( mods - I'm not sure if this is discussion or tuning & tweaking - move it if you see fit )
. . . honestly - I shoot my .22 and .177 Taipan's more than any of my other guns - I hardly ever shoot this one in .25 - it's just way 'bigger' than what I need. ( I'm mostly doing pesting at a couple of local farms and back yard target / plinking )
So AOA did a video on the Prophet and in it they demonstrated how easy it is to change calibers. I just re-watched the part pertaining to the barrel change - maybe they used 'Prophet" barrel kits? They don't have prophet barrel kits listed on their web site or at least I didn't see them when I looked and purchased - all they list are the Priest 2 kits. My experience leaves me wondering if they actually DID change calibers - more on this later*.
.177 & .22 - observations so far:
Both are about 3.5" shorter than the OEM .25 barrel. I don't know if that's a "Priest thing" vs. a "Prophet Thing"? Maybe the "native" Prophet barrels are shorter too in the smaller calibers? Anyone know? So right off the bat one will lose a little velocity and it might be a tad noisier
* Both have the priest air stripper or spacer as some call it - apparently RTI changed the diameter of the shroud between the priest and prophet models. This is an irritant as you CANNOT get the priest barrels to seat with that stripper on - you'll have to take the OEM one off and use it. In my case - the one that was on the .25 barrel. RTI Arms Shop has the prophet strippers - I may order two of them. Grrrrr . . . . AOA never mentioned this little gotchya in the video.
Anyway - I put the .22 barrel in yesterday after I got home from work and as expected 18g jsb pellets were super easy to tune and get very consistent accuracy with out in my back yard at 36 yards. I turned the reg down to 115'ish and then dialed the hammer spring until I got them flying at 893'ish - and they were going real well. Then daylight went away. I lost a lot of time due to the damned air stripper size difference - took me a while to figure that one out.
So today when I got home I decided to test some slugs with it and so far - it looks quite promising. Pics below - again - these are just quick and I haven't yet tested real long or attempted to fine tune but . . . so far it looks pretty good. I shot some 27g H&N .218's through it that I was able to get up to 900fps after ratcheting the reg up to around 165-170. They shot pretty good and (actually) grouped reasonably well @36 yds. Not hole on hole and not quite touching either - but they weren't far from touching either. I also have some 27.5g NSA's in .216 - ~slightly~ heavier (lol) but apparently enough to make a noticeable difference in speed - they averaged 863 over 10 shots. BUT - they grouped at 36 and 54 in my back yard exceptionally well. I think there is promise here.
Some of you are by now wondering why he went from .218 to .216. ( lol -- yeah ) I have plenty of H&N .217's that my Taipan Long LOVES in 23g but . . . I'm thinking this RTI has more native "grunt" than the Vet and I'm hoping to shoot something a little heavier with it. I still have some .216 JSB KO's in a tin - maybe 30 or 40 of them - I'm going to give those a go tomorrow. Pics below are from those .216 27.5 NSA's @863. First one just shows both of my distances - I "zeroed" it at the 36 yard tree stump and then move the board back to the other tree at 54 yards. Again - for down and dirty, quick testing after get home from work trying to stay ahead of sunset . . . I'm actually kind of pleasantly surprised. I'm hoping to take it out to a local range this weekend where I can test it @100 + yards.
. . . honestly - I shoot my .22 and .177 Taipan's more than any of my other guns - I hardly ever shoot this one in .25 - it's just way 'bigger' than what I need. ( I'm mostly doing pesting at a couple of local farms and back yard target / plinking )
So AOA did a video on the Prophet and in it they demonstrated how easy it is to change calibers. I just re-watched the part pertaining to the barrel change - maybe they used 'Prophet" barrel kits? They don't have prophet barrel kits listed on their web site or at least I didn't see them when I looked and purchased - all they list are the Priest 2 kits. My experience leaves me wondering if they actually DID change calibers - more on this later*.
.177 & .22 - observations so far:
Both are about 3.5" shorter than the OEM .25 barrel. I don't know if that's a "Priest thing" vs. a "Prophet Thing"? Maybe the "native" Prophet barrels are shorter too in the smaller calibers? Anyone know? So right off the bat one will lose a little velocity and it might be a tad noisier
* Both have the priest air stripper or spacer as some call it - apparently RTI changed the diameter of the shroud between the priest and prophet models. This is an irritant as you CANNOT get the priest barrels to seat with that stripper on - you'll have to take the OEM one off and use it. In my case - the one that was on the .25 barrel. RTI Arms Shop has the prophet strippers - I may order two of them. Grrrrr . . . . AOA never mentioned this little gotchya in the video.
Anyway - I put the .22 barrel in yesterday after I got home from work and as expected 18g jsb pellets were super easy to tune and get very consistent accuracy with out in my back yard at 36 yards. I turned the reg down to 115'ish and then dialed the hammer spring until I got them flying at 893'ish - and they were going real well. Then daylight went away. I lost a lot of time due to the damned air stripper size difference - took me a while to figure that one out.
So today when I got home I decided to test some slugs with it and so far - it looks quite promising. Pics below - again - these are just quick and I haven't yet tested real long or attempted to fine tune but . . . so far it looks pretty good. I shot some 27g H&N .218's through it that I was able to get up to 900fps after ratcheting the reg up to around 165-170. They shot pretty good and (actually) grouped reasonably well @36 yds. Not hole on hole and not quite touching either - but they weren't far from touching either. I also have some 27.5g NSA's in .216 - ~slightly~ heavier (lol) but apparently enough to make a noticeable difference in speed - they averaged 863 over 10 shots. BUT - they grouped at 36 and 54 in my back yard exceptionally well. I think there is promise here.
Some of you are by now wondering why he went from .218 to .216. ( lol -- yeah ) I have plenty of H&N .217's that my Taipan Long LOVES in 23g but . . . I'm thinking this RTI has more native "grunt" than the Vet and I'm hoping to shoot something a little heavier with it. I still have some .216 JSB KO's in a tin - maybe 30 or 40 of them - I'm going to give those a go tomorrow. Pics below are from those .216 27.5 NSA's @863. First one just shows both of my distances - I "zeroed" it at the 36 yard tree stump and then move the board back to the other tree at 54 yards. Again - for down and dirty, quick testing after get home from work trying to stay ahead of sunset . . . I'm actually kind of pleasantly surprised. I'm hoping to take it out to a local range this weekend where I can test it @100 + yards.