Item: RX5 TAC Synthetic .177 Combo (Canadian Edition)
Rating: 4.5
Author: Greg

Stoeger RX5 TAC Air Rifle Review — The Rifle That Grows With the Shooter

Our Rating

4.5 / 5 ★★★★☆

Current Price

About C$249.00

Buy on Canadian Tire →

Model: RX5 TAC Synthetic Combo (Canadian Edition)
Calibre: .177 / 4.5 mm
Velocity: 495 fps (Canadian Edition)
Powerplant: Spring piston, break barrel

Pros

A three-position length of pull — 356, 363 and 370 mm — so one rifle fits a ten-year-old and the adult teaching them, changed with a hex key in a couple of minutes
The Canadian Edition is rated at 495 fps, which keeps it under the 500 fps threshold and means no PAL is required to buy it
2.4 kg without the scope: light enough that a young shooter can actually hold it steady rather than fight it
Fibre-optic sights that work out of the box — hooded red front, fully adjustable rear — plus a rail and a 4x32 scope with rings in the same carton
Break-barrel spring piston: no pump, no compressor, no cartridge to buy. Pellets and a cocking stroke, and it works forever
Automatic ambidextrous safety at the rear of the receiver, which sets itself every time the barrel is cocked

Cons

The scope is a serviceable 4x32 rather than a precision optic — it does the job at 10 to 25 yards and you will want more glass if you push further
A spring piston has its own recoil pulse in both directions, so it rewards a relaxed hold and punishes a hard one — worth knowing before the first group disappoints

Most air rifles are sized for an adult and handed to a child anyway. The stock is too long, the kid cranes forward to reach the scope, their cheek never lands in the same place twice, and the groups tell the story. Then everybody concludes the child needs more practice, when what they actually needed was a rifle that fit.

The Stoeger RX5 TAC is built around that problem. Its stock carries what Stoeger calls the Multi Grip System — a set of polymer inserts that move the length of pull between 356, 363 and 370 mm, swapped with a hex key in a couple of minutes. One rifle, sized to a ten-year-old on Saturday and back to an adult on Sunday.

The other number that matters, at least in Canada: this is the Canadian Edition at 495 fps, which puts it under the 500 fps line and means no PAL is required to buy it.

We ran it the way it is meant to be used — off a bench, at paper, with a young shooter behind it.

A young shooter leaning into the scoped Stoeger RX5 TAC resting on a wooden rest on a folding bench outdoors — The whole argument for this rifle. A young shooter behind a gun that actually fits them — **2.4 kg, 41 inches, and a stock shortened to suit**.

At a glance

Calibre.177 / 4.5 mm

Velocity495 fps

PowerplantSpring piston

Length41 in

Barrel16.5 in

Weight2.4 kg

Length of pull356–370 mm

Optic4x32 included

LicenceNo PAL

In the Box

The white RX5 TAC carton with the model name and the Beretta Holding mark printed on the end — The carton. **RX5 TAC**, and the **Beretta Holding** mark — Stoeger sits inside the same group as Beretta and Benelli.

The side of the carton printed with an image of the rifle and the RX5 TAC model name — The rifle on the box: break barrel, synthetic stock, scope rail.

Stoeger Airguns. The name has been on spring rifles a long time.

The end panel of the carton with the Cal 4.5 .177 box ticked and CANADIAN EDITION UNDER 495 FPS printed beside it — The panel that matters here: **Cal 4.5 / .177** ticked, and *Canadian Edition · Version Canadienne · under/moins 495 fps*.

The rifle sealed in a plastic bag inside the open carton with the accessories alongside — Out of the box: rifle bagged, accessories in their own pack.

The scope, rings, hex keys, manual and coloured polymer inserts laid out on a wooden bench — Everything laid out. **Scope, two rings, hex keys, manual, and the coloured stock inserts** — there is nothing else to buy but pellets.

The 4x32 scope beside the manual and the orange and blue polymer inserts — The combo package. A rifle, an optic and the means to fit both to the person shooting it.

The Stoeger Airguns owner's manual with the Beretta Holding mark on the cover — The manual. Read the section on the automatic safety before the first shot — it behaves differently from a firearm's.

The Stock, Which Is the Point

Orange and blue polymer Multi Grip System inserts and two hex keys on a wooden bench — The **Multi Grip System** inserts — marked MGS — with the hex keys that fit them. This is how the rifle changes size.

A hand fitting a polymer insert into the buttstock of the rifle with a hex key — Fitting one. A couple of minutes on a kitchen table, no gunsmithing, no permanent change.

Stoeger publishes three lengths of pull — 356 mm, 363 mm and 370 mm — and the difference between the shortest and the longest is a little over half an inch. That sounds trivial and is not. Length of pull is what decides whether a shooter’s eye lands in the same place behind the scope every time they mount the rifle, and consistent eye position is most of what “being accurate” actually consists of at this distance.

For a family that means one rifle rather than two. Set it short for the kid, and when they have grown, move an insert rather than buy again.

The synthetic stock showing the skeletonised thumbhole area and the trigger guard — The stock itself: synthetic, skeletonised through the wrist, with a raised comb that puts your eye level with a mounted scope rather than under it.

The checkered forend of the stock beneath the receiver rail — Stoeger's *Pro Adaptive Checkering* on the forend and grip. Moulded rather than cut, and it does the job with cold or damp hands.

The Rifle

The barrel marked CANADIAN EDITION VERSION CANADIENNE UNDER MOINS 495 FPS — Marked on the barrel, not just the box: **Canadian Edition · under/moins 495 fps**.

The compression tube — the spring and piston live in here, and it is the whole powerplant.

A break-barrel spring piston is the simplest thing in airgunning and, for a family rifle, close to the ideal. There is no pump to buy, no compressor, no dive tank, no CO2 cartridge to run out of on a Sunday afternoon. You break the barrel, you load a pellet, you close it, you shoot. It will still work in twenty years with a seal kit and an afternoon.

The moulded cocking grip at the muzzle end of the barrel — The moulded cocking grip at the muzzle. It gives a smaller shooter somewhere positive to pull from, which matters on a springer.

The open breech of the rifle with the accessory rail beneath the forend — Breech open, and the accessory rail under the forend for a bipod or a light.

The sights

The green fibre-optic rear sight of the rifle seen from behind — The rear sight: fibre optic, adjustable for windage and elevation.

The open sights on the barrel with the scope rail on the receiver behind — Open sights *and* a rail. You are not forced onto glass on day one.

Close detail of the rear sight assembly and the receiver rail — The rail runs a good length, so scope position is a choice rather than a compromise.

Usable iron sights on an entry rifle are worth more than they look. A new shooter learning on open sights understands sight alignment in a way that somebody who started behind a scope often never does — and a hooded red front bead on a green rear is about as easy as that lesson gets.

The receiver rail photographed from the side along the length of the rifle — The receiver rail from the side. Note also the **automatic safety** at the rear — it sets itself every time you cock the barrel, which on a rifle a child is using is exactly the right behaviour.

The optic

The 4x32 scope sitting in its two mounting rings on the bench — The scope and its two rings, in the box.

The Stoeger Airguns 4x32 marking on the scope tube — **Stoeger Airguns 4×32.** Fixed four power, 32 mm objective.

The objective lens and eyepiece of the 4x32 scope — Coated glass, and enough eye relief to be forgiving of a young shooter's head position.

The scope with its turret caps removed showing the adjustment screws — Caps off. Windage and elevation are screwdriver-simple, which is what you want for a one-time zero.

The scope mounted in its rings on the receiver rail of the rifle — Mounted. Ten minutes with the supplied hex keys and it is on.

Be realistic about what a bundled 4×32 is. It is a serviceable optic that will hold a zero on a 495 fps springer and let a child see a target at twenty yards clearly. It is not precision glass, and if the rifle stays in the family for years, better glass is the obvious first upgrade. For learning to shoot, it is entirely adequate — and it is included, which at this price is the point.

The rifle on the bench beside a tin of pellets — The whole running cost, in one frame.

The assembled scoped rifle lying on a wooden bench in front of a Hunt and Live branded board — Assembled and scoped, ready to zero.

Pellets and Running Cost

The rifle and scope beside a tin of Gamo 10X pellets on a white bench — Our test pellets: **Gamo 10X .177, 7.56 gr**, 500 to the tin.

Domed lead pellets spilled from an open tin — Domed lead. On a sub-500 fps springer, a middleweight domed pellet is almost always the right starting point.

The scoped RX5 TAC lying on a bench ready to shoot — Ready. A tin of pellets is a few dollars and lasts a season of afternoons.

This is the quiet argument for an air rifle as a first gun. A tin of five hundred pellets costs less than a box of twenty centrefire cartridges, so a young shooter can take hundreds of shots in an afternoon and actually learn something. Volume is how shooting is learned, and volume is unaffordable in almost every other format.

On the Bench

A young shooter seating a pellet into the open breech of the broken-open rifle — Loading. Barrel broken, pellet seated skirt-first — a deliberate, teachable sequence every single shot.

The young shooter closing the barrel of the rifle back against the receiver — Closing up. The safety sets itself here, without anybody having to remember.

That load cycle is worth dwelling on. A break-barrel is a single shot, and a single shot is the best possible teaching platform. There is no magazine to hide behind and no temptation to hose. Every shot is deliberate: break, load, close, mount, breathe, press. A kid who learns on this will carry the rhythm into everything else they ever shoot.

The young shooter settling behind the scope with the rifle on a wooden rest — Settling in. Because the stock was shortened to fit, the head goes to the same place every time.

The young shooter taking a shot with the rifle supported on a wooden rest — The shot, off a rest. Note the relaxed hold — a spring piston wants to be held gently, not clamped.

A word on springers. A spring-piston rifle recoils in two directions: the piston runs forward, stops, and the rifle moves back. All of that happens while the pellet is still in the barrel, which is why a springer punishes a tight grip and rewards a loose one — the so-called artillery hold, where you let the rifle move rather than fighting it. If the first groups look poor, the hold is the cause about nine times in ten. Once a shooter relaxes into it, the same rifle prints a different target.

The scoped rifle resting across two blocks of wood on a folding table with the shooter behind it — The rest: two offcuts on a folding table. **A springer shoots best off a soft, forgiving rest** — never clamped down hard onto bags.

Wide view of the young shooter working the rifle from a folding bench outdoors — A whole afternoon's shooting from a folding table, a couple of blocks of wood and a backstop. That is the entire infrastructure required.

The Lane and the Target

A grass lane between a hedge and a fence with a target frame set up at the far end — The lane: a grass strip with a hedge on one side and a solid backstop at the end.

The view down the grass lane toward the distant target — From behind the bench. A sub-500 fps rifle needs very little ground — this is a garden-scale range.

The bench in the foreground with the rifle on it and the target frame in the distance — Bench, lane, backstop. Everything downrange stops here, which is the only rule that matters.

A printed paper target pinned to a block backstop at the end of the lane — The target on the backstop — a printed sight-in sheet on a solid block.

A Hunt and Live printed sight-in target showing a main aiming circle and three smaller group circles with pellet holes — The evidence. Our own printed sight-in sheet — a main aiming mark and three group boxes — with the pellet holes in it.

We shot this off our own 10 m sight-in target — one of the six printable PDFs we give away free — rather than a shop-bought one, because a target with separate group boxes teaches a young shooter to think in groups rather than in individual shots. It is the single fastest way to get someone to stop chasing the last hole with the turrets.

Is a Sub-500 fps Rifle Enough?

For learning, for plinking, and for backyard target work at ten to twenty-five yards: comfortably. The Canadian Edition is deliberately tuned to sit under the line, and what you give up in velocity you get back in the two things that matter for this use — it is quiet, and it is legal to buy without a licence.

For pest control the honest answer is that 495 fps in .177 is on the light side, and shot placement stops being a nicety and becomes the whole job. If pest work is your main purpose rather than teaching and target shooting, look at higher-powered options and accept the paperwork that comes with them.

A Note on the Canadian Rules

In Canada, an air gun that produces more than 500 fps and more than 5.7 joules at the muzzle is treated as a firearm for licensing purposes and requires a Possession and Acquisition Licence. Below those thresholds, an air rifle can be bought without a PAL — which is why manufacturers produce Canadian Editions detuned to sit under the line, and why this rifle is marked 495 fps on the barrel and the box.

Two things worth being clear about. A sub-500 fps air rifle is still a weapon in law, and misusing one carries the same consequences as misusing anything else. And retailers, provinces and municipalities apply their own age rules and by-laws on top of the federal position. We are not lawyers — check the current rules where you live before buying, and treat the rifle like a firearm regardless of how it is classified.

Pros and Cons (the Honest Version)

What it does well. The adjustable length of pull is the headline and it deserves to be: three positions across 356–370 mm, changed with a hex key, meaning one rifle fits a child and the adult teaching them. At 2.4 kg it is light enough for a young shooter to hold rather than fight. The break-barrel spring piston needs no pump, no compressor and no cartridges, so running cost is a tin of pellets. Fibre-optic sights and a rail and a 4×32 scope with rings all come in the carton. The automatic ambidextrous safety sets itself on every cocking stroke. And at 495 fps it is legal to buy in Canada without a licence.

Where to go in with your eyes open. The bundled 4×32 is serviceable rather than special — fine for learning, and the obvious first upgrade later. And a spring piston has a recoil pulse in both directions, so it needs a relaxed hold to shoot well; that is a skill to teach rather than a fault, but it will flatten the first few groups until the shooter finds it.

Who Should Buy It

Buy the RX5 TAC if you want to teach someone to shoot properly and want one rifle that will still fit them in three years. It pairs naturally with the rest of a young hunter’s kit — we shot this rifle on the same lane we set up the Ameristep Doghouse blind on, and the same young shooter wears the New View youth camo set for calling stands. Buy it if you want a backyard plinker with no licence, no compressor and no running cost beyond pellets. Buy it if you would rather your young shooter learned on a deliberate single-shot with iron sights available than on something that encourages volume without thought.

Look elsewhere if pest control is the main job — a sub-500 fps .177 asks a lot of your shot placement — or if you want a precision target rifle out of the box rather than a family gun that happens to shoot well.

Final Verdict

The Stoeger RX5 TAC solves a problem the category mostly ignores. Air rifles are sold to families and built for adults; this one is built to be resized, and the difference that makes to a young shooter’s consistency is not subtle. Everything else about it is sensible rather than exciting — a simple spring piston, a light synthetic stock, honest fibre-optic sights, an automatic safety, an adequate scope in the box.

At around C$249 with the optic included and no licence required, it is a complete way into shooting for one purchase. Set it short, teach the load cycle and the relaxed hold, print a target with group boxes on it, and let them shoot a tin of pellets. That is how it is supposed to go.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Brands sometimes provide samples for review. Hunt & Live writes its honest opinion either way — gear that doesn’t earn its keep doesn’t get a recommendation.

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