Born of Zeus - The Artemis PP700 Pistols

Zeus proudly stood over the young beautiful Titaness, Leto, as she cradled the twins in her arms, she had just given birth to Artemis and Apollo.

Artemis, born one day earlier than Apollo, served as a guardian to him and provided the context for her desire to protect and nurture. She would be known as the virgin huntress, goddess of wildlife and the patroness of hunters.

Skip forward a millennium or two and put the Greek mythology to one side and Artemis returns - but this time reincarnated in another form. Now jet black, and green with promises of purpose and function. Unlike in her previous form, she does her best to stand out and unlike before, sells herself cheaply. Seduced by her new appearance, the temptress lures me in, she longs to be wanted again, so I pay her price and take her home.

Artemis’ first reincarnation appears to my partner as she returns home from work one afternoon and notices a box on the coffee table. It’s of a new PP700W. She picks up the box and silently studies it before asking me about the price I’d paid. I ask she takes a look at the contents and examines the pistol before I reveal the price.

Her initial facial expressions and body language suggest she doesn't like the green grip. She comments on how the pistol feels front heavy and unbalanced. Then raises the pistol to aim it and says the sights are missing. She searches in the box and is disappointed when I tell her the pistol doesn't come with open sights.

She asks me if the pistol is second hand and points out some poor finishing and minor marks in the anodising. I inform her the pistol is new and I paid £179.99 for it when I picked it up from our local gun dealer earlier that very morning. I tell her I’ve already tested the pistol, shooting out to twenty yards with an SMK pistol scope I’d previously mounted to it. Surprisingly my partner asks ‘how much was it really?’, and again I say it was £179.99 new. She refuses to accept this and I show her the receipt.

I explain the pistol comes with a removable partially rubberised pistol grip, yes, it’s a funky green but it’s ergonomic and ambidextrous which means it suits both right and left-handed shooters.

The pistol doesn’t come with front or rear sights; instead has a 12mm dovetail rail machined into the action block. Whilst she inspects the rail, I retrieve the scope. I reattach a nice silver SMK 2x20 pistol scope with the mounts I received with it. With the scope levelled and correctly positioned, she raises the pistol to be aimed and then tells me the pistol feels much better and well balanced. She also tells me the pistol feels very comfortable being held and aimed with two hands, one on the grip and the other on the air reservoir.

The pistol comes with an onboard manometer sometimes referred to as a pressure gauge and this is situated at the muzzle end of the pistol. Not the ideal position for a pressure gauge, as I've never favoured looking down the business end of a gun, even when the gun is safe. The pressure gauge reads from zero to thirty bar and has a traffic light system colour reference to indicate pressure levels. The yellow area illustrating the pistol needs to be re-pressurised, the green area of the gauge is the most optimum pressure to operate the pistol and the red area indicating fill levels that should be avoided.

The pistol has some white laser etched markings on the action block, the markings vary from where the pistol is purchased or who the importers are. This one reads Model PP700W, and states the calibre and also informs the user of the maximum fill pressure. The SMK emblem is also visible. Later models also have the additional VICTORY name printed on them. Earlier models were available with black upgraded grips and had ARTEMIS baldly scribed on the action block.

The pistol comes with a ten-inch precision rifled barrel and shoots either .177 and .22 pellets. The barrels are also interchangeable. The barrel is covered with a nice cosmetic shroud, that does very little to silence the pistol, but aftermarket silencer adaptors can be bought via third party sellers and enthusiasts. These can be easily added by removing the inset muzzle break which also doubles up as a barrel clamp, and replacing this with the aftermarket silencer adaptor. Some alternative slip-on silencer adaptors are also available to buy elsewhere. Adding a silencer does make the pistol look more like a rifle, and aftermarket rifle stocks are also available to buy if you know where to look.

Loading the pistol can be fiddly as the transfer port is shaped into a rotating block at the rear end of the pistol. This can be rotated to one side, revealing the breach of the barrel for direct single pellet loading. You’ll get used to loading the pistol easily enough after doing it a dozen or so times. The cocking lever or hammer is a contrasting silver in colour and has grooves in it to assist with cocking the pistol. The hammer mimics most handheld classic revolvers; it's a nice touch and well placed to be easily accessed via your thumb when pointing the pistol. The hammer tension is firm yet manageable and the pistol can also be easily de-cocked with ease. My eleven-year-old has used this pistol and has never had difficulty cocking it. Unfortunately, the pistol does not have a safety mechanism.

The air reservoir holds around 150cl of air and here's the interesting bit; the pistol is regulated. Yes, you read that correctly, the pistol is regulated. The regulator is positioned inside the air tube and fixed to the action. My partner was also surprised to hear this.

Interestingly enough the pistol is missing anti-tamper screws or devices and allows the user to adjust and maintain the pistol themselves. There are many places the pistol can be tuned and adjusted from.

In the box you get a quick fill probe - there’s no need to add an aftermarket foster fitting connector as it simply attaches to the quick fill connect on a dive bottle or pump. There’s also a small bag of replacement O rings and a basic yet informative operators and service manual. The internet is also filled with ‘How To’ guides on servicing and tuning this pistol. A quick Google search will give you all the information you’d ever need.

The first time I filled the pistol with air, things didn't go as I thought they would. Whilst filling the pistol from empty, the pistol began to hiss at me as the fill pressure was raised to around 150 bar. Air was escaping from between the air tube and regulator body. I disconnected my filling equipment from the pistol and allowed the pistol to de-pressurise through the leak until it stabilised at around 90 bar, then I proceeded to dry fire out the remaining air until the air reservoir was empty. When I was sure the pistol was empty and safe to service, I noticed the air cylinder wasn't screwed on tight enough, this may have come loose when I originally handled it. I hand tightened the air reservoir and proceeded to fill the rifle again. On the second attempt the pistol filled to 200bar and I let the pistol stand for around ten minutes to ensure it wasn't leaking. Everything seemed fine, so I began field testing the pistol. I’d advise anyone using a PCP air rifle or pistol should check to ensure air bottles are correctly tightened and air reservoir tubes are also correctly attached before any filling commences, this was a slight oversight on my part but an interesting lesson nonetheless.

My first test was to shoot a number of shots over the chronograph to ensure the pistol was within the legal remit of the VCR act. Ten shots over the Chrono revealed the pistol was shooting at an average of 5.6 ft/lbs and had an average variation of 8 feet per second. Not as consistent as I'm used to, but very nice for a PCP pistol under £200.

After re-attaching and zeroing the scope the second time, I allowed my partner to shoot a ten-shot group at a target from ten yards; she managed a half inch spread, with .177 JSB pellets. Pleased with her results I continued my own tests, shooting out to fifteen and then twenty yards consecutively. I achieved a one-inch spread at fifteen yards and a one-inch spread at twenty yards, with one bad placed pellet at the twenty - that I’ll call a flier.

Later that evening we had a discussion about the pistol and listed the positive and negative points:

Pros:

• The pistol is well priced for a Pre-Charged Pneumatic retailing between £200 to £169 in shops.

• The pistol comes with a nice-looking cosmetic shroud if you like that kind of thing.

• The pistol has a precision-rifled barrel that’s interchangeable.

• There’s an onboard manometer, which is great for checking fill pressure.

• The pistol is ambidextrous.

• Cocking and de-cocking the pistol is easy to do with one hand.

• No anti-tampers mean the pistol can be adjusted by the user to their preferred power, note: the muzzle energy of a pistol should be below 6 ft/lbs. This is a legal requirement here in the UK.

• The pistol offers great accuracy for garden plinking out to fifteen yards and offers accuracy out to further ranges in the right hands.

Cons:

• No pre-fixed sights, hence the pistol cannot be shot without a scope.

• No safety catch.

• The pistol has a pendulum cocking external hammer which gets in the way when loading.

• The loading port can be fiddly and if, like me, you have big fingers you’ll struggle to get them in beneath a mounted scope.

• No dust plug on the filling hole.

• Wadcutters or larger head diameter pellets have to be forced into the barrel, occasionally resulting in the skirts bending.

Artemis PP700W Specifications:

• Power Plant: Pre-Charged-Pneumatic

• Calibre: 4.5mm (.177) or 5.5mm (.22)

• Action: Single Shot Pendulum Hammer

• Rail: 12mm dovetail

• Open Sights: No

• Stock/Grips: ABS Plastic / Synthetic. Ambidextrous

• Trigger: Two-stage, adjustable

• Fill Pressure: Max 25Mpa

• Regulated: Yes

• Length: 368mm

• Weight: 0.89kg

• Power: Sub 6ft/lbs

• RRP: £199.99

Artemis - The Twin

In Greek mythology Artemis had a twin who was born sometime later. This pistol too has a twin - but retained the name Artemis - the PP700S-A. Zeus would be proud of his offspring; the PP700S-A picked up where the PP700W left off.

I collected the pistol some six months after owning and using the PP700W. The packaging was different and had no indication this was a pistol imported by Sports Marketing. It appeared to have come to the retailer directly from the overseas distributor.

I opened the box to find the pistol was fitted with well positioned, adjustable open sights; the tubular cosmetic shroud had been replaced with a single piece push-on square tube of aluminium which had been machined then anodised. A 12mm dovetail ran down the top of the action block and halfway along the newly shaped shroud. The dovetail offered a large location area for either a scope or red dot sight.

The loading mechanism, hammer and trigger assembly all operating in the same way as its earlier twin had. However, the ghastly green pistol grip had been replaced with a new shiny black ABS textured plastic one. The air cylinder and manometer are the same, the pistol could, however, benefit from a dust plug and some sort of safety device. Any adjustments to the pistol are also carried out in the same way as its predecessor.

The finish on the pistol was so much better and when looking over it closely I couldn’t find any blemishes in the anodising, although machine marks were still visible in some of the silver parts.

I paid £209 for this new version, was it worth the extra money? Yes, it is!

The pistol filled from empty to zero without leaking. I tested the consistency and power over the Chrono and got a reading of 4ft/lbs, this was way too low for my liking, so I adjusted the power until achieving 5.6ft/lbs and a spread of eleven feet per second. Not impressive but okay for a backyard plinker I thought.

I continued my tests outside, it was raining and there was a slight breeze from left to right. My iPhone weather app was telling me winds were up to 18mph and humidity was up at 82%. The wind and humidity were going to make little difference shooting to ten yards. Using the open sights and shooting standing, I managed a ten shot two-inch spread, the pistol was just too front heavy, unbalanced and difficult to aim.

After attaching and zeroing a scope, I continued to test the pistols accuracy out to ten yards, then fifteen and twenty yards consecutively. The performance of the new PP700S-A mirrored what I had achieved with the previous PP700W.

Following my testing, I can conclude the pistols are well priced and perfect for backyard, or range fun shooting. In fact, these pistols are very much underrated for what you get for the money. My partner and children have had many hours of pleasure from these pistols and continue to do so. In fact, they’re an affordable entry into pistol shooting and after owning both pistols for over 6 months I would recommend anyone reading this to give the Artemis PP700 range of pistols a go.

I’ve also recently stripped the PP700W and replaced the seals with better quality O rings, not the spares that came in the box. I’ve removed as much of the greeny brown oil used by the factory to lubricate the guns and replaced this with a better quality Molykote grease. This was my own personal preference and didn't improve the performance of the pistols in any way. Also, the pistol didn’t actually need a service - I was bored one weekend and just took the thing apart. Even though I may be technically minded, the whole disassembly and reassembly process was quite simple and it would be easy enough for a novice to do. My point is, the pistols are easily serviceable by the user and I feel the manufacturers had this in mind during the design and production process.

The pistols are perfectly fine as they come from the retailer and fit for purpose, they do have a cult internet following worldwide and continue to prove to be a popular choice for anyone looking for fun shooting or club level competition as a pass time. I’m now able to shoot one-hole groups at a distance of ten yards, with these pistols, whilst having a red dot or scope fitted, practice does make perfect as the saying goes.

The name Artemis isn’t limited to the PP700 range of pistols, it’s part of a new family of PCP airguns, consisting of sporting air rifles, available in carbine and bullpup configurations as well as pistols. I plan to review some of these other rifles in the near future.

Aftermarket accessories include and are not limited to:

• Slip on silencer adapter for the PP700W only.

• Screw in silencer adapter for both models.

• Front and rear open sights are now also available for the PP700W.

• Adjustable or foldable stocks can be added to both variations of the pistols.

• After market regulators to improve consistency can be obtained for both variations of pistols.

• Additional specialised servicing tools can also be sourced from third party distributors.

• Spares are also easily sourced via a participating RFD.

Artemis PP700S-A Specifications:

• Power Plant: Pre-Charged-Pneumatic

• Calibre: 4.5mm (.177) or 5.5mm (.22)

• Action: Single Shot Pendulum Hammer

• Rail: 12mm dovetail

• Open Sights: YES. Front fixed and Rear adjustable for windage

• Stock/Grips: ABS Plastic / Synthetic. Ambidextrous

• Trigger: Two stage, adjustable

• Fill Pressure: Max 25Mpa

• Regulated: Yes

• Length: 368mm

• Weight: 1.1kg

• Power: Sub 6ft/lbs

• RRP: £219.99

I hope you enjoyed the review, as always, shoot straight & shoot safe.