Alfa Co2 Pistolby Rada Top Gun Air Guns has another first a 10m CO2 match pistol. The pistol is called Alfa-Proj from the Czech Republic. Little background to Alfa-Proj; company was established in 1993. At first the company made revolvers in .22LR, 32 and 38 Spl. Inside of three years and a lot of orders from Germany they were producing 5-6000 pistols a year. Germany is still the best customer receiving somewhere between 80-90% of the production.
Earlier this year in Nuremberg IWA they introduced couple of new airguns. Both are CO2 and intended for 10m competition. One model called ‘classic’ looks too much like the Tau-7, so I took it apart. And sure enough internally they are very much alike. Even the loading and cocking mechanism is the same. As is the CO2 reservoir like the Tau-7 in the grip. What is different are the materials. Where the Tau-7 is all steel the Alfa-Proj is made of duralum, a aircraft grade aluminum. The Sport model is the one T.G.A.G. will carry on a regular basis. Nice blue shroud making it perhaps more aesthetically pleasing from the Tau-7. Also the sport has a rather large weight that can be moved the length of the underside of the shroud.
Seems to me this pistol should be great for shooters that like light weight pistols. With the option of making it as heavy as they wish. With the weight attached I found it just right for me, but then again I like things a bit heavy. The pistol comes in a nice hard case with all the trimmings like bulk fill. Extra O rings and extras pretty much the same as the Tau-7. Loading is also the same. Push the two round knobs on the top forward and up. Pellet goes directly into the 10" choked barrel. Close the top cock the pistol by pushing the round knobs on the side forward until they catch and the pistol is ready to fire. No NOT let go of the two knobs before they catch as that will send the pellet down range. It will be underpowered but an accidental discharge just the same.
Accuracy in Europe is rated in mm center to center. In this case the manual has it at 8mm. When using top of the line pellets like JSB, Match from TGAG, R-10 etc. accuracy I found the 8mm can be bettered by 2-3 mm. Also the velocity can be adjusted to suit the shooter or better still to suit the pellet the shooter chose. I set my Alfa at just under 500 fps with 8.1 gr JSB pellets. After several groups 7-8mm groups were about normal. I tried some lighter JSB green box 7.4 grain pellets and the groups opened up some. So I went to the JSB blue box at 8.4 grain pellets and the groups were much tighter. Just for fun I tried the RWS Super Mag flat head pellets at 9.5 grains. The Alfa liked them the best averaging 5 mm groups. There is also a middle of the ground pellet called Lux 8.9 grains offered by TGAG and Pyramid air. To date I had not have the time to do my usual groups of 20 five shot groups.
All the new products TGAG received recently I simply ran out of time. I did have the time to try some round nose pellets from JSB Exacts to be precise. And again the groups were in the 8mm range. I had to try the round nose just in case I want to use this pistol for silhouette. Or dispatching some overly aggressive finches. I also tried some of the heavy .177 pellets and since I ran out of the JSB heavies I went to the CPH. Again the group shrank some, at this point I tried to get a hold of someone at the factory why the Alfa prefers heavy pellets. But as of this writing no luck. It may be due to the velocity I will have to play with that idea at a later date. Or it could be that when I called the factory nobody really knows. My next test with the pistol will be to vary the velocity with a single pellet and see what results I can come up with.
The manual also needs a mention that it is nicely written. It comes in four languages, Czech, English, French and Spanish. What struck me as strange it is not in German since they are the largest importer of the firearms. Also the manual is well illustrated with a parts list but not a schematic. No matter, the pistol is straight forward so almost anything can be fixed by the end user with some mechanical inclination. The only complaint I had is it does not come with a compensator of some sort. I am a believer in compensators for tuning the pellet to the pistol. But then again this is a new model and I am sure improvements will come around as long as the sales warrant it.