.25 Max Air First impressions

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Gipper

Gipper

Member
May 27, 2018
112
5
IL, United States
Received a .25 walnut stocked, carbon fiber tubed Max Air today and want to give my quick, down and dirty first impressions.

LIKES:
Looks very cool and has a nice walnut stock. Stock appears to have no finish on it.

Fit and finish (mostly) is very good.

Smaller than expected.

Has some heft to it but it feels to be centered directly over the grip making it comfortable to hold off hand.

Nice magazines and so far no issues with feeding. Will buy the newly designed ones when released anyways.

Accuracy. Only shot it at 12 yards indoors but accuracy seems spot on so far.

FUN FUN FUN to just keep pulling the trigger!!

DISLIKES:
Trigger IMHO is not very good. Very long first stage and a mushy second stage wall before a heavy break. Also a long reach to it. I have average to small size hands and I can just barely get the pad of my finger on it. It can be shot accurately but takes more effort than it should.

Puff of air in the face…sliding cover helps but does not eliminate it.

Stock only attaches with 1 screw and rocks a bit. I made sure the one screw was tight but did not go Gonzo on it in fear of cracking the wood stock. I think this will be an easy fix but at this price point stock fitment should not be an issue.

Gap at top of butt stock…looks like something is missing.

Finger grooves do not fit my hand well….would have preferred not having them.

Not easily user adjustable/tuneable as delivered.

So having spent a couple of hours getting to know the rifle:
Is it cool? VERY

Is it worth the money? Jury is still out. Lot of VERY good rifles in this price category.

Is the carbon tube option worth it? Not sure a half a pound of extra weight would make a big difference with how well this rifle is balanced. I was also surprised to find a magnet stuck to the carbon tube.

If I could only keep one would this be it? NOPE

1548383319_14850206385c4a74570d8168.03882850_20190124_200752_resized.jpg
1548383362_14292372045c4a74823e49e5.02895254_20190124_200719_resized.jpg
1548383362_17959028895c4a7482a9c951.68650983_20190124_200726_resized.jpg
1548383363_17018709095c4a74832abe23.55306535_20190124_200758_resized.jpg
1548383362_1528434915c4a7482dae898.83926094_20190124_200733_resized.jpg

I will post some chrony numbers tomorrow.

Gipper
 
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Reactions: orion and wyshadow
Very cool!
I'd have wayyy too much fun with a rifle like this!

Random: A way of testing carbon fiber 'purity' is to use a multimeter..
On continuity mode, if probed, the carbon content will ground out, and the meter will beep..
Electricity can flow through it - But, I've never known it to be magnetic..
We used to do this to test Chinese 3k 'carbon fiber' vs. some of the mixed cf / fiberglass they put out..
Anyways, I've worked around a LOT of cf - and had it in contact with Neodymium magnets.. Still no attraction..
If a magnet stuck to a cf component on the gun, I would guess that they would be something metal under it..
Like a metal 'metal/steel tube - wrapped with carbon fiber'. That would make the most sense..
Otherwise, I'm stumped! 😜 

I can't wait to hear more about this gun, and, I'm hoping to hear more about the trigger..
That's a make-or-break thing for me..

Thanks for sharing!

Sam -
 
Upvote 0
Whats up with bullpups and rear cocking? Ergonomics anyone? It makes no sense...its just a huge slap in the face that suggests "I'm too lazy to engineer a proper cocking mechanism per the rifles design, so I'll toss in what I can"...just seeing a bullpup with rear cocking makes my head hurt.


That trigger guard is quite hideous, very blocky, and lacks little ingenuity compared to the 'semi automatic' capability of the rifle...coupled with what you say is a very poor trigger mechanism or operation, both seem to leave much to be desired.



Stock looks decent, that gap you mention is uhm...undesirable 



The fact its not super adjustable or tunable is a huge down side to this version of Evanix semi's...you can't hot rod them, the power must be left at modest levels, which isn't the end of the world, but when you top that off with what will be lack luster accuracy at long ranges (would love to see 100 yard groups with the air speed/max...willing to bet things get funny beyond 50 yards with this rifle during semi auto operation) If I am wrong and this gun comes close to 1 moa @ 100 then I will eat my own words, but the rest of my sentiments remain.



-Matt


 
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Orion,

Most bullpup configurations suffer from "less than desirable" triggers. This is because they typically use a rod (or equivalent) to go from the trigger your finger touches, and the actual sear release. This is due to the fact the trigger is further forward on the action than the sear release mechanism on most bullpups (as compared to a classical rifle where the trigger is directly over the sear release mechanism).

Like you, this air rifle has caught my interest. However, every video I have seen at 35 (or more) yards have shown nice basic groups with some flyers mixed in. I am a bit curious what the mechanism is for the flyers. I have the crazy expectation that a 1200-1300 dollar air rifle will shoot (at least) as accurate as my less expensive Marauder. There is a chance that this will not be the case with the Evanix Max Air. Like you, I am staying tuned.

Post Script: the likely reason why a magnet sticks to the air tube, is because the air tube has a steel core, which is wrapped in carbon fiber. With the carbon fiber wrap, this allows them to have a thinner steel core, and save weight.
 
Upvote 0
Orion,

Most bullpup configurations suffer from "less than desirable" triggers. This is because they typically use a rod (or equivalent) to go from the trigger your finger touches, and the actual sear release. This is due to the fact the trigger is further forward on the action than the sear release mechanism on most bullpups (as compared to a classical rifle where the trigger is directly over the sear release mechanism).

Like you, this air rifle has caught my interest. However, every video I have seen at 35 (or more) yards have shown nice basic groups with some flyers mixed in. I am a bit curious what the mechanism is for the flyers. I have the crazy expectation that a 1200-1300 dollar air rifle will shoot (at least) as accurate as my less expensive Marauder. There is a chance that this will not be the case with the Evanix Max Air. Like you, I am staying tuned.

Post Script: the likely reason why a magnet sticks to the air tube, is because the air tube has a steel core, which is wrapped in carbon fiber. With the carbon fiber wrap, this allows them to have a thinner steel core, and save weight.
Click to expand...


I've only owned 3 bullpups (Taipan Mutant, FX Wildcat and Zbroia Kozak) but on all three the trigger was just as good as any gun I've owned. Even the Daystate, Air Arms and Weihrauch.
 
Upvote 0
I own a Taipan Veteran, and the trigger is superb, so it can be done. Ohh boy this Taipan has spoiled me!
Click to expand...

I have shot the Veteran and have to agree..the trigger is as good as the one in my BSA R10 which breaks like a glass rod. I knew going in not to expect that kind of performance from a linkage type trigger. Like most of these things I think it will smooth out a bit over time. What I have found is I need a little different approach to shooting it. Instead of the slow squeeze I have used my entire life, a more deliberate pull works better with this rifle. Will be awhile before I get a chance to shoot this at distance as it is quite cold here in southern IL and my long distance shooting spot is 90 minutes away.

Here is a quick pic of some 3 shot groups at 12 yards, have not even cleaned the barrel yet! Air Arms 25.4g. Bullseye is .25 inches.
1548430940_19378979155c4b2e5cd92334.95727543_1548430899874629069797735899498.jpg

 
Upvote 0
Whats up with bullpups and rear cocking? Ergonomics anyone? It makes no sense...its just a huge slap in the face that suggests "I'm too lazy to engineer a proper cocking mechanism per the rifles design, so I'll toss in what I can"...just seeing a bullpup with rear cocking makes my head hurt.

-Matt

Click to expand...

Typically I would agree 100% with you, but with this rifle the fact that you only have to do it once in an entire shooting session when you load the first magazine makes it a non factor for me in this case.
 
Upvote 0
Whats up with bullpups and rear cocking? Ergonomics anyone? It makes no sense...its just a huge slap in the face that suggests "I'm too lazy to engineer a proper cocking mechanism per the rifles design, so I'll toss in what I can"...just seeing a bullpup with rear cocking makes my head hurt.

-Matt

Click to expand...

Typically I would agree 100% with you, but with this rifle the fact that you only have to do it once in an entire shooting session when you load the first magazine makes it a non factor for me in this case.
Click to expand...


Exactly, with this rifle there's only one cocking at the beginning of your shooting session, and one more to decock. Not even to change the magazines!
 
Upvote 0
This rifle is not engineer laziness at all, on the contrary. I think this is actually an engineer marvelous, semi auto and no batteries, it runs with the same air it uses to shoot without affecting negatively the shot count. Is it perfect? No but not because laziness

This is one example of some of the rifles out there that are completely overlooked while other manufacturers are getting most of the attention.

Gipper, do you know if someone has compared the AirSpeed vs the AirMax? I'm wondering how they compare... I really like the bullpups but the trigger, the single screw on the stock and the puff of air on the face are 3 things I don't know if I can live with and maybe are non existing on the rifle version.


 
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Well got a chance to shoot a few mags over the chrony this morning. I was looking for a SIMPLE way to calculate AND post this info but here is the raw chrony data. One caveat is that I did not have enough air in my bottle to fill to the FULL 250 Bar. Per the gauge on the bottle I was about 245 Bar (gauge is in PSI), gauge on rifle matched this pretty well. Posted Bar readings are what I could tell from rifle gauge and may be off a bit.

1. 796.9 245 bar
2. 805.0
3. 817.3
4. 822.1
5. 817.2
6. 807.3
7. 813.4
8. 826.1
9. 817.6 225 bar
10. 793.5
11. 813.5
12. 803.4
13. 794.5
14. 811.0
15. 815.8
16. 795.5
17. 796.1
18. 803.4 210 bar
19. 794.1
20. 789.8
21. 791.1
22. 813.2
23. ERR
24. 798.7
25. 795.8
26. 802.2
27. 806.6
28. 789.0 195 bar
29. 785.1
30. 772.7
31. 778.8
32. 786.2
33. 784.4
34. 775.0
35. 790.8
36. 770.4 175 bar

MAX FPS 826.1
AVG FPS 799.2
MIN FPS 770.4

ES 56fps
Standard Dev 14.17fps

FPE Max 38.48
FPE Avg 36.03
FPE Min 33.47

Gipper
 
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