BRK Pathfinder. Wow. Just wow.

Ok what an adventure this has been.
First off I want to apologize because I pissed of some people a month ago when I posted a mystery title about a gun I couldn't review or reveal because I was asked to do so by AOA until the manufacturer did the official release in the US. As many had guessed at the time it was the pathfinder. Now that I had it for a while I can share some of my thoughts.
Well I am gonna say this relationship has been through waves, through it's ups and downs.
First impressions were not so good. The rifle cost around $1800 and you don't even get a hard plastic case? Come on BRK you can do better than that. Then the regulator came preset from the factory at 165 witch I thought it was a bit on the high side and would be wasting air.
Before I continue the write up here is a picture finally of the gun of how it was " dressed " today at the " range"

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Right. So the rifle came with the reg at 165 and on the right side it has a 4 position switch to adjust the transfer port.
I put a scope on and started slinging pellets downrange at 35 yards and it was the most frustrating experience. I tried a bunch of different pellets, probably more than 15 different ones and none would group for me. Finally the last one, the HN hornets 16.2 grains with the port adjustment at max was giving me a rugged hole!!! Yeeeeaaahh,!!! right when I was about to give up and call this a pos. I was getting about 3 mags before it fell of the reg.
Then a few days later and as I was waiting for my order of HN hornets to arrive as I was literally down to the last 1/4 of the tin when I tried them on the Pathfinder, I stumbled upon a forgotten, tucked away tin of GTO lead free 11.75 grains. Said why not and gave it a go. OMG one rugged hole!!
To be continued...
 
I forgot to add that my testing was with a 110 0db moderator. So yesterday I pulled the chrony out. The GTO 11.75 gn, shoot the best with tje port adjuster second position from minimum, at 864 fps for 19.5 grain. Maxing out the adjuster gives minimal gains, wastes air and actually worsens the groups. The Hornets shot a little slower, if I remember in the 840 s(?) for 25.5 fpe. That's with the port adjuster on max.
I forgot to add that last week I took the scope out and added a Vortex Solar red dot ( 1x magnification). My thinking was that this is meant to be as light rig as possible, geared for hunting pigeons and iguanas
 
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I’m just not seeing wow at $1800, no disrespect, looks cool.
Looks cool? Or wow for the price? It’s a top of the line Brocock and we all know the solid, out the box performance of the entire lineup. Well maybe not you, but many others do. That little rig will punch way above its looks and price. The pests on the receiving end will be wowed…
 
Sorry guys haven't explained the wow factor yet. I was on the beach doing my write up when my girlfriend came over.
As I was saying the rifle with the Trijicon tenmile 4-24 x50 was stupid accurate up to 40 yards where it's the max distance at ny backyard range. At that distance the edge on the groups was going to the GTOs lead free where we were talking one rugged hole groups vs the hornets where they would open up a bit.
Still I wasn't satisfied with the heft of the rig as I wanted something that I would be able to shoot offhand. Thus the Vortex red dot. Well today I had the chance of going tobthe "range" and trying it out at 50 yards. The range here in the Caribbean Island of St. Croix are some ruins from an old hotel. Every Sunday there is an airgun shoot and today was my first time attending.

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Looks cool? Or wow for the price? It’s a top of the line Brocock and we all know the solid, out the box performance of the entire lineup. Well maybe not you, but many others do. That little rig will punch way above its looks and price. The pests on the receiving end will be wowed…
No, as in his words were not encouraging…
 
The wow factor: seeing for the first time a target at 50 yards and knowing that I would try and do some decent grouping with a red dot that has no magnification , was intimidating. I slapped on the UTG bipod, took out binos, set the table and started shooting the GTOs. Shot 5 pellets, grabbed the binos and low and behold! A half inch group at 50! About 2 inches to the left and one inch down from the bullseye, with a breeze coming from my left.
I them tried the hornets and the results where not as good. Probably an inch and a half group. Kept switching back and forth with same results. So lesson here is that the Hornets can be extremely accurate out of this gun but they are a 35 yard pellet. I was expecting the much lighter GTO (11.75 grains) to be blown all over with the breeze but No! So weird, kept giving me rugged holes.
Another wow factor. I switched to slugs. I tried 5 different ones and what do yoo know? It LOVES NSA 17.5 gn 217.5. I was shooting at the reactive target and after 5 shots I grabbed the binos ( 6x magnification) and couldn't see anything at the target. I thought what the hell did I miss completely? It was a black reactive target with red bullseye about 3/4 of an inch..when the range got cold I walked up and what did I see? All 5 shots at the bullseye! With a red dot!!!!
The other slugs did not perform good at all. So now I have 2 different pellets that I can play with, one super accurate up to 35 yards and punchy at 25 FPE, the super accurate 50 yard GTO lead free pellets at 19 FPE and the super super accurate 17.5 grain NSA slugs that I have no.idea at what speed they were shooting (port adjuster at max).
What makes me even happier is that I have ordered a 3x Vortex magnifier that will go in front of the red dot. When you don't need it, as for close shots and evidently up to 50 yards, it's just flips out to the side. Cant wait to put it on and stretch the rifle out to 75 yards as I would say the 50 yards distance is the max that my eyes could dicern the targets.
The cherry on the top? Shot my spinner target that has 3 discs from bigger to smaller wit the small being what, less than an inch? Boom.boom.boom.all 3, again boom.boom.boom.all3..No misses!! That was the end of my day..I can now say I am officially in LOVE with this little rifle.
 
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Sorry guys haven't explained the wow factor yet. I was on the beach doing my write up when my girlfriend came over.
As I was saying the rifle with the Trijicon tenmile 4-24 x50 was stupid accurate up to 40 yards where it's the max distance at ny backyard range. At that distance the edge on the groups was going to the GTOs lead free where we were talking one rugged hole groups vs the hornets where they would open up a bit.
Still I wasn't satisfied with the heft of the rig as I wanted something that I would be able to shoot offhand. Thus the Vortex red dot. Well today I had the chance of going tobthe "range" and trying it out at 50 yards. The range here in the Caribbean Island of St. Croix are some ruins from an old hotel. Every Sunday there is an airgun shoot and today was my first time attending.

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That is the coolest place to shoot that I’ve seen yet! Thanks for sharing, and enjoy your new gun and incredible setting!
 
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I checked the specs and your rifle has a 10” barrel which is the same as my Atomic. Have you watched Steve’s review of the Atomic on YouTube? He suggests tunes around 700 fps and I wondered if you have tried any tunes that low in yours? My Atomic is VERY accurate in the 700 FPS range. My regulator is set at 110 bar which appears to be a lot less than the 165 bar In yours. Steve said something about the short barrel harmonics really prefers a lower tune and he was right. I would also think your shot count should go waaaaay up too if that interests you?
 
I checked the specs and your rifle has a 10” barrel which is the same as my Atomic. Have you watched Steve’s review of the Atomic on YouTube? He suggests tunes around 700 fps and I wondered if you have tried any tunes that low in yours? My Atomic is VERY accurate in the 700 FPS range. My regulator is set at 110 bar which appears to be a lot less than the 165 bar In yours. Steve said something about the short barrel harmonics really prefers a lower tune and he was right. I would also think your shot count should go waaaaay up too if that interests you?
Thank you, I've been scouring the net looking for vids or anything on the Pathfinder. There's not much out there, that's how I ended up here. I bought it for under 40yd pesting and indoor shooting. From all I've seen it should fill that niche nicely...