A rugged, beat around in the woods, slug shooting hard hitting, long shots, good shot count. What’s y’all opinions? Leshy? Evol mini? Vixen? Any and all brands welcome! Let’s debate!
Durable backpack gun.
- Thread starter Castin’Catchin’ 26
- Start date
Do you own a Gen 1? Why do you recommend Gen 1 over Gen 2? Let’s hear your thoughts! We’re keeping open minds here!!
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Fits in a pack for sure; but how are you shooting yours? Slugs? Pellets? Are you reaching out past 50 yards with nice grouping? Let us know!
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How’s the longevity on those? Have you had to send it out for it to be worked on or replacements? What velocities and projectiles are you shooting out of yours?
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I owned a leshiy 2 in 22 350 configuration for a while. Again, it’s a powerful and good option for backpacker, but it is NOT a long range gun. There are things you can do to help it a bit, but for me, inside of 100yds it did best. I will own another leshiy 2 soon. This time in 25. I like the option of taking a gun with me in a backpack. Compact, and pretty rugged. It will shoot slugs, but the barrels are sized slightly larger than standard, so you would need to use the offerings from nsa or avs and zan that make leshiy 2 specific sized slugs.
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That is my customized Evol. I put on a nice Hera folding stock adapter and short DoubleStar ACE skeleton stock for weight reduction and to keep a small length of pull. It's internals have been modified from the factory tested settings a little as well to sling heavier slugs faster. The Evol is a highly efficient airgun for it's short barrel length and high shot count for air tube size. The design of the current Evol was as a pellet or medium weight slug shooter, with superior accuracy and shootability out of the box because of the detail put into the barrel assembly, quality parts, and manufacturing processes. This is what you are paying for with any of the AAA lines of airguns. It simply costs more to do that here in America with American parts than it does overseas.Do you own an Evol? I wonder how they will sling slugs with the shorter barrels
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Look up some of my previous posts on the Atomic. I’ve been using it since March 2022. Hundreds of kills, great groups with JSB Exact Jumbos. The bulk of my pestling and plinking with CPHPs. I regularly plink with mine out to 102 yards, Great little gun.
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@Crosman999, has a video where he provides shot string numbers and shots on target. Also check out Steve at AEAC he does an extensive review of the platform. Charts, graphs, numbers, groups on camera, etc. Good luck.
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It's fine to 50 or so for me. I am limited by glass past that (5x on it).
Mine does fine with light NSA even at relatively low power tune.
Not a great long range gun though ---
Rugged.
Compact.
Long range.
Choose 2.
Mine does fine with light NSA even at relatively low power tune.
Not a great long range gun though ---
Rugged.
Compact.
Long range.
Choose 2.
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Good luck, I think you will be challenged to find an air rifle that will take a lot of banging around without issues. It seems to me, even the most robust air rifles are relatively fragile when compared to cartridge firearms. And, too much throwing around, where HPA is involved, might not be the best practice. Just my opinion, and I hope you find your perfect rifle.
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I think for your intended application it would be hard to beat a Leshiy Classic. They are about as rugged as you're going to find imho.
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I don't own a leshiy. I've considered buying one, but they are pricy, and I already have 12k$ in airguns as is. I'd be trying to fill a niche in my collection that doesn't really need filling. And a lot of mine are compact, some are extremely powerful as well. Leshiy 1 is unbeatable in ruggedness, they are quite accurate, and can make very respectable power. Plenty of threads on them here. And they also fold in half for easy storage. If I were to get one, it'd be in 20 caliber. As for slugs... I'm sure you could make one shoots slugs well, but might require a custom barrel. The original barrels were not intended for slugs.
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Do not own one, but have shot one! Very compact especially being foldable. The only reason I suggested the Classic is it's much more affordable, easier maintenance, and it's been around for quite some time with very little issues to speak of...it is a single shot only.Do you own a Gen 1? Why do you recommend Gen 1 over Gen 2? Let’s hear your thoughts! We’re keeping open minds here!!
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The leshiy classic is a hell of a rifle. 2 issues come to mind with your requirements. One is power. The power of the leshiy can be cranked up, but it becomes super hold sensitive (closer to a magnum springer than a pcp), and so accuracy will be off. They were designed to shoot pellets, so trying to shoot slugs might be an issue.
Lastly, even though not one of your requirements. They’re single shot. Break the rifle open similar to a break barrel, load the pellets, then shoot. It’s cumbersome, but if you take your time with shot placement, you shouldn’t need a quick follow up. I myself am a terrible shot, so magazine rifles are needed in my case. I sold my classic to buy a leshiy 2. Still wish I had kept that classic though. Now they’re discontinued, so you’ll only be able to find used or new old stock.
Lastly, even though not one of your requirements. They’re single shot. Break the rifle open similar to a break barrel, load the pellets, then shoot. It’s cumbersome, but if you take your time with shot placement, you shouldn’t need a quick follow up. I myself am a terrible shot, so magazine rifles are needed in my case. I sold my classic to buy a leshiy 2. Still wish I had kept that classic though. Now they’re discontinued, so you’ll only be able to find used or new old stock.
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The original Leshiy is second to none when it comes to a back packer. Even with the longer barrel. Years ago I became delusional and built a .22 slug barrel for it. After some testing I built a .177 slug barrel for it. Never could tell just how accurate it was because it was so angry pushing slugs. It was just like shooting a springer. Back to pellets, a conservative tune and happiness. The OP’s question can be answered but only on a powder burner forum.
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