I reIceived a new Caiman X in 22 caliber from Utah Air on Tuesday. I ordered it the previous Saturday. Utah spent a few days checking to be sure it held air and seemed to shoot OK. They included a target with 18 grain JSBs that I think was probably shot at 10 yards. This is my sixth PCP and it cost about as much as any 3 of the other 5. I wanted to try a nicer one and this is the one I picked. Price was part of the reason but it is also lighter than most at about 6.5 lbs and has a CZ barrel. It is unusually short. The barrel is over 500mm long but the gun is only about 28 inches long. So it's not much more than 6 inches longer than the barrel. The action is a little different than what I consider a typical PCP with a hammer that slides in a tube. The Caiman action has a hammer that pivots to strike the valve and it is more vertical than horizontal. The hammer spring adjustment is on the bottom of the rifle at the rear, not on the end of the airtube.
I was a little surprised that it needed as much tweaking as it has. It arrived shooting 18 grain JSBs about 935 fps. The test target said about 910 fps. Since I've been tuning it I've noticed the velocity can jump around a little like this. It happened to me today when I had the action out of the stock and put it back. Velocity jumped - also to 935 - and I had to turn down the hammer spring 1/4 turn to get it back to where I left it. I'm going to have to watch this. I believe the regulator is set to about 100 bar. That seems pretty low to me for around 875 fps on an 18 grain. It is using about 2 bar per shot so I could get as many as 100 shots per fill if I filled it to the full 300 bar it is rated to handle. I won't but even at 250 bar I should get about 75 shots. Changing the hammer spring is not hard and can easily be done without removing the stock. There is a lock screw for the hammer spring screw and it will move if you do not use it.
The most disappointing thing about the as received condition is the trigger pull. When I got it the pull was light but had a LOT of creep. It was easily worse than any of my 5 much less expensive guns. There are no instructions in the "manual" for adjusting this but once you get the stock off it's pretty easy. There are no instructions for getting the stock off either, however, nor for adjusting the hammer spring or even filling the magazine. Part of it is super easy there are two nice big allen headed screws on the bottom of the stock. But the safety pin also has to come out. This moved from the rear of the stock on the original Caiman to right above the trigger on the version I have. That is better. I did not figure out that there is a screw within the trigger guard area that controls the weight of a flat spring pushing on a ball bearing that rubs the safety pin. I tapped it out with a wood dowel and small hammer but I bent the pin in the process. I am sure this would have gone better if I had loosened that screw. I found it putting it back together. Once the stock is off there are two adjustments. The creep is controlled by the sear engagement that is just a lock screw and one allen headed screw on the bottom of the action. There is even a circular window where you can see the sear engagement. You want to adjust this screw to get rid of creep but please DO NOT try and make the trigger lighter with this setting. You want it to be creep free but ignore the pull weight. There is another adjustment for that. On the rod for the trigger is a ball point pen type spring with a locking collar on one end. Loosen the grub screw on the collar and you can get to a very low pull weight. I measured 4 ounces on my fish scale. I wasn't even at the minimum. I set it a bit higher but still under a pound. With adjustments this is my best trigger. It's disappointing it was set so poorly initially. It is clean and crisp and can be as light as you could reasonably want.
My stock did not fit my action real well either. The forward screw attaching the top part of the stock to the action could not be tightened when I got the gun, it would distort the stock. I #10 washer between the action and the stock solved that. The other issue was the cover over the manometer kept popping off. The top part of the stock was rubbing it a little. The stock is so thin it flexes some and when it did it popped that cover off. I used a drum sander on my drill press to relieve the area of contact and put a little epoxy on the manometer cover. Seems to be fixed.
You will also see that I made a cherry spacer to increase the length of pull. It came at a reasonable 14 inches or a little more but I like closer to 15. So I picked up a scrap piece of cherry off the floor of my shop and made a spacer. I shot the gun from the bench to test pellets without it but it is nice to have it fitting me now. I put the "Uncle Mike's" sling mount I use with my monopod rear rest into the spacer. Space if tight at the back of the stock.
A nice thing about the Caiman is it is reasonably quiet without an added moderator. It comes with several sections of moderator screwed together plus it ends with a 1/2 UNF fitting in the end. When it got to me with the hammer spring max'd out for the regulator setting it was noisy and I put on my Tanto. But when I got the hammer spring more reasonable adjusted it seems significantly quieter and I am just using the stock baffles. I may look into adding a section or two to the stock moderator.
It came with two magazines (which is nice because extras are apparently over $50) and they hold 10 rounds. This keeps them small and they do not bother me at all shooting from my left shoulder. I moved the cocking lever from the left to the right. That was not hard but you have to take off the upper part of the stock. There are instructions for that in the manual. I did not get the air evacuation tool I expected nor is there a plug on the fill port. I have a request into Utah about those parts. They do not seem expensive in the Air Maks web page so even if I have to buy them it is no big deal. Seems like they should be included.
I have not shot this enough to have a definitive position on accuracy but I think it will end up more accurate than my less expensive PCPs. I attached the first 30 yard challenge target I shot with it - the only one so far. Winds were 7-10 mph when I shot this. I've shot many better targets like this including a 200 and three 199s with my P35-22 but I've never shot one over 190 in wind until this one. I'm thus pretty sure I can shoot a 200 when I get less wind to shoot in. I shot at least 4 5 shot groups at 30 yards with H&N 18 grain pellets that were .2-.3 inches center to center when I was testing pellets. That was in windy conditions too. I still haven't even cleaned the barrel.
Shooting this is a little nicer than my less expensive guns but isn't really much different. When I am making an adjustment or something I can see it is better machined and is generally well designed and thought through. I am also unsure about velocity variation. I do not see a declining curve of velocity with tank pressure as has been reported but I do see a somewhat high ES. I was measuring velocity as I shot that 30 yard challenge target and I think the ES was about 42 fps. That's worse than my cheap guns by at least a factor of two except for the unregulated Prod. It has a huma regulator so that shouldn't be the issue. I need to watch some videos on the Katran to see what those owners report. It may be that the unique hammer arrangement of air maks guns contributes some to the ES. Or my gun may just be breaking in. I don't think it affects the accuracy at 30 yards but it would if I stretch it out so hopefully it improves. But long range accuracy is much less of a concern to me than accuracy within 50 yards and I don't see the ES as a likely issue within 50 yards.
I was a little surprised that it needed as much tweaking as it has. It arrived shooting 18 grain JSBs about 935 fps. The test target said about 910 fps. Since I've been tuning it I've noticed the velocity can jump around a little like this. It happened to me today when I had the action out of the stock and put it back. Velocity jumped - also to 935 - and I had to turn down the hammer spring 1/4 turn to get it back to where I left it. I'm going to have to watch this. I believe the regulator is set to about 100 bar. That seems pretty low to me for around 875 fps on an 18 grain. It is using about 2 bar per shot so I could get as many as 100 shots per fill if I filled it to the full 300 bar it is rated to handle. I won't but even at 250 bar I should get about 75 shots. Changing the hammer spring is not hard and can easily be done without removing the stock. There is a lock screw for the hammer spring screw and it will move if you do not use it.
The most disappointing thing about the as received condition is the trigger pull. When I got it the pull was light but had a LOT of creep. It was easily worse than any of my 5 much less expensive guns. There are no instructions in the "manual" for adjusting this but once you get the stock off it's pretty easy. There are no instructions for getting the stock off either, however, nor for adjusting the hammer spring or even filling the magazine. Part of it is super easy there are two nice big allen headed screws on the bottom of the stock. But the safety pin also has to come out. This moved from the rear of the stock on the original Caiman to right above the trigger on the version I have. That is better. I did not figure out that there is a screw within the trigger guard area that controls the weight of a flat spring pushing on a ball bearing that rubs the safety pin. I tapped it out with a wood dowel and small hammer but I bent the pin in the process. I am sure this would have gone better if I had loosened that screw. I found it putting it back together. Once the stock is off there are two adjustments. The creep is controlled by the sear engagement that is just a lock screw and one allen headed screw on the bottom of the action. There is even a circular window where you can see the sear engagement. You want to adjust this screw to get rid of creep but please DO NOT try and make the trigger lighter with this setting. You want it to be creep free but ignore the pull weight. There is another adjustment for that. On the rod for the trigger is a ball point pen type spring with a locking collar on one end. Loosen the grub screw on the collar and you can get to a very low pull weight. I measured 4 ounces on my fish scale. I wasn't even at the minimum. I set it a bit higher but still under a pound. With adjustments this is my best trigger. It's disappointing it was set so poorly initially. It is clean and crisp and can be as light as you could reasonably want.
My stock did not fit my action real well either. The forward screw attaching the top part of the stock to the action could not be tightened when I got the gun, it would distort the stock. I #10 washer between the action and the stock solved that. The other issue was the cover over the manometer kept popping off. The top part of the stock was rubbing it a little. The stock is so thin it flexes some and when it did it popped that cover off. I used a drum sander on my drill press to relieve the area of contact and put a little epoxy on the manometer cover. Seems to be fixed.
You will also see that I made a cherry spacer to increase the length of pull. It came at a reasonable 14 inches or a little more but I like closer to 15. So I picked up a scrap piece of cherry off the floor of my shop and made a spacer. I shot the gun from the bench to test pellets without it but it is nice to have it fitting me now. I put the "Uncle Mike's" sling mount I use with my monopod rear rest into the spacer. Space if tight at the back of the stock.
A nice thing about the Caiman is it is reasonably quiet without an added moderator. It comes with several sections of moderator screwed together plus it ends with a 1/2 UNF fitting in the end. When it got to me with the hammer spring max'd out for the regulator setting it was noisy and I put on my Tanto. But when I got the hammer spring more reasonable adjusted it seems significantly quieter and I am just using the stock baffles. I may look into adding a section or two to the stock moderator.
It came with two magazines (which is nice because extras are apparently over $50) and they hold 10 rounds. This keeps them small and they do not bother me at all shooting from my left shoulder. I moved the cocking lever from the left to the right. That was not hard but you have to take off the upper part of the stock. There are instructions for that in the manual. I did not get the air evacuation tool I expected nor is there a plug on the fill port. I have a request into Utah about those parts. They do not seem expensive in the Air Maks web page so even if I have to buy them it is no big deal. Seems like they should be included.
I have not shot this enough to have a definitive position on accuracy but I think it will end up more accurate than my less expensive PCPs. I attached the first 30 yard challenge target I shot with it - the only one so far. Winds were 7-10 mph when I shot this. I've shot many better targets like this including a 200 and three 199s with my P35-22 but I've never shot one over 190 in wind until this one. I'm thus pretty sure I can shoot a 200 when I get less wind to shoot in. I shot at least 4 5 shot groups at 30 yards with H&N 18 grain pellets that were .2-.3 inches center to center when I was testing pellets. That was in windy conditions too. I still haven't even cleaned the barrel.
Shooting this is a little nicer than my less expensive guns but isn't really much different. When I am making an adjustment or something I can see it is better machined and is generally well designed and thought through. I am also unsure about velocity variation. I do not see a declining curve of velocity with tank pressure as has been reported but I do see a somewhat high ES. I was measuring velocity as I shot that 30 yard challenge target and I think the ES was about 42 fps. That's worse than my cheap guns by at least a factor of two except for the unregulated Prod. It has a huma regulator so that shouldn't be the issue. I need to watch some videos on the Katran to see what those owners report. It may be that the unique hammer arrangement of air maks guns contributes some to the ES. Or my gun may just be breaking in. I don't think it affects the accuracy at 30 yards but it would if I stretch it out so hopefully it improves. But long range accuracy is much less of a concern to me than accuracy within 50 yards and I don't see the ES as a likely issue within 50 yards.
