Lekatchka Airgun FT (Venice, FL) Match Report June 1, 2025
Posted by Gary P. for our Field Target match director, Ron Guiliano.
Note from poster: It's Hot as heck down here already. With Rain threatening, seemed a good compromise to make it a shorter 48 shot match instead of cancelling.

Hello FT shooters,

Sorry for the delayed match report, but better late than never!

Sunday June 1st started out a bit soggy as rain moved into the area overnight. The setup crew had fortunately staged all 11 lanes two days before the shoot so we didn't have much to do Sunday morning. Nine brave souls showed up by 8am and decided to wait out the rain under the pavilion. The setup crew went out about 8:30a to put out targets and pull strings. After a brief shower and a few rumbles of thunder it was time to sling some lead! The ground was a bit wet but that didn't deter anyone from shooting the challenging 48 shot, 30.1 troyer match that awaited them. All in all the weather turned out great with lower humidity and partly cloudy skies for the remainder of the shoot. Congrats to Gary Palinkas for narrowly taking the top gun position with an impressive 47/48 ..... great shooting brother!!! Below are the final results for your review. Congrats to all the top shooters in their classes. Stay cool this summer and we hope to see everyone in Sept when we start shooting again!

Thx, Ron G ..... AKA EMD2

I can report that the 2 different charging handles I 3d printed for my Karma Red Panda worked out incredibly well!

3 inch - 70 grains / 1.16 oz
4 inch - 103 grains / 2.4 oz

On my FX Wildcat Mk3 .25 cal, ive got an arken epl4 6-24. It is so freakin busy it all gets in the way (for this ground squirrels at 100 yds plus minus country boy). I hav leupold bx1 with a duplex rreticle. I love it but would like a mildot reticle. i like the simple range hold off of a mildot reticle. Fixed parallax on the Mark 3HD is 150 yds. Vs the VX1 at 60 yds so my question… if im shooting inside 100 yds, is that still reasonably focused so as not to cause much of an inherent offset?

many thanks in advance

Hisson said:

Last time I went to the gun range I felt totally outgunned. Showed up with my FX Impact and had to set up between a guy shooting a 700 Winchester and another guy shooting a 6.5 Creedmore. Needless to say it was a pretty noisy affair. When I pulled out my airtank, they couldn't decide if they wanted to start running, or start crying! LOL

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One of my favorites was the guy shooting .308 Winchester who was complaining about the noise from my GX CS3 compressor.

I’m looking to get a solid unchoked 700mm TJ’s or Lothar Walther barrel fitted to a Panthera. Wondering if anyone could point me to a shop that can machine it.
Feel free to chime in if you have a solid barrel an FX platform.
Thanks

JimD said:

Anybody that thinks springers are just as accurate as pcps needs to print out some 30 yard challenge targets and prove it. The only springer scores I've seen are much lower. But my poor view of springers is no doubt in large part because I've never shot a nice one.

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Springers are just as accurate as PCP s its just they are a lot harder to shoot as accurately thats why most people never try them or dont stick with them. They will magnify ever flaw you have in your shooting form 10 times. If you can shoot a springer well then you can shoot any gun well.

Your target is about where my P35-177 is. 10.65 at round 950 fps. But it's a 450mm barrel with a small plenum. My guess is you want to be around 125-130 bar. I also think 1/2 turn on the regulator adjustment screw is about 5 bar. A full turn about 10 bar. That might be low.

I don't think repeatedly changing regulator pressure harms the gun but it will result in more O-ring replacements. I've changed my P35-25 dozens of times and I eventually had to rebuild the regulator (change it's O-rings) but it still works very well. It often needs O-rings on the big O-ring on the closure nut for the muzzle end of the airtube and also the one way valve O-ring that is on the back side of the same nut. I've had the regulator apart on my P35X and it looks the same as my bullshark. Slightly different from my older P35s but the differences are minor. The regulator in both these guns did not work right when I got them.

You can change the regulator pressure by removing the nut on the muzzle end of the airtube and using a 18 inch extension with a 12mm socket on the lock nut and a long straight blade screwdriver on the adjustment screw. This works as long as the O-rings on the regulator are stuck to the airtube well and the regulator is working fine (on my bullshark the threads were rough and it did not intially work). This is usually the way I do it. You can often get the nut off using the thing that looks like a small piece of tubing that should have come with the gun. It is really a thin walled socket for the airgauge. Sometimes all it does is remove the gauge and you have to put something through the fill hole to unscrew the nut but often the gauge and nut come together. Degass first, of course. There is a screw on the nut on the other end of the airtube to open to degass. It will be on the side of the nut and will probably have a hex head.

The other way to do it is to remove the regulator through the trigger end of the airtube. To accomplish that you have to remove the airtube from the gun. There are two 3mm allen head screws in the middle of the gun for clamping yokes that clamp the barrel to the airtube. If you loosen them you can unscrew the airtube from the action. You may need a thin 19mm open end wrench. With the airtube off you take the nut on that end of the airtube off. If you are lucky the regulator comes with the nut. If not, you may have to take the nut at the other end of the airtube off and push the regulator out (wth the 18 inch extension). The biggest drawback of doing it this way is the position of the clamping yokes determines whether the gun will cock and fire. So putting it back you may have to mess around a little with their position to get the gun working. It normally is not a big deal. Sometimes I get it right the first time, sometimes I have to shift things a time or two.

After you get the hang of it changing the regulator takes about 15 minutes. I don't like doing it because it wastes a lot of air but it is not a big deal. I do not do it often, however. Once I find a pellet the gun likes and a velocity that seems to work well I leave it alone for a year or more.

Jim

Some folks will say that they run their home compressor in the basement of an air-conditioned house. Even with air conditioning, the humidity is between 30% and 50%. Air coming out of a molecular sieve will be .1% and most likely less than that. The dryer your air, the better, that’s why some airgunners will use nitrogen because it darn near or is 0.0% humidity/moisture.
To each his own as to how they run their guns.
Often, your budget has somewhat of a correlation to how dry you process your air.

The Minnesota Airgun Field Target Assn. Is holding it’s June match at Oakdale Gun Club on Saturday the 14th. It will be a 60 shot match on 15 lanes With a 0900 arrival and a 1000 start time. PM me with any questions. Thanks for looking. Uj

ctshooter said:

I've legit been looking at the FX Leopard in .22 600mm Standard tube version as a slug gun.

What caliber did you get? What ammo is working out for you and at what fps/fpe?

Thanks

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Thats great to know, I just purchased a .22 sniper version

@nielsenammo Thanks for the update.

ocdairgunner said:

Can the same be applied to my Wildcat MK3? Or they are completely different?

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They have a teeter totter trigger that is pita to adjust.

YT of Newman explaining how to adjust it:

I love the look of the 2.75" shorty and it tames it enough for me, check out this thread for many options for your GK1,

My setup is a bit different because I deal with good bit of humidity so I went a bit over kill. Because mine takes alot of air I leave some level of pressure in it. And because of all the o-rings involved I consider it like an air gun which kept under some pressure.
I always bleed moisture out of (1st inlet) center condolence filter during and after use. It has a one-way my foster fitting so can disconnect from compressor. Blue filter has color changing silica, Gold has moleculer seave, which I change periodically but don't want exposed to ambient air. Compressor bleeder I always leave open after use to dry.
It's simply what works best for my circumstances, plus made it portable so I can take to my range for direct filling a big bore.

The match report is now in Hard Air magazine, and MAN does it look better!

2025 TEXtreme Grand Prix And State Championships - Hard Air Magazine

The 2025 TEXtreme Grand Prix And State Championships match was held on June 6-8 at “Ranchito Robinson” in Clifton, central Texas .

hardairmagazine.com

.

Did anyone buy one?

Maybe they liked it in EU? Another $200 China gun, with added operating expense.

I should be getting rich off these grandkids LOL

kgun88 said:

I've heard about the trigger being garbage but thought that was remedied with the fix they put out, evidently that's not the case. Lol. Is the karma atleast capable of more power?

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I’m sure comparing both guns stock out of the box the EQ is certainly capable of more power but that doesn’t in itself make it better in any way.

SLICKNICK said:

Check the safety on the stock. You have to screw out enough to see a red seal. Or put it aside, and put back when done shooting

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I did unscrew it enough to where I could see the red seal however I did not remove it all the way to see if that would work. Thank you, that will be the next thing I try.

I for one say go all in and enjoy the ride. Nothing like thermal at night, especially crystal clear thermal with different palate options. Sure 20 yards it’s not needed but who cares, it’s WANTED lol. Plus you will stretch the legs someday I am sure. Cry now I say. Get one of the most popular thermals on the market, the AGM 35-384. Has a very good average price, has lots of good handy options that comes with it, and just plain works and works very well. You can mount it straight on your airgun or clip it on your scope or use it as a clip-on/monocular dual function option. There’s a reason it’s one of the most sold thermals in America. However it doesn’t have LRF just FYI.

If that’s too much for your blood pressure go with DNT Zulus 3-12 LRF. It’s not Thermal but works off IR 850. Would be fantastic 75 yards and closure for pests. And drum roll… is under $600 bucks.

Who cares what you need, get what you really want and enjoy the hell out of it. You don’t see Justin from Utah Air out with a red light, he’s got a 40 pound Armageddon airgun and a $15,000 thermal for 20 yard rats and his smile is a big as the Grand Canyon.

Get your Krait .177, get your high end slug gun and enjoy from day one. If you’re not a tuner, Call Utah Air and have them Tune a slug shooter for you for the specific brand and weight you want. Unwrap, mount scope and pop squirrel heads.

Welcome to the forum!

I LOVE my .25 & .30 guns. I don't shoot paper & my .30 is my favorite & my go-to gun. That being said, I've recently come into possession of a .22 slug gun (Edgun R3 long - gotta love those eastern European guns!) & it is absolutely amazing both in accuracy & power. 150 yards & farther is no problem for the Eddy! The SMACK of the slugs hitting a squirrel is almost as loud as a .22 powder burner (gun itself is QUIET). It could definitely be tuned down but I'm not concerned about the sound. Pretty sure you'd be happy with a .22 that's both pellet & slug capable. And, as said before, the ammo options are wide & varied in .22.

Posted by Gary P. for our Benchrest match director, Ron Z.

6–8-25 Benchrest

First shoot of the 2025 Summer Swelter Benchrest Series was attended by 7 competitors and all opted to shoot in the early relay which began at 7:00AM. Several volunteers arrived 'crack of dawn' early to set the target stands and to position their down-range windflags.

Conditions were near ideal, with most windicators showing almost Dead-Calm during sight-in and through the first target card session. Some puffy wind arrived around mid match adding a little more challenge.

Competition was keen and we saw some terrific shooting today. Scott A scored a perfect tally (250 pts) on his first target card. Meeting the challenge Bob C kept pace, also shooting a perfect 250 points on his first target card.

Scott then went on to wow us by shooting another 250 point score on his second target card. Two for two perfect cards.

Very Impressive.

Chip was shooting well, hanging back just a couple points behind Scott's two perfect cards. A lot would be riding on the results of the third and last card in the relay.

Scoring 247 points with 12X's on his third target card was enough to push Chip ahead of the group. He won our TOP GUN recognition with an overall event high score of 745 points (without a perfect card). Chip also earned the X-PRIZE today accumulating 39 X's; a notable achievement.

Some Super Impressive Shooting Today

With three perfect target cards scored in just our first event, it looks like we will be in for some very heated high scoring competition through the 2025 Summer Swelter Benchrest Series.

Our next match will be another 25M benchrest relay Sunday July 13. ( there's still time to practice ).


Results & Equipment Matrix 6/8/25

JungleShooter said:

To see spiraling each of the following factors will help, and the more factors the better:

➧ Slower flight velocity at the range where the camera/ scope is focused

➧ Larger caliber

➧ Bright background (or really dark background) — evenly colored

Matthias

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Thanks! Plan to test next week.

Doc_pafumo said:

Hi everyone,
I'm hoping someone can help me out. I'm in the process of tuning my FX Crown and I've already achieved an extreme spread of 5–8 fps with a velocity around 875–880 fps.
When testing accuracy at 75 meters, I get good 3–4 shot groups that can be covered with a thumb. But on the 5th or 6th shot, the POI shifts, and I get another group just as tight, but in a different spot on the target.

I'm shooting .22 caliber with the 700 mm Superlight barrel. Regulator is set at 78 bar.
Outside temperature is high, around 38°C.

I don't know if it could be me, parallax not properly set, the temperature, the moderator... or barrel harmonics.

Thanks and cheers to all!

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Every change of speed makes a POI to change.

You can check out aeaairguns.shop. It's a webshop from Spain but they ship internationally. They sell valve pins for almost every AEA model, including the Challenger.