I picked this air rifle up at Walmart last week for $99 plus tax, and 500 rounds of Crossman .22 caliber pellets for under $10.00. Here’s a review I wrote for another site a bit ago. I’m not a professional target shooter, but I’ve been shooting since I was bout six years old, my first gun being a Daisy BB gun, and at 8 years old my first “real rifle” was a Marlin .22 caliber rifle that held 5 long rifle rounds in a tube, and was a bolt action rifle without a scope on it. I used iron sights until I was an adult and could buy my own stuff – and stuck with iron sights for the most part.
This means I’ve been shooting all sorts of things for fifty years now. In my old age I use scopes now – just because I can’t see as well as I used too and I don’t to be shooting at something when I don’t know it is!
I had been considering an air rifle as an alternative bug out bag gun – in addition to a combat rifle (mine is, of course, an AR15 modeled after the M16 I used in the military, with a long barrel and a variable 4X50 scope. I would like to rebuild the thing into more of a shorty AR – but that’s for another time) and my side arm, which is a Taurus PT92AF. The pellet rifle can take down squirrels and other small game animals, birds and I can shoo dangerous dogs or large cats away with it, without killing them. I don’t really want to have to kill a dog that MIGHT be someone’s pet, then mountain lions aren’t anyone’s pet and will eat you if you give them the opportunity (which is why I carry a side arm always in the woods in Colorado).
Here’s my take on the Beeman Silver Kodiak X2, a Chinese Walmart cheap airgun. I got lucky and got a good one from the store.
Unfortunately, I ran out of time on Friday to use my bore sight laser to get the rifle sighted in very well.
I only had enough time to know I was off by a foot right, and down from my cross hairs. So when I went out to shoot on Saturday, I wound up shooting at 50 yards (didn’t have a lot of choice on the distances the way he has the range set up at present). Took about 100 shots to get it “close”. I was on paper on the second shot though, and then zeroed it in with about 8 more shots.
Since it’s a .22 caliber airgun, I wasn’t worried about using up ammo. 550 rounds cost me about 8 bucks at Walmart.
Some thoughts on this gun I picked up:
This is the Beeman Kodiak X2 – X2 because it has two barrels, .177 and .22 caliber, shown above on my floor with the .177 barrel installed. I changed the barrel out on Friday evening, but as stated above didn’t get to zero it with the laser bore sighting device. I tightened all the allen bolts on the gun, and ran a patch through to remove excess gunk. Other than that, there was no preparation for firing the first time.
On Saturday we set up and I fired from a flimsy table (not a lot of stuff out there) and a bag with magazines (no sand bags darn it). But, by the third shot at 50 yards I was on my aim point, within 2″. A few more shots and I was knocking down spent shotgun shells one after the other at 50 yards.
The rifle actually has a recoil, and it surprised me the first time I shot it. I wasn’t expecting a recoil on a pellet rifle. This recoil DID succeed in loosing the screw holding the barrel after about 50 shots. It also loosened the scope screws, and the two holding the fore-grip onto the weapon.
The trigger has a LONG pull, maybe almost a 1/2″! Sucked, but I got used to it. There’s a screw to reduce the foot pounds it takes to pull the trigger back, but I left it kind of stiff because I don’t want to loosen it so much that screw eventually jars out.
The weapon had a report like a .22 the first few times I fired it. Then it quieted down. I suspect dieseling perhaps in the barrel caused by the sudden compression, and oil in the air cylinder and barrel. I did have smoke coming from the barrel on the first dozen shots.
I don’t have a chronograph so I can’t measure the speed of the projectile, however, I can give you an example. When my son fired a .22 cal rifle and the bullet ricocheted into the 3 mile field behind the range, you could hear the bullet wizz off. When I took a similar shot and my pellet rifle ricocheted into the same field, it sounded EXACTLY the same (I have an ear for music, can’t call the exact notes, but I can duplicate them with my voice, lol).
I suspect the bullet speed was somewhere close to 1000 fps – but am only guessing.
Penetration power: The pellets went easily through 2 or 3 pop cans lined up and I shot an old plastic toy car which shattered the toy. (I don’t know what kind of plastic it was), and the 22 bullets AND pellets bounced off of a golf ball without leaving a dent in the ball. My pellets easily went through spent shotgun shells at over 50 yards).
None of the local vermin stuck their heads above their holes on Saturday (Prairie dogs) so I didn’t get to try it that way 
(On private property, prairie dogs are open season all year in Colorado).
The pallet on which we tacked up targets didn’t withstand the 22 pellets either, leaving a clean hole through the wood.
Sunday morning I cleaned the guns I shot, checked all the screws on the Beeman, and found, as mentioned, several loosened. Might have to get some locktite or something. I still haven’t precisely zeroed the scope – and was shooting slightly right of center so I was doing what I do best when I shoot, judging my distance and knowing how far to hold off the target. I have shot that way all my life and it’s no different with the pellet rifle.
I’ll finish zeroing in when I get a chance.
Overall impression:
Single shot, slow to load, but very accurate weapon. Fires like a .22 without the powder. One pellet loaded at a time, breech loaded while you cock the pump. A spring is compressed, and when you press the trigger, a piston slams forward blasting air out of the canister, into the breech and against the back of the pellet, forcing it through the rifling in the barrel at hundreds of feet per second.
This weapon can be used to take down small game like rabbit and squirrels and some birds. A head shot would be best on any of them.
There are NO sling connectors (I could add a couple easily).
The Rifle is HEAVY – about 10 lbs (slightly less I think 9.5 probably) – chromed and quite visible for a long distance. Smaller people like women might want to opt for a lighter weapon. Some men might like a lighter weapon too. I would use it for hunting small game and target practice. It’s now going to be part of our bug out bag and I may get a second one of these or another (like a PSP) type of air gun for survival.
No powder required, no bullets required (other than your pellets). The pellets can be had for 500 for under $10.00, and I’m sure I can get greater quantities for less online. .22 rounds vary in price and I’ve seen them from cheap to expensive in recent months. But you can’t get 500 rounds for 10 bucks right now. Looks like Cheaper than Dirt has some Hornet Federals for about 42 bucks for 50 rounds….
So, point being, you can get a pellet rifle cheaper (this one was $99, plus add the tax so it was about 108 bucks with the scope, and $8 for 500 pellets). I could probably take squirrel all day with this thing and eat.
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