Today I shot the Feb. COF for NRL22 with my Delta Wolf shooting .30 Zan pellets, 56 gr at 860ish fps. The gun shot great accuracy-wise. I was nailing a 1 inch target at 100 yards when sighting in. Winds were tough and switchy at the match, but according to Strelok they would have been just as tough and switchy if I used my rimfire rifle. The biggest issues were the 8 round magazines, the bipod height and the fore-end depth.
Here is a breakdown by stage/prop:
Stage 1 - alternating from shooting off the top of a tripod and prone. Issue 1 was shooting off of the tripod. I wanted to have the bag plate and the bipod on the Arca rail, but because I have to have a 10 ounce weight on the front of the rail for balance and shot flipiness, I didn't have room for the plate and the bipod. So I just ran the bipod and used the bare arca rail on the bag on the tripod. This wasn't very stable. The next issue was when I transitioned to prone. Because the arca rail sits so low on the gun, you have to either angle the bipod legs out at 45 degrees or use a bigger rear bag for shooting prone. My big bag was in use on top of the tripod so I angled the bipod legs out but I still didn't get them perfect and had poor rear support. These issues coupled with the fact that I forgot to put my scope turret back to zero after sighting in on the 100 yard target before the stage led to a bad start. This was mostly user error, but the gun configuration did not help matters. But let's soldier on.
Stage 2 - prone KYL rack. This time I managed to get a good prone position and I got good hits on the KYL rack until the wind shifted. The issue here was the 8 round magazines. Since most NRL22 stages are 10 or 12 rounds, I knew I would be doing a mag change on every stage. So I had the active mag inserted from the left and the next mag stuck to the active mag with the magnets on the right. So to do a mag change, I just had to push in the mag on the right and I'm good to go. The problem is that the mags let you close the bolt on an empty mag, so on 3 of the 5 stages I lost track of my round count and shot an empty barrel at some point. Luckily, the sound is distinctive so I wasn't charged with a miss, but it still wastes the time it took to take the unleaded shot and doesn't help the heart rate. Once I get some more experience at this I'll be better at remembering when to make mag changes, but right now I'm a noob that's twitchier than a 16 year old at his driving test. So again, user error caused by gun design. (To be fair, the gun was not designed for this style of shooting. I love the gun, which is why I'm going to these lengths to try to make it work for this).
Stage 3 - alternating between pyramid and barrel. This was a decent stage for me, but the gun didn't do me any favors. Basically I ran the bipod back all the way to the trigger guard and kind of used it as a barricade stop, then I ran a shmedium bag on the pyramid rungs, resting on the arca rail. I wanted the bipod to be deployed for shooting on the barrel with rear support. The stage I'm at with my "precision" shooting is that I want to make hay while the sun is shining. There aren't a lot of great options on the pyramid for making good shots but you can get pretty stable with a modified prone on the top of the barrel, so I wanted to make sure I was set up for 4 good shots on the barrel and just do my best on the pyramid. I used the top two rungs of the pyramid because the gun is so tall you have to bring it in at an angle, so I wanted to be standing for that. I think I got all of my shots on the barrel, and a couple on the pyramid.
Stage 4 - tank trap. This one went fine except that I missed a lot. The wind was coming off of a berm weird and I struggled to figure it out. I ran the bag plate all the way back and the gun balanced well on the tank trap tips. This should have gone better but it just didn't, I need to suck less.
Stage 5 - folding chair, seat and back. I was dreading this one. I forgot to practice this at home, which bit me. The only way I could see through the scope from the chair seat was by laying a towel on the seat and resting the bottle of the gun on the towel. Does that sound unstable? Good, because it was. The chair back was fine. If I would have tried this at home first I could have had a better plan, but it still wouldn't have been great.
So all in all, I had a lot of fun and I accomplished my mission to see if the Delta Wolf could be made to be a NRL22 gun. The answer to that is yes-ish.
Step one would be to change to .22 or .25 to get magazines with a higher round count (10 for the .25, 11 for the .22). If I'm going away from the .30, I'll want to shoot slugs so I would probably go with the .25 and find slugs that the barrel likes. So there's $800 for the barrel kit and $120 per mag, let's call it $1,040. Actually, the CARM mags might be a better option because I think they don't let you close the bolt on an empty mag. Whatever, the mags need to be at least 10 rounds and long enough for slugs.
Step two would be to get the K&L arca rail that has the step up in front of the tank. I think it's called the Drake Trigger Guard. This would allow you to run the bipod at a normal height in front of the tank and would give you a little lip to rest the gun on for tight barricades (or folding chair seats). Not perfect but better than the current rail. So that's $300.
Step three would be scrapping the high scope rail and get a normal pic rail with 20 or 30 MOA. I currently run out of runway on the turret when trying to shoot to 200+ yards. Call that $100 I guess. Actually, I have a 10 MOA rail sitting right here that would lower the scope by about .3", I'll probably just throw that on for giggles. Still high, but better.
So for about $1,200 - $1,500 I could transform the Delta Wolf into something that would get me about 85-90% of the way to a legit PRS/NRL rig. It's still going to be tight in some barricades, especially for PRS. I think what I will do is hang on to that money and put it towards a more purpose built airgun, like the DRS PRO, Panthera or maybe the AirMaks Katran N. I can just shoot rimfire until then and keep using the Delta Wolf for FT and EFT, which it shines at.
If you made it this far, congratulations. You must be bored. Go watch some youtube videos or sort some pellets.
Here is a breakdown by stage/prop:
Stage 1 - alternating from shooting off the top of a tripod and prone. Issue 1 was shooting off of the tripod. I wanted to have the bag plate and the bipod on the Arca rail, but because I have to have a 10 ounce weight on the front of the rail for balance and shot flipiness, I didn't have room for the plate and the bipod. So I just ran the bipod and used the bare arca rail on the bag on the tripod. This wasn't very stable. The next issue was when I transitioned to prone. Because the arca rail sits so low on the gun, you have to either angle the bipod legs out at 45 degrees or use a bigger rear bag for shooting prone. My big bag was in use on top of the tripod so I angled the bipod legs out but I still didn't get them perfect and had poor rear support. These issues coupled with the fact that I forgot to put my scope turret back to zero after sighting in on the 100 yard target before the stage led to a bad start. This was mostly user error, but the gun configuration did not help matters. But let's soldier on.
Stage 2 - prone KYL rack. This time I managed to get a good prone position and I got good hits on the KYL rack until the wind shifted. The issue here was the 8 round magazines. Since most NRL22 stages are 10 or 12 rounds, I knew I would be doing a mag change on every stage. So I had the active mag inserted from the left and the next mag stuck to the active mag with the magnets on the right. So to do a mag change, I just had to push in the mag on the right and I'm good to go. The problem is that the mags let you close the bolt on an empty mag, so on 3 of the 5 stages I lost track of my round count and shot an empty barrel at some point. Luckily, the sound is distinctive so I wasn't charged with a miss, but it still wastes the time it took to take the unleaded shot and doesn't help the heart rate. Once I get some more experience at this I'll be better at remembering when to make mag changes, but right now I'm a noob that's twitchier than a 16 year old at his driving test. So again, user error caused by gun design. (To be fair, the gun was not designed for this style of shooting. I love the gun, which is why I'm going to these lengths to try to make it work for this).
Stage 3 - alternating between pyramid and barrel. This was a decent stage for me, but the gun didn't do me any favors. Basically I ran the bipod back all the way to the trigger guard and kind of used it as a barricade stop, then I ran a shmedium bag on the pyramid rungs, resting on the arca rail. I wanted the bipod to be deployed for shooting on the barrel with rear support. The stage I'm at with my "precision" shooting is that I want to make hay while the sun is shining. There aren't a lot of great options on the pyramid for making good shots but you can get pretty stable with a modified prone on the top of the barrel, so I wanted to make sure I was set up for 4 good shots on the barrel and just do my best on the pyramid. I used the top two rungs of the pyramid because the gun is so tall you have to bring it in at an angle, so I wanted to be standing for that. I think I got all of my shots on the barrel, and a couple on the pyramid.
Stage 4 - tank trap. This one went fine except that I missed a lot. The wind was coming off of a berm weird and I struggled to figure it out. I ran the bag plate all the way back and the gun balanced well on the tank trap tips. This should have gone better but it just didn't, I need to suck less.
Stage 5 - folding chair, seat and back. I was dreading this one. I forgot to practice this at home, which bit me. The only way I could see through the scope from the chair seat was by laying a towel on the seat and resting the bottle of the gun on the towel. Does that sound unstable? Good, because it was. The chair back was fine. If I would have tried this at home first I could have had a better plan, but it still wouldn't have been great.
So all in all, I had a lot of fun and I accomplished my mission to see if the Delta Wolf could be made to be a NRL22 gun. The answer to that is yes-ish.
Step one would be to change to .22 or .25 to get magazines with a higher round count (10 for the .25, 11 for the .22). If I'm going away from the .30, I'll want to shoot slugs so I would probably go with the .25 and find slugs that the barrel likes. So there's $800 for the barrel kit and $120 per mag, let's call it $1,040. Actually, the CARM mags might be a better option because I think they don't let you close the bolt on an empty mag. Whatever, the mags need to be at least 10 rounds and long enough for slugs.
Step two would be to get the K&L arca rail that has the step up in front of the tank. I think it's called the Drake Trigger Guard. This would allow you to run the bipod at a normal height in front of the tank and would give you a little lip to rest the gun on for tight barricades (or folding chair seats). Not perfect but better than the current rail. So that's $300.
Step three would be scrapping the high scope rail and get a normal pic rail with 20 or 30 MOA. I currently run out of runway on the turret when trying to shoot to 200+ yards. Call that $100 I guess. Actually, I have a 10 MOA rail sitting right here that would lower the scope by about .3", I'll probably just throw that on for giggles. Still high, but better.
So for about $1,200 - $1,500 I could transform the Delta Wolf into something that would get me about 85-90% of the way to a legit PRS/NRL rig. It's still going to be tight in some barricades, especially for PRS. I think what I will do is hang on to that money and put it towards a more purpose built airgun, like the DRS PRO, Panthera or maybe the AirMaks Katran N. I can just shoot rimfire until then and keep using the Delta Wolf for FT and EFT, which it shines at.
If you made it this far, congratulations. You must be bored. Go watch some youtube videos or sort some pellets.
