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marcella69

marcella69

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Oct 31, 2016
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I just talked to Sandra at RAW and she told me that my Forest Green laminate thumbhole stock w/ adjustable cheek piece has been finished, and Martin will start building my RAW HMx .357 (130 ft-lbf regulated) next week! So, only a couple more weeks 'til she ships. I feel like a kid who can't get to sleep on Christmas Eve :)
 
She delivers 16 regulated shots per fill w/ an SD of 3.00. With the Omega 12 cu-ft 4,500 psi CF tank I bought, I should get a total of 60+ shots in the field (if my math is correct). Boy, I can't wait to get her out in the field and really put her through the ringer! I've heard nothing but good things about RAW, and dealing with Martin and Sandra has been a pure pleasure :).

Here are the specs:

https://www.rapidairweapons.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17762

And here is a cool video factory tour of the Rapid Air Weapons production facility in Minor Hill, TN; written, produced, and directed by none other than Steve of AEAC fame (subscribe to his YouTube channel!):

 
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Haha, Matt; that's too funny! I don't know, sometimes that's my favorite part! It's not the thrill of the kill; it's the fun of the hunt. Wait, what? No, you're right; waiting SUX!!!

1rtv68.jpg


 
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"marcella69"Imold, I'll have fun doing a centerfold spread of her! Have you decided which model you want?
Click to expand...
I'm going to get/order the HMx .357 with thumbhole stock in charcoal BUT big BUT I'm also fond of the Blue being its my favorite color, I could end up with two stocks when all said and done. I just about wanted to call and put in my order after I watched the Video but in the end I want this to be a B-day and Christmas present to myself, maybe I'll get the wife to buy the scope or bipod if I'm lucky hahaha.
Im fighting the erg (spl) to order a 45 or 50 cal while I wait and need to remind myself I do have a BullDog to shoot while I wait and right now I'm trying to figure out what scope and Bipod to get, I'm leaning towards a Atlas Bipod right now and the Gen II Vortex scope but I'm still looking around,time will tell I guess.
 
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I think the charcoal is the way to go, Imold. I'm partial to the loud colors, as well. I really like the blue myself, but I need to be practical and get a pattern that will blend in with my surroundings. She is a hunting rifle, after all! Are you getting the 130 ft-lbf regulated? How 'bout the adjustable stock? Sandra is real picky and needs to know exactly what you want :). We went back 'n forth for a while until she was absolutely sure exactly what I wanted. I kept leaving features out. It takes months to hand-make these babies from scratch and it would suck to wait all that time and find out it's not what you really wanted!

I'm proud of your self-restraint; you have more will power than me, my friend! I am fighting the urge to keep pumpin' up the jam on the power tip too. I've been eyeing the Umarex Hammer, but I have to cool my jets. The .357 is about as high as I want to go right now; I'm really pushing the envelope! We don't even HAVE big game down here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyEuKtPGrng&t=273s
 
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Holy moly, son; you really ARE goin' high-end! That is one sexy scope! I have a Hawke Sidewinder 4-16x 50 IR, and I wish now I would have got a fixed 10x without the illuminated reticle. I never take it off 10x anyway and I've never felt the need to switch on the illumination. Live 'n learn, right? I do like the wide field of view with the 50mm objective though. God, I love this stuff ;-)
 
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My internet was down for a bit so I went and mowed some of my other property, looks like the coyotes took down a yearling deer, wasn't much left so I thru it in the weeds so it looks like I need to break out the 22-250 and go Stealth, anyway I'm home now......Yes I'm going with the adjustable cheek piece and I'm not sure if I want to go full tilt or back it down a bit, ill have them also put a picatinny rail on the front for the Bipod, didn't see where it came with that one or I missed it. I'll be using it( have to get it before I can name it hahaha) for small game up to coyote size and just plinking on my range..I'm also looking at the 6-24x50 Vortex Viper HST,my gun dealer has one in stock and I might get it even tho I do have one on my Tikka 30-06 but don't want to take it off that but anyway it tuff not buying another big Bore while I wait. 
Guess I could get the Blue stock as a extra and in the winter put it on and hang the HMx on the living room wall for decorationBwaaaaahahaha,.. Just kidding....Maybe.
 
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Yotes 'n deer; not a good mix! I'm surprised I don't see more coyotes down here on the border; it's mostly scrub desert. I guess I need to be more out in the boonies. I'd feel comfortable taking yotes out to 100 yards with my new RAW; I wouldn't have gone over 50 yards on an animal that size with my Impact .30 (if I ever would have got a shot!)

Deer can be pests too. When I was a kid in Pennsylvania, I had a buddy who's dad was a farmer. I would work summers on the farm. Me and my buddy were out on the combine once harvesting corn. I noticed a 30-30 Winchester lever-action propped up in the corner. I asked him about it. He told me that if he catches a deer feeding on crops, he's legally allowed to take it; regardless of whether it's a buck or doe, or even a fawn. As we were rollin' along, we saw a doe standing at the tree line (not eating crops). My buddy grabbed the 30-30 and blasted her. I said to him that it was not eating crops. He said, "Yeah, but she was THINKING about it!" That always makes me chuckle :). Deer taken like that are supposed to be reported to the game warden, but they never come out anyway. So, we field dressed her, threw her on the combine, and finished harvesting. Needless to say, we had fun in the barn later butchering her. He gave me half of the meat :).

I did not order the picatinny slice for the forestock of my RAW. I plan on using a shooting stick. I'm not even sure if the mounting slot for the picatinny was machined. I think it was and a brass plate was installed in case I want to add a rail later. I saw Martin installing a brass plate in the forestock slot on the RAW Factory Tour vid. I'm indifferent either way.

I didn't even consider ordering my RAW unregulated. Sure, 160 ft-lbf sounds awesome, but what good is all that power if I can't place a quarter-size group at 100 yards consistently? I liked my Impact .30, but I really didn't consider her a 100 yd hunting rifle; I got only 30 ft-lbf at 100 yds. My RAW delivers over 80 ft-lbf impact energy at 100 yards! You could go really go stealth-mode on those yotes with the RAW .357!

You said tongue-in-cheek; but I'm seriously considering hanging my RAW on the wall like a piece of art, which she is. I certainly never paid $3,000 (rifle, scope, and shipping) for a freakin' painting!
 
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I've been hymning and hawing weather I should get a regulated or unregulated HMx, in reality I'll be bench shooting 70% of the time and hunting 30% of the time so it probably makes more sense to go unregulated being I'll be tethered most of the time while bench shooting and have my regulator on a set psi, plus if I go untethered I can probably add another 100fps on a few shots before my shots start falling off which would be fine for hunting and I don't think it would effect my poi for 6 or so shots, but if I was to do my shooting untethered off the bench and just do air refills I would probably be better off with a Regulated HMx...
It's really a tuff call ex specially when I'll be shooting tethered most of the time.
I should also add that I've been thinking of tethering my 90ci tank to the HMx while out hunting, I want to get the small AV regulator and put that inline on the 90ci tank and carry it in a backpack or fanny pack with a micro hose running up to the HMx, just a thought that sounds workable to me only if the HMx shoots its best below 2900 psi.
If it doesn't work out unregulated I can always send it back for a regulator up grade.
Man this is tuff.
 
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Imold, thank you for enlightening me. I sincerely mean that. I was ready to tell you that this is the easiest decision you could ever make. I was going to tell you that I would not even consider buying an unregulated rifle. But I let my personal bias as a hunter and my ignorance as a bench shooter contaminate my advice. Before I read your post and did some research on the matter, I was not aware that an otherwise unregulated rifle could become a regulated one by tethering. No matter how much I think I know, particularly about airguns, it seems I learn something new almost every day. So, thank you for that :).

There is one thing that seems inconsistent to me in your reasoning, though. Why do you feel the need for extra power if you are planning to primarily punch paper? Is it because you will get a flatter trajectory and/or greater range? Is that really an issue if you have your rifle zeroed and ranged correctly? I have never been a long distance match guy. I did used to compete in handgun matches back in the day; but that was very short range with relatively small calibers. And even then, it was more about situational analysis and response time than accuracy.

At any rate, although I was prepared to give you what I thought was sage advice, I now realize that your shooting goals are fundamentally different from mine. You make strong arguments for both positions. IMO, either decision will work out well for you :). Usually, a hard decision of a binary nature means that either choice is a good one. Besides, as you said, you can always change back to the other choice later, right? (unlike Sophie :-(.) Let me know how you decide.


 
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This is an interesting discussion, and one which is being discussed on all airgun forums presently.

If there is a consensus of opinion, it is that regulated (constant plenum pressure) airguns offer tighter groups, all else being equal. This has certainly been the case in my experience. But I think there are other advancements which can be made.

I'm not a fan of switching over to bullets, not that they don't offer tighter groups which we know they do. But rather the implications of regulations via the fed—hot air as it were. 

Since we seemingly have the barrel "thingy" sorted out (twist, length, etc.), I am of the opinion that the next big advancement is in the valve. The current push is in balanced valves, which allow much lighter hammer springs with the associated accuracy gains therein. Where this takes us is speculation. I just hope that what ever direction we go, that pieces and parts will be available to upgrade what we already own. 
 
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Yeah, Alan; I had no idea how fascinating airgun technology would be when I got into the adult airgun culture less than a year ago! I was raised in a firearm/hunting culture and am formally trained in weapons systems and ballistics. (I was a gunner's mate in the Navy.) But, I had no real experience in sub-sonic ballistics. It really is fundamentally different.

Regulating the fps for a given projectile weight and configuration is unarguably a substantial factor in improving ballistic accuracy per se vis-à-vis an unregulated platform. Actually, conventional bullets (as opposed to a diabolo configuration) produce substantially wider groups past 50 yds at subsonic velocities. This is because a bullet needs a much higher velocity and greater twist rate to achieve stable flight throughout the effective ballistic path. The diabolo (shuttlecock configuration) design is needed for the subsonic velocities of airguns in order to keep the pellet stable past 50 yds.

I do agree with you that the airgun industry is on the verge of a quantum leap in technology that will result in substantially higher energies and greater accuracy with a higher shot count. The airgun industry is expanding on the magnitude of the firearm industry in the latter half of the 19th century.
 
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Imold, you got me thinking now about the forestock accessory picatinny rail. I don't know if it comes with (to quote Harry Caray :)).


I've been looking at various videos of the RAWs and I see some stocks that do not have the rail slot cut. But maybe they were work in process. But, I also saw Martin inserting a metal plate into a cut accessory rail slot. I'm not sure if that's a base for the rail or a placeholder in case a rail is added later. One would think that if the rail-ready slot came with, that would be advertised. I see nothing of the sort mentioned in the marketing materials. Sandra did not ask me about it and she asked about whether I wanted a thumbhole or adjustable cheek piece.

I am not going to raise the issue with RAW at this point because my stock is already finished and I don't want to confuse anybody with the facts! Besides, I am indifferent as to whether an accessory rail slot is cut. I do not plan on using a bipod or any other accessory. It will be interesting to see what the deal is, though.
 
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Ok let's see if I can explain it how I'm thinking. I'll start with why I'm leaning towards unregulated, I'm thinking that on a full fill and unregulated let's say I'm out hunting and I have a 100 yard shot or 90 yard shot,my feeling is if I can get a 145gr ballistic tip bullet going let's say 920 fps with a KE of 150 my chances of a clean kill are better then a 145gr bullet at say 820 and a KE of 120 even though my scope/poi is dead on either way, now this is just a example not true data but maybe close. I'll also be bench shooting with 81gr and tethered off a regulator so I'll be at a set pressure for many many shots so I don't have to worry about shots dropping, so as long as I keep info on bullet weight and what they are doing and at what pressure I should be able to get a good cheat sheet for when I'm off the tether or on tether..Maybe my 1st untethered unregulated shot with a 145gr with a 3000 psi fill will only be 915 but my next 2 will be 920 and go down from there at least I'll have that data for hunting and know what to do and then bench wount matter because I'll be tethered when shooting. This was a short and basic answer............
Now as far as the VALVE goes I'm a believer that a top of the line well built valve is the most important part inside inside a Airgun along with top shelf o-rings then a good hammer and trigger follows......
If I was never going to tether a tank with a regulator and only refill my Airgun back to maximum shooting pressure then a Regulated Airgun would be the way to go.
Once again if it doesn't work out for me I can always send it back and have a regulator put in but how do I know unless I do it..besides it only takes time and a few more bucks to regulate it.
 
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