TalonDor 257 Gets an UPDATE!

art photo of the MaTaDor257

1st, until things change in the future, the gun will undergo a new name.  That name shall become the MaTaDor 257.  The name is 3 part.  MA  in the name is short for Mad Dog.  As in the stock the gun now wears.  The TA is from the frame of the gun which is a Talon framed Air Force Airgun.  And the DOR is for the valve which is all Condor.

2nd, the barrel now wears a Carbon Fiber sleeve to aide in decreasing any barrel harmonics the gun might have when fired as well as increasing the overall looks of the gun.  The CF sleeve basically keeps the barrel from "WHIPPING" in other words.  The CF was bonded to the barrel via Acraglass bedding epoxy.  This formula has worked well on my Corsair 7mm and has allowed me to shed some ounces by getting rid of the PRIMOS barrel harmonics dampner.  The MadDog stock and the CF Sleeve should prove to be a deadly combo.

Now, lets take a look at some pictures of the gun in its current state:

STAY TUNED for mooooooooooore!

Tom Costan's .357 Slayer. My 1st visit/viewing/shooting

1st, I would like to thank Tom for allowing me to come over and introduce myself to him as well as LURK AROUND HIS BAT-CAVE were all the magic happens

After 10 minutes of assuring Tom with "I swear, I WON"T RUN OFF" with his gun, he finally pulled it out from a dark and cold corner to let me breath on it......lol!  Ok, not even, the gun was out in plain sight even before I arrived..... ;D.  Tom, and I sat around and talked the talk for a while.  I then asked Tom a series of questions about the gun, himself and his company http://americanairarms.com.  After that, it was time to shoot the gun.  I closely watched Tom handle the gun to become more familiar with it when it was my turn.  I must say, the 1st thing I noticed was how light the cocking mechanism was when Tom cocked it.  I've seen his short video and I even talked to him about it prior but, to see it first hand was a revelation.  Its like, "BELIEVE IT OR NOT, YOU JUST SEEN IT WITH YOUR OWN EYE IN PERSON".  After watching Tom blast some slugs down range, it was then my turn.  Tom was shooting out to 80 yards and quickly told me to do the same.  Heck, i just wanted to shoot at 50 yards but who am i to argue with anyone when they tell me to STRETCH the gun just a little further....lol!  I then set up 2-2liter water bottles and a regulation bowling pin.  This was just for familiarities sake and not a full on shooting session.  I just wanted to quickly see how accurate and consistent the gun was for a 1st couple of shots test session.  After i walked back to the shooting table, i asked Tom how many mil-dots the target would be at and he promptly said, "3/4's of a mildot".  Now, before i shot and after watching Tom work the action and controls on the gun, i asked Tom how light the trigger was and he told me 11 OUNCES :o.  Tom was going for 2 lbs cause this is strictly a hunting gun and not a target gun but, just assembling the gun with all its linkages and well CNC'd parts, the trigger weight just came out to 11 ounces Tom said........lol!

After grabbing the gun single handed and moving it EASILY into a position in front of me to shoot it, the lightweight was very evident.  6.6lbs is very easy to maneuver single handed.  I then cock the gun with my left index finger just like Tom did in his video and it was that easy.  And this gun was set up for a lefty and I never even paid it any mind.  I could easily OWN this gun in a left hand configuration and I'm a die hard right hander....lol!  I then load a 134+- gr Lyman Devastator HP bullet into the chamber and close the cocking handle with hardly any effort.  Remembering Tom suggested Holdover, I held dead center on the 2 liter bottle and let the very 1st round fly.  Even though the light trigger took me by surprise, all the star aligned and i hit the bottle center mass and it exploded with authority.  All I could say was "WOW" that was easy.  TOO EASY!  So i load another HP and take aim at the 2nd bottle dead center and let round number 2 fly.  And fly it did and the results were the same as the 1st.  Again, I was in awe with how easy the hits came from a gun i had never handled before.  Plus, its a platform (BP) that i have never handled also.  I then switched from HP to a FP bullet that was slightly heavier and asked Tom for the Holdover of that round.  Tom assured me, "the same" and Tom was again, 100% right.  Upon the 3rd shot, the bowling pin i aimed at flew down with more authority than if it was hit with a 308 big bore.  Its slammed to the ground with a quickness.  The shot was dead center of the bowling pin exactly where i placed the cross hairs.  I then replied to Doug and Tom that shooting that gun at 80 yards could justifiably be called........BORING cause its too easy.  But that my friends, IS GREAT NEWS!  It was NOT this easy when i first modded my Sam Yang Recluse .357 and I shot out to 80 yards.

Without going into great details (Toms Job), I am over the moon impressed with the features on this gun.  IT HAS MANY.  From its Titanium air tube with pressure gauge, adjustable butt stock (ar15 style), under carriage (hidden) quick fill nipple, to its compact size to the dual fine adjustments on the output power, down to the overall LIGHTWEIGHT of the unit, this gun is going to impress a lot of people I believe.  At one point before we shot the gun, Tom needed to Chrony it because he just put it back together since the shot show he attended.  During the chrony session, we saw over 1000 fps with the 139 gr bullets.  And Tom can verify this but, THAT GUN SEEMS CAPABLE OF WAY MORE THAN 1000+ fps with med-heavy 357 fodder.  THIS WILL NOT BE A GUN PEOPLE WILL MOD.......LOL!

Stay Tuned for a thorough test at some point in the near future.

Just a little EYE CANDY from the short day:

Stay Tuned!
Tofazfou

UPDATE: Corsair+ 7mm (part 2)

To say this Air gun is coming along nicely is an understatement.  Its been a lot of trial and error with this gun and I believe that is what is to be expected when you transform any weapons platform from one state to another.  But the gun is now coming to its final stage of modifying it and I'm getting the desired results I was originally hoping for.  Ultimate long range accuracy for target shooting and hunting.  That IS the purpose of this gun!

HISTORY (of the gun):  The gun started life as a standard 250 FPE Corsair .308 which is wholly based off the Chinese QB78 platform.    The brainchild of the gun was Randy Mitchell and his concept was to build a relatively cheap mid bore PCP rifle that would be readily available and everyone could afford ($600). He then sourced out a builder for the project.  That person is Dan McVey over at XP airguns.  The main parts of the gun that were to be altered from OEM QB was the barrel and the airtube.  The stock airtube was ditched and the replacement was to be made out of 4130 Chrome Moly.  Even the guns stock was to remain OEM.  Randy and Dan succeeded in making a no frills and inexpensive mid bore airgun.  I then ditched the OEM stock and added a Richards Microfit Stock in thumb-hole configuration to the gun to spice it up a tad!

CURRENT (the gun):  Today, the Corsair has gone through some obvious changes.  Let's go into detail about them.  Lets start with the receiver.  The gun now wears a higher tensile strength aluminum breech (7075-T6) than the OEM version.  Hence the name Corsair+.  This is needed for the repeated high fill pressures which requires the much need strength.  The OEM weaver rails were scrapped due to a better source of material and better fitment to the receiver by my machinist Doug Noble.  The OEM flow through bolt probe was replaced by Dan McVey due to excessive were from the air blast.  The one on the gun now is a standard probe also made out of a better grade of steel than the OEM version.  The valve and valve body have gone unchanged from the OEM 308 version but the valve stem was sanded down and reprofiled.  The barrel has gone through a few phases.  1st, in OEM form, it was a 28" .308 barrel.  Then I switched that to a 7mm at 1-14" twist then I went to a 7mm 1-10" twist thinking that this would be best for the long for caliber bullets.  This thought was also due to the LEE RN bullets not being very accurate past 150 yards.  I was wrong on both counts.  So now, today, the Corsair+ 7mm wears the 1-14" twist that I originally had on the gun.  I find that with this platform of only 250 FPE, the 10" twist barrel really dropped the FPS down by a great margin.  A loss of 60 fps with the same bullets I originally shot in the 14" twist was the norm.  This was unacceptable.  And the accuracy was not good either.  So I switched back to the 14" twist that is 30.25" long and has of O.D. of .562".  It has 6 lands and grooves and slugs at .2852".  It is also threaded at the end with 1/2 x 20 TPI and wears a muzzle break that I once had installed on my Remington SP 308.  The barrel is also now Carbon Fiber sleeved for extra rigidity and aided accuracy.  And boy has it helped!  The CF sleeve was bonded to the barrel via the same Acraglas epoxy product that is used to glass bed powder burner rifles.  The trigger is of standard QB configuration and is set to about 1.5 lbs+-.  The stock is from Michael Chavka who no longer makes gun stocks unfortunately.

TETHERED vs UNTETHERED:  Today, I shoot the gun tethered and unless i'm hunting with it, it stays tethered.  Mid/Big Bore air guns are air hogs because they make so much more power than a small bore air gun (.177-.25 cal).  And many small bore air guns have regulators which makes the gun much more efficient on air as well as more accurate.  It makes the gun super consistent.  Well, its the same principle except we are using the size of our refill SCBA tanks as our air reservoir.  With out this type setup, many big bores will only get 2-3 shot MAX from a normal fill.  The gun is tethered and or topped off at 3600 PSI.

BULLET MOLD of CHOICE:  I have shot 2 LEE bullets in this gun.  One is the "SOUPCAN" 130 gr. FP bullet and the other is a LEE 130 gr RN bullet.  The LEE RN shot decently but I noticed at ranges further than 150 yards, the bullet was not a great performer.  But that makes sense, its a round nose. The "SOUPCAN" bullet was simply not a performer at all in this gun.  The other MAJOR thing with these 2 bullet molds was the fact that they were horribly made by LEE.  Well, at least fitment of the 2 mold halves were sloppy and the 2 halves were sloppy in fitting the mold handles.  So in comes the LBT mold.  Specifically, it is the LBT 287-130 mold.  Which means, the bullets drop out of the mold at .287" and weigh 130 grs.  Veral Smith owns and operates LBT Bullet Molds and make some of the nicest and most accurate molds I laid eye upon.  My LBT 7mm mold is of the 2 cavity format and one side of the mold is hollow pointed by Eric at Hollowpointbulletmoldservices.com.  This has dropped the weight from FP form by only about 4 grs.  The FP version weighs roughly 133 grs and the HP version goes for 129 gr.  The HP are the ones that posted the shown group.  The HP pin does not go down deep into the bullets body (midway down ogive) but it goes down and is wide enough for ultra reliable expansion and will allow the bullet to drive deep into game.  There is also a new 7mm custom designed bullet created by Bob Sterne over on the Gateway To Airguns forum that will be in my possession soon.  The mold will be made by LBT also and will be roughly 95grs+- AND Boat Tailed and was specifically designed for the 1-14" twist.  That should offer more speed and a better BC due to the lighter weight and Boat Tail.  So stay tuned on its performance in this gun.  I'm expecting great things from that bullet.

 

GROUPS:  While i've shot various groups with this gun, the accuracy that I was originally expecting is starting to really rear its beautiful head.  My original want was for at least MOA at every range that I shot the gun.  So, .5" at 50 yards, 1" at 100 yards, 2" at 200 yards and so forth.  So far, the gun is staying BELOW MOA at these ranges which is much better than what I expected.  Let's take a closer look at these groups:

This group was shot this past weekend.  These were with bullets that were weight sorted to within .5 a grain and sized the night before I shot this group.  This process of bullet sorting and weighing will be the new process from here on out.  Without putting real pressure on myself, this is the new standard that I will expect from my gun OR BETTER!

This group on the steel rabbit was shot at 431 yards and the group measures a measly 3.420" CtC.  There is a video of this quick shoot on my Youtube channel.  The group was also shot using UNSORTED and UNWEIGHTED bullets.  So as you can see, this gun has some serious potential once bullets are sorted and weighed for consistency!

 This groups was shot late last year with the new mold and unweighted and sorted bullets.  Still under MOA and the sizing process that I now used was NOT used during the group! Nor did the gun wear the Carbon Fiber sleeve that it does today.

This groups was shot the same day as the group above except it was done at 55 yards and I tried different fill pressures along the way.  The bullets were also unweighted and sorted.  The .176" group was more than likely due to me grabbing 3 bullets that weighed exactly the same or very close to it.  These bullets like the group just above were sized about a MONTH or more before this shoot.  This is NOT the process I will be performing as stated above.  The reason being is that i have learned that certain tin to lead mixtures will make or let the bullet grow the longer it sits on the shelf.  Some of the bullets from the day would not fit inside the breech and could not be loaded even though they were sized a couple of months ago.

In closing, the Corsair+ 7mm with all its mods and attention to detail are starting to really pay off and show the extreme potential of what a modern PCP airgun can do.  This gun in its current configuration cost no more than a high end powder burner and is showing long range accuracy on par with many of them.  Long range shooting is challenging and when you throw an airgun in the mix, things get even more interesting really quick.  Its not easy but it sure is fun and it provides as level of satisfaction that you will have to achieve yourself to fully comprehend.

Stay tuned!

Tofazfou

Sam Yang RECLUSE357: UPDATE!

Well, the new TJ Enterprises barrel was finally machined and fitted to the SY357.  The barrel is from TJ Enterprises and is 25" long.  My thoughts on the barrel was to have the projectiles travel down at least 24" of the barrel and have the other 1" or so machined.  The reason being is that the TJ barrel has a slightly faster (tighter) twist rate at 1-16" and in airguns, due to the limited power plants, more friction causes loss of speed.  So to slightly make up for this, I decided to use a longer barrel.  25" TJ vs 24+" OEM barrel.  Or, have the projectile travel down 24" (TJ) of barrel vs 22" (OEM).  The last recorded speed of JSB pellets from the OEM barrel was 961 FPS.  The new speed of the same pellets is 950 FPS @ 81.02 grs.  OEM barrels mics at exactly .358" and the TJ barrel mics at .3572".

The gun wearing the new TJ 25" barrel (the projectile travels exactly 24" of that barrel):

OEM barrel vs TJ barrel:

VIEW DOWN THE BORES (6 grooves-TJ vs 12 grooves-OEM):

THE POINT OF THE TJ BARREL:
The goal here was to have a barrel that shot a multitude of projectiles more accurately than the OEM barrel.  The TJ barrel is also a better made barrel and it has a tighter bore.  The tighter bore better fits a wider variety of projectiles.  The Korean OEM barrels are known to be big for stated caliber.  Sam Yang calls it a 9mm/357 and the bore is anything but 9mm.  9mm is .355" plain and simple.  Its more 357 than 9mm.....lol!

ACCURACY:

YES....100 PSI more equates to better groups!  The OEM barrel shot roughly 1" at the same distance with these big pellets.  The pellets head is roughly .358 and the skirt is roughly .362-.363" which makes the head more of a bore rider.  While accurate in the OEM barrel, I wanted more BITE on the pellet.

Stay tuned, as I will soon have more info on performance from not only more pellets but also round balls and 357 cast projectiles.

Tofazfou

UPDATE: Corsair+ 7mm (part 1)

I know its been a while but finally got out for a quick shooting session this past Monday with the Corsair+ 7mm.

BARREL/MOLD DRAMA:  To this day, I have bought and installed a TJ barrel liner with 1-14" and one with a 1-10" twist.  This first video I made on the completed gun was with the 14" twist barrel.  You can see the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lct_L6BtRdE&list=UUDBsDGN9infjfprvoHuqE6w  The performance with the 14" twist was really good and showed promise but at the time, i owned LESS than STELLAR bullet molds from LEE and I knew groups could be better.  I also had a LBT mold on order while I tested the 14" twist barrel.  When I finally got the LBT mold, I discovered that the 14" twist barrel was too big with a bore diameter of .2853".  And 7mm should be .284".  Unfortunately, when I ordered the LBT mold, I ordered it at .285" not currently knowing the TJ's barrel in 14" twist would be too big.  PHWEW!  HOPE THIS MAKES SINCE.  So now, I order a 10" twist TJ's barrel and upon receiving it, the barrels bore MIC's at .2833" which is not pretty tight.  Again, 7mm is .284.  But in this case, tighter is better.  When the barrel was machined and installed, Doug Noble and I noticed that the gun dropped some major speed.  Why you ask?  The faster the twist, the more the friction on the bullet as its pushed forward.  The slower the twist, the faster a projectile can move down the bore.  This phenomenon really rears its ugly head with airguns.  Remember, unlike a PB gun, we don't work off of upwards of 40,000-60,000 psi.  This gun works off of 3600 psi OPTIMALLY!  And when the 1-10 twist is installed, the Corsair lost about 60 FPS.  Doug made me one hell of a nice custom sizer at .2836" but I was not happy with the performance of the 10" twist barrel OVERALL.  Not only was the speed down but the overall accuracy seemed to be OK to me.  Lastly for the 1-10" twist, i bought a NOE mold in 7mm and it's called the THOR bullet.  This bullet has a very wide MEPLAT and once tested, AGAIN, I was less than happy with the barrel/bullet combos. So now, because I have too much free time on my hands, I decide to RE-INSTALL the 14" twist barrel and to re-order a new LBT mold but this time, I would order it at size .287" so I am only sizing down a thousandths and a half (so to speak...lol).

So this brings us to now.  With the new LBT mold on its way and the 7mm TJ Liner with 1-14" twist barrel installed, I cast up more THOR bullets and I head out for a quick shooting session.  It became readily apparent that the 14" twist was a better overall performer in 7mm ON THIS PLATFORM (corsair+).  I actually shot a decent 1.5" 100 yard group with those bullets and I couldn't get anywhere near that with the 10" twist.  After going to South Carolina and hunting/shooting with RJ Porter, it was apparent that the 14" twist barrel was the way to go.  Not just because I killed a pig with it that weekend...lol!  I was ringing steel plates out to 135 yards consistently with this barrel and the THOR bullets DESPITE THE FACT THAT I SAW "SPIRALING" OF THE THOR BULLETS ON VIDEO.  I could not wait till the newer LBT came in due to its lower weight and shorter length which should improve the spiraling therefore accuracy (more on that later).   So now, this past Monday, I head out and do some quick testing before the winds became unbearable.  Initial testing and grouping have really shown promising and I am expecting groups to be really tight at extreme ranges.  Or shall I say, my future goal for this gun is to remain under MOA at extreme ranges and so far, things look like with a little more attention to detail and some UPGRADES, I can achieve just that.

This group is with the 1-10 twist from a while back.  The higher pressure was just so the projectile could maintain enough speed to stay accurate.  And that is because of the much tighter 1-10 twist and these long bullets.

Here is the group from MONDAY at 55 yrds.  Now, on this groups, you should note the different FILL PRESSURES and I will add this, there are slightly different hold techniques for the set of groups.  YES, the Corsair is hold sensitive.  Don't ask why.........I don't know.  But the small tiny groups was done with a light hold.  As though I literally was holding a newborn baby.  this gun has always been like this.  Even brand new and in 308.

This groups is at 110 yards and is starting to show some potential.  Not only from this group and the one at 55 yards but from me shooting at 210 and 430 yards also (more to come later).

I must stress also that not only is there an upcoming change to the Corsair in the very near future but, these groups were also shot with UNSORTED BULLETS.  The reason why I mention this is because, after coming home from this shooting excursion, I actually weighed many of my bullets and I found some in this batch that varied OVER 1+ grs.  So I threw many of them back into the pot except for some.  The ones is kept only varied no more than .5 a grain.  So I immediately started recasting and this time, I kept all bullets that weight anywhere from 130.5 grs UP TO 131 grs even.  So no more than half a grain.  So when i shot the above groups, slugs could have weight 1 to even 2 grs different.  NOT ANYMORE!  I will be keeping a tight lid on my weight variances for each gun now.  With long range, THIS IS NECESSARY!

Tofazfou

STAY TUNED!

1st Prairie Dog hunt in Northern Arizona

     This is my very 1st Prairie Dog hunt that I've been wanting to do for years.  I've often thought hunting them would be much like hunting Ground Squirrels here in California which is very fun, challenging and addictive.  Hunting them with AIRGUNS ONLY would only add to the fun and challenge.  Challenging due to the fact that I'm using air guns to make long distance shots.  And I'm not talking about 75 yards, I'm talking upwards of 300 yards.  My buddy and machinist Doug would join me on this weekend excursion and our guns of choice would be 3 guns each, 1 medium range and the other 2 would be for long range sniping.  But back to the equipment later in the post.

RANGE:  Well, it varies.  Typical ranges for shooting PD's can vary alot but its normally 100 yard plus depending on where you set up over a colony.  Where we hunted, the closer burrows just off the road 50-60 yards away presented no activity which is what I expected.  And where they were within close distances, it was too close to the hunting ranch which was not allowed.  We had to be 1 mile from the ranch before we could start shooting........EVEN WITH AIRGUNS!  So the further we drove from the ranch, the more we saw activity at the 95+ yard mark with a lot of them going into the 100's of yards.  And that was what i wanted....to shoot past the 100 yard mark.  My goal also was to push the 300 yard mark and that goal was achieved.  Doug made the longest shot of the trip which was at 292 yards using his Condor 257.  I made a hit on one at 288 yards and it gave a good THWOP but, the PD made it down the hole.  It took a while for Doug and I to figure out we were at 5500 ft elevation which made the long range shots harder because prior to the hunt, we sighted in at home where we were about 1500+ ft elevation.  A BIG DIFFERENCE!

PRAIRIE DOGS:  Across North America, there are a total of five types of prairie dogs: black-tailed, Gunnison's, Mexican, Utah, and white-tailed. There are two types of prairie dogs in Arizona; Gunnison's range across northern Arizona and black-tailed are located in southeastern Arizona. Of all the prairie dog species, the black-tailed prairie dog has the greatest range across western North America. They range from south-central Canada to the northern part of Mexico. For many reasons, the black-tailed prairie dog population has been declining. The last black-tailed prairie dog was seen in Arizona in 1960, and their range across North America has been reduced to less than two percent of what it used to be 150 years ago. The type that we would be hunting on this trip was the Gunnison PD and this species belongs to the squirrel family of rodents, and are predominantly related to the North American and Eurasian ground squirrels.  Gunnison’s prairie dogs are 12 to 14 inches (30 to 37 centimeters) in length and have tails that measure 1.25 to 2.25 inches (3 to 6 centimeters). This species weighs from 1.5 to 2.5 lbs (0.5 to 1 kg). On average, males are larger in size than females. Gunnison's prairie dogs have 22 teeth, and five 5 pairs of mammary glands.

GEAR:  For this trip and the type of game we are hunting, you don't really need a lot of gear.  You basically need clothing including a hat, gun of choice with a good scope, ammo, binoculars (a must), rangefinder (a must), a table and chair or a mobile/folding shooting bench (a must for long range accuracy) and lots of water and snacks (a must due to the summer heat).  A map of the area or ranch you are hunting is also nice to have.  I brought along my Bushnell PERMA-FOCUS binoculars and they proved their worth time and time again.  With my naked eye, I saw 1 prairie dog but when I looked at him through my binoculars, I saw 3 or 4 in the same area that just had their heads sticking up.  My Leupold rangefinder also proved its worth also as trying to GUESS these distances on flat ground will provide you with nothing but misses!

GUNS:  For me, I brought along my Corsair+ 7mm, my Talondor 257 and my Sam Yang .357 air guns.  Doug brought along his Condor 308, Condor 257 and his Condor .30 caliber.  The .357 and 30 caliber pellet rifles would be used for anything under 100 yards and the other calibers would be used for anything over 100.  Well, at least that was the game plan.  The Corsair 7mm makes roughly 215 FPE using a 120 gr HP bullets from a LBT mold.  The TD257 makes right at 160 FPE using a 70-74 gr HP/FP bullet from the Lyman 257420 mold or, 180 FPE using 100 gr spitzers cast by RJ Porter (@ http://www.accuratebigboreairgunammo.com).  The Sam Yang .357 currently shoots 35 cal 81gr JSB pellets at 910 FPS and is a hard hitter.  Doug's 308 Condor makes roughly 250-260 FPE.  His 257 makes 188 FPE using the same Lyman 257420 bullet that I do.  And his 30 caliber condor makes roughly 80 FPE using 44 gr JSB 303 pellets.

Here are some pictures of the rifles used:

Doug and his CUSTOM Condor .257

Doug Noble's full CUSTOM .30 cal Condor

My TalonDor .257 with Mad Dog Stock

My Corsair+ 7mm

My Recluse .357

With AZ hunting licenses printed out (AZ PD, licenses too) and my truck filled with gas, we head to Northern Arizona to hunt the Gunnison Prairie Dog...........

AZ PD hunting video

Stay tuned!

Tofazfou

NEW PROJECT: Sam Yang Recluse 9mm

THIS JUST IN............YEP, yet another "PROJECT GUN".

Every since I bought and sold my old Career (Korean Big Bore PCP) 9mm Ultra, I've regretted it.  It was powerful, accurate and damned well built.  The problem back then was the fact that there was not very much AIRGUN BULLET CASTING knowledge back then as well as USER knowledge.  The point is, I personally didn't know much or anything about casting and projectile options.  Nor did I have any knowledge of measuring or slugging a bore and matching a slug to that bore.  I was just happy to have a big bore air gun and a well made one to boot.  But because of the lack of knowledge on my part and the lack of air gun info out there, I bought and tried many slugs but only found Ballistic Products RB's to be accurate.  They made great target and hunting rounds but offered no real variety.  Because of this, I later sold the gun.  The sell of this gun has had me in REGRET every since.

TIMES HAVE SINCE CHANGED. AND THIS BRINGS ME TO THIS POST...................

Introducing the Sam Yang RECLUSE 9mm:

 Here are some pics of the gun during its Maiden Voyage:

FEATURES:

Single-shot

Bolt-action

Rifled steel barrel (0.3543" to 0.359" diameter) -  12 lands and grooves (micro) with a .358" bore 

Double Air Tube (290cc)

11mm scope rail (use only compact scopes)

2 power levels (first bolt stop is low power, second is high)

3000 psi max fill pressure

Threaded muzzle with end cap

Built-in manometer (air pressure gauge)

Hardwood Monte Carlo stock with checkered forearm & grip

Raised RH cheek piece

Includes probe with 1/8" BSPP male threads

Scope - Bushnell AR223, 4x18x40mm

Barrel Length - Well, it depends.....lol!  22-1\4" excluding the rear of the barrel

GOAL with this gun:  Besides the fact that I've longed for another 9mm for years, certain things have changed or at least, become available.  For one, the knowledge of custom or match barrels have greatly improved.  The availability of said barrels has greatly improved also.  The rise of quality tuners and machinist has also increased.  More people now cast there own bullets and bullet casting info has spread across the planet when casting for air guns.  Pellets making techniques as well as available pellet calibers has also improved.  Things today are simply better than they were 5+ years ago.  Not only can one cast 9mm bullets for air guns (specially shaped and pure lead) but the advancement of pellets has come a long way.  Today, not only is the 25 caliber popular but so is the 30 caliber now.  Right after they introduced the 30 caliber JSB pellet, they brought out the JSB 35 caliber Diablo which previously only included the Korean 9mm Eun Jin 70+ gr pellet which has NEVER been of quality.  What I would love to do is with rifle is to shoot 81 gr pellets, 70+ gr round balls and cast bullets all from the same barrel and gun.  And to do it ACCURATELY to boot using the DUAL POWER SETTING feature built into the hammer (dual cocking slots milled into hammer) of this gun.

BARRELS:  1st - Let me make it clear that I'm not downing or complaining about the OEM barrel on this gun.  I just received it and I've only shot it informally from 45-125 yards.  By informally, i mean, NOT SHOT ON A BENCH USING A REST.  But, with that said, the OEM gun has shown some good accuracy with both pellets and my cast bullets.  I purchased a TJ Enterprises 357 barrel with a 1-16" twist at 25" long.  The OEM barrels bore measures .358 when slugged and mic'd and the TJ Enterprises bore measures .3572"

Initial Projectiles for this gun:

 JSB Diablo pellets that measure .358" at the head

 

 JSB Diablo's vs Nosler .357's

JSB 81 gr .35 cal vs Nosler 145 gr .357

 Accurate .360 109gr Boat Tail Air Gun Bullet

So, as you can see, the parts are all here and will slowly come together as time permits.  The gun has already proven in a short time to be what i hope for.  I can't wait to start the video comparison between the stock barrel vs TJ barrel.  Initial FPS with only a couple of internal mods has the gun pushing the JSB 81.02 pellets at 650+ fps on LOW power and 910+ fps on HIGH power.  The 110 gr BT bullets are stepping along at 470 on LOW and 830 FPS on HIGH.  THE BULLETS THOUGH ARE .002" OVERSIZED (.360" as cast vs the .358" bore) AS I DON'T HAVE A .358 SIZER YET!  Velocity will be higher with proper sizing.

Stay Tuned!

Tofazfou