Blackwolf Blackwolf and Sub-MOA Barrels Review

[Franklink]

Gee Cole it seems like it was actually a good thing that you went back to stock with no expectations yourself to see what would happen win or loose.

? Not sure what you're getting at.

Go re-read my very first post on this gun back in October, when I first got it. I commented in that post, pretty close to the top, in the bullet points explaining the barrels that came with it, that I would eventually report on the accuracy of the OEM barrel.

 

[Solo1]

? Not sure what you're getting at.

Go re-read my very first post on this gun back in October, when I first got it. I commented in that post, pretty close to the top, in the bullet points explaining the barrels that came with it, that I would eventually report on the accuracy of the OEM barrel.

Yes but you were petty loud on the fact you were forced to

 

[Franklink]

Yes but you were petty loud on the fact you were forced to

It was always in the plans, your grouching just accelerated the time frame.

All for you Chuck.

In addition, I've done very little testing with the 1:16 SubMOA barrels. Eventually will get there too.

 

[Billm]

Generally speaking (not just in regards to the stock), the Blackwolf is built much better than Chinese and Turkish airguns.

The quality level between the BW and airguns coming out of Eastern European countries is a lot more similar. That's mostly coming from my place of owing 3 Taipans and using them extensively.

I don’t doubt that Daystate products are better quality than the Chinese products that’s kind of why I’m surprised that they would use plastic in a major part of a CNC machined chassis, considering their stated ethos of superior quality. I’m guessing that it is injection molded which leads me to believe it’s a cost cutting measure. I have zero experience with the Turkish or Eastern European airguns. I have noticed the Taipans seem to be very popular. The Kaibergun Snipe 2 also looks to be of good quality.

 

[Billm]

@Franklink I’m guessing that with your main interest being in the lower fpe .22, that you don’t have any experience with the plenum add-on?

 

[Franklink]

@Franklink I’m guessing that with your main interest being in the lower fpe .22, that you don’t have any experience with the plenum add-on?

Correct.

 

[cavedweller]

I don’t doubt that Daystate products are better quality than the Chinese products that’s kind of why I’m surprised that they would use plastic in a major part of a CNC machined chassis, considering their stated ethos of superior quality. I’m guessing that it is injection molded which leads me to believe it’s a cost cutting measure. I have zero experience with the Turkish or Eastern European airguns. I have noticed the Taipans seem to be very popular. The Kaibergun Snipe 2 also looks to be of good quality.

Weight?

 

[Franklink]

Some more OEM Blackwolf HiLite fun from the last few weeks.

This is all still with the 28" .22 OEM barrel.
Reg pressure of 150 bar.
Blue hammer spring.
(no experimental/after-market air flow restricting or plenum reducing gizmos installed)

25.4grain MRDs are 930fps @ min, and 1070fps @ max. So, 48.8fpe, up to 64.6fpe.
28.55grain Grands are 890 @ min, and 1040 @ max, respectively 50.2fpe, and 68.6fpe.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again....it wasn't very long ago that this type of fpe was unheard of from a regulated, magazine-fed airgun. To push a .22/25.4grain up to most of 1100fps is wild, and to be doing so with a relatively mild hammer spring is even crazier to me.

After a bit of experimentation, I settled on "7" for the Grands, at 975fps. And "4" for the MRDs, producing 980fps. The next six cards (3 from each projectile) were shot at this speed.

Grands first...

The three cards above contain 16 groups of 5 shots each ( @ 100 yards). The average of those 16 groups is 1.38MOA.




And then some MRDs.... (a pretty mediocre batch of them).

These three MRDs cards are also 16 groups of 5 shot each. The 16 groups average 1.43MOA.

So, 32 groups of 5 shots each, at 100 yards, from two different projectiles, in winds from 0-10mph, over two different sessions, with an average of about 1.4moa. Considering that we're talking about pellets here...that's not too shabby. If anything, I would posit that this showcases the limitations of .22 pellets for 100 yard shooting more than it does the rifle. Or, as I often say, I think we're at the mercy of the ballistics profile of the currently available .22 pellets as the accuracy/precision limiting factor in this 100 yard pellet flinging endeavor.

 

[Franklink]

Shot two cards last night after dinner. The wind was about as good as it gets at my place this time of year.

Both cards were with the JSB MRD "Shallows." I played with the speeds a bit, one card has them from 980-950 ("4, 3, and 2" on the power wheel), and the other was with them all at 950.

I can't blame the wind much here. 7/10 of the 5 shot groups are < 1.25", the 8th group is 1.4", and then the last two had some flyers that stretched them to 2.25" and 2.2." Because of those flyers, looks like the ten non-sighter groups average about 1.25MOA.

This is still the OEM barrel, blue spring, reg pressure at 150 bar, no plenum reducer or port restrictions in place. Basically just the BW HiLite in OEM form, with reg pressure adjustments and a hammer spring swap.

 

[Franklink]

Got the BW out yesterday for the first time in quite a while.

Tried out the new-to-me Pugio but it was just too loud. So went back to the 7" x 30mm mod that I usually use.



You'll notice I swapped back to a SubMOA barrel...this is the 1:22.

Pretty windy...

It had been relatively calm most of the morning, but by the time I got set up, I was looking at gusts into the mid twenties. This card was started @ 11:20.

The weather station wasn't getting it, but I was having pretty stiff right to left and then left to right switches at my house. And that can be seen in how wide two of the five shot groups were.

JSB Grands @ 100 yards.

 

[Franklink]

The BW review process is about to go a VERY different direction. And with that in mind, I've been contemplating how to sort of book-end this for now. I've decided on the following...

• As a recap, I'm going to spend some time looking through the folders of saved targets and my notebook, and share the best results, and the tune that produced that "best."
• Again, will have to check notes, but from memory, I don't think I did much pellet testing from the 1:16 SubMOA barrel. So I'd like to explore that a bit before I move on. As it stands now, the 1:22 SubMOA is the best of the 3 high power .22 barrels I currently have on hand. The 1:22 does really well with pellets from 13.34 up to 28.55, and will even stabilize slugs up to about 34-35grains. The 1:16 is needed for shooting 35+ grain slugs, and is quite accurate with those heavy-for-.22 slugs, but I'm curious how it will do as a pellet shooter.

 

[duchunter007]

The BW review process is about to go a VERY different direction. And with that in mind, I've been contemplating how to sort of book-end this for now. I've decided on the following...

• As a recap, I'm going to spend some time looking through the folders of saved targets and my notebook, and share the best results, and the tune that produced that "best."
• Again, will have to check notes, but from memory, I don't think I did much pellet testing from the 1:16 SubMOA barrel. So I'd like to explore that a bit before I move on. As it stands now, the 1:22 SubMOA is the best of the 3 high power .22 barrels I currently have on hand. The 1:22 does really well with pellets from 13.34 up to 28.55, and will even stabilize slugs up to about 34-35grains. The 1:16 is needed for shooting 35+ grain slugs, and is quite accurate with those heavy-for-.22 slugs, but I'm curious how it will do as a pellet shooter.

Looking forward to your wrap-up review!!

 

[Franklink]

In the first post on the Blackwolf, I mentioned the feelings of being overwhelmed that are induced by this project. Those feelings are still there.

Possible variables available to me at this time:

• 40 different reg pressures. (With an adjustable reg pressure from about 70-170bar, there are technically 100 different possible reg pressures, but for simplicity's sake, lets only count every 2.5 bars as a unique variable)
• 20 different spring tensions (via the wheel)
• 4 different OEM springs (emphasis on "OEM" as I've experimented with additional springs, then you've got the potential to shim springs, with varying shim thicknesses)
• 7 potential transfer port sizes (more on this in the near future)
• 5 different barrels that I've played with or will play with (more on this in the near future)
• 5 different plenum sizes

Simple multiplication is the method to arrive at total possible permutations. So, 40x20x4x7x5x5 = 560,000. And that's just for ONE particular projectile!!! Let's say there are 100 different .22 options for airguns, given slugs and pellets and various weights and diameters and styles of each, that is probably a low-ball estimate. But just for illustration purposes, lets say 100 different .22 options......And, you guessed it, 56,000,000 potential combinations. Yeah, that many zeros is 56 million.

Now, a lot of that can be easily excluded, like trying to shoot a 40 grain slug with a 75 bar reg pressure. Or trying to shoot a 14 grain pellet with a reg pressure of 170 bar. But when you've got 56million possible combinations, even after excluding the completely unreasonable ones, there are still A LOT.

I recently saw a Daystate ad where they said something along the lines of "future-proofing" the Blackwolf when it was being designed. The modularity and adjustability of the BW is pretty astronomical, mathematically speaking.

Does that mean that a Blackwolf user NEEDS to go through all the possible combinations? No, but all that adjustability is certainly available for those curious or for those willing to experiment to get every last ounce of performance out of the platform.

 

[hameditor]

In the first post on the Blackwolf, I mentioned the feelings of being overwhelmed that are induced by this project. Those feelings are still there.

Possible variables available to me at this time:

• 40 different reg pressures. (With an adjustable reg pressure from about 70-170bar, there are technically 100 different possible reg pressures, but for simplicity's sake, lets only count every 2.5 bars as a unique variable)
• 20 different spring tensions (via the wheel)
• 4 different OEM springs (emphasis on "OEM" as I've experimented with additional springs, then you've got the potential to shim springs, with varying shim thicknesses)
• 7 potential transfer port sizes (more on this in the near future)
• 5 different barrels that I've played with or will play with (more on this in the near future)
• 5 different plenum sizes

Simple multiplication is the method to arrive at total possible permutations. So, 40x20x4x7x5x5 = 560,000. And that's just for ONE particular projectile!!! Let's say there are 100 different .22 options for airguns, given slugs and pellets and various weights and diameters and styles of each, that is probably a low-ball estimate. But just for illustration purposes, lets say 100 different .22 options......And, you guessed it, 56,000,000 potential combinations. Yeah, that many zeros is 56 million.

Now, a lot of that can be easily excluded, like trying to shoot a 40 grain slug with a 75 bar reg pressure. Or trying to shoot a 14 grain pellet with a reg pressure of 170 bar. But when you've got 56million possible combinations, even after excluding the completely unreasonable ones, there are still A LOT.

I recently saw a Daystate ad where they said something along the lines of "future-proofing" the Blackwolf when it was being designed. The modularity and adjustability of the BW is pretty astronomical, mathematically speaking.

Does that mean that a Blackwolf user NEEDS to go through all the possible combinations? No, but all that adjustability is certainly available for those curious or for those willing to experiment to get every last ounce of performance out of the platform.

@Franklink Great overview of the possible permutations and combinations available for tuning the Blackwolf! As a fellow airgun tester, I hear you about the number of choices available for investigation...

 

[Franklink]

Barrel Recap

So far I've played with 6 barrels for the Daystate Blackwolf

• SubMOA, 1:16 in .22 (24.625" long, no choke, the first 1:16 that I received, less polished than the second one, designated as 1:16 or 1.1:16 on the targets)
• SubMOA, 1:22 in .22 (24.625" long, no choke, the first 1:22 that I received, less polished than the second one, designated as 1:22 or 1.1:22 on the targets)
• SubMOA, 1:16 in .22 (24.625" long, no choke, second barrel I received with these specs, more polished than the first, designated as 2.1:16 on the targets)
• SubMOA 1:22 in .22 (24.625" long, no choke, second barrel I received with these specs, more polished than the first, designated as 2.1:22 on the targets)
• OEM Lothar Walthar 1:17.7 in .22 (28" long, choked, polygonal rifling)
• LW 1:17 in .177 (19" long, 12 land and groove, designated as .177, or Sterling, or Rudy's barrel on the targets)

Knowing the broad nature of this project before I ever received the gun in hand, I made a binder right at the beginning. The binder contains a bunch of those plastic folders, and a spiral notebook. All the tuning notes, impressions, general thoughts, etc. go in the spiral notebook, organized in sections by barrel, and all the targets go in the folders, organized by each barrel. Tuning notes also on each target to make it easier to replicate in the future, without needing to cross reference the tuning notes in the spiral notebook.

Sooooo, I've got some level of THIS, for each barrel....

Will try to present the stand-outs from each barrel in the order I listed the barrels above.

SubMOA 1:16 or 1.1:16

Bottom right here is 9 into a bit more than 1", with the tenth shot kind of ruining the group. 100 yards.

SubMOA 1:22 or 1.1:22

@ 50 yards

@ 19fpe

@ 100 yards

SubMOA 2.1:16

Slugs @ 100

SubMOA 2.1:22
@ 30 and 50 yards

@ 100 yards

OEM

Pellets @ 100 yards

Slugs @ 100 yards

Rudy's .177

Slugs @ 50 yards

Pellets were 1" groups @ 55 yards and 3/8" groups at 30 yards from Rudy's .177.


A couple general trends I noticed while compiling this...

• Best results from the 1:22 barrels and pellets were with 25.4grain in the 930-940 range. When using batches of known quality, plus the plenum reducer and the transfer port strangler, 100 yard cards are in the 225-235 range.
• 100 yard cards from the OEM barrel and pellets were mostly 220-230.

 

[Franklink]

Tried some AEA 21.9s and some JSB 25.4s through the 1:16 barrel yesterday afternoon. Experimented with 870-950 with the 21.9s and went from 850-930fps with the MRDs.

WInds were gusts into the low 30s mph, so not ideal conditions. Not calling it conclusive by any means, I mostly just wanted to shoot.

The high point was a ten shot group @ 50 from the 21.9s that went into about a 1" group. But it wouldn't do it again. Generally I was looking at 2" groups @ 50 yards and 5+ inch groups @ 100 yards. Seemed to have some curve balls and what-the-hells that weren't agreeing with the wind direction and intensity. But definitely need to put some pellets through the 1:16 in better conditions before I pass final judgement on that combo.

 

[duchunter007]

@Franklink, I have shot the AEA 21.9 in the wind, and it does not take much wind to start moving them around. The AEA 25.3 definitely performs much better in the wind, and it should do better since they weigh more. Great reviews on the Black Wolf, too!!