Taipan Taipan Slash first tuning report.

[bernieorosz]

jpiperson2002, Thank you for the detail reporting. Excellent information!!

I like that you can get the Slash .25 power with the JSB 25 and 34's down to 55/57 fpe. For me, that makes the .25 caliber now much more enticing than the originally published 90J/66fpe by Taipan. Plus, I assume the Power Kits could allow us to go even lower still (or higher).

You documented the issue with the 3D Pellet Seater, and hopefully, Taipan will acknowledge and correct. Possibly more than one Pellet Seater needed.

Can you still seat pellets/slugs individually with appropriate ballpoint pen or golf tee like we do with the Huben's?

 

[jpiperson2002]

jpiperson2002, Thank you for the detail reporting. Excellent information!!

I like that you can get the Slash .25 power with the JSB 25 and 34's down to 55/57 fpe. For me, that makes the .25 caliber now much more enticing than the originally published 90J/66fpe by Taipan. Plus, I assume the Power Kits could allow us to go even lower still (or higher).

You documented the issue with the 3D Pellet Seater, and hopefully, Taipan will acknowledge and correct. Possibly more than one Pellet Seater needed.

Can you still seat pellets/slugs individually with appropriate ballpoint pen or golf tee like we do with the Huben's?

Pellets can of course be individually seated to any reasonable depth in the magazine. It's a finicky business without a tool of some kind that loads all of the pellets to the same depth. And it's easy enough to make or find a small pellet press tool like a pen tip or chopstick or something that widens enough to seat a pellet but not enter the magazine any further.

I got spoiled with the very wide pellet variety available in .22 cal. There were always multiple .22 options and most of those seemed to work in most of my airguns. Maybe not very accurately, but they worked.

There are (probably?) dozens of different varieties of standard commercial .25 cal pellets and slugs out there, plus the specialty houses making slugs. Someone with a .25 cal Slash and a large cache of .25 cal pellets and slugs to test will eventually come up with a recommended list of brands/weights/diameters that work smoothly. I might make another attempt to individually load the Baracudas and Crow Magnums deeper into the magazines to see if that helps.

I haven't checked to see if there is a list of airgun pellet diameters anywhere. The maximum diameter of the solid body of a pellet puts a physical limit on the diameter of the barrel it can use. That's a big deal with slugs since they can't deform as much as pellets, which can have a deep cavity and only one or two narrow bands of physical engagement between the pellet body, the skirt edge, and the barrel.

One nice thing about airguns is that anyone with a chronograph and some time and patience can plot out power curves for different pellets and pressure settings. And a few people also have both the opportunity and the skill to also compare the relative accuracy of different ammo at longer distances likely encountered while hunting.

Forums like this allow everyone with an interest to become an independent researcher and then to post their test results and observations. No grant money or lengthy peer reviews are needed before publishing test results here. As long as they're fair reviews with reasonable tests. The real-world feedback we often see in the forums here really helps the majority of participants who are not able to test things for themselves.

Though I'm not sure if reading the AGN forums usually saves people money in the long run by steering them away from buying airguns they've read about.

Or if reading about new airguns all the time, about how well a new model performs compared to almost anything that has come before.... that it might in fact influence some easily swayed souls to gradually accumulate a small but growing collection of increasingly unique and expensive airguns as time goes on.

JP

 

[jpiperson2002]

Update concerning some kinds of 0.25 pellets not staying securely in the magazine when pressed into place using the Slash pellet seating tool which comes with the Slash. The pellets work correctly when they are individually inserted more deeply into the magazine than occurs when using the Taipan pellet seating tool.

I reran some more quick velocity tests on the same pellets checked yesterday, including the 3 kinds of pellets which had previously backed out of the magazines during testing. It was a simple problem as suspected. The included Taipan 12-pellet seating device works OK on the Exact Kings and King Heavy MKIIs, but it doesn't seat the other pellet deeply enough in the magazines to be engaged by the tiny ball (on a spring indent?) in the side of each hole in the magazine. The ball appears to catch the pellets on the top edge of the skirt so they don't back out.

I checked around for something to seat the pellet and found a regular plastic ball point pen which worked perfectly. The end swells out enough to prevent the tip of the pen from going too deeply into the magazine. It's easy to sandpaper a bit off the front tip of the pen (minus the ink cartridge) to shorten the depth if necessary. I just started seating the pellets in the magazine using the Taipan tool, and then quickly went around the magazine with the pen to press each pellet in a bit further to the correct depth.

I've attached a picture of the Taipan 12-pellet seating tool which came with the Slash so you can see more clearly what I'm referring to. It leaves the skirts of the Crow Magnum pellets up very close to the face of the magazine. So they weren't being held correctly in place and some backed out while firing and stopped the magazine.

The next picture shows the pen I used to press the pellets deeper into the magazine as shown. It's easy to see the difference in pellet depth in the 2 pictures. The pellets worked fine as long as they were pressed down far enough.

Then I ran some more test shots for the same 5 kinds of pellets as before, at 120 Bar and at 150 Bar on the regulator. At 120 Bar only the Crow Mags had a failure-to-rotate the magazine on the 5th shot. Unclear exactly why though I suspect that the Slash semi auto mechanism is happier/snappier at higher pressures. Previously I had consistent failure of the magazines to rotate when the reg was set down to 100 bar.

At 120 Bar there was a 51fpe to 57fpe shot power range across the 5 kinds of pellets, from the lightest to the heaviest. All but the Exact King Heavy MKII pellets stayed in the 900s range for velocity at those power levels, with the heavier MKIIs dropping into the 800s.

At 150 Bar there was a 61fpe to 68fpe shot power range across the 5 kinds of pellet.
Only the Baracuda (61fpe) and Exact King Heavy MKII (68fpe) kept their average velocities under 1,000f/s at that power level.

Remember that this is for the shorter 420mm barrel. And since fpe tends to go up as pellet weight is increased, the 420mm 0.25 cal Slash Tactical should be able to generate somewhat more more shot power with 180 Bar on the regulator and when using heavier pellets than we saw when the Exact King Heavy MKII 33.95g was tested at 150 Bar (68fpe).

When resetting the regulator remember to put an empty magazine into the rifle before shooting a couple of shots between each tiny twist of the regulator handle.
It is relatively quiet with a magazine in there but WAKE YOU UP LOUD if you forget to insert an empty magazine and have the regulator gauge close to your face to check it when you pull the trigger. At least that what I heard when it happened to me.

Slowly twist the regulator plate to adjust reg pressure and keep firing empty cylinders with a couple seconds in between shots for the regulator to reset fully. You will see the regulator pressure gauge slowly move and settle into place after a couple of shots.

So despite my initial concerns over the pellet magazines not securing some lighter pellets correctly, I find that it's just a matter of inserting the pellets to an adequate depth so that they will be held correctly by the magazine's retention mechanisms. Those magazines are much better design and machined than I had expected and a real deal for the price. Once you have some practice it's easy to pop out a magazine and to roll and press-click a new one into place.

If a person really wanted to make a 12-pellet seating tool it would be easy enough with a disk of wood and 12 small bolts to be screwed through it to the correct depth. Using the pen to seat the pellets was fast and easy, especially after the pellets had been started with the Taipan tool. And the price was right.

So far no show stoppers on this model, it functions well and sound management is good at the power level.

It would be nice to be able to leave a regulator pressure gauge installed during use. The current positioning of the reg gauge is no problem for chrony testing but would be awkward and maybe impossible to leave in place during normal use of the rifle.

Since the regulator can be adjusted over it's full recommended pressure range (~80B to ~180B) by turning the back late plate on the regulator by just over 1/4 turn (about 100 deg) knowing the exact pressure in the regulator isn't really necessary. Both regulator pressure and pellet velocity and fpe and be can be roughly estimated just by checking the position of the regulator adjustment tool. If it points straight vertical up at 120 Bar, and horizontally to the right at 180 Bar on the regulator, then pointing the bar on the reg adjustment tool midway between vertical and horizontal positions sets the regulator at the midway point of ~150 Bar.

JP

T

 

[bernieorosz]

jpiperson2002 More great information. tools and method to seat pellets properly when needed! Thank you.

Similar to what you have done, I used a rubber tipped ballpoint pen for my K1's and GK1's for consistent seating. Kelly (Huben expert) at Kraz Kool Airguns told me to do this. But this is much easier with the Slash. Per your recommendation, we can quickly seat *all* pellets with the seater. Then, simply push them in a little further with a pen if needed.

Also, another great tip on loading an empty mag into the rifle when resetting the regulator.

So, when you get a failure for mag to rotate due to low reg pressure, it is easy enough to recover and just take the mag out with no pellet stuck or partially stuck in the barrel?

The K1's and GK1's were a pain with a jam as we had to insert a rod down the barrel and carefully push pellet back into mag.

 

[jpiperson2002]

The magazines just pressed out when the magazine retaining bolt was slid back out of the magazine.
The magazines are so large that it's easy to see what's going on and to apply pressure if needed. Also looks like it would be possible to get a razor blade edge in there to work a stuck pellet loose if it came to that.

Because of the way that a pellet is retained in the magazine cylinders, once inserted deeply enough a pellet won't back out by repeated firing. There is some recoil but not a big deal. It's mostly noticeable because it's a PCP airgun, not because the recoil is anything special or distracting.

The type brands of .25 slugs I tried, Altaros & Zan, were too large to to fit more than partway into the slug magazine. They both went slightly further into the pellet magazine than the slug magazine, but still came to a very hard stop. I don't really have any interest in shooting slugs. But next week I should be able to check out three different brands of .25 cal slugs all listed at 0.249 caliber. I want to see if any of them are narrow enough for work correctly using either the slug magazine or the pellet magazine.

I'll also be able to check out some Seneca 0.25 domed 35.8g heavy hunting pellets as well as some Seneca pointed 43.2g pellets. Those were both too long to fit into the K1 or GK1, but it looks to me like there will be probably enough room for them in the Slash magazines.

I'd prefer to find the heaviest pellets which also shoot well at high power. That allows their velocity range to stay under 1000f/s for best accuracy longer range accuracy.

I'm a crack shot alright, sometimes 5 pellets holes will all be inside of a circle the size of my palm on a 20 yard target. But usually only when I'm sitting at a table and taking my time.

Well, maybe my accuracy isn't quite so bad some days, but accuracy testing is not my strength, and local animals are all safe from predation at my hands. Will update this thread when I have more results testing a few additional pellets and slugs.

JP

 

[Ultralight]

I'm a crack shot alright, sometimes 5 pellets holes will all be inside of a circle the size of my palm on a 20 yard target.
But only when I'm sitting at a table and taking my time.

Well, maybe my accuracy isn't quite so bad some days, but accuracy testing is not my strength, and local animals are all safe from predation at my hands. Will update this thread when I have more results testing a few additional pellets and slugs.

JP

Your Humility.

 

[bernieorosz]

The magazines just pressed out when the magazine retaining bolt was slid back out of the magazine.
The magazines are so large that it's easy to see what's going on and to apply pressure if needed. Also looks like it would be possible to get a razor blade edge in there to work a stuck pellet loose if it came to that.

Because of the way that a pellet is retained in the magazine cylinders, once inserted deeply enough a pellet won't back out by repeated firing. There is some recoil but not a big deal. It's mostly noticeable because it's a PCP airgun, not because the recoil is anything special or distracting.

The type brands of .25 slugs I tried, Altaros & Zan, were too large to to fit more than partway into the slug magazine. They both went slightly further into the pellet magazine than the slug magazine, but still came to a very hard stop. I don't really have any interest in shooting slugs. But next week I should be able to check out three different brands of .25 cal slugs all listed at 0.249 caliber. I want to see if any of them are narrow enough for work correctly using either the slug magazine or the pellet magazine.

I'll also be able to check out some Seneca 0.25 domed 35.8g heavy hunting pellets as well as some Seneca pointed 43.2g pellets. Those were both too long to fit into the K1 or GK1, but it looks to me like there will be probably enough room for them in the Slash magazines.

I'd prefer to find the heaviest pellets which also shoot well at high power. That allows their velocity range to stay under 1000f/s for best accuracy longer range accuracy.

I'm a crack shot alright, sometimes 5 pellets holes will all be inside of a circle the size of my palm on a 20 yard target.
But only when I'm sitting at a table and taking my time.

Well, maybe my accuracy isn't quite so bad some days, but accuracy testing is not my strength, and local animals are all safe from predation at my hands. Will update this thread when I have more results testing a few additional pellets and slugs.

JP

Thanks again for the feedback on magazine and any potential problems with failure to rotate. Taipan Slash magazines are well made.

Like you, I'm not interested in slugs. Heck, I don't even hunt...lol. But, as an older guy, I still like my 'toys'' and shooting is good for my mind and my eyes.

So far.... The Slash feedback has made me even more interested in purchasing this gun... not sure which caliber, tho.

However, the elephant in the room is still.... how accurate does it shoot? Nate, kaylaindy, is going to get a lot of views when he reviews the Slash on his YT Airgun Channel.

 

[MACTEN]

Had an illness and then death in the family, so been a little busy.
Have a minute to post a pic of some of the 3d printed seaters I had printed from the STL. Marek from Taipan, Bullet Project sent me.

The first batch didn't work out but these are 4 different heights to help with the difference in skirt depths and seem to be working well in the loading I've done getting pellets past the plastic retention ball.

 

[jpiperson2002]

Your Humility

My brother is in his mid 80s and he is a worse marksman than I am. When he is aiming at a target I stand about 5 ft. directly behind him. So far so good. Though there was a close call that one time....

 

[bernieorosz]

Had an illness and then death in the family, so been a little busy.
Have a minute to post a pic of some of the 3d printed seaters I had printed from the STL. Marek from Taipan, Bullet Project sent me.

The first batch didn't work out but these are 4 different heights to help with the difference in skirt depths and seem to be working well in the loading I've done getting pellets past the plastic retention ball.

View attachment 577498

MACTEN. Sorry to hear about your loss. We AGN members send our condolences to you and your family.

Much appreciate the work you did on the 3D printed seater's at varying depths, and taking the time to share that with us.

 

[Cantona256]

Had an illness and then death in the family, so been a little busy.
Have a minute to post a pic of some of the 3d printed seaters I had printed from the STL. Marek from Taipan, Bullet Project sent me.

The first batch didn't work out but these are 4 different heights to help with the difference in skirt depths and seem to be working well in the loading I've done getting pellets past the plastic retention ball.

View attachment 577498

Sorry for your loss brother.

 

[Ultralight]

Had an illness and then death in the family, so been a little busy.

Condolences.