First Review and Test of the new Stoeger ATAC air rifle.

At about 6:00PM today (30 August) the UPS Freight 18-wheeler opened-up it's doors and out came a load of the new Stoeger ATAC Suppressor air rifles!

Archer Airguns has both .177 and .22 caliber guns in stock and we will be shipping from tomorrow - 31 August.



Here's a few initial thoughts about this long-awaited and exciting new model. It looks to be a very good air rifle that will be popular with many shooters.

Obviously this is not a full review, but we'll be working on that over the next few days.

The ATAC is similar in size and weight to the current Stoeger X20 Suppressor. The main obvious external differences are the new shape stock and the different scope.

Whereas the 4 x 32 scope fitted to the X20 Suppressor is small and compact, the 4-16 x 40AO scope fitted to the ATAC is just about as long as can be accommodated on this gun. The 4-16 x 40AO scope is mounted with Weaver/Picatinny rings - a sensible move to tame the recoil. The optics seem sharp and it has a Duplex reticle. No mil dots again for Stoeger. This scope is calibrated in Meters rather than feet, but I feel this will be a minor point for most users at normal airgun shooting ranges.

I found the stock to be very comfortable to shoot, with an excellent cheek weld. The buttstock has a half-inch spacer, giving a length of pull of 14 inches without and 14 1/2-inches with the spacer. The spacer also has a sling point, although you will need the accessory sling swivel to mount a sling to the forend of the air rifle.

The first few shots give muzzle velocities of about 720 in .22 caliber using Stoeger X-Field 14.66 grain pellets ( ~ 16 ft/lbs) and 850 fps in .177 cal using 8.64 grain Stoeger X-Fields ( ~14 ft/lbs). This is similar performance to that of the X20 Suppressor and is about as expected.

The noise level firing the Stoeger ATAC seemed to be similar to that of the X20 Suppressor - in other words very quiet. As the barrel assembly appears to be identical on both models, this is hardly surprising.

Cocking effort for the ATAC felt somewhat harder than for the X20 Suppressor. This is a typical effect of gas ram airguns, so there was no surprise here either.

This photo shows a comparison of the ATAC and the X20 Suppressor. The ATAC looks longer because of perspective: both air rifles are actually about the same length.



Please note that the ATAC-specific accessories such as the bipod, sling, front sling stud and carrying case etc are not yet available.

Many people have been waiting a long time for this new air rifle, so I'm expecting demand for the Stoeger ATAC Suppressor to be very strong!