Our friends at AofA have been selling Western Airguns for a while now and their latest offering is the Sidewinder – the first of its kind, a select-fire, hammerless bullpup air rifle. Available in .22, .25 and .30, it only comes in a black finish, but its tactical styling plus lots of picatinny rail space means it is a good platform for customizing and adding accessories.
An American company out of Sheridan, Wyoming, Western Airguns produces several models including the big bore Bushbuck and the big brother to the Sidewinder, the Rattler. There is also a compact version of the Sidewinder. U.S. and foreign sourced parts are used with assembly taking place in Wyoming. The Sidewinder was introduced in 2023 and demand has outpaced the supply since then.
Besides being lighter and shorter than the Rattler, the Sidewinder now sports a removeable magazine and fits the niche that includes pest control, target and plinking as well as being very capable for some longer range/benchrest shooting – but probably not in full-auto mode!
Built around a billet aluminum breech block, the 23-inch U.S. made, hammer-forged barrel helps to stabilize both slugs and pellets. Its 580cc carbon-fiber under barrel bottle is removeable and fills to 300 bar (4350psi). Up front, adding to the sleek, tactical look is a carbon-fiber shroud around the barrel capped with a proprietary carbon-fiber suppressor to tame the bark of the Sidewinder. Those desiring to use another suppressor can purchase an adapter to use of any ½ UNF thread airgun silencer. The trigger is a non-adjustable two-stage unit due to the hammerless design and full-auto feature of the air rifle. There also is no charging/cocking handle on the Sidewinder so two safeties have been incorporated, one that blocks the trigger and the other that controls the semi or full-auto function. Both must be off before the Sidewinder will fire. The trigger on the sample gun loaned to me averaged a light one pound, 11.5 ounces.
Its removeable all-metal rotary magazine is a first for the Western bullpups. It is a two-piece unit that holds 15 rounds in .22 and the two sections are held together by strong neodymium magnets. The magazine is deep enough to handle most any pellet or slug. In full-auto mode, the magazine can be dumped in approximately three seconds.
The Sidewinder has an adjustable pressure regulator that is factory set. It is recommended that you have a good chronograph if you plan to adjust this. Regulator pressure can be increased while the airgun is charged with HPA, but the airgun must be degassed to reduce the regulator pressure. The other adjustment available to the user is the power knob located on the bottom rear of the Sidewinder. Adjusting this knob will provide a range of velocities when experimenting with different pellets/slugs. Use of a chronograph is also suggested when adjusting the power knob so as not to reach a point where HPA is being sacrificed with no gain in velocity.
The buttstock and cheekrest are also not adjustable. The angled pistol-grip is a standard AR type and I happened to have a Long Shot AR Precision Vertical Grip from Adjustable Bag Rider that I mounted. Produced by 3D printing, it comes with three different sized thumbrests so the user can install the one that positions the trigger finger optimally for accurate and consistent trigger manipulation.
There is also a generous amount of pic rail on the Sidewinder and I mounted a UTG bipod to the sturdy bottom rail. Two short rails, one on each side of the airgun, will allow mounting of accessories such as lights and lasers. On top is a nine-inch-long pic rail where an MTC Mamba Ultra-Lite 3-10x40mm scope is mounted in UTG quick-detach scope rings. The Ultra-Lite moniker comes from the use of a one-inch tube body to save weight. The lenses receive a special, superior multi-coat treatment and the version on my sample gun sported a duplex reticle with six illumination levels of the crosshair. It only adds approximately 19 ounces to the 7.7-pound Sidewinder.
The Sidewinder comes with a 12-month Limited Warranty provided to the original retail purchaser. It is delivered in a very nice Savior gun case protecting it. Airguns of Arizona has both the Sidewinder and Sidewinder-S Compact models priced at $2296. They also can hook you up with the Mamba Ultra-Lite for $ 290 and the LSP AR Precision Vertical Grip which lists at $60.
You can check it out here, and next posting will discuss my results with the Sidewinder. Until then, Happy Airgunning!
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