So, as promised a rebuttal to the most overexaggerated and farcical review I think I have ever read of any product.
WTF 1.0
First off the guy opens with a photo claiming the edges are like buck knives and even circles his own bipod (i guess to claim the rail underneath), 5 points along the same rail, 5 points along the buttplate to include the base of the buttplate where a sling attachment is. I have ran my fingers fast across these points and my finger isn't cut. Was a proper job done at chamfering all of the edges? That is up to you. I have felt guns more butter smooth like a czcustom.com protek 75 varient but the Priest isn't going to cut your finger nor is it even painful to press up against these edges.
WTF 2.01
I got FX no limit mount for a picatinny rail with 30mm tube. It mounted snugly to the gun and my Athelon Talos FFP 4-14x scope. There are, for some reason, varients of picatinny rails. I have seen 20mm, 22mm, and 25mm rail mounts. I thought the 1913 Picatinny was a standard but apparently I was wrong. Maybe he had wider mounts... Hard for me to draw a conclusion with what information I have.
WTF 2.01 (or maybe 2.02 but really, who is counting?)
You rest your head where it wants to fall naturally. It may fall on the block or the shroud based on how long your neck is. Guess what, this is any bullpup, They aren't following the typical trend of a traditional rifle. If you want a short gun comprimises must be made by the individual shooter. The magazine is not in the way for me. Maybe it will be for you, I don't know. Worst case scenario the mag may move in its slot due to facial pressure but that is something to live with and I haven't had this problem a single time in the 7 times shooting this gun (in one week) now and a whole tin of jsb kings and then some shot through it.
WTF2.03
Yes. The self indexing magazine itn't friendly to decocking. I have mentioned this earlier in my review elsewhere but it is what it is when a manufacturer chooses to go this route with a magazine. This magazine is pretty unique in the fact that it can load from the left or the right. The user chooses that. The thickness of the mag does make loading tough because the o-ring placement but I just load and knock it while in my hands to get the oring in between the head and skirt of the pellet. For me, No biggie.
WTF 2.04
The trigger is crude. I explained how it works elsewhere but it is very similar to an AK trigger. It isn't as precise as say an AR trigger or a timney drop in but it works and you can adjust how long the creep is at the expense of sear/hammer contact. That is up to the user and outlined in the manual.
WTF 2.05 or 2.50
The bolt/pellet probe cam locks into place by pushing the charging handle forward. All the way forward. There is some resistance and that seems to me to be in the mechanism and pushing the pellet into the lands. At 35 yards mine stacked pellets from RL and at 50 I put 9/10 in a dime with pictures to prove it. Mind you that wasn't in a vise.
WTF 3.5
Even I joked about the cocking effort being something like racking an M2 .50cal but has lightened up tremendously in the week I have been shooting it. In fact, now I don't mind it one bit.
WTF 4.0
This is where things get interesting because dude claims the bottle is 350cc when it is 320cc as published by RTI. Missing a detail like that may be an oversight, and I could totally understand if it was, but seriously if you are so highly respected how do you miss such an important detail?!? I will submit that o-rings can get eaten up but after a trip to wal-mart and $4 later I had 10 more just in case. I should add I have removed the bottle several times now under pressure and I only replaced that o-ring once and to me it is a small thing. I only replaced it because I saw a minor gouge and I wanted to play it safe. The 3/4 of a turn he refers to is negligible when you consider the surface area of the threads already in contact.
Coming to a point I finally agree upon. I think the lands start rather abrubt. I don't know if this is having an effect on long range accuracy yet but I got 1/2" groups at 50yds but 3" at 100yds. Could be me, could be something else but as of now, I don't know yet but I suspect some inconsistent shaving and I think this area may be the problem.
This gun is loud without the my LDC from Donny. No doubt. He is right about the trigger. It isn't really a 2 stage like a Mutant or other fine rifles, If there are 2 stages (depending on how the set screw on the sear is tightened) it is really only take up and sear release. The more you back out the screw the more sear contact on the hammer. The exact opposite is also true. I, for one, have the screw all the way loose. It gives a single stage with lots of "creep" but it is light, smooth and, for me, predictable. I am a trigger snob but it is what it is, and it does work. How well it works is up to you. As for the vent hole to the hammer passage? I am not well schooled enough on this but I don't have complaints about inconsistancy in my chrony strings. At most I have seen 11fps ES for each 10 shot string. I don't have a sexy new choro, in fact I borrowed one from a friend a few months back, but from my recordings I stay pretty well within a 10fps window.
The 3rd part of the review which seems to have forgotten the WTFs.
The M3 screws holding the side panels do help keep the 2 aluminum block from unscrewing. The are recessed into the block and have an inate amount of strenghth in them to keep the parts from coming unscrewed. There are also set screws there on the tube as mentioned. I can say that the tube will attract a magnet where as the blocks will not. I have no way of properly identifing the material. I can say though that I watched the entirity of the RTI pressure test video and the tube, trigger block, bottle, and reg were subjected to 800bars of pressure. Nothing broke. Plus the design of the gun won't allow more than 200 bar into the tube that he thinks can only handle 275 bar. I don't share his concerns about any of this and it is my face that will be next to one of these guns. Take that for what it is worth.
Anyways he goes one complaing about the valve and its construction as if it is a safety hazard and more. However, there is the posted pressure test... I don't understand this guy. The one place we agree is the set screw in the rear block on the threads of the connecting tube. That was dumb and if done that way a flat spot should be milled into the threads to make this a non-issue but I haven't yet confirmed this on my gun.
This has gotten rather lenghthy but I will say that I will continue to use my gun with confidence AND I will be tinkering with it a bit to try to see if I can optimize it better than RTI did. I may not succeed but this is just fun for me. As of now I have a NINJA piston inbound to see if I can rid the reg squelch. After than play with different reg pressures because I think 135 or 140 bar will be better than 150 bar in comprimising shot count and energy (or efficiency if you would like it in one word). I will post more on my 0033 review.
Last thing, You will have the first .22 that I know of. I really hope you give us your thoughts and experiences becuase it seems that the gun was mostly tested and optimised for .22.
