New Barra CO2 1866 Air Rifle
The Barra CO2 1866 air rifle is the latest model from the brand. In fact it was actually launched on December 12, 2023 – that’s yesterday!
Barra has had an 1866 air rifle for some time. In fact, this was the first air rifle marketed by the company. However it’s important to appreciate that the new Barra CO2 1866 air rifle is a completely different airgun.
The original Barra 1866 was a multi-pump pneumatic with plastic breech selling at a much lower price. It’s still available in multiple versions. The new model is a much higher-end model with – almost – all metal construction, combined with individual “cartridge” loading and ejection, together with CO2 power.
The Barra CO2 1866 air rifle is certainly fun to shoot. I’ve already played with it – er, make that “undertaken some initial unstructured testing”! We plan to run a full, comprehensive HAM test review in the future.
Although the Barra Airguns brand name may not be as well known as some, the company has been introducing some very interesting models. There’s HAM’s most accurate BB gun, the selective-fire 400e and the value-priced 1100z PCP air rifle. Both are HAM Gold Award winners, as is the Schofield revolver. That’s another product of Barra Airguns.
Another major differentiator for Barra Airguns is the company’s approach to the sensible maintenance and upgrading of their products.
As we saw recently, Barra has interchangeable barrels for the Schofield. What’s more, they make the replacement parts readily available and give good instructions for the “careful average Joe” to make the change.
The same strategy is in place for the new Barra CO2 1866 air rifle. The gun that arrived in the HAM offices for testing is in .177 caliber. It’s fitted with a smoothbore barrel suitable for shooting steel BBs or lead pellets.
However Barra also has upgrade kits available for the CO2-powered 1866. There’s a dedicated rifles barrel in .177 caliber for those who want to shoot exclusively pellets. There’s also a .22 caliber rifled barrel kit that’s supplied complete with 10 “cartridges” for pellet shooting.
HAM also received the .22 caliber upgrade kit. We’ll be investigating this too, of course!
Finally, the Barra CO2 1866 air rifle is available with a “gold”-finished receiver. (Think of the 1866 Yellowboy firearm). There’s also a plain black version, should you prefer that look.
You can find the CO2-powered 1866 already available on the Barra Airguns website, with broader distribution to come in future. The MSRP for the “gold” model is $250. The plain black gun is $30 less.
