Western Airguns All Things Western Rattler 357 & 45 - Master Thread

Here's a great video of the Rattler 45 Carbine length hunting hogs and axis deer in Texas. Thanks for another awesome hunting video Dana.

Tuning video, courtesy of Airguns of Arizona.

Some slug weights, speeds, and bc number out of the 45 Long Strike.

Here's the infamous Mr. Hollowpoint, lead caster extraordin-air, doing his thing to test and educate with the Rattler in 357 caliber.

Shooting Gear Reviews doing some accuracy shooting and hunting with the Rattler 357.

Some more good quality Shooting Gear Reviews with the Rattler 45. It looks like Airguns of Arizona sent the Long Strike for testing.

This Atlas Airguns video just dropped a couple of hours ago, reviewing and shooting the 45 Long Strike.

Link to micro polishing the magazine and adjusting the barrel for smoother operation:

Here's Rooster shooting good groups, showcasing speeds of different ammo and group sizes on the shorter barreled Rattler 45.

The Rattler 45 barrel diameter is 0.685" and the muzzle threads are M17-1 for reference to putting on a muzzle brake. An experiment with a thick carbon sleeve 24.25" to maintain barrel tension and muzzle brake with M17-1 threads is in order... I put a modified tanker style muzzle brake on an AEA Challenger Bullpup 457 and it was shown to have noticably less recoil (nearly none on the big heavy beast) and no discernable barrel whip.

Chairgun ballistics app chart for Rattler 45 shooting a 343 grain HP-RBT swaged slug, 170 bar regulator setting, and close to full power on the adjuster setting. 5 mph crosswind.

Long Strike range testing with a variety of ammo for accuracy today. The light ammo looked like a shotgun pattern, waisting air and lead. The groups tightened up as the slug length and weight went up. The best slug as predicted was the NSA .454 350 grain HP-RBT slugs that I had cut down to fit the magazine. (.998" long and 353 grains).

I had some pretty tight groups from 100 and 175 yards going with these heavy NSA slugs, so with the last 4 slugs I had I dialed to 235 yards to check accuracy at that range. After a sighter and scope adjustment I was working on an moa group but then I threw the last shot about 6" with a big assed flinch. (Still getting used to this mechanical semi auto big bore I guess...)

All in all it was a good day. The trigger is a little gritty feeling and something needs attention/lube/polishing there.

Ezana4CE said:

@Airgun-hobbyist 235 yards? Which scope/reticle is that?

Click to expand...

Nightforce NX8 2.5-20×50 with the TREMOR3 reticle. It's pretty precise with small dots, but busy/cluttered if you're wanting to see the impacts while using holdovers.