Airgun depot's Bobcat vs Ataman M2R bullpup head to head

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zebra

Member
Sep 29, 2015
1,779
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New York
This got emailed to me (and probably 10's of thousands of others) today:

http://www.airgundepot.com/head-to-head-ataman-m2r-bullpup-vs-fx-bobcat-mkii-article.html?trk_msg=8MHQQP7A7E94P234DVBSQ5UNK4&trk_contact=E69LHVC5NBIJOCK9A14K8OBPEG&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=See+Results&utm_campaign=M2R+vs+Bobcat&utm_content=Non-Buyers

It seems like a strange thing for a store to post as it will obviously put all their customers off Ataman bullpups. Just saying "it's too loud for an urban setting" is probably enough to put off 75%+ of potential customers. They would have been better off saying nothing at all. 
 
"CHUCK"Well lets see...then according to you it would be better not to tell people the truth about a product and let them find out the hard way? :( Have you ever thought about a career in advertising?
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It's good for us, not so good for them as they sell both brands. We are almost always left to find out the hard way. Usually, given the choice between saying something bad about a product or saying nothing, most stores say nothing - especially on things that are a matter of opinion or preference. They could have made both products sound good without lying by reviewing them separately. 

Usually, a head to head has products more evenly matched. You would expect each product to win some categories. This one was a land slide. Personally. I don't think it was particularly balanced in some categories. For example, the Bobcat noise was measured with the additional baffle kit where as the Ataman was graded without any additional sound control product. Ataman does need to improve noise control for their factory shroud but so does FX IMO. But... whatever... I wouldn't be happy with my marketing guy if it was my business but it's not so I can just get on with my day. 
 
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"Dairyboy"Pretty sad to see the Ataman got beat on all areas. I was really hoping the atamans would be good cause they have some really cool tactical style guns.
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I think Atamans can be good but with some additional tuning. The core action on the M2R line is good. They are all basically the same gun with different dresses. The feel of the cocking lever and indexing is the best of any air gun I have held. 

A trip to Ernest, an NC LDC and new stock would put one up there with the best. The same could be said for a lot of air guns. The issues with Ataman's are small. 

That same M2 action is used on their FT / BR target guns. The factory just spends more time carefully tuning and testing each one. 
 
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zebra
"CHUCK"Well lets see...then according to you it would be better not to tell people the truth about a product and let them find out the hard way? :( Have you ever thought about a career in advertising?
Click to expand...
It's good for us, not so good for them as they sell both brands. We are almost always left to find out the hard way. Usually, given the choice between saying something bad about a product or saying nothing, most stores say nothing - especially on things that are a matter of opinion or preference. They could have made both products sound good without lying by reviewing them separately. 

Usually, a head to head has products more evenly matched. You would expect each product to win some categories. This one was a land slide. Personally. I don't think it was particularly balanced in some categories. For example, the Bobcat noise was measured with the additional baffle kit where as the Ataman was graded without any additional sound control product. Ataman does need to improve noise control for their factory shroud but so does FX IMO. But... whatever... I wouldn't be happy with my marketing guy if it was my business but it's not so I can just get on with my day.
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I agree. Should've been a contest between Bobcat v. Galahad. Similar market tastes....
 
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I read every word of that review. And the ataman does cost a little less. But it looked like depot wants to sell bobcats more than ataman? It would have been nice if they also gave the profit margins on each rifle? ;) I have to agree with zebra it does seem strange that a supplier would put one of their brands in such a bad light? Its not like they really said anything bad about the Ataman if it had been a stand alone review. But how many would be happy if they had picked up an Ataman at depot before this review?
 
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Hey Guys, Cameron from AGD here, I'm our marketing director and the one who actually wrote this review and did the bulk of the testing along with one of our other in-house shooters. Just wanted to clarify, the Ataman is by no means a bad gun, still great construction, and some awesome capability, it just wasn't as refined as the FX. 

If I had done just a straight up review of the M2R I would still say its a good gun ( well except for the factory trigger setting , which is awful) but it needs a little tweak hear and there. 

Remember when I'm writing these things I have to do it as if the reader has never shot either gun and I also have to assume that the buyer is a total amateur with zero experience so they are pretty much going to shoot the gun as is out of the box. That being said, any gun that has to be tuned to be 100% is going to score a lower.

I appreciate the feedback, I know I don't post here often, but I do lurk these forums quite a bit and I have found that the Airgun Nation crew seems to be some of the most knowledgeable when it comes to the high end stuff. Thanks for reading! 

 
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