View fullsize

Today’s unboxing, we’ll call it the March 2026 Unboxing Preview!

I had no idea what was in this box, and honestly, I like it that way. It makes every delivery feel a bit like Christmas. A box shows up from the warehouse, I crack it open, and my job is to let you know what’s inside and what might be coming soon to the store. A lot of the time these are products we’ve never carried before. Not always, but usually there’s at least something new or unexpected in the mix.

As usual, getting into the box was its own little challenge. Good thing I had my “box cutter “ handy. Once I finally got through the packaging, it was clear right away this one had some interesting stuff inside.

What was in the box?

View fullsize

1) Annie Oakley Lil’ Sure Shot BB Rifle

First out of the box was something a little different: the Annie Oakley Lil’ Sure Shot.

This one is brought to you by Air Venturi / Western Justice, and it’s essentially a Red Ryder-style lever action BB rifle with some nice Western-themed touches. Right away, it stood out with the stained solid wood stock, wood forearm with engraving, and engraved Annie Oakley artwork.

Here are some of the listed specs and features:

• Ammo: .177 caliber / 4.5mm steel BBs

• Action: Lever cocking, spring piston

• Barrel: Smoothbore

• Overall Length: 36.25 inches

• Capacity: 550 BBs

• Claimed Velocity: Up to 350 FPS

• Weight: 3.3 pounds

• Max Shooting Distance: 212 yards

Once I opened it up, it definitely gave me that familiar Red Ryder / Marlin Cowboy vibe, but it feels like it may be just a bit bigger overall. Maybe a slightly longer stock, maybe just a bit more substantial in the hands. I’ll have to compare it side-by-side with a Red Ryder later to know for sure.

A few things I noticed right away:

• It has a metal lever

• Metal frame

• Metal barrel

• A plastic muzzle tip

• A rear sight that appears adjustable

• And surprisingly, a Weaver-style rail on top for mounting an optic

That top rail is actually a nice touch. You could absolutely throw a small scope on this if you wanted to, and why not? It makes for a fun little plinker, and the engraving gives it some real visual appeal too.

I’ve always had a soft spot for these little lever-action BB rifles. They’re just fun. They’re simple, classic, and a great way to introduce younger shooters to safe rifle handling. Rifles like this tend to be a bit easier for beginners since they’re not as quick to wave around as a pistol.

So yes, this one looks like it should be a lot of fun, and I’ll be doing both a Tabletop Review and a Field Test Shooting Review on it soon.

View fullsize

2) .68 Caliber Nylon Balls (100 Count)

Also in the box was a pack of 100-count .68 caliber nylon balls.

These feel noticeably heavier than the rounds I was using in my earlier T4E TC68 review. The previous ones were around the 2.8 to almost 3 gram range, and these new ones feel more like they’re getting up into the high 3 gram to 4 gram area.

That added weight could make them especially interesting to test in the TC68, since more projectile mass can sometimes translate into more energy on target, even if velocity comes down a bit.

So these should be fun to test out, and as it turns out, they may have arrived for a very good reason…

3) Steambow B08 / .68 Caliber Rubber Ball Crossbow Platform

This was the big surprise in the box, and definitely the highlight item.

If you watched my SHOT Show coverage, then you may remember this one from the Steambow booth. It’s a really cool product: basically a magazine-fed rubber ball shooting crossbow-style launcher in .68 caliber.

I had already gotten a chance to try it at SHOT Show, and Steambow was great about letting us check it out there. So it was pretty exciting to see one show up here for review.

Some of the box highlights:

• Detachable magazine

• 8-shot capacity

• .68 caliber projectiles

• Includes 25 foam balls

• Comes with a 35-pound limb

• AR-style adjustable buttstock

• Protective shooting glasses included

This product has a lot going on in the box. Once I opened it up, there were multiple components and accessories packed inside, including:

• Main body / receiver section

• Foregrip

• AR-style buttstock

• Upper receiver section with included magazine

• 35-pound limb

• Bow string and related accessories

• Lubricant / wax for the string

• Mounting hardware and tools

• Protective glasses

• 25 included foam balls

There’s definitely going to be some assembly involved before I can do a full review, so that will be part of the tabletop video.

The main unit itself feels solid and substantial. It has some good weight to it, and overall it looks like a very cool design. The included 35-pound limb should offer a decent balance between usability and performance. At SHOT Show we were only using a lighter 25-pound setup, which was very easy to draw, great for casual target practice, but obviously not the high-performance option.

One of the things I like about this platform is that it gives you that crossbow-style shooting experience while using reusable .68 caliber balls. That can make it easier and cheaper to shoot compared to bolt-style systems, where each arrow or bolt can get expensive fast, especially if you miss the target and damage one.

And since I now also have those heavier nylon .68 caliber rounds from the same box, I should be able to test both the included foam balls and the heavier options to see how they compare.

This one should make for a very interesting review.

Final Thoughts

So that was the March 2026 mystery box. We’ve got two very different products here:

• The Annie Oakley Lil’ Sure Shot, which looks like a fun, classic lever-action BB rifle in the Red Ryder tradition

• And the Steambow B08 / .68 Caliber Rubber Ball Crossbow Platform, which is something a little more modern, tactical, and definitely unique

Both of these are getting the full treatment, so expect Tabletop Review and Field Test Shooting Review videos for both products.

The Annie Oakley should be a blast to shoot, especially if it performs anything like the other Red Ryder-style guns I’ve reviewed over the years. And the Steambow system looks like it could be a really practical and fun way to enjoy crossbow-style shooting without the cost and fragility of traditional bolts.

I’ve still got a few earlier products to finish up as well, but I’ll be getting to these as quickly as I can.

Thanks for watching another Replica Airguns video. Don’t forget to subscribe, and check the links in the description for products available in our Canada and US stores.

For Canada, visit ReplicaAirguns.ca
For the US, visit ReplicaAirguns.us

And if you’re looking for other products including Airguns, BB guns, pellet guns, airsoft guns, blank guns, and accessories, be sure to check out both stores as well.

In this SHOT Show Las Vegas 2020 Interview Video Scott takes us through a range of new products from Air Venturi.

View fullsize

Scott and I talk about the Air Venturi TR5 and how it came about to fill the hole the Baikal MP-61 left behind. We also talk a look at some new Air Rifles, a pumper called the Butterfly with a super cool linkage based system that makes pumping a lot easier. A PCP side lever cocking Air Rifle that I’m not even sure has a name yet but will be available in .177 .22 and .25 caliber pellet for around $299 US.

View fullsize

The only Air Venturi replica we looked at is a new Springfield Armory under lever Spring Piston Air rifle modeled after the M1A. Last up Scott went showed us how the Bada Bang targeting system is shaping up and looks to be almost ready for production.

View fullsize

Here we go again, another round of SHOT Show videos brought to you direct from Replica Airguns!

As always I like to start off with a Teaser Video with a few quick clips of some of the new products I had the opportunity to take a look at at this years SHOT Show 2020 Las Vegas.

I will be rolling out Interview Videos as quickly as I can edit them and put them together for the following Airgun Related companies:

• Sig Sauer

• Umarex

• Crosman - Velocity Outdoors

• ASG

• Air Venturi

• Chiappa

So sit back and enjoy this years Replica Airguns SHOT Show 2020 Las Vegas Teaser Video!

We had a lot of great new Airguns that I reviewed this year at Replica Airguns. Some of them really stood out to me and so I made a video showing my Favorite Replica Airgun Picks of 2019. Of course there where many other Airguns that could has just as easily made this video but I had to draw the line somewhere and pick the ones that in my opinion where the best of 2019. Make sure to watch my Vimeo video where I go into some more details on why I liked each Airgun.

Below is a list of the top Replica Airgun Picks of 2019:

Pellet Rifles:

• Air Venturi TR5 .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle

BB Rifles:

• Crosman Bushmaster MPW CO2 Blowback BB Machine Gun

• Umarex Legends Cowboy Shell Ejecting CO2 BB Rifle

Airsoft Rifles:

• KWA Ronin TK.45 Tekken AEG 2.5 & 3 Airsoft Rifles

Pellet Pistols:

• Webley Nemesis Bolt Action CO2 Pellet Pistol

Airsoft Pistols:

• Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa 5.1 D.O.R GBB Airsoft Pistol

• Tokyo Marui FNX-45 Tactical GBB Airsoft Pistol

Paintball Guns:

• Umarex T4E S&W M&P9 M2.0 .43 Cal. Paintball Pistol

Blank Guns:

• ROHM RG-88 9mm PAK Blank Pistol in Polished Chrome

BB Pistols:

• Umarex Glock 17 4th Gen CO2 Blowback BB Pistol

• Air Venturi Springfield Armory 1911 CO2 Blowback BB Pistol

• Air Venturi Springfield Armory XDM Blowback CO2 BB Pistols

• Sig Sauer P365 CO2 Blowback BB Pistol

• KWC K17 CO2 Blowback BB Pistol

View fullsize

In a way I have already Field Tested the Air Venturi TR5 .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle, well at least in the Baikal version. The Air Venturi version is pretty much a knock of of the Baikal IZH MP-61 which not only look a lot alike but also performed very similarly for me, checkout my Baikal YouTube Video Review for comparison. All that said we can not get Baikal products here in North America anymore so it’s great that Air Venturi has recreated a very similar product for us to have in Canada and the US.

View fullsize

Moving on to the Field Test Review for the Air Venturi TR5 .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle, I first placed 5 shots through my Chronograph to see if the Air Venturi TR5 .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle did in fact shoot around 500 fps and in fact I was able to get all 5 shots up and over 500 fps averaging around 513 fps. Still within our Non-regulated firearm laws here in Canada since we where still under the 4.2 foot pound energy limit using 6.9 grain pellets.

View fullsize

When it came to accuracy I would have liked to have tested out the Air Venturi TR5 .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle over a longer range but in my Sea Can I have a max 30 feet range limit which does give us a decent idea on what to expect for the Air Venturi TR5 .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle. I again shot 5 rounds using the Air Venturi TR5 .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle into my paper target since it has a 5 round magazine. I am not the best springer shooter but I think I did OK as I was able tonged a 1 inch grouping from the Air Venturi TR5 .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle, with 4 of the rounds all within a half inch of each other.

View fullsize

As mentioned before when I shot the Baikal IZH MP-61 I was able to get very similar results but I did have an optical scope on the Baikal IZH MP-61 as compared to the Air Venturi TR5 .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle where I just used the open sights. In my opinion the Air Venturi TR5 .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle is good value for your money offering a unique design with excellent performance and getting as much power out of a pellet rifle as you can get here in Canada without requiring a firearms license.

Pick one up in our Canada or US Online Replica Airguns stores!

View fullsize

Here we have three very different products I Unbox and Preview for everyone. A Spring Piston multi-shot .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle, a single action BB/Pellet revolver that’s not a Colt! And a really nice looking Semi Auto Blank Pistol in a Chrome finish.

View fullsize

Let’s start with the Air Venturi TR5 Spring Piston 5-shot .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle. I think this is a really well thought out Air Rifle. It’s “almost a Bullpup” in design but it does actually load in front of the trigger just a bit, that said most of the spring piston is behind the trigger setup making it really compact yet with a longer than normal barrel compared to regular Break Barrel Spring Piston Air Rifles. The Air Venturi TR5 Spring Piston 5-shot .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle also has a side lever cocking mechanism along with a 5 round auto indexing magazine which makes it much quicker to cock and reload for fast follow-up shots, again compared to a standard Break Barrel Air Rifle, not to mention no barrel droop! The Air Venturi TR5 Spring Piston 5-shot .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle has a claimed fps of up to 500 so we are getting the max amount of velocity possible for our Canadian laws without making it a regulated firearm and requiring a PAL license. And by the way the Air Venturi TR5 Spring Piston 5-shot .177 Caliber Pellet Rifle does come in both a Lime Green and all Black version just in case you are not a fan of the Lime Green finish I show in this video.

View fullsize

Moving onto the Schofield No. 3 BB/Pellet 6 Shot Revolver Replica, if you like single action revolvers then take a look at the Schofield No. 3 BB/Pellet 6 Shot Revolver Replica. It’s a lot more bulky than a Colt Single Action Revolver and also has that top Break design that makes reloading quick and easy. The version we are selling inner Replica Airgun Online Store is the kit version that comes with 6 BB shells and 6 pellet shells so you can take your pick on ammo types. The barrel is not rifled so Steel BB’s will not hurt the Airgun and since pellets are skirted they do not need a rifled barrel to fly straight and true. You can expect around 445 fps for the Schofield No. 3 BB/Pellet 6 Shot Revolver Replica.

View fullsize

Last up is one of my favorite Blank firing Semi Auto Pistols which I have already full reviews in the all Black version so checkout those Video Reviews for more info on the ROHM RG-88 line of Front Firing 9mm Blank Pistols. All I really wanted to show you guys with the ROHM RG-88 9mm PAK Blank Pistol in Polished Chrome is how awesome it looked with the Polished Chrome finish and that we do have more choices now than we use to have in terms of what finish you can get your ROHM RG-88 in. Personally I like the Polished Chrome finish the best but you can also get it in all Black and Matte Chrome, so you decide which one you like the best.

View fullsize

This John Wayne Lil Duke Giveaway didn't go exactly as planned as we had that YouTube Airgun Channel scare shortly after the original announcement so not as many people knew about it but we said we where going to giveaway two John Wayne Lil Duke BB Rifles and so that's what we are going to do!

Make sure to watch my Youtube video and find out if you won or not and congratulations to the two winners! For those that did not win this time around, you can still get yourself a John Wayne Lil Duke BB Gun by heading over to our Replica Airguns Canada or Replica Airguns US online web store and purchasing one the conventional way!