Best affordable bullpup rifles – top picks for airgunners

Are you fed up with everything going up? Gas and electric bills, fuel prices, interest rates. Just about everything except salaries. Unfortunately, though, airguns are not immune either.

Well-known brands have wowed us with some incredible rifles. And whilst they are wonderful things to hold and behold, and some definitely represent good value for money, there’s no denying they are hardly cheap.

It’s not set in stone of course, but it seems to me that when you pay big bucks for a rifle your money buys a level of engineering quality that makes interacting with it that little bit more pleasurable. And there’s no getting away from the fact that higher quality components usually, but not always, translate into longevity and reliability.

Accuracy is of course what it’s all about. But it’s all a matter of context. Super-expensive rifles may well deliver tighter groups at longer distances. But if you’re looking to deal with a few pests at sensible ranges or just plink a few cans in the garden, then do you really need a super-expensive airgun or will an affordable rifle do the job just as well?

To find out, we’ve assembled four bullpups you can buy for around £600, or considerably less in some cases.

 

Best affordable bullpup rifles – top picks for airgunners

 

Reximex Regime

Price: £499

At 815mm and a little over 3.3kg unscoped, the Reximex Regime is compact and light thanks to a plastic stock that will withstand brushes with fences and gates. A large cut-away accesses the pistol grip and is a convenient carry handle. The grip itself has finger contours as well as stippling, as does the forend.

The rubber shoulder pad is height-adjustable at the press of a button, and the plastic stock spares any contact with cold metal. There are two bubble levels – one on top of the butt and the other integrated into the scope rail. You can’t see either when taking aim and they indicate deviation from the horizontal plane rather than cant.

The sidelever is smooth to operate and located on the right, although with the stock and cylinder removed it can be swapped to the other side.

Somewhat bizarrely, the magazine – you get two – only fits into the breech from the right but sticks out to the left, making the Regime a little uncomfortable, for right-handed shooters, so pick your scope and mounts carefully. 

The magazine is the Turkish 14-shot .177/12-shot .22 drum. Pellets are inserted into the chambers after rotating the plastic faceplate clockwise. With the sidelever pulled back, a ridge on the back of the magazine has to be aligned with a groove in the breech. 

Marked with a + and – is a small power adjuster. It’s not the most convenient setup as you’ll need a small screwdriver to make any adjustment. That said, most UK shooters are likely to leave it turned up to the max. 

A small screw means you can adjust the angle of the shoe on the match-style trigger, but you’ll have to disassemble the plastic stock to make further adjustments, although out of the box, the two stages were well-defined with a clean let-off. A red safety catch within the trigger guard operates positively.

At 250mm, the Picatinny scope rail offers plenty of room for your scope, and unlike most bullpups you’ll be able to mount it low to the barrel.

Including the full-length shroud, the barrel is650mm. Unscrewing the end cap on our test rifle revealed a series of baffles. Range Right plans to add an adaptor for a silencer.

Supplied by: Range Right (range-right.co.uk)

 

Kral Puncher Breaker Bullpup

Price: £475

Kral rifles have been with us for a number of years thanks to Range Right. And of the many products in the company’s line-up, the Puncher Breaker Bullpup has been around longer than most.

And there’s a good reason for that. At 720mm and a shade over 3.5kg, its compact form has a reassuringly solid feel to it. The solid black plastic stock is good quality with no sharp edges or burrs. If you prefer, there’s a walnut stock option, as well as the Marine edition that has silvered metalwork.

There’s no adjustment in the solid rubber shoulder pad, but the plastic cheekpiece will slide about an inch into one of three positions. It’s not reversible though, and neither is the sidelever, above which is the safety switch. 

A large cut-out will accommodate the largest of hands. There are patches of stippling on the pistol grip, which also has finger contours, as well as the chunky forend that also provides a comfortable leading hand grip. Pushing a button at the very end opens a small compartment designed to take one of the two magazines that are supplied. Underneath there’s a threaded hole to accept a short accessory rail.

The post-and-shoe-style trigger is excellent. Although you’ll have to remove the stock to adjust the two stages, the stages were short but defined with a clean break straight out of the box.

The sidelever is located at the rear of the action behind the breech, and cocking is the traditional bullpup “finger in the ear.” That said, the action is smooth and positive with a sprung first stage. 

It operates the seemingly ubiquitous Turkish drum magazine – 14 in .177 and 12 in .22 – that, like the Reximex, requires the plastic faceplate to be rotated clockwise and a ridge in the back to align with a slot in the breech. 

Forward of the breech is a dial that adjusts power by altering the transfer port.

You’ll need Picatinny mounts to attach a scope to the 195mm rail that sits close to the 530mm barrel finished with a decorative muzzle cap. Removing it reveals a ½in UNF thread for a silencer.

Supplied by: Range Right (range-right.co.uk)

 

Gamo Boxer 

Price: £609

At a time when it seems that a black plastic stock is compulsory on just about every air rifle, let alone bullpups, the Gamo Boxer’s wooden handle makes for a refreshing change.

Patches of stippling on the pistol grip and forend do enough to prevent the stock from looking plain, and its design makes the Boxer comfortable to hold. The solid rubber shoulder pad is not adjustable, but doesn’t need to be as it delivers good eye alignment to a scope mounted on the raised dovetail rail. 

The wooden cheekpiece, though it can be removed, is shaped to favour right-handed shooters. Other than the stippling, the pistol grip has no embellishment, but swells nicely to fill your hand, as does the forend, which provides plenty of room for lead grip.

Located at the back of the action in true bullpup fashion, the bolt has a large handle, and although the throw is short, it requires a firm hand. I could only cock it with the rifle out of my shoulder. It works positively though, and operates a drum magazine that enters the breech from the left and takes 10 pellets in .177 and .22.

Located underneath the bolt is the safety switch which is safe in the rearmost position. It works well without locking the trigger up solid. The two-stage unit is adjustable, but out of the box it felt like one continuous single stage. 

Filling with air to the maximum is achieved by pulling a plastic collar off the front of the cylinder to reveal the port into which the provided port is inserted. The pressure gauge under the muzzle has red sections to show too empty and too full. 

I managed 90 .177 shots from the unregulated action before having to refill. Thanks to the Gamo Boxer’s BSA-derived 380mm cold hammer-forged barrel, accuracy improved the more I used the rifle.

The shroud is not equipped to accept an external silencer. However, unscrewing it exposes a ½in UNF thread to which you could attach a slim silencer. Based on a “by-the-ear” test, I couldn’t discern any difference compared with the shroud.

Supplied by: Gamo (gamoguns.co.uk)

 

Hatsan BullBoss QE

Price: £436.99

Coming up with names for new rifles must be harder than we all think, but with the BullBoss QE, Hatsan hit the nail on the head. This is a beefy, hairy-chested rifle that looks like it should weigh more than the 3.5kg it actually does.

Much of that is down to the use of very good quality soft-touch plastic, and plenty of it, on the stock. The effect is an extremely tactile and grippy stock that is very comfortable to shoulder. The ventilated recoil pad is non-adjustable, but the large cheekpiece can be raised or lowered by pushing a button, setting you up to align well to a scope mounted on the 250mm Picatinny/dovetail rail.

The pistol grip is nicely contoured, and although the stock is ambidextrous, the sidelever, which was a little loose on the .177 test rifle, can only operate from the right. Inserting the rotary magazine, two of which are provided and take 10 pellets, into the breech also favours right-handers. With the sidelever open you need to pull back on a sprung catch to release the magazine and then push it forward again.

Like most Hatsan PCPs, the BullBoss has the two-stage Quattro trigger, which is adjustable for length of pull and weight by poking a long, thin Allen key (provided) into a couple of holes in the butt. 

However, the trigger blade is not metal, which is curious because the safety catch, which is located within the trigger guard, is. It comes on automatically each time the BullBoss is cocked and is resettable.

The barrel accounts for 755mm of the rifle’s overall 935mm length. But that does include Hatsan’s QE – QuietEnergy – silencer, integrated into a flared end to the barrel. Baffles do a reasonable job of taming muzzle report, but an external silencer, for which there is no capacity to attach, would probably do a better job.

Filling the 230cc air cylinder to 200 bar is achieved by rotating a collar on the end of the cylinder and inserting the probe provided. A manometer located underneath back from the muzzle tells you when it’s time for a top up.

Supplied by: Sportsman Gun Centre (sportsmanguncentre.co.uk)