Air Logic Genesis

Air Logic Genesis 

With thanks to Tom.

He says:

Make no mistake, this is a BIG rifle, in whatever way you look at it. The length without a moderator far outstrips anything else I’ve ever seen in the air gun world, and this is in part down to the layout of the rifle. In most SSPs the compression chamber is situated underneath the rifle, however in the case of the Genesis, the compression chamber sits immediately behind and in line with the breech. Think a scaled up Walther LGR. Now to make 11ft/lbs+ a very hefty amount of compression is needed, making the chamber large in both diameter and length. The stock is very deep, featuring a loose sporter style but much deeper in the butt and wrist than most, with the subtly curved grip coming through almost vertical. The action is no lightweight in any respect, with a chunky sidelever to handle the forces behind a shorter than average throw, and everything being beautifully machined in blued steel.

The stock in my opinion leaves a little to be desired, it is like it can’t decide whether it is a target stock or sporter, so ends up being not great at either. The forend is nice and rounded on the belly and the chequering is of nice quality, you’ll find none of the soulless laser cut panels found on more modern guns here! The walnut is also usually of good stock too, in both the gun pictured and of various photos I’ve seen. It’s finished off with a trigger guard made from blued steel, which is integrated into the stock, not the action. And a grind to fit adjustable buttpad caps off the back end.

I feel I can’t really discuss handling without going back to the weight conversation. It’s substantial. Furthermore, the weight is not distributed how you would want it either, there is a lot of weight in that action and barrel sleeve which is all slung out front. The huge “I-Beam” style sidelever is also a lot of weight to have hanging off the side of a rifle despite being made of aluminium. A few plus points however are a good cheek weld due to a high comb line clearly intended for scope use, along with an adjustable butt pad as standard helping to get the rifle into the shoulder nicely.

All in all while it could be done, I wouldn’t be wanting to trek this rifle around fields and permissions all day, Genesis’ really shine from a comfortable supported position.

Use and operation.

To operate the Genesis, the lever is simply pulled all the way back until a click is heard, at which point the lever can be returned. That ‘click’, is the sound of the valve self setting, a feature not found on any other “full power” SSP rifle which I wish more would include as it does help to streamline the firing procedure. Closing the lever is a chore on the Genesis, for the simple reason you can’t argue with physics.

The Genesis has a shorter than normal throw of its sidelever, but this comes at a pay off. To make a suitable amount of high pressure air, single stroke pneumatics compress a large volume into a small space, usually with a mid size bore over a long stroke. On the Genesis however, this was eschewed in favour of a large bore and short travel, meaning that the peak felt cocking effort builds quickly and you are pushing a larger piston face than other SSPs against the resistance of compressing air. So yes you don’t need arms like an orangutan to charge the rifle, but boy do you need the muscles!

The valve being situated inline with the compression chamber and barrel will help with efficiency, but not enough to make the above a nicer experience than closing a lever on say a Parker Hale Dragon or even a JB1.

Once charged, a pellet is loaded by flicking the “bolt” which is located roughly midship on the left of the action to the up position and then forward, exposing the breech end of the barrel. The loading port is generous and even with a large scope access is good. Do not pull the trigger with the breech open or you will find the forward breech seal likes to vacate its proper home rather rapidly, and you will spend an eternity looking for it across the room or down range…

The barrel sliding forward also requires the barrel sleeve to be longer at the front to allow room for manoeuvre, further adding length to a rifle that so desperately needed to save any size and weight that it could. Return the barrel home after loading and you are ready to fire. The trigger is well thought out and the example I have here breaks really nicely and is very predictable. Once shot the rifle stores no air on board so should be perfectly safe in this situation, but of course always practice good rifle safety.

As to be expected from a single stroke pneumatic, the firing cycle is as dead as any PCP on the shot. And this really is the main appeal of this self-contained system. Due to compressing the same amount of air into the same space every time, shot to shot consistency is phenomenal, with the right pellet and shooter the rifle is capable of great groupings. Lock time is nice and fast, and once you are in a stable position the firing feel is lovely, aided of course by the nice crisp trigger feel.

Further to the self-setting valve, the Genesis does have another feature you don’t see on other “Full power” SSPs, the ability to make fine adjustments to the power from the outside. So no stripping the rifle for fine tuning here!

This is done quite cleverly by adjusting the pivot point on the arm by way of 2 screws to hold the pivot down, and a grub screw that winds in and out to prevent creep on this pivot point once set. Very nice little touch that wouldn’t go amiss on any SSP with a simple lever system.

I also can’t finish the review without mentioning the accessories Air Logic put out alongside these rifles. These include;

• Genesis Specific moderator, a nice simple unit that meshes natively with the barrel threads, which are not the standard 1/2” UNF.
• Mosquito off set mount. A one piece aluminium scope mount for 1” tube scopes that puts the scope centreline to either side of the barrels centreline, for those who prefer this.
• Air Logic 4-20x40 AO scope. This really is a stunning optic rebranded by Air Logic to be sold under their name, again a massive item with a 30mm tube, it would dominate a smaller rifle but looks right at home here! The optics are crystal clear, with a good close focus distance, and sharp duplex ret. Another odd feature of this scope is that the front parallax ring moves fore and aft as you rotate, think like a camera lens, as you move through zoom length.

Air Logic also released another branded scope, a 16x42AO with a 1” tube and a lot smaller frame. I don’t know enough about this one to comment but have kindly been supplied with a photo by a member on another forum.

These rifles command a high price currently, although whether they sell at these prices is up for debate. But with any of the above accessories included, significant value may be added on to what is already a rare rifle to create a package greater than the sum of its parts.

To summarise, the Air Logic Genesis is not and never will be the most user friendly rifle in the world, but if you can appreciate a unique piece of airgun history or engineering then you can’t get a much better rifle. There’s a lot of charisma here, and lots of hand finished components alongside a production run of less than 200 examples means these rifles will turn heads at the range, even if you may break a sweat while doing it…