Final 4 PCP Collection

[mtnGhost]

I've been able to narrow down my entire PCP collection to 4 "keepers" (indefinitely). It took a while to get here and I have spent a great deal of time modifying and customizing each of them to be the best that they can be in terms of performance and function. 

Each rifle satisfies a niche. I view them like tools that have specific purposes. There's some caliber overlap, but I only shoot .22 and .30 exclusively.

I cannot say that any one of them are my "favorite", but I can say that each of them are a lot of fun to shoot. Changing the optics can also completely change the dynamics with most of them (almost like having an entirely different rifle). 

So my final 4 (in no particular order) come down to these rifles and their specific purposes:



FX Maverick Compact'ish .30:

This is my absolute favorite .30cal to date. It shot lights out, out of the box with the slow twist Superior liner that it shipped with. I thought it was ugly when I first saw the promos, but I ordered one right away and have zero regrets! I've found some weaknesses and broke some components, but I redesigned and fabricated replacement parts and probably have the most durable Mav out there now lol. Details:

• Barrels: 500mm Superior 1:37 (44gr JSBs) & 24" TJ (50gr JSBs & 62-66gr slugs), ~325mm TJ (Hades)
• Primary optics: NF NX8 4-32 (NRL22), Nvision NOX18 thermal (night hunting), EOTech EXPR3-4 + G33 for everything else
• Purpose: NRL22 / BR & hunting up to coyote sized game

EDgun Leshiy Classic:

Probably the most compact and versatile of all! I usually keep this thing setup to shoot 20.2gr NSAs at 950FPS, but it has proven to be very accurate with 81gr JSBs & 68gr Griffin slugs to 90FPE. This Leshiy has amazed everyone that I've demo'd it to. It's a great little example to show people that still think "pellet guns" are like old school BB guns lol. Details:

• Barrels: 350mm .22, .25, .30, .357
• Primary optic: NF NX8 1-8
• John Hagan aux air cylinder
• Purpose: Truck / backpack gun / small game hunting (an excellent compact turkey gun) / night time pesting

Taipan Veteran .22:

I spent a couple of years tinkering / power tuning these Vets. This was a good platform to experiment with. They have also proven to me to be more accurate (consistently) and easier to tune harmonically with FX barrels than any FX rifle that I have ever owned. The Taipans have literally outperformed every FX rifle using the same .22cal barrel kit (with different barrel adapters). The ballistics of my "Supervet" builds shooting 40gr RBT slugs puts them on a level playing field with many .22LR rifles shooting standard rimfire cartridges. Details:

• NRL22X (soon)
• Various barrels (500/600/700mm FX & CZs)
• Capable of at least 120 FPE
• Accurate to 300y
• Purpose: Varmint hunting, "long range" steel, and an all around substitute for .22LR

Taipan Mutant Shorty .22:

This is just a little bad ass lightweight and compact bullpup. I really appreciate the build quality and attention to details. It has a very unique hand built aesthetic - as if someone actually cared about building the rifle, and it does not at all feel mass produced. I can throw this in my backpack with or without my Huben hand pump and hunt indefinitely if I wanted to. Details:

• Barrel: factory CZ short barrel (I forget the length lol)
• Tuned for 12-33 FPE
• Primary optic: Trijicon MRO HD + Trij 3x Magnifier
• 180+ shots per fill at 12 FPE with Hades/16gr
• Purpose: Small game hunting & pesting to ~75y

Now I could probably trim this collection down even further, but I really believe that this is as well-rounded as it can get for me. It has taken quite a while to boil it down to these 4, and I still own some other VERY accurate PCPs, but for me - these 4 have little overlap of any with one another. 

Hiatus - This has been a good learning experience with some bucket list items to check off. I'm taking an indefinite hiatus from manual machining & fabrication. It's just been too distracting and time consuming to justify spending any more time with it. Any parts that I produce moving forward will be done with automation.

 

[Matt247365]

Taipan Mutant Shorty .22:

This is just a little bad ass lightweight and compact bullpup. I really appreciate the build quality and attention to details. It has a very unique hand built aesthetic - as if someone actually cared about building the rifle, and it does not at all feel mass produced. I can throw this in my backpack with or without my Huben hand pump and hunt indefinitely if I wanted to. Details:

Well put! I have the same feeling every time I pick up one of my Taipans.

Nice collection, Gino

 

[coolbananas]

That's a great post, thank you!

Wow.

 

[Franklink]

2 of your 4 are the same one's I arrived at (the Vets). 

I get semi-interested in a different gun on occasion, but don't have that burning desire to find something better anymore, as I'm quite satisfied with my Vets. 

 

[Long_Gun_Dallas]

Awful lot of pedigree between these 4. I have a lot to aspire to. Give it another decade maybe, lol.

 

[biohazardman]

Very nice collection of guns you have there. Some great mods you have done to some of them also. Expect they should last you for a good long time.

Doubt the addiction will leave you alone completely though. ;^)

 

[mtnGhost]

 

Very nice collection of guns you have there. Some great mods you have done to some of them also. Expect they should last you for a good long time.

Doubt the addiction will leave you alone completely though. ;^)

Haha thanks. No, I'm definitely "over it" now. More interested in reclaiming the time, but I'm relocating in the near future and will be finally be able to spend more time shooting than anything else.

Awful lot of pedigree between these 4. I have a lot to aspire to. Give it another decade maybe, lol.

For sure! I always tell people that the two things that I find to be most important are build quality and the barrel accuracy. I've had to "work" at getting the Vets to shoot big lead, and it took some time to get the Leshiy barrels dialed in, but the little Mutant and Maverick were both accurate out of the box.

2 of your 4 are the same one's I arrived at (the Vets). 

I get semi-interested in a different gun on occasion, but don't have that burning desire to find something better anymore, as I'm quite satisfied with my Vets.

Yeah the Taipans can be satisfying!

That's a great post, thank you!

Wow.

Thanks

Taipan Mutant Shorty .22:

This is just a little bad ass lightweight and compact bullpup. I really appreciate the build quality and attention to details. It has a very unique hand built aesthetic - as if someone actually cared about building the rifle, and it does not at all feel mass produced. I can throw this in my backpack with or without my Huben hand pump and hunt indefinitely if I wanted to. Details:

Well put! I have the same feeling every time I pick up one of my Taipans.

Yep! It's a great feeling picking one up and realizing that they're ina class of their own. Truly top shelf in terms of build quality!

 

[Hobbyman2007]

Did I read that correctly? 120 FPE from the taipan in .22cal ? Simply awesome. Balanced valve ? 

 

[cilami]

You really have all bases covered with your collection! I have a Taipan Mutant short and would really like to know the mods/adjustments you did to get that 12-33 fpe tune. Have you posted that information somewhere?

 

[Dairyboy]

I'm with you on the Taipan Veteran Shorty .22. I love mine and really use it alot at 28fpe and down to 12fpe for in barn shooting. Great off a tripod as well!

I do wish I hung on to my leshiy classic. Great little guns. Would have enjoyed getting a .30 barrel but had the .22 and did really well with Hades and JSB 16gr. Also got it to shoot 17.5gr NSAs really well

 

[Vetmx]

Do you think the rigid clamping of the FX barrel system on the Taipan eliminates some of the harmonic issues that FX guns have? My Taipan is the only slug gun I own that never comes off its tune or zero. I’m not using a FX barrel on it but I know what you’re saying about the guns ability to be so consistent that it’s almost boring. Just look at the size of the clamps that secure the barrel and tube. Way over built and flat out harmonic killers.

 

[mtnGhost]

 

Do you think the rigid clamping of the FX barrel system on the Taipan eliminates some of the harmonic issues that FX guns have? My Taipan is the only slug gun I own that never comes off its tune or zero. I’m not using a FX barrel on it but I know what you’re saying about the guns ability to be so consistent that it’s almost boring. Just look at the size of the clamps that secure the barrel and tube. Way over built and flat out harmonic killers.

That's definitely one of the primary factors, but there are a couple of additional differences that make the Taipans superior.

The first factor (doesn't have as much of a benefit for FX barrels as it does with solid 15mm OD barrels) is the threading of the barrel breech into the action. I know that this doesn't have as much of a benefit, because I have ran multiple liners in both 15mm OD precision machined tubing that I used in place of the FX barrel housings (in 3 different lengths). They suffered much worse harmonic effects than the 14mm FX housings shimmed with 0.2mm Delrin sheets (cut down to the 14mm OD circumference). Those shims between the trigger housing support clamps and FX barrel housing provide excellent barrel support! 

The second additional factor is the transfer port! I hold the firm belief that the FX barrel inlet system is sub-optimal and a big contributor to harmonic tuning problems. Especially at higher pressures. The Taipans of course physically separate the transfer port from the physical barrel (which is obviously threaded into the block), and that design helps mitigate a lot of those issues.

Also, FX rifles typically use soft o-rings in the barrel support housings. I am convinced that those o-rings are not entirely sufficient for supporting barrels .. especially, longer barrels at higher pressures. I have some ideas that predate this relatively new barrel support from barrel-holder.com, but I can definitely imagine that they can help in providing improved barrel support (I do not like the design of those, and there are much better & more precise design options that can be produced).

The last thing that I would mention around my experimentation / R&D running FX barrels in the Vets was a prototype that I made (and still use) that eliminates liner "compression" and instead "stretches" the liner extremely taut!! I made a couple of different configurations for the breech clamping - where the first uses tightly compressed o-rings for a friction lock in the brass barrel adapter (similar to the FX Superlight barrels systems in the Crown Continuum). The second uses an ER collet at the breech. There is also an ER collet clamping the barrel towards the muzzle end of the liner, but here is where I got clever with the "stretching" system. I designed a threaded collet clamp that threads into the barrel housing. This barrel housing is about 4" short of the end of the FX liner - exposing ~4" of the liner. I can position the ER collet anywhere along this ~4" section of the liner, and then once the collet has been clamped to the liner, I can then "unthread" this clamp piece with a wrench, which stretches the barrel as taught as I want it to be!

What is awesome about this collet system - well first, it absolutely works! My first test was with a 700mm slug A liner that had a nasty little choke that I cut off of it, and that liner became as accurate as any that I have shot. The other cool design feature - it acts like a barrel tuner on steroids!!! Except, once the liners are "tuned" - they never fell out of tune! I may have some photos on my IG, but I'm not ready to share photos of the second iteration that I've made to fend off copycats. 

 

[mtnGhost]

 

You really have all bases covered with your collection! I have a Taipan Mutant short and would really like to know the mods/adjustments you did to get that 12-33 fpe tune. Have you posted that information somewhere?

Yeah, I have a build thread here somewhere on AGN

Did I read that correctly? 120 FPE from the taipan in .22cal ? Simply awesome. Balanced valve ?

Nope! I started making the pin for one, but I never got around to finishing it. I started getting OCD for a while with power tuning. I tried a bunch of little ideas in different valve iterations and I just kept seeing gains with each little geometrical feature that I added to the tolerances. I'm also doing a couple of other things that I'm discreet about that provide output gains, but I'm not drilling out the block nor making any permanent modifications to them to achieve high velocity with big slugs (cast 55gr we're the largest that I've been able to hand load). 

I've said this on AGN before, but I have destroyed a number of my prized FX slug liners shooting the 40gr Griffin RBTs! In other words, I have literally worn out some FX liners from the abuse. I've always kept my ammo VERY clean and dry lubed, but I've still managed to shoot those liners out beyond repair.

That's one of the reasons why I started using the 700mm CZs (cutting them down smaller when I need to). I bent the poop out of two of them though!!! For that reason alone, I will never run another long barrel without proper shroud support again!

 

[Hobbyman2007]

One more question, where are you getting the CZ barrels? 

 

[mtnGhost]

 

One more question, where are you getting the CZ barrels?

Talon and then from Taipan

 

[Guest]

Wow, I learned a lot in this thread even with the short number of posts. What a collection you have, I just "finished" my .308 texan build, next up for test and tune etc is my TalonP, I am really looking to build a nice backpack survival gun, that edgun looks wild!

 

[Hobbyman2007]

Thanks for the source. Now I just have to wait til they’re back in stock. 

 

[mtnGhost]

 

Wow, I learned a lot in this thread even with the short number of posts. What a collection you have, I just "finished" my .308 texan build, next up for test and tune etc is my TalonP, I am really looking to build a nice backpack survival gun, that edgun looks wild!

Thanks! Spent a LOT of time with the Leshiys over the past few years, and I have more ammo through that one in the photo than of any other. Every little mod and accessory that I have added were done out of necessity for hunting use.


A couple of years ago on the night of New Year's Eve, I was with some friends who were super skeptical of PCP abilities, so I demonstrated the accuracy of that rifle using that NX8 LVPO with that PVS-14 mounted behind it + the Luna ELIR 3 IR laser (an absolute light saber with an adjustable beam).

The target was a 20oz Starbucks can set out at somewhere over 80m. I setup the shot from the prone position with a 20.2gr NSA. First shot was dead center in the face of the Medusa logo on the can!!! Needless to say I proved my point that night LOL (and I was totally sober, I don't drink booze)

Thanks for the source. Now I just have to wait til they’re back in stock.

Just be prepared to fix the machining errors to barrel (giant burrs in the muzzle that have to be machined out and you need a properly sized chamber throat reamer for the unfinished breech).