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AEA rifles, the first reviewer I have found

Like some of you, i have been wanting to get my hands on a nice looking gun from AEA. Well, today i found this youtuber from hawaii who goes over the build. It made me sad.

https://youtu.be/ovdJ4JqQFD4

if the link doesnt work, the title is AEA Air rifles Initial impressions. i contacted new england right before i found the clip. They are not carrying AEA anymore. Too many issues.

So my hunt for affordable, light, small yet powerful goes on.😾
 
Contact Zach Matthews he's the importer and distributor of the AEA rifles he did have problems with air leaks but found the problem was wrong size orings from the factory he has fixed that problem and he's selling the Terminator 357 semi auto for $999 plus shipping he's a great guy his number is 698-982-0386

I agree. Zachary is working to keep AEA afloat. He is very helpful and fast to answer questions. It’s Beta testing right now. Once they gain a name kiss that $999.00 price goodbye. Nobody else can touch a semi .357 except Evanix. If the importation is stopped these will be over $3K one day. 

I’m not keen on the complicated build but for $999.00 for this gun compared to over $2K for the semi/full .22 or a Huben I’d buy these & keep ANIB.

For OP: Affordable, Small, Lightweight, Powerful. Not asking for much from the airgun world huh? Here’s the things that changed everything for me.
A big compressor. No care about efficiency. No need of internal reg, multi shot. Doesn’t have to be short, light, quiet. Though quiet is nice.

Have you ever looked at Dennis Quackenbush pistols/carbines? I had 3 of his pistols and powerful is an understatement. I didn’t think about it then seriously or I would have gotten my own big compressor and metal shop if I thought I would still be into these. A DAQ in a custom carbine stock & a shroud is a really desirable air gun. 
If you’re only interested in multi shot high power, buy one of these and have AZ, Will Piatt, or any known airgun Smith go over it. 





 
Saw the review. Seems like the company has some good concepts with very rough edges. They need to fix their quality issues while adding a little refinement. I came very close to buying a couple of these...the Varmint and Terminator (when it was $825.) Glad I waited.

I hope they can sort it out and make it in the industry. We need companies to keep innovating and pushing each other. 
 
If you can find one, the FN-8 Falcon is a first class hunter. But, it is magazine fed and a bolt has to be actuated for each shot. Still pretty fast.

Mine shoots 21 gr. Kodiak/Barakudas into less than 1" @25 yds. and 2+ " @ 50.


thanks for the suggestion. i had not seen falcons before. i am new still to pcp. i did get a artemis pp800 in .25. so far i think it needs to be tuned. or maybe more time breaking in.



JamesD... my first dip in the pool was 2019. a crossman 1322. now i think i have spent almost $400 on it. So, i would like to be bulls eye right on my new rifle. a $1000 gun turning into $2000 is not what i intend. btw, a BOB hunter is why my desires. of course leshiey is perfect, just more than i hope to spend with my nonexistent budget.
 
Just received a .22 AEA Varmint. 

Some quick unboxing and firing initial impressions.

Overview:

I would put the basic machining quality at a level of many mid to high end PCP's...considerably better than Umarex or Hatsan. Nice actually.

11mm airgun scope rail.

Trigger break is clean and crisp but very heavy. Didn't measure but I'd guess up in the 4+ lb range. Probably an opportunity to improve it by swapping springs.

Noise level is a little lower than the Umarex Gauntlet. Not whisper quiet but perfectly acceptable for backyard IMHO. There are 5 aluminum cups in the end of the shroud.

Cocking efforts are OK. Not smooth and silky like FX Impact but not heavy and scratchy like Umarex Gauntlet. There is no latch to hold cocking lever back which makes swapping magazines a two handed operation.

Adjustable folding stock is a nice feature...though it has some freeplay when latched.

500cc bottle is rated to 300 bar but fill is limited to a bit below 220 bar. The sweet spot is even lower...203 bar down to 134 bar. A reg would allow one to fill the bottle all the way up and increase the shot count considerably.

Magazine loading is your typical turn and load against spring then load the rest. Nice and deep. Polymags fit with no issues.

The bad/ugly:

Shipped with the wrong size magazine (.25 caliber) with the same broken detent spring ball issue as the reviewer noted.

No instruction manual.




 
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Bought .25 compact semi-auto with PCP only suppressor, several months ago. 

Build quality was acceptable I'm a machinist and picky. Equivalent to high-quality for china parts, similar to Evanix build quality. Sear design is a backward paintball semi mechanism, functional, and built solid. (elongated pivot hole in trigger instead of in sear, works fine and has added benefit of no vibration as in old paintball designs). Some screws were loose, tightened them. I thought I had a problem with the bipod rail but looking at pictures that must have been something else since it doesn't seem to have a bipod rail and I no longer have the gun. 

Consistent velocity and pretty good accuracy only fired 3-4 mags. 

Hammer slides on a central rod (great design no hammer tilt or spring binding) and activates the valve that parallel but below the hammer centerline (like Logun MKII)

The sound was acceptable but louder than my buddy would like but he makes and refines hair curler LDC's for all his toys and has higher standards for sound than I do. 

The semi-auto mechanism is based on a piston in the shroud that slides on the barrel. Probably over gassed for reliability as it has rubber bumpers at both ends of travel near the cocking handle. If you remove the suppressor it will still function reliably but will get much less air for the recocking, probably the reason for over-gassing. 

The magazine is similar to Marauder but has a clearance slot for the rod that re-recocks the action. If Marauder magazines fit you could modify them (they do not). Uses a magnet retention system for the magazines, would probably work well with a little refinement either on their part or the purchaser. 

I called about adding a reg to be able to use the bottle a full 4500 psi. They said the semi's don't work with a reg. I disagree, I have no issues with regulated semi's of which I have several. I do think that it was their way to say their plenum is too small, did not verify as I was returning the gun. 

The bottle was smaller than advertised and it was shooting 800 fps, not 950 as advertised (probably a typo due to many eBay listings and purchasing the compact vs the full size). This caused the return. 

I hope this helps someone make a purchasing decision.



Cheers,




 
This post was was made January 2020, today’s date is September 16, 2021, so a year and eight months later a lot has changed. I received the AEA Varmint in .25 caliber just two days ago and I can say definitively that this is a quality, powerful and accurate airgun. All the issues that that YouTuber experienced 20 months ago must have been fixed because I’ve experienced none of them. 
Right out of the box I tethered the AEA Varmint to a scuba tank and shot a full tin of 200 rounds of Hatsan Vortex Strike pellets averaging 62.7 FPE. No leaks, no magazine feed issues, no difficulty engaging the bolt and no problems whatsoever. After zeroing the scope, I proceeded in shooting 6”, 5”, 4”, 3”, 2” and 1” steel gongs with pinpoint accuracy out to 60 yards. The next day ( today ), I duplicated my results with better accuracy. Ended up only shooting the 1” steel target that was 1” wide and 4” long and was hitting it over 50% of the time at 50 yards. I’m totally loving this gun. It’s beautiful. It’s powerful. And it’s extremely accurate. And it cost me 1/4 the price that I paid for my EDgun Leshiy 2. I would definitely recommend this gun
9B7F199A-8F9B-4D65-9491-770941F0F086.1631860537.jpeg

 
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FYI, I have the .22 semi. Once you get the jamming resolved it shoots relatively reliably with occasional jams. The problem I found recently was the amount of lead dust the semi produces. I no longer shoot it indoors because of this. I purchased a lead test kit from amazon and found lead dust everywhere. They use a blowback setup inline with the barrel, this will create lead in the exhaust due to jams and pellets being forced through the magazine. This fine lead dust is more dangerous then handling lead. Take precautions with lead.
 
I bought a Hp Ss .25 a couple of months ago from Utah Airguns. It would not hold pressure as I would try to fill it. I sent it back the same day and they sent me out a replacement right away. This one which I still have has been great. No leaks and semi-auto works from a 3300 psi fill all the way down to 1500 with no jams. Yes the trigger is heavy but not crazy. I've owned an Impact , Wildcat and presently own Rti Prophet also in .25. Yes those guns are more refined but for the price and fun factor I probably will keep. FYI, it also functions flawlessly with a Ronin attached and is definitely backyard quiet.
 
Update on the AEA Varmint. It worked great for only two days. The third day I was having a difficult time engaging the bolt and then the bolt fell out completely. I ended up sending the .25 cal Varmint back and exchanging it for the HP Semi-auto Assassin in .30 cal. That gun has been a winner, very accurate and fun to shoot although the trigger is quite heavy. The only issues I’ve had is twice to avoid double loading I shot the gun without the magazine installed and this caused the o-ring inside the barrel to come out. It was an easy fix by pushing a cleaning rod down the barrel until it stopped right where the o-ring would seat and pushing the o-ring in the barrel from the breech until it set back in place. Next to my FX Crown, it’s the most accurate gun I own.
B2B946CD-64BC-49EA-8E96-C95EB0ABDCB9.1651596616.jpeg

 
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