After voting on Michael's 'Pick Your Poison' thread, I ended up putting my money where my mouth was and purchasing a .22 cal Evol Paradigm. I ordered from AoA on Sunday, they were processing the order by Monday (4th of July), they shipped on Tuesday and it was delivered Thursday afternoon. Nice job AoA.
This gun is immaculate in its construction - a beautiful instrument and obviously very well made. I had a Vector Optics Veyron 6-24x44 FFP scope available, so I installed that. I'm still determining if the scope is the correct choice. It didn't work all that well in medium height rings, so I changed to talls. I'm still not all that comfortable over the gun so I may replace the Veyron with something that has a more forgiving eye box. And the Paradigm is a heavy gun already, so it doesn't really cry out for a compact & light optic.
The regulator is still breaking in - heck the gun only has 100 shots on it now. But even so (and some of the variability is due to using non-sorted, non-weighed pellets) the gun has so much promise! Below is my zeroing and first groups. I had to zero twice since I changed the rings after starting. All groups from the second line down are full magazines (11 shots), with the FX Chrony hanging off the barrel. Only 25 yards so far, but I am happy and things will likely only get better - especially as I get more comfortable over the gun with a different scope. The variability in the accuracy below is all on the shooter, and none on the gun.
Looks like about 5 magazines per fill (at least 50 very well controlled shots) at the gun's current tune putting out 48 fpe at the muzzle. I started seeing unusual performance towards the end of the 5th mag, and all through the 6th. Was definitely coming off the reg by the end of the 5th mag.
I love the gun so far, but as they say, not everything is beer and Skittles. One of the first things which hits you is that while the cocking lever is incredibly smooth, you are compressing a VERY HEAVY spring. Cocking feels more like a .30 or .357 caliber gun. But it may lighten up over time. Second item is the magazine. While incredibly well constructed, the magazine design they chose reminds me of loading a Benjamin mag, where one has to turn the cover and load the first pellet skirt-first. And with the precision of the mag, loading that first one isn't all that easy as the skirt likes to hang up. I'm now happy that I didn't pop for a second $98 mag when I bought the gun. But in the end, if the gun shoots accurately out of the magazine then the design is O.K. by me. And hopefully when AAA sells more and more guns, maybe Darko can be convinced to fabricate his mags and, especially, his single shot loaders!
So still lots of work for me to do with the Paradigm. Not tuning work, but just setting the gun up so I am more comfortable (and stable!) and repeatable when shooting it. It is kind of funny that with the Steve Corcoran stock of such an unusual design (in my experience), I forgot several times that it allowed a thumb up hold. I was just naturally grabbing the stock with my thumb through the thumbhole and shooting. Until halfway through maybe the 4th group I remembered to grip with my thumb up, and immediately felt a little more solid.
Once again nothing at all wrong with the gun or its design - it is just me getting used to it.
EDIT: Did some scope swapping and will try the Blackhound Genesis 6-24x50 and see how we get along. Big problem is that family is in town this weekend for Mom's 90th birthday. The nerve of that woman to turn 90 the weekend I want to shoot!
This gun is immaculate in its construction - a beautiful instrument and obviously very well made. I had a Vector Optics Veyron 6-24x44 FFP scope available, so I installed that. I'm still determining if the scope is the correct choice. It didn't work all that well in medium height rings, so I changed to talls. I'm still not all that comfortable over the gun so I may replace the Veyron with something that has a more forgiving eye box. And the Paradigm is a heavy gun already, so it doesn't really cry out for a compact & light optic.
The regulator is still breaking in - heck the gun only has 100 shots on it now. But even so (and some of the variability is due to using non-sorted, non-weighed pellets) the gun has so much promise! Below is my zeroing and first groups. I had to zero twice since I changed the rings after starting. All groups from the second line down are full magazines (11 shots), with the FX Chrony hanging off the barrel. Only 25 yards so far, but I am happy and things will likely only get better - especially as I get more comfortable over the gun with a different scope. The variability in the accuracy below is all on the shooter, and none on the gun.
Looks like about 5 magazines per fill (at least 50 very well controlled shots) at the gun's current tune putting out 48 fpe at the muzzle. I started seeing unusual performance towards the end of the 5th mag, and all through the 6th. Was definitely coming off the reg by the end of the 5th mag.
I love the gun so far, but as they say, not everything is beer and Skittles. One of the first things which hits you is that while the cocking lever is incredibly smooth, you are compressing a VERY HEAVY spring. Cocking feels more like a .30 or .357 caliber gun. But it may lighten up over time. Second item is the magazine. While incredibly well constructed, the magazine design they chose reminds me of loading a Benjamin mag, where one has to turn the cover and load the first pellet skirt-first. And with the precision of the mag, loading that first one isn't all that easy as the skirt likes to hang up. I'm now happy that I didn't pop for a second $98 mag when I bought the gun. But in the end, if the gun shoots accurately out of the magazine then the design is O.K. by me. And hopefully when AAA sells more and more guns, maybe Darko can be convinced to fabricate his mags and, especially, his single shot loaders!
So still lots of work for me to do with the Paradigm. Not tuning work, but just setting the gun up so I am more comfortable (and stable!) and repeatable when shooting it. It is kind of funny that with the Steve Corcoran stock of such an unusual design (in my experience), I forgot several times that it allowed a thumb up hold. I was just naturally grabbing the stock with my thumb through the thumbhole and shooting. Until halfway through maybe the 4th group I remembered to grip with my thumb up, and immediately felt a little more solid.
Once again nothing at all wrong with the gun or its design - it is just me getting used to it.
EDIT: Did some scope swapping and will try the Blackhound Genesis 6-24x50 and see how we get along. Big problem is that family is in town this weekend for Mom's 90th birthday. The nerve of that woman to turn 90 the weekend I want to shoot!
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Have a great birthday weekend with your family.
