The Priest

[aldea6]

Hi Alex , we're nearly neighbours , because I live in Belgium , in the french part of the country. I'm very involved in airgun since many years , but in Belgium nobody seems to be interested in that sport. The only advantage is that there's no limitation in airgun power , without licence….until now.

I'm interested in benchrest , and I hesitate about bying a new gun for this : FX Crown or RTI Priest. Do you think the Priest , in .22 or .25 is a good option to shoot accurately at 100 yards ( or meters) ?

Thanks for your opinion

Michel

 

[aldea6]

By the way , did you try the special long range barrel in .22cal ?. I saw this was for sale at Luchtbuks.

 

[airlexx]

 

Hello Michel,

I don’t have first hand experience with calibers larger then .177 and shot up to 50 meters.. at 50 it stacks the pellets on top of each other.

I have seen youtube films where they shoot great groups at greater distances, I was in Grupont Belgium shooting both Priests with my son at the European HFT Championship wich we hosted.

what did happen was that the new Priest had some oily stuff in the hammer area ( probably conservation oil) and with the cold that became thick, and the pellets fell short..... but that was stupid of me, because my sons Priest performed flawlessley, he just does’nt shoot wel yet ( my son) this hammer and housing I cleaned a year ago!

so the next day, after a good clean, the wind or me was the reason for the misses.

as soon as possible i’ll post some pictures of the event.......( sorry for not having an answer to your question)



groetjes,



alex

 

[airlexx]

Almost forgot.....

this is how we woke up..

small impression of the European championship... beautiful cake from AirArms!!!!!

Big thank you to all the sponsors.... visit the Benelux HFT site to see who helped us 

Alex

 

[airlexx]

First day ... since I’m part of the organisation I’ve forgot my rainclothing.... we had four seasons in one day! My son was cold and I was wet after 5 lanes... so whe quit the first day....

next day, I didn’t do so bad! There was quite a bit of wind, some rain and had a day score that was in the top end!

in 2020 the ceracoated one and me are going to compete in the European FT championships, and with confidence ... that is the rifle

I on the other hand have to start training! A bit of running, shooting a lot of lead in full wind, so i know what en where to aim!!

keep you posted!



Alex

 

[airlexx]

I bought some walnut a while back and decided to do something with it 

 

[airlexx]

I’m such a digitaly impaired person.

somewhere in this forum was someone who stated that the first Priest was dangerous because apparentley the hammer chipped?

I promised to make a picture of my polished hammer cause if something is wrong it would show..... yeah?



ok here it is ... the hammer of the Priest 1 after 20.000 pellets!!

 

the hole I made because people assumed that inconsistancy happend because it couldn’t go past a air bubble, but it became clear that a metal preservatieve was the colporate, once removed bang on takdriver!!



but hammer ok, no wear.... stil surpasses any other bullpup.



Alex

 

[Vetmx]

Interesting. I was going to flute my hammer in the morning. Then I saw this. So what you are saying is just remove the coating and polish? I would rather do that. 

 

[airlexx]

Hi vetmx,

I had inconsistency issues and after cleaning the hammer ( black gunk) and polishing it was bang on, I took a dremmel and grinded a hole but it wasn’t necessary.

if you have the first Priest and like me run it at say 12 FTP or 16 joules and have very good trigger control, then you may have to grind of 1 mm of you're hammer at the side of the catch... say 2/3 mm after the hammer surface... this prevents after release that the catch glides along the hammer surface while traveling towards the valve stem. Hope you can understand what I’m trying to say, because English is not my first language..



Alex

 

[Vetmx]

I have a Priest II. Actually upon further inspection I noticed a vent hole to the right of the valve pin so the hammer just pushes air out it as it moves forward. The back of my hammer is smaller diameter so it looks like they listened to original Priest owners. I will keep an eye on the side of my hammer for drag marks. 

 

[airgunmike56]

Wow, Looked around and it seems that AOA is the only one that carry's the Priest II in the USA, Powerful , simple to work on and few orings to give you problems, Why is this gun not selling like crazy over here? I am 100% sure I would go for the extra stuff Carbon fiber bottle and the extra tuning for more power, 

If I had to gripe about something it would be the magazine , I hate the spring loaded spin magazines , I said I would never buy another gun with this type magazine, I like the open style of the Mutant, Cricket, Veteran, So its got me stepping back a few feet, and saying Crap.

Mike

 

[Vetmx]

I think they are selling plenty. Its just not a problem child and making headlines on these forums. My Taipan and Ataman use open style mags and I don't have any issue with the Priest mag. Don't mistake a Priest mag with a Marauder style spin mag. I hate those things.

 

[airlexx]

I have zero problems with the mags, the black priest in the pictures I use now for plate/ speedshooting with the mag.... and no hickups or accuracy problems.

mags are made from Nylon/delrin not crisp/brittle plastic like the FX impact for instance.



they are a bit like the American muscle car, built like a tank made to perform, and crazy accurate!



alex

 

[airlexx]

Yep,

they all have the vent hole, I only noticed that after i made an additional hole in the hammer

ordered a carbon bottle and aluminium grips from Aliexpress, to make it even more......