The Air Venturi Avenger PCP Air Rifle – A Tinkerer’s Delight?
No sooner had HAM posted an announcement about the forthcoming availability of the Air Venturi Avenger PCP air rifle, than one arrived here at our offices. Thanks Pyramyd Air!
There’s no doubt that this is an unusual air rifle, so HAM will not be reviewing it in our usual way. Normally we resist temptation and leave all airguns exactly the way we receive them for testing.
But – as you can see from the packaging, above – Air Venturi is positioning the Avenger directly at the tinkerers among us. That includes HAM Publisher, Stephen Archer who has not yet seen an air rifle he doesn’t want to take apart!
The Avenger offers shooters the opportunity to fine-tune performance using the externally-adjustable regulator and hammer spring adjustment capability. There’s an adjustable two-stage trigger. And Air Venturi does say that the Avenger should be at the top of your list if you’re a tuner or modder…
First Fit A Scope
Well it’s not really a mod, but the first thing to to is to fit a scope. The Avenger has no iron sights and it looks unlikely than any can be fitted. But 99% of shooters will want to fit a scope anyway.
So we mounted our faithful Leapers UTG 3-9 x 40AO scope with medium height dovetail rings.
The Avenger has a combined Dovetail/Picatinny rail molded into its synthetic breech. So if you have Picatinny-mount rings, they are also a viable mounting alternative.
Handling Mods – Bipod And Sling
Next, we’ll look at some simple ways to modify the handling of the Air Venturi Avenger PCP air rifle. The first was to mount a Leapers UTG bipod on the front Picatinny rail.
Stephen Archer really likes to fit a sling to his air rifles. So he was pleased to read that the Air Venturi Avenger PCP air rifle is fitted with front and rear sling swivel mounts.
Yes they are there. You can see front one in the photograph above. But unfortunately the web below the mounting hole was too deep to allow a standard “Uncle Mike’s” sling swivel to be fitted.
This would require some filing down of the plastic web – but then would that be too thin? This has to be an “at your own risk” mod unless you fit a small split key ring (for example) between the stock and sling swivel…
Handling Mods – Cocking Lever And Stock
The Air Venturi Avenger PCP air rifle is very light at 6 Lbs 1 Ounce without scope. And moreover the rear buttstock sounded hollow and felt waaay too light. That placed the Center of Gravity too far forward for Stephen Archer’s liking. But, hey, this is a gun for modders, right?
So he removed the rubber buttpad (you’ll need a 3 mm Allen wrench for this) to find a large hollow space. Just ideal to add a 1 Lb pug of electrician’s Duct Seal!
So, in went the Duct Seal, back went the machine screws. There was no need even to remove the Duct Seal wrapper. Now the Avenger feels and balances just how he likes it! Including the scope, the rig now weighs-in at 8 Lbs 9 Oz.
Note that this mod was made using electrician’s Duct Seal, which is a petroleum-based material. Home Depot has it in the electrical aisle. There’s also plumber’s Duct Seal, but this is a completely different substance that’s water-based and really not suitable for applications such as this. That’s normally found at Lowe’s.
And then there’s the cocking lever…
This is non-rotating and ridged for grip. That’s good. But wouldn’t it benefit from a slightly more grippy surface?
Just add four rubber O rings (size 012) – one into each of the slots – and now we have a super-grippy sidelever to accompany that more solid feel to the gun achieved with the additional weight.
As you can tell, HAM is enjoying the Air Venturi Avenger PCP air rifle already 🙂
Next we’ll make a simple test to benchmark Muzzle Velocity and shot count. Then we’ll move on to adjust that very-tempting, externally-adjustable regulator. There’s a pretty good chance we’ll need to adjust the hammer spring tension too. Check back for progress…
Other parts of this review:
Tune Overview And Hand Pump Power Tune
