I have been in the PCP airgun field for a couple of years now. I tend to be more on the practical "prepper" side than the hard core long range shooting that is more common. My first exposure was to the AirForce SS that I saw in Iraq being used for vector control in the camps. When I got back that was my first PCP, and I was hooked.
As time went on I wanted more "fun" and when .22 rimfire became like gold I moved to a FX Monsoon. I love that gun. But, it also has some issues and wanted more.
So I waited for the Hummingbird... A bird that ended up as a DoDo instead of a fast sleek little bird. Glad I did not spend my money on it. Others jumped on that bleeding edge, so I thought I would do my part with this one.
Here is my first review of the K1.
The K1 does not have the fit and finish of the FX guns I have seen, but it is not bad. The balance is real good and it is easy to shoot. The learning curve has been steep, because it is not a traditional type of airgun. It had no bolt or cocking lever and no hammer. It uses a air valve to shoot, metering the air to the breech and indexing the magazine. The barrel looks to be a micro grove, and it contains baffles and air vents on top of the baffles.
The air tube is Ti and can fill to 5000 psi, my compressor can go to 4500 psi so that is as high as I have gone. It has a removable filter in the cap that holds the fill port, the K1 uses a fill probe like found on the FX just smaller in size.
The K1 is regulated, and my crono shows it does a good job keeping each shot within around 10 fps. It is adjustable by turning an allen wrench on the bottom of the stock.
You can then micro adjust the fps by turning a knob at the lower part of the stock.
The gauge on the gun only reads the regulated air not how much is in the tube. I like this, some will not.
You load the 19 round magazine by flipping up a small lever then load the pellets on the side and it works real well and is fast and easy, so much better than my spring indexing FX mag. It is as easy as loading a Ruger mag with .22 rimfire rounds.
Now for the important part.... How does it shoot?
It had a learning curve to get the gun set up. This is a real powerful airgun. I was shooting .33 grain .22 LR slugs through it at 1275 fps, sounded like a rimfire. It would shoot pellets even faster, but you could never hit anything. Once I figured out how to adjust the gun, things settled down. I adjusted the regulator to around 1000 fps with 16 gr pellets, the gun would then shoot in the 950 range with 18.13 JSB Exact pellets. I could then fine tune up and down to see how it shoots.
The gun is super picky on pellets in regards to accuracy, of course you might could get any pellet to shoot good if you spent the time and adjusted the guns pressure to the pellet. In the end I found that it really liked Predator Polymags and hated the JSBs.
Because it is for pest control and sticking to my prepper roots, I mounted only a 3X sight on it. I can shoot Quarter (coin) size groups all day with the polymags and set at 1025 fps. It does occasionally throw a round. This was a full 19 round mag at 50 yards.
It is as quiet as my FX Monsoon at this setting.
Once I got the gun dialed in I have shot over 600 rounds through it, 3 full tins of Polymags and several hundred JSBs. Once set up, the gun has operated flawless. First out of the box, it displayed indexing issues and air venting. A quick email to Huben helped me solve this problem. After I figured out my setup problem I have had no more issues.
Now the Bad part.
NOTHING is serviceable on the gun, Huben says that it will never need servicing, but it has baffles and there is no way to disassemble or clean anything.
That is a real issue for me. I will shoot several thousand rounds through it over the next couple weeks and time will tell. Possibly Huben is correct? I do know that lead fouling is a problem in my FX Monsoon, but it uses a piston to cycle so to be fair it is apples to oranges.
Manual is terrible, but that can be fixed.
There is nothing to adjust or even take apart on the gun. Huben does not include an exploded drawing so no clue on how to maintain the gun or fix it if it does fail.
The trigger is mush until the last moment then crisp and short, set around 2 lbs. I can live with this, but people wanting to shoot target stuff will not like this gun.
Huben does not want you to disassemble ANYTHING, but here it is naked. I would not even try to mess with anything in the air valve area of the gun without an exploded view and instructions. I did it so you will not need to. Hard to purchase an expensive piece of equipment without seeing what is inside. Would be like having a hot wife that always stays dressed!
Shoot me any questions and I will try to address them. I like this gun... and if it keeps shooting without breaking down it is a keeper and a game changer for airguns.
Logan
As time went on I wanted more "fun" and when .22 rimfire became like gold I moved to a FX Monsoon. I love that gun. But, it also has some issues and wanted more.
So I waited for the Hummingbird... A bird that ended up as a DoDo instead of a fast sleek little bird. Glad I did not spend my money on it. Others jumped on that bleeding edge, so I thought I would do my part with this one.
Here is my first review of the K1.
The K1 does not have the fit and finish of the FX guns I have seen, but it is not bad. The balance is real good and it is easy to shoot. The learning curve has been steep, because it is not a traditional type of airgun. It had no bolt or cocking lever and no hammer. It uses a air valve to shoot, metering the air to the breech and indexing the magazine. The barrel looks to be a micro grove, and it contains baffles and air vents on top of the baffles.
The air tube is Ti and can fill to 5000 psi, my compressor can go to 4500 psi so that is as high as I have gone. It has a removable filter in the cap that holds the fill port, the K1 uses a fill probe like found on the FX just smaller in size.
The K1 is regulated, and my crono shows it does a good job keeping each shot within around 10 fps. It is adjustable by turning an allen wrench on the bottom of the stock.
You can then micro adjust the fps by turning a knob at the lower part of the stock.
The gauge on the gun only reads the regulated air not how much is in the tube. I like this, some will not.
You load the 19 round magazine by flipping up a small lever then load the pellets on the side and it works real well and is fast and easy, so much better than my spring indexing FX mag. It is as easy as loading a Ruger mag with .22 rimfire rounds.
Now for the important part.... How does it shoot?
It had a learning curve to get the gun set up. This is a real powerful airgun. I was shooting .33 grain .22 LR slugs through it at 1275 fps, sounded like a rimfire. It would shoot pellets even faster, but you could never hit anything. Once I figured out how to adjust the gun, things settled down. I adjusted the regulator to around 1000 fps with 16 gr pellets, the gun would then shoot in the 950 range with 18.13 JSB Exact pellets. I could then fine tune up and down to see how it shoots.
The gun is super picky on pellets in regards to accuracy, of course you might could get any pellet to shoot good if you spent the time and adjusted the guns pressure to the pellet. In the end I found that it really liked Predator Polymags and hated the JSBs.
Because it is for pest control and sticking to my prepper roots, I mounted only a 3X sight on it. I can shoot Quarter (coin) size groups all day with the polymags and set at 1025 fps. It does occasionally throw a round. This was a full 19 round mag at 50 yards.
It is as quiet as my FX Monsoon at this setting.
Once I got the gun dialed in I have shot over 600 rounds through it, 3 full tins of Polymags and several hundred JSBs. Once set up, the gun has operated flawless. First out of the box, it displayed indexing issues and air venting. A quick email to Huben helped me solve this problem. After I figured out my setup problem I have had no more issues.
Now the Bad part.
NOTHING is serviceable on the gun, Huben says that it will never need servicing, but it has baffles and there is no way to disassemble or clean anything.
That is a real issue for me. I will shoot several thousand rounds through it over the next couple weeks and time will tell. Possibly Huben is correct? I do know that lead fouling is a problem in my FX Monsoon, but it uses a piston to cycle so to be fair it is apples to oranges.
Manual is terrible, but that can be fixed.
There is nothing to adjust or even take apart on the gun. Huben does not include an exploded drawing so no clue on how to maintain the gun or fix it if it does fail.
The trigger is mush until the last moment then crisp and short, set around 2 lbs. I can live with this, but people wanting to shoot target stuff will not like this gun.
Huben does not want you to disassemble ANYTHING, but here it is naked. I would not even try to mess with anything in the air valve area of the gun without an exploded view and instructions. I did it so you will not need to. Hard to purchase an expensive piece of equipment without seeing what is inside. Would be like having a hot wife that always stays dressed!
Shoot me any questions and I will try to address them. I like this gun... and if it keeps shooting without breaking down it is a keeper and a game changer for airguns.
Logan
