Herc Bully finally starting to come around

[Bigragu]

This morning I decided to spend some time with a final session of dial in. For those unfamiliar with my past posts on this Bully, well, let me say I felt I had made a big mistake buying this initially, as I went thru 3 tins of 30 caliber 44.75 grain pellets just tying to get it on paper. It truly was so inconsistent, I just wanted to return it as I was still in my window of 30 days. After I sent it back to hatsan for repairs, it has finally started to come around. Something inside the bottle area I guess had been loose, causing erratic velocities. The day I decide to send it back I had heard a rattling noise inside the bottle. Whatever it was had finally fell off. Hatsan repaired it, and said they were getting just under 1” groups at 50 yards.

so, almost two months since it’s been back, I finally decided to get it sighted in and learn all the idiosyncrasies about the gun and scope. 

The targets shown are at 32 yards. Although not dime sized groupings, I am happy with it as I accepted the fact that this gun will never shoot as accurate as my Marauder 25 caliber. These are I believe 3” target rounds, and if I can cluster around the bulls I’m ok. I tried a shot at 50 yards, no holdover, and was able to hit that vitamin water bottle at just an inch to the right from my aimpoint. The bottle’s body is about the same size as a squirrel. So, I’ve decided at 50 yards it’ll be a body shot, and under 50 head shots. 

Also learned that the gun shoots the first 10 shots the best at a 3200 psi fill. The max capacity of this gun is at 3600 psi, but at that fill, I find I’m always high to the right, till it drops down to around 3200 and the groups get way better. I’ve got the gun dialed down to around 870 FPS currently, and that’s with 12 whole turns CCW on the hammer spring adjustment. At my next test session it’s going to be all about how many shots I can get from a fill, and still maintain the same groups. My goal today was final sight in, so that test of shot amount will be next week or so. 

Advertized specs for this gun is 16 optimum velocity shots. I’d like to achieve 20 “accurate” shots off of a fill. We shall see.



the shots on the cardboard outside of the targets were like 5 targets ago while sighting in. My final ones are all on the splatter targets.

 

[Bigragu]

These 30 caliber pellets hit so hard at 870 FPS! My pellet trap is made out of 16 ga. It’s a NEMA electrical box. I had to remove the duct seal and place a 1/4” flat plate at the inside back of the trap cause I knew in time those pellets would blast out the rear. 

When I originally was trying to sight this in before sending it back for repairs, my shots kept hitting low on the grass and bouncing off the hard pan ground and hitting my fence, 80 yards away. Even after getting muffed while hitting the grass, those pellets have still been able to blast thru my 3/4” thick dog eared salt fencing. At 80 yards away!



water bottles filled with water pretty much explode, judging by the water blast I see upon impact. 

Oh, forgot to mention- one of the things I felt helped with the accuracy was that I started lubeing my pellets with FP10. I’ve always done that with the Marauder 25 cal pellets, but in the Hatsan manual they specifically said no lube inside of the barrel, not even for cleaning. Only clean with a dry patch, and only if accuracy starts to diminish. Having never owned a bottle gun before, I thought maybe there’s something that could happen if I lubed the pellets. Talked with another Bully owner who said he hasn’t had problems with his Bully and lubed pellets, so I gave it a shot. Groupings tightened up, and got more consistent. I place about 15 drops of FP10 in a new tin of 150 count, shake the tin up, then add 10 more drops. Gives the pellets a nice even film.

 

[crittahitta]

Happy to hear it is working better. I like the stock. Is it new or did you paint the original?

 

[agblitz]

Great info and thank you for sharing. 

 

[Bigragu]

I painted it, using prime automotive paint used for dash, consoles, glove boxes, vinyl, etc. product is called SEM. Did everything right, with the prep and all. I hate the fact that I’m color blind. When looking at the color catalog at the store, the paint I chose(I brought my scope in to help get a match) looked so close in color to the scope, and when I tested it at home on a plastic lid held up against my scope it matched well. 

But that was over a month ago now, and I think in that month the paint now shows “it’s true color” (pun intended), and it is off in tint when compared to the flat dark earth tone on the scope. 

I figure the next time I’m feeling ambitious again I’ll re paint it to match up better.

here are pics of the test lid held up against the scope prior to painting the stock, and another pic of the stock after it has dried and mounted on the gun. Pretty darn close match, I thought. Then in time, it seemed to have lightened up in tone. Go figure!

 

[Imold]

Glad they took care of the Bully for you, like I said I had no issues with them when my New BT had issues, on another note my Bully .30 is still shooting nice and the DonnyFL Emperor made it real nice and quiet to shoot and it’s accurate out to 100 yards, just recived 8 more tins of JSB 44.75s and I’m getting around 996-991fps over the chrono, it’s just fun to shoot now. After your post about painting the stock I’ve decided to paint mine in a Forest Green and use camo paint since I can’t find the SEM product where I live. I do like the FDE color for sure.

 

[Imold]

Here is a shot across the chrono with 44.75 JSBs.

 

[Bigragu]

Imold, one of these days, like soon, I’m gonna turn up the wick again on that hammer spring. Now that I’ve got the accuracy somewhat under control, maybe I’ll try and get it back up to your velocities. I originally turned it down prior to sending it back for the repair, thinking the higher factory speeds were the cause of the inaccuracy. 

Which leads me to a couple of questions for you, if you don’t mind sharing:

1.are you still at the factory hammer spring settings?

2. How many shots are you getting before accuracy falls off?

3. 3600 psi fill, or less?

4. On your Bully while shooting, do you sometimes notice after establishing a group you like(such as in sighting in) that out of the blue you get a flier(fliers happen to everyone), but this flier ends up being a group elsewhere? That happens to me frequently, then I find myself re adjusting the turrets. Then after a fill up, accuracy shifts again. 

Still working out the details, man. Right now as far as accuracy goes, I only have 70% faith in this thing.

 

[shorty]

Well sh!tt fire Augie. What a great man cave garage. I ask myself why I can't have something like that ?Love it chief....

 

[Imold]

I’m shooting it stock out of box except for the DonnyFL on the end and I’m shooting tetherd at about 3400-3500 psi, I have not done a shot count on bottle yet being when I recived it a wanted to get a zero established with a scope and then it was loud so I wanted to quiet it down so after talking to Donny I did some chrono numbers to see what LDC would work best on the Bully, Donny said if I’m shooting over 900 FPS to go with the Emperor and if under 900 go with a Ronin or Shogun well I went with the Emperor and now you hear the sound of it cocking, hammer then the smack of my gong being hit, I have a video of me shooting it just to show how quiet it is with the Emperor on it, even Donny was impressed on how nice it was.

So far I have not noticed any real fliers that I would be concerned about like I’ve had on a different airgun but so far so good, soon as this rain and high winds leave this area I’ll get back out and do a fresh 50 yard, 75 and 100 yard splatter target and see exactly what it is doing, I’ll be using 44.75 JSBs, the way it shoots I think I’ll be staying with the JSBs and not messing around with anything else although I do have a tin of JSB 51.15s I think I’ll try being I have them and see what they do, heck might have a tin of poly mags for the .30 in my safe. I’ll do this tetherd with the reg set at 3400 psi so the shots will be consistent hopefully.

Right now I’ve been checking out a couple different slugs in my Texan .357 with tank tetherd at 2900psi to see how it does, so far Hunters Supply 127gr have gotten me a 5shot group at 60yards about the size of a quarter so now I want to rezero at 75 yards and then figure out holdover for 100 yards and hold under for 50 yards shots with the 127gr bullet. I think the .30 and the .357 will make nice yote rifles, I might even try the new .257, have my name on the waiting list for that. I will do a accuracy check to see how many shots I get before it goes south when I get the Bully back out to the range.

My 74cf tank and 88cf tank are full and waiting for better weather.

 

[Imold]

I called it forest green but it’s olive drab but this is what I’m going to paint my Bully stock with.

 

[Bigragu]

I called it forest green but it’s olive drab but this is what I’m going to paint my Bully stock with.

If you still wanted to go with a flat dark earth, Brownells carries a FDE that matches Magpul’s supposedly. That’s what I was going to with originally, and I’m glad I didn’t cause that Monstrum scope had its own version of FDE. Way way different than Magpul’s. I think the next time I paint the stock, I’m going to leave a scope turret at the paint store and just have them mix me a custom can. Looking back, that’s what I should’ve done the first time, but was hesitant about leaving my scope there.



well, Imold, if you ever decide to shoot untethered, I’d like to see your results. I’d like to see if accuracy remains the same. I don’t shoot tethered for two reasons, one is I don’t own a separate reg to do that, and probably wont(maxed out dollar wise on PCP stuff for now) and second, this gun was mainly bought to be used to take care of the larger critters I have on my property. 

I would like to do whatever it takes, to get at least 20-30 consistent accuracy shots out of this gun. I know that’s a big demand, cause this thing uses up the air, but we shall see.

 

[Bigragu]

Well sh!tt fire Augie. What a great man cave garage. I ask myself why I can't have something like that ?Love it chief....

Shorty! How are you, man? Glad to see you pipe in. The pic you see of my gun on the shooting bench, that’s in my garage, and it is far from a man cave. It is a mess right now. My wife always criticizes me for how messy I leave it(zoom in on my work bench and you’ll see); but what she doesn’t understand is, the moment she calls on me to start a project, the amount of tools, fasteners, caulk, etc. ends up all over, especially if projects start to stack up. My recent project was with my son doing all the muscle, as I’m still 7 months post a spinal fusion. It was a bridge and dock build. Very intense planning and design on my part, as I’ve never taken on something this costly. But yes, stuff like that ends with a mess of tools and consumables, lol.

The pic you see of the rifle sitting on a cradle next to a white wall with posters on it is my 5’x9’ reloading room. Like to keep all that separated from the garage mess, as I’m sure you’d understand. But, yes, that little room is my man cave for sure.

Attached are pics of the 53’x6’ wide bridge and the 18’x12’ wide dock that’s 100% completed. On the bridge I still have hand railing to design and solar lighting on the posts.



tell me a project of this magnitude won’t leave your workbench messy, lol! Tell my wife!

 

[Imold]

I’ll be doing a untethered accuracy check hopefully next week.

My 12x20 man cave and reloading room have turned into more of a storage room now .

 

[TheBarber]

Bigragu,I also tried everything with my Bully 357 to get better accuracy after we spoke last with no luck I sent it back to Allen Z. I couldn’t even get a 6 inch group at 30 yards something just isn’t right. My 30 cal Hercules is a tack driver. I hope he finds the issue. But once I get it back I’m painting it the same color u did on yours!

 

[Bigragu]

Bigragu,I also tried everything with my Bully 357 to get better accuracy after we spoke last with no luck I sent it back to Allen Z. I couldn’t even get a 6 inch group at 30 yards something just isn’t right. My 30 cal Hercules is a tack driver. I hope he finds the issue. But once I get it back I’m painting it the same color u did on yours!

Barber, if you ever see a Magpul FDE tone, you’ll like it. If you’re not tied into matching a scope like I was, get the Magpul color from Brownells. 



Let me me know what came up with your gun. Can you pm me with his info, and who he is and what he does? If yours comes back awesome, I may use him. Thank you

 

[Bigragu]

I’ll be doing a untethered accuracy check hopefully next week.

My 12x20 man cave and reloading room have turned into more of a storage room now 

.

I’ll be doing a untethered accuracy check hopefully next week.

My 12x20 man cave and reloading room have turned into more of a storage room now 

.

Imold, I have to say, I love these pcp guns and as far as it being a hobby, I’m ready to give up all others that’s how much I like it. But, I also love reloading, and truth be known, it kills me to see all the equipment I’ve invested in towards reloading. My big dreams were to compete in long range competition. What even bugs me more, is I’ve got an untouched, unforced, still in box brand new Savage 10BA in 338 Lapua that I bought in 2010. 



Dont want to talk about it, lol! Should just sell it and invest in a high dollar PCP

Bigragu,I also tried everything with my Bully 357 to get better accuracy after we spoke last with no luck I sent it back to Allen Z. I couldn’t even get a 6 inch group at 30 yards something just isn’t right. My 30 cal Hercules is a tack driver. I hope he finds the issue. But once I get it back I’m painting it the same color u did on yours!

Barber, if you ever see a Magpul FDE tone, you’ll like it. If you’re not tied into matching a scope like I was, get the Magpul color from Brownells. 



Let me me know what came up with your gun. Can you pm me with his info, and who he is and what he does? If yours comes back awesome, I may use him. Thank you

 

[Imold]

My Savage 12 LRP 6.5 creedmore not the best pic.

 

[Imold]

I was going to paint my Bully today so I set it up on the table to tear it down and said nope I’ll wait till it snows because I want to shoot it more before I take it all apart hahaha. Wanted to post the video of the Bully again but it says something about file not set or something like that, it let me do it once and that’s it.

 

[Smoke229]

I've been searching waiting and searching again for posts or a review of someone shooting the .45 bully. I've seen some on the full size herc. I definitely don't need a .45 but I sure want one. 

I'm about 2 weeks behind my self set schedule of buying a pup/semi-pup. I ether talk myself out of one or I get to busy to catch the seller.

Plus I have hankering for a caliber I shouldn't shoot in my yard lol...