Damas y Caballeros, errr, Ladies and Gentleman, I've finally had a chance for a head to head battle between my EBR winning .30 FX Bobcat Mk2, and the .30 Daystate Safari at distance. And since I had 110 yards available, what the heck, using EBR sized targets (7 to X rings only).
The Contenders:
.30 FX Bobcat Mk2, Athlon Ares BTR 4.5-27x50, 44.75 JSB at 875 FPS
.30 Daystate Safari, Hawke Sidewinder 6-24x56, 50.1 JSB at 855 FPS.
Truth in lending, this Safari is not mine and is on loan to me from Airguns of Arizona, but it is BONE STOCK off the shelf, nothing has been done to this gun other than charge the battery and clean the barrel.
My Bobcat, on the other hand, is the same one I won EBR with in October, and it is as far from stock off the shelf as a Bobcat can get. Tuned over the past couple of years, it has the barrel polished to a mirror finish, all firing valve and hammer internals polished, Huma reg. with internals polished, larger valve and valve seat, Wika pressure gauge, custom hydro dip stock, the gun is tuned to shoot over 40 shots per 250 bar fill using 44.75 JSB at 875 FPS, with an ES of approximately 6 to 7 for the 40 shot string, Trigger adjusted to approx. 6 ounces to break like glass on second stage.
So in essence, I am comparing an off the shelf gun to a full, proven in competition at the highest levels gun... And as you'll see, the Safari held its own. No, it didn't beat the Bobcat, but was close enough that it could have gone either way.
The guns:
The range in a friend's front yard, El Cajon (Rancho San Diego) California, 70 degrees, winds 2 to 3 mph with gusts to 5 to 6 mph.
The lower target is 96 yards, the one I used today is above that at 110 yards, shot from a prone position with bipod and rear bag.
I printed EBR sized targets, 6 to a page, and shot 5 shots per target, using the 6th (lower right) as a sighter target. I scored these just as was done at EBR. In order to be fair, I shot one 5 shot target with one gun, then one 5 shot target with the other, rinse and repeat. The first card was shot rapidly, without waiting for wind, mostly just using the previous shots as sighters. First round to the Safari, 208 to 205, but I'd call this the practice card before the championship round....
Next up was full Maximum Effort, shoot some sighters, try and read the wind, get the absolute best score possible. In this case, Old School won out against New School, but not by much... 213 to 209. Remember, this is 110 yards, with about the same conditions as the finals at EBR. For reference, 209 was 11th in Pro division, and 213 was 7th in Pro division (out of 25 Pros) - at only 100, not 110 yards.
So is an off the shelf, bone stock .30 Daystate Safari competitive at the highest level professional 100 yard BR competitions? What do you think???
I say most definitely, no tuning or accessories required.
I noticed some shots dropped on the Safari target, one low on target #2, and two low on target #4. Initially I thought maybe those shots were slightly low due to a lower velocity caused by an electronic reg. problem? Being the inquisitive nuke that I am, I got the gun home, and checked the breech oring and it seemed just a bit extruded or slightly worn. This is more than likely the cause of those low shots, and if the oring had been 100%, it looks like the showdown would probably have been a dead heat...
The Contenders:
.30 FX Bobcat Mk2, Athlon Ares BTR 4.5-27x50, 44.75 JSB at 875 FPS
.30 Daystate Safari, Hawke Sidewinder 6-24x56, 50.1 JSB at 855 FPS.
Truth in lending, this Safari is not mine and is on loan to me from Airguns of Arizona, but it is BONE STOCK off the shelf, nothing has been done to this gun other than charge the battery and clean the barrel.
My Bobcat, on the other hand, is the same one I won EBR with in October, and it is as far from stock off the shelf as a Bobcat can get. Tuned over the past couple of years, it has the barrel polished to a mirror finish, all firing valve and hammer internals polished, Huma reg. with internals polished, larger valve and valve seat, Wika pressure gauge, custom hydro dip stock, the gun is tuned to shoot over 40 shots per 250 bar fill using 44.75 JSB at 875 FPS, with an ES of approximately 6 to 7 for the 40 shot string, Trigger adjusted to approx. 6 ounces to break like glass on second stage.
So in essence, I am comparing an off the shelf gun to a full, proven in competition at the highest levels gun... And as you'll see, the Safari held its own. No, it didn't beat the Bobcat, but was close enough that it could have gone either way.
The guns:
The range in a friend's front yard, El Cajon (Rancho San Diego) California, 70 degrees, winds 2 to 3 mph with gusts to 5 to 6 mph.
The lower target is 96 yards, the one I used today is above that at 110 yards, shot from a prone position with bipod and rear bag.
I printed EBR sized targets, 6 to a page, and shot 5 shots per target, using the 6th (lower right) as a sighter target. I scored these just as was done at EBR. In order to be fair, I shot one 5 shot target with one gun, then one 5 shot target with the other, rinse and repeat. The first card was shot rapidly, without waiting for wind, mostly just using the previous shots as sighters. First round to the Safari, 208 to 205, but I'd call this the practice card before the championship round....
Next up was full Maximum Effort, shoot some sighters, try and read the wind, get the absolute best score possible. In this case, Old School won out against New School, but not by much... 213 to 209. Remember, this is 110 yards, with about the same conditions as the finals at EBR. For reference, 209 was 11th in Pro division, and 213 was 7th in Pro division (out of 25 Pros) - at only 100, not 110 yards.
So is an off the shelf, bone stock .30 Daystate Safari competitive at the highest level professional 100 yard BR competitions? What do you think???
I say most definitely, no tuning or accessories required.
I noticed some shots dropped on the Safari target, one low on target #2, and two low on target #4. Initially I thought maybe those shots were slightly low due to a lower velocity caused by an electronic reg. problem? Being the inquisitive nuke that I am, I got the gun home, and checked the breech oring and it seemed just a bit extruded or slightly worn. This is more than likely the cause of those low shots, and if the oring had been 100%, it looks like the showdown would probably have been a dead heat...
