Brocock AimX .177" Concept, review. A possible first on any air gun forum

[TMS]

.177" Brocock AimX Concept single shot. (QD studs not included).

The .22" calibre of this rifle has been out for some months, but i've been waiting some time for the .177" version to appear in the shops. Brocock seem to favour .22" more than .177", for some strange reason and I was last told that the .177" would appear in time for Shirley's birthday, just before July 15th, but none of them showed up.

Then, out of the blue, one had turned up yesterday at my local shop, Field Accessories, Kidderminster. I only went in for some batteries for my pellet scales, but you can work out for yourself what happened in the end. However, I didn't buy it straight away, but did some bartering and thought about it over night, which is probably a first for me .

So, what do you get? Well the Concept is based on the AimX pistol action, but obviously has a longer air cylinder and barrel as befits a full U.K powered pcp air rifle. It comes in a rather nice amibidextrous walnut stock too with an adjustable butt pad, something which my £800 Daystate Mk4 doesn't have, and the fill adapter of course, which is probably the smartest one i've ever seen.

Specification.

Calibre;- .177".
Barrel;- Lowther Walther.
Maximum Fill Pressure;- 200 bar.
Length;- 934mm/36.75".
Power;- 11.5+ lb.ft.
Weight;- 2.5kg/5lbs 8oz.
Shot capacity ;- 50+ (60+ in .22"). (Lets hope I can stretch it to 60+ in .177" for a round of Furnace Mill).
Scope rail;- Standard size.
Trigger;- Adjustable first stage and weight. Metal trigger blade, which is also adjustable.

This action of the rifle, apart from the barrel, is made here in England. Well, it's actually Redditch, which is about 12 miles from where I am sitting as I type this.


Right hand side of the breech area of the action. The bolt release catch is on the left.


Left hand side of the breech area of the action.

The stock is american walnut and is a rather nice bit of wood and well finished, although I am looking to stain it darker in the very near future.


Cheek piece, butt & adjustable butt pad.


Pistol grip and thumb recesses.

Going back to the action, the quality is very, very good, with a deep quality finish to the action. I've seen worse on much more expensive rifles.


Muzzle with moderator adapter fitted & thread cover fitted.


Muzzle with moderator adapter fitted & thread cover removed.


To remove the stock just undo the main M5 stock bolt, but the action is a very tight fit in the stock. I've added a bit of furniture polish to the inside of the stock, the bottom half of the cylinder and both sides of the trigger block. I hope this helps. It took three of us to get the action out of the stock in the shop before drilling the stock for the QD studs.


Trigger block.


Note the the Daystate style push on fill valve and the rather gorgeous fill adapter, although I would have prefered it in brass.

The rifle is a well balanced and compact rifle and as such will suit a youngster or your other half quite easily. Putting the rifle alongside an Air Arms S200 Mk III the Concept is more or less the same length and feels lighter than the Mk II S200 that Shirley uses at the moment. The Concept feels much more compact than it actually is and I put this down the the width, or the lack of it, of the stock, although there is plenty of "meat" in the stock to accept QD studs.

I had QD studs fitted in the shop and bought a rather nice strap for it as well. I also bought the adapter and will be fitting a HW moderator.

Overall, my first impressions of the rifle are extreamly favourable and at just about the same price (£345) as a Mk III S200 with a beech stock, (although Gary at Field Accessories did me a good price yet again), I think, as long as Brocock can get plenty of .177"'s on to the market, will be quite some competition for not only the S200, but the B.S.A Ultra as well. It would be interesting to see a target version too, now that Air Arms no longer import the S200T. One thing that I was told today was that the trigger is similar to the Falcon air rifles as the chap who makes them at Brocock used to work for Falcon, however, adjusting the position of the trigger is still a mystery as it doesn't mention this in the handbook, so more investigation needed on this one.


Keep watching for future updates.

Update 1, 27/09/09;- Just a quicky. It's been over a month since I posted about the Concept. Tonight I finally got around to pulling the bore through and to be honest I could have growed potatoes in it, although, when looking through it it didn't look to bad. I then fitted the HW moderator.

With this done I put 51 shots through the rifle, then I fitted the scope, a Nikko Stirling 3-9 x 40AO Mountmaster. Over the next few days I hope to do a full chrono' test and get over to Furnace Mill to zero it at 35 yards and check the p.o.i's from 10 yards to 55 yards. Hopefully there will be just enough capacity in the rifles's air cylinder for a few zero check shots on the plinking range, followed by a round of the HFT course.

Just shouldering the rifle tonight with the moderator and scope fitted it seems that this is perhaps the lightest (except for the B.S.A T-10) and maybe the best balanced of all my PCP's.

Update 2, March 15th 2010;- Although I'm still yet to do a full chrono' check of the rifle, as the weather was so nice today, albeit a little windy, I took the Concept to Furnace Mill to zero at 15/35 yards and check the p.o.i's from 10 to 55 yards.

Filling the rifle to its 200 bar maximum I started by just putting some lead down the barrel and gradually tweaked the rifle to something like a 15/35 yard zero. I seemed to have the odd flyer of around 1/2" using Air Arms Field 4.52 pellets on occations, but this may be because of the wind, or, as they seemed to occur early on from a full charge, it may be just the fact that the rifle was settling down after a refill of air. Perhaps filling to 190 or 195 bar may remove the five or so shots needed to settle the rifle down. A full chrono' check should help sort this out. With unweighed pellets I was getting pellet on pellet at 35 yards, subject to me holding the rifle still and the wind dropping a little.

After noting the p.o.i's, which may need tweaking a little next time out, I refilled the rifle to 200 bar and had a go around the course. Again the first three or four shots were a little "off", but then the rifle seemed to settle down. No records were broken, but an enjoyable afternoon spent in the sun, with my Summer shooting hat in use for the first time this year!

The rifle is very light, but well balanced and an ideal starter gun for youngsters and your other half, but it's much, much more than a starter rifle and is very much a rifle you would wish to keep. The trigger could do with being a tad lighter, but that's all. It looks like I should get just enough shots out of the rifle for a round of Furnace Mill as no obvious sign of the p.o.i dropping off was noted after 60 shots. The pressure left in the rifle after 60 shots was approximately 78 bar.

I hope to get around to doing a full chrono' test tonight, initially with weighed air arms field 4.52's.

Update 3, 15th March 2010;- Right, here are the results of the full chrono' test using individually weighed Air Arms Field, (which I'm told is what Brocock use to set up and test their rifles), 4.52 pellets (8.5gn), which are my usual pellet of choice for most of my rifles.

Test was carried out indoors at approximately 18 degrees celcius with approximately 15-20 seconds between most shots.

Start pressure 200 bar (maximum for rifle).

Shot no./fps/pressure

1, 733.
2, 747.
3, 744.
4, 746.
5, 745, 190 bar.
6, 744.
7, 752.
8, 755.
9, 754.
10, 756, 182 bar.
Low = 733/10.143382ft.lb.
High = 756/10.789925ft.lb.
Diff' = 23/0.646543ft.lb.
Avr' = 747.6/10.551481ft.lb.
11, 748.
12, 751.
13, 749.
14, 751.
15, 752, 178 bar.
16, 759.
17, 758.
18, 752.
19, 760.
20, 763, 168 bar.
Low = 748/10.562775ft.lb.
High = 763/10.990664ft.lb.
Diff' = 15/0.427889ft.lb.
Avr' = 754.3/10.741454ft.lb.
21, 753.
22, 759.
23, 763.
24, 763.
25, 763, 160 bar.
26, 768.
27, 768.
28, 769.
29, 772.
30, 770, 153 bar.
Low = 753/10.704461ft.lb.
High = 772/11.251475ft.lb.
Diff' = 19/0.547014ft.lb.
Avr' = 764.8/11.042581ft.lb.
31, 771.
32, 767.
33, 769.
34, 775.
35, 769, 142 bar.
36, 776.
37, 772.
38, 770.
39, 772.
40, 772, 135 bar.
Low = 767/11.106202ft.lb.
High = 776/11.368372ft.lb.
Diff' = 9/0.26217ft.lb.
Avr' = 771.3/11.23108ft.lb.
41, 769.
42, 778.
43, 772.
44, 769.
45, 772, 122 bar.
46, 774.
47, 777.
48, 770.
49, 761.
50, 769, 118 bar.
Low = 761/10.933121ft.lb.
High = 778/11.427048ft.lb.
Diff' = 17/0.493927ft.lb.
Avr' = 771.1/11.225256ft.lb.
51, 767.
52, 769.
53, 768.
54, 767.
55, 760, 105 bar.
56, 764.
57, 752.
58, 757.
59, 755.
60, 749, 98 bar.
Low = 749/10.591037ft.lb.
High = 769/11.164198ft.lb.
Diff' = 20/0.573161ft.lb.
Avr' = 760.8/10.927375ft.lb.
61, 754.
62, 747.
63, 747.
64, 747.
65, 737, 89 bar.
66, Not loaded .
67, 729, 82 bar.
Low = 729/10.032979ft.lb.
High = 754/10.732911ft.lb.
Diff' = 25/0.699932ft.lb.
Avr' = 743.5/10.436065ft.lb.

Over full chrono' test;-

Low = 729/10.032979ft.lb.
High = 778/11.427048ft.lb.
Diff' = 49/1.394069ft.lb.
Avr' = 759.05714/10.877367ft.lb.

Over absolute peak (18 shots from shot 31 to 48);-

Low = 767/11.106202ft.lb.
High = 778/11.427048ft.lb.
Diff' = 11/0.320846ft.lb.
Avr' = 771.88889/11.248236ft.lb.

So, the handbook quotes 55+ shots per charge and as a "practical" amount of shots, say starting no lower than about 0.5ft.lb less than the abosolute peak average (around 10.7ft.lb), I'd say about 53 shots (from shot 7 to shot 60), but I dare say that seven or eight more usable shots could be utilised, making a grand total of 62 "practical" shots if you push it. Shame I can't get 70 shots, but this was never on the cards, at least not in .177".

Going on the above information I think a new start pressure from 192 bar for around 62 shots, possibly 65.

I've just continued to dry shoot the rifle to see when it dumped the remaining air and it never did, it just reduced over about 45 shots to "0". Neither did the rifle need to be cocked to refill it from empty.

Next up will be several chrono' tests using different brands/head sizes of pellets, individually weighed, over the absolute peak from 153 bar for 18 shots.

Update 4, March 16th 2010;- Here's the first of several chrono' tests using different brands/head sizes of pellets over the absolute peak;-

Pellets used, Bisley Magnum individually weighed (10.3gn), start pressure 153 bar.

Shot no./fps.

1, 709.
2, 708.
3, 708.
4, 706.
5, 705.
6, 708.
7, 706.
8, 706.
9, 710.
10, 708.
11, 706.
12, 710.
13, 709.
14, 705.
15, 706.
16, 706.
17, 702.
18, 701.
Low = 701/11.241627ft.lb.
High = 710/11.532138ft.lb.
Diff' = 9/0.290511ft.lb.
Avr' = 706.61111/11.422313ft.lb.

So, all being well, although every gun/pellet combo' can be different, the rifle should stay on the right side of the 12ft.lb limit by just under 0.6ft.lb.

Update 5, March 16th 2010;- More chrono' testing. All starting from 153 bar.

Individually weighed Webley Mosquito Express 7.9gn.

Shot no./fps.

1, 789.
2, 794.
3, 793.
4, 801.
5, 788.
6, 795.
7, 800.
8, 796.
9, 796.
10, 793.
11, 791.
12, 792.
13, 793.
14, 795.
15, 789.
16, 792.
17, 789.
18, 786.
Low = 786/10.839971ft.lb.
High = 801/11.257658ft.lb.
Diff' = 15/0.417687ft.lb.
Avr' = 792.88889/11.030817ft.lb.

Individually weighed JSB Exact 4.52's, 8.3gn.

Shot no./fps.

1, 778.
2, 781.
3, 778.
4, 782.
5, 781.
6, 783.
7, 782.
8, 783.
9, 772.
10, 775.
11, 781.
12, 775.
13, 784.
14, 782.
15, 788.
16, 778.
17, 771.
18, 782.
Low = 771/10.95829ft.lb.
High = 788/11.446862ft.lb.
Diff' = 17/0.488572ft.lb.
Avr' = 779.77778/11.209229ft.lb.

Individually weighed FX 4.52's, 8.5gn.

Shot no./fps.

1, 768.
2, 784.
3, 785.
4, 774.
5, 779.
6, 783.
7, 783.
8, 786.
9, 773.
10, 780.
11, 780.
12, 782.
13, 772.
14, 779.
15, 781.
16, 776.
17, 780.
18, 765.
Low = 765/11.048358ft.lb.
High = 786/11.66326ft.lb.
Diff' = 21/0.614902ft.lb.
Avr' = 778.33333/11.436842ft.lb.

Individually weighed Air Arms Field 4.51's, 8.5gn.

Shot no./fps.

1, 778.
2, 778.
3, 785.
4, 789.
5, 782.
6, 788.
7, 781.
8, 787.
9, 783.
10, 784.
11, 781.
12, 778.
13, 778.
14, 785.
15, 775.
16, 766.
17, 778.
18, 777.
Low = 766/11.077261ft.lb.
High = 789/11.752462ft.lb.
Diff' = 23/0.675201ft.lb.
Avr' = 780.72222/11.507154ft.lb.

So looking at all the above results, apart from the Bisley Magnum pellets, the most consistant are the pellets originally tested, Air Arms Field 4.52's. I will continue to use these in general use and see how they fair. The pellets giving the most ft.lb on average and on individual highest reading are Air Arms Field 4.51's and not the Bisley Magnum pellets.

Next chrono' test after 1000 shots.

Update 6, 16th March 2010;- Just a quick update for you. I paid another visit to Furnace Mill this afternoon and checked the p.o.i's from yesterday. A little bit of tweaking was made to the scope adjustment, then a go around the course. Unfortunately, I was at the trigger, so I ended up with a worst score than yesterday, but it was a little more windy too.

During the use of the rifle over the last two days I felt that the cheek piece was a little low, so I have lowered the adjustable butt pad about half an inch to raise the rifle slightly.

Update 7, 25th April 2010;-Afternoon all. What a day! I get up late after finishing a week of nights then get to Kidderminster from Stourbridge and realised that I had left my wallet at home. Back home to pick up my wallet, then on arrival at the plinking range at Furnace Mill it rained and then I realised that I had left my p.o.i card for the Concept at home! What a start sad0049.

Anyway, back to the Concept. I filled up the rifle to it's 200 bar maximum fill this trip as I wanted to take a few more shots on the plinking range before having a go around the course. I ended up taking a few more shots than I would have liked as the zero was about half a mil dot to the left at 15 yards for some strange reason. About 15 clicks to the right sorted this, but it did mean that I put ten pellets through the rifle instead of perhaps five. Normally I would only get chance to put just two sighters through the rifle from it's best start pressure of 192 bar, with the result that there's just enough air, at a stretch, to shoot 30 targets twice.

I was quite pleased with my efforts today and my performance was a vast improvement over the previous two efforts that were so poor I did think about px'ing the Concept along with my T.R.U. The Concept just didn't seem to gel with me at all "in the field". However, just altering the adjustable butt pad has made quite a difference. O.k, it's not as good as having an adjustable cheek piece, but just lowering the butt about half an inch has in effect raised the rifle slightly, enough so that your cheek gets a fair bit more support.

With the ten shots on the plinking range I was expecting the p.o.i to drop off towards the end of my go around the course and it was almost right at the end on the 29th target. I was working backwards from lane 30, so it was on lane 2 where the drop off was noticed, the target being around 30-35 yards away. The last target is only around 20-22 yards away and the drop off was not noticed. With this in mind you might be able to stretch the shots to 70 from 200 bar, but perhaps it's best to keep to no more than 62 (from 192 bar) & (65 from 200 bar).

I find the trigger far better than the Air Arms S200 trigger, but it would be nice if the blade had a little more of a rounded edge to it.

Update 8, 06/11/11;- Time for a change, so today, after a very long time since it was last out, I took the Concept to Furnace Mill. O.k, the efforts were only average, not helped by catching up with a few members on here and having a right old giggle, but I was told, at least out of the three of us, that's me, Dave & Paul, I managed the best score.

The rifle really is sweet to use. I would prefer a normal bolt, but that aside the rifle is a great performer.

Shots up to;-

22/08/09 = 3 shots.
27/09/09 = 54 shots.
15/03/10 = 290 shots.
16/03/10 = 495 shots.
25/04/10 = 565 shots.
06/11/11 = 647 shots.

Chris.

[TMS]

Review updated. See update 8.

Chris.

[subaru swift]

i miss my old concept now & then as i think they are under rated rifles at times.

[big_phil555]

i miss my old concept now & then as i think they are under rated rifles at times.

TMS just misses with his 

[TMS]

Ah, Mr. Lloyd I presume. I see you've crawled out from behind the garlic! .

I'm surprised you can remember your password .

Chris.

[big_phil555]

Merci Bien mon ami 

I do read the posts on here, but as you say, I do not post as much as I used too. 

[TMS]

You can pack that in! Worse than swearing .

Chris.