Thanks for these. Very interesting and tempting. Looks like their stock is very limited just now (Dragon). I'll check back now and then when I remember or get the urge. I like this statement on the Home page ;-)
"WE DO NOT WORK ON HATSAN, GAMO, AND CROSMAN AIR RIFLES."
When you check in on Flying Dragon check Mike's Blog. Sometimes there is a gun or a deal listed there that isn't on the website. I bought my Sentry off one of those deals. Pay full price, but do a comprehensive review and write it up for a huge payback. I think it was 150 he paid for the review. I asked him if it could be an honest review, and when he said yes I bought one. I just notice the latest one is from last year for B-51s. The B-51 is the .177 version of the B-50 (.22) I have. That's the Day state Huntsman knockoff. I know you aren't interested in PCP, but still I might just buy one. I have a second B-50 in a basket. His B-51s might make a good spare parts kit.
Yeah, I saw the blog area and no recent entries. I'm guessing maybe a supply chain problem because another suggested Xisico source didn't have anything...
I'll keep watch, curious to see what turns up and if I can resist the temptation to bite on it :)
If you happen to follow through, get in contact I'd be curious to know what's up with inventory. In reading some "praise" I come across the model XS28M in .25 cal. It's a hefty break-barrel but I'd be willing to buy one with the basic tuneup.
I know buying .25 cal springers is a fools errand but I have a weakness for that caliber🙄 The big Hatsan is a .25 and shoots pretty well when it's working right. That's the only good thing I can say about it...
I've bought two guns from Mike as well as a few parts my hand pump. I've had really good treatment overall.
He was making a PCP conversion of a CO2 gun many years back and one came apart. He screwed up in my opinion. The factory threads on the one that came apart were to far out of spec. I don't know all the details, but I can see that. The person it happened to was pretty hateful over it, and I think Mike was trying to get guns out the door and let one through that should have waited for parts or gone in the parts bin. If I was the one it happened to I might be pretty hateful about it too, but its the only negative story I have ever heard about Mike, and I've been playing with airguns for a while now. Personally I think he learned his lesson. Everybody can make a mistake. I also notice he doesn't currently offer it. There may also not be enough money in it to be worthwhile anymore with all the new low cost PCPs that have come out the last 7-8 years.
Overall I like the guy and feel like he's always been straight up with me. My first PCP was from him. The B-50.
I think I might airgun hunt more if I had a high cap bullpup in .25 like my Kalibri. PCPs tend to be on the heavy side making off hand shooting a little harder. A bullpup design moves the weight back towards the body. Still heavy, but better weight distribution.
There were some Walther Reign Bullpups in .25 on the bay the other day.
That's one of the least expensive named pups I've seen. Lots of new pups coming online lately per the UK magazines <shrug>
Oh, I don't know about that. Its less power than my Marauder .25. I guess if I want to hunt with it I'll just have to carry shooting sticks. Plus I'm cheap.
Oh I think I'd be a good competitor for matching your "cheap" ;-)
I took a look at the Pyramyd reviews and they managed to piss off a lot guys by importing a crippled version compared to what's selling in the UK. This second version was sounding pretty decent (for the $) when I was reading about it as the UK version. So many of the Bullpups are just too darn heavy in my opinion and well over $1000😑 The FX guns have the power and weight in the NICE range but so expensive...
Generally the bullpups are just as heavy as the full length rifles. They just move the weight closer to the body making it easier to hold off hand. More of the weight is supported by the shoulder and grip, with the outboard hand stabilizing more than supporting. There is/was a bullpup conversion for the Marauder, but at $410 (last published price) I'm not ready to make that change. Some do not like the shorter sight radius if shooting open sights, but if using any sort of optic its a non issue. Even a 1x.
Some think the big negative of the bullpup design is a slightly more complex trigger mechanism. I've only every owned one and it was a premium (not cheap) model. I felt the trigger was quite good, so it doesn't have to be an issue.
That bit about importing a crippled version makes no sense to me. Usually the UK versions are the "crippled" version to meet their stringent low power limit.
Probably a bad description on my part, "crippled"...
They removed the barrel shroud and hard affixed a muzzle brake rather than the moderator. Guy's say if you tear it off there are threads underneath but it wasn't meant to be removed and if they add a moderator it's still louder than it should be because of the missing shroud. UK version had a Lothar barrel and it sounds like this doesn't have that either <shrug>
Yeah, I saw that. I thought maybe it was to be 50 state legal since NJ and maybe one or two other states don't allow silencers even on air guns. However the elimination of a Lothar Walther barrel would be pretty egregious if you still have to pay full price.
I can understand the moderator problem in the US. But why not leave the barrel shroud and have a thread protector or air stripper or brake... I guess that's why I'm not in charge ;-)
Got through reading the Gas Ram tuning article:
It would be interesting to add a threaded spring pre-load adjustment to a springer that had a long soft spring. Might be able to tune out the surge and/or vibrations at pellet exit for better groups.
I seem to recall that some states actually prohibited a threaded barrel unless it has a muzzle device permanently attached in a not removeable fashion such as welding. .
That being said, an 81 grain pellet at 800FPS is still producing 115FPE.
I never understood hollow points in air guns. They shoot pretty much dead soft lead, but generally the speed isn't high enough to to get hollow point expansion. In pellets round domed tend to perform the best, so I would assume the same with slugs.
I'm glad he makes the disclaimer worlds most powerful "production" air rifle towards the end. There are some very talented small airgun builders.
The biggest thing in my opinion I think is the melon test. It illustrated how much better a larger diameter projectile transfers energy to the target. A plain old .22 powder burner developing the same energy would have just passed right through without much damage.
All of that being said, it would be quite effective at medium short range against a "soft target." I'd say with a round nose projectile it would be effective against medium large soft targets at 50-75 yards. I would consider it a deadly threat. If I had certain limitations and the money I'd probably choose it over a cap and ball revolver. No risk of a cap jam or powder residue costing you the critical shot. Of course the BP CB is much cheaper and you could use a cleaner burning substitute like 777. Yeah I play with BP sometimes as well.
Interesting video. Agree that he left a lot out. Seems like he's trying to get people to watch MORE videos ;-)
Gary Wain, who writes for Airgun World has done quite a bit of testing using domed, hollow and weird pellets. He uses a two chrono set up with a block of terracotta wax in between. So he gets entrance and exit FPS speeds. Then calculates how much energy was given up. One problem with the hollow points is they often fail his accuracy test. This seems like a lot better way to test and make comparisons...
A blurb extracted from Airgun World Sept 2022, in case you can scrounge a copy:
"TESTING As usual, all pellets will be shot from the same Daystate Pulsar airgun, at a distance of about 20m. Testing is separated into two stages, accuracy, and terminal ballistic performance. To determine the latter, each pellet will be shot into a 40mm thick block of warmed terracotta wax, with chronographs being positioned to record entry and exit values for both energy and velocity. On this occasion, I also chose to shoot both the Terminator and the Destroyer into a single large block of wax, in order to understand the differences between these two pellets better, and to retrieve the pellets and examine the degree of resultant expansion. With the exception of the H&N Terminator, which grouped at just over 13mm, all the other pellets produced groups in the region of 9mm, the best of which was the JSB Hades, which produced a group of 8.35mm. As you can see, all the pellets fell inside the
20mm cut-off, which enabled all four to go through to the ballistic stage of the testing."Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
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