AEA HP Varmint pleasant surprise. My most accurate gun with slugs

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DanielL

DanielL

Member
Nov 15, 2019
743
17
Michigan, United States
Don't have a pic on hand so I borrowed one from their US website. The pic appears to show a CF bottle but it comes with an aluminum one.

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NSA 20.2 hollow points. Average velocity in the curve, 930 fps for 39 fpe.

This a 30+ shot group at 43 yards. I was doing a shot string to find the sweet spot and this was about in the middle of the curve though it had a few on the front side that were iffy for velocity.

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Easily covered by a quarter.

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Here is the 101 shot string from maybe 2300 psi to 980 psi.

857, 865, 867, 870, 845, 869, 860, 871, 873, 878, 884, 864,, 887, 881, 886, 894, 901, 888, 892, 890, 900, 897, 897, 913, 910, 916, 927, 911, 924, 925, 919, 935, 932, 930, 929, 928, 925, 929, 943, 932, 934, 939, 945, 929, 932, 944, 932, 941, 932, 935, 935, 936, 938, 944, 946, 947, 944, 945, 937, 936, 942, 942, 941, 933, 935, 935, 932, 933, 933, 937, 931, 929, 933, 929, 926, 923, 921, 921, 915, 912, 911, 914, 905, 906, 904, 904, 896, 896, 892, 888, 885, 881, 880, 878, 877, 872, 865, 864, 859, 857, 857, 852.

About 50 shots in the curve from 915 up to 945 and back down again...40 shots if cut off at 930 fps.


 
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I bought mine off eBay. There are more listed there. The company had a rough start as the Coronavirus hit China right when they were trying to ramp up. There were a lot of quality problems with the first ones that hit our shore.

I talked about my experience here.

https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/initial-aea-22-hp-varmint-review-diamond-in-the-rough/

Might pay to wait them out unless you're the adventuristic do-it-yourselfer. Having said that I ordered a 2nd one; their semi-auto backpacker version. Looked like the ideal little thing to throw in for a camping trip. 

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Here is my last sight in 5 shot group before that string. There are a string of shots around it as I moved the crosshairs so I didn't post it. After I figure out the starting pressure I'm going to see if I can duplicate these results. Shouldn't be tough given these were taken at a faster pace for chronographing.

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I've been toying with the idea of getting a bottle reg for it and adding a Ernest Rowe style plenum to the pressure gauge port. Could potentially double the shot count. 
 
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Ran through another shot string today to zero in on the sweet spot. Seemed to be even more consistent today. Breaking in?

I shot it and looked at the velocities and than dryfired it down and checked the velocities again. I think I went down a little too much. Here is the string starting at 1980 psi down to 1250 psi. 57 shots.

935, 931, 931, 934, 926, 930, 933, 925, 927, 927, 929, 947, 933, 937, 935, 942, 944, 950, 941, 961, 942, 947, 944, 946, 943, 956, 949, ..., 946, 949, 949, 951, 949, 954, 945, 953, 955, 949, 954, 941, 941, 948, 934, 945, 942, 934, 937, 934, 936, 936, 932, 933, 930, 927, 925, 922, 924.

1250 down to 1120.

920, 917, 916, 911, 911, 905, 902, 897, 894, 899.

I wasn't doing as good a job on accuracy. My issue. I was in a hurry and skipped bringing out the sandbag. The scope was jumping each shot.

Here is one of the better groups again at 43 yards.

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.387 CTC.
 
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Does anyone have pictures of their own AEA rifle?

I really like the look, but the only pictures I've seen of the whole rifle are the bad ones from the factory or the silly photoshop of the "Backpacker" version.

Also, how effective is the moderator on the backpacker?

I'm almost willing to take a chance on one, but I'd like more info.

edit - I found DanielL's backpacker squirrel hunt thread and it has a few pics HERE - caution, graphic pictures.
 
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Does anyone have pictures of their own AEA rifle?

I really like the look, but the only pictures I've seen of the whole rifle are the bad ones from the factory or the silly photoshop of the "Backpacker" version.

Also, how effective is the moderator on the backpacker?

I'm almost willing to take a chance on one, but I'd like more info.
Click to expand...

The moderator on the both the Varmint and the Backpacker are background friendly but the Backpacker is really good...as good as any add on. The semi-auto mechanism helps as well as it diverts some air from the barrel before it gets to the mod.

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DanielL - What stock is that on the backpacker? It looks really good!

Did you buy yours from eBay? I saw a seller named "aeausa" who has a backpacker in stock.

Thank you for taking time to post a picture and info.
Click to expand...

Yes. Bought from aeausa. The seller has been very supportive of fixing the issues I've had. The first one arrived with the wrong size magazine and it was broken to boot. He got me a replacement right away and then said he'd ship more when China was back online. He just shipped 4 for my trouble having to wait.

I actually don't like the stock on the Backpacker. I would have preferred something less ostentatious like the plain army green one shown in the advertisement...or flat black. I suspect they might have temporarily run out of parts and made a substitution so they could get it shipped. I contacted him on that as well.
 
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I ordered a HP Varmint in .25 from the same guy. Arrived Wednesday afternoon (8/5). Very easy to assemble.

No groups yet. Biggest complaint is the MPa labled gage. Looks like its always empty.... The tirgger is heavy, but its wide and smoothed on the edges. Feels good on the finger tip.

the other thing I really like is that the distance from the face of the trigger blade to rear of the grip that rides the web of your hand is ~1/2 to 5/8 longer than the same space of a Crosman 13xx grips frame. Grip is nice, but Im not sure you can easily swap on a AR15 compatible one. I think itll be a while before I outgrow this one

"diamond in the rough" is accurate, but incomplete. Fit and finish is good overall. Some TLC, a tin or two thru it and itll be a better gun. I blelvie the OP of this has shown the spring changes and trigger work he's done to improve it....

One thing to note: this is the first non-regulated gun Ive had in 15 years. So its back to finding sweet spots for fill, pellets it likes at those pressures (2400 fill lobbed a 25 gr JSB at 1035... no really :) ).




 
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