I wasn't new to shooting when I got into air guns several years ago, but I was buying my first air gun. Coming from powder burners, and being an ultimate accuracy seeker, I wanted to avoid the buy a starter gun, improve, sell it at a loss, rinse-and-repeat process of losing money on my air gun(s) while acquiring a high-end, high accuracy gun. I went straight to an FX Impact as my first air gun and was very happy. Now, several years and three iterations of the Impact later, I wanted to upgrade to something that solved a few of the things with the Impact that I still didn't like. Primarily, barrel liners, a lousy trigger, and foreign manufacturing and logistics. The M4 may have solved the trigger issue, but it just wasn't enough to justify the upgrade expense. Don't get me wrong... I loved my Impacts, and they are great guns that served me well. I just finally found a gun that checks all the boxes.
After watching some Skout Factory Team shooters rather closely at the 2024 Pyramyd Air Cup, I started researching the Epoch and Evo. It seemed it would have the better trigger I was looking for, Skout was partnering with Lothar Walther and Sub-MOA for full bull barrels for the Evo rather than a liner system, and they were an American company based in PA. I talked to a couple of the High Pressure Pneumatics Factory Team shooters who said they toured their manufacturing facility and were amazed. They also said the support was the best they've seen.
So, I now own a Skout Evo... my first non-FX gun since diving into air guns several years ago. I've only shot it twice so far and had a few questions on sequence of operation and tuning theory. It's a hammerless solenoid operated system with a very different valve system. As such, tuning is similar in basic concept, but different in functional application. Bottom line... I had some technical questions to help me understand how this particular electro-mechanical platform operated and the practical application of tuning it.
So, being used to seeking tech support from foreign manufacturers, I wrote a detailed email with my questions and sent it. Then I prepared to forget about it for a while, not knowing which day of the week they address and reply to tech support emails.
Within an hour my phone rang with a PA phone number. When I answered the call I found myself talking to Mr. Bill Gardner, the President of Skout Airguns. He had read my email and was calling to make sure each of my questions got answered to my satisfaction, and to make sure I felt I understood the process of tuning the Evo for accuracy, and how it differed slightly from other typical tuning processes. He started with a couple of the key foundational questions I had, and when he finished answering those, the process is simple enough that most of the other questions were starting to answer themselves and the process really fell into place. When he finished, I felt confident in my understanding of this platform's differences and ease of operation/tuning. I also received an invitation to tour the factory, have them go through my gun and help give it any fine-tuning it might need while there, and follow the manufacturing floor to illustrate the building process to help me better understand it and working on my gun. The really neat thing is, I can actually get there without having to cross an ocean.
All I can say is it's been a long time since I've had such refreshing, helpful and sincere customer service. Mr. Gardner, THANK YOU for taking the time out of your day to have a genuine live conversation with me.
I'm a Field Service Engineer for Philips Healthcare's Ultrasound machines. We have a saying in the service community that goes "Sales sells the first one, but Service sells every one after that". Something tells me Mr. Gardner has heard that saying as well.
Chuck Bennett
After watching some Skout Factory Team shooters rather closely at the 2024 Pyramyd Air Cup, I started researching the Epoch and Evo. It seemed it would have the better trigger I was looking for, Skout was partnering with Lothar Walther and Sub-MOA for full bull barrels for the Evo rather than a liner system, and they were an American company based in PA. I talked to a couple of the High Pressure Pneumatics Factory Team shooters who said they toured their manufacturing facility and were amazed. They also said the support was the best they've seen.
So, I now own a Skout Evo... my first non-FX gun since diving into air guns several years ago. I've only shot it twice so far and had a few questions on sequence of operation and tuning theory. It's a hammerless solenoid operated system with a very different valve system. As such, tuning is similar in basic concept, but different in functional application. Bottom line... I had some technical questions to help me understand how this particular electro-mechanical platform operated and the practical application of tuning it.
So, being used to seeking tech support from foreign manufacturers, I wrote a detailed email with my questions and sent it. Then I prepared to forget about it for a while, not knowing which day of the week they address and reply to tech support emails.
Within an hour my phone rang with a PA phone number. When I answered the call I found myself talking to Mr. Bill Gardner, the President of Skout Airguns. He had read my email and was calling to make sure each of my questions got answered to my satisfaction, and to make sure I felt I understood the process of tuning the Evo for accuracy, and how it differed slightly from other typical tuning processes. He started with a couple of the key foundational questions I had, and when he finished answering those, the process is simple enough that most of the other questions were starting to answer themselves and the process really fell into place. When he finished, I felt confident in my understanding of this platform's differences and ease of operation/tuning. I also received an invitation to tour the factory, have them go through my gun and help give it any fine-tuning it might need while there, and follow the manufacturing floor to illustrate the building process to help me better understand it and working on my gun. The really neat thing is, I can actually get there without having to cross an ocean.
All I can say is it's been a long time since I've had such refreshing, helpful and sincere customer service. Mr. Gardner, THANK YOU for taking the time out of your day to have a genuine live conversation with me.
I'm a Field Service Engineer for Philips Healthcare's Ultrasound machines. We have a saying in the service community that goes "Sales sells the first one, but Service sells every one after that". Something tells me Mr. Gardner has heard that saying as well.
Chuck Bennett
