BRK Ghost - Test Review by Mat Manning

Brocock – rebrands to BRK

Airgun development seems to move faster and faster as the years go by, and the gunmakers who embrace change rather than resist it tend to be the ones who come out on top. Brocock is a brand that most definitely isn’t adverse to progress and adaptation. To emphasise that, the British gunmaker recently announced its decision to rebrand to “BRK”.

Inaugural BRK PCP rifle launch

Coincidentally, the rebranding announcement came on the same day the company unveiled its latest airgun offering – the BRK Ghost. The subject of this review, the wraps were taken off in front of shooting journalists invited to a press day at Staffordshire’s Oakedge Shooting Ground.

The BRK Ghost is the first air rifle launch under the brand’s snappy new moniker. And, indeed, it’s fitting way to mark the business’ next chapter…

Versatile bullpup

A highly versatile and adaptable bullpup with variants to cover most airgun shooting scenarios, it sits very comfortably with current tastes for airgun design, whilst accommodating the degree of tuneability that more and more shooters are demanding as airgun and ammo technology progresses.

Functional Frame

While the Ghost is a brand-new airgun in its own right, anyone familiar with BRK’s sister company, Daystate, will recognise its frame. It’s remarkably close to that of the Delta Wolf and Alpha Wolf electronic superguns. The synergy between the two brands enables some terrific gains through shared research and development. So, the Ghost benefits from the super-rigid, one-piece chassis, developed initially for the flagship Daystates. However, the BRK runs a fuss-free mechanical action.

The stock is built more for function than form. Yet the overall look remains kind on the eye – especially in the stubby Carbine option featured here. Without a silencer on its 43cm barrel, the Ghost measures just over 65cm. It also tips the scales at 3kg. A 300cc carbon air bottle comes with this model. The longer Plus and High Power versions feature 480cc carbon bottles. The Plus has a barrel the same length as that on the Carbine, but with a longer shroud. The HP has a 60cm barrel. It can also churn out muzzle energy in excess of 100 ft/lbs!

BRK Ghost Start Price

Prices start at £1,440 for the Carbine, moving up to £1,500 for the Plus and £1,600 for the High Power (HP). That is serious money, but still compares very well with the Ghost’s contemporaries when you take its features, performance and build quality into account.

Starting at the rear of the titanium-coloured stock, the Ghost has a height-adjustable butt pad of simple yet effective design. In front of that sits a cheek support with a curved edge, which makes for a comfortable contact point. The support actually sits on a dovetail rail and you can slacken off its fastening screws and slide it back and forth to achieve correct positioning. That rail actually extends the entire length of the top section of the stock. It also holds the Picatinny scope rail. This adjusts in the same way to ensure perfect eye relief with your chosen optic. BRK has cleverly incorporated a tiny degree of slope into the rail. So you don’t need to ‘shim’ your mounts when zeroing at extreme range.

Huge Potential

The stock incorporates two side rails for accessory attachment and an underside rail for bipod mounting, plus a very nice pistol grip. Contoured in a way that cradled my hand very well, the grip is steeply angled and delivers good trigger attack. Like the butt pad, it can be swapped out for different designs and the range of PRS accessories already available for the previously mentioned Daystate models result in huge potential for customising the Ghost.

Ambidextrous Stock

Although simplistic, the ambidextrous stock has been carefully designed to function as an effective handle. As with many airguns of its kind, the carbon bottle serves as the fore-end, and even with the small bottle on the Carbine, it provides sufficient room for most holds. I did have to be mindful about keeping my fingers away from the muzzle, which only just clears the bottle – the best solution to that was to fit a 0dB Silencer via the thread at the front of the carbon shroud. Apart from really suiting the gun’s styling, the silencer also muted the sub-12 ft/lbs Ghost’s muzzle report to a whisper.

Full-on Features

The Ghost is absolutely rammed with features. One of the most interesting has to be its huge potential for power adjustment. All models run Huma-Air regulators, fitted as standard by BRK to its PCP air rifles. The reg pressure – displayed on a gauge on the left-hand side of the stock – can be adjusted by the turn of a knob above the neck of the bottle on FAC models.

Legal restrictions prevent such adjustment on sub-12 versions, but all models feature a power wheel just in front of the top part of the butt pad. This dial tweaks hammer spring tension with no less than 20 settings – that is a lot more tool-free adjustment than most of us are used to on legal limit airguns, and combined with the reg’ adjuster, will facilitate a huge amount of fettling on the high-power variants.

Removable Barrel (fast swap)

There is another clever trick up the BRK Ghost’s sleeve. This comes in the shape of an easily removable barrel, which enables you to swap quickly between calibers. The barrel is held securely in place by an Allen screw at its rear. Slacken that off and it pulls straight out. With the barrel out, you then need to swap the pellet probe, which is fastened by an Allen screw accessed via a hole in the side of the breech, for one that corresponds with the calibre of the barrel you are changing to. Expect the whole process to take around five minutes, once you are familiar with it.

BRK Self-Indexing Magazine

Slick sidelever cocking, with a chunky drop-down handle positioned just above the pistol grip, runs a very reliable magazine. It holds 13 shots in .177 / 4.5mm caliber; 11 in .22 / 5.5mm; 10 in .25 and eight in .30. Like the Daystate Alpha Wolf and Delta Wolf, it also features a magnetic ‘double-up’ system. This lets you load two magazines at once and shunt the loaded one across when the first one empties.

The magazine is a gate-loading, self-indexing model. To load it, you simply flip open the gate and turn the interior drum clockwise until it stops. Drop a pellet nose-first into the bottom chamber to hold it under spring tension. Then, it’s just a matter of popping pellets into the remaining chambers. Once fully loaded, snap the gate closed; it’s held shut by a magnet. Then, push the mag back into its slot beneath the cheek support and get on with the shooting.

Left- or Right-side Cocking

The pellet-friendly magazine and positive sidelever mechanism, which can be swapped over for left-handers, work brilliantly together for fast and reliable reloading.