I decided to go ahead and buy a Rainson Edge X from Ares Tactical. I purchased the 'Dr. Russ Hunting Special', in synthetic. I haven't had a chance to shoot it much beyond some chrono testing, so this is kind of between an unboxing and a real review.
What came in the box:
I then took it out to get some quick chrono tests. My experience with it was:
787
902
922
I suspect that the difference between 787 and 902 are where the gun is wasting air. I will be playing with the regulator and hammer spring tomorrow.
What came in the box:
- The gun, set up for .25 caliber.
- The .22 barrel and probe.
- 3 magazines for both .22 and .25.
- 1 single shot tray in .25. I'll be asking what it costs to get the .22 single shot tray.
- A barrel band, already attached to the gun.
- A shroud, already attached to the barrel.
- A moderator.
- A female Foster fitting that will fit on the gun's Foster port. Originally people complained about the gun using a bastardized Foster fitting, but the gun came with a standard Foster fitting.
- Some spare o-rings for ? The Foster fitting, I think.
- A huge spanner for God knows what. Removing the regulator, perhaps.
- A small wrench for removing the pellet probe when changing the barrel.
- A users' manual, spelled 'User Manuel'. Oops.
- I chose the synthetic, but Ares will sell you the wood Edge for the same price. For plastic, it's pretty solid.
- Man, this thing is heavy! I thought my wood Avenger was heavy, but this thing has some serious heft to it. Eat your Wheaties if you want to hunt with it.
- There are two small picatinny rails on the receiver, and one was crooked. I would have been disappointed if the screw holes were crooked, but it was just because there was some room in the holes in the rail. Easy to straighten.
- The gun came with the reg set to 150 bar, and there was about 180 bar of air in the tank.
- The magazines are okay. They look similar to plain old Marauder/Avenger magazines, and are loaded in the same way.
- The label on the side says, ".25 Caliber (6.35mm) something something." I guess that's going to be wrong when I change the barrel.
- The manual is okay, not great. English was definitely not their first language. There are exploded diagrams, but they just point to part numbers, not measurements for items like o-rings.
I then took it out to get some quick chrono tests. My experience with it was:
- This thing is loud! Your neighbors will think you're shooting .22 LR in the backyard. When I get done with the chrono (cheap Chinese attached to the barrel) I'll put the moderator on it.
- The gun feels okay. The grip is rubber and is a little small. My hand is pretty average size, and it just barely fits.
- I didn't get a chance to zero the scope in, because the missus had Other Plans for me. With the scope I have on it right now, I have to crawl up on the stock to get in the eye box.
- The trigger seems to be pretty nice. Mine came light from the factory. It is a two-stage trigger, and it felt like it slipped into a notch when you take up all of the first-stage slack. Breathe on it hard after that and it fires. Since I want to use it to target shoot, I don't have a problem with it being light.
- Cocking is okay. It doesn't grate, and it's not as smooth as my FX. It has a long throw.
- It has a Power Adjuster, with five selections from low to high. I swear I read somewhere that the lowest setting is Off, so I only tried four selections. Shooting JSB 18.13, the numbers out of the box were (fps):
787
902
922
I suspect that the difference between 787 and 902 are where the gun is wasting air. I will be playing with the regulator and hammer spring tomorrow.
- It uses a lot of air. I haven't adjusted the regulator and hammer spring, but right now it will give me 50 or so shots before it falls off the reg. This from a 500cc bottle. Again, I think that is because it is tuned pretty hot.
- The fill port is at the bottom of the stock. If you use one of those 5" gold filters at the end of your whip, you will then be getting pliers or forceps to unhook the Foster fitting because your fingers will not fit in the recess where the port is located.
I ordered the external regulator adjustment knob, but when that gun is full of air you need to be The Incredible Hulk to adjust that regulator. I suspect that when I let the air out of the gun it will be much easier to adjust. - I think that 500cc aluminum tank is where a lot of the weight is. I might try to get the carbon tank for it.