Yeah, but it works. People, myself included, keep an eye on things like EBR to get some idea of what the best of the best are using. It is much like Cal Zant's data collection on "what the pros use" in the PRS series. People want to know because if one design is head and shoulders above the rest they want to be shooting that. And I'm sure Daystate didn't miss the fact that part of FX's ascendancy is linked to both Ted Bier's proclivity to them and their dominance at EBR. Still don't believe me? Take a look at the pics coming back from the DS booth at SHOT this year. They probably paid Claudio Flores to fly up and work their booth, they did a limited edition gun to "match" his competition gun, they've got the guns signed by him, they're using his win at EBR as part of a huge marketing push.
Now whether or not this is working I couldn't say, but I'm betting it worked at least to some extent.
Ed is in a bit of a tight spot with all this, because he "invented" the airgun bullpup but it was rapidly copied by just about every major manufacturer. I still think his guns are exceptional and speak for themselves in their own way, and I love that Russian styling, but without the backing of a precision shooter to advocate (in English) for them, a lot of us just grit our teeth at the price and go with a more proven or less expensive rifle.
And now I'm going to say something controversial that gets me in hot water: the core design on the Edguns looks to my eyes like a design which will develop enough internal turbulence to reduce accuracy. There, I said it. Moderator designs are just like firearm suppressors, in that you're balancing how much POI shift and accuracy loss is acceptable against how much sound mitigation. Being the quietest in and of itself isn't that remarkable because you can really piss away accuracy in doing so, and airgun pellets are WAY WAY WAY easier to disrupt than bullets. And Ed is fighting with trying to push as much suppression into as small a package as possible, and my guess is for clearances and to try and regain a little accuracy, that is why he went with the size bore in the core he did. It is just speculation obviously, but if you aren't getting the accuracy you want out of a Lelya I'd start looking there. I'd be an incredibly fun challenge to try and build a moderator core for the Leishy or Lelya to try and eek the most in terms of accuracy and suppression out of that platform though. That is some complex design work which would just tickle me pink.
This post is getting a bit long and ramble-y, so I'll just wrap up by saying that shorter barrels don't innately reduce accuracy, they are every bit as accurate as their longer counterparts all else being equal. That is a common misconception, in both airguns and firearms. Where this may start to break down is things like higher muzzle pressures generating more turbulence upon exit, and more capacity for disruption within the moderator. Both of these things could be mitigated with a more optimized moderator/air stripper system.
Of course I don't own a Lelya, so take what I say with a big pile of salt. Also, what do I know anyway? I'm just some nutcase on the internet.
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