Winchester 1000XS Review

I never thought I would own an airgun. Sure, I had shot a few as a kid.......they were little better than BB guns, although you could occasionally get lucky and bring down a blackbird with one. I began shooting .22LR early, and never saw the need for an airgun. Then, as an adult, I eventually settled into a house in a historic district on a river. It is a neighborhood infested with racoons, o'possums and squirrels. I recently found an attractively priced airgun in one of my favorite pawn shops. After shooting it behind the pawn shop, I decided to buy it. It was a Winchester 1000XS.

The Winchester 1000XS is manufactured by Daisy Outdoor Products, and is relabeled Winchester, along with it's airgun scope. It is a break action single shot .177 caliber pellet gun. Length is 45 inches, weight is 6.6 pounds. It has an advertised muzzle velocity of 1000fps at 17.1 ft/lbs. MSRP is $159.......my pawn shop price was $80. This rifle has a nice walnut stock, and a rifled barrel with a target crown. The sights and the safety lever are fiber reinforced polymer, ie. strong plastic. The scope rings are the see through type, so either scope or sights can be used.

It has been said the only interesting guns are accurate ones. To a great extent this statement is true. If so, the Winchester 1000SX is a very interesting gun. Pictured is one of my better targets, 3 shots at 30 feet. The rifle consistently shot < 1 inch groups, easily capable of hitting a squirrel or other varmit. The nice thing is those varmits can be taken out in the neighborhood without the neighbors complaining. Now that is cool! The scope held it's zero, and I had no problems at all with the rifle. The trigger could stand a little improvement, and I may tear things down to see if I can lighten it up a tad. As it is, it is quite useable. I am just used to my lightened 10/22 triggers.

Oh yeah.......this was supposed to be my little girl's Christmas present. I wonder if she would like some diamond earrings instead...........