THE TEXAN
AirForce Airguns is one of the premier manufacturers of Pre-Charged Pneumatic (PCP) air rifles. Made in the USA, AirfForce has been offering Americans extremely powerful airguns since 1994. The .308 Texan rifle is from their most powerful line. That’s right, a .308 caliber airgun! The rifle comes disassembled in two pieces with easy directions for its assembly. Although a scope, ammo, and bipod are not included, Airforce has all the accessories available through their distributors. Total assembly with the scope only took about ten minutes. The rifle has a 3,000 psi tank that can be filled one of two ways, by a special hand pump or by a prefilled air tank available from Pyramid Air and some scuba stores. I highly suggest getting a prefilled air tank for these rifles. Using the hand-pump is about a half hour workout to get the tank up to max pressure.
To load the rifle, there is a side charging handle that when moved forward allows a pellet to be placed in a fitted trough. The most important part of loading is remembering to press the projectile into the beginning of the barrel to maintain consistent contact with the rifling.
Sighted in at 25 yards, the rifle maintained a zero until the tank was about at the 1,000 psi mark; after that the shots began noticeably dropping. A unique feature of the Texan is its tunable valve. This allows you to tune the airflow for a specific projectile maximizing the rounds accuracy and power. Left alone it will regulate its own pressure with heavier ammunition but if lighter grained ammo is used tuning for it is recommended.
Shooting a three-shot group with the at-point ammunition produced a group of three-fourths-of an-inch. Firing into several two-by-four boards clamped together total penetration with 115-grain at point ammo was two-and-a-quarter- inches and with the 44-grain round ball penetration was decreased to one and seven-eighths-of-an-inch. I also tested the 44-grain round ball and was happy with its performance achieving groups only an eighth-of-an-inch wider than the at point ammunition. The biggest difference between the two projectiles was the sound of the shot. Versus the at point ammo, the round ball was twice as loud, almost to the point of needing ear protection. I am looking forward to hunting small game with the Texan this summer and would like to thank Junior Shooters magazine and AirForce for making this possible.
