An interesting moniker for an air rifle – Ghost – however, that is what Brocock, now rebranding as simply BRK, chose to name this hard-hitting and accurate piece of kit (as the Brits would say).
A bit of a departure from previous Brocock offerings, it is a bullpup configuration that was inspired by sister company Daystate’s Alpha Wolf. Three models are offered, a High Power (HP) version sports a 23-inch Lothar-Walther barrel and comes in at an overall length of 33.6 inches, a Carbine with 17-inch barrel and OAL of 26 inches, and the Plus, also with a 17-inch barrel but OAL of 29 inches. The Carbine is fitted with a 300cc under barrel air bottle and weighs in at 6.8 pounds and the Plus comes with a 480cc bottle and weight of seven pounds. Either model is available in .177 or .22. Because we yanks tend to like a bit more power (just joking; we like a lot more power) and generally aren’t restricted on this side of the pond, the HP model is offered in .177, .22, .25 and, a first for Brocock, .30 caliber. Its bottle is also a 480cc and the weight a hefty 7.5 pounds.
The fill for the air bottle is 250 bar. A Huma regulator is built in and can be adjusted up to 200 bar. The regulator pressure can be raised on-the-fly, but lowering the pressure requires removal of the bottle and dry-firing until the regulator/plenum is empty. The bottles contain their own valves so will retain th fill.
BRK loaded the Ghost with additional goodies including:
- A picatinny scope rail with 20 MOA downward tilt as well as the ability to move the entire rail anywhere along the top of the receiver’s 11mm dovetail grooves for perfect scope eye relief
- Additional short pic rails on either side forward of the receiver and short sections on the bottom and toe of the buttstock.
- The buttplate is vertically adjustable for ease of fitting to the shoulder pocket
- A fully adjustable two-stage match trigger
- Easily swappable barrels and probes
- A power adjustment wheel giving 20 micro adjustments to the hammer spring
- A cocking handle that can be quickly switched to the other side as can the cheekpiece, making the Ghost truly ambidextrous
- A carbon fiber shroud ending in a threaded muzzle
The magazines are a breeze to load with the face of the mag being a door held shut by powerful magnets. The .25 mag holds 10 rounds and is deep enough to handle longer pellets and slugs. There is no empty mag stop so it is easy to mis-count and fire an empty mag, and care must be taken to avoid double-feeds. The cheekpiece that comes with the rifle is curved and will dictate which side the mags load from based on whether it is set for a leftie or righty. “Twinning” is the Brit term for placing a second mag in the mag well opposite the first mag. They have powerful magnets in their bases to keep both secure. After emptying one, the “twinned” mag is pushed into place to continue firing. This requires not only a second magazine but also a different cheekpiece at additional cost.
I did find it a bit on the heavy side for a minimalist-styled bullpup and the MTC King Cobra optic added another 26 ounces to the package. Speaking of the Cobra, it’s a First Focal Plane scope and excellent match-up for the Ghost with its ability to magnify from 6-to-24 power and its 30mm tube with a 50mm objective bell for additional light gathering capability. Its clarity is as good as scopes in much higher price ranges. The magnetic flip-up lens covers are convenient and the ocular bell cover contains a rectangular magnification window so the shooter can see the elevation turret setting by just lifting the head slightly. The reticle is a multi-stadia “Christmas tree” type called the SCB2 (Small Caliber Ballistic 2nd Gen.) Marked in ½ mils it is extremely easy to use and the reticle center has six different intensities of red illumination. Additional niceties are locking turrets providing one click = one centimeter at 100 meters and which are resettable to zero once sighted in. My only negative comment is the parallax adjustment was extremely tight so my old, arthritic fingers had some difficulty adjusting it. Probably just this particular scope, however, I believe a large focus wheel is available from AofA which would eliminate that concern. The parallax adjusts from 15 yards to infinity making it an excellent choice for airgunners.
One minor negative — the Ghost is on the loud side. However, BRK equipped it with a threaded muzzle so it’s easy to add one of AofA’s silencer offerings. I attached the 0dB Magnum purchased from them last year. Actually a .30 caliber moderator, the Magnum did the trick nicely on this .25 Ghost and makes it “backyard friendly” at the expense of adding 7.4 ounces and 7.6 inches to the end of the barrel. Smaller, lighter and less expensive models found on the AofA website should work equally well.
Pricing on the Ghost runs $2200 for any of the available models and they are warranted for three years. An extended female QD connector is supplied with the rifle, along with Owner’s Manual and extra O-rings, and it comes in a black hardside carrying case. Also included are the target and chrono results of five shots. The King Cobra at $630 has a lifetime warranty against defects. The 0dB Magnum runs $269 and for those doing long-range work with the Ghost HP, which it is well suited for, the short picatinny rail on the toe of the stock is perfect for attaching a Long Shot Precision Adjustable Bag Rider. The Universal Rail Mount ABR is available for $270.
A genuinely nice package indeed and a joy to shoot. More on my results in Part II next month.
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