Hatsan Zada refurb, repair and review.

[mikeyb]

Hatsan Zada 22 Refurb from FS 2025/01/09

Rifle manufacture date 2023. Looks like it was factory refurbished by HatsanUSA. Plain brown box contained "test sheet" from a Hatsan tech.

Basically the Zada is the AirTact action in a grey tacticool stock. I have a couple AirTact 177 refurbs that shoot well, but I'm skeptical all the plastic used will hold up over time. Overmolded palstic barrel/breech and plastic lockup wedge seems risky but still shooting well after 3 years.

The grey tacticool stock stock is very light and has a "flimsy" feel to it. Not a fan of tacticool look but I can accept it if the rifle shoots well.

Shoots WAY left at 20' and no amount of open sight adjustment can bring it back to shooting straight. WHAT is wrong with this thing?

Removed the baffles to get a better look at the crown. Seems ROUGH so I'm hoping the barrel just needs a recrown?

Could also be a bent barrel?

Sight alignment looks TDC (top dead center). Front sight is mounted in a dovetail so some left/right adjustment is possible.

Rifle cocking feels normal and shot cycle is typical (twangy and sharp) for a refurb springer right out of the box.

My first impression of the Zada is...

...oh my, what a piece of junk! I REALLY HOPE this is not the new NORMAL for Hatsan springers. If it is they may have lost this customer.

I should return it but I don't want ANYONE ELSE to get this clunker as it is now.

I accept this NEW CHALLENGE! Can I get this piece of trash springer shooting even close to a normal break barrel?

Next up: full teardown, barrel and crown evaluation, and can I fix any problems I find?


UPDATE 2025/04/10 (Finally had time to work on this rifle!)

Full teardown and cleaning. Most parts look new'ish... except the piston seal.

#1 Burnt piston seal, needs replacement.

Parachute seal "lip" intact but there is a significant hollowed out area in the seal face. WAS an orange/red seal with HATSAN molded into face but excessive dieseling(?) has vaporized a sizeable crater where the "HATSAN" used to be. That dead space has got to go away so I installed another orange/red factory "fresh" Hatsan piston seal.

Removed the barrel assembly and disassembled the composite barrel starting at the muzzle brake. Gently tapped out 2 roll/spring/tension pins to remove baffles. Used a 5/8" deep well socket (fit ok, likely a metric nut) to remove barrel nut and washer.

#2 Barrel nut was VERY LOOSE!

Pushed steel barrel out of molded plastic barrel cover. Ran some cleaning patches through bore.

#3 Barrel was filthy with many patches coming out black.

Removed barrel pivot sleeve which allows barrel LATCH WEDGE to come out.

#4 Latch WEDGE is PLASTIC! Seriously?
#5 VERY tight fit = no wiggle but wedge struggles to move in/out.
#6 Wedge spring is canted, not ideal.

Barrel lockup seems adequate for now so I'm not reworking the latch wedge at this time. However, that is a potential source of poor accuracy and I will watch for signs of wear.

#7 Rifled barrel had a rough (hack-job) crown and a BIG BURR at the muzzle ... AGAIN!

Pushed pellets got stuck HARD at the burr and then got sheared when forced through. No wonder this thing was shooting wild!
I re-faced the muzzle FLAT, then created a "burr free" muzzle crown. Pushed pellets now hesitate at the leade then travel the whole barrel smoothly with no hesitation exiting the muzzle.

#8 Steel barrel is very slightly bent.

I rotated the barrel in the plastic sleeve until I "thought" the bend was UP. I'd rather have a little barrel rise instead of droop.

Re-assembled barrel assembly verifying the barrel NUT was TIGHT!

Used my preferred grease & moly while re-assembling the action with a new custom full length SNUG spring guide.

NO trigger work yet. Just wanted to get the powerplant running well for now.

Some slight dieseling of the fresh lube, then CPHP 14.3 shooting 780 fps (avg). Accuracy has improved but is still "not good" with 1" shot groups at 30'. Could be ME?

NO spring twang at all with the new spring guide but the shot cycle seems too SHARP still. That may be the very LIGHT stock transferring second recoil right into my cheekbone (ouch!). Line-of-sight using the open sights is uncomfortable. I have to get a really low/tight cheekweld to line up the sights with the target. I believe this is WHY the shot cycle seems too sharp. The tacticool stock appears to be designed for using scopes, NOT the open sights!

Overall I CAN'T recommend buying this air rifle even if is it heavily discounted as a refurb. There are too many MUCH BETTER air rifles out there to waste time on a rifle this "cheaply built". My ONE AND ONLY Hatsan Zada as a learning experience.

My cheap refurb AirTacts shoot well (for now) and they are MUCH MORE PLEASANT to shoot (open sights) than the Zada. However, I can't recommend the AirTact rifles either. They could easily suffer from the same poor factory quality as this Zada. I think I either got lucky or my AirTacts were made before Hatsan factory quality control got worse was eliminated.

Cheers :-)

[mikeyb]

As this repaired Zada breaks-in I'm getting LESS disappointed with it.

It is light and plastic does not rust ;-)



One item not noted previously is that the transfer port is the newer threaded insert style. If the insert works itself loose and backs out far enough the sharp philips "crown" will tear up the breech seal. The insert on this rifle is TIGHT and the breech seal is in good shape.

Group size is below my 1" good/bad threshold. I shot this 3/4" (penny) C2C group of 20 pellets CPHP-14.3 at 30' range using open sights.



Chronograph data is acceptable good and seems to be improving.


MV plot indicates rifle is still low-level dieseling from my repairs & relube. I may have gone a little too heavy with the tacky marine grease :-/


Regardless of the errant grease the rifle is shooting MUCH BETTER. I'm pretty confident I've got this rifle shooting the BEST it can given its design.

I'm pretty happy with the results up to this point and declare this a decent entry level springer... once EVERYTHING is working as it should.

Here is yet another example of a reasonably good air rifle design that was poorly assembled/tested/refurbished/repaired by parties unknown.
I know Hatsan (Turkey) made it and Hatsan (USA) supposedly refurbished it at least one time. The unknowns are customer fiddling/abuse and 3rd party return/resell policy.

As recently discussed in a Hatsan Flash QE thread, "refurbished" means different things to different people. In this case it does NOT mean repaired to like-new. It means "ballpark functional at a glance" :-(

With problems resolved this rifle shoots as accurately as MANY others in the $100 & under bargain springer category.
However, I still don't recommend this springer unless you WANT a tuning/repair challenge and really LIKE the stock style.

[A.K.A. Tommy Boy]

Hi mikey.

Thank you.  This was a good read and great write up.


Best Wishes - Tom

[mikeyb]

Hi Tom :-)
Thanks.

I just tried some Excite Hammer 14.66 grain pellets in the Zada. They fit the breech perfectly every time and seem to have less size variation than the CPHPs.

This particular rifle really LIKES the Hammer pellet. Velocity dropped to 712fps average (heavier pellet, same energy) with a smaller ES and SD. Accuracy was also better.  Group size now UNDER a penny with room to spare.  No need to try any more pellets since "I" am now the limiting factor ;-)

Will probably leave a tin of the Hammers stored with the rifle until next shooting session.

Cheers :-)