Airmaks guns in general, and the Katran more specifically, seemed pretty interesting to me as I have followed this fairly new company's product launches.
So when I saw a Katran Long (cylinder version) .25 cal come up used on UA's site a couple of weeks ago, I pulled the trigger.
I hadn't seem much posted about the Katrans, so I figured that I would post my initial thoughts regarding the gun.
First off, thanks to Utah Airguns for the nice purchase. I bought it on a Friday afternoon, and it was shipped by the following Monday. And the gun met or exceeded the condition which UA specified.
As a used gun which I have only shot 3 times now, I don't know its history, how it had been tuned by the previous owner, etc. The first thing that I do when I get a new gun is zero the scope and get chrono numbers. Even though this is one of the long barrel models (but not one of the new HP guns), I was still surprised at the muzzle velocities I got. Average of 974 fps with JSB 25.39's and 878 fps with FX 34's. This was actually higher than I thought such a lightweight and minimalistic gun would shoot. And the ES's were in the 10-12 fps range for each magazine (14 rounds) I shot.
It would be great if all air guns today came from the factory with a male Foster fill adapter. The Katran uses a fill probe though, and it works fine. Just something else to have to remember to take up to the range.
The magazines are excellent - robust, easy to use, and have functioned flawlessly. And the way that they are built, it seems like they will continue to function flawlessly. My used gun did not come with a single shot tray. Don't know if the new ones do or not.
The machining and finish on the gun are top notch and beautiful. Care was obviously taken in the design, material choices and the assembly/finishing. And the little flourish of the fluted shroud gives a little elegance, even to a design which is functional/sterile like an AR15 type of gun.
I had read that some owners didn't like the little bit of play in the stock when it was unfolded and locked into place. I stole one idea I had read and put little pieces of electrical tape on the inside face of the folding mechanism, and it now locks up fine. I am a big guy with longish arms, so I very much appreciate the ease and effectiveness of the adjustable butt pad for LOP customizing.
The cheek piece is also easily adjustable for height, but with the rings I used I did not need to raise it at all.
The 2-stage trigger on my used gun is excellent. I just thought about the fact that I have not measured pull weight. It was adjusted so nicely when I received it that I have never even thought about doing so, or adjusting it any further. And not even thinking about a trigger - well that is one measure of a good one.
My rifle, being .25 cal and set up for making some pretty good power (53/58 FPE at the muzzle), has a pretty good bark with just the OEM shroud and moderator. Right on the very edge of back yard friendly for me, and I have a large yard and friendly neighbors. And since I want to keep the neighbors friendly, at home I use a DFL Tanto on it, which really takes any sharpness off the report. Easy to do since the gun has an OEM 1/2 UNF thread at the muzzle.
This Katran is in my personal preferred configuration for how I intended to shoot it. It is long, especially with the added moderator and extended butt pad (46.5"), but I didn't plan on using it in the woods or in heavy brush. I knew that at .25 cal and with the air cylinder instead of the bottle, I would be sacrificing shot count, but I preferred the appearance, and especially the potentially better balance and handling of the cylinder model gun. At longer ranges (61 yards at home and 100 yards at the range), I can pretty much count on getting 28 good shots (2 magazines) per fill before POI change. I may tune the gun down to shoot 25.39's more in the low 900 fps range to see what that does for shot count.
These guns ship with a nice hard case. In my use, however, the folded rifle no longer fits in the OEM hard case when a scope is mounted (adds just a little too much length to the folded configuration). However in folded configuration the rifle fits just fine in an expensive AR style padded soft case, which is very convenient to transport.
Accuracy of this gun has been excellent. Now I find that the 61 yards I have available to me in my back yard range is challenging enough at my experience level. So the 100 yards I shoot when I go up to the Cowboy range is exponentially more challenging to me. We put an 8" splatter target on the 100 yard gong for zeroing, but this last weekend I wanted to try something different. 4" tall plastic Zombie figures, and I had glued a magnet onto their feet. I was hoping that if we hit them they would be knocked off the top of the target (as they were only magnetically attached), and would be restrained by a cord around their leg. Well, it turned out that the Katran .25 just cut them up.
I got my first one on the 3rd shot: First shot high, second shot spun him, 3rd shot cut him off at the knee. The second one I hit on my first attempt - looks like I got him in the ankle. A shooting buddy, new to air gun shooting only since I have been bringing mine up to the Cowboy range once a month, got his zombie right in the gut on his 3rd shot after I told him where to hold (ran out of elevation at 100 yards - have to shim or install adjustable mounts if I am going to continue shooting the Katran at 100 yards+). We found his body whole from the waist down, but I gave that to him to take home as a little trophy.
In summary I am really happy with my Katran Long purchase. It seems to be a high quality gun which is available at a price point which can only be considered to be 'reasonable' in today's hot market, with little available in-stock selection and the value of the USD falling against international currencies.
One last point to make: My used gun did not come with an owner's manual, and I did not find one on the Airmaks site. So I emailed them to see if one was electronically available. It was easily after normal business hours in Prague when I emailed them, but within 20 minutes I had received a very friendly email reply with a PDF of the owner's manual attached. Very responsive to their customer requests!
I think that Airmaks has a bright future in the airgun market, and I'm really happy that I finally got to try one. And it was a fun purchase for me, personally being of Czech heritage.
So when I saw a Katran Long (cylinder version) .25 cal come up used on UA's site a couple of weeks ago, I pulled the trigger.
I hadn't seem much posted about the Katrans, so I figured that I would post my initial thoughts regarding the gun.
First off, thanks to Utah Airguns for the nice purchase. I bought it on a Friday afternoon, and it was shipped by the following Monday. And the gun met or exceeded the condition which UA specified.
As a used gun which I have only shot 3 times now, I don't know its history, how it had been tuned by the previous owner, etc. The first thing that I do when I get a new gun is zero the scope and get chrono numbers. Even though this is one of the long barrel models (but not one of the new HP guns), I was still surprised at the muzzle velocities I got. Average of 974 fps with JSB 25.39's and 878 fps with FX 34's. This was actually higher than I thought such a lightweight and minimalistic gun would shoot. And the ES's were in the 10-12 fps range for each magazine (14 rounds) I shot.
It would be great if all air guns today came from the factory with a male Foster fill adapter. The Katran uses a fill probe though, and it works fine. Just something else to have to remember to take up to the range.
The magazines are excellent - robust, easy to use, and have functioned flawlessly. And the way that they are built, it seems like they will continue to function flawlessly. My used gun did not come with a single shot tray. Don't know if the new ones do or not.
The machining and finish on the gun are top notch and beautiful. Care was obviously taken in the design, material choices and the assembly/finishing. And the little flourish of the fluted shroud gives a little elegance, even to a design which is functional/sterile like an AR15 type of gun.
I had read that some owners didn't like the little bit of play in the stock when it was unfolded and locked into place. I stole one idea I had read and put little pieces of electrical tape on the inside face of the folding mechanism, and it now locks up fine. I am a big guy with longish arms, so I very much appreciate the ease and effectiveness of the adjustable butt pad for LOP customizing.
The cheek piece is also easily adjustable for height, but with the rings I used I did not need to raise it at all.
The 2-stage trigger on my used gun is excellent. I just thought about the fact that I have not measured pull weight. It was adjusted so nicely when I received it that I have never even thought about doing so, or adjusting it any further. And not even thinking about a trigger - well that is one measure of a good one.
My rifle, being .25 cal and set up for making some pretty good power (53/58 FPE at the muzzle), has a pretty good bark with just the OEM shroud and moderator. Right on the very edge of back yard friendly for me, and I have a large yard and friendly neighbors. And since I want to keep the neighbors friendly, at home I use a DFL Tanto on it, which really takes any sharpness off the report. Easy to do since the gun has an OEM 1/2 UNF thread at the muzzle.
This Katran is in my personal preferred configuration for how I intended to shoot it. It is long, especially with the added moderator and extended butt pad (46.5"), but I didn't plan on using it in the woods or in heavy brush. I knew that at .25 cal and with the air cylinder instead of the bottle, I would be sacrificing shot count, but I preferred the appearance, and especially the potentially better balance and handling of the cylinder model gun. At longer ranges (61 yards at home and 100 yards at the range), I can pretty much count on getting 28 good shots (2 magazines) per fill before POI change. I may tune the gun down to shoot 25.39's more in the low 900 fps range to see what that does for shot count.
These guns ship with a nice hard case. In my use, however, the folded rifle no longer fits in the OEM hard case when a scope is mounted (adds just a little too much length to the folded configuration). However in folded configuration the rifle fits just fine in an expensive AR style padded soft case, which is very convenient to transport.
Accuracy of this gun has been excellent. Now I find that the 61 yards I have available to me in my back yard range is challenging enough at my experience level. So the 100 yards I shoot when I go up to the Cowboy range is exponentially more challenging to me. We put an 8" splatter target on the 100 yard gong for zeroing, but this last weekend I wanted to try something different. 4" tall plastic Zombie figures, and I had glued a magnet onto their feet. I was hoping that if we hit them they would be knocked off the top of the target (as they were only magnetically attached), and would be restrained by a cord around their leg. Well, it turned out that the Katran .25 just cut them up.
I got my first one on the 3rd shot: First shot high, second shot spun him, 3rd shot cut him off at the knee. The second one I hit on my first attempt - looks like I got him in the ankle. A shooting buddy, new to air gun shooting only since I have been bringing mine up to the Cowboy range once a month, got his zombie right in the gut on his 3rd shot after I told him where to hold (ran out of elevation at 100 yards - have to shim or install adjustable mounts if I am going to continue shooting the Katran at 100 yards+). We found his body whole from the waist down, but I gave that to him to take home as a little trophy.
In summary I am really happy with my Katran Long purchase. It seems to be a high quality gun which is available at a price point which can only be considered to be 'reasonable' in today's hot market, with little available in-stock selection and the value of the USD falling against international currencies.
One last point to make: My used gun did not come with an owner's manual, and I did not find one on the Airmaks site. So I emailed them to see if one was electronically available. It was easily after normal business hours in Prague when I emailed them, but within 20 minutes I had received a very friendly email reply with a PDF of the owner's manual attached. Very responsive to their customer requests!
I think that Airmaks has a bright future in the airgun market, and I'm really happy that I finally got to try one. And it was a fun purchase for me, personally being of Czech heritage.
They are stupid accurate. My only grip is the mag it’s self the way I load it into the gun I seem to back tension off just enough to cause a pellet to fall out. 