The Crosman NightStalker Tactical is an awesome rifle. While I may spoil the “suspense” in the article by opening with such a statement, I’m hoping that it will leave you wanting more!

While at the Virginia Airgun Expo Tom Gaylord mentioned to me that I needed to try out the NightStalker as he was very impressed with it. Well, if Tom Gaylord was impressed with it, I‘ve just got to have one. So when I got home I shot off an email to my contact at Crosman and requested one for review. I had one on my door step a few days later and I’ve had a hard time putting it down since.

Crosman NightStalker Tactical

Crosman NightStalker Tactical

What makes the NightStalker so special? Well, there are a lot of things. First of all, it is a 12 shot semi-auto air rifle that uses the 88 gram AirSource CO2 cartridge. Using the larger CO2 system gives it an immediate advantage over rifles that use the smaller 12 gram variety. Where the smaller cartridge will freeze, adversely affecting the velocity with only about 5 or 6 rapid fire shots (see my article on the Corsman 1077), the 88 gram AirSource cartridge will sustain velocity throughout all almost all 12 shots with minimal drop. And the best part, it will put 12 shots on target EVERY TIME!

So let’s take a look at the rifle top to bottom. When you get the rifle it comes as the basic NightStalker with the tactical accessories that need to be installed on the rifle. The rails mount to the side and top of rifle the and allow you to mount the Red/Green dot scope and tactical flashlight. I do wish Crosman had spent a little more on the molding and had metal retention nuts built into the plastic stock. It would be VERY easy to over-tighten the screws and then you would be basically… well… screwed. The rail for the flashlight can be mounted on either side of the stock depending on your preference. It also comes with a pressure switch rather than the standard on/off screw cap. Just a quick note about this light, it is very bright. I have a target 27 yards from the back door of my porch and I could easily see and accurately shoot the target in the middle of the night with this flashlight. It is not a gimmicky toy. It is the real deal.

Crosman NightStalker Tactical, with all accessories mounted.

The Red/Green Dot scope on the other hand could be a little nicer. For example, the oversized eye piece and objective are simply for show. I would have rather they made the whole sight with a larger objective. With that said, it sighted in with minimal effort, is very easy to use even in broad daylight, and has not shifted since day one. You can be confident that the pellet will go EXACTLY where the dot is resting, as long as you do your part with trigger control.

Crosman NightStalker Tactical with Red / Greed Dot Scope and Tactical Flashlight.

The final piece of the “tactical” puzzle is the bi-pod. Installation is simple and easy. The bi-pod provides all the stability you need to really put lead to target. The legs are somewhat adjustable for height, but I just use them all the way up, and all the way fully extended, depending on my needs at the time. This bi-pod looks a lot like the dragon claw bi-pod I’ve used so many times.

Loading and firing the NightStalker is pretty straight forward. You remove the rear of the stock and install the AirSource 88 Gram CO2 cartridge. I use a drop of Crosman’s Pellgunoil on the tip each time I use a new cartridge to keep the gun well lubricated. The pellets load into a 12 shot rotary clip that slips into the side of the rifle. The lever beneath the loading area is the “blow back” lever on the rifle. I’m not sure what function it performs other than it looks cool and gives you the feeling that you are shooting a real firearm and it is useful when you have a jam. I actually like the Crosman 1077’s system better as I did experience some jams, but we’ll get to that later.

The 88 gram CO2 AirSource Cartridge loads in the rear of the rifle.  The weight of the cartridge offsets the weight of the accessories in the front of the NightStalker giving it great balance overall.

Just put the loaded clip into the rifle and close the loading door.

All loaded and ready to shoot!

With the CO2 installed and the pellets loaded its off to shoot. It only took a few shots to get the scope lined up and from then on, it was just fun, fun, fun! The NightStalker Tactical will obliterate anything that you put the dot on. The paperwork rates this at 580 FPS and it does it with ease. With lighter pellets you can easily get over 600 FPS and even higher using some of the new lead free pellets. I found the Crosman Lead-Free Hollow Points to be a good option producing 630 FPS while maintaining reasonable accuracy. The best accuracy came from heavier pellets like the Crosman Hollow Point Premier (quickly becoming a favorite in .177 and .22), and the Crosman Premier Wadcutters. Really any quality wadcutter pellet is going to work well in this rifle.

Crosman Lead-Free Hollow Points
High – 634, Low – 597, Average – 621, Difference 37 FPS

Crosman Premier Wadcutters
High – 481, Low – 453, Average – 464, Difference 28 FPS

Crosman Premier Hollow Points
High – 481, Low – 456, Average – 464, Difference 28 FPS

RWS Hobby
High – 494, Low – 474, Average – 484, Difference 20 FPS

As you can see from these shot groups, this rifle puts it right where it matters every time. Remember the 27 yard shooting session I had off my back porch? I shot the NightStalker from a standing position at a tin can on a stick and hit it every time in the middle of the night. This little rifle performs!

12 shots with Crosman Premier Hollow points fired rapid fire.

12 shots with Crosman Premier Watcutters

I only had a couple of problems when shooting this rifle and it deals with trigger control. You need to remember that this is not a competition target rifle. It is not designed for a carefully controlled, slow trigger squeeze. If you do, it will jam on you and you will spend the next few minutes trying to get the mechanism to work again. I don’t know why, that is for Crosman’s engineers to figure out. But if you just fire away and squeeze the trigger with authority, the gun will fire jam free almost every time.

So let me wrap this review up. In the past I’ve been a little critical of Crosman, and I even have some little issues with this product, but all in all, the NightStalker Tactical is a really nice airgun worthy of anyone’s collection. I wish Crosman paid a little more attention to the little details like having metal parts for the rails to mount on, but for what it is worth, that is the only thing I have to complain about. I usually send products back when I’m done with them, but I’ve already told Crosman that I’m just sending them a check. This one’s mine… go get your own!

The Crosman NightStalker Tactical… One mean looking air rifle!

Next up, we take a look at anther CO2 repeater by Walther. This airgun impressed me as much and maybe even more than the NightStalker! Check back soon for the full article.

Written By,
Rick Eutsler
Editor / Owner www.AirGunWeb.com
Copyright 2007, Dog River Design, LLC – All Rights Reserved.
For reprint information, please contact Rick Eutsler, Jr.

When it comes to rifles, it is no secret that I’m a fan of the Mendoza brand. Up until now, I’ve only had experience with their RM200 but now I can add the RM2000 to the list. At first glance the Mendoza RM2000 looks like a bigger version of the RM200 with a few upgrades.

The Mendoza RM2000 has all the standard Mendoza characteristics such as a fiber optic front sight and double trigger system, but Mendoza added a few extras onto the RM2000. For starters, where you would normally have a rear sight, you have an auto-loading pellet magazine designed for their special solid base pellets. What they’ve added for a rear sight is an aperture sight that mounts right on the 11mm scope rail. While it took me a little getting used to, I found this open sight system EXTREMELY accurate.

Hooded Front Fiber Optic Sight

Rear Mounted Aperture, Micro-Click, Adjustable Sight.

Mendoza’s Double Trigger System

With the RM2000 Mendoza promises greater velocity as shown by their inspection tab. My test rifle boasted 924 FPS and an impressive shot group to boot! Wow, 924 FPS in a medium sized break barrel. We’ll see how this all turned out later in the article.

Ok, so let’s look at the whole pellet auto loading magazine contraption. (Although the rifle has an auto-loader, you can still manually use one pellet at a time.) I really like to hunt squirrels and when they get to running through the trees and you want to take another shot, it is a pain to have to take your eyes off the game to load a pellet into the barrel. This mechanism has the potential to eliminate this as a problem, at least for 5 or 6 shots. The system works quite easily as the following photos will show.

Mendoza’s auto-loading pellet system

First of all you pull back the loading pin and rotate the catch into the locked position.

Then you start loading your pellets and this is where things can get REAL interesting. Not just any pellet will work in this system. Since I don’t have any Mendoza .22 solid base pellets, I tried several types to see what was needed to feed and load reliably. I only found one pellet that worked 99% of the time. Fortunately for us it was the RWS Superdome, which also happened to be the most accurate pellet! I figured the RWS Superdome would be a good choice from my time spent with the RM200 and I was right. There are 2 things that make this pellet the right choice for the auto-loading magazine, first is the dome shape. It lends itself well to smoothly entering the pellet catch. The second aspect is its heavy skirt. Other pellets, like the Crosman Premiers, with a thin skirt will easily deform in the magazine and you’ll find yourself with a nasty jam and potentially a damaged rifle. The RWS Superdome seemed to have the right combination for this rifle.

The skirt of an RWS Superdome Pellet. Notice how thick the walls are.

RWS Superdome getting loaded into the magazine.

The pellets load easily into the top of the magazine. While you can load up to 6 or 7 pellets into the mag, I stopped at 5. I did not experience any misfeeds when I loaded 5 pellets, but occasionally I had problems with 6 pellets. So stick to loading only 5 in the mag.

RWS Superdome pellets loaded into the magazine

Loading the rifle with the auto-loading system is well… automatic! Just cock the rifle as you normally would and the pellet holder slides up, the magazine rod pushes the next pellet into the holder and when you close the rifle, it pushes the pellet holder in line with the barrel and combustion port. It may not be fancy, but it works! Take a look at the photos below to see the procedure. Also, as with the RM200, Mendoza uses a “locking” barrel with a fixed bar to hold the rifle in perfect position every time.

The magazine is loaded and the pellet pushing arm is engaged with the pellets to move them forward as the rifle is cocked. Having too many pellets in the mag will cause this to put too much pressure on the pellets deforming the skirts and causing jams. Also, once loaded the only way to get them out is to shoot the rifle. Don’t leave them in the mag and the constant pressure will eventually deform the pellets and cause them not to load.

As you cock the rifle, the pellet breach is allowed to raise up and the pellet slides into place.

Fully Cocked. Noticed the notch at the end of the barrel that matches the barrel rest in the next photo.

A feature that I’ve only seen a couple of times, the barrel rests on the metal bar shown at the bottom of the photo. This ensures that the barrel returns to a secure position every time.

As the barrel is closed the prongs at the end of the barrel push the loading breach down with the pellet that was loaded from the mag. The notch on top of the breach prevents the next pellet from moving forward until the barrel is cocked again.

Fully loaded, cocked, and ready to fire.

Now that we’ve explained how the rifle loads itself, how does it perform in real life? The short answer is that this rifle proved itself to be a moderately powerful, extremely accurate rifle. What it took to get to this point will take some time to explain.

As I mentioned above, the tag boasted 924 FPS and I was very excited to test a .22 break barrel that could generate that kind of velocity. The first few shots were in the 900 and even 1000 FPS range with Crosman Premier pellets. The down side is that the rifle was dieseling badly. So much that I thought for sure one of my neighbors was going to call the cops for me shooing a .22 in my back yard. Much like the KralAv rifle we looked at recently, the velocity was all over the place. One shot would be 900+ FPS and the next would be down around 600 FPS. Frankly this was very frustrating to deal with, but I just kept manually feeding it pellets. Eventually, after about 500 pellets, the rifle settled down and the velocity stabilized at the high 600 FPS range. This was a real disappointment. I figured that 900+ FPS was a lot to hope for in a mid range break barrel.

Now that we’ve got the dieseling under control I went to work learning how to use the rear peep sight. It did not take long for me to fall in love with this sighting system. Unfortunately this is also were I ran into my second problem. I had to adjust the sights to the extreme right and to the lowest most setting to get close to the bulls-eye, and I was still shooting high and slightly to the left as my shot groups will show. Shooting a little high is not a problem, I was only shooting at 10 yards so I know that it would be more on target at 20 and 25 yards, but not being able to get the shot centered left to right, was a real bummer. I’m tying to get with the manufacturer to see if there is a resolution to the problem. I could mount a scope, but that negates the usefulness of the rifle and the unique open sights.

Close-up of the rear sight. Notice that I had to move it all the way to the right.

With the sights adjusted as best I could, I started looking for just the right pellet. I knew the RWS Superdome pellet would work well, but I wanted to give some other pellets a try. Bottom line is that if you like the Mendoza rifles, buy stock in RWS. I found one other pellet that grouped almost as well as the RWS. The BAM 100% lead precision wadcutter pellet was a surprising 2nd place. I did not try using them in the auto-feeder because I know they will jam. The 100% lead composition means they are very soft and as they go through the barrel, they really squeeze into the lands and grooves producing excellent rotation and stability. They also seemed a bit oversized which is necessary to shoot well in the Mendoza barrels. The following shot chart shows four different five shot groups shot from ten yards. The RWS is the winner, but only by .12 of an inch. All of the groups were shot with open sights.

Different pellets matter. These were all shot with different pellets from the same rest, hold and distance!

BAM 100% Lead Precision Wadcutters.

Still the king of the hill, the RWS Superdomes delivered the goods with the RM2000.

RWS Superdomes, 14.5grn
High – 674, Low – 663, Average – 667, Difference - 11 FPS

BAM 100% Lead Precision Wadcutters, 13.9grn
High – 671, Low – 667, Average – 668, Difference - 4 FPS

So in summary, the Mendoza RM2000 shoots .22 pellets not at 900 or 850 FPS, but at a respectable 670ish FPS, which is a 100 FPS jump from the RM200. With a price at nearly $195, you’ll have to ask yourself if 100 FPS is worth the $85 premium over the RM200. It definitely has the accuracy and power for hunting small game, but there are a lot of good, accurate rifles that generate the same knock down power for less money i.e. the BAM B26. The unique features of the RM2000 such as the auto-loading system and the rear peep sight, make it a very interesting rifle, interesting enough for someone like myself to buy one. If you like shooting with open sights, then this may be just the rifle for you. I found that with the open sights, if you can see it, you can hit it. On my one hunting expedition with this rifle, the squirrels were all out of town at an acorn convention, but the dreaded pine cone monster was everywhere, so I used them for practice. This is where I really decided that even though it did not shoot as fast as reported, and even though the sights were not perfect, it was still one heck of a rifle. I’d like to see it priced a little lower than $195.

Next up is the Crosman NightStalker Tactical. The NS Tactical really impressed me. Check back to see how this awesome gun puts lead on target EVERY time!

Written By,
Rick Eutsler
Editor / Owner www.AirGunWeb.com
Copyright 2007, Dog River Design, LLC – All Rights Reserved.
For reprint information, please contact Rick Eutsler, Jr.

Today we are going to look at a product that is completely new to the market. While the manufacturer has been making shotguns and blank pistols for years, I believe they are new to the airgun market. Kral Av is based in Turkey and currently has two models of air rifles listed on their company site, www.kralav.com.

I’ve had just a little experience with Turkish airguns, i.e. the Daisy Powerline 1000SB, and I was very impressed. So when I saw this at Pyramyd’s table at the gun show, I was more than willing to pick one up with the hopes that it would perform. The retail cost for the model that I purchased was about $90. Seeing as it was on sale at the show, I paid at lot less for mine.

The KralAv model AI:002 is a copy of the very popular CFX rifle from Gamo. It comes in both .177 and .22. Listed velocity puts the .177 at about 900 FPS and the .22 at just over 700 FPS, assuming that my metric conversions are correct.

The KralAv AI:002 in composite with 3x9x32 Daisy PowerLinc Scope.

At first glance, the KralAv is a really nice looking and feeling rifle. I purchased the model with a composite stock and it feels and sounds solid. Some composite stocks will sound hollow when the gun is fired, but the AI-002 does not have this issue. The rifle feels well balanced and pulls nicely to the shoulder. As far as looks go, the AI-002 gets an A+ in my book.

The AI-002 has most of the standard features that you’ll find in a modern air rifle. Let’s go through them one at a time. The rifle has both front and rear fiber optic sights, with the rear sight having micro-click adjustments. I found them a little dim and hard to see versus other rifles with fiber optic sights. I think they need to be thicker to allow more light transfer. They are almost like colored pieces of plastic rather than true fiber optic inserts. I’m not sure how important this is as I’m planning to mount a scope and I guess most everyone else will, too.

Rear micro-click adjustable sight. The fiber inserts need to be bigger and brighter

Front sight assembly. This came off during testing. Gorilla glue got us up and running again.

The rifle has a grooved 11mm dovetail set to receive the scope of your choice, but an important piece is lacking. There is no scope stop to prevent scope creep. While the velocities seem moderate, this rifle produces a fair amount of recoil and buzz. I’m not sure if the scope will move or not, but I’d recommend installing a scope stop just to be safe. There are no holes in the top of the rifle for stop pins, so an after market scope stop is your only choice. For our tests, I mounted a Daisy PowerLine 3×9 air rifle scope. It should work well for our tests.

The rifle is grooved for a scope, but a scope stop is nowhere to be found. In their defense, I did not experience any scope creep during testing. So it may not be a big deal.

Moving on, the trigger is, again, what you would expect for a rifle in this price range. There is no adjustment that I can see and while it is a “two stage” trigger, the second stage is very hard with a long pull. It does break consistently, however. It will be difficult to get really accurate groups with a trigger that pulls this hard. You would figure that they should be able to put a decent trigger on even an inexpensive rifle these days. In any case, this is no target rifle and is not advertised or priced as one. So while it may not be my liking, the trigger is fine for the intended use of this airgun.

Standard two stage trigger. There is no visible adjustment and it has a fairly hard pull. Also, the safety is in front of the trigger and needs to be manually set and released.

What really caught my attention and the main reason that I picked it up, was the fact that it is an under lever cocking rifle. Cocking the rifle takes a moderate amount of effort, but nothing that would cause you to get tired even if you shot it all day. Having the fixed barrel should make this rifle fairly accurate, at least in concept. We’ll see how that turns out on the range.

The cocking lever is released by pulling back on the front tab. You can see the grooved indent for your fingers. This rifle cocks easily.

After the rifle is cocked and loaded, the cocking arm clicks back into place at the bottom of the front sight assembly.

The KralAV AI-002 uses a rotating loading breach, much like the Gamo CFX. This little “gem” takes some getting use to. You better hope that you won’t need a quick follow up shot as loading a pellet can be a challenge all in itself. Once you get the hang of it with one pellet, get ready to learn the process all over again because each pellet likes to go in its own way. I found rounded pellets to be the easiest to load. They seemed to slide down the loading “ramp” easier than others, and tended to not get hung up while trying to seat that last little bit. Others were almost impossible to get loaded. Fortunately the most accurate pellet for this gun happened also to be the easiest to load.

This photo shows the breach open. There is a “ramp” that is supposed to guide the pellet into the breach. This seemed to get easier the more I did it.

Well, that covers the cosmetics and function of the gun. So how does it shoot? Let’s just say that this rifle is a prime example of how persistence pays off, if you are willing to take the time to really figure it out. I nearly dismissed this after several days of working with it, but purchase price aside, I wanted to give it just as much opportunity to come around as I would a more expensive item.

When I got home from the Airgun Expo there was still a little light left, so I grabbed the airguns that I had purchased at the show and headed to the back porch. The Kralav rifle was one of the first that I tried and while shooting through my chronograph I was totally surprised to see this .22 rifle produce over 1000 FPS! Then the second shot dieseled loudly and was 500 FPS. This really did not make sense to me, and is where the real work started.

This trend continued pellet after pellet. One would be screaming and the other would be loud and slow. I tried every pellet at my disposal and it was better with some and worse with others but I just couldn’t get this rifle to settle down. Then more problems, the front sight assembly just twisted in my hand. There was a set screw (see photo of the front sight above) but it felt as though it was stripped out. I removed the screw and pulled off the front site. There was no bushing for the set screw. Just a channel of plastic that had stripped out. There were very fine “teeth” on the barrel that I guess were meant to hold the sight in place, but the plastic had given out. Gorilla glue to the rescue. Now that the sight is back on the gun, I could get back to my shooting tests.

I spent about 10 afternoons working with this rifle, trying to get any sort of group. Crosman Premiers produced this “wonderful” group at 15 yards, this is not even “tin can” accurate, and I was still having issues with dieseling and velocity. Then, finally, persistence and patience paid off.

This was a typical group before we found the right pellet. This is only from 15 yards. You can imagine my frustration after having just reviewing the Mendoza RM-200.

I had picked up some JSB pellets while at the Expo at the direction of Tom Gaylord. One of the tins were JSB Exact Diablo Jumbo pellets. Not only did the dieseling stop, but the velocity calmed down, and better yet, I actually shot a decent group! Just to make sure it was not a fluke, I shot three more groups with equal results. I’ve posted a couple of them below.

Here is what the chronograph registered:

JSB Diablo Exact Jumbo .22 15.8 gn
High – 639, Low – 631, Average – 634, Difference – 8 FPS

This was my best group from 15 yards. After what I was getting above, I about did a jig!

Typical 5 sthot group with JBS pellets at 15 yards.

Wow, a rifle that literally could not hit the broad side of a barn was now holding 1.5” groups at 15 yards. Now while 1.5” groups are not what I would call “accurate,” they are a whole lot better than the 6” groups I had been getting! I can live with 1.5” groups from an inexpensive sporting rifle. It is very possible that you could get this rifle with a decent scope for less than $100, possibly making it worth picking up.

So, if I had to summarize my thoughts on the KralAv AI-002 rifle, they would go like this. At $90, I would pass on this rifle. At a lower price point of say, $60 or $65, it may be worth having around just to plink with. The real bummer will come when you try to get pellets for it. JBS pellets are getting more and more scarce. I was recently told to “find a new favorite pellet” from a major US vendor. That is not good news. I’m working to find a replacement but nothing else comes close, other than the RWS Meisterkugeln pellets and they don’t stop the dieseling completely. Bottom line is that while this is an interesting rifle, it needs more work. I’ve been corresponding with the manufacture about my findings and I hope they do some upgrades and provide us with some more samples in the future. If they can work out the accuracy issues, improve the fiber optics, and front sight assembly, while keeping the price low, we could have a real winner on our hands.

Coming up. I’m still working on the pellet article and the Beeman and the Walther rifles. Plus… We just got a new Mendoza rifle in yesterday. I’m really excited to have all these product to review. Check back often!

Written By,
Rick Eutsler
Editor / Owner www.AirGunWeb.com
editor@airgunweb.com
Copyright 2007 www.airgunweb.com & Dog River Design, LLC.

Today I took some time to visit with an old friend. I try to spend about an hour each day shooting and testing new products, but once in a while I’ll go back and take another look at something from a while back. Today I took out the Mendoza RM200 for a spin.

The last time we looked at the Mendoza RM200 was back in May 2007. While we had a 3x9x40 AO scope mounted for our first tests, I’ve chosen a BSA 4×32 AO scope this time around. Because the average velocity is about 570 FPS, the effective range is really only about 20 yards or so. This BSA scope is really perfect for this range, at least in my opinion.

The really cool thing about this job is the ability to come back and look at things from a new perspective. I learned a bit more about this Mendoza rifle during this shooting session. One of the first things I remembered is why I like it so much. You can start with the fact that it is relatively lightweight, easy to cock, and with the right pellets, extremely accurate.

Sighting in the new scope was a breeze. Not to jump too far off topic, but I was recently asked how I sight in a scope. Well I have a couple of methods to get me on target pretty quick. The fist is to use a spot of sand about 10 to 15 yards away. If you are using a variable powered scope, it is better to back it down to 3x or 4x rather than running at 9x or 12x. This will help you see the impact point if it happens to be way off. By shooting at the sand you can easily see where the pellet hits and then know how to adjust your scope. I’m fortunate to have some sand right in front of a huge pile of top soil, so I’m not concerned with ricochets. If this is not an option, then a large piece of paper at 5 to 10 yards is your next best bet. I just shoot from the shoulder to get close and then do the fine adjustments from the bench. I had the BSA scope on target after about 5 shots at the sand and another 5 from the bench. Please make sure to follow the VERY important rule of “know your target and beyond.”A pellet rifle can cause serious injury or even death if it hits just the right spot. Make sure you are using an appropriate back stop and check it often for sings of wear. I have some rifles, that blast holes through 5/8″ plywood. Even a low power air rifle will wear though a spot you hit it enough times. You should see some of my old pellet traps before I bought the heavy duty .22 rimfire trap from PyramydAir.com.

Since I had already researched the best pellet back in May, I knew that I was going to use the RWS Superdomes for my target practice today. Now that I have the scope set it was time to see if I could still hold groups with this little rifle. The Mendoza RM 200 did not disappoint, producing tight groups at 10 and 15 yards. Just about all the RWS “Super” line of pellets work well and the RWS Hobby pellets are also a decent choice, but the Superdomes are still the ones to beat in my book.

I’ve already mentioned some of the stand out features of this rifle, but here are a few more. The Mendoza line of rifles have a unique trigger system. Rather than a mushy “2 stage” trigger, they have two trigger blades. The first trigger pulls easy and when it meets the other half, the actual pull stage starts. It does not take long to adapt to this system, and I wish more manufactures used it. I find the RM200 to have one of the nicest triggers in an entry level rifle.

Mendoza RM-200 double trigger system. There is a little crack in the stock by the trigger guard which is purely cosmetic.

Another feature, and one of the most important for some of my readers, is the price. When it was first released by www.PyramydAir.com it was selling for 89.99. Well, they have raised the price to $109.95, which is a real shame in my book. I’m sure that in this business, like every other business, every little bit of profit matters, but I wish they had left this one alone. However, even at $109.95 this rifle is a great buy. You can add a decent scope and have a very nice, all day, accurate, shooter for around $160 or less depending on your scope choice. I believe www.PyramydAir.com sells a combo with a BSA 4×32 scope for only $130. Or you could just stick with the open sights, seeing they are great fiber optic sights.

Here are some more features that need hightlighting as well as some more photos:

Mendoza RM-200 Front sight. These sights are so nice that the scope is not necessary unless you want to really wring out every last bit of accuracy from this little rifle.

Rear Sight on the Mendoza RM-200. I wish this was a micro-click adjustable sight, but once it is set, you don’t have to adjust it anymore. The fiber optic inserts really light up in low light conditions.

Here is another nice set of features. An ambidextrous automatic safety and built in scope stop.

Here is another feature I thought to be unique to the Daisy PowerLine 1000SB. Mendoza uses a locking bar to accurately reset the barrel each time the rifle is closed. The next photo shows the “lock” that grabs the bar.

Cross section of the locking mechanism that holds the barrel once closed.

While I’d like to see a little more velocity from this rifle, you really have to consider the purpose. This is not a “hunting” rifle, but rather a simple target rifle or back yard plinker. I averaged about 576 FPS today with the RWS Superdome pellets, which is slightly better than in our first tests and I had about a 11 FPS difference between shots, which is much better than the 32 FPS difference in my first review. It would seem that the RM-200 gets better with age!

RWS Superdome .22 Pellets
High – 580, Low – 569, Average – 576, Difference 11 FPS

What a nice group from the RWS Superdome Pellets. You can get these groups all day with the Mendoza RM-200

With the holidays coming up, you may want to consider the RM-200 for the young shooter in family. Heck, you may want to get one for the old shooter in the family! I have several newer, fancier, more powerful rifles in the growing review arsenal, but the Mendoza RM-200 holds a pretty high spot on my favorites list. If you don’t have one, consider picking one up with some RWS Super Dome pellets. You won’t be disappointed.

Coming up… I’ve got an article showing just how different pellets can group out of the same rifle. I took my new Walther Lever Action .177 CO2 rifle and ran 13 different pellets through it. The results were really surprising and the outstanding pellet may really surprise you! I’ve got the review of the Walther Lever Action Rifle, the Beeman SS1000H dual caliber rifle, and a Gamo CFX copy out of Turkey. So check back often!

Written By,
Rick Eutsler
Editor / Owner www.AirGunWeb.com
editor@airgunweb.com
Copyright 2007 www.airgunweb.com & Dog River Design, LLC.