much better this one is. The quality of the lenses is absolutely amazing by comparison, though to look at externally the low turrets would be the only indication that this is a more expensive scope. 

A rather splendid Bushnell Trophy scope.

The sight picture is crystal clear and at 9 mag there is no distortion around the rim of the lens, it transmits plenty of light well into dusk and in dark woods which is where I do a lot of shooting. It has a very fine half mil dot recticule, this also makes for a good aquisition of target in low lighting. It's sighted for 8 and 30 yards, around 20 yards is a mil dot above, 38 yards is a mil dot below and 45 yards is two generally.

Just to show the half mil dot recticule, the sight picture is really crystal clear. Honestly.

Admittedly I don't tend to shoot things as far out as I do my other Air Arms PCP which is the Shamal, but that one is .177 and the S410 is .22; the larger calibre with it's more pronounced trajectory hits home with more authority. There is room for improvement but Air Arms have addressed this over the years by bringing out the S510 and then the Ultimate Sporter, and the quality is reflected in the prices for these air rifles

Air Arms Shamal, one solid, accurate air rifle.

One niggle I do have is that when the end cap is removed to fill the rifle with air, if you are not careful the adapter on the pump can scratch the underside of the moderator when taking it off after charging. I have have to be really careful when doing this, although I could just wrap a piece of cloth around the moderator to protect it which is the better option all round.

Scuff marks on the moderator are caused when removing the charging adaptor.

So there you have it, a review on the Air Arms s410 Carbine after using it for ten months. I could have shown you some groupings with different pellets at different ranges, but truth be told the rifle easily outperforms my ability as a marksman.

TTFN

Best wishes, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe.

A Calm Sunny Day For Testing The Springers

 

And Walking The Dog.

 

"Take some guns and that bloody dog and go down the woods, he needs some exercise", said the wife to me the other day. Well i didn't need telling twice that's for sure. 

Scatterbone never waits like this for a walk, as soon as i pick up a rifle and my camo jacket he starts bouncing around like a maniac.

So the s410 goes in one gun slip and and the Mercury and Hawk fit in another, pellets in one shoulder bag and target board and resettable rat target in another and of we go. Except no it's not as i just realised i hadn't cleaned the barrel of the Mercury, i did the Hawk the other day and it was gleaming now as it was in a right state before. They both needed a clean as i wanted to test for long range accuracy, so it's out the slip, given a good clean, re slipped grabbed my binoculars, and put the lead on Scatterbone.

Picture doesn't do it justice as the cloths were much dirtier than they look here.

After a 15 minute walk with a fair weight of air rifles over my shoulder most of which Scats was off the lead and sniffing about, 

Walkies.

we get to the bottom woods where i unload the rifles and threw some stuff for the dog.

Kit unloaded and the dog retrieving a stick or something.

I found a nice spot with a good 30 yards clear between two large trees with the land sloping down from my right, 

Have to be careful of cant when shooting across a slope like this. oh, and the rifle was empty when i took this picture.

i walked over to the far tree and erected the resettable target and the thick hardboard target only to realise i'd forgotten the paper, pen, and tape. Oh well i suppose i could use the AA s410 to mark an aim point an see how the springers would do, this was just to get a rough idea of their accuracy and suss out the best hold for these rifles.

This needs a repaint as i can't see the circle that easily at distances beyond 25 yards, in fact it's easier to hit the reset bar.

.

First up was the .22 BSA Mercury with a Nikko Sterling 3-9x40 AO scope with off set mounts, 

.22 BSA Mercury in need of a polish and the stock sanding and oiling.

i chose to use RWS Superdomes as they had given the best results in the past.

Superdomes do well in the majority of air rifles, so do Crosman Premier but i ran out of those.

After lining the barrel by shooting at the resettable target quite successfully as it happens, i took 8 shots at the board from 30 yards.

A pretty good group from 8 pellets and i could most likely do better, the pellet on the left was my point of aim.

I used a kneeling stance with my fore arm resting on my forward facing knee allowing me to support the rifle in front of the trigger guard with the fleshy part of my palm, the butt rested in my shoulder lightly and the pistol grip was held gently as i squeezed the trigger. This way i was completely relaxed as i exhaled and the crosshairs lowered to the point of aim, which showed that this old British springer was very accurate if handled right with the right pellet. I tried using Eley Wasps No 2 but they just went every where but the point of aim, I suppose they're alright for helping me run the piston O ring seal in.

Don't think i'll be getting these again.

Now it was time to try the .177 Webley Hawk with a Range Right 4x32 and Hawke medium double screw mounts and i had got some .177 superdomes for it also as Wadcutters are a bit naff past 25 yards, the first shot sounded like a bloody rimfire going off as there was most likely a spot of cleaning oil left around the breech.

.177 Webley Hawk Mk II looks promising, but only time will tell.

A wipe and a few shots and the dieseling had abated, she was looking tidier as i found a hood for the front sight off an Innova which fitted just peachy. But what an idiot i was as i had forgotten about the scope creep and hadn't remedied the problem, however the first few shots grouped well then the pellets started to rise up the board as the scope started to shift once more. Mind you they did it in a straight line which looked promising , but i felt the scope didn't have enough magnification for this test so next time i'll use AGS 3-9x40 with the one piece mounts.

What to do now i thought, i think i'll put half a tin of pellets through the Mercury at the resettable target from standing, kneeling, and prone at different ranges.

Scope on x9 mag and sighting on the resettable target.

This proved very satisfactory, of course not every shot was successful but the practice sure helped and i could see i was improving. The s410 carbine was fully charged at 180 bar so i did the same with this to a much more successful result, i used three magazines worth of AA Diabolos then tried another two with Falcon Accuracy Plus.

Out came the Falcons for a test.

The Falcons dropped into the mag easily as the Diabolos were5,52 mm and sometimes needed seating, the idea was to have a pellet that at 13.4 gr would have slightly flatter trajectory than the Diabolos which are 16 gr. But the jury is still out an that one as pellets in the field don't always cut the mustard like they would punching paper, besides as accurate as they maybe the Diabolos and N&N Fields are definately more accurate but they still performed well on the resettable target.

 By now the target board was riddled with holes and it was impossible to show any interesting groupings, though what i did notice was that the .22 PCP had a lot more down range power as any pellet that hit it just ripped through leaving a massive exit hole.

Time flies when your having fun and after four hours it was time to head back, so i loaded up my rifles and kit and taking my rubbish with us we took the longer route back. 

The walk back looking remarkably similar to the walk there, seen one Cotwolds green lane, you've seen them all.

I would have been even longer if i had set up the Webley Hawk properly in the first place. Any way there's plenty of time to to do that again and when i get my chronoscope fixed i can test the springers and see what figures the s410 is giving.

TTFN

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe