After studying for months, and after some very positive comments by Scott Schneider @ Motorhead, I decided to add a .25 Skout Epoch to my collection. Other than a few videos, mostly by the manufacturer, there really isn't much information online, so I thought I would let you know "my take" after an extensive set-up and tuning experience.
First, the purchase experience. Over the last few months, I have placed a few orders for airgun ammunition from The Pellet Shop, with nothing but total satisfaction experienced on my end. They were advertising the .25 as available in the 35" barrel configuration, which was my preference, at no additional cost. After trading a few missed calls from each other, Ben and I finally connected. He answered my questions, we agreed that the rifle would be tuned to shoot the JSB King Heavy MKIIs between 910 fps and 920 fps, and I gave him payment information. Within a very reasonable time period, and with several update e-mails coming through during the process, the rifle arrived, perfectly packed, and included a T-shirt and his trademark package of oreo cookies.
I unboxed the rifle and mounted a spare Vortex Diamondback 6-24x50 FFP on top of Eagle Vision adjustable rings. As I set the rifle up, I was very impressed with the finish detail in every regard. There are more adjustments than anyone could ever want, and more information available to the shooter than on any other rifle I own (with 30+ in the vault). The foster fitting fill port is very easy to get to. The magazine is by far the most robust, best designed magazine I have experienced to date, and holding 25 shots in .25 caliber, should meet anyone's requirements.
After placing the rifle on a V-sandbag on top of the indoor range shooting bench, I proceeded to sight it in at 18 yards. The Labradar unit placed the velocity at 914 FPS, exactly as I had requested it to come from Ben at the Pellet Shop. The trigger arrived extremely light to the touch with a very clean break. I have not adjusted it to this point, simply worked to get used to it. I am learning to like it a lot. The rifle also arrived with the rifle set-up in the "match" mode of the three available electronic modes. It works perfectly. I also like the electronic safety, where it is positioned, and the manner in which it lights up when in the firing mode. The moderator seems to be perfectly adequate to me in terms of noise reduction at the report. I have not gotten my decibel meter out yet, but it seems to be in line with all of my other rifles that have various makes of well known moderators in use.
Unfortunately, for such a short indoor distance, the first ten shot test groups were totally unsatisfactory to me. They were running between .60" and .80" in diameter. All of the other "premium" tuned FX, RAW, Daystate, Kalibregun, AA, BSA, Brocock, Weihrauch rifles in my vault will shoot an 18 yard indoor range 10 shot group of .05" to .40." To say I was disappointed was an understatement. It came with the "standard" zero barrel liner installed.
I checked my Raw, Daystate, and FX data for the velocity of those rifles with the same weight pellet. They were all shooting between 880 and 890 fps. I adjusted the Epoch to an average of 884, and the groups diminished in size to about .5", better but still not great. Next, thinking that the pellets were probably to loose in the bore, I installed the "-1" barrel liner - a piece of cake to perform the swap. By the way, Skout has posted an entire series of terrific technical videos that really help one get acquainted with the rifle from the start. To my disappointment, with this liner in place, the groups opened back up again. I was really sick at this point, thinking I had spent $3K for rifle that just wasn't going to perform. I called it quits that evening and went to bed, thinking about the issues most of the night.
The next afternoon after work, I went back to the work shop and switched out the -1 liner for the +1 liner. Amazingly, the groups dropped to an average of .30" with one group coming in at only .10" c-t-c for 10 shots. I was finally getting somewhere. This does confirm the ability of this rifle to be specifically tuned to individual ammunition requirements. Previously, one would have to find different ammunition that works or be out of luck.
Some of you may wonder why I set-up at only 18 yards. I find that if a rifle won't shoot at close range, it won't shoot at long range. Additionally, having the indoor range takes out a number of variables including wind, light, etc. Finally, I can work on set-up at any time, day or night, in constant conditions. And it really doesn't matter what the close zero is, as long as your far zero and every point in between are perfectly noted in the dope chart.
Next, I ordered a UTG over the bore bipod to attach to the M-lok rails and a Vortex Bubble Level. They came in and were installed by the weekend, and I moved to the outdoor range. My max outdoor range at home is 86 yards. I was getting solid 8 shot core groups out of the total 10 shots at 86yards, but always experiencing one or two flyers out to 1" to 1 1/2" I finally decided to weigh and sort some pellets. I took 1/2 tin of JSB King Heavy MKIIs and started weighing them, finding them to vary up to 2 full grains in weight. I sorted out 25 pellets to within 33.90 and 34.00 grains and guess what, the flyers disappeared, resulting in the 85 yard group found below, probably one of the best I have ever shot.
In summary, I believe this rifle, is one of the best engineered rifles in my stable. The FX Panthera is in its own performance class, more powerful, and extremely accurate with the matched slugs. This also is not to take anything away from all of the other terrific air rifles on the market today. However, don't be afraid to spend the money for the Epoch rifle. It is easy to adjust both in terms of power and ergonomics, with the multiple barrel liners one should be able to maximize the performance with about any projectile, and the electronic platform is terrific. With the technical information they provide, Skout seems very committed to providing excellent service and a terrific customer experience. I am pleased that I made the investment.
As I know the question will come, I have not attempted to shoot slugs through it yet. I am getting such great results with pellets, that I haven't gone there. However, depending upon the information I get back from Skout that I forwarded yesterday, in terms of engineered velocity capabilities, if I can verify that I can get in the range of 1030 to 1050 with a 33 grain to 40 grain slug, you can expect me to experiment with such soon.
If you have other questions, feel free to write and I will attempt to respond.
First, the purchase experience. Over the last few months, I have placed a few orders for airgun ammunition from The Pellet Shop, with nothing but total satisfaction experienced on my end. They were advertising the .25 as available in the 35" barrel configuration, which was my preference, at no additional cost. After trading a few missed calls from each other, Ben and I finally connected. He answered my questions, we agreed that the rifle would be tuned to shoot the JSB King Heavy MKIIs between 910 fps and 920 fps, and I gave him payment information. Within a very reasonable time period, and with several update e-mails coming through during the process, the rifle arrived, perfectly packed, and included a T-shirt and his trademark package of oreo cookies.
I unboxed the rifle and mounted a spare Vortex Diamondback 6-24x50 FFP on top of Eagle Vision adjustable rings. As I set the rifle up, I was very impressed with the finish detail in every regard. There are more adjustments than anyone could ever want, and more information available to the shooter than on any other rifle I own (with 30+ in the vault). The foster fitting fill port is very easy to get to. The magazine is by far the most robust, best designed magazine I have experienced to date, and holding 25 shots in .25 caliber, should meet anyone's requirements.
After placing the rifle on a V-sandbag on top of the indoor range shooting bench, I proceeded to sight it in at 18 yards. The Labradar unit placed the velocity at 914 FPS, exactly as I had requested it to come from Ben at the Pellet Shop. The trigger arrived extremely light to the touch with a very clean break. I have not adjusted it to this point, simply worked to get used to it. I am learning to like it a lot. The rifle also arrived with the rifle set-up in the "match" mode of the three available electronic modes. It works perfectly. I also like the electronic safety, where it is positioned, and the manner in which it lights up when in the firing mode. The moderator seems to be perfectly adequate to me in terms of noise reduction at the report. I have not gotten my decibel meter out yet, but it seems to be in line with all of my other rifles that have various makes of well known moderators in use.
Unfortunately, for such a short indoor distance, the first ten shot test groups were totally unsatisfactory to me. They were running between .60" and .80" in diameter. All of the other "premium" tuned FX, RAW, Daystate, Kalibregun, AA, BSA, Brocock, Weihrauch rifles in my vault will shoot an 18 yard indoor range 10 shot group of .05" to .40." To say I was disappointed was an understatement. It came with the "standard" zero barrel liner installed.
I checked my Raw, Daystate, and FX data for the velocity of those rifles with the same weight pellet. They were all shooting between 880 and 890 fps. I adjusted the Epoch to an average of 884, and the groups diminished in size to about .5", better but still not great. Next, thinking that the pellets were probably to loose in the bore, I installed the "-1" barrel liner - a piece of cake to perform the swap. By the way, Skout has posted an entire series of terrific technical videos that really help one get acquainted with the rifle from the start. To my disappointment, with this liner in place, the groups opened back up again. I was really sick at this point, thinking I had spent $3K for rifle that just wasn't going to perform. I called it quits that evening and went to bed, thinking about the issues most of the night.
The next afternoon after work, I went back to the work shop and switched out the -1 liner for the +1 liner. Amazingly, the groups dropped to an average of .30" with one group coming in at only .10" c-t-c for 10 shots. I was finally getting somewhere. This does confirm the ability of this rifle to be specifically tuned to individual ammunition requirements. Previously, one would have to find different ammunition that works or be out of luck.
Some of you may wonder why I set-up at only 18 yards. I find that if a rifle won't shoot at close range, it won't shoot at long range. Additionally, having the indoor range takes out a number of variables including wind, light, etc. Finally, I can work on set-up at any time, day or night, in constant conditions. And it really doesn't matter what the close zero is, as long as your far zero and every point in between are perfectly noted in the dope chart.
Next, I ordered a UTG over the bore bipod to attach to the M-lok rails and a Vortex Bubble Level. They came in and were installed by the weekend, and I moved to the outdoor range. My max outdoor range at home is 86 yards. I was getting solid 8 shot core groups out of the total 10 shots at 86yards, but always experiencing one or two flyers out to 1" to 1 1/2" I finally decided to weigh and sort some pellets. I took 1/2 tin of JSB King Heavy MKIIs and started weighing them, finding them to vary up to 2 full grains in weight. I sorted out 25 pellets to within 33.90 and 34.00 grains and guess what, the flyers disappeared, resulting in the 85 yard group found below, probably one of the best I have ever shot.
In summary, I believe this rifle, is one of the best engineered rifles in my stable. The FX Panthera is in its own performance class, more powerful, and extremely accurate with the matched slugs. This also is not to take anything away from all of the other terrific air rifles on the market today. However, don't be afraid to spend the money for the Epoch rifle. It is easy to adjust both in terms of power and ergonomics, with the multiple barrel liners one should be able to maximize the performance with about any projectile, and the electronic platform is terrific. With the technical information they provide, Skout seems very committed to providing excellent service and a terrific customer experience. I am pleased that I made the investment.
As I know the question will come, I have not attempted to shoot slugs through it yet. I am getting such great results with pellets, that I haven't gone there. However, depending upon the information I get back from Skout that I forwarded yesterday, in terms of engineered velocity capabilities, if I can verify that I can get in the range of 1030 to 1050 with a 33 grain to 40 grain slug, you can expect me to experiment with such soon.
If you have other questions, feel free to write and I will attempt to respond.
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