Air Arms holds a special place in the hearts and minds of many airgun shooters, positioning itself as the last truly British airgun company. But things are changing.
Call it market forces, a desire to innovate or a new strategic direction; the company announced two years ago at the Great British Shooting Show that it would change its business model by taking in-house the distribution of its own products.
In line with its additional role as a distributor, Air Arms announced it had reached an agreement with Precihole Sports, an Indian airgun maker, to distribute its products worldwide. Air Arms also said it intended to release a successor to its much-vaunted S200 rifle and, while it was on a roll, also unveiled a new corporate logo.
That was a lot for many people to take in and, before long, airgunning conspiracy theorists and armchair experts decided that a more fundamental relationship between the two companies was afoot.
It wasn’t though, and Air Arms remains the same company under the same ownership and management. And it continues to act as a distributor for Precihole rifles.
Now the fuss has mostly died down, Air Arms is ready to announce a completely new rifle – the X200 Vanguard – a £699 rifle, currently available in .177 calibre. Derivatives in the pipeline include the X200 Virtue, a target-focused cylinder model, and the X200 Valour, a high-power model expected to offer up to 35 ft/lb in .22 and .25 calibres.
Below: The X200 Vanguard is a sensibly priced, and nice looking, bottle gun from Air Arms
But there’s a twist. Though conceived, designed and specified by Air Arms, the X200 is made in India by Precihole.
There is nothing unusual in that. Indeed, it’s spiritual forefather, the S200, was a collaboration between Air Arms and CZ and made by the Czech company. But it’s bound to get tongues wagging again. And that’s a shame because the Air Arms X200 Vanguard has a lot to offer. We got out hands on one to take a closer look.
It’s easy to sneer at synthetic stocks and dismiss them as a cheap alternative to walnut. No one can deny the aesthetic appeal of a nice piece of wood, but in terms of practicality, synthetic, or plastic, wins hands down.
There are bad plastic stocks – hollow and scratchy. And there are good ones. The handle on the X200 Vanguard is firmly one of the latter. It’s solid. Rap it with your knuckles and all you’ll get is sore knuckles. It’s true, there is a mould seam, but it’s not rough or jagged.
But what raises the X200 Vanguard’s stock over many of its contemporaries is the amount of adjustment. Remember, this is an affordable, verging on mid-price, rifle. And yet it offers vertical adjustment to the curved shoulder pad and cheekpiece, as well as lateral extension to the butt that adds as much as 40mm to the length of pull.
What is more, once you have made the adjustments to suit the optic of your choice, your shape and size and shooting style, everything locks down solidly to give perfect shoulder fit and alignment.
Forward of the butt, the near vertical pistol grip swells nicely to fill your palm and has panels of stippling on both sides to aid grip. A deep cut out – a nod to the distinctive style of the S200 - ensures a comfortable hold whether you prefer your thumb up or wrapped around.
A generous forend extends below the air bottle to provide plenty of space for your lead hand, and a subtle groove as well as more stippling adds to the comfort too.
Below top: The synthetic stock on the X200 Vanguard incorporates a steep pistol grip and lots of adjustability
Below bottom: A forward-weeping forend creates a comfortable hold point for your lead hand
That forend is home to both a 210mm long UIT accessory rail and a pressure gauge that indicates how much pressure is left in the 350cc bottle. Whilst we’ve become used to most rifles taking a 200-bar fill or more, Air Arms recommends filling the X200 Vanguard to just 160-bar using one of the longest fill probes I’ve come across. An air cylinder conversion is also available but drops capacity down to 227cc
However, there is nothing on the rifle to indicate recommended fill pressure and there’s no red zone indicator on the gauge to warn against over-filling. According to Air Arms, you can expect around 120 shots for your 160-bar and as the rifle is not regulated, you’ll need to experiment to find the sweet spot on your rifle.
Once found though, the X200 Vanguard is remarkably consistent. The test rifle performed best between 150 and 120-bar, with 12-shot strings showing commendable consistency.
Below top: There is a UIT accessory rail and clearly-marked gauge in the underside of the stock
Below bottom: The Air Arms X200 Vanguard’s long probe is needed to reach through the stock to the fill port
I’ve always liked and admired the original S200 rifle and, despite its connection being tenuous to say the least, I really wanted the X200 Vanguard to be a worthy successor when I took it to the range.
In addition to a single shot tray, you get two magazines. They are cassette types and though made from plastic, work well enough. There’s no need to pre-load the inner drum, simply rotate the thumb wheel at the top to expose the chambers within and drop pellets in one at a time.
The pellet slot is elongated and it took me a few re-fills to realise that rotating it so the chamber beneath is slightly offset will prevent pellets falling straight through. Once loaded with all 12 pellets, the magazine inserts into the breech from the left side with no fuss.
I think you can judge a great deal about a rifle by the way the sidelever operates. Cranking it on the X200 Vanguard revealed a smooth and slick action that is a pleasure to use with no sloppiness and just the right amount of resistance on the return.
Though I’m right-handed, I can appreciate the frustration lefties experience when rifles are designed without them in mind. Fortunately, the sidelever on the X200 Vanguard can be swapped to the left. The safety catch too can be operated from either side. Located at the rear of the action and well away from the trigger, the lever slides forward to make the rifle live.
Below top: The Air Arms X200 Vanguard comes with two 12-shot magazines
Below bottom: The large dropdown sidelever handle is easy to locate and can be swapped to either side of the rifle
Triggers too are a sign of a good rifle. My simple reasoning is that if a manufacturer has invested the time and effort into making a good one, it bodes well for the rest of the rifle.
The two-stage unit on the X200 Vanguard belies the rifle’s price point. The two stages are adjustable via screws behind the blade, though you’d likely want to remove the stock to access them more easily. Following the current trigger trend, the post and shoe design has a broad and ridged profile that feels good on your finger. You can even adjust the angle of the blade by slackening a small Allen bolt.
Out of the box, the first stage was quite short, but came to a clear stop, and the second stage let-off held no surprises, breaking cleanly and predictably. All in all, like the sidelever, the trigger would complement more expensive rifles.
If you were lucky enough to buy one of the first 200 X200 Vanguards, you would have benefitted from a free silencer. If you weren’t, then you’ll need to fit one of your own as the rifle comes with a screw-on muzzle protector that looks good but does nothing for sound suppression.
Below top: The two-stage fully adjustable trigger on the X200 Vanguard provides plenty of feedback and is very predictable
Below bottom: The muzzle protector offers no sound suppression but can quickly be unscrewed and replaced with a silencer
Windy conditions for several days frustrated my plans to range test the Air Arms, but eventually the weather broke and I was able to exploit perfect conditions at Reading Air Target Shooting club.
A quick pull through to clean the barrel and armed with a selection of pellets, I soon had the rifle zeroed at 30 metres. Air Arms Diabolo Field 4.52 seemed like an obvious choice and while they shot ok, I felt the Precihole barrel could do better.
QYS Streamlined pellets – my go to in most, if not all, my other .177 rifles, faired little better with flyers occurring too regularly and spoiling otherwise good groups.
I settled on JSB Exacts and once in the 150 to 120-bar sweet spot, they performed well. With the lack of a coin or tape measure, I was reduced to using an acorn – goodness knows there’s enough of them laying around this year – to gauge the group. I don’t know the exact dimensions of an average acorn, but one covered the group easily at 20 and 30 metres.
At 40-metres, the group opened out and, though still respectable, I’d have needed a bigger acorn. However, subsequent trips have shown H&N Baracuda 8 pellets to perform best – at least in the gun I was sent to review.
All in all, the shooting experience was a good one. The sidelever and magazine cycled easily and without drama, I soon got used to the trigger, and all that adjustment in the stock meant the X200 Vanguard fitted me like a glove.
Even shot count – something that some manufacturers are prone to flights of fancy over – was spot on, delivering 10 magazines before shots started to drop. Putting the X200 Vanguard over the chronograph showed a metronomically consistent 11.5 ft/lb with a shot-to-shot variance of just four feet/second for a full magazine.
Based on several hours at the range, I’d have no concerns about using the X200 Vanguard for pest control out to normal sub-12 airgunning ranges, but I would invest in a silencer as the rifle has quite a bark without one.
I wouldn’t know what to do on a field target or HFT course. However, I’d venture to say that if you’re looking to get into more competitive shooting, the Air Arms X200 Vanguard wouldn’t let you down.
I really wanted the X200 to be a worthy successor to the S200. And I think Air Arms just about pulled it off.
BRAND: Air Arms
MODEL: X200 Vanguard
RRP: £699
LENGTH: 943mm (37in), depending on butt extension
WEIGHT: 3.5kg (7.7lb)
BARREL LENGTH: 500mm (19.7in)
MAX FILL PRESSURE: 160 bar
SHOTS PER FILL: 120
Article first published 10th November 2025
