There tends to be a great deal of interest in air gun replicas of popular defensive firearms. In today’s review, Clayton Walker tests the Hellcat Pro BB gun. Made by Air Venturi, the air pistol looks the part and Walker gets it on the range to see how it performs. The Hellcat Pro BB gun was provided by Springfield Armory for this review.
By the time you read this, we’ve just come out of the holiday season, which means a variety of TV channels will have aired “A Christmas Story” almost non-stop. Just about every adult marksman can relate to young Ralphie and his hope of finding a BB gun under the Christmas tree. Indeed, I would bet a good number of us look back on our first BB gun with fond memories and recognize it as a rite of passage — a warm handshake that welcomed us to adolescence and a new world of (fun) responsibility.
There’s a good number of shooters, of course, who feel they’ve “outgrown” the BB gun now that they can send 9mm- and .308-sized bullets in the direction of where they want them to go. For marksman of this ilk, a BB gun is much like training wheels on a bicycle: something to be discarded once you’ve got your bearings. Kid’s stuff, right?
Wrong, I’d argue. The BB gun is unfairly denigrated, and for proof positive of that assertion, I’d point to Springfield Armory’s CO2-powered, .177 version of its famous Hellcat Pro produced by Air Venturi. Available in black or Desert FDE, this air pistol is no mere toy. Not only is this a great way to develop and perfect several elements of marksmanship, but it’s a next-level training tool for CCW, and especially so for owners of its big brother.
The Details
As someone who does indeed have a Hellcat Pro in his collection, I can say for certain that from five paces away, this air pistol is quite indistinguishable from the real thing. More importantly, however, it feels like the real thing.
Like its center-fire predecessor, the .177 Hellcat has a polymer frame along with a steel barrel and slide. For comparison, I weighed my Hellcat and its BB clone, both unloaded: the Hellcat Pro clocked in at 20.47 oz., while the BB gun has a weight of 19.82 oz. That’s pretty dead on.
Sights mirror the actual Hellcat. Though the air pistol doesn’t feature a tritium insert, it does have the same white outline U-notch with a white dot front sight. As on my 9mm Hellcat Pro, I really like these sights. They’re square at the top and can be aligned for precise target work, but the dot-and-U interface allows everything to be aligned quickly at speed for not much accuracy loss.
[Interested in learning more about the original gun? Read Massad Ayoob’s Hellcat Pro review.]
Additionally — and this is a biggie — the .177 Hellcat Pro air pistol is also red dot capable. Like its big brother, the optic plate just forward of the rear sight can be removed, and a red dot sight (RDS) made by Air Venturi can be mounted in its place. I found the unit to be eminently functional. It mounts securely, has adjustments for windage and elevation, and it even has two different brightness settings. A switch on the side is intuitive and the unit is powered by a single CR1632 battery.
Operation of the Hellcat Pro air pistol comes from the use of readily available and inexpensive 12g CO2 cartridges. The air pistol is ingeniously designed such that the backstrap hides a retractable Allen key so you’re never hunting for a tool to swap propellant in or out. The .177 Hellcat Pro air pistol will hold 17 steel BBs in its mag, and I found that each 12g powerlet was good for several full magazines without degradation of accuracy.
Let’s also talk about what’s arguably the most important control on the air pistol: the trigger. Here, I’m happy to report this feels pretty similar to the actual Hellcat. While the air pistol has a manual safety underneath the accessory rail (unique to the airgun, and unlike its big brother), its trigger does have a hinged piece that mimics the real deal. And, like the 9mm Hellcat Pro, the airgun’s trigger has a distinct “wall” of resistance after a period of travel, along with a tactile and audible reset.
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Another cool thing: the airgun loads very much like its big brother. With CO2 powerlet in place and a full magazine inserted, the user pulls the slide back and releases to ready the gun to fire. I don’t think it’s “chambering” a round as much as the gun is priming the trigger, but the manual of arms is familiar. And, when the magazine runs empty, guess what? The slide locks back, giving the user a visual and tactile clue that the firearm must be reloaded. Press the magazine release to drop the empty mag, insert a new mag and drop the slide (either by slingshotting the slide or via the slide release), and you’re once again ready to rock and roll.
Performance
I think most of my thoughts in this section can be put under one general umbrella: color me surprised!
Having dabbled with some airsoft pistols in my teens and early twenties, I was expecting the .177 Hellcat Pro to follow suit as an unrifled kinda sorta gun firing spherical projectiles. This is a kind way of saying I did not expect it to group worth a hoot. I did a lot of my accuracy testing at 5 yards, figuring this was a charitable distance to test a BB pistol.
The first surprise: though neither the front nor the rear sights are adjustable, my sights on both the FDE and the black Hellcat Pro air pistol hit to point of aim. I don’t know how Air Venturi does it, but clearly they’ve got their manufacturing process dialed in to make sure there’s little POA/POI difference, even at indoor ranges. This might seem like a given, but I’ve shot a number of fixed-sight firearms (from reputable manufacturers, no less!) that didn’t hit where the sights were pointed. That a BB gun priced at $79.99 accomplished this was one more mark of quality, and one of those things that separates “tool” from “toy.”
Speaking of “not a toy:” from a full CO2 charge, the .177 Hellcat Pro will spit a BB at a velocity of 380 fps. Based on some backyard testing, that’s enough energy to penetrate four pieces of corrugated cardboard. Suffice it to say that this should indeed be treated as a real firearm. Wearing eye protection is a must when operating the air gun.
As for the group sizes themselves, I came away from testing impressed. As soon as I really learned how to work the trigger on the Hellcat Pro air pistol, my groups went from the size of silver dollars, then to quarters, then to dimes if I did my part. My best of a day’s worth of accuracy was 10 shots into 1.2” and my best five (shot separately) into a scant 0.27”.
I will also say this: although the Hellcat Pro air pistol is not classified as a firearm, it is a remarkably gun-like thing as far as the experience goes. When a shot is discharged, the slide reciprocates backwards and the CO2 cartridge generates an audible report. Quite honestly, shooting the Hellcat Pro air pistol without ear protection generated more perceived noise than when I shoot my 9mm Hellcat with a set of foam plugs.
This, I will argue, is a good thing.
Training Options
I’ll begin with the benefits to the novice and intermediate shooter.
One of my main criticisms of several dry-fire “systems” is that they omit two core components of the shooting experience: noise and recoil. Shooters will master a perfect “click” of a trigger pull that doesn’t cause any disruption to the sights, then head to the range where they have to contend with a loud noise and a gun that moves in their hands. No surprise they flinch when they want their shots to count!
On the contrary, the Hellcat Pro air pistol can be employed as a firearms simulator that does something when the trigger is pulled. The sensory disruption is gentle enough not to cause even the smallest and most frail of shooters pain or discomfort, but it’s on the level of firing a .22 LR pistol at the shooting range. If you’re shooting purely to obtain the smallest groups possible, the air pistol is a challenging but fair teacher. It will provide its mentees with a level of stress inoculation that just isn’t possible with dry firing, laser systems or airsoft.
I’ll put this into clearer terms. If you have someone you want to get into the shooting sports, this offering from Springfield Armory is a great first step. With a makeshift backstop in one’s garage or backyard, you can safely teach a loved one the ABC’s of shooting in a way that’s fun and rewarding.
However, on the basis of practice with the Hellcat Pro air pistol, you can put a real-deal .22 or 9mm in their hand later on, and they’ll have a good idea of what to expect on the basis of bark and bite. The gulf between theory and practice is greatly reduced! “Oh, this is a lot like the Hellcat BB gun,” they might say. Or, if you make the jump to a .22 rifle, they’ll say, “The BB gun kicks more than this!”
Now let’s talk about the intermediates and experts.
I don’t think it’s coincidence that Springfield Armory and Air Venturi developed a 1-to-1 scale clone with almost an identical weight and similar trigger pull to the actual Hellcat.
Where I think the Hellcat Pro .177 version excels is in allowing users to address skills they may not be comfortable practicing with a live gun in their hand. For example: point shooting, weak-hand shooting, making a first-round hit as quickly as possible from deep concealment, and shooting on the move.
A BB gun offers up the possibility of practicing hard tasks cheaply and more often. For almost all of us, it’s easier to shut our garage door than it is to drive to our local range to facilitate a practice session. We’re also less apt to train if we fall into the cognitive trap of thinking it’s “a waste of ammo.” Consider that you can buy 2,500 BBs through the Springfield Armory web store for a whopping $6.99. Who gives a hoot if your shot goes a little wide?
Prior to owning my .177 Hellcat, I didn’t know how accurate I was making a 3-yard instinctive shot, or how fast I could get two shots into the center of an IDPA target with the gun indexed against my hip. Now I do! You’ll never establish a personal baseline of these defensive skill sets unless you try, and this particular BB gun makes it easier than ever.
Closing Thoughts
As the old refrain goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. First, a number of state and municipal ordinances may have stipulations with respect to where and when you can shoot even a BB gun: naturally, it’s our policy here at The Armory Life that you remain in compliance with all applicable laws. A BB gun opens up more safe practice venues, but not an infinite number of them.
Additionally, while the .177 Hellcat Pro air gun makes an excellent understudy, it’s certainly not a replacement to training with your defensive firearm and live ammo. Even if you own the .177 Hellcat’s big brother, in order to get the most out of this tool, you’ll need to test the skills you’ve learned at the shooting range. Only then can you be reasonably sure they’ll make the jump into “real world” contexts.
Beyond that, this air pistol clone of the Springfield Armory Hellcat Pro wildly exceeded my expectations of not only what a BB gun can do, but what utility it can offer even dyed-in-the-wool shooters. For not very much money, I think it will endear itself to you just as it did to me!
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