Retay Air guns

[no9]

Doesn't sound like anything that I would spend 250$ on.

[ezman604]

That's interesting. Especially when you consider an airgun like AirForce Condor SS. You have to add a riser adapter to the already elevated scope rail to get proper weld and eye relief. I have no issues with accuracy, even jacking it up that far.

[lefteyeshot]

Mark, mine was shooting low with the scope elevation all the way up. Adjusted the barrel in a tree fork, centered the scope and then it was hitting a couple of inches high. Was able to zero from there.

[Marco2021]

Hi lefteyeshot, I think it's in the too hard basket for the inexperienced airgunner who just wants to buy an Airgun, sight in and shoot. I would have been lost with this if I had bought one being a newbie..kind of hard to see the logic in sending guns out from the factory that alot of shooters wouldn't know how to fix. I came close to buying a 100x, I would not have been happy not being able to dial it in!

[ezman604]

After chatting with Mike of Valken again, it seems they are under the impression the market is there for the 135X break barrel. And not so much the 100X underlever. He called it an undercover. LOL
Personally, I think they are 180 degree off. I would think the demand would be greater for an underlever.
What say you???

[lefteyeshot]

Mark, I wouldn't recommend a Retay to new guy or gal. I tell them a 95, Airhawk, Leverage/ XS46U or Crosman. Maybe that new improved B3 with the composite stock, trigger safety and nice fiberoptic sights. Affordable and you tell if you're going to like this stuff first.

DEz, I prefer underlevers or sidelever.

[Charles Outdoors]

Wish I had came across this thread last night.  I did a search and missed it.   This is not sounding good at all. Debating cancelling my order.

Sounds like a disappointing trigger for sure. Is the cocking action smooth like the older ones?  Is the build quality better or equal to Hatsan? 

After looking at the Retay Air guns on Youtube I can't wait to get it in my hands.  It may not be on par with German quality, but it sure looks sweet. 

[Charles Outdoors]

After chatting with Mike of Valken again, it seems they are under the impression the market is there for the 135X break barrel. And not so much the 100X underlever. He called it an undercover. LOL
Personally, I think they are 180 degree off. I would think the demand would be greater for an underlever.
What say you???

 I much prefer the underlever to a break barrel or sidelever. Just more natural to cock and load to me and no pivot joint with a fixed barrel.  Price and weight are the reasons I have held off on underlevers and these Retay's underlevers are about the same weight and price as the break barrel.  Will know more about it tomorrow. 

[Charles Outdoors]

Got to shoot my new .177 black Retay 100X under lever. The front sight assembly is straight and smooth. I like that. Front end of the cocking lever has a small plastic spring loaded handle you pull to the rear to release the lever and also has a button on the front of the assembly to push in the release the lever. Two hand cocking for sure. Barrel and lever are flat black, not shiny. Receiver seems painted, not blued. Side stock screw are under a grey plastic inlay kind of like a CFR. Hard to get to. There's a button release on the bottom of the stock for anti bear trap like the Hatsan 155 and 100X. Has a weaver type scope rail. Weaver only. No 11mm ridge on top of the weaver like the Hatsan rail. But it is far enough back to get good eye relief with a scope without having to use an off set mount. Rear sight is similar to a Hatsan or Gamo rear sight. But raised half way up you I couldn't get my cheek low enough to get the front sight in the notch. Front post sight is to high. The knob in the bottom of the stock turns to raise and lower the adjustable cheek rest. I didn't need to raise it any. The left side of the cheek rest Is concave for a right hand shooters cheek. The other side is not. Trigger safety is in trigger guard. Push left to right for safe, right to left to fire which is perfect for a left hand shooter but awkward if you shoot right hand.

Put a Hammers 3-9X40AO mildot scope on it. Shot 4" low with scope elevation all the way up. Tried tall mounts and a X50AO scope. Didn't work so I went back to the Hammers, went to the forked tree made a little bend adjustment. Not enough to notice visually. I re-centered the scope and poi was a couple inches high and zeroed from there. Quarter to half inch groups at 25 yards.

Trigger only has first stage length adjustment. With the screw all the way in no first stage and a 5lbs pull. Three turns out first stage short and second stage is long. Predictable let off. 4lbs 5oz. Not a very good trigger. The screw is in front off the blade and scratch my finger and when trigger returns forward pinches the bottom of my finger between bottom of trigger and guard. Recoils is not to bad.

Length: 43.5"
Pull length:14.25"
Barrell length:18"
Weight: est. 6-7lbs

JSB 10.34grs domed avg    790fps
RWS 9.3        W/C             868
JSB 8.44        domed         895                 
JSB 7.33        W/C             962
CX 4.0 alloy         2 shots         1185/1151

Is this a good gun? Is it worth $249? Jury's still out. Taking it to a fun shoot this weekend. I'll see how it does at longer ranges.

Later, Tim.

  Got My Retay finally.  The receiver is anodized aluminum. That's how they offer them in red and blue receivers also. If I remember right the Barrels where Stainless Steel on the originals. Not sure if they still are. Magnet sticks to mine quite well.
 
 

[packard8]

Well folks, my Amazon bargain ($86) Retay 135X/.22 arrived this PM. Double boxed and the retail box looks really nice. Unboxed it and checked the barrel (clean) and decided to run it over the chrony with the open sights. Very consistent FPS (around 770 with CPHP's) but man, where did the designers go wrong...? Did they even try to shoot this rifle? The trigger is horrible , I'd guess 12-14 lbs pull, and sounds like you are stepping on peanut shells. The open sights are useless due to the big "bump' of the adjustable cheekpiece, you can't even see the rear sight without holding the rifle at arm's length, and this is with the adjustable cheek piece all the way down. very harsh shot cycle, couldn't hit a 5x7" paper at 12 yds. Also, the leade is so loose that pellets fall out when cocking unless the rifle is pointed downward at all times. Maybe I just got a lemon, but that doesn't account for the design flaws, particularly the rear sight being invisible unless you remove the adjustable cheek rest.

I've had a streak of good luck with the Amazon specials (Norica Black Eagle and Spider) but I think I rolled craps on this one.

I received an RMA label from Amazon and this t*rd is on its way back to Amazon

[Charles Outdoors]

Well folks, my Amazon bargain ($86) Retay 135X/.22 arrived this PM. Double boxed and the retail box looks really nice. Unboxed it and checked the barrel (clean) and decided to run it over the chrony with the open sights. Very consistent FPS (around 770 with CPHP's) but man, where did the designers go wrong...? Did they even try to shoot this rifle? The trigger is horrible , I'd guess 12-14 lbs pull, and sounds like you are stepping on peanut shells. The open sights are useless due to the big "bump' of the adjustable cheekpiece, you can't even see the rear sight without holding the rifle at arm's length, and this is with the adjustable cheek piece all the way down. very harsh shot cycle, couldn't hit a 5x7" paper at 12 yds. Also, the leade is so loose that pellets fall out when cocking unless the rifle is pointed downward at all times. Maybe I just got a lemon, but that doesn't account for the design flaws, particularly the rear sight being invisible unless you remove the adjustable cheek rest.

I've had a streak of good luck with the Amazon specials (Norica Black Eagle and Spider) but I think I rolled craps on this one.

I received an RMA label from Amazon and this t*rd is on its way back to Amazon

That's the exact kind of accuracy I was getting from my 100X underlever back in February. I swear you could look down the barrel and it had a mirror like polish and no rifling I could see what so ever.

I could not get past how cheap the stock looked and the goofy round do nothing thing on the cast trigger like something from a toy gun. I was tempted still at theses prices cause the receiver was nicely done. The temptation soon passed. I'm just not into fixer uppers anymore. Maybe if I had a decent workspace and a little more time. 

[SpringerMan]

So, are those "wood" models actually wood or just a "woodgrain finish" on the regular synthetic stock ?

[ezman604]

Woodgrain "look" on a cheap plastic stock.

[gimemoore]

Well, I saw the .22 caliber 135x in woodgrain finish for $75 at Amazon today, and figured it's got to be worth that.  Hopefully, I get a good one.  It should be here in a week or so, at which point I'll put 300-500 rounds through it and then decide if it stays or goes.

I'll let ya know. 

[lefteyeshot]

Latter this month at the funshoot Big Al and I are going to try to install a FRT trigger in my Retay 135x. Looks close to a Gamo or Crosman trigger. Al said he read somewhere it would work trigger.

The .177100x under lever is down to $128.

[gimemoore]

The new 135x came today, and I sent about 100 pellets down the barrel.

Here's the rundown...

1.  The trigger on mine isn't bad.  It's not perfect, but I really think a little polishing with the dremel, and it'll be pretty good.

2.  I have no problem using the open sites, and actually like them.  Standing from 12 yards, I was consistently hitting a quarter sized spinner every time.

3.  The finish is actually really good. Good enough for $250?  No - if I'd have spent that, I'd have been disappointed.  But, if I'd spent $150, I'd be thrilled.

4.  I don't have a chrony, but it hits pretty hard. It has some pretty harsh recoil, but it's quieting down a bit the more it's shot.

5.  The stock is pretty cheap.  I'll see how it holds up in the freezing weather in the woods (I'm not really optimistic).  That said, it's really comfortable to me, and shoulders great. I'm really hoping I'm wrong, and that it holds up.

6.  I tried to mount a scope, and found that I don't have enough vertical adjustment to get within a foot.  With the scope mounted, if you lay the rifle down, you can see the scope is not in line with the barrel.  I'm going to try some shims first.  If that won't do it, I'll bend the barrel. 

So, am I going to keep it?  Yeah, I think I am.  I really enjoyed shooting it tonight.  My only complaint is the scope issue, but it's not a deal breaker.  I really like the rifle.

[lefteyeshot]

Mines ok. I paid $69. The trigger isn't great. That's why Al and I are going to try the GRT trigger. I could use the open sights but I took them off and put a steel barrel weight/muzzle break on it from archer and scoped it.

The underlever I had the rear sight was mounted different and I couldn't use it but the trigger was awful. I think I sold or trade it to you. If the GRT works in the 135x I might get another 100x and GRT it.

Bought some pawn shop guns here in Lenoir cheap:
TS45 .177
Daisy 120 .177 break barrel made by Gamo. Looks like a mini Slavia
<I> Brand B3-1 in new condition
old B2 pioneer (sling swivels) with the typical made in china stamp but the brand says "Pleasure"

[gimemoore]

After looking at it a bit more, there's no way I'm going to be able to shim the scope enough.  If you look at the line on the floor in relation to the scope rail, and the barrel, you can see that the barrel dives up quite a bit.

[ezman604]

Okay, I may need to start a new thread but I'll start here. GTA has a history with Retay, for those of you that don't remember. Back in 2011 when we first heard of Retay airguns, we had no USA distributor. BUT, we had a couple of folks looking into becoming distributors so we were able to get a few of the 100X and 135X airguns into the country. We were asked by Retay to review them and help them adjust production to make the airguns better. We did so and never could get a distributor here still. Within the last 8 months a USA distributor has been approved and the 135X and 100X airguns have begun to flow into the country. Problem is, the quality is not there as the first models we were privileged to get our hands on.
I sent the director of marketing a message outlining my thoughts and concerns after buying one of the available 135X models. I was VERY disappointed in the backwards direction these have gone as far as quality. Oddly enough, he never responded to my message.
A few minutes ago I received a private message from the Retay rep. She says they are looking at reworking the X line of airguns again and wanted our input.
So, those of you that have bought and actually shot them, please post your thoughts on where improvements need to be made. Hilary says they already have plans on improving:
Sights
Trigger group to a more professional style with trigger weight and blade up/down adjustments
Cocking arm improvements
Safety rework

If you have specific ideas for improvements, please post them or send me a message. I'll compile them and send to Hilary as she requested. Let's hope this time around they improve the quality and listen to us consumers.

Thanks all.

[SteveP-52]

Your list pretty much covers the bases other than the useless hunk of tin and plastic on the end of the barrel. Mine is pretty loud (first time in 19 rifles the neighbor has wandered over to ask what I was shooting) and I've seen others make the same comment so a better muzzle break along the lines of say the Hatsan QE setup??
Mine is also pretty much a beast to cock for the little fps it shows over the chrony...I honestly thought for the 2 handed cocking effort mine takes it would shoot a little faster than the 701 fps average with FTT's and 721 fps with RWS Superdomes.
Considered taking it apart to see if something is buggered inside but with no parts availability, I pretty much don't dare for now.