Well Over Due - My BEAST!!! WAR Flex

 So I’ve been meaning to post something about this rifle for the last six months, but I just haven’t had the time to sit down and do it. After owning airguns from almost all of the major manufacturers around, I decided to order a Flex from Jim Gaska at Wicked Air Rifles this last summer. I ordered the rifle with a short (16”) .22 cal barrel, and the full length .25 and .30 barrels along with the corresponding pellet probes and shroud components. This is the new Cobra version with the adjustable regulator, carbon fiber bottle and dual gauges.

When I got the rifle, I outfitted it with a fully adjustable MDT butt stock, MDT folding mechanism, and Ergo palm shelf AR style grip. I scoped it with a Sightron S-Tac 4-20x with the MOA reticle. 

I started off with shooting just the .22 cal barrel. At my 30-35 yard home range, the accuracy was exceptionally boring, producing legitimate single hole groups at those ranges with 18.1 JSB’s at 900 fps. I made several 100-130 yard shots on collard doves and pigeons with that setup. 

After extracting all all I could out of the .22 barrel, I swapped out to the .25 barrel. Launching the .25 cal MKII’s at 920 made for an impressive hunting setup with great shot count. I only played with the .25 cal barre for a short period before I swapped out to the .30 barrel. Since I put the .30 barrel on, it hasn’t moved. The accuracy, power and consistency is absolutely astounding. Tuning this barrel to th 44.75 gr pellets was simple. I set the reg pressure to 160 bar and shot over a chrono while adjusting the HST screw in 1/4 turn increments until I could the “plateau” and the velocity stopped increasing. At that point I backed the HST off until I found that sweet spot where the velocity was at its peak with the least amount of HST. This gives me 905 fps with 44.75 gr JSB’s and 860 with the 50.15gr JSB’s for approximately 40 shots on reg with a 300 bar fill. 

The accuracy with this rifle at the above above settings is stunning to say the least. Getting a sub 1” group at 100 yards in good conditions is regular and honestly, pretty easy. The rifle shoots like a dream and the adjustable stock has allowed me to tailor the gun to fit me perfectly. 

In short, the WAR rifles aren’t fancy and pretty looking like some of the other stuff out there but they sure do shoot. Combine that with the fact that I can completely break the rifle down and re build it with components found at my local hardware store, makes me believe this is a winning platform. 

Below are are some pics of the rifle as I have it setup and a target that I actually shot today. The details are written on the target. 

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Jim is an absolute pleasure to purchase from. The Flex could be a true “one airgun solution” if you wanted it to be. With the folding stock and the Donny Fl removed, it packs up into a very reasonable case. The balance is perfect in my opinion and the rifle shoots equally well off hand as it does from a bench. 

I will add one thing, I chronoed the rifle prior to shooting the target I posted above. Out of 20 shots, I had an extreme spread of 4 FPS.... believe it if you will. I thought the chrono was broken when I had 4 readings of 906 in a row.... the chrono is definitely not broken. Lol. 

Every target I shoot, I use pellets as they come out of the tin. The only thing I do is check the skirts and pellets for obvious deformity before I put them in the magazine. No sorting, no weighing, no cleaning. Just shoot. I clean my barrels with a rod and patches with Bore Tech Rimfire blend about every 500 rounds... although I have gone much longer than that. The TJ barrels seem to be pretty forgiving with their cleaning regimen. 

Here is a target I shot outdoors on a nice day with the .25 cal barrel and absolutely zero tuning. I tuned it up later with a bit more reg pressure and HST and got the MKII .25’s shooting at about one inch at 100 yards and 915-920 FPS. This was an absolute laser and had a fantastic trajectory for hunting. 

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SocalTrail,
How easy/consistent is it to change the barrel in the Flex? I am thinking of ordering a slug specific barrel for the Flex 357, but the thought of removing the existing barrel when its shooting perfect now is making me hesitate. I mean, i will have to remove the DonnyFL Emperor, adapter, tube, c-clip, etc... the idea that it could change anything and affect the current accuracy and consistency makes me think twice. 

Do you worry about harmonics, POI shifts, etc... after a barrel change? And when you put the original barrel back, any change in POI, consistency, harmonics, etc...?

 
Frank320 - 

It takes me maybe 3-5 minutes to do the full caliber change - each time I take the barrel out, I change the two o-rings ( they are cheap and it’s extra insurance ). 

What I have noticed is the point of impact generally stays within about 1-2” at 100 yards when removing and reinstalling the same barre. No matter what platform, be it centerfire, rimfire or airgun, I would never expect a 100% return to zero... that said, the rifle may meet this expectation but I would still confirm zero regardless. 

When changing calibers, the POI does change a bit more, because there is a lot more going on. The barrel wall thickness is different, harmonics different, velocity, reg pressure, HST, etc. Even with all of that, I can make a caliber change and have the gun in full tune and ready to shoot targets or game in maybe 15-20 minutes tops. I know what reg pressure to set for each pellet and know what velocity each pellet likes. This makes the tuning process a bit expedited. Just taking good notes as I dump pellets through this thing has payed off.

To answer the second part of your question if I understand it correctly, I have never not been able to regain my accuracy and tune after going from one barrel to the next. For example, I currently and running the .30 cal barrel and have it tuned to shoot sub MOA at 100 yards with the 44.75 JSB’s. I would have no problem at all throwing the .22 barrel on for a Collard Dove Hunt tomorrow, tuning that, then changing back to the .30 cal barrel and getting the same accuracy I was getting before the conversion. The rifles are truly built to last a lifetime and are very intuitive and easy to work on. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I can walk you through how I tune these specific guns.