Other Rainson Edge X - first impressions

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Booder98

Booder98

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May 19, 2021
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OH, United States
I decided to go ahead and buy a Rainson Edge X from Ares Tactical. I purchased the 'Dr. Russ Hunting Special', in synthetic. I haven't had a chance to shoot it much beyond some chrono testing, so this is kind of between an unboxing and a real review.

What came in the box:
  • The gun, set up for .25 caliber.
  • The .22 barrel and probe.
  • 3 magazines for both .22 and .25.
  • 1 single shot tray in .25. I'll be asking what it costs to get the .22 single shot tray.
  • A barrel band, already attached to the gun.
  • A shroud, already attached to the barrel.
  • A moderator.
  • A female Foster fitting that will fit on the gun's Foster port. Originally people complained about the gun using a bastardized Foster fitting, but the gun came with a standard Foster fitting.
  • Some spare o-rings for ? The Foster fitting, I think.
  • A huge spanner for God knows what. Removing the regulator, perhaps.
  • A small wrench for removing the pellet probe when changing the barrel.
  • A users' manual, spelled 'User Manuel'. Oops.
First Impressions out of the box:
  • I chose the synthetic, but Ares will sell you the wood Edge for the same price. For plastic, it's pretty solid.
  • Man, this thing is heavy! I thought my wood Avenger was heavy, but this thing has some serious heft to it. Eat your Wheaties if you want to hunt with it.
  • There are two small picatinny rails on the receiver, and one was crooked. I would have been disappointed if the screw holes were crooked, but it was just because there was some room in the holes in the rail. Easy to straighten.
  • The gun came with the reg set to 150 bar, and there was about 180 bar of air in the tank.
  • The magazines are okay. They look similar to plain old Marauder/Avenger magazines, and are loaded in the same way.
  • The label on the side says, ".25 Caliber (6.35mm) something something." I guess that's going to be wrong when I change the barrel.
  • The manual is okay, not great. English was definitely not their first language. There are exploded diagrams, but they just point to part numbers, not measurements for items like o-rings.
Since I don't have any .25 handy, I went to change the barrel from .25 to .22. Taking the barrel out was pretty easy - there are descriptions on Youtube. However, they're a little incomplete. The shroud is held on by very small grub screws, and a fitting on top. There are no marks or notches to show where the shroud goes, so be mentally prepared to guess, or mark where the shroud goes. You don't need to put the shroud on; AFAICT it is just there for show. Of course at one point I got the barrels mixed up, and there aren't markings on the barrel to differentiate the two.

I then took it out to get some quick chrono tests. My experience with it was:
  • This thing is loud! Your neighbors will think you're shooting .22 LR in the backyard. When I get done with the chrono (cheap Chinese attached to the barrel) I'll put the moderator on it.
  • The gun feels okay. The grip is rubber and is a little small. My hand is pretty average size, and it just barely fits.
  • I didn't get a chance to zero the scope in, because the missus had Other Plans for me. With the scope I have on it right now, I have to crawl up on the stock to get in the eye box.
  • The trigger seems to be pretty nice. Mine came light from the factory. It is a two-stage trigger, and it felt like it slipped into a notch when you take up all of the first-stage slack. Breathe on it hard after that and it fires. Since I want to use it to target shoot, I don't have a problem with it being light.
  • Cocking is okay. It doesn't grate, and it's not as smooth as my FX. It has a long throw.
  • It has a Power Adjuster, with five selections from low to high. I swear I read somewhere that the lowest setting is Off, so I only tried four selections. Shooting JSB 18.13, the numbers out of the box were (fps):
689
787
902
922

I suspect that the difference between 787 and 902 are where the gun is wasting air. I will be playing with the regulator and hammer spring tomorrow.
  • It uses a lot of air. I haven't adjusted the regulator and hammer spring, but right now it will give me 50 or so shots before it falls off the reg. This from a 500cc bottle. Again, I think that is because it is tuned pretty hot.
  • The fill port is at the bottom of the stock. If you use one of those 5" gold filters at the end of your whip, you will then be getting pliers or forceps to unhook the Foster fitting because your fingers will not fit in the recess where the port is located.
    I ordered the external regulator adjustment knob, but when that gun is full of air you need to be The Incredible Hulk to adjust that regulator. I suspect that when I let the air out of the gun it will be much easier to adjust.
  • I think that 500cc aluminum tank is where a lot of the weight is. I might try to get the carbon tank for it.
Tomorrow I'm going to adjust the regulator and hammer spring to shoot around 850 or thereabouts, and see how accurate it is.
 
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shroud is easy to get in the right position,

slide the shroud on just far enough to start threading the shroud end cap onto the barrel,
then just screw on the end cap till it stops 8t will slide the shroud into the correct position, and then tighten the shroud grubs.

and trigger is easy to adjust,
i replaced all the springs in it with lighter weight ones.

and the foster on the gun just looks like a regular foster,
use the included female,
i have read of someone having their fill hose blow off when trying a regular foster female on the guns.

theres a reason they include the female.
 
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Photos.

The gun, disassembled. Note: 'User Manuel'.
PXL_20230908_141026415.jpg



The plenum and regulator, The brass knob is the regulator adjuster.
PXL_20230908_141154003.jpg



The hammer spring adjuster. I had it as low as possible, but it's a strong spring.
PXL_20230908_141249589.jpg




The gun, assembled and with moderator attached.
PXL_20230908_165733738.jpg



After a little more messing with it, I have more comments:

The printed manual is an improvement on the .pdf file online. It does give you the names of the parts but still doesn't give you the size of the o-rings.

They threw a bag full of o-rings plus a dowty seal in with the gun. Might be handy.

The stock comes off by removing a M5 hex screw that is up in that pistol grip. You will need a long allen wrench or a hex screwdriver to get up in there.

I let the air out of the gun by removing the air bottle and cracking the regulated pressure gauge to let the air out of the plenum. That did take the pressure off the external regulator knob, and made it easy to lower the regulator's set point. I turned it 1/8 of a turn, and that lowered the regulator's setpoint from 150 to 125 (ish). In turn, that lowered it to 885 fps, wide open. Close enough.

The hammer spring was backed out almost all of the way, right out of the box. There was about an 1/8 of a turn out before it stopped. Starlingassn has directions on how to get to the hammer spring. For .22 target shooting I think it might be a little too much spring.

The gun's max pressure is 250 bar. The bottle side gauge has that max pressure marked.

I ran a few cleaning pads through the barrel. Which I should have done while I was changing barrels, but whatever. They weren't especially dirty.
While I was shooting, it looked like the regulated pressure was holding pretty steady. However, I didn't give it a timing test, just tried to remember to take a peek at it if the gun had been sitting for a few minutes.

The moderator helped a lot. I don't have a dB meter, but it lowered it from .22 LR loud to fairly quiet.

The gauges on the right-hand side are a little annoying. LH would have been better.

That pistol grip is fat. I think you'll need man hands to reach the trigger. I'm not sure how you can move that trigger assembly back and forth. A way to replace that grip might be nice.

At the setting I was shooting at, the gun was using about 2 bar/shot. That would be four magazines worth before recharging.

(edit: Englese)
 
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starlingassn said:
mine seems to love the jts dead center 25gn in .25

at 50yds it puts a whole magazine into barely more than 1/2" ctc.


something ive noticed though,
you said your gun fills to 250bar,
and i see the gauge showing it as the fill pressure.

but mine shows a 200bar fill pressure.

hmmmmm,ill have to call ares and ask them what's up.
Click to expand...
I bet they stuck a regulator gauge on at the factory by mistake. Manual says 250.

Screenshot 2023-09-09 102818.png
 
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starlingassn said:
ahhhhh,mine says 250bar in the "user manuel" also.

when i pulled it out if the box and noticed the gauge went to red at 200bar,
i was bummed out lol
in my mind i thought
"wasnt it supposed to fill to 250bar?"


im currently digging through my gauge graveyard for a more suitable gauge lol

View attachment 387541
Click to expand...
Just like my Brocock Sniper. You’d think that the manufacturers could put the CORRECT manometer on the rifle. It’s kind of important! Oh well, better than putting a 250 bar one on a 200 bar gun, lol.
 
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darylm said:
Just like my Brocock Sniper. You’d think that the manufacturers could put the CORRECT manometer on the rifle. It’s kind of important! Oh well, better than putting a 250 bar one on a 200 bar gun, lol.
Click to expand...


true lol

i found a 5k gauge to throw on mine so no biggie.

since my pressure realization revelation,

ill probably bump up the reg some,
it just doesnt have a huge plenum to make the power,
hmmmm wonder if someone could make a bigger plenum for it......
 
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