ON TEST: SMK TH208

TOP VALUE
THUMBHOLE
Tim Finley reviews another Chinese performer from SMK

aspire to keep the cost down of the

guns I review, if I can, because
value for money is the real aim, sorry
for the pun. So its hard to ignore the
SMK brand of rifles from
Sportsmarketing. Theyve been going
strong for years and its fair to say they
were the first to recognise the full
potential of the manufacturing might
of China. I really liked the XS20
Custom I tested a few magazine
issues ago, and this month its back to
another break-barrel, spring powered
rifle from SMK. From the outset,
this is a real adults gun
and a top performer.

out of the rear action cap when the

rifle is cocked. The position is very
well thought out as it makes it easy to
use for both right-handed and lefthanded shooters. It has an S on both
sides of the button/safety catch which
can only be seen once the safety is
applied. Pushing the

button back into the action hides the

S and makes the rifle ready to fire. For
added safety, the shooter can pull the
safety catch back out manually at any
time to reapply it, and the button has
a groove in the top in order to help
you grasp it. Theres a ribbed surface
on the back of the safety to give an
anti-slip surface for the finger or
thumb when pushing the button back
into the action.

BIG BEAST
With a 19-inch
(485mm) long
barrel and a
large wooden
stock, the TH208
is not a small airgun.
The TH in the model
number points to the fact
that it has a thumbhole stock. The
208 series of action is well used by
SMK and I can see why, theyre very
solidly built and nicely finished. The
stock is an ambidextrous sporter style,
with a dark brown stain, and fitted
with a thick rubber butt pad. The
length of pull is adult-sized too, being
a full 370mm (14 inches). Youll also
see there are laser-cut, chequeringtype panels on each side of the
stocks fore end. The steel barrel is
fitted with a slim-looking muzzle
weight, which really does set off the
look of the gun. One thing to note is
that the gun cannot be fitted with any
form of open sight. The screw holes
on the top of the breech-block are
capped off on the TH208. Its an
optical sight only gun, which is not a
bad thing as open sights are a lot

LONG LEVERS

harder to shoot accurately at any sort

of range. This is a long-range airgun:
over the chronograph with 14.3 grain
.22 pellets, the test rifle produced
11.5 ft.lbs. of energy. Shot-to-shot
variation was under ten fps. Springpowered airguns tend to be very good
over the chronograph if they have any
quality about them and the TH208
certainly has that. The break-barrel
system has a ball-bearing catch and it
needs a tap on the barrel to break the
lock. The fit in the breech jaws is

good and the end of the barrel is

sealed with a black O ring.

AUTOMATICALLY SAFE
The rifle is fitted with an automatic
safety catch, which comes on as the
rifle is cocked. At the risk of repeating
myself, never, ever take your hand off
the barrel when cocking and loading a
spring-powered, break-barrel air rifle.
The safety on the TH208 is at the
very rear of the action, being a
rectangular plastic button which pops

The rifle is very easy to cock,

relative to its full power levels, and
this is because of the leverage gained
by the 480mm long, heavy barrel and
also the articulation on the cocking
arm. Its not fitted with an anti-bear
trap system, so it can be de-cocked if
necessary. Fitted with a scope, the
rifle weighs in at 4.25 kg (9lb 5oz), so
it is a heavy gun. The stock has a
large 50mm (two inches) diameter
aperture forming the thumbhole, and
is sculpted for both left and righthanded shooters. Theres no option
for having the thumb in the upright
position, but I found the stock
comfortable to use, as did my lefthanded mate. I use him to ascertain if
a gun is really ambidextrous, and the
TH208 passed the test. The thumb is
prevented from going upright by a top
bridge section of the stock.

AIRGUN WORLD

83

ON TEST: SMK TH208

A recoil arrestor block

is useful and welcome.

The breech is well made

and locks up well.

GIVE ME STRENGTH
This is to add strength, and it has a
raised cheekpiece on both sides of
the butt and a thick, ventilated rubber
pad moulded with dimples and the
trademark ringed target logo of
Sportsmarketing.
The logo is also picked out on the
surface of the steel action cylinder just
in rear of the breech. The front stock
screws are of the Posi-drive type. The
design of the stock is a bit of a
compromise, being that it has to fit
left-handed and right-handed
shooters, but it
does give a
natural and
unstrained
position for the
trigger hand. I
fitted a 3 - 9 x 40
SMK telescopic
sight for range testing, and noted that
the 100mm long scope rail, machined
into the top of the action, had an
arrestor plate fitted to its rear, to stop
scope creep. The 145mm-long,
24mm-diameter muzzle weight is held
on to the barrel by two Allen screws
on the underside of the weight. These

The thumbhole stock offers

excellent trigger control.

are set radially on the circumference

of the weight. It gives the TH208 the
real look of a custom spring rifle,
although why it needs a muzzle
weight on such a long barrel is a bit of
a moot point.

NEW AMMO
Shooting the gun from the classic
field target sitting position, I set a test
card at 25m and with the new SMK
Black pellets, proceeded to impress
myself with how accurate the rifle and
pellets were. SMK had sent the three

they tend not to deform as much as

pure lead pellets. They have already
been a huge hit for SMK and
following my range testing I can see
why.
I set test cards out at 25m and
started with the round heads. Roundheaded pellets are suitable for all
shooting situations and SMK have
sensibly marked the tin up with the
ALL ROUNDER banner. From the
sitting shooting position I shot a
19.9mm five-shot group, which I was
pleased with. I didnt expect the same

25m, I expected the flat-headed

pellets to be worse than the roundheaded ones. On to the pointed ones,
marked up as HUNTING - and more
shocks. They came in at 20.4mm,
making them one of the most
accurate pointed pellets I have ever
shot. Sold in tins of 250 for 4, they
represent great value for money and
superb performance down range,
where it counts.

QUALITY
This is a quality-made and very
accurate rifle.
The alloy trigger
blade is
predictable in
operation and
has a pull weight
of 1.6kg, so it
isnt at all heavy,
again helping with the TH208s range
performance. You cannot fail to be
impressed with the gun when you
shoot it. I would struggle to cart it
around all day out hunting, but that
really is the only downside to this gun.
Costing less than 150.00, it takes
some beating in value for money.

THEY CAME IN AT 20.4MM, MAKING THEM

ONE OF THE MOST ACCURATE POINTED
PELLETS IVE EVER SHOT

84

AIRGUN WORLD

different types of Black .22 pellet

they sell. Theres a round-headed
version, a flat-headed and a hunting
pointed version. They are called
Black due to their colour. SMK have
designed the pellets themselves and
the addition of graphite particles gives
them the dark hue and also means

level of good performance from the

flat or pointed pellets.

BACK TO BLACK
The flat version of the Black is
marked up as TARGET/CO2. I shot a
20.2mm five-shot group, four of them
were within 11.6mm. Out at a full