My first ever bullpup(s), the Vulcan(s)

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fe7565

fe7565

Member
Oct 13, 2015
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VA, United States



All right...so I did it.

After polling from curiosity http://airgunnation.dev/topic/which-bullpup-would-you-consider-the-most-trouble-free-and-accurate/  for a small light weight and accurate bullpup I bought my first ever bullpup, a new .25 Vulcan wood stock Gen2. Then I bought a second one, a used .25 Gen1 black (coated wood) Vulcan a few hours later. Yes, it's weird...but there is some logic behind it...or so I think. I hope won't be eating exclusively Ramen noodles more than a couple of months...

I waited for the FX Impact since early October. It's the most exciting and versatile rifle I can think of and will be buying it, but I decided to let it grow out of its early "pains" and go for something that holds me over and would not mind keeping. Besides my AAS410 I have a Daystate MVT with a 17in barrel which is fun but way too large and heavy to just grab and go shoot. I am in Northern VA near DC, a bastion of gun-averse urban dwellers. I visit a local 100m indoor range, and to be honest I do not even know where the myriad of local rules would allow me shoot in public even in a remote area. I decided to buy the .25 Vulcan over the Cricket for these reasons: main reason was that the cocking lever is in the middle...but also it's lighter and shorter.

The informal polling here at AGN helped tremendously in deciding.I wanted to buy a used one, an easier choice because the Vulcan's warranty transfers from the original owner. But used ones on the classifieds get snapped up so quick (same as the Cricket) that I just did not have the patience to wait after I already made my choice to buy one. So I went with a new Gen2 from TopGunAirguns where it was about a hundred dollars less. It came with two magazines vs the four from (TalonTunes?) but I rarely use more than one magazine anyway. The Gen2 (or unofficial Gen3 for some) has a depinger added to stop the earlier version's metallic hammer ping, a better bolt, and more effective baffles. I opted to add (for $59) a 1/2 20 UNF adapter to the shroud end. When I got off the phone with Petr, I was very excited and happy that he will test it and make sure the rifle has no issues and shoots accurately before he ships it. I had a lot of confidence in his word after talking with him and all the feedback I read in contrast to my (repeated) personal experience with the largest importer of airguns.

Then a couple of hours later I noticed on the AGN classifieds a black stock Gen1 Vulcan owned and tuned by Travis from Wicked AirRifles, the Flex .30 guy. I figured he must have tuned that baby to perfection since he knows a little bit about air rifles. But I already paid for the new Gen2 from TopGunAirguns. So I considered canceling the order since it was only a couple of hours old.....surely will not need two Vulcans. But I felt some way obligated to Piotr after talking with him and I figured that I can sell either of the rifles with a slight loss or may even break even after having fun shooting both for a short period of time.So here I am , with a Gen1 and Gen2 Vulcans to try out. Between replacing a countertop and floor tiles all around the house I hope to find some free time. I managed to screw up my filling station when I tried to retool from my Daystate to the Vulcan, so had no range time yet. Now with the fitting replaced, back in business and hope to post accuracy results soon...

So far this is what I noticed: the Gen2 quality/make is good, professional looking, precisely put together. The wood stock grain is not very fancy, not super ergonomic compared to my Daystate thumbhole, but not as crude looking as some of the bullpups from Russia. The new Gen2 cycles quite harsh, and it requires some considerable effort to push the final quarter inch when cocking. I read that to be an issue and I hope to resolve it either myself or wondering if it may resolve itself with time. The improved bolt still does not have a lot of leverage and with the harsh cycling (not broken in yet?) this is very apparent. At times I hit my knuckle on the edge of the stock . When compared to the Gen1, the used/tuned Gen1 cycles like butter. It was a real pleasure to cycle the bolt while keeping the same hold and not taking my eyes off the "target". Need to read the forums on how to make the new ones cycle easier. The sound is comparable to my .22 Daystate even as this is a larger .25. I do hear a very slight metallic ping when it fires, but then I am used to my Daystate that has an electronic trigger which is basically a toggle switch. The Gen1 I dry-fired only once so far to make sure it was clear when I received it, so cannot make a judgment on its sound yet.

More to come as time allows. I have a lot of questions about various tuning options that I read on the Forums. I will post shoot groups also once I get to the range. One thing that pleasantly surprised me is that I was able to fit the Vulcan with my HUGE 12-60x56 Tasco Custom Shop on top inside the original case (see photo) and was still able to close it. ****Don't say anything about my scope on top of the Vulcan defeating the purpose of light weight and mobile!!!! :) I am only mounting it while testing at the range for accuracy. I am used to my gigantic Tasco :)

More later with photos...and with lots of questions! :)
 
Thank you all for the kind words and the tips! I took out both rifles for a quick shooting at the range but had a quick-disconnect o-ring malfunction this time so was only able to shoot what was in the reservoir. Both rifles seemed to have fallen off the regulator at around 120 bar showing on the built-in gage, this is when the POI changed at 50 yards. No chrony readings. The Gen1 definitely had a metallic ping, so I need to fix that in the future.

Questions: Fixed the o-ring on the fill whip. My fill tank had about 3500 psi (240 bar) and filled both the Gen1 and Gen2. The Gen1's built-in gage showed about 250 bar while the Gen2 would not go above 210 bar max. Is it common for such small "paintball" gage to be off by close to 50 bars? If yes, why is that both rifles seem to "fall off" the regulator at around 120 bar? Why wasn't there a 40 bar difference at 120 bar on the gage?

I shot with 26gr JSBs and was getting some decent groups while messing around with the scope zeroing it and figuring out mildot holdovers. What pellet(s) does your rifle like? At what velocity are you shooting them?

Thank you.
 
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Congrats on the double vulcans! I too have a Gen 2/3 with the depinger. I shoot two pellets the JSB Exact King 25.39gr and the AirArms 25.4gr Diabolo Field pellets. Personally I like the AA pellets a little better than the JSB's in this gun. I have detuned mine down to around 867.4fps, I usually tell people it is around 850fps but I went and looked it up just now to see where I had it set. My Extreme spread is around 2.0 on a 9 shot string. I am very happy with this setting. I get an easy 36 shots shooting from around 220Bar down to 160Bar. It's not off the reg by any means and I could probably get at least another nine shots, but I just make it a habit to refill after 36 shots.

Sorry I don't have an answer about your gauge issue. I thought I remember Petr saying the reg was around 140Bar? I'm sure they are all going to vary a little bit. I would suggest checking your fill station pressure and just make note of what each gun should be filled to be at the preferred fill pressure.
 
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"Michael"What did they do to remove the ping from Gen 1 to Gen 2?

I added a "de-pinger" to one of my tube guns (can't remember which at the moment) and it looked like an hourglass. It was inserted inside the airtube. It actually did a pretty good job, despite taking up some of the valuable air space.
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From my understanding what they did was put a piece of vinyl tubing on the hammer spring because that is where the "Twang" was coming from. You can do the mod yourself with a rubber grommet. I don't think that they put any thing in the air tube, though it is a little confusing calling it a depinger. I guess it should be called more of a "detwanger" :) .
 
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Thanks all for the info on the pellet choices and velocities. I already bought some AAs (they shoot better in my Daystate than JSBs) and some JSB MK2, Kings.

@Michael - Mr. Rowe has a video on adding a delrin guide to the hammer spring to prevent the twang sound on the Gen1:
 
Petr answered within half an hour to my email and is sending a new gauge to replace the one that won't go above 210bar. I just need to send the old one back. He was willing to replace it himself, but Mr. Rowe had another handy video that shows just that:

Petr said the reg is set at around 150bar. It's shooting 26gr JSB's at around 880fps now. I didn't want to set up my F1 chrony so instead using the Combro for now. I felt blind because so used to my Daystate MVT displaying the velocity on the rifle's LCD after each shot.

I also picked up a $25 (shipped) magazine for the Gen1 on Ebay that I will test this weekend. The seller made it with a 3D printer for the Gen1 and he asked me to check if it works in the Gen2 rifle too. I think both magazines work the same. The interesting thing is that he also added a viewing-hole where you can see the pellet that is currently being loaded, or it shows if empty. I did a sketch of a single-pellet loader magazine and asked him if he may be interested making one. The single-pellet loader would basically look the same as the regular magazine but it would have only one pellet-space (no rotor) that lines up with the barrel and you can roll the pellet sideways from either the left or the right from towards the top.
 
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Apparently, my Gen2 Vulcans (.25) did not come with a reservoir 'bleed screw' anymore. Confirmed it with Pertr from TopGun-Airguns who was also surprised as he checked one of his new in-stock guns. He will check with Airgun Technologies "why". Maybe cost cutting, albeit that's not a smart way to cut costs on a product that many decide to buy because it's easy to service and adjust. It's much more convenient to bleed off instead of shooting off the air inside.

I came to realize this as I was about to remove the front gauge for sending it for replacement and wanted to bleed the reservoir. My gauge seems to get stuck at 210bar even as I fill from a 250bar tank. Petr will take care of it including shipping, and while the parts are with him he will also threw in a free internal "silent-tune". Great service! 

I did some shooting today and some chrono (Combro) shot strings. Using unsorted JSB and AA 26gr's, did great at 50 yards, but only around 2 inches at 100 yard so far (albeit it was consistent) . I was at an indoors range, so I suspect either: (1) pellets or (2) scope. Cannot be me or the rifle! :) I used a one-piece bench rest. I am sure it needs some cleaning, the barrel looked pretty filthy when I unscrewed the shroud. Will post some details and couple of groups later as I go trough my notes.
 
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you can NOT adjust the power in a wide range of outputs with only touching the hammer spring. this is not only Vulcan specific but most of PCPs do that.
people will argue that the regulator is there but I can tell you PCP will misbehave along the fill when not balanced right. What you will get is a drifting trending power as the pressure is changing in the cylinder. POI will move around and power spikes up at certain pressures stuff like that.
I would get a .25 for hunting just because its killing power i.e. punches larger hole. it will have muzzle flip, i used to place my hand on top of the scope to tame it.
i think a .22 would be easier to detune because it already has a bit of lower reg setting. 

The Vulcan is great gun, a bit of loud action when you pull the trigger but you will get used to it.
Not sure what led free pellets are available in .25 hmmm, not sure if it is a good idea even in .22
 
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Thanks! That's good information. Yes, I make everything way more difficult for myself trying to hunt lead-free. They do make a few that are good- Predator GTO in .22 (11.75grain), in .25 (16.54grain) are match grade and the H&N Barracuda Greens in .22 (12.35grain) are good and accurate, but as you can see, a little light. I've been looking on the straightshooters table to see if they can carry enough energy out to 50yards. Maybe it'd be best to go with a truly adjustable powerplant like an Air Arms or FX though.
 
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What if your gun will not like any lead free pellet, i doubt already that a lead free will group at 50yards.
They will lose speed very very fast, have you looked at BCs of lead free pellets? ;-)


Could someone show us some 50yard groups with lead free pellets here,any gun please!

i am aware of the existence of more lead free .22 brands, however, i question their performance really
 
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I need to hunt lead free and use the .22 GTO Predators in my Taipan Veteran short. Thankfully, they are very accurate in the Taipan. But I had to drop power significantly, down to about 940-950fps (23-24fpe), to get the accuracy. A few turns on the HS worked just fine for me. An added bonus is that I now get about 50 good shots on a fill at the lower power level.

Good luck.

R
 
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"Christophson"That's great to know EMrider! Sounds like it's maxed out before it's getting too close to the sound barrier, which is what I'm trying to do. What kind of range can you get?
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I hunt at 6x power and seldom take shots beyond 50 yards. Out to that range the GTOs are as accurate as the JSB 16s or 18s.......or the difference is too slight for me to notice. Last weekend I was able to take a few ground squirrels at a lasered 70 yards. I've tried all the lead free options and the GTOs are best by a WIDE margin, just use a light lube and keep them between 900-950fps. 

R. 
 
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