I love the Taipan rifles, as they are; and am fortunate enough to own several. I would certainly buy the tactical stock, if it were available as a stand-alone offering.
Interestingly, I have seen a great deal of opinion regarding the 22 LW or CZ barrels. However, no head to head test? I did search here for something like that. The only thing I found was Tony (Talon Tunes) stating he felt the CZ barrel had an edge. I am not sure what that means. One is better than a minute of a fly's wing at 50 yards? Perhaps, it is simply personal preference?
Not exactly a head to head but close......
I've had my hands on/shot from 5 different Veteran OEM barrels, all .22. Three I owned and two in a friend's gun (the OEM barrel in his is probably a CZ since it's a UK vintage gun, as marked on the receiver, and he bought one of TT's 700mm CZ barrels). So, call it two CZs, two LWs, and one unknown (but likely CZ).
Of the three I own and have the most experience shooting, two are supposedly LWs and one is a CZ. The pedigree from the CZ is pretty clear since it was from back from when R&L airguns was selling the Veterans. All three of those shoot JSB pellets weighing less than 18.14grains with equal and incredible accuracy (none of the three shoot the 25.4grain .22s worth a dang. All three also stink with slugs.)
Since the R&L days, the water's are much muddier when it comes to the barrel manufacturer, especially with one of the current retailers selling supposed CZs for a premium. There are simply no marks on the barrels to indicate CZ or LW. And as covered above, that "CZ" on the side of the receiver of the gun means nothing about the type of barrel in the gun. Just where they were manufactured.
The older ones have breech markings like this:
The current ones have breech markings like this:
From pushing pellets down the assortment of Taipan barrels mentioned above, they all have shared:
- fairly tight bores
- an incredibly tight choke
- consistent rifling without any of the loosey goosey areas that some airgun barrels seem to have.
- pretty rough looking crowns, compared to how a crown can be made to look with a little polishing
So, I'm not sure that it matters whether CZ or LW made the barrel, the Taipan specs seem to call for the pretty much the same thing. And Taipan's quality control seems to be doing their jobs to make sure the barrels meet the specs.