A few weeks ago Blackpaw put up a little trivia game, which in all honestly was fun. Given I was the first with all the correct answers he sent me some samples of the new javelin slugs from Matt Dubar and Co., with a couple other little goodies from across the pond. I have been so busy at work I have not been able to test these until today or post my thanks to Blackpaw, but here we go.
I got an opportunity to finally shoot these out of my wife's Taipan mutant. My wife uses this gun around the house to get rid of pest birds and squirrels. It fits her well and I tuned it for ~15 fpe with cheap Crosman hollow points. Recently she has asked me if I could tune it up for woodchuck, skunks, or other slightly larger critters. This was a perfect opportunity with Blackpaw's javelin give away. Now this gun will sling pellets fast enough and accurate enough for these critters, but thought it would be great if it could sling slugs in the same fashion.
For the good: Black paw sent me samples of 23, 26, and 30 grain .22 slugs. The little Mutant can push the 23gr slugs @ 820fps, which is a respectable 34 fpe. These were the best out of the mutant and were holding one inch groups at 50 yards. Past this point the groups really opened up, however 50 yards is the limit of what I'm going to ask this gun to do. It can also sling the 30gr slugs @ 730fps, for 35 fpe. I was only able to get ~1.5-2" groups out of this combo. I will say however I currently only have a cheap Tasco scope on this right now as it is generally only shooting 20-35 yards around the house and this scope has no parallax adjustment. A portion of these group sizes could be simple parallax shift. So I'm satisfied with the results and feel the Javelin slugs are a very good product. The ammo is very consistent, looks very good, and do lay a smack down when hitting something solid.
For the bad: The slugs are not nearly as consistent accuracy wise out of this gun and I'm probably going to stick with pellets for this gun once this supply of slugs are gone. However I might try revisiting this if I get in another scope that is a more sufficient quality for this application. These will work quite well for the wife if a unwanted critter happens into the yard, but they won't be something she will be able to take out to the field to hunt woodchucks with me. Unless she gets a lot better with her stalking skills which I'm going to say is unlikely (talks too much
). I will say all the slugs Blackpaw sent were .218" diameter, so maybe some .217" would be worth a try.
Side note: If your someone out there has one of these old Mutants you should really try out the different Crosman pellets available. As I stated before this gun gets a steady diet of Crosman hollow points @ 700fps, for the back yard birds and squirrels. When setting up to shoot the slugs I used these to find the velocity plateau and tune it a little so as to not waste the slugs. It was shooting so good with these, even up to 950fps, I decided to try out some of the Crosman destroyers that I ordered to try in this gun as well. WOW!! Guys I'm talking about one hole groups at 30 yards and 1-1.25 inch groups at 65 yards in windy conditions (10-20mph wind, changing direction), with the same scope as used earlier. These pellets make a hell of a smack on the other end (it was making me laugh). If your not familiar with the destroyers they look like predator polymags, but all metal. I am really tempted to give this another go with the Hawke scope off my Cricket, but I swore to myself not to tinker with that setup until it doesn't shoot accurately anymore and that hasn't happened yet.
I hope you guys find this info. useful and another thanks to Blackpaw. If he had not sent me some slugs I'm sure i would not have forced myself to slow down a bit and take some time for my hobby and myself. I have really been enjoying myself.
I got an opportunity to finally shoot these out of my wife's Taipan mutant. My wife uses this gun around the house to get rid of pest birds and squirrels. It fits her well and I tuned it for ~15 fpe with cheap Crosman hollow points. Recently she has asked me if I could tune it up for woodchuck, skunks, or other slightly larger critters. This was a perfect opportunity with Blackpaw's javelin give away. Now this gun will sling pellets fast enough and accurate enough for these critters, but thought it would be great if it could sling slugs in the same fashion.
For the good: Black paw sent me samples of 23, 26, and 30 grain .22 slugs. The little Mutant can push the 23gr slugs @ 820fps, which is a respectable 34 fpe. These were the best out of the mutant and were holding one inch groups at 50 yards. Past this point the groups really opened up, however 50 yards is the limit of what I'm going to ask this gun to do. It can also sling the 30gr slugs @ 730fps, for 35 fpe. I was only able to get ~1.5-2" groups out of this combo. I will say however I currently only have a cheap Tasco scope on this right now as it is generally only shooting 20-35 yards around the house and this scope has no parallax adjustment. A portion of these group sizes could be simple parallax shift. So I'm satisfied with the results and feel the Javelin slugs are a very good product. The ammo is very consistent, looks very good, and do lay a smack down when hitting something solid.
For the bad: The slugs are not nearly as consistent accuracy wise out of this gun and I'm probably going to stick with pellets for this gun once this supply of slugs are gone. However I might try revisiting this if I get in another scope that is a more sufficient quality for this application. These will work quite well for the wife if a unwanted critter happens into the yard, but they won't be something she will be able to take out to the field to hunt woodchucks with me. Unless she gets a lot better with her stalking skills which I'm going to say is unlikely (talks too much
). I will say all the slugs Blackpaw sent were .218" diameter, so maybe some .217" would be worth a try.Side note: If your someone out there has one of these old Mutants you should really try out the different Crosman pellets available. As I stated before this gun gets a steady diet of Crosman hollow points @ 700fps, for the back yard birds and squirrels. When setting up to shoot the slugs I used these to find the velocity plateau and tune it a little so as to not waste the slugs. It was shooting so good with these, even up to 950fps, I decided to try out some of the Crosman destroyers that I ordered to try in this gun as well. WOW!! Guys I'm talking about one hole groups at 30 yards and 1-1.25 inch groups at 65 yards in windy conditions (10-20mph wind, changing direction), with the same scope as used earlier. These pellets make a hell of a smack on the other end (it was making me laugh). If your not familiar with the destroyers they look like predator polymags, but all metal. I am really tempted to give this another go with the Hawke scope off my Cricket, but I swore to myself not to tinker with that setup until it doesn't shoot accurately anymore and that hasn't happened yet.
I hope you guys find this info. useful and another thanks to Blackpaw. If he had not sent me some slugs I'm sure i would not have forced myself to slow down a bit and take some time for my hobby and myself. I have really been enjoying myself.
