Today we look at one of the cheapest new air rifles on the market to day, the SMK B2 and see what kind of rifle lies behind its somewhat polarizing reputation.. is it a rifle shaped paperweight or a diamond in the rough?
Well....I bought my B2 back in 1995, I took the tan varnish off it and put a more natural looking colour back on. To this day it still works fine. Love it ❤️
Wrong info. there is old school adjustment in the horizontal plane, you use a small hammer and a punch. the fore sight can be gently moved in its v groove left to right allowing for personal zero, the leather washer problem can be overcome by diluting bees wax into spirit and feeding it down the transfer port then let it soak in for a few hours. the spirit will evaporate leaving a nice soft and pliable seal. old school works just as good if you know how to service it. Any older gun smith can advise on how to service and adjust good spring action air rifles. Let younger gun smiths repair your modern P.C.P kit. Have fun be safe.
Hiya,sorry a bit late to the party! Just found your channel and impressed! I was given a B2 only last year and can't knock it. Great for pigeons which is what I tend to use that gun for on hollow points. Great channel.Cheers,Len.
Hi, Dan! Thank you again, for this entertaining and informative review about this now retro-rifle, that has been produced for decades now! Best wishes and I am looking forward to see you test the beautiful Hortitsia! 😍😀👍
Thanks very much for the kind comments Martin it means a lot! We'll get the Hortitsia reviewed after the Kozak but we're full steam ahead with the reviews again now so you won't be waiting another month for a review haha. Thanks Martin!
The reputation I've seen about the B2 has been the opposite to my experiences with it. I have found it to be an excellent beginners rifle and a great way to get into the sport.
They do get a lot of dodgy reviews don't they? To be fair at the price I'm sure there are a few slightly dodgy B2's on the market however I think a lot of it comes down to hearsay. They're a good little rifle and as you've said mate they get a ton of people into our sport which deserves praise in my opinion. As I've said for a long time let's see Daystate/Air Arms make a £50 rifle and see what it looks like! Cheers mate.
I have a friend who had gotten an Umarex Forge rifle for Christmas as a gift from I forget who it was, and he had it out and it'd broken within the first 100 shots fired and had completely stopped working. Then, not really thinking of anything other than a bargain, headed off to a Princess Auto just 45 minutes or so down the street, and came across one of these beauties. Had it for 2 years and is completely satisfied and has taken many rabbits with headshots out to 30 yards.
I bought one back in 2004 and still use it today for target and pigeon shooting in the garden. Got it fitted with a 4x32 scope and at 25-30 yards its spot on.
A clubmate picked up one of these a good few years back and had awful problems with it. He stripped it down and found enough grease packed around the spring to lubricate The Flying Scotsman. Cleaned, polished and relubed he put it over the chrono. Er, legend has it that it was returned to China and is currently used as an anti aircraft gun. 😂. It seems that back in the bad old days if the B2 didn't qualify as a UK import due to excess power the simply slapped a couple of pounds of grease into the spring chamber. This is the reason the power is creeping up on the test gun; the greaseis burning off. I had hoped things had changed.
Got myselve one of these Norconia B2's (.177) around 30 years ago as my first airrifle when i was a teen, for just under 30 pounds (75 HFL at the time). I remember how cool it was smoking and blowing it out the barrel!! It looks a bit battered now (without any maintenance done ever), but it's still accurate (at about 15 meters) and fun to shoot!
What a great test. I really like how you gave the little B2 a bit of respect. Brilliant it’s not a long range gun. I have one and it make us laugh. But me and my daughter will shoot gat guns and Diana SP50 and G50s. We get meteor’s out they are all fun. And we enjoy them just as much as our selection of new expensive air rifles The trigger on the B2 is shocking and the stock is worse but I like it. In some ways it’s more fun than my TX200hc. So respect big dan you say it as it is. And your revue is pretty much bang on, in my opinion. I have a 911 but I love mk2 escorts. We need variety
Yes agree they get some stick but I had a go with a friends b2 and was very impressed so soon will be getting 2 SMk rifles the b2 custom and the X's 38 SMk rifles are very good and you can tune them
I like budget rifles, they have their spot. Rainy wet day, you don't want to take your fine FWB or HW gun but this one will do. I would take mine to the farm, set it in a corner and do the milking, and mabey knock off a pigeon or a fat barn rat in the granary. For 50 or 60 bucks, why not. Good review as always, Dan. ScottUSA.
I owned a Westlake B2 traditional from 97 - 01 and while I never shot at paper targets so can't comment on millimetre accuracy it could hit cans at 30 yards and could even hit metal lamp posts at 40 yards, I miss that rifle and I'm going to buy another one only this time it will have to be a SMK B2, think I'll get a B2 Custom as I want a better paint finish but still want metal iron sights and metal trigger that only the Traditional and the Custom have, the other B2's don't.
A great junior rifle for beginners. It won’t break the bank, if they don’t take to it, but is good enough to help them develop their shooting skills. Another great review Dan. 😊
Just a quick question can these be serviced? The kid had a go at a farmers fair today and did really well with his grouping dispute never having used as much as a nerf gun before. Happy to get him something for targets but if they are serviceable with replacements parts is the big question for me.
@@salaciouscreations4323 I can’t see why not. They are of a traditional design. I’m sure you would even be able to get some upgraded parts for this particular rifle.
Would you be able to tell me if this is the same as the Stinger starter kit on Pellpax website? In the description it says that it's modelled on the B2, and the thumbnails look identical to this?
Got a .177 one of these from when I was a boy, bit of a twangy spring noise but still going, accurate enough for tin cans, length of trigger pull on mine is looooonnnnggggg. Stripped finish off years ago rubbed it down and refinished in a thin clear varnish, looked a lot better. ( Mines called a norconia I think though) got one of those nikko sterling 4x32 ao scopes recently, well pleased with that scope for airgun use.
I have a b2smk. 177 The only differences between mine and the one in the video is that mine has I polymer stock and main body, it has a recoil pad, the trigger guard is also polymer, has horizontal adjustment for the iron sights and the iron sights have highlighted tips
And mine is 9.9ftlbs and have been shooting farm pigeons with Rws Hobby in 22 and very Happy the pigeons are not and I have a b2 in 177 and not fired a shot yet but that will change. Both rifles are scoped the 22 is scoped in at 25m and got onto the bull and knocked the bull out and I would say 35m max but inside it can be closer . But I will get 177 b2 sorted and scoped and zeroed at 25m and first get the pellets it likes
Been using this little gun for a few years, made my own stock from a chunk of junk maple - around the same weight as the basic stock but not to toot my own horn better quality with a small fishing weight soft-epoxy glued into the stock infront of the trigger guard to make it slightly heavier by around 0.5KG. As Big Dan says, sold they're packed full of grease. Definitely worth going over with some degreaser and adding your own better quality grease. Personally I use Shimano bike grease and it's always worked fine though it does smell a bit bad after a while. It isn't air gun grease specifically and this is not me recommending using it, it's just worked fine for me. For vermin and plinking cans and bottles, it's a great rifle. My local range chrono says it's usually around 8-9 ft/lbs (around 450fps) never used a scope on it, as it's only ever been used within 20-30ft but has always been completely on point in these ranges with the basic stock. Wanted to find the video with a completely stock one, as I wanted one for my nephew who's only 14 to plink cans with in the garden/forest with me and thought my modified B2 with years of varnishes and a custom stock would skew the quality of this little rifle but it seems just as good completely new. But as Big Dan says about the grease, definitely clean it up and add your own grease!
I bought a B2 for my son a while ago when he was 17 and didnt hold out much hope for anything other than him learning with i replaced the terrible breech seal with a synthetic one and after much running in decided to put it over the chrony as it was reliable and seemed to have become very accurate with use and was surprised to find it nudging 11 ftlbs he is now 21 and has a shotgun and rimfire rifle but though he doesnt use it much these days he still has the B2 as a loaner for when he goes ratting and takes a friend with him and it still shoots sweetly as ever.
Hi Noel! I'm glad to hear this mate, it pretty much exemplifies everything that the B2 stands for. Cheap, tuneable and far more competent than people give them credit for. Also 11ft-lbs! That's fantastic for a B2.
Has one of these 20 years ago. The one with the better stock. It was generally quite bad. Accuracy was very random, power was good. Trigger was horrible and that barrel release catch was nothing but a problem. Something was always going wrong with it. Any youngsters watching this I would say save up a bit more and you can get a much better performing air rifle to learn with. This is very difficult to learn with with the accuracy being so all over the place.
Great review Dan. For windage, use a light hammer and flat punch to gently drift the front sight in its dovetail. Regarding accuracy, I found only 2 or 3 pellets group acceptably on mine. Other pellets scatter like a handful of rice grains chucked at the target 🤣 Which is why I think it has a bad rep - shooters don't bother trying to find pellets that suit it. Still a fun gun though!
Hey mate, The B2 deluxe is more or less the same action as the B2 on show here so accuracy should be similar with a similar trigger. The main difference is the fibre optic sights. Thanks mate and I hope this helps.
I recently purchased one of these, I cleaned the barrel with bore cleaner. I have shot it over a hundred shots, and it still smokes like crazy. I use it to shoot rats in my chicken houses. Very accurate.
Hi Andrew, They can smoke like chimneys can't they? This is mainly due to the packing grease around the spring not so much the barrel. The best cure if you don't plan on stripping it is to keep shooting the rifle as this will eventually burn off the grease. Thanks Andrew and I'm glad you're enjoying the humble little B2.
roughly 450 fps... my guess its the .22 caliber for being on the slow side. towards the end just saw the pellet tin and YEP. I have the B3 in .177, hits pretty hard!
I have one and used it today, it is simple and great. It is an air gun for garden use where the most fun is potting holes in water filled plastic bottles it goes straight through, entry and exit holes at 20 yards. I hate the trigger though it is a guess when pulling the trigger as to when it fires.
Hey K Brickell. The trigger is very much either "Off" or "on" isn't it? You pull it and pull it until the rifle decides that it wants to let you fire it. Although think of the plus side.. at least there's no creep as most don't even move until they fire haha.
My trigger became light and predictable after I deburred the seer and rounded the top edge slightly with a file. Go incremental, too much and it will top cocking. Also polished it with 1000 grain sandpaper. What a sweet and accurate little gun ! Love the breech latch in particular. Nice to open and what a satisfyingly gentle click when closing it.
Contacted you about a month ago saying a was struggling to find good pellet for my ultra in 177. Air arms pretty good Chinese same bisley mags good but not Brill further out. You told me to try h+n ftt cheers best yet,I can clean barrel first two shots at 25y virtually same whole same with bisley mags were as other pellets take at least 30 pellets. Think I could actually shit down the barrel still first 2 shots would go through same hole. So thank you very much
Hi Michael! Hahaha I don't recommend doing that down your barrel it will only end in tears I'm sure... especially if you trip! I'm glad to hear you're sorted with it mate they're a fantastic pellet the FTT. All the best Michael and if you ever need anything never hesitate to get in touch.
I got a B4 model...basically the same, but has a synthetic stock, and slightly different sights. It was on sale for $50 Canadian down from $70 so I picked one up and was pleasently surprised with it. Has a rubber butt pad on the stock, too. Nice and heavy synthetic stock like a more expensive gun. Not like those cheap plastic "toy" pellet guns at all. Like a real synthetic gun stock.
Funny enough...I eneded up getting the rifle for free...not sure why, but Princess Auto sent me a 100% refund for the rifle randomly...so yeah, I literally paid nothing for this rifle hahaha. I ordered that cheap Tasco scope the other day and it should be here today. So total cost with the scope and a can of Gamo Magnum Country, was less than $30 lol
Hi, great review as are all your videos. I have a Westlake B2 which has seen better days but the beauty of You Tube means I can confidently tackle a “major overhaul” My problem is a broken rear sight and after searching many gun spares outlets, it seems I can only aquire one that’s attached to a new barrel! Anyone out there have any suggestions? Thank you in advance.
To be fair I got one taht was a bit beat up so I stripped it down made a new piston seal and set of guides and de burred and polished everything inside and it shoots really well for what it is at 11.6 ftlbs and is a great little ratter
Recently received a B2 from a friend, though he has had it for a while so I'll need to replace some seals. other than that it looks like I'll be having some fun in the back yard!
Hi Nicsta, you'll be genuinely surprised as to what the little B2's can do. If you have access to a chrono try running it through one and checking the power before potentially stripping the rifle. Once run in they usually settle to around 6.5/7ft-lbs in power so if it's around that mark then everything should be fine as the rifle is. Cheers mate and have fun.
@@bigdansairguns83 Fair enough, though I think I should replace the breech seal either way. It's completely flat and literally just looks like a circle of black paint on the breech block haha. Although I don't know maybe it's supposed to look like that? I know it's a leather seal and I've never seen a leather one before, only ever o-rings.
@@NicksKnives. Hey Nicsta, That's the standard seal that they come with, they aren't the prettiest things in the world that's for sure and when new they're usually smothered in what can only be described as gunk haha.
People confuse Quality with price - Quality means conformance to requirements. A Reliant Robin conforms to it's requirements as does a Rolls Royce!! Therefore Both are Quality products.
yes a great rifle that you can work on and tune not for power just tune to make its a little better and for that price its not bad at all best regards until the next video
Hi Stephen, Thanks mate, the little B2's are incredibly underrated in my opinion. They might be a bit crude but when it comes to smiles per mile it whoops most PCP's in my opinion.
The b2 gets a lot of bad press. But for it's intended purpose plinking and can bashing it's spot on. My brother had one for years he used to use it in the back garden for shooting tin cans he thought it was great. In the end the barrel latch wore out and he threw in in the scrap pile.
Hey mate, the B2 gets a lot of flack doesn't it. It's a shame too as it's the B2 that has introduced more new shooters to our sport than any other rifle out there at the moment, and to me at least that deserves some praise. The other thing that I respect about the B2 is that (although the wood isn't the best) it has a proper little wooden stock with an all metal action, breech and even trigger guard for less than £50. Meanwhile some much more expensive rifles are charging us up to 10x the value of the B2 and we're left with plastic breeches, plastic triggers and plastic trigger guards.
Hi Dan, We'll a tin of premium pellets like JSB comes up to around 1/4 of the cost of the rifle so if anything goes majorly nipples upward you could just buy another rifle haha. Thanks Dan.
It's not a bad little rifle if I'm honest mate, as basic as it is it still does the job and it's still more fun to shoot than most PCP's in my opinion.
Thanks Phillip! Haha I promise I'll get a review done of an S200 as soon as I can get my hands on one, as I've said I've been quite busy as of late and that's why there has been a bit of a delay with the last video but now we can crack on full steam ahead again. I'll get a Kozak done very very soon as well as they Zbroia crowd will string me up by my ears if I don't hurry up with that one, and as you can see in the videos they don't need to be stretched any more.
A recoil pad on a sub 12ft Lb air rifle? No, you really don't need it. Or sights...you are only going to be shooting stuff at 20-30 yards away anyway. I started off with a Webley Hawk in 1976 which this SMK reminds me of. And it was lethal. It also had interchangable barrels which was novel.
The flyers have to be the cheapo pellets. Decent pellets and a fully cleaned and leaded in barrel they do produce quite acceptable results. Not a rifle I would bother with myself but as a very budget rifle and as an introduction to shooting it fits the bill.
Ok there not the all shooting dancing rifle but with the shooting it's crap pellets that's why you get them for nothing now a pellet like Rws superdomes in 22 and you will see better groups if you ever strip down to Degrease and take care with the trigger spring they are just waiting to spring out and into any were you can not reach then I found the trigger is better then some triggers I could mention BSA Walther century.when you come to buy them you get a choice of wood dark and proper grip on the for stock and even a camo and it looks great a good review until next time
For the money there ok, as long as you know what your buying. Lots of garden fun and a cheap way to introduce people to the sport... bit of a crappy trigger if your a hw kind of guy and lack of safety is a bit of an issue.
Hi James! We used to stock them for £45 but they should still be around £50 new. That said the B2 is an odd animal... for some reason they're worth more used than second hand I've seen them sold for £120! Madness!
Sorry also tried jsb exact 4.53 realy nice pellet but kept jamming in magazine. Can remember when I bought gun bloke in shop gave me jsb exact 4.52 some of them were jamming . So made up my mind steer clear of jsb which is a shame cause wouldn't mind trying jsb heavies for the rats!
Hi ... In fairness the pellets aren’t great ... The .22 Victory pellets are about £5 a tin for 500 ... I've recently purchased a whole bunch of these pellets to run-in a new Gamo break barrel, the pellets your using there, well I had to wash the lot as they were covered in oil and lead bits from the manufacture process, With my Gamo I'm finding that the more expensive pellets @ £12 + a tin are favoured better by my rifle for accurate 25/30m shots ... Victory are OK but I'm just using them to run-in my gun cheaply ...
Agreed, they are flippin awful. Bought a tin a while back, gave half of them away as I was sick of having black fingers. They seem to come coated in used engine oil/road tar or something similar. I think the Remington pellets are a rebranded version of these. Also horrible
I bought a gun like this, it’s made in China but it only has a R on top of barrel. Made in China is all I find Anyway it pumped great 2 times and now it does pump up and load trigger
Hi Mike, I agree mate. Don't get me wrong I'm sure that there are some B2's out there that are absolute dogs but if we're being honest we can say that about every air rifle that has ever existed. I was genuinely impressed at to what the little B2 could actually do despite the hearsay.. this was easily the most fun I had doing a review even if I did get drenched haha. Thanks Mike.
smk guns are as good as most guns these days there pistels not so much iv just got the crossman 2250xl very good gun it will take out rats put it this way good gun
Hi Antony. The 2250xl is a great little gun especially as a ratter! I don't have much experience yet with any SMK spring pistols but you might be very surprised as to how accurate their CO2 and PCP pistols are. If you like the 2250xl then you'll love the SMK CP2.
@@bigdansairguns83 I did have smk xt501 gotta say internally is plastic once modded a power house off a airgunning pice off kit I now own a qb 78 a lovely pice off kit
I bought one in .22 and it was a bit weak and not really accurate... Until I tried high quality JSB Exact Jumbo RS: 2 Joules more power and one ragged hole on the target! 😱😎👍
Hey Martin! They're a funny little beast aren't they? This one grouped really well (considering the price) with these SMK Victory Heavy Shock pellets which weigh in at a stonking 20.5 grains which should be way too much for this particular type of rifle... and yet it somehow seemed to work!
I'm surprised by the bluing, much better than a norica or gamo springer. With a bit of a internal clean up I bet that would be quite a performer too. I was expecting horrible accuracy having heard horror stories about this rifle for the last 25 years and that's not the case.
I've got to be honest Andrew the B2's are genuinely very surprising little rifles, like you said the bluing on them is actually surprisingly good and once they're cleaned up internally they could be a pretty accurate little rifle. In my experience the people who talk down about the B2 have never actually shot or owned one.. If I had to be brutally honest I had more fun with the B2 during the review than I did with most of the PCP's I've filmed. It's just a great fun little rifle that makes you feel like you're 10 again.
@@bigdansairguns83 if I didn't already own two break barrels already I'd easily part 45 bucks on one of those. I'm a pcp shooter at heart but you really can't beat smacking over 10-30 yard tin cans With a basic springer.
@@Andrew-qn8fu Exactly Andrew mate that's personally why I always prefer springers, I can appreciate a PCP and just how easy they are to shoot but like you said when it comes to a bit of back yard plinking nothing will touch a spring rifle and I know this might sound strange but simply getting hit by that dieselling smell that you get with a new rifle takes me back to when I was a teenager.
I wish somebody would ask SMK to ask our friends in China to produce a rifle like this with a smooth bore for darts etc. ( 6 ft/lbs not full power....)
A Rifle will fire Darts & worst that can happen is they will flatten/smooth/wear out the Rifling (most darts being steel) For £40 odd quid I wouldn't worry - obviously Not darts through a dearer Gun.
Hi Ouse. The B-2's usually run up to around 7-8ft-lbs so they're definitely capable of dispatching vermin but I'd keep the range close say sub 20 yards. Indoors however at closer ranges you won't have a problem. Cheers!
Hi Richie. That all depends on the range you plan on shooting at. The B2 is not a full power rifle and when tackling vermin accuracy is paramount. With practice up to 15 yards would be fine with the B2, I personally wouldn't push it any further than that however and I'd maybe look at a Remington Pest Controller/SMK XS19. Thanks mate and never hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.
