My Maverick claimed it's first large game(hog)!

I managed to get my Maverick properly initiated last night with a good boar :D I tuned the gun pretty hot in .30, just in case I had to take some longer shots. It was shooting NSA 61.5 grain slugs around 955 fps for a solid 124 fpe tune. That isn't the hottest I can tune it, but it's a solid power level with a decent shot count for the use. I decided on the 61.5 grain, for a little extra speed vs the 65.5(which it also shoots very well). This Superior Heavy barrel in .30 is an absolute laser with everything I feed it, except for the lighter weight stuff. I did a lot of target testing at various ranges to make sure I had the gun dialed it to make almost any shot I had to make. I even managed to pop a pigeon at 175 yards earlier in the day, resting on an ATV! 

I had to wait in the spot past dark, before they showed up. I watched countless deer, rabbits, squirrels, and birds during the day light. Obviously, it ain't season for any of that stuff here, but hogs can be taken year round. I had my little Acebeam E10 red light on my side picatinny rail, just in case I decided to wait past dark. That turned out to be a good move. Finally, around 9:15 the deer ran off, so I knew the hogs were coming. I sat there for a good 15-20 minutes watching these hogs feed, waiting for a shot on one of the big boars. After that much time, I knew they weren't going to be there much longer. Unfortunately, the biggest boar just wouldn't give me a shot, so I decided to take the shot I could get on one of the other boars. I pig in hand is better than a bigger one that I could have had. This one was about 35 yards, and an easy shot for this gun. I lined him up in the scope, and put one right in the fuse box. He dropped like a sack of potatoes!

It was good fun, and a good way to get the "camo cannon" it's first real kill. The little red Acebeam is small, but effective, and the red illuminated reticle on the Crimson Traces scope worked very, very well with the red light. I can see this is a very solid combo for night shooting, without having to use a thermal or infrared scope! Poor mans night vision for the win 😅 I didn't put much thought into it, but Is this the first large game kill with a Maverick?? It certainly has the chops to do it, and I can't wait to for deer season to roll around! I expect the Maverick will "feed" again, haha. In the name of full disclosure, the boar isn't as giant as it looks in the picture. I was trying to hold the hog and the gun beside each other for reference, but the picture ended up making it look gigantic. The scale claimed he was only about 175lbs though. Either way, still an awesome night for me and the Maverick! I love this gun more and more every day :D Thanks for reading!
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Thanks for the good words guys! The Maverick makes for a dang solid hunting platform, no doubt. It was a hoot, especially since I pulled it off in the dark with that little bitty red light! That Acebeam E10 in red is an awesome hunting light, if you don't want a big one on your gun. It don't hurt that it's only a $50 light either. Don't let the lumen rating fool you, it throws a VERY tight beam, and is good out to a 100 yards at least. I just use a small picatinny scope mount to put it in. I turned the body down on a lathe to make it fit a 30mm ring, but it'd probably work with no modifications in a 34mm ring. Here's the link, if you guys want to give one a try: https://www.acebeam.com/e10

Nice hog! The Maverick looks good all camo too.

What are your regulators set at to get those 61.5 grainers going 955fps? That’s beastly!



Have a good one.

Stoti

Thanks Stoti! It took me a couple hours to do that camo the right way, but well worth it, in my opinion. I was running the regs pretty high. The first reg was at 200 bar(where it stays), and the second reg was around 175-180 bar(depending on temperature). I have the Huma extra high pressure regs in it, so I can push things up to around 210 bar, if I really just wanted every last drop of power. The highest I have pushed it is about 190 bar on the second reg, and that got me around 130 fpe with the 65.5 grain slugs. Normally, the second reg stays around 155-160 bar, but I wanted to let the big .30 eat on them hogs. Some of them are well over 300 lbs 😲 I have done a few mods to the gun, so it makes power a little better than a stock Maverick, fwiw.

That is an understated harvest of a hog. You are one steady eddy to make that shot with less power then a .38 special. Great hog and a blow to your local hog population.

Thank you! That's what it's all about, he won't be making anymore piglets! It's all about getting the shot you want, but that is a pretty reliable shot to make in the fuse box. The hard part is having the patience to wait for the shot you need. It was torture looking at those hogs waiting for a shot! I've dropped them with smaller caliber air guns, but that .30 sure is sweet and hits like a hammer for an air gun :D

I bet you were pumped!!! Nice shot. Glad to see the heavy .30 nsa can do the job very good to know

Yessir, I was stoked! The NSA slugs have proven quite effective on hogs with a head shot! I wouldn't shoot one through the shoulder with it, because those shields are TOUGH. A shoulder shot on the boars is proper big bore air gun territory, or PB. They'd probably do a good heart shot, but why bother, when you can just shut of the switch with a brain shot ;) So far, the NSA slugs have dropped every hog I've shot in .177, .22, and .30. As long as I do my part, it's a done deal.



Thanks again for the kind words guys. It's always very rewarding when you put in the time on the gun, tuning and testing. Then you get to see it come to fruition. There ain't much better in my book! I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around just how well the .30 shoots with the Superior Heavy liner(carbon lined). It is just single hole accurate with the 54.5, 61.5, and 65.5 grain NSA slugs. As I mentioned earlier, I popped a pigeon at 175 yards with it earlier that day. That was cool, because I just input the numbers in Strelock Pro, and did the hold. It drilled him on the first shot. Whenever you get an airgun that just does what it should, and is always spot on where it should be, it is a wonderful thing! Hopefully, I'll be able to post a serious hog take down with it one of these days.


 
Nicely done!!! FWIW I would try out D-RIG's 62gr Varmint Knockers. They hit as hard as the 65.5gr NSAs, but the BC is noticeably better and they fly faster.

I've been able to make real good power with my Maverick too. Made a hammer weight for my ~27" TJ, but the slug probe that I made gave me the biggest leap pushing the 62gr at 950 with the second reg at ~160 (I run it with 50gr JSBs at 915fps / 150bar with my shorter ~500mm TJ for compactness).
 
Nicely done!!! FWIW I would try out D-RIG's 62gr Varmint Knockers. They hit as hard as the 65.5gr NSAs, but the BC is noticeably better and they fly faster.

I've been able to make real good power with my Maverick too. Made a hammer weight for my ~27" TJ, but the slug probe that I made gave me the biggest leap pushing the 62gr at 950 with the second reg at ~160 (I run it with 50gr JSBs at 915fps / 150bar with my shorter ~500mm TJ for compactness).

Thanks mtnGhost :D That's very impressive power for that reg setting! They must be really low friction in that barrel, or have you done other mods to your gun(besides the TJ barrel and hammer weight)? How heavy is your hammer weight? I think the most I can squeeze out of mine is around 115-120 fpe at 160 bar. I have a 14 gram hammer weight I made, and opened up the valve seat to 7.3mm and a PEEK poppet. I am using a pin probe I made. I also have a modified Huma transfer port. I'm trying to figure out where you got that extra power at that low of a regulator setting. I'm always on the lookout for more power! Any info you can provide would be appreciated for sure.

Now, relating to the VK slugs specifically, I haven't tried those before. To be honest, I usually just stick to the NSA stuff for price alone. The fact that they are so crazy accurate out of the Superior Heavy liner doesn't hurt either. Have you checked the BC on the NSA slugs? I'd be curious to see if your readings were close to what NSA lists. Good stuff!

Great hunt! It's awesome that the " Acebeam E10 red light " enabled you to take that shot at 35yards, very impressive.

I like the inexpensive solutions that work.

Did you have the red light on the hogs the whole time or just observe hogs then turn on the light and take the shot? I suspect the light was on the entire time.

I turned the red light on, once it started getting dark enough that I couldn't clearly make out the reticle, so it was on the whole time. It gets really dark in the deep woods. I only had the light on the medium setting of normal modes, and that isn't including turbo. Even though it was only on medium(50 lumens by the specs), I was able to clearly make out the details of the hog's noggin. Hopefully, I'll test it on high next time. I honestly intended to use it on high, but never felt the need to turn it up when I was using it. I was surprised how well that red illuminated reticle worked in combination with the red light. The illuminated reticle wasn't nearly as distracting as it would be without the light. I love that little light, because it is so small, but very effective with that tight beam!
 
Well my TJ bore is actually tighter than the FX bore, but the 62gr slug geometry doesn't make nearly as much contact with the rifling as the 65.5's. BC of those NSAs have been right about 0.13 for me on average (they have been lower on a few occasions measuring with my LabRadar in various WX conditions). I'm seeing around 0.138 with these 62gr, although they have been as high as 0.141. Using RA4 for both of these slugs.

I use Slick50 to lube them. Noticed the factory brass TP is just as good as the Huma transfer port, but that larger / wider / angled TP that Ernest sells actually caused significant losses in velocity!! It's not efficient for these rifles.

Here's my hammer and probe:

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I'm running a slightly heavier and shorter spring to fix the wonkiness with the preload power wheel.

The first slug probe that I made from tool steel turned out to be BLOCKING part of the transfer port, and I was maxing out at around 930fps. I had the seating depth right where I needed it to be, so I tried to machine it down so it wasn't obstructing the port, but in the end I machined that taper a hair too far.

So I made another probe from 6AL-4V, but I machined this one much more carefully and added a slightly different taper than that first probe. This probe has given me MUCH better results. I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes with these slugs compared to the factory pellet probe, but I'm seeing close to +40fps with 50gr JSBs on its own with my ~500mm TJ. 

The rifle with the big barrel (can't find the photos of it with the shroud I made, but I uploaded them to my Instagram account a while back). Not as cool looking as yours with the camo though!

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