Here's something you weren't expecting when you visited my blog - an UPDATE! Hallelujah! Yeah, sorry for that. If you lived in Wisconsin, you would agree with me that summer time is NO time to be sitting inside updating websites and editing video. But, today is the first rainy day in weeks, hence a small blurb on a new gun that I am liking.....well.....even more than I thought I would. The Wolverine B (USA version) has undergone some serious upgrades since the last time I saw one at Extreme Benchrest last November - the 470cc carbon fiber bottle (the same bottle that was shown on the Wolverine HiLite at the IWA show), the Hugget moderator, and a new stock. 
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These are not trivial upgrades. The carbon bottle knocks more than a pound (.5 kg) off the total weight, and what's more is that it removes that weight in the absolute best place possible - the front of the gun. This completely changes the handling of this thing. Daystate's "bottle guns" had always been pretty much designated to the bench. The 500cc steel tanks just made them too darn heavy for most shooters to tote around for an afternoon. Their lighter MK4 and Huntsman were the guns you wanted to sling over your shoulder. No more! I'm telling you, this gun is a 'walker'. At only 7 lbs, it handles like a carbine. What I do not know is if the carbon bottle is standard on the USA version. I do not think it is. So, if you plan to order one of these, make sure to ask questions
.
But, what I know IS standard on all USA models of the Wolverine B is the Huggett moderator. Fantastic! They realized that nearly everyone who bought an Air Wolf or Air Ranger was biting the bullet and spending the extra $400 on replacing their (thin, short, and largely ineffective) Daystate shroud with a full-length Huggett. Well, it seems that they found a way to keep costs down by keeping the Daystate portion of the shroud, and then adding the Huggett silencer to the end. The upside is as I mentioned - costs were kept down. The downside is that in order to legally import the gun into the US, they needed to "secure" (epoxy) that silencer permanently to the shroud. This is unfortunate, because it would be nice to remove that silencer (extra length) if the situation warranted it. But I suppose, if you are resourceful you may be able to find a way to separate the two.
The stock is also the same that was seen on the HiLite at IWA. I hope this is the "official" new Daystate stock for all Wolverines and Air Wolfs because I love it. The removal of material from the middle of the stock, coupled with the added stipuling seriously improves handling. It likely knocked a couple more ounces off the gun, but more importantly it gives a rock-solid grip (something the previous stock lacked). You can easily one-hand this thing when you pick it up.
Finally, the accuracy. After using one of the five (1-inch; 25mm) orange stickers to get my Vortex 6-24 HSLR zeroed at 50 yards, I proceeded to shoot four, 5-shot groups using 18.1 JSB pellets (from the tin - no sorting). Wind was 0-5 mph left to right. Now this is the kind of target that can bring a warm feeling to anyone's belly. What made this better was that there were two guys next to me at the range, shooting Anshutz .22lr target rifles, and my airgun (out of the box) edged out their golden guns.
The 5-shot group on the top target was the best of everyone
.
More details will be available in the upcoming video review. I need to shoot this thing a lot more, and find something I don't like about it so I can stop sounding like a "yes man" for Daystate.
Equipment Links:
Gun: Daystate Wolverine B .22
Scope: Vortex Viper HSLR
Mounts: Sportsmatch High rings
Pellets: JSB .22 18.1 grain
These are not trivial upgrades. The carbon bottle knocks more than a pound (.5 kg) off the total weight, and what's more is that it removes that weight in the absolute best place possible - the front of the gun. This completely changes the handling of this thing. Daystate's "bottle guns" had always been pretty much designated to the bench. The 500cc steel tanks just made them too darn heavy for most shooters to tote around for an afternoon. Their lighter MK4 and Huntsman were the guns you wanted to sling over your shoulder. No more! I'm telling you, this gun is a 'walker'. At only 7 lbs, it handles like a carbine. What I do not know is if the carbon bottle is standard on the USA version. I do not think it is. So, if you plan to order one of these, make sure to ask questions
.
But, what I know IS standard on all USA models of the Wolverine B is the Huggett moderator. Fantastic! They realized that nearly everyone who bought an Air Wolf or Air Ranger was biting the bullet and spending the extra $400 on replacing their (thin, short, and largely ineffective) Daystate shroud with a full-length Huggett. Well, it seems that they found a way to keep costs down by keeping the Daystate portion of the shroud, and then adding the Huggett silencer to the end. The upside is as I mentioned - costs were kept down. The downside is that in order to legally import the gun into the US, they needed to "secure" (epoxy) that silencer permanently to the shroud. This is unfortunate, because it would be nice to remove that silencer (extra length) if the situation warranted it. But I suppose, if you are resourceful you may be able to find a way to separate the two.
The stock is also the same that was seen on the HiLite at IWA. I hope this is the "official" new Daystate stock for all Wolverines and Air Wolfs because I love it. The removal of material from the middle of the stock, coupled with the added stipuling seriously improves handling. It likely knocked a couple more ounces off the gun, but more importantly it gives a rock-solid grip (something the previous stock lacked). You can easily one-hand this thing when you pick it up.
Finally, the accuracy. After using one of the five (1-inch; 25mm) orange stickers to get my Vortex 6-24 HSLR zeroed at 50 yards, I proceeded to shoot four, 5-shot groups using 18.1 JSB pellets (from the tin - no sorting). Wind was 0-5 mph left to right. Now this is the kind of target that can bring a warm feeling to anyone's belly. What made this better was that there were two guys next to me at the range, shooting Anshutz .22lr target rifles, and my airgun (out of the box) edged out their golden guns.
The 5-shot group on the top target was the best of everyone.
More details will be available in the upcoming video review. I need to shoot this thing a lot more, and find something I don't like about it so I can stop sounding like a "yes man" for Daystate.
Equipment Links:
Gun: Daystate Wolverine B .22
Scope: Vortex Viper HSLR
Mounts: Sportsmatch High rings
Pellets: JSB .22 18.1 grain
