Karma 2025 Red Panda questions for owners

[Raydee38]

I am thinking about buying a 100 yard benchrest rifle and was going to go with another RAW because their triggers are the best mechanical trigger I have used so far breaking nice and crisp at about 6oz. I shoot rimfire and centerfire benchrest where our triggers are usually in the 2oz range so I like a light trigger. From the vids I saw it looks like the triggers on the Panda do not have a weight adjustment and are set at about 12oz. I am wondering if there is any way to get that down some, maybe a spring replacement?

I was looking at either a .25 pellet or slug gun to combat the wind at 100 yards and watched a few vids on the new 2025 Red Panda. I really like the 3" rail as it will fit in my front rest but I am wondering if the ARCA rail on the bottom is removeable to make the rail completely flat?

I haven't seen anything online about barrel changes but I am assuming that will be possible with a new barrel, probe and regulator adjustment?

Any issues tethering this rifle using a tank and external regulator?

Any issues single loading pellets and slugs and not using the magazine?

 

[Red_Ryder]

Since nobody else has jumped up to answer your questions, I will give it a go...

I own a RAW HM100x in .25, and agree that the trigger is outstanding. I also have a .25 Taipan Vet 2 that has an equally fine trigger system.

I recently purchased a 2025 spec Red Panda in .30 cal because I will be competing in some benchrest competitions that are limited to pellets only, and the majority of competitors have migrated to the .30 because of the improved BC. If you are purchasing the gun strictly for 100 yard benchrest, I would recommend the .30 over the .25, although the cost difference for the pellets is definitely a factor to consider.

I purchased my Panda directly from DonnyFL after speaking with Izzy, who called me after he noticed I had placed the gun in my cart but had not completed the order process. We had a nice discussion that convinced me to go ahead with the purchase, and I shortly had the Panda in my hands. One of the first things I noticed was that the trigger did not have the same feel as the RAW or the Vet, as I could not properly feel the end of the first stage with any confidence. As it turned out, I ended up returning the gun to DonnyFL due to an issue unrelated to the trigger. Still, I mentioned the issue to Izzy, and he assured me he would get it polished and tuned for a better feel when the gun was shipped back to me. I can state with satisfaction that whatever he did to the trigger has made it nearly indistinguishable from my RAW and my Vet. I haven't yet put my trigger gage on it to check the actual pull weight, but it has a nice, light feel.

The ARCA dovetail rail is attached to the bottom with screws, so it looks like it could be easily removed to leave a wide, flat surface, but I have not tried this myself.

As far as the barrels go, I believe they are interchangeable, but I don't know if they offer any caliber conversion kits currently. In fact, the gun that was returned to me started out as a .35, but had my original gun's .30 caliber parts installed. The numerous tuning adjustments would make it relatively easy to switch from one configuration to another, although the first regulator has no external adjustment and is preset by the guys at DonnyFL to match the caliber and ammunition choice.

I don't shoot tethered, as this is outside of the rules for the competitions I have entered, but I think it could be made to work. The foster fitting faces forward at the rear of the gun on the right side, near the bottom where the smaller pressure tank is fitted. You might find that a 90 degree foster adapter would keep things out of your way.

I have shot with the magazines, which are very nicely made and simple to load, as well as single load. There is sufficient room to load pellets in this manner, but a flip-out style loader would be a nice option. If anyone out there is making one, I would definitely be interested.

I am still working on a tune for the 50 grain AEA pellets and have shot less than a tin of pellets through the rifle, but the results I have seen so far are encouraging. The gun has already proven capable of putting five shots in a nickel size group at 100 yards on a couple of occasions, and I am looking forward to spending some more time with it this summer.

 

[tibor]

Since nobody else has jumped up to answer your questions, I will give it a go...

I own a RAW HM100x in .25, and agree that the trigger is outstanding. I also have a .25 Taipan Vet 2 that has an equally fine trigger system.

I recently purchased a 2025 spec Red Panda in .30 cal because I will be competing in some benchrest competitions that are limited to pellets only, and the majority of competitors have migrated to the .30 because of the improved BC. If you are purchasing the gun strictly for 100 yard benchrest, I would recommend the .30 over the .25, although the cost difference for the pellets is definitely a factor to consider.

I purchased my Panda directly from DonnyFL after speaking with Izzy, who called me after he noticed I had placed the gun in my cart but had not completed the order process. We had a nice discussion that convinced me to go ahead with the purchase, and I shortly had the Panda in my hands. One of the first things I noticed was that the trigger did not have the same feel as the RAW or the Vet, as I could not properly feel the end of the first stage with any confidence. As it turned out, I ended up returning the gun to DonnyFL due to an issue unrelated to the trigger. Still, I mentioned the issue to Izzy, and he assured me he would get it polished and tuned for a better feel when the gun was shipped back to me. I can state with satisfaction that whatever he did to the trigger has made it nearly indistinguishable from my RAW and my Vet. I haven't yet put my trigger gage on it to check the actual pull weight, but it has a nice, light feel.

The ARCA dovetail rail is attached to the bottom with screws, so it looks like it could be easily removed to leave a wide, flat surface, but I have not tried this myself.

As far as the barrels go, I believe they are interchangeable, but I don't know if they offer any caliber conversion kits currently. In fact, the gun that was returned to me started out as a .35, but had my original gun's .30 caliber parts installed. The numerous tuning adjustments would make it relatively easy to switch from one configuration to another, although the first regulator has no external adjustment and is preset by the guys at DonnyFL to match the caliber and ammunition choice.

I don't shoot tethered, as this is outside of the rules for the competitions I have entered, but I think it could be made to work. The foster fitting faces forward at the rear of the gun on the right side, near the bottom where the smaller pressure tank is fitted. You might find that a 90 degree foster adapter would keep things out of your way.

I have shot with the magazines, which are very nicely made and simple to load, as well as single load. There is sufficient room to load pellets in this manner, but a flip-out style loader would be a nice option. If anyone out there is making one, I would definitely be interested.

I am still working on a tune for the 50 grain AEA pellets and have shot less than a tin of pellets through the rifle, but the results I have seen so far are encouraging. The gun has already proven capable of putting five shots in a nickel size group at 100 yards on a couple of occasions, and I am looking forward to spending some more time with it this summer.

nice post ,congrats.
take a picture of the RP share with us.

 

[Red_Ryder]

nice post ,congrats.
take a picture of the RP share with us.

I'll post some pics next time I get it on the bench...hopefully this weekend.

 

[Adonispc]

Since nobody else has jumped up to answer your questions, I will give it a go...

I own a RAW HM100x in .25, and agree that the trigger is outstanding. I also have a .25 Taipan Vet 2 that has an equally fine trigger system.

I recently purchased a 2025 spec Red Panda in .30 cal because I will be competing in some benchrest competitions that are limited to pellets only, and the majority of competitors have migrated to the .30 because of the improved BC. If you are purchasing the gun strictly for 100 yard benchrest, I would recommend the .30 over the .25, although the cost difference for the pellets is definitely a factor to consider.

I purchased my Panda directly from DonnyFL after speaking with Izzy, who called me after he noticed I had placed the gun in my cart but had not completed the order process. We had a nice discussion that convinced me to go ahead with the purchase, and I shortly had the Panda in my hands. One of the first things I noticed was that the trigger did not have the same feel as the RAW or the Vet, as I could not properly feel the end of the first stage with any confidence. As it turned out, I ended up returning the gun to DonnyFL due to an issue unrelated to the trigger. Still, I mentioned the issue to Izzy, and he assured me he would get it polished and tuned for a better feel when the gun was shipped back to me. I can state with satisfaction that whatever he did to the trigger has made it nearly indistinguishable from my RAW and my Vet. I haven't yet put my trigger gage on it to check the actual pull weight, but it has a nice, light feel.

The ARCA dovetail rail is attached to the bottom with screws, so it looks like it could be easily removed to leave a wide, flat surface, but I have not tried this myself.

As far as the barrels go, I believe they are interchangeable, but I don't know if they offer any caliber conversion kits currently. In fact, the gun that was returned to me started out as a .35, but had my original gun's .30 caliber parts installed. The numerous tuning adjustments would make it relatively easy to switch from one configuration to another, although the first regulator has no external adjustment and is preset by the guys at DonnyFL to match the caliber and ammunition choice.

I don't shoot tethered, as this is outside of the rules for the competitions I have entered, but I think it could be made to work. The foster fitting faces forward at the rear of the gun on the right side, near the bottom where the smaller pressure tank is fitted. You might find that a 90 degree foster adapter would keep things out of your way.

I have shot with the magazines, which are very nicely made and simple to load, as well as single load. There is sufficient room to load pellets in this manner, but a flip-out style loader would be a nice option. If anyone out there is making one, I would definitely be interested.

I am still working on a tune for the 50 grain AEA pellets and have shot less than a tin of pellets through the rifle, but the results I have seen so far are encouraging. The gun has already proven capable of putting five shots in a nickel size group at 100 yards on a couple of occasions, and I am looking forward to spending some more time with it this summer.

Good report,
Shotting AEA 50gr .30Cal, which is for you the best speed where this pellets have better groups at 100Y? Around

 

[Red_Ryder]

Good report,
Shotting AEA 50gr .30Cal, which is for you the best speed where this pellets have better groups at 100Y? Around

Hard to pinpoint it yet. I had good groups in the 915 fps range as well as 940 fps.

The replacement gun arrived from DonnyFL with "zero" hammer spring and was only shooting about 720 fps, which makes me wonder if they had test shot the gun before shipping it. Anyway, I cranked up the spring, which quickly brought it up to about 900. I proceeded to increase the 2nd regulator in steps, hoping to get it to the 935 area that is supposed to be the standard tune for the 50 grain, but it didn't want to go past about 918, although it did spike up to about 935 for a couple of shots when the tank pressure and 1st regulator equalized (Steve at AEAC calls this the "Handshake"). My notes indicated that I had put several shots (8 to 10) within a nickel-sized ragged hole at about 915 fps. I was up to about 2250 psi on the 2nd reg when I called it quits for the night. This seemed very high for the speed I was getting, so the following morning, I decided to degas and start over, lowering the 2nd regulator back down below where it was initially, but didn't touch the HS.

I hadn't shot it yet when my brother stopped by to work on the beehives he has on my property. I asked him if he would like to shoot it a few times, and I set up my chrony just to see where things stood velocity-wise after the reg 2 reduction. It was shooting right at 940 fps, and my first three shots were all touching at 100 yards! Together, we ran 10 shots through the gun that stayed right in the 937 to 940 range with a SD of about 1.7. I didn't get a chance to shoot it any more that day and it's been raining ever since, but I hope to get it out this weekend after I catch up on mowing. I haven't done so yet, but I will make some notes on where the 2nd reg, HS, and other settings are before I continue, but I feel like I backed myself into a pretty good tune for the moment.

 

[Adonispc]

Hard to pinpoint it yet. I had good groups in the 915 fps range as well as 940 fps.

The replacement gun arrived from DonnyFL with "zero" hammer spring and was only shooting about 720 fps, which makes me wonder if they had test shot the gun before shipping it. Anyway, I cranked up the spring, which quickly brought it up to about 900. I proceeded to increase the 2nd regulator in steps, hoping to get it to the 935 area that is supposed to be the standard tune for the 50 grain, but it didn't want to go past about 918, although it did spike up to about 935 for a couple of shots when the tank pressure and 1st regulator equalized (Steve at AEAC calls this the "Handshake"). My notes indicated that I had put several shots (8 to 10) within a nickel-sized ragged hole at about 915 fps. I was up to about 2250 psi on the 2nd reg when I called it quits for the night. This seemed very high for the speed I was getting, so the following morning, I decided to degas and start over, lowering the 2nd regulator back down below where it was initially, but didn't touch the HS.

I hadn't shot it yet when my brother stopped by to work on the beehives he has on my property. I asked him if he would like to shoot it a few times, and I set up my chrony just to see where things stood velocity-wise after the reg 2 reduction. It was shooting right at 940 fps, and my first three shots were all touching at 100 yards! Together, we ran 10 shots through the gun that stayed right in the 937 to 940 range with a SD of about 1.7. I didn't get a chance to shoot it any more that day and it's been raining ever since, but I hope to get it out this weekend after I catch up on mowing. I haven't done so yet, but I will make some notes on where the 2nd reg, HS, and other settings are before I continue, but I feel like I backed myself into a pretty good tune for the moment.

Thanks for share your exp, well I’m shooting aswell those pellets, 960fps very tight, for now So far it has been the best tune for me, but this pellet is weird, when I shoot around 940 like u, yes the group is good like 912,920,930 but sometimes came one flyer with spiral and hit at 7,6 till the 4 and down, pfff pissed me off.
I wanna shoot low, cuz many experience shooter say "for pellets is better low s" but with this speed between 912 and 917 the flyer came with more frequency!!!

Ernest said, they like high speed, for now 960~965 it has been my best result.
Keep going and share for the next cap!!!

 

[Red_Ryder]

nice post ,congrats.
take a picture of the RP share with us.

Here's a few I took this morning on the bench...