Precision. Probably the best single word to describe an EVOL. Absolute precision. Having owned one in the past I knew this and selling was bitter sweet. The 15" barreled version was just too long once some things changed to my shooting. Alot of my shooting is out of my truck now and a 37" gun isn't that easy to maneuver in a can of a truck. Not impossible but not easy. When Tom came out with the .22 Minis I thought man I should have tried one of those instead. But those had a long wait list and so moved on. People also commented on noise level being loud and I wasn't a fan of that.
You rarely ever see them for sale though and have had my eye out for sometime. Woke up the other day and I saw Derrick had posted his competition winning .22 Mini for sale. It had been like 10hrs since It was posted. Figured there's no way someone hasn't spoken for it yet. Thought I'd message him if it hadn't sold expecting it was SPF or something. To my surprise only tire kickers. Getting one that's been through his hands I knew would be one of the best opportunities to get one. So I went for it. 2 days later I had it in my hands.
Great little gun to handle and balances so well. Build quality as good as it gets. Mounted my 4-20x50 Helos on it and Ergo Zero grip and went to shoot. Shocking is all I can say. I expected some kind of crack or pop but got a nice quiet pft. Thought something ain't right. Threw it over the chronograph and 930fps with 16gr pellets. Well ok then! I'm thrilled with that surprise. To me it's backyard friendly but not silent. The little LDC/shroud combo is working excellent! I dropped the speed down to 890fps with same pellets.
Now how does it shoot? Again absolute precision. Not just on how the gun works, the build, but the accuracy as well. I was quite worried how the shooting experience would be. Only little carbine I have experience with is an Edgun Leshiy. This is a 10" barrel and my .22 Leshiy was the 250mm or 9.8". Essentially same length. Add a pound and a half of weight though and 5" to the gun. Loved the Leshiy but anything over 750fps with the 16gr pellets and it was very jumpy and quite hold sensitive to shoot. This gun is very easy to shoot. And boy does it shoot well!
Here's 5 at 75yds.
I then shot at some cans at 155yds. Dialed 10.2 Mils. Had 6 cans and once the wind calmed down had zero issues drilling the cans. Shot each can once which there was a slight breeze at first and took a few shots to get dialed in. Once I did was shooting the cans until they fell. Wind stopped for about 15 seconds and here was 3 shots in a row. The 3 to the right. The left edge was my first shot previously when getting dialed in windage wise. I need to test more but the gun also seems to really like the NSA 20.2gr .217. these were flying at 790fps at same tune.
One interesting thing about the gun though is the barrel. When I had my 15" barreled version Tom was using your standard run of the mill 12 groove LW barrels with 17.7" twist. Expecting the same when I looked down the bore to my surprise it's only a 4 groove barrel.
I'm assuming it's one of TJs? I believe Tom has some proprietary mandrels so I'm guessing it could be one of them. I'm waiting on my barrel removal tool from AOA to come and will pull it and see if it's choked or not.
Only issue I see is I might need to sell my Prophet now. I'm hoping I can keep it and throw a red dot on it and tune it for low power. But not sure the wife would be happy with that and might have to sell it.
You rarely ever see them for sale though and have had my eye out for sometime. Woke up the other day and I saw Derrick had posted his competition winning .22 Mini for sale. It had been like 10hrs since It was posted. Figured there's no way someone hasn't spoken for it yet. Thought I'd message him if it hadn't sold expecting it was SPF or something. To my surprise only tire kickers. Getting one that's been through his hands I knew would be one of the best opportunities to get one. So I went for it. 2 days later I had it in my hands.
Great little gun to handle and balances so well. Build quality as good as it gets. Mounted my 4-20x50 Helos on it and Ergo Zero grip and went to shoot. Shocking is all I can say. I expected some kind of crack or pop but got a nice quiet pft. Thought something ain't right. Threw it over the chronograph and 930fps with 16gr pellets. Well ok then! I'm thrilled with that surprise. To me it's backyard friendly but not silent. The little LDC/shroud combo is working excellent! I dropped the speed down to 890fps with same pellets.
Now how does it shoot? Again absolute precision. Not just on how the gun works, the build, but the accuracy as well. I was quite worried how the shooting experience would be. Only little carbine I have experience with is an Edgun Leshiy. This is a 10" barrel and my .22 Leshiy was the 250mm or 9.8". Essentially same length. Add a pound and a half of weight though and 5" to the gun. Loved the Leshiy but anything over 750fps with the 16gr pellets and it was very jumpy and quite hold sensitive to shoot. This gun is very easy to shoot. And boy does it shoot well!
Here's 5 at 75yds.
I then shot at some cans at 155yds. Dialed 10.2 Mils. Had 6 cans and once the wind calmed down had zero issues drilling the cans. Shot each can once which there was a slight breeze at first and took a few shots to get dialed in. Once I did was shooting the cans until they fell. Wind stopped for about 15 seconds and here was 3 shots in a row. The 3 to the right. The left edge was my first shot previously when getting dialed in windage wise. I need to test more but the gun also seems to really like the NSA 20.2gr .217. these were flying at 790fps at same tune.
One interesting thing about the gun though is the barrel. When I had my 15" barreled version Tom was using your standard run of the mill 12 groove LW barrels with 17.7" twist. Expecting the same when I looked down the bore to my surprise it's only a 4 groove barrel.
I'm assuming it's one of TJs? I believe Tom has some proprietary mandrels so I'm guessing it could be one of them. I'm waiting on my barrel removal tool from AOA to come and will pull it and see if it's choked or not.
Only issue I see is I might need to sell my Prophet now. I'm hoping I can keep it and throw a red dot on it and tune it for low power. But not sure the wife would be happy with that and might have to sell it.
