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Kral Demon

Kral Demon

Range Right Ltd were previously the importers of Norica Air Rifles but since that association has been dissolved I assumed they’d be leaving the air rifle market. Not so; their association with the Midland Gun Company has now given them an air rifle to promote and distribute, with more to follow. So here we have the Turkish-made Kral Demon, a fixed barrel, under-lever design with a performance level that far outweighs it’s highly affordable price tag!

New Age Springer

It’s no surprise that like many of these new age springers, the rifle is dressed in a black synthetic stock. However, it really is eye-catching and the design has obviously been well thought out, showing some useful features.

The Demon boasts a well styled, medium height cheek piece with a thick ventilated black rubber butt pad. The forend is slim and lengthy but the features that really stand out are the generous amount of chequering at the pistol grip, the raised/ribbed rubber panels on the forend and fluting along the top edge for your finger tips to nestle into. The panels are exactly where they should be for a sensible leading hand hold making this one of the better designed synthetic stocks I’ve ever tested.

The rifle features ‘Tru-Glo’ fibre optic open sights, but even here there’s a difference with many other models that use these types of ‘irons.’ For a change, the front sight, which sits atop of the ABS muzzle brake is green and not red, while the adjustable rear unit uses red to give the contrast.

Slide Action

The Kral’s under-lever is retained in a slightly different way to most other air rifles; rather than using a sprung ball, the release mechanism slides rearwards. The catch is ridged, so it’s easy to hold and move, so you can cock the rifle. I found the cocking operation very smooth and straightforward to accomplish for what is a full power air rifle; this is due to the articulated linkage it uses. Once cocked you manually rotate the breech cover (this has a lug on top for easy operation) in order to load the pellet. Once you’ve thumbed a pellet into the 18” barrel, you then manually rotate the metal breech cover back over from the right to the closed position on the left. The rifle is now cocked and ready to fire.

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The trigger is a surprisingly good quality 2-stage, non-adjustable unit with a nicely curved metal blade and ‘in-guard’ manual safety catch. Pull the catch back to put the rifle on safe and push forward to put into fire mode. The guard itself is of a generous size so the two separate blades (trigger and safety) aren’t too close together, making individual operation easy and more importantly safe.

Now back to the firing cycle; as any preconceived ideas I might have had that this would be a ‘bang-clang’ affair went straight out of the window. The trigger releases crisply with no creep, so one less thing to worry about when breaking the shot. I was so impressed on first inspection of the iron sights that I lingered longer getting a precise zero. This is how I mainly tested the rifle, as I found these ‘irons’ excellent for ranges out to 20-yds and that’s how I’d personally use this air rifle. Perfect for ratting and feral pigeon shooting in gloomy areas thanks to those fibre optic inserts. However, should you wish to fit a scope the cylinder is grooved and comes fitted with a removable arrestor block. A thoughtful addition to the package, but as recoil was relatively low I wouldn’t feel it was needed.

Keeping An ‘Open’ Mind

After setting a zero at 20-yds with the iron sights I soon realised the rifle has a smooth firing cycle for such a pocket-friendly, full power .22 calibre design and was soon making ragged ¾” groups at my set zero range. This performance was obviously aided by the low recoil that is capably handled by the ventilated rubber butt pad and the effectiveness of the sights. The more I used the rifle I also realised muzzle report wasn’t loud, neither was there any internal spring noises as I took a shot - only the expected thud as the piston reached the end of its travel along the air cylinder.

So, after a pleasurable time shooting against targets I took the Demon to a place that always holds a few feral pigeons and rats. It was here ‘beading’ targets at different angles that I also began to realise that even though the gun is a lengthy 45.75” from butt to muzzle it handles very nicely indeed, and at 7.6lbs un-scoped is light and fast to use.

Conclusions

To sum up, I’d say the Demon is a decent air rifle that can make its presence felt in a market that’s saturated with this type of ‘back to basics’ designs. It’s accurate, handles well, has excellent iron sights and performs far better than some makes I’ve tried costing twice as much. The Demon is to be eventually made available in a wooden stock and such is the company’s faith in the rifle that it comes with a 3-year conditional warranty. It’ll be interesting to see how Range Right progress with their new line of airguns…

PRICE: £129 (at time of test)

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  • Kral Demon - image {image:count}

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  • Kral Demon - image {image:count}

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  • Kral Demon - image {image:count}

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  • Kral Demon - image {image:count}

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  • Kral Demon - image {image:count}

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  • Kral Demon - image {image:count}

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  • Kral Demon - image {image:count}

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gun
features

  • Name: Demon
  • Action type: Single shot, spring powered, under-lever cocking
  • Calibre: .22” only
  • Stock: Synthetic sporter
  • Sights: Fibre optic enhanced open sights and grooved for scope mounting
  • Barrel: 18”
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