Guns Hatsan Blitz: Select Fire 7.62 Delivered to Your Door Iain Harrison March 18, 2021 5 Comments, Join the Conversation Way back in January 2020, we wandered by the Hatsan USA booth at SHOT to check in with Blaine Manifold, its jovial owner and airgun guru. We came away with a smirk on our faces. We’ve always been suckers for high-powered airguns, as they’re a fun way for gun owners to thumb our collective noses at idiotic regulations. Hatsan’s newest addition to their lineup was very much a continuation of this theme. Full Auto, Suppressed, and legal to send to your home: the Hatsan Blitz. According to Manifold, the company was about to import a model equipped with a happy switch, so we signed up to put it through its paces. You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out The new Hatsan Blitz is available in .22, .25, and .30 calibers, and naturally we opted for the biggest of the three. In terms of efficiency, the middle one is probably the wisest choice, but the opportunity to brag about shooting a 7.62 full auto in the backyard was too much to pass up, even if we did have to skip over the bit about it being air, rather than powder, powered. Stock is adjustable for LOP (via spacers) and comb height, and is adult-sized. It duly arrived in the back of a big brown truck of joy, with no background check, waiting period, or mother-may-I permission slip needed. The only thing left to do was charge up the 580cc carbon-fiber air tank, stuff magazines with 43-grain pellets, and mount up a scope. See that little lever just above the pistol grip? It’s worth two hundred bucks … First Impressions A Red Ryder this ain’t. Tipping the scales at 13.2 pounds fully equipped with 4-15×42 optic, magazine, and bipod, the Hatsan Blitz feels like a centerfire rifle, once you get past the plastic furniture, which has a distinctive Turkish design aesthetic. There’s no reason we can fathom for the ’90s-style butthole stock, but it does offer the user adjustability for comb height and length of pull, along with storage for a spare magazine. Unlike some other pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) airguns, there’s no easy way to swap out the air cylinder, so if you want to recharge the rifle in the field, you’ll have to carry an air pump. With around 100 shots on tap before pressure drops below 85 percent of its max, this isn’t too much of an arse-ache, but should you venture much beyond the confines of your backyard, it’s worth being aware of. Especially as the 100-shot limit arrives pretty quickly when you flip the switch to its rock-’n’-roll setting. Cocking lever is locked to the rear in order to swap the rotary mags. To top off the tank, there’s a conveniently located port on the right side just forward of the action, into which the probe from either an electric or manual pump fits. Most of the time, we used a high-pressure manual pump and were pleasantly surprised at how efficiently the Hatsan Blitz metered its air supply — after a couple of mags, it took fewer than 100 strokes of the pump to bring pressure back up to the upper limit. Bear in mind, air from the tank is used not only to propel pellets down the bore, but also to cycle the action and strip them from the magazine, so by rights it should be an air hog. To get the party started, pull the bolt handle to the rear and lock it into the HK-style retaining slot, insert a full mag into the receiver, then run the bolt home to chamber the first round. There’s a safety à la Garand, located inside the trigger guard, with an AR-type selector switch on the left side. The switch itself operates in the opposite direction you’d expect and isn’t all that easy to get to, unless you’re a lefty — most of the time we operated it with our support hand, and it’s easy to forget to flip it back to semi. One evening, this resulted in a rabbit we were stalking winding up with five holes in its carcass instead of one. Oopsie. Note size difference between 22- and 30-cal pellets. Like most other repeating airguns, Hatsan Blitz magazines are of a rotary design. Unlike most others, they’re spring-loaded, in order to keep up with the 1,000-rpm rate of fire. Holding a maximum of 16 rounds in 30 cal, it’s tough to get more than four bursts on the full-auto setting due to the high rate of fire and a trigger that feels heavy, stagey, and not too predictable. We’ve shot other Hatsan PCPs in the past (see RECOIL Issue 14) and they usually come with sweet, fully adjustable triggers that can be tuned to break just how you like it, but this one’s the exception to that rule. Then again, full auto ARs, MP5s, and belt-feds aren’t exactly known for their glass-rod triggers, either. We, likewise, were expecting tight groups from its shrouded, integrally suppressed barrel, but were initially disappointed. Normally, German H&N pellets are our go-to for accuracy testing, but in this case they threw puzzling fliers that opened up our groups to around 3 inches at 50 yards. While smaller calibers have a ton of choices when it comes to ammo, the number of options available for the big bores is inversely proportional to their diameter. We did, however, have a few Hatsan-branded pellets left over from a previous project, and they tightened things up nicely, proving that airguns, like 22s, can be picky when it comes to projectiles. An even-inch at 50 yards was possible on semi, but due to the heavy trigger we had to concentrate really hard to achieve it. Off a bipod on full auto it’s possible to dump a burst of four or five rounds into less than 4 inches at that distance, which anyone who’s humped a 240 will attest is a pretty remarkable feat. Although the Hatsan Blitz delivers only around 50 ft-lb of energy at the muzzle per shot, having eight of them arrive in a half-second somewhat changes the dynamic. With yet another ammo shortage in full swing, there aren’t too many downsides to having an airgun in the arsenal. They’re quiet, powerful enough to be worthwhile, and completely immune to kinks in the supply chain when it comes to primers, powder, and brass. It’s even possible to cast your own pellets from scrap lead, and so long as you’re capable of pumping air, you can send them on their merry way without reliance on another soul. Plus, in the case of the Hatsan Blitz, there’s the satisfaction of owning a full auto without the government sticking its nose in, which for some people is priceless. [Editor's Note: This article first appeared in RECOIL #51. Photos by Kenda Lenseigne.] Hatsan Blitz Caliber: .22, .25, and .30 Magazine Capacity: 16 (in .30) Barrel Lenght: 23 Inches Overall Length: 45 Inches Weight: 8.8 Pounds MSRP: $1000 URL: www.Hatsanairgunsusa.com More on Air Rifles and Oddities Full Auto Friday: Light Assault Machine Gun by Knights Armament. See the Hatsan Blitz in action on RECOILtv. Explore RECOILweb:Must See: The Lionhearted Project Shares the Stories of 22 VeteransLifesaving Skills Every Gun Owner Should KnowTOPS Knives Bartender Defender XLPreview - Hudson 9 NEXT STEP: Download Your Free Target Pack from RECOILFor years, RECOIL magazine has treated its readers to a full-size (sometimes full color!) shooting target tucked into each big issue. Now we've compiled over 50 of our most popular targets into this one digital PDF download. From handgun drills to AR-15 practice, these 50+ targets have you covered. Print off as many as you like (ammo not included). 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I own one and it is. I have a lot of livestock therefor a lot of predators. That's why i bought it. One thing not mentioned is its pretty heavy compared to a firearm. If you carry it around all day you will know it.
