Beeman Sportsman S500 Review

 We have a member in our airgun club, James Wright,  that is older and disabled. He can't use an air rifle with a heavy cocking effort or heavy weight. While searching the internet, I stumbled upon this little air rifle. It's the Beeman Sportsman S500. Now it's only rated at 550 fps, but since James only shoots mini-field target, I thought it might be perfect for him. It's lightweight (5.4lbs), easy to cock (16lbs), and it's short.

After getting the gun, I immediately took off the peep sight. It was cheap, and so was the rest of the gun. The action is split and screwed together, the barrel lockup doesn't seem like it would lock up in the same spot all the time, and the trigger pull was pretty hard, over 4lbs. Well, for mini-field target, I pressed on. I mounted a set of Beeman single strap adjustable mounts on it and a Powerline 3-9X32 scope.

When I went to sight it in, the pellets were all over the place. And I tried several different pellets. This was at 10 yards seated and the groups were around 5". Yes, that's Five Inches. Yikes! I re-checked everything and couldn't put my finger on it, so I decided it was just a totally inaccurate gun. But after a friend of mine came over and pointed out that the front sights hole seemed awfully small, we took it off. It just slipped off. Nothing holding it in place. I started shooting again, and wow, every shot in the same cloverleaf hole. Not bad for a $50.00 cheapy Youth gun. I found that RWS MEISTERKUGELN pellets shot the best in it. No more flyers, every pellet in the same "cloverleaf" hole at 10yards. I'd say the hole was 1/4" ctc.

Now I am happy to give this air rifle to James for mini-field target. If he takes care of it, it should last for sometime. Even with so much plastic including the cocking arm, the spring is so light that it should hold up fine. James doesn't do a whole lot of shooting. He may shoot 5 lanes of 2 targets in mini-ft and call it a day. He also has a muzzle break from RWS that is being bored to fit the gun and will give him a good handle to cock it with. Even though it was so cheaply made, I might end up getting one myself just to shoot with him in mini-ft. It's actually a cool looking little gun.

For it's intended purpose and the person using it, I give this gun a rating of 10/10. But for any other reason, it would only rate a 3 or 4. This gun would be great for a youth shooter and has a good safety on it.