Happy day for me - I found my "missing" Hatsan Edge in .25 (Vortex), which had slipped behind a cabinet and was effectively "out of sight, out of mind".
For those who don't know them, they are very inexpensive but adult sized springers. They are handy and powerful, but suffer from two potential issues: 1. inconsistent Hatsan build quality and 2. poor triggers, which also suffer from a poorly shaped trigger blade.
But ultimately... So What?
In my opinion they are perfect utility rifles for the barn, back door or your truck. Take one fishing or camping. Throw a bunch of random targets out at random distances and have a ball learning your pellet drops. Get your kids or grandkids in on that too! Learn to tune springers on one. You get the point.
They even have perfectly decent sights which are suitable for the kind of things you'd likely be doing with such a rifle.
Whike I think that they would be best in .22 and with the Vortex gas ram (which sounds and feels great BTW), I have to say that mine is a lot of fun in .25 caliber. I think it's a pretty close second to the .22 version....
I'll give you the key points of this particular rifle:
Energy varies from 18fpe to just shy of 20fpe, in a linear progression from 34 grain to 20 grain lead pellets. All pellets feel tight in my barrel, except the Crow Magnums I have on hand. They feel normal.
Surprise! - the trajectory is not bad! 20 grain FTT's run at 665 fps and they don't really present any holdover problems for a while. I'm going to defer to Chairgun on this: with a 10/35 yard zero, max rise is 1 inch, and it drops to about 3 inches low at 50. Not a hot .177 for sure, but pretty usable within its range limitations.
FYI, that's 19.7 fpe at the muzzle, dropping down to 12 fpe at 50 yards. It has the same energy at 30 yards as an R9 does at the muzzle.
My trigger isn't so bad. I've owned others that were worse, with longer pulls etc. I wish it were a Quattro as on the 95 and others, though I'm not the biggest Quattro fan. I do wonder if a 95 would drop into an Edge stock. Easy trigger upgrade, right?
The head of the lock screw for the pivot bolt is too small to reach the head of the pivot bolt itself. Mine will need a good dose of LocTite to keep the pivot bolt snug, and it will get it.
But snugging it up takes just a slight twist of a screwdriver and results in a nice, evenly broad-bearing clamp from the fork, evidence of good machining geometry. That's big.
Mine has proven to be accurate and powerful at the 25 yard range where I last shot it. It was the only airgun there able to topple bowling pins at 25, though I had to shoot close to the top of the pin to get them to tip over, and even that didnt always work. But I could do so pretty easily, because its a good shooter.
I've never tried it on game, but I'm sure it can handle more than squirrels and starlings.
Here are some quick chrony numbers:
661fps 19.91 Vortex Supreme
665fps 20.06 H&N FTT
581fps 25.4 JSB Exact King. very consistent too - all 3 shots were 581.x
520fps 30.86 H&N Baracuda (extra tight fit)
493fps 33.95 JSB Exact King Heavy
568fps 26.24 H&N Crow Magnum
567fps 27.47 H&N Baracuda Hunter
I was surprised that there was no real energy fall off with the 31 & 34 grain pellets. The Vortex piston seems to shrug off differences in pellet weight. Its an older rifle - I wonder if it has one of the rebuildable gas rams as well....
Anyway, that was my big fun for the night. I'll try to get it the range when the weather breaks, possibly along side one of my Hatsan 125's in .25
For those who don't know them, they are very inexpensive but adult sized springers. They are handy and powerful, but suffer from two potential issues: 1. inconsistent Hatsan build quality and 2. poor triggers, which also suffer from a poorly shaped trigger blade.
But ultimately... So What?
In my opinion they are perfect utility rifles for the barn, back door or your truck. Take one fishing or camping. Throw a bunch of random targets out at random distances and have a ball learning your pellet drops. Get your kids or grandkids in on that too! Learn to tune springers on one. You get the point.
They even have perfectly decent sights which are suitable for the kind of things you'd likely be doing with such a rifle.
Whike I think that they would be best in .22 and with the Vortex gas ram (which sounds and feels great BTW), I have to say that mine is a lot of fun in .25 caliber. I think it's a pretty close second to the .22 version....
I'll give you the key points of this particular rifle:
Energy varies from 18fpe to just shy of 20fpe, in a linear progression from 34 grain to 20 grain lead pellets. All pellets feel tight in my barrel, except the Crow Magnums I have on hand. They feel normal.
Surprise! - the trajectory is not bad! 20 grain FTT's run at 665 fps and they don't really present any holdover problems for a while. I'm going to defer to Chairgun on this: with a 10/35 yard zero, max rise is 1 inch, and it drops to about 3 inches low at 50. Not a hot .177 for sure, but pretty usable within its range limitations.
FYI, that's 19.7 fpe at the muzzle, dropping down to 12 fpe at 50 yards. It has the same energy at 30 yards as an R9 does at the muzzle.
My trigger isn't so bad. I've owned others that were worse, with longer pulls etc. I wish it were a Quattro as on the 95 and others, though I'm not the biggest Quattro fan. I do wonder if a 95 would drop into an Edge stock. Easy trigger upgrade, right?
The head of the lock screw for the pivot bolt is too small to reach the head of the pivot bolt itself. Mine will need a good dose of LocTite to keep the pivot bolt snug, and it will get it.
But snugging it up takes just a slight twist of a screwdriver and results in a nice, evenly broad-bearing clamp from the fork, evidence of good machining geometry. That's big.
Mine has proven to be accurate and powerful at the 25 yard range where I last shot it. It was the only airgun there able to topple bowling pins at 25, though I had to shoot close to the top of the pin to get them to tip over, and even that didnt always work. But I could do so pretty easily, because its a good shooter.
I've never tried it on game, but I'm sure it can handle more than squirrels and starlings.
Here are some quick chrony numbers:
661fps 19.91 Vortex Supreme
665fps 20.06 H&N FTT
581fps 25.4 JSB Exact King. very consistent too - all 3 shots were 581.x
520fps 30.86 H&N Baracuda (extra tight fit)
493fps 33.95 JSB Exact King Heavy
568fps 26.24 H&N Crow Magnum
567fps 27.47 H&N Baracuda Hunter
I was surprised that there was no real energy fall off with the 31 & 34 grain pellets. The Vortex piston seems to shrug off differences in pellet weight. Its an older rifle - I wonder if it has one of the rebuildable gas rams as well....
Anyway, that was my big fun for the night. I'll try to get it the range when the weather breaks, possibly along side one of my Hatsan 125's in .25
