First, as you can see in the pic, I’m currently using a prism sight - a Vortex Spitfire 5X. I was planning to use my Element Titan but I only have a 1 piece mount, which doesn’t work with the mag. Given that the first task was tuning, I elected for suboptimal optic over the fiddle of manual loading. Anyway, the Spitfire is plenty good out to 100y and that my max at home.
The only other addition is the Donny Tatsu. I alway use the Tatsu in 22, but it may prove insufficient above 55fpe.
The gun was store tuned to shoot 25g JSB pellets at 960fps with reg@120. I have a bunch of Javelin 218s and set about tuning it to shoot the 26 grain at 980. That’s about my max comfort level shooting at home given my backstops etc. I guesstimated 130 bar but that was a little low and found that 133 was needed to hit 980 on the knee (96.5%) of max speed. That equated to a hammer setting of 3.2, which I set up with the power wheel at max so that I could crank it down later to find sweet spots for pellets. I will say that the tuning is a breeze with just the one reg, which seems to be very solid in ES (~8fps!!!) and quick to recover between shots. Also, don’t miss dialing the valve adjuster, which is so finicky on my M3.
I set about zeroing at 30y and then 50y and it quickly became apparent that the reports on accuracy are well founded. At 50y, my duct seal target contained one 1/3 inch hole with a single chunk of lead inside. I then shot a group of 8 out to 100y and it was 1.3in Diam CTC. It was windy enough that I wouldn’t normally sight or test. Then there’s the scope and the fact that I was shooting from bags and new to the guns ergonomics. So, overall, I’m very pleased with that group and confident in the capability of the platform. The ergos are surprisingly good and the shot cycle is really nice with very little desire to move/recoil. Cocking mechanism is great but the trigger is not as nice as my M3. Stages not so well defined and the final pull seems heavier. I’ll take a shot at adjusting tonight.
My final day 1 experiments focused on different ammo. First the 23 grain Javelins, which shot at 980fps at power setting 19. Just as accurate as the 26 grain at 50y and conveniently, no change in POI on the prism scope (the chief downside of which is that clicks are 1Moa). Then, for plinking/yard pesting purposes, I tried the Hades pellets. I wasn’t too optimistic here because the gun is operating well into the hammer sensitive valve lock realm, at power level 9, giving 890fps. However, the ES was still <10 over a mag full and they also shot cloverleaf at 50y when the wind had slowed for the evening. The most pleasant surprise here though was the sound (or lack thereof). By some distance, the most stealthy 28fpe I’ve ever encountered!
So, overall, color me very impressed. Yes, it’s comically long, even in 600mm. It won’t leave the house - I don’t want to have to explain it’s oddity in public. But from the perspective of a tool, it’s great, with one final caveat: can I pick it up tomorrow morning and have it shoot the same POI with no dry firing or acclimatization shots? My M3 can’t do that cause it suffers from the valve oring stiction that cause the first few shots to have a significant reduction in fps. That’s no good for impromptu pesting. I haven’t seen that issue discussed with the Pantera but then again it didn’t come to light for a long time with the M3. I’ll be sure to let you know…
