Some new .22 Rifles showing up at dealers... sort of.

[Meroh]

I love rimfire, and am always looking for something different, and was happy to see that there are some "new" rifles showing up at reasonable prices.
On dealer in particular has three that either i had not seen before, or at least not noticed.

The first two, The Diana R-22 and the Webley-Scott Xocet both looked interesting. The Diana for $499.99 having a fibre wrapped barrel and weighing only 5.5 lbs, the Webley-Scott at 7.5 lbs a steel barrel. While the Xocet for $363.28 has been around for a while, I had never really looked at it before. I did a bit more research, and discovered that both of these rifles are built by GSG.

The third, The Howa M1100 for $449.99 at 6.3 lbs with a "varmint weight" steel barrel.

I try and keep an open mind, but based on my experience as an RSO and Club Level Handgun Safety Instructor, I have seen GSG owners having lots of issues with their hand guns. inconsistent accuracy, plastic sights falling out, slides cracking and feeding issues; lots of issues with their semi-automatic .22 rifles as well.

Howa, on the other hand, seems to be all steel, price wise is right in the middle of the pack, and Howa has a great reputation for a combination of good value, accuracy and reliability in the Center-fire rifles.

Anyone have any experience with these rifles? What are your thoughts?

Howa

Diana

Webley-Scott

 

[05RAV]

I love rimfire, and am always looking for something different, and was happy to see that there are some "new" rifles showing up at reasonable prices.
On dealer in particular has three that either i had not seen before, or at least not noticed.

The first two, The Diana R-22 and the Webley-Scott Xocet both looked interesting. The Diana for $499.99 having a fibre wrapped barrel and weighing only 5.5 lbs, the Webley-Scott at 7.5 lbs a steel barrel. While the Xocet for $363.28 has been around for a while, I had never really looked at it before. I did a bit more research, and discovered that both of these rifles are built by GSG.

The third, The Howa M1100 for $449.99 at 6.3 lbs with a "varmint weight" steel barrel.

I try and keep an open mind, but based on my experience as an RSO and Club Level Handgun Safety Instructor, I have seen GSG owners having lots of issues with their hand guns. inconsistent accuracy, plastic sights falling out, slides cracking and feeding issues; lots of issues with their semi-automatic .22 rifles as well.

Howa, on the other hand, seems to be all steel, price wise is right in the middle of the pack, and Howa has a great reputation for a combination of good value, accuracy and reliability in the Center-fire rifles.

Anyone have any experience with these rifles? What are your thoughts?

Howa

Diana

Webley-Scott

The Diana R-22 seems to be a very nice rifle: https://www.all4shooters.com/en/shooting/rifles/diana-r-22-in-22-lr-our-test-on-the-shooting-range/. The DIANA Mayer & Grammelspacher GmbH & Co.KG out of Rastatt (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) was acquired by GSG in 2014 so it is now a part of the GSG conglomerate. However, the Diana R-22 is still built by the same DIANA company not by some other part of GSG. Actually, Diana GmbH produced rimfire rifles until 1988 so they have a good knowledge how to build them well. I think that the Diana R-22 is a much higher quality rifle than the ones built by GSG like the GSG-15/16. They also claim that building the Diana R-22 they revised all the weak points of the Webley&Scott Xocet.

P.S. I've just noticed that the Howa M1100 in the first picture does not have any rail to mount a scope. Personally, I don't like it.

 

[Meroh]

The Diana R-22 seems to be a very nice rifle: https://www.all4shooters.com/en/shooting/rifles/diana-r-22-in-22-lr-our-test-on-the-shooting-range/. The DIANA Mayer & Grammelspacher GmbH & Co.KG out of Rastatt (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) was acquired by GSG in 2014 so it is now a part of the GSG conglomerate. However, the Diana R-22 is still built by the same DIANA company not by some other part of GSG. Actually, Diana GmbH produced rimfire rifles until 1988 so they have a good knowledge how to build them well. I think that the Diana R-22 is a much higher quality rifle than the ones built by GSG like the GSG-15/16. They also claim that building the Diana R-22 they revised all the weak points of the Webley&Scott Xocet.

So, has the Xocet been updated as well? I know very little about these rifles, and there is not a lot of what I would call reliable information available. Both it and the R-22 appear to be physically identical, apart from the barrels.

 

[05RAV]

So, has the Xocet been updated as well? I know very little about these rifles, and there is not a lot of what I would call reliable information available. Both it and the R-22 appear to be physically identical, apart from the barrels.

I'm under the impression that GSG do not produce the Xcocet anymore. The R-22 seems to be an improved Xocet. The Xocet which you can find on the market nowadays is, likely, the older production batch. But I can be wrong.
The R-22 is produced with two types of barrels: the Classic steel cold hammer forged barrel and the Carbon barrel (both free floated). As a matter of fact, the Xocet was produced with exactly the same two types of barrel. So, they are indeed nearly identical. The difference is that the Xocet was produced by GSG for Webley&Scott several years ago and the R-22 is presently produced by Diana.
I found a detailed shooting review on the Howa 1100 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv6W5ja3HgI. Not so great performance, unfortunately.

 

[Meroh]

I'm under the impression that GSG do not produce the Xcocet anymore. The R-22 seems to be an improved Xocet. The Xocet which you can find on the market nowadays is, likely, the older production batch. But I can be wrong.
The R-22 is produced with two types of barrels: the Classic steel cold hammer forged barrel and the Carbon barrel (both free floated). As a matter of fact, the Xocet was produced with exactly the same two types of barrel. So, they are indeed nearly identical. The difference is that the Xocet was produced by GSG for Webley&Scott several years ago and the R-22 is presently produced by Diana.
I found a detailed shooting review on the Howa 1100 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv6W5ja3HgI. Not so great performance, unfortunately.

Thanks for sharing that review; considering they presenter only tried three kinds of ammo, and clearly did not like the rifle even before he shot it, inspired me to look for some other reviews; this gentleman had a completely different take on it, and approached it with less bias: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdcRlJLqWPA

What I was hoping for was some actual member feed back; maybe no one has bought these rifles? LOL

 

[05RAV]

Thanks for sharing that review; considering they presenter only tried three kinds of ammo, and clearly did not like the rifle even before he shot it, inspired me to look for some other reviews; this gentleman had a completely different take on it, and approached it with less bias: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdcRlJLqWPA
What I was hoping for was some actual member feed back; maybe no one has bought these rifles? LOL

Yeah, I know that review from that Aussie guy. Indeed, he tested a few more brands of ammo than the other guy but he never showed the exact grouping numbers. So, I'm not so sure about his results.
Regarding actual owners feed back, I think that all three (or perhaps two assuming that the R-22=Xocet) rifles are exotic enough that their ownership is miniscule. Honestly, if I were looking for an accurate 22LR rifle I would definitely look first at the CZ or Anschutz lines or something similar. Obviously, it's not to say that the Diana or Howa are inferior. Simply, not very popular. A few months ago just on a whim, I bought a 50 years old Russian TOZ-8 22LR rifle. It's amazingly accurate. So, even a very exotic rifle can sometimes be a real jewel.

 

[45CAT]

Xocet is a piece of s**t. Bought it when it came out because of the carbon fibre barrel at a cheaper price. The trigger was useless, 10lb pull. The screw to reduce it just bent the included screw driver. The fake trigger safety seemed to be cast as the was a noticeable very sharp edge ( actually sliced my finger). Last time I saw it for sale these last few weeks it was under 300$,still a big waste of money. Tried contacting the warranty service in Canada numerous times and no reply. All this was pre-Covid

 

[Meroh]

Xocet is a piece of s**t. Bought it when it came out because of the carbon fibre barrel at a cheaper price. The trigger was useless, 10lb pull. The screw to reduce it just bent the included screw driver. The fake trigger safety seemed to be cast as the was a noticeable very sharp edge ( actually sliced my finger). Last time I saw it for sale these last few weeks it was under 300$,still a big waste of money. Tried contacting the warranty service in Canada numerous times and no reply. All this was pre-Covid

Thanks for the info!