The Skout Airguns Epoch / Evo has an open - faceted magazine design which uses a relatively short torsional spring to index the magazine after the bullet probe is retracted from the rifle chamber. Because the magazine capacity is higher than average and the spring is unloaded to begin with, this means the the rotor is turned from 1.5 revolutions (light pellet) to 2.5 turns (heavy slug). As the pellet/slug leaves the magazine and as it is pushed from the magazine to the rifle chamber, the spring exerts a side force, wedging the pellet/slug between the magazine and the rifle chamber. In addition, the open face design of the magazine pockets exposes the rib between adjacent pockets and this rib, representing a considerable multiple of pressure, can easily deform the skirt of a pellet and score the front of a pellet or side of a slug, See the photo.This is not cosmetic but rather a design issue. The Stud loading system ameliorates this issue by using a longer torsion spring that does not load the rotor as much as the Scout magazine but it does not eliminate the problem. The Stud loading system also will not accommodate slugs.
The ManuLoader from Shortcut and his colleague in Denmark solves this problem by eliminating the torsional spring and indexes the magazine manually. It lacks the polished and machined finish of the the attractive Skout magazines: the printing looks crude, and it has the cachet or rather lack of - of most 3D printed products but it works as advertised and is an effective solution. In fact, an argument can be made for those who hand feed their rifles, the Manuloader is less likely to deform pellets than hand feeding… It does require an extra motion as you pull the bolt back, index the magazine, and then push the bolt closed but I found it has a nice rhythm and may possibly reduce inadvertent double loading of pellets/slugs.
Eventually, I think Skout will redesign its magazine; in the meantime, the ManuLoader is a perfectly acceptable workaround. Lest anyone think I am throwing shade on Skout Airguns, that is not the case: I think Skout is a bright light in a chaotic and disorganized industry. I admire their innovation and their customer service is second to none. I own two Evo’s, both dedicated slug rifles, in 25 and 30 cal.
