This extremely-long unbroken mounting rail offers the maximum flexibility possible for positioning scope rings, and hence the scope, to match the user’s requirements. It also allows the scope to be mounted using lower rings than would be required with other air rifles having a magazine that “breaks” the top of the breech. When you see the yellow dot appear in the indicator window, you know you have one more shot left to take Ironically, PowaPell was one of the few pellets I tried that didn’t group super-tightly at extreme ranges. In fact – as I’ve noticed many times in the past with BSA’s cold hammer-forged barrels – this R10 Super Carbine spat most brands of pellets through the same hole at ranges under 30 yards, including some brands that I’d otherwise call ‘budget’ or ‘leisure’.

Maximum shots per fill is claimed at 45 in .22 caliber. As can be seen from the shot count chart below, the BSA R-10 SE air rifle tested by HAM will, indeed achieve this if the shooter is content to see a drop in Muzzle Velocity of 70 FPS. However, this would definitely produce a fall in the point of impact at range and so would not be acceptable to most owners. The HAM Team would definitely re-fill the tank after 35 shots and so considers this to be the effective maximum number of shots per fill.Please note the magazine kits fit the original Hornet and BSA Ultra MMC model shown in the photo right Technically minded airgunners might notice that there’s more of a gradual rise in the .177 Super Carbine’s regulated output, though it’s by no means anything like the usual power ‘curve’ you get with most unregulated PCPs. By comparison with the .22 VC, it’s a noticeable characteristic, but I have to say it didn’t manifest itself in any negative way downrange – none of my pellet groups strung in the vertical plane and I was more than happy with the results regardless of where in the rifle’s charge I was shooting.

Out of the box, the rifle comes fitted with a barrel shroud and moderator, but these are optional – and adaptable. Instead of being attached directly to the barrel, the moderator screws into the shroud. BSA refers to this system as the Customer Configurable Shroud and it means you can configure your gun three ways. At the rear end of the rifle you’ll find a height adjustable butt pad and an ambidextrous semi-Monte Carlo-style cheekpiece HAM Tester Doug Rogers shot a target at 25 Yards using the JSB pellets. He called one flyer out of ten on the target below. The remainder were in a very nice, “one hole” group. In his testing notes, Doug commented that he felt the accuracy limitation here was him, rather than the BSA R-10 SE air rifle: that’s a pretty good compliment! The bolt is chunky enough to make it easy to grab hold of in the field, but not so huge that it gets in the way

But the Super Carbine is equally happy with a bipod underneath the forend too, making this R-10 an excellent contender for a mixed hunt where you may want to go roving or static, and shoot anything from offhand or prone. Carbine? Super! The maximum Muzzle Velocity for the US-specification BSA R-10 SE air rifle is claimed to be 980 FPS with 11.75 Grain lead pellets. The example tested by HAM came very close indeed to matching this with 11.9 Grain pellets. So, it’s clear that the R-10 SE matches the manufacturer’s Muzzle Velocity claim.

There’s a two year limited warranty with the gun. This is fulfilled in the USA by Gamo as BSA is part of the Gamo group. There are some downsides to owning the BSA R-10 SE air rifle, but they can all be overcome with experience. The problem is gaining that experience, because the owner’s manual is of little help. HAM Tester Doug Rogers was blunt in his test notes. He wrote “This is one of the poorest manuals I have seen”. I would say it was perfection, other than for two minor criticisms. One is that there’s no chequering – though I appreciate that laminates are hard to chequer with any degree of neatness by virtue of the layered material being cut. All the same, even a stippled panel on the pistol grip would improve things in more slippery scenarios. The Standard Deviation (shot-to-shot variation in FPS) in the 10-shot shooting test strings was also very low, at an average of just 4.33 FPS over the whole HAM pellet test suite. This is also outstanding performance! The 10-shot magazines are easy to load and worked faultlessly throughout the HAM testing period. The white “one shot remaining” indicator on the magazine is easy to see and a useful indicator of the forthcoming need to reload. As shown below.

Product Details

There’s a minor weight saving too, with the Super Carbine weighing in at 3.1kg (6.13lb) compared with the 3.2kg (7.4lb) of its big brother, but shooters choosing the carbine will probably do so primarily for its more compact proportions. Of course, as most airgunners will be aware, carbine PCPs tend to be less efficient than their longer-barrelled counterparts in terms of shot-count – and given my Super Carbine was supplied in .177, a calibre that also gives away some shots to .22, I was keen to see what impact this had on the number of shots I could eke out of this R10 model between fill-ups.