Daystate Air Ranger .25 update

[Hamster]

Some of you may remember I bought a 2nd hand FAC version of the above running at 38 ft lbs to see if it offered anything different to the .22 Wildcat I already own. Unfortunately the rifle proved to be very inaccurate from the word go, it wouldn't hold anything approaching a decent group without some significant fliers, I tried the usual things such as cleaning the barrel and trying several makes of pellets etc, even pm'd people on here for help as well as searching the net for clues as to what was causing the pellets (as I now knew) to corkscrew wildly upon leaving the barrel. Meanwhile I'd had the shroud which does NOTHING for noise reduction cut down and a daystate adaptor fitted, the problem was evident with and without the silencer so I suspected a poor barrel or crown and eventually sent it to Staffordshire Custom Rifles for "repair" fully prepared to be told the barrel needed replacing (hence why I picked the gun up so cheaply I suppose). 

Anyway Dave from SCR called to say he'd found the problem was that rust on the outside of the barrel was preventing a solid/correct seating between the factory adaptor and the silencer, I've made you a custom one he said and it's all good now, (close up pic supplied) the charge an unbelievable £65 so even with the postage there and back the rifle still owes me under £500 ! Yesterday I had my first chance to try things out and to say I'm now gobsmacked by the gun is an understatement, didn't even have to zero it as Dave had supplied a 50 yard card with two thumbnail size groups one with the magazine and one with pellets loaded individually; from the second shot onwards it was obvious the gun is a tack driver (relative term). I ended up firing about 150 shots with Air Arms 25.39 grain, Exacts of the same weight, 33 grain Heavy Exacts and some 31 grain H&N Grizzly slugs. I simply couldn't believe how the pellets would land pretty much within mm's of one another at 80 yards, the 33 grain Exacts make near enough a rimfire thud as they hit the mud and providing you get your holdover right (about 4.5 mildots at 80 yards) it can be quite surreal the way pound coin size pieces of chalk can be hit, the trajectory with these is rather loopy though so when you switch from closish to long range it's very difficult to get the first shot on target by guess work alone. The 25 grain pellets were much easier to live with and still incredible and the calibre doesn't seem to be nearly as much wind affected as the .22 I'm used to. I hope all the pics come out clear enough to see because the Grizzly turned out to be a real revelation, I only attempted the 30 yard group with these when it became obvious that they were holding their own at long range, I really hadn't expected that at all going by the group sizes I've seen people make with them on Youtube. I actually rang Dave from the spot to thank him, so amazed was I with the difference, aren't we blessed to have easy access to such niche yet mega skilled people. 

Now I'm defo on the look out for a carbon bottle to replace the silly heavy factory job, bar one or two small jobs like tuning the trigger down from its current heavy feel to about 1-1/2 lbs and the bottle etc, I think the rifle is a keeper till I can afford a FX Impact in .25  . 

The groups are from top down : Exact 25.4 grain, Exact 33 grain and Grizzly 31 grain all shot from 30 yards. 

[Mice!]

Grizzly 31 grain!! Wonder what that's gonna do when you hit a squirrel in the chest.

Glad you got it sorted, and it didn't cost much really.

look out rats he's coming.

[Hamster]

38 minutes ago, Mice! said:

Grizzly 31 grain!! Wonder what that's gonna do when you hit a squirrel in the chest.

Glad you got it sorted, and it didn't cost much really.

look out rats he's coming.

😁  My thoughts exactly. There's a detectable difference in "shot to target" arrival time between the 25 and 33 grain pellets and I was initially a little surprised that the Grizzly slugs seemed to have less of a difference until I remembered they're 2 grains lighter and presumably the shape is more efficient, they certainly don't seem to be tumbling at range as although the accuracy isn't on a par with the quality pellets, it seems acceptable enough, I reckon at 80 yards you'd hit a small satsuma more often than not but I think they'd really come into their own on outdoor ferals (or squirrels) at close range. One noticeable thing was that out of the 4 pellets tried it was the only one with a different horizontal POI.