I'm almost not looking forward to writing this review because I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to word it so that people won't think I'm slanted in my opinion one way or another. Let me just try to emphasize that I love shooing air guns because I grew up with one in my hand as a kid and for many years I had no idea that they have come as far as they have. Over the last few years I've been thoroughly enjoying the newly discovered hobby and I've been trying different makes and models from different manufacturers and I enjoy writing about them and talking to the community here and in general just trying to share knowledge. I'M NOT A BRAND LOYALIST. I have no hidden agendas or priors biases toward any manufacturer before I try one of their guns.
Just to give a frame of reference, the guns I've tried over the last few years include 3 FX guns including 2 Royale's and a Bobcat, 2 Air Arms S-510's, a BSA R-10 MK2, Raw HM1000x, 2 Kalibrgun Crickets, one .25 and one .22, a Hatsan At-44 long, a Benjamin Marauder, TX 200 MKIII, and a HW 97kt. I've sold most of these to fund others, but I've kept a Royale 500 and a BSA R-10 and the .22 Cricket because quite frankly, they've been the most accurate guns I've shot and that's mostly what matters to me at the end of the day.
All that being said, I really wanted to like the Wolverine but right now I just can't. I've been looking at them for a couple off years now and when I buy a gun, it's because I've spent enough time reading about it that I've become smitten in some way and can't wait to try it out. I want to like every gun I buy!
Out of the box, the Wolverine is a pretty gorgeous gun. It feels light, shoulders very nicely and the stock is just stunning. I think it's an overall very well proportioned gun. Also, the magazine feels very well made but I had a bit of an issue loading the JSB Heavy MKII's. They needed to be pushed into the hole to be able to slide under the outer cover so the magazine could index to the next hole for loading. Overall though it was OK and didn't distract me from shooting.
Shooting it for the fist time, I was amazed at how loud it was. It is the loudest PCP with a moderator that I've ever shot and with the reputation of Hugget, it was more of a shock to me because I guess I just assumed it would be quiet. Take that with a grain of salt because I was shooting inside, but it's the only PCP I've considered getting hearing protection for while shooting inside. I'm certainly more aware of the fact that my neighbors are more aware of my activities when shooting the Wolverine.
The trigger is nice, but not awesome. It has a nice clean first stage, but there is just a pinch of creep in the second stage. Not enough to affect accuracy, but I was hoping to be impressed on this gun in this price range. While I no longer have the RAW HM1000x, it had the best trigger I've ever used and it's the benchmark by which I compare all other guns.
One other thing I have to say that bugs me is how hard it is to cock the gun. Not just how hard it is to pull the bolt back, but how hard it is to push the pellets into the breech. This bugs me because I try very hard to have a consistent hold on the gun between shots and eye relief in the scope. I have to change how I'm holding the gun because I need to "brace the gun" somewhat so that I can pull the bolt back. I feel like it's gotten a little better since I've been using it some but I'm pretty sure it will never be as smooth as the side cocking levers on the Air Arms, FX, and Cricket guns I've tried. I'm a believer, Side lever is the way to go and it seems to be another area in which Daystate is holding onto older, less efficient technology. As much as I love my BSA, I hope the MKIII version of the R-10 has a side lever also. ***EDIT*** see post below about a new issue found with the bolt. It appears the difficult cocking may be the result of a specific problem with this gun and not these guns in general.
Now onto performance. I can't get the gun to impress me in the accuracy department. I always try shooting a gun out of the box to test accuracy before I clean it and with this gun I can tell no difference from how it shot out of the box to after I cleaned the barrel. I've shot at least 500 rounds through it at this point, probably closer to 700. I've tried JSB King 25g's JSB Heavies' MKII, Air Arms .25g, H&N field target trophy, Barracudas, and Benjamin Domes. I can't get one of them to group well. I've even tried lubing. I've shot without the shroud on. After many disappointing groups I took some JB Bore past and gave the barrel a light polishing and then cleaned it all out and tried everything again. Below are pics of the typical results I'm getting at 50 yards with JSB Kings, the most accurate pellet in this gun.
EDIT:
Here is a pic showing the results of what appear to be a problem when pushing a pellet into the barrel. Something is off causing pellet shavings to be produced. I can only assume this is the source of the problems that this gun is having maintaining consistency.
Here is a full chrony shot, 54 shots starting at a 230 bar fill. While the shot sting isn't that bad for a non-regulated gun, why can't a company like Daystate regulate their guns already? BSA does it, does it very well, and literally does it for half the price. I wouldn't even care, but you can clearly see the results on the target that I was shooting when I shot this string.
hi 897
low 833
average 874
ext spread 64
standard dev 16
To be fair, if you took out the first few shots, the es would drop by about 15 or 20 fps but that would still leave an es of 44 or so.
I numbered the groups in order that I shot them and you can see the POI change throughout the string. As the bell curve goes up and down, the shot groups go up and down with it at 50 yards. Even if the gun wasn't suffering some other mysterious accuracy issue, you would still have to know where you are at in your string to shoot accurately at distance, especially for hunting. I don't want to beat a dead horse but Daystate, please regulate.
I drew some trend lines to articulate the point.
These are the typical groups I'm getting from a bench in near perfect conditions. Even at the sweet spot in the bell curve, I couldn't get a single group under a dime. I took out the BSA immediately after shooing theses groups just to make sure it wasn't me or the conditions and the very first two groups I shot both easily went under a dime. That told me all I needed to know.
It sure is a gorgeous gun though, at least that's something! haha
I'm not trying to attack Daystate or anyone else here. I don't want to insult anyone that has a tack driving Daystate out there, I know they exist, this particular gun just doesn't seem to be one of them. Also I apologize for what may seem like an opinionated or biased review, I promise you it's the result of my experience over the past few days and not bias. I just can't bring myself to gloss over the experiences I've had. I have to say that for being one of the most expensive guns I've ever purchased I'm pretty underwhelmed in a lot of critical areas with this particular gun. OK trigger, no regulator (which I knew going in, but guess it hit's home a little more after seeing the real world results of it not being there). Also the bell curve to the shot string, fairly loud, difficult bolt, no amenities like sling studs or an adjustable butt pad and worst of all, accuracy, which I'm pretty sure is not the normal for Daystate.
Anyway, all constructive feedback is always appreciated, thank you for looking!
Regards,
Cliff
Just to give a frame of reference, the guns I've tried over the last few years include 3 FX guns including 2 Royale's and a Bobcat, 2 Air Arms S-510's, a BSA R-10 MK2, Raw HM1000x, 2 Kalibrgun Crickets, one .25 and one .22, a Hatsan At-44 long, a Benjamin Marauder, TX 200 MKIII, and a HW 97kt. I've sold most of these to fund others, but I've kept a Royale 500 and a BSA R-10 and the .22 Cricket because quite frankly, they've been the most accurate guns I've shot and that's mostly what matters to me at the end of the day.
All that being said, I really wanted to like the Wolverine but right now I just can't. I've been looking at them for a couple off years now and when I buy a gun, it's because I've spent enough time reading about it that I've become smitten in some way and can't wait to try it out. I want to like every gun I buy!
Out of the box, the Wolverine is a pretty gorgeous gun. It feels light, shoulders very nicely and the stock is just stunning. I think it's an overall very well proportioned gun. Also, the magazine feels very well made but I had a bit of an issue loading the JSB Heavy MKII's. They needed to be pushed into the hole to be able to slide under the outer cover so the magazine could index to the next hole for loading. Overall though it was OK and didn't distract me from shooting.
Shooting it for the fist time, I was amazed at how loud it was. It is the loudest PCP with a moderator that I've ever shot and with the reputation of Hugget, it was more of a shock to me because I guess I just assumed it would be quiet. Take that with a grain of salt because I was shooting inside, but it's the only PCP I've considered getting hearing protection for while shooting inside. I'm certainly more aware of the fact that my neighbors are more aware of my activities when shooting the Wolverine.
The trigger is nice, but not awesome. It has a nice clean first stage, but there is just a pinch of creep in the second stage. Not enough to affect accuracy, but I was hoping to be impressed on this gun in this price range. While I no longer have the RAW HM1000x, it had the best trigger I've ever used and it's the benchmark by which I compare all other guns.
One other thing I have to say that bugs me is how hard it is to cock the gun. Not just how hard it is to pull the bolt back, but how hard it is to push the pellets into the breech. This bugs me because I try very hard to have a consistent hold on the gun between shots and eye relief in the scope. I have to change how I'm holding the gun because I need to "brace the gun" somewhat so that I can pull the bolt back. I feel like it's gotten a little better since I've been using it some but I'm pretty sure it will never be as smooth as the side cocking levers on the Air Arms, FX, and Cricket guns I've tried. I'm a believer, Side lever is the way to go and it seems to be another area in which Daystate is holding onto older, less efficient technology. As much as I love my BSA, I hope the MKIII version of the R-10 has a side lever also. ***EDIT*** see post below about a new issue found with the bolt. It appears the difficult cocking may be the result of a specific problem with this gun and not these guns in general.
Now onto performance. I can't get the gun to impress me in the accuracy department. I always try shooting a gun out of the box to test accuracy before I clean it and with this gun I can tell no difference from how it shot out of the box to after I cleaned the barrel. I've shot at least 500 rounds through it at this point, probably closer to 700. I've tried JSB King 25g's JSB Heavies' MKII, Air Arms .25g, H&N field target trophy, Barracudas, and Benjamin Domes. I can't get one of them to group well. I've even tried lubing. I've shot without the shroud on. After many disappointing groups I took some JB Bore past and gave the barrel a light polishing and then cleaned it all out and tried everything again. Below are pics of the typical results I'm getting at 50 yards with JSB Kings, the most accurate pellet in this gun.
EDIT:
Here is a pic showing the results of what appear to be a problem when pushing a pellet into the barrel. Something is off causing pellet shavings to be produced. I can only assume this is the source of the problems that this gun is having maintaining consistency.
Here is a full chrony shot, 54 shots starting at a 230 bar fill. While the shot sting isn't that bad for a non-regulated gun, why can't a company like Daystate regulate their guns already? BSA does it, does it very well, and literally does it for half the price. I wouldn't even care, but you can clearly see the results on the target that I was shooting when I shot this string.
hi 897
low 833
average 874
ext spread 64
standard dev 16
To be fair, if you took out the first few shots, the es would drop by about 15 or 20 fps but that would still leave an es of 44 or so.
I numbered the groups in order that I shot them and you can see the POI change throughout the string. As the bell curve goes up and down, the shot groups go up and down with it at 50 yards. Even if the gun wasn't suffering some other mysterious accuracy issue, you would still have to know where you are at in your string to shoot accurately at distance, especially for hunting. I don't want to beat a dead horse but Daystate, please regulate.
I drew some trend lines to articulate the point.
These are the typical groups I'm getting from a bench in near perfect conditions. Even at the sweet spot in the bell curve, I couldn't get a single group under a dime. I took out the BSA immediately after shooing theses groups just to make sure it wasn't me or the conditions and the very first two groups I shot both easily went under a dime. That told me all I needed to know.
It sure is a gorgeous gun though, at least that's something! haha
I'm not trying to attack Daystate or anyone else here. I don't want to insult anyone that has a tack driving Daystate out there, I know they exist, this particular gun just doesn't seem to be one of them. Also I apologize for what may seem like an opinionated or biased review, I promise you it's the result of my experience over the past few days and not bias. I just can't bring myself to gloss over the experiences I've had. I have to say that for being one of the most expensive guns I've ever purchased I'm pretty underwhelmed in a lot of critical areas with this particular gun. OK trigger, no regulator (which I knew going in, but guess it hit's home a little more after seeing the real world results of it not being there). Also the bell curve to the shot string, fairly loud, difficult bolt, no amenities like sling studs or an adjustable butt pad and worst of all, accuracy, which I'm pretty sure is not the normal for Daystate.
Anyway, all constructive feedback is always appreciated, thank you for looking!
Regards,
Cliff
