Hatsan Mod 125

I received my Hatsan 125 today. The first thing I did was run some patches with cleaner, followed by oil, through the barrel (it was filthy). I got the gun sighted in quickly with the open sights. The gun is deadly accurate, and very powerful. I've only shot cans and paper targets so far, but I am sure this gun will be a proficient squirrel and bird gun. Now the bad... The gun's stock (poly/plastic) looks like it sat out in the weather for a year before being mated with the gun. It literally looks like it is sun damaged. Super dull, almost oxidized look and feel. I am slightly concerned with the state of the safety lever as well. It does not feel very secure. It is supposed to move back and forward only, yet it wobbles all over. It almost feels like it's so loose in there, that it may fall out. No positive click when engaging or disengaging. It has me wondering if it is a defective part. The gun shoots great, and has power. But for a $200 pellet gun I expected a little more with the fit and finish. I am not saying this is a bad gun, just not the quality level that I expected.

Pros
Powerful Accurate

Cons
Cheap look and feel Bad fit and finish Poor quality safety lever

This is definitely one of the largest & most powerful springer I've ever bought & shot. Solid construction although not as refined or accurate as a German made airgun. Cocking effort is pretty hard and recoil is also very strong. Lots of power when shooting swinging steel targets. The stock is on the long side even without any spacers installed so smaller shooters may have a hard time getting a good shooting hold on this rifle. Fiber optic sights are bright and seem to work well. I did notice that there was a lot of oil in the cylinder from the factory and the rifle dieseled for quite a few shots.

Pros
Powerful and very solid. Very affordable.

Cons
A bit large for smaller framed shooters and heavy cocking effort.

I've now had this rifle for about 18 months. It's still performing well. I'll keep my review short and to the point. First, this is a serious air rifle capable of dispatching small game with ease. I've take care of many pests from rats and squirrels to medium sized rabbits. The rifle is somewhat heavy and difficult to break/cock, but the power is enough to take the previously mentioned animals down cleanly out to about 50 yards with a single shot. I've never needed a second shot to finish the job. Ever.

It took many rounds to get it to settle down and be fairly consistent. Also, I've never been able to keep a scope on this beast because they fly off after a couple of dozen rounds even with loctite on every single thread. I'm hoping the RWS one piece mount with droop compensation will finally do the trick. Regardless, the standard sights are just fine. I took off a star because it seems silly to include a mediocre (at best) scope and useless mounts. It was very frustrating. Just take the $10 off the price of the rifle and direct me to the accessories I need.

In closing, if you have a need for varmint control and want both a workout and a clean kill. Get one of these beasts. If you hit it, it's not moving.

Pros
Powerful

Cons
Massive recoil useless scope mounts

I have one Hatsan 125 TH in .25 caliber and the power is incredible and side by side with the Gamo Hunters series, the Hatsan in my opinion is better. I had a Benjamin Trail XL 1100 .22 caliber and is a very good and powerful rifle but looking for an open sight, i sold the Trail XL 1100 and buy a new Hatsan 125 .22 thinking was same power and really, really I'm amazed with the power, the only adventage of the one PCP rifle is the Hatsan 125 is the easy to cock. The cocking eeffort is a little bit hard but if you are looking for power this is the #1 choice. .. With the Crosman Premier Ultra Magnum .22 its the perfect combination. Do not waste your time and your money looking for the perfect pellet, the Ultra Magnum is a hard hitter, accurate, perfect weight for short and long distances, good quality pellets and cheaper.

Pros
Power, power, power, accurate, strongly constructed, materials, open sight, trigger.

I purchased this rifle to take care of a varmint problem. I needed it to be accurate enough to consistently hit small targets at 30yds and this gun does just that. I did upgrade the scope with one off my old rifle,but other than that this gun is awesome

Pros
Gun shoots nice groups.

Cons
Heavy

I've had a month now to break in the Hatsan 125 and finding out what ammo it prefers. I tightened all the screws and put the scope on. The stock comes with adjustable pads, but given that my arms are not that long I didn't need them. The quality of the gun is excellent. I've owned other air guns and I find it comparable to RWS in build, but with extra features. The SAS (shock absorber system) is one of those features. It reduces the recoil that is unique in most spring piston guns and makes for more precision shooting. It is also supposed to extend the life of the gun and scope. The quadtro trigger is one of the best adjustable trigger mechanisms I've ever experienced. Very smooth, predictable, and light, making for better accuracy. The tru-glow sights work very well. I found the gun was already sighted in and didn't have to touch it. One of the first things I did to the gun was install a survival kit into the buttstock-- emergency blanket, scarf, cordage, fishing kit, lighter, flashlight, firestarter (ferrocine rod and cotton balls) plus a compass and medications for 3 days. It added about a pound to the gun, which unfortunately is heavy.

What sold me on this gun was its power. I had seen some independent reviews comparing its power to other guns, including the nitro-piston version of the Hatsan 125, and it beat everything hands down. While breaking in the gun I tested its power. I set up three 1/2 inch pine boards and almost every time the round nose pellets would go through two of them while getting stuck in the third. It has so much power that it outperformed .22 rimfire subsonic ammo that I shot into the wood side by side doing better in penetration as well as expansion. That is impressive. When I switched to crow magnum pellets, due to its power, the pellets went into the first board making a .22 inch hole and on the other side, a gaping hole measuring approximately .30 inches. That's a nine mil folks. Small game don't stand a chance.

Think about it- a .22 caliber air gun that can do 90% of what a .22 rimfire will. Regular standard velocity.22 rimfire will obviously outperform the Hatsan 125, giving it longer reach and power ballistically, but I can't recall a time I shot anything with a .22 rimfire beyond a 100 yards. Most kill shots take place inside the 50 yard range. What this means is this gun will do what you need it to do without spending a lot of money on .22 rimfire ammo. I just spent $25 on a thousand rounds of crow magnum pellets. You would spend well over $100 if it were rimfire, that is, if you can find it. While others may be reluctant to exercise their .22 Rugers and Marlins, not knowing when rimfire ammo will become more available, I'll be in back yard honing my skills, having quite the fun time.

Pros
Power, power, power . . . you get optimal results with hollow point ammunition. The gun is not fussy, but it likes good quality ammo. JSBs for sure (try the Monsters and JSB Exact Heavies which are less susceptible to windy conditions), H & N products have the most variety- crow magnums climbed to the top of my list after seeing the damage it did to the pine boards-- also H & N Hunter extreme hollow points (a heavy hollow point like crow magnums), the light weight hollow points and finally the Silver Stings by Beeman (again made by H&N but can only get under the Beeman name). I also have the Hatsan Extreme pellets (a diabalo) but have not tried them yet. I hear they do quite well in this gun and is probably the ones Hatsan tests with. One further point concerning JSB Monsters vs H&N Magnum Rabbits II-- both weight about the same at 25 grains, but the Rabbits are straight cylindrical making them extremely difficult to feed (as in taking a pen to push the mothers in) while the JSB Monsters are concave in the middle and have no problems feeding whatsoever.. JSB Monsters rule! By the same token H & N crow magnums outperformed all other pellets. Scope is serviceable and reliable. No issues with it. Has the see-through mounts so you can use the open sights if needed. Open sights are awesome. Shock absorber system is great as well as unique, but you have to learn to lift your left index finger out of the way if you cock it with your right hand, otherwise it will bump into your hand. In fact it may want to move it off the gun, then you're going to have issues holding onto it. The stock, despite the critique of the first commenter, is great- plus you can store survival stuff in the butt and pistol grip. This is NOT a cheaply made gun! Price: $200 of the best money you'll ever spend. Inexpensive considering its quality and power.

Cons
A monster to cock taking 52 pounds of effort to pull down, but I've learned to do it safely by putting the butt of the rifle against my right thigh while wedging it with my left knee, then holding the rifle with my left hand (keeping the index finger off the gun so the SAS can clear it) then pulling like hell with my right arm. After about 20 shots I began to notice fatigue developing in my right arm. The left thigh gets a little sore too, from pressing down so hard. A small price to pay for getting so much power in return. The gun, with the scope on and all the extra stuff I put into the stock, weighs over 10 pounds. Heavy for a gun. I guess I'll have to get a sling. Not a good Christmas gift for a youngster. They'll get frustrated trying to operate it.

This rifle has some fierce power - to my knowledge the most powerful break barrel on the market. In most other respects though, this rifle is a bit disappointing to be honest. Despite the rifle arriving covered in lubricant - including on the plastic stock - within a hundred shots it is making a honking sound when cocked and some corrosion spots have developed on the barrel. There is a linkage lever gets in the way of where I would like to put my supporting hand when cocking it. The stock looks cheap and has some dated (in my opinion) checkering patterns on it. The fibre sight lacks a protective hood. The scope and mounts bundled are pretty basic. It makes a puh-twank sound when shot - a shame that it doesn't make a more impressive sound to match its impressive power.

Pros
Power. Reasonably accurate I suppose.

Cons
Cheap look and feel. Some qualms about the quality of the mechanism. Very basic scope and mounts. Uninspiring sound.

This is one serious ADULT air rifle. Very accurate,HARD hitting,solid extremely well built and totally lays it's hooks in you the first time that you pick it up.I do not like the scope that ships with it so have not mounted it.However the open sights are very up to the task.using Gamo rocket 20.8 grain pellets just what I had with me.I had no issues hitting empty 12 ga. cases at 15 yards still hitting 8 out of 10 at 20 yards with about 80 rounds through the rifle,So it will only get better pigeons beware.

Pros
Well built .solid rifle,VERY powerful.great trigger not overly hold sensitive will last many many years.very accurate.

Cons
Yes its heavy so not for smaller shooters. yes putting that much power behind a spring it is very hard to cock. this is not a gun for a novice shooter or someone of small build. I DO NOT see these as actual cons.just as facts as it needs the weight to be solid and the cocking effort is what it is.

I'm very pleased with my purchase of the Hatsan 125 in 22 cal. from Airgun depot. This is a very large springer with some weight to it, has the feel of a solidly built air rifle. Right out of the box this gun was just about dead on target with open sites at 30 yards, only needed a very very slight right wind-age adjustment. Then shot target at 75 yards and to my surprise also dead on without any elevation adjust. Very powerful impact as well, blowing through 3/4" pine at 75 yards with nice large exit hole using Crosman Hp's.
After 50 shots I then mounted a scope, of course not the one that came with it, I'm using a 4x50 CP with illuminated mil dot with a weaver mount. I found that I needed to turn the scope stop backwards to mount the scope. After 450 shots, scope is still holding center even after all the recoil this gun dishes out. Recoil took some getting use to because you do lose sight picture for a split second after shooting but isn't really a big deal once i got a feel for this gun.
The stock on the rifle is made of a good quality plastic material and feels good holding and firing, the butt of the stock is hollow and thank goodness it is otherwise this gun would weigh a ton. The trigger guard looks good but slight on the thin side and is also made of plastic, it has screws holding it in place and can possibly be upgraded to a metal guard which i may look into in the future. The Quattro trigger is also excellent, very smooth first stage and solid second, i like the triggers factory setting and didn't adjust at all. Also so far no screws have loosened on trigger or stock, probably loc-tite from factory.
The cocking effort was slight tough in the beginning but after 500 rounds it's much easier. This gun is definitely not for children, cocking alone can be dangerous for a young shooter if not strong enough. Also the stock is a bit large and would be very hard to hold, aim and shoot for a child.
All in all this is one great air rifle for the money, well worth it and lots of fun.

Pros
Lots of power for an air rifle and very accurate. Ideal for hunting.

Cons
scope and no sling.