Hatsan Airmax review
At 4.9 kgs unscoped and 940mm long, the Hatsan Airmax may be a bullpup in that the trigger is located forward of the breach, but it is a full-size and substantial rifle. The wooden stock is ambidextrous and features a thin, perforated butt pad which does not adjust unlike the cheek piece which can be raised at the push of a button. Although there is a little movement once elevated, the cheek piece is comfortable, enables good scope/eye alignment and does not discriminate between left and right handed shooters.
There are two cut outs in the stock. The rear is designed to save weight and add aesthetic appeal. The second provides access to the pistol grip that is contoured for your fingers but has no chequering or stippling. The trigger guard is an integrated part of the wooden stock. Forward of it, the forend cups the 400cc metal air bottle and is finished with a short picatinny accessory rail and four small cut outs. The stock also comes with a set of sling swivels. The trigger is two-stage and can only be adjusted by removing the stock. Forward of the trigger blade is the safety catch which looks like a second smaller, reversed trigger blade. It is activated automatically upon cocking and is resettable. Push it forward to make the Airmax live.
The magazine and magazine housing are the same as for the Hatsan AT44 rifle. To remove, you must pull back the cocking side lever then move a small bolt catch forward and up. The magazine itself is a 10-shot rotary design similar to that on the Weihrauch HW100 / 110 and pellets are simply pushed into the chambers. The magazine is inserted into the breach from the right side and the bolt catch must be returned followed by the side lever. The side lever itself has a biathlon style handle. Pulling it back both cocks the action and rotates the magazine. Pushing it forward probes the pellet. A raised scope rail, which can take both 22mm picatinny and 11-13mm dovetail mounts has plenty of room to enable good eye relief for a scope. It sits above a 90cc additional air cylinder which is filled along with the main bottle by inserting the supplied probe into a port just above the neck of the bottle that is revealed by first removing a short plastic stopper, which you may need to poke out with a key or screwdriver.
Hatsan doesn’t provide a shot count for the 12 ft. lbs. rifle but our field test of a .22 Airmax suggested that around 200 from a 200 bar fill is likely. A gauge on the underside of the stock will tell you when it’s time to top up. The 585mm barrel is Hatsan’s Quiet Energy design which incorporates a silencer. Although the muzzle cap looks like it can be unscrewed, it does not and there is no capacity to add an external silencer.