I purchased a Caiman X in 22 from Utah Air in late March of this year and began shooting it April 4 of this year. So in a couple days I will have been shooting it 5 months. I've posted comments several times but I decided to post this overall review to give a more balanced perspective to what I think about this airgun.
First, the good things. The most notable attribute to me is the excellent machining. All my other 5 airguns are much less expensive and the better maching of the Caiman definitely stands out. For instance, the fill probe of the Caiman has never leaked even a little bit during a fill from my bottle. My P35s also fill via a probe and it is a bit of a struggle to have them not leak. The cocking stroke is short and smooth. The magazines are well made. The trigger mechanism seems relatively simple but it is easy to adjust to a clean and pretty light break. The fitup inside the gun is also great, possibly better than it needs to be in one way (which I will cover in the things I do not love).
It is also reasonably quiet with the built in baffles which are fully removable. But it still has a 1/2 UNF fitting for adding an external moderator. It is supposed to be possible to add modules to the included baffle stack but I have not identified any place to buy them.
It is really short for it's barrel length. It is only 695mm long and has a 520mm barrel. About 28 inches long with barrel about 20 inches long. And remember, it has installed baffles for sound. The innovative pivoting hammer helps Air Maks get the end of the barrel so far back in the stock.
It has a lock screw for the hammer spring adjustment.
The cocking switches to either side and the manual explains how to do it.
It stores 285 ccs of air at up to 300 bar. It says right on the tube it was tested to 450bar. My reg is set as received at 100 bar so that is a lot of shots.
It has a 20 MOA scope rail.
The one pressure gage is on the side, not the end of the air tube.
Mine is quite accurate. I shot my second 200 on the 30 yard challenge with it a few days ago. That is after (4)199 targets. I've shot as many as 17 Xs on these targets. I still haven't tried it at longer range but it is accurate at 30 yards. It prefers H&N Baracuda 18 pellets but shot a lot of pellets reasonably well (including JSBs and JTSs). I have not tried slugs serioiusly but cleaning the barrel I noticed it is much tighter at the muzzle.
Things I do not like. The manual is poor, almost as bad as my SPA manuals and definitely much worse than my Avenger's manual. It does not explain how to adjust the trigger, how to remove the stock, or how to degass the gun. Utah Airguns helped with these things but it deserves a decent manual.
It's kind of heavy at nearly 7 lbs.
It's kind of tall due to the large diameter air tube and the decision to totally enclose it in the stock.
The magazine is 10 rounds and it doesn't lock you out when it's empty (which wastes a round). It cannot realistically be bigger without sticking out a lot which would be bad for me since I shoot from my left shoulder.
Changing the regulator is fairly involved. You have to take the scope off, take the safety pin out (loosen two screws in the trigger guard and it will slide out) and then take off the bolts for the top and bottom portion of the stock. I think it's two and two but I did not go look. With the stock off, you take the air tube off and then open the degassing screw that resides under the tube attachment screw closest to the hammer mechanism. When it is empty you can screw off the end of the air tube by hand and the regulator (a huma) is right there and the adjustment of it is super easy. It's getting to it that is a bit involved.
I do not believe everybody will have the problems I had as received but mine showed up with a couple not insignificant issues. I am sure Utah Air would have preferred to fix them for me but I fixed them myself. The first thing I noticed was the velocity would fall as I shot the gun. On 4/6 I shot a 24 shot string that had a 48 fps extreme spread. On 4/7 I shot a 10 shot string that had a 26 fps extreme spread. Another forum member had posted that his gun did this and it was the regulator not venting between shots. The area of the regulator where the bellville washers are needs to vent between shots or the added pressure will confuse the regulator giving you these lower velocities. The regulator in the Caiman sits on a piece that I think is the plenum. There is a vent in the side of the regulator housing but then the air has to go through the clearance between the regulator housing and the plenum piece to reach the hole in the side of the airtube. That hole is in a threaded area. My Caiman is very well machined and somebody had put an abundance of silicone grease on these pieces and it was not venting. I filed two small V grooves in the bottom of the plenum piece and I also had to remove a portion of a thread that was blocking the vent hole in the airtube. I will say again that Utah Air did not make me do this, they did not like it that I did it. After I got this fixed the regulator stopped working. Fortunately I knew how to get to it and I found the O-ring under the adjustment screw had no lubricant on it. The belleville washers and the plenum piece were slathered in silicone grease but there was none on that o-ring. So I greased it and the regulator has worked great ever since. The last couple 20-25 shot strings I've checked both had an ES of 8. It does not matter how high I fill it although I fill from a bottle so it is never to a full 300. But I've filled over 250 and the regulator still works great. Velocity at the start and the end of a string will be the same. I hope Air Maks decides to fix this venting issue. I've seen two reviews on youtube that found the declining velocity string so they have to know about it. It seems to be easy to fix. They upgraded several things from the initial version to the one I have but did not seem to address this.
I like this gun. Our start was a little rocky but it got fixed quickly. It has never leaked. The barrel pretty much never needs cleaning. It is shooting the H&N 18s at about 910 fps and shooting them very accurately including the first shot out of a cold barrel. I tried turning it down to 880 fps with the hammer spring and it did not like that and the first shot was not dependable. Velocity peaked at 940 fps so I was probably turning it down too much. If I ever decide I have to have 880 I will have to decrease the regulator to about 90 bar from it's current 100 bar setting. If this gun liked heavier pellets it could produce a lot more power. But an accurate 33 fpe 22 is fine with me.
First, the good things. The most notable attribute to me is the excellent machining. All my other 5 airguns are much less expensive and the better maching of the Caiman definitely stands out. For instance, the fill probe of the Caiman has never leaked even a little bit during a fill from my bottle. My P35s also fill via a probe and it is a bit of a struggle to have them not leak. The cocking stroke is short and smooth. The magazines are well made. The trigger mechanism seems relatively simple but it is easy to adjust to a clean and pretty light break. The fitup inside the gun is also great, possibly better than it needs to be in one way (which I will cover in the things I do not love).
It is also reasonably quiet with the built in baffles which are fully removable. But it still has a 1/2 UNF fitting for adding an external moderator. It is supposed to be possible to add modules to the included baffle stack but I have not identified any place to buy them.
It is really short for it's barrel length. It is only 695mm long and has a 520mm barrel. About 28 inches long with barrel about 20 inches long. And remember, it has installed baffles for sound. The innovative pivoting hammer helps Air Maks get the end of the barrel so far back in the stock.
It has a lock screw for the hammer spring adjustment.
The cocking switches to either side and the manual explains how to do it.
It stores 285 ccs of air at up to 300 bar. It says right on the tube it was tested to 450bar. My reg is set as received at 100 bar so that is a lot of shots.
It has a 20 MOA scope rail.
The one pressure gage is on the side, not the end of the air tube.
Mine is quite accurate. I shot my second 200 on the 30 yard challenge with it a few days ago. That is after (4)199 targets. I've shot as many as 17 Xs on these targets. I still haven't tried it at longer range but it is accurate at 30 yards. It prefers H&N Baracuda 18 pellets but shot a lot of pellets reasonably well (including JSBs and JTSs). I have not tried slugs serioiusly but cleaning the barrel I noticed it is much tighter at the muzzle.
Things I do not like. The manual is poor, almost as bad as my SPA manuals and definitely much worse than my Avenger's manual. It does not explain how to adjust the trigger, how to remove the stock, or how to degass the gun. Utah Airguns helped with these things but it deserves a decent manual.
It's kind of heavy at nearly 7 lbs.
It's kind of tall due to the large diameter air tube and the decision to totally enclose it in the stock.
The magazine is 10 rounds and it doesn't lock you out when it's empty (which wastes a round). It cannot realistically be bigger without sticking out a lot which would be bad for me since I shoot from my left shoulder.
Changing the regulator is fairly involved. You have to take the scope off, take the safety pin out (loosen two screws in the trigger guard and it will slide out) and then take off the bolts for the top and bottom portion of the stock. I think it's two and two but I did not go look. With the stock off, you take the air tube off and then open the degassing screw that resides under the tube attachment screw closest to the hammer mechanism. When it is empty you can screw off the end of the air tube by hand and the regulator (a huma) is right there and the adjustment of it is super easy. It's getting to it that is a bit involved.
I do not believe everybody will have the problems I had as received but mine showed up with a couple not insignificant issues. I am sure Utah Air would have preferred to fix them for me but I fixed them myself. The first thing I noticed was the velocity would fall as I shot the gun. On 4/6 I shot a 24 shot string that had a 48 fps extreme spread. On 4/7 I shot a 10 shot string that had a 26 fps extreme spread. Another forum member had posted that his gun did this and it was the regulator not venting between shots. The area of the regulator where the bellville washers are needs to vent between shots or the added pressure will confuse the regulator giving you these lower velocities. The regulator in the Caiman sits on a piece that I think is the plenum. There is a vent in the side of the regulator housing but then the air has to go through the clearance between the regulator housing and the plenum piece to reach the hole in the side of the airtube. That hole is in a threaded area. My Caiman is very well machined and somebody had put an abundance of silicone grease on these pieces and it was not venting. I filed two small V grooves in the bottom of the plenum piece and I also had to remove a portion of a thread that was blocking the vent hole in the airtube. I will say again that Utah Air did not make me do this, they did not like it that I did it. After I got this fixed the regulator stopped working. Fortunately I knew how to get to it and I found the O-ring under the adjustment screw had no lubricant on it. The belleville washers and the plenum piece were slathered in silicone grease but there was none on that o-ring. So I greased it and the regulator has worked great ever since. The last couple 20-25 shot strings I've checked both had an ES of 8. It does not matter how high I fill it although I fill from a bottle so it is never to a full 300. But I've filled over 250 and the regulator still works great. Velocity at the start and the end of a string will be the same. I hope Air Maks decides to fix this venting issue. I've seen two reviews on youtube that found the declining velocity string so they have to know about it. It seems to be easy to fix. They upgraded several things from the initial version to the one I have but did not seem to address this.
I like this gun. Our start was a little rocky but it got fixed quickly. It has never leaked. The barrel pretty much never needs cleaning. It is shooting the H&N 18s at about 910 fps and shooting them very accurately including the first shot out of a cold barrel. I tried turning it down to 880 fps with the hammer spring and it did not like that and the first shot was not dependable. Velocity peaked at 940 fps so I was probably turning it down too much. If I ever decide I have to have 880 I will have to decrease the regulator to about 90 bar from it's current 100 bar setting. If this gun liked heavier pellets it could produce a lot more power. But an accurate 33 fpe 22 is fine with me.
