AirMaks Arms Sayonara Rats! Via the Krait Compact 22

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weevil

weevil

Member
Dec 19, 2022
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Utah
As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I had to say goodbye to my M3 compact because it couldn’t be relied upon to shoot accurately after sitting overnight. My major pest issue involves rats, coming from a canal behind my yard and invading my chicken emporium. It’s not unusual for me to get 5 per evening and I tend to snipe them from indoors, at a range of 50-80yards. That requires an accurate pellet shooter that is good to go at a moments notice. I’m not knocking FX because I have several Pantheras that I love. Rather, it’s just that my M3 wasn’t suited to the task at hand, in spite of many attempts to make it work.

So, a search ensued to find a compact and accurate 22 pellet shooter that could reach out to 80 and be relied upon to maintain POI after bouts of inactivity without having to dry fire or futz with HST settings. Frankly, I was very skeptical about the Airmaks Krait because earlier incarnations were known to have a very bad case of first shot jitters, resulting from a poor regulator design. However, I was able to test one over the course of a week to determine if Airmaks had truly fixed the problem. I also evaluated a Ghost carbine and a Panthera Hunter Compact. The PHC just didn’t have the form factor that I wanted and the Ghost, while a very fine specimen, didn’t merit the premium of spending another $600 for my use case. I also wasn’t able to test the Ghost as extensively as the Krait and so the Krait ended up being the “safer” bet for my use case. You can’t beat having an opportunity to actually determine if a tool works for your specific job. If I were looking for the most premium package, I would likely lean more towards the Ghost, but in this case I’m simply looking for functionality and boy o boy, the Krait delivers!

I ended up opting for the cheapest tubed version because, again, this is a tool rather than an object for admiration and I can refill it quickly from my tank at home. It’s a stubby, ugly beast but extremely compact, at 24” OAL:

IMG_0680.jpeg
It’s also very quiet, equipped only with one or two sections of a Huma Mod30 and it has a really nice shot cycle thanks to its unorthodox hammer setup. The CZ barrel shoots a variety of pellets well but has proven to be ridiculously accurate with JTS18.1s which I have it set up shooting at 910fps. At lower power, the hades were also very good. Airmaks took a lot of flak regarding the reg problems on earlier kraits and I have to say that they have made an astonishing comeback. Right from day 1, the reg has shown no signs of creep or variation from input (tank) pressure and is perhaps the most solid reg that I’ve encountered on my many PCPs. Correspondingly, first shots are dead on regardless of input pressure or downtime. It was tuned carefully at median tank pressure at 96.5% on the speed curve and maintains an SD ~2 from 280 bar to 130, which provides around 60 shots from the 200cc tube. In the photo below the gun had been sat for a week with 210bar in the tank and there’s no visible deviation from the 120bar set point.
IMG_0681.jpeg


The only issue encountered so far is that the butt pad was wobbly, fixed by me as you can see in the pic above with a securing screw. There’s always something…

Overall, I’m very happy with this decision and the gun has proved it’s worth with a 100% scorecard on the rats. Before anyone asks, I have no desire to try slugs or heavier pellets. With a 400mm choked barrel, the 18 grain pellets represent the best horse for this course.
 
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L.Leon said:
Why are you calling “Stubby” ugly? I think your Krait is looking sweet as setup by you.🙏👍
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Let’s just say that the Ghost is a bit more elegant looking as far as I’m concerned. However, the Ghost was a few inches longer and would have needed a bigger moderator. The carbine version is pretty loud. That’s another thing worth considering in this context: Shooting Hades, the Krait would be quiet enough for me with no mod, which makes it even more of a bargain.
 
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SpringfieldScooter said:
Industrial looking indeed, and more accurate than a M3?
Just wait until all the many EBR competition shooters out there find out!
Is that an optical illusion, or is it leaking from one of the numerous torx head screws, in the second picture?
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Thats a drop of ballistol that was applied to patches in the adjacent mag slot when cleaning the barrel. Well spotted though, SpringfieldSherlock! Moreover, there’s no pressure in that section because it houses the hammer

1704434582590.jpeg
 
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For the benefit of new and future owners, I’ll pass along a couple tips that I’ve gleaned during the process of setting this (and other Airmaks) up:

First, with all of these Airmaks with the cantilever hammer, the HST tuning is very sensitive and requires patience and a certain technique. The HST adjustment screw (visible at the bottom right of the action in the closeup shot) is held firm by a grub screw. When tuning, it is tempting to leave the grub screw loose so that the HST can be quickly modulated during tuning. However, when you find the “perfect” speed and secure the grub screw, the projectile speed will change. Thus, you should secure the grub screw every time you make a change during tuning. So far, I’ve seen no change in the speed since tuning.

Regarding the trigger, mine arrived with only one stage. That can be addressed by following the instructions in this video:


The weight can then be adjusted via the spring collar on the linkage rod. The adjustments do confound each other to some extent so it takes some time to get it just right. It’s also affected by HST so you should save the trigger fine tuning until after the projectile tuning is done.

Finally, there is a valve tension adjustment just above the trigger. YMMV, but I ended up setting it to 1/8 of a turn back from full tension, giving very crisp shots and a low ES. This is six shots at 140b tank pressure, followed by a fill to 280 and another six, therefore highlighting the “worst case scenario” in terms of regulator input variation:

909,912,912,905,909,909 - (filled) - 905,907,903,907,902,903

In reality, aside from my Hubens, I rarely fill to >250bar, because I tend to use a tank and don’t favor the stresses induced on regs and seals at 300b.

Here’s a vid from the same guy showing all adjustments on the Krait:


Note that US models have a different reg and unlike the UK version in the video, the US (FAC) reg should not be adjusted to reduce plenum pressure without degassing the gun.
 
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I stop short of the "full" fill also, on all of my guns. But I normally stop at 200bar or just a little above. As noted above, I see no sense in loading the internal parts with high air pressures. Just not a requirement for the few extra shots that you get in my book.
My Compact trigger was adjusted very nicely outta the box. Just a little adjusting on the return spring as noted above, netted a nice, two stage trigger that I haven't adjusted since the first adjustment.

Mike
 
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