Little semi-auto AEA backpacker harvests it's first squirrel.

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I purchased the 3-16X new from Sportsman's Guide on Dec 26, 2018. ATN has taken very good care of me! The IR lamp that came with it died in April 2019, I contacted them and they sent me a replacement. I had a remote die also, contacted them and they sent me a replacement. Now the scope finally got to the point it was freezing or shutting itself off too frequently to be reliable, I contacted them and they are sending me a new one!

BTW, the refurbs carry the same 2 year warranty as the new ones! I have zero complaints about their customer service!. I do deal strictly with one CS Rep though, her name is Milen and she has always provided top notch service! Anytime I have a question, need warranty support or want another scope, I just contact her and she takes super good care of me! Good luck with that new scope, I think you're really going to like it!
 
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I purchased the 3-16X new from Sportsman's Guide on Dec 26, 2018. ATN has taken very good care of me! The IR lamp that came with it died in April 2019, I contacted them and they sent me a replacement. I had a remote die also, contacted them and they sent me a replacement. Now the scope finally got to the point it was freezing or shutting itself off too frequently to be reliable, I contacted them and they are sending me a new one!

BTW, the refurbs carry the same 2 year warranty as the new ones! I have zero complaints about their customer service!. I do deal strictly with one CS Rep though, her name is Milen and she has always provided top notch service! Anytime I have a question, need warranty support or want another scope, I just contact her and she takes super good care of me! Good luck with that new scope, I think you're really going to like it!
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Thank you again for the great Info! I can’t wait to get my 4K pro, ranger finder and remote combo! After thinking about I’m keeping my old scope and Pard for a little longer, gives me and excuse to get another rifle eventually. Or when I need a bit more magnification than 20 which I’m not sure I’ll ever need. Either way I have options and sounds like if works reliably and as advertised my current setup will be in classified eventually. 
 
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A little AEA Backpacker semi-auto fun this evening! He got away but it sure was fun sending some rapid fire lead down range in his direction!

https://youtu.be/iODkGKKLUX8

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Has anyone thought about adding an external regulator?

Huma external M18x1,5 regulator at Trenier

It looks like that Huma regulator would fit, and then you could air up the bottle to 4500 PSI and get more consistent and a higher number of shots per fill. The only real issue I see is that Huma's own documentation is iffy at best as to the maximum pressure setting, Huma lists either 150 or 170 bar and Trenier says it's a max of 190 bar. 150 bar is about where my gun starts to act unhappy and doesn't cycle semi-auto reliably. If it can go up to 190 bar that would be perfect as it's just on the down slope of DanielL's velocity chart:

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<--- credit goes to DanielL for this


 
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That one seems to be for a DIN SCUBA tank and not inline with the on-gun bottle.

If you don't mind a tether tank and can find one with a DIN 300 connection, it should work. The extra advantage is that it's externally adjustable whereas the one I posted has to be removed.

A possible problem could be the AEA's slow fill rate. It's nice as my regular fill station isn't slow-fill, but with that DIN 300 regulator, will it recover enough between shots? I don't think so *if* you shoot rapid-fire, but if you pace your shots I think it will be fine.

I also found this:

https://www.altaros.cz/en/altaros-filling-adapter/89-external-airgun-regulator.html

Includes fill/tether hose, and I found it for $155 shipped from Altaros in Czechia. It says it's a DIN G5/8 thread which seems like DIN 300, maybe. Not externally adjustable.

Either one would be good to use as a fill station regulator.
 
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This is a series of shots taken at 40 yards using BSA Elite 15.43 grain round head pellets. These pellets really haven’t performed well in any other rifle, but that seem to do quite well in the Backpacker!



https://youtu.be/a3bBoMFERk4



I added some dry titanium lube to the polished trigger surfaces and it has helped guide a bit with shooting out the trigger. Much easier to stay on target when shooting rapid fire!
 
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Just noticed that you don’t have the range finder, how do you update the ballistic/reticle?
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I have the rangefinder but it seems to eat batteries so half the time it's dead. When that happens I use a known distance or an external rangefinder and input the distance though the quick menu distance selection.
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roger that, sounds like I need to buy those batteries in bulk!
 
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Just noticed that you don’t have the range finder, how do you update the ballistic/reticle?
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I have the rangefinder but it seems to eat batteries so half the time it's dead. When that happens I use a known distance or an external rangefinder and input the distance though the quick menu distance selection.
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roger that, sounds like I need to buy those batteries in bulk!
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I have a small hand held range finder, I need to just make the adjustment manually and enter it. I hadn't thought about that. I didn't realize the ATN Range Finder ate batteries that fast, kinda glad I didn't invest in one. Thus far I haven't really had a need for it.
 
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I received the wave spring washers I ordered from McMaster Carr. Just 1 is all it took to eliminate the slight wobble where the folding stock adapter attaches to the breech. It feels rock solid now!

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Here's a link to what I bought if anyone else is interested: https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/126/1394

The size is ID: 0.689"; OD: 0.937"; Thickness: 0.012"; Working Load: 40 lbs

These fit perfectly and are barely noticeable. The working load is plenty strong enough to give a good solid feel, but not too much that you can't compress it enough to get the pins seated. It's definitely an improvement!
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Got mine today and put on semi-auto and lever action. Worked great. Thanks for the suggestion. Lever action's bolt travels further so I had to grind away one side of the wave washer and orient it correctly. That was a PITA.

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There was one other looseness to be fixed; the folding pivot. I added two layers of electrical tape to the end by the closing mechanism and now there is no rattle whatsoever. 👍

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I bought the AEA HPBP .25cal. I was in love with the gun, but for $850, a few things started to get under my skin:

  1. The advertized power was 80fpe, but the gun only does just over 50fpe. This is because it only has the soft spring. We are supposed to get a strong spring, but that hasn't happened, and probably won't happen.
  2. No Sling Mounts: So I installed MagPul system mounts myself.
  3. The Trigger Guard pic rail is only mounted to the frame with one screw. If you use it with a bipod, it will work itslef loose in short order.
  4. Out of a few hundred rounds, I've gotten around 3-4 magazine jams. The gun was within the specified pressure range for semi-auto function.
  5. I hate everything about the trigger. I measure 7.5 pounds and I pull damn near every shot because of it.
  6. I added a DonnyFL Tatsu, and when installing it, the shroud material was very soft and prone to cross threading. This had the suppressor cock-eyed a few times, but I bought the .30cal version which gave me some slop so I didn't clip pellets. Hard to saw how well this will hold up in the future.
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    Currently, the gun is now jammed. I have contacted the distributor for a return for repair and modification for the bipod pic rail to be moved to the frame. I really do love the concept, but these mechanical semi-auto guns trigger pull just is killing me! If I just shoot the AEA for a week, then I start to get used to it. But if I shoot my Benjamin Bulldog just once and have to go back to this single stage crap, I most always feel like the gun's safety is still on; it;s just that hard to pull!

    I think I may sell it at a slight loss after return from the dealer and go with something else...

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How's the trigger? Is it adjustable?
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Nothing is adjustable. Trigger required polish and spring replacement to get it to what could charitably be described as hunter/plinker level. I have no problem getting nice tight groups from it but it isn’t something that you could get below 3 lbs on the semi-auto version (read my post above about the surprise full surprise full auto mode.)
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Thank you! Yea I saw the previous post about the semi going full auto after I posted. Where did you source the spring you used that did work and was the trigger assembly pretty straight forward and easy to work on? After reading your post here I submitted an offer on eBay and it was accepted. I have one on the way, looks like a great little gun to keep in my camper!
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I used one of those spring assortment packs you can buy online through Amazon, Aliexpress or Harbor Freight. I just sized one of the springs in the kit to fit and replaced the one under the trigger. It is pretty easy to work on, just two screws to remove the grip then knock out the 4 knurled lockpins and the trigger assembly all comes out the bottom of the receiver. The two trigger mechanism parts look to be either forgings or powder metal pressings. On my first AEA they were as they would have come directly from the equipment with no post processing. The Backpacker had a secondary polishing done from the factory...which I'm guessing was their attempt to lower the efforts and smooth it but it wasn't any lower than the unpolished one on my first AEA. That might be partly because of the springs they used. I haven't compared them but I recall the first one used two different springs while the Backpacker used the same spring. I made a video instruction for how to do the modification but I haven't assembled all the pieces and uploaded it up to YouTube yet. I wasn't recording when it went full auto part so I was going to get my wife to help me film that part.
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hi , did you ever post the video ?
 
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