I haven’t posted much here of late but this seems especially worthy. Panthera 600 .22 has been my go to bench/slugger for the past 18mos. It shoots well and has proved reliable, so there’s no reason to dislike it. I guess I can say that the trigger annoys me some, but that doesn’t explain my souring on it. It’s something chemical.
I took a chance on replacing it with a Taipan Vet Tactical 2 long, in 22. A bit of a gamble because these days, I buy my .22 and .25s to work with my Altaros slug fetish, rather than the more conventional approach of finding the right slug for the gun. It’s an expensive approach, and I couldn’t find any info on the Taipan .22/Altaros fit, although there seems to be good results in .25.
I also understand that a good few people find it to be an ugly duckling. I get it, but to me it’s at least an improvement on the Panthera. It’s certainly nicer to handle and less things will be knocked over in my house. In any case, I’ll spare those of you with allergies from any pics of the Taipan.
Following arrival, barrel was cleaned and it was topped with a Vortex Viper PST Gen 2 in 25X, sighted in and chronied with Javelin 26g. It was running them at 960-970 on the stock tune. I set up a block of duct seal at 50y to check accuracy but it was not pretty - 2-3in spread. Cue that sinking feeling. I quickly grabbed the Altaros 32 grainers. Fortunately they were running right at their sweet spot of 890fps. The first good omen. Then, without adjusting the zero from the Javelins, the Altaros hit the (grain of corn) bullseye right away. Pure fluke but another good omen? The vet also felt and sounded better. Perhaps the 218 Javelins are a little too wide.
I cleaned up the target and placed 1/3 of a grain of corn as the bull and set about a group at the same 50y. First shot smashed the tiny piece of corn and #2&3 either went in the same hole (or I was sunk). Then the world’s unluckiest mouse popped up just behind my target. Omen #3? The perfect headshot let me know that 2&3 were likely in the same hole, so I returned to the target for two more. The last two were nerve racking shots but oh boy, that trigger is sublime.
Quite a start for the ugly Taipan. It’ll need to prove itself at longer range but so far, it seems very promising. It may be my first slugger that needs no tuning out of the box.
I took a chance on replacing it with a Taipan Vet Tactical 2 long, in 22. A bit of a gamble because these days, I buy my .22 and .25s to work with my Altaros slug fetish, rather than the more conventional approach of finding the right slug for the gun. It’s an expensive approach, and I couldn’t find any info on the Taipan .22/Altaros fit, although there seems to be good results in .25.
I also understand that a good few people find it to be an ugly duckling. I get it, but to me it’s at least an improvement on the Panthera. It’s certainly nicer to handle and less things will be knocked over in my house. In any case, I’ll spare those of you with allergies from any pics of the Taipan.
Following arrival, barrel was cleaned and it was topped with a Vortex Viper PST Gen 2 in 25X, sighted in and chronied with Javelin 26g. It was running them at 960-970 on the stock tune. I set up a block of duct seal at 50y to check accuracy but it was not pretty - 2-3in spread. Cue that sinking feeling. I quickly grabbed the Altaros 32 grainers. Fortunately they were running right at their sweet spot of 890fps. The first good omen. Then, without adjusting the zero from the Javelins, the Altaros hit the (grain of corn) bullseye right away. Pure fluke but another good omen? The vet also felt and sounded better. Perhaps the 218 Javelins are a little too wide.
I cleaned up the target and placed 1/3 of a grain of corn as the bull and set about a group at the same 50y. First shot smashed the tiny piece of corn and #2&3 either went in the same hole (or I was sunk). Then the world’s unluckiest mouse popped up just behind my target. Omen #3? The perfect headshot let me know that 2&3 were likely in the same hole, so I returned to the target for two more. The last two were nerve racking shots but oh boy, that trigger is sublime.
Quite a start for the ugly Taipan. It’ll need to prove itself at longer range but so far, it seems very promising. It may be my first slugger that needs no tuning out of the box.
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