Air Arms S500 XS Xtra FAC Reviews

AA quality is always top notch. Easy 1/2" groups at 50 yards with JSB 18gr. Very good trigger. Factory regulator is very consistent. 60+ full power shots! My 5th S4/5xx gun! Just add a stock or chassis of your choice to increase its versatility.

Nothing.

Regulator appears to be set at 150bar.

Looks, accuracy,smooth cocking!

Price, too pricey

It's nice if you want all looks along with accuracy. I gues if you have the cash to grow around,it's for you. It is too pricey! I have Hatsan's pcp air riles that cost less than half of these air arms models that will shoot just as accurate as these will. Hatsan even makes nice wood models if that's what your after.I will never spend this much money on an looks only air rifle model again! Do research first before you over spend! I bought it because of the hype. And it did indeed look nice. Don't make this mistake and keep a little more dough in your bank. I'm now considering of sending it back and purchase a Hatsan bullpup model instead.

Beautifully finished, very smooth action, excellent trigger.

This particular rifle I received wouldn't group well. Based on my S510, I know that these rifles are capable of extreme accuracy.

Like everything else man made, you can sometimes get a less than perfect product. Fortunately a vendor like Pyramyd Air has an extremely high customer service focus. They stood behind the product they sold me, and made things right. They made the entire process very easy and straight-forward. Pricing, selection and SERVICE are the big reasons I continue to purchase through Pyramyd Air.

It's a lot more accurate than I am. The quality of the fit and finish is evident.

Make it lighter. Use an penetrating varnish rather than the plastic-like surface finish (I'm guessing it's an acrylic). That would look better and make for a better grip when your hands are sweaty. Do away with the proprietary fill adapter and replace it with the more universal quick-disconnect.

It takes a lot of pumping to get it up to the recommended 250 bars with a hand pump (about 150 pumps from empty with my setup). A SCUBA tank or air compressor would be a very handy accessory.

Aesthetic appeal; fine finish; precise construction; comfortable stock; precise trigger pull; highly accurate; fun to shoot; smooth side lever operation; quiet firing cycle.

The trigger safety is OK, but I would prefer an easy- to- see thumb safety; I prefer a Foster fitting over a proprietary filling device for easy of use.

Rather than a review, I will describe how I use my joy-to-own Air Arms S500 Extra FAC Super-lite rifle.

I set up a challenging field target course on my property. Initially, I set targets at distances ranging from 10 yards to 50 yards because I shot only springers. Since acquiring my exquisite Arm Arms rifle, I extended the range to 90 yards. Kill zones range from 3/8 to 1 1/4 inches. I also set up reactive targets such as one-inch lollipops and Daisy Shatter Blast targets.

My Air Arms S500 knocks 'em all down with misses attributed only to my lack of concentration. It is shooting nirvana working the smooth side lever, loading a 10.34 JSB, lining up a kill zone, and seeing the steel critter fall. The trigger pull and the hammer strike do not disturb my sight picture. Scoring hits is vastly easier with my Arms Arms than with any of my springers.

I charged my Air Arms S500 with a Hill pump. I now use a Nomad II.
Beware! PCPs, especially high-end guns, are addictive.

I purchased the regulated .177 Cal version of this rifle for Field Target competition. This is one accurate rifle. I'm shooting dime-size groups out to 50 yards with AA 10.34 gr pellets. The action is as smooth as silk, and the trigger is delightful (after I adjusted it to less than 1/2 pound break). The stock is pretty, and fits my body well. At my local air gun club indoor 30 yard range I shot twelve consecutive 5 shot groups that were about 5/16" (1/4"-3/8"), center to center. On the middle power setting I am getting 75 shots on a fill (250 bar) before the pressure gets below the regulated pressure (150 bar). The lowest power setting is about 6 fpe (good for basement shooting), the second setting is 12 fpe, the third setting is about 18.9 fpe. The two highest setting are too fast for .177, unless you are planning to shoot JSB monster pellets.

The new power adjuster has detents so that the power adjustment will not be easily bumped. I found that the highest two settings are way to fast for my AA 10.34 gr pellets. The middle adjustment is still a little too fast (910 fps for the 10.3 gr pellets). I remedied this by turning the power slightly lower than the middle setting and tightening the allen lock screw on the action. A somewhat difficult operation, but once done I am getting a more reasonable velocity (870 fps) with AA 10.34 pellets. At 910 fps I was getting too many fliers.

My rifle shot well right out of the box, but I shot occasional fliers, and I was 'only' getting 60 shots on a fill. After 500 shots, there are no fliers, and the regulator seems to be broken in with 75 shots per fill. I tired JSB 10.3 gr and 13.4 gr, AA 10.34 gr, H&N BM 10.65 gr and Crosman Premeire 10.5 gr pellets. The Air Arms 10.34 gr shot the best, with the JSB 10.34 being a close second. The rifle seems to like unlubed pellets the best.

Fit and finish is beautiful. Accuracy is outstanding. I have never seen a poplar stock look so good. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Ridiculous proprietary fill system. "Please Air Arms" wake up and fit a foster quick fill and save us the expense and aggravation of converting. Thus a 4 out of 5 overall rating!

It is easy to fit a wheel stop to the right side knob if you are concerned about the adjustable power wheel moving.
Concerns about the location of the safety I feel is overblown. To move it likely would result in an undesirable price increase.

The S500's accuracy outperforms all other PCP's I own. The side lever and pellet tray makes it very easy to load from either side. The adjustable trigger is easy to tune

Definately the power adjuster knob. It is a good design and set in a good area but it rotates freely either while shooting or filling the tank. After chrongraphing a string of shots for velocities then refilling the tank my second string shot velocities are lower than the first string everytime. I know the knob is rotating on its own at some point. I have to reset it after every fill. I slipped an oring over the knob it looks gaudy but it stabilized the velocities and increased my useable shots so leads me to believe it is moving while shooting Wish there was a nicer looking way to control this besides my oring fix

Still have to say its accuracy is awesome for the price. A great buy !

Nice looking rifle, very accurate and quiet.

The filling system. I had to ream out the female connector that is used to connect the gun to the filling system, to get it to fit.

You will need to shim the scope mounts, or use ones that have barrel droop compensation in their design.

I just got the gun in December. I was really impressed with the poplar wood option. I was a little skeptical on how it would look being the cheaper package. I've got a 25cal Marauder that is pretty plain and thats what I was afraid the AA might resemble. The gun shoots great. It's pretty easy to get Dime groups at 50yds with JSB 18.1 grain pellets. I haven't tried the other quality brands but I think they will shoot good also.

A tighter power adjuster knob with indents that semi-lock the knob in place. This seems to be a common issue.

If your shooting Mrods this would be a great gun to purchase if you want a better quality gun and still stay under $900. It's a tack driver right of of the box.

Great looking. Smooth action. Easy to operate and adjust. Extremely accurate.

Power adjustment knob needs positive clicks rather than free spinning. Adjustable butt-pad.

This is one magnificent air rifle and is .22 caliber. I have been extremely impressed. Both Air Arms fields plus 5.52 and JSB heavies 18.1 grain work very well with the JSB grouping a tiny bit better at greater distances (70+ yards and up). After learning the rifle and finding the right pellet/barrel match, I have been able to make 5 shot groups of 1 inch at 103 yards. I have even made some 3/4 inch groups at that distance. A 20 shot group at that distance was slightly under 1 1/2 inches. This was using a rest. It has a sweet spot of 175 bar down to around 120 bar. This results in 25 consistent shots. Although you can fill to 200 bar and shoot down to 110 bar and get many more shots, which will be accurate at closer distances (50 yards and closer).