Hatsan Carnivore Project.

True, but this is more of a personal challenge then anything else. I also factored in the added advantage of going to the bottle vs another tube. Regulating two tubes along with another tube purchase would cost about the same a bottle kit/regulator combo itself. Plus with a bottle I'd get a foster connection, meaning if I lost the probes which I imagine could happen at the worst time, I'd at least be able to use the 35.

The .30 will get some treatment as well. I'll probably get an LDC, and I may get a regulator for it as well. Most of all this work I have planned probably won't be done until the end of summer next year at the earliest.

Got my .30 in today and had a chance to take her out for a spin tonight. So far I'd have to say its a bit louder than I expected, but of the test firing I did here at about 11pm tonight I can say its right at the threshold of being night hunting friendly. Still I'm going to look at getting a Bwalton LDC from Wicked Air Rifles as soon as I can. That means I'm going to need to find out how the QE shroud comes off, and whether or not I have to use a shim on the barrel band to keep everything lined up. 

Of course until then I'm going to be doing my best to get it zeroed at 50yds and see how well it fairs in a few hunts.

Got time to finally send some .30 rounds over the chrony. So far for stock it seems the sweet spot looks to be in the area of 820fps and 150 to 160 bar on the pressure. Didn't get much time to do more than 3 mags before the sunlight faded.

Sound wise it was around 108db close up, but at the same distance I tested my marauder it came in at 97.3db for a high. So its not as quiet as I hoped for, but its good enough until I get an LDC.

BWalton, I'll definitely drop you a line when its time for the LDC. My aim for fps is around the 860 to 870 range, at least for now. 

Decided to give the barrel a good cleaning tonight. I used the typical ballistol patches and then some try patches with a pull-through after I removed the shroud. Something of note for others who might own a Carnivore is the shroud is indeed held on by a 14mm bolt. It was on there finger tight as best, which I don't know is intended or not. In any case I cleaned and reassembled with no problems, and from what I could make out the crown looked alright. I'm no crown expert though, but as long as it shoots fine I'm not going to have it touched.

In a week or so I'm going to take off the stock and make sure the breech screws that have been reported to back out are still tight, and then I might make some adjustments to the hammer spring. All in all so far I'm really liking how simple this Hatsan is for maintenance.

Found out today the POI changed after I did the cleaning. Once everything was back on target I did some practice shooting. First clip from 200 bar didn't do so good, but again once it got down around 170 to 150 bar the group tightened right back up. Didn't get a chance to do any chrony work because of cloud cover and the setting sun though. I think with the current settings I can get away with filling to 170 and then shooting down to 100 bar.

So the major thing buzzing in my brain right now is whether or not adjusting the hammer spring is going to change that magic '150 bar' grouping I get. As it sits now I can get just over 3 mags of useable shots, and I'm confident in the accuracy now that I could take good heart/lung shots on raccoons or possums if they happen to show up.

Of course now that I've got a trust taste of what this platform is doing I can't wait for the .35 caliber to be delivered.

Today I managed to finally get in some shots over the chrony for the .30 cal. Looks like stock after cleaning the barrel its coming in around 850fps at 150 bar. One shot at 40 yards on a house sparrow absolutely pulverized it. Before that I had to resist the urge to take a shot at a squirrel from behind.

Definitely liking the power I'm getting now.

The .35 cal arrived Saturday and today I managed to get some shots out of it. So far its coming in at 2 mags from 200 down to 145 bar, meaning I may get closer to 18 usable shots rather than 12 that seems to be advertised. Also it came in at 104db, which is fantastic for my purposes. I haven't cleaned the barrel yet and the only scope I had available to use was the 4-12x40 Hawke 30/30 scope I had on my Texan, but I was able to get solid 1 inch grouping.

The accuracy will improve I'm sure after a good cleaning and adding an AO scope.

Did some chrony work today. Lowest was 696, and highest was 709fps for the .35 cal. After that I ran 3 mags through it down range to 40yds to determine the sweet spot pressure wise. Unsurprisingly the best shots stock seem to be from about 170bar down to 100 or 110bar. That's a good solid 2 mags worth.

Think my first objectives with both rifles is going to be turning the hammer spring in until I reach the advertised ft lbs of energy for each gun, and then work on getting a regulator in the .30. After that it'll be tinkering until I find my best accuracy-to-power setup.

Of course both of these rifles are pretty fun to shoot as they are now, and I'm confident the 6-24x50mm Hawke scope I have coming will be just the thing I need to really test how well the .35 is going to perform for me.