Edgun Matador vs Theoben Rapid
Good evening everyone,
My name is Ben, and I reside in South Africa.
This forum has been a wealth of information regarding the Edgun Matador, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading the various posts regarding this phenomenal air rifle.
Due to its increasing popularity and the numerous reviews speaking so highly of it, I ordered one.
I’m currently anxiously awaiting its arrival. But alas, it seems that I have come to an impasse regarding my decision.
I was lucky enough in the sense that the dealer of Edguns in my country has ordered a bunch of Matadors, thus negating the need to place a deposit. Furthermore, I was in the fortunate position that I phoned early enough to secure a place on this most exclusive list.
So what’s the problem, you may ask? Well in short…Theobens.
The importer of Theoben in my country is offering a fully regulated and gauged MK2 Rapid for approx. $700 less than a Matador. It’s brand new with the Theoben aftermarket reg and gauge pre-installed at the factory. The caliber is .20.
My questions are as follows:
1. Considering the price, is the Theoben a better choice?
2. The dealer was advocating the .20 as a better long range caliber than .22. Is this the case? I’m interested since I plan to use the rifle at ranges in excess of 60yrds.
3. I went to view a Theoben next to a Matador, and the finish on the Theoben left me wanting. Essentially it looked unfinished. The Matador looked much better. Is Theoben’s quality control slipping? Does the Theoben require some “assembly” before reaching its full potential?
Seeing that no deposit was placed, I have no financial obligation to take the Edgun. The dealer won’t be put out in the cold either, since if I don’t take the Matador, there would definitely be someone else interested.
I would like to thank everyone in advance for any input and advice provided.
Kindest regards,
Ben.
All Replies
$3526 for a fully modded AZ Rapid on Yellow forum today.Nice gun no doubt .25cal Edgun no mods vs. extra $1300 ????not for sale he had just got it back from tune
great shape. i can be reached at drjmglover@yahoo.com
welcome to the mad house Big :thumb:
… but dude…. we get it,you love your .22 and you’re looking for a .25 :horse:
best bet would be to get ahold of toshik here on the forum and get on the list……
the constant posting an “i want add” in other threads is becoming border line spam 😉
Hi everyone im looking fo a 25 cal matador and will pay top price for one in
great shape. i can be reached at drjmglover@yahoo.com
I looked into buying a Rapid. I talked to Allen Z, a renowned Rapid tuner and he told me that the stock Rapid needed a lot of work to make it into a really good air gun. He told me about all of the places that had sloppy fits and other places that would leak air.
He charges around $700 US to go thru a new Rapid before he will send it out.
You don’t see any posts about a good shooting Rapid unless it has been tuned by someone! A stock Matador will shoot at least as good as a tuned Rapid. Just ask Kazz!
I was OK with the extra $700 US to have a Rapid tuned by a master. He then tried to sell me his full length shroud (extra money on top of the $700)…
I had almost the same talks with AZ and I also chose to go the EDgun way. I’m still waiting eagerly for my .25 R3 Standard I am very curious to find out how the accuracy of a 75 cm (30″) gun compares to a ‘normal’ length rifle. If they are the same, I’d much prefer the Bullpup format.
🙂
BigB, welcome aboard and welcome to the Edgun owners club!
I looked into buying a Rapid. I talked to Allen Z, a renowned Rapid tuner and he told me that the stock Rapid needed a lot of work to make it into a really good air gun. He told me about all of the places that had sloppy fits and other places that would leak air.
He charges around $700 US to go thru a new Rapid before he will send it out.
You don’t see any posts about a good shooting Rapid unless it has been tuned by someone! A stock Matador will shoot at least as good as a tuned Rapid. Just ask Kazz!
I was OK with the extra $700 US to have a Rapid tuned by a master. He then tried to sell me his full length shroud (extra money on top of the $700) and I told him that I didn’t want it, I planned on making the tuned Rapid into a bull pup and the full length shroud would get in the way of the needed air bottle/scope rail mounts that I would have to have made. He wanted to know why I wanted to make a bull pup out of a tuned Rapid?
I told him that I have had a few regular stocked air guns and I that like bull pups much better. I told him about my Matadors and the 22 cal FX ST barrel Royale 400 that I made into a bull pup. That really set him off!
He started going off about how he has shot a couple of Matadors and that they weren’t accurate, were hard to hold, didn’t have a magazine, didn’t have the weight to be steady for off hand shots and Bla Bla Bla.
It just really turned me off on buying a Rapid! Rant over.
You won’t ever think about selling your Matador unless you have come upon dire straights in your life or you have just got a newer version Matador in! Either way, you will at least recover your initial cost and will probably come out ahead!
You will never do that with a Rapid!
Welcome to the nut house!
Leave the bloody thing alone!! 😛 😛
I got the screw loose…with some effort,
I was astounded at the level of craftsmanship I found once I removed the stock. The rifle is impeccably manufactured, and well worth the price.
The stock had some rough edges on the inside, which I sanded with p1200, being afraid it might damage the finish on the cylinder tube. A fear misplaced after closely examining the rifle. Wow, that finish on the tube is freaking superb!
Anyway, after lightly sanding I treated the wood with some Schaftol. It looks amazing! The character in the wood seems more prominent now. It made me think: “why not sand the whole stock lightly with p1200, and then treat with Schaftol?”.
Do you think this wise?
Any custom built gun will outsell a mass produced gun hands down.
I love that Edgun and have never had one in my hands or seenn one in real life. Nardly anyone around here has seen a Marauder-P They all use Powder burners, I use airguns because of the lack of regulations, you can carry it on any road and “it’s and airgun”.
Quackenbush Ed and a few other that make guns, acctually loose money. The buyer Mostly resells them for a huge profit, I directed Mr Quackenbush by mail of this happening, My advise was make one and sell it. That way the highest bidder got it, and couldn’t afford to resell it, the Quackenbush Mentioned was sold for $700+ dollars from Quackenbush, and resold for $1200+ Dollars that could have lead to his send in a letter and I’ll draw names scenario”Not Sure”, I am also a Musician and have owned 3 Martin Guitars and I must say the H-90 Hohner I have now will out ring all 3 of them and I saved $3000 plus dollars by buying the Hohner, I also Own a Gallagher Guitar 12 fret that will put them all to shame. Point is the martin dealor got a little hot when I told him my Hohner was a better Guitar, and said why isnt Hohners all over all the walls of the music stores of they are that good? My Reply??? Because people are buying them,,, A Martin will out sell a hohner but you’ll loose about $30 on the hohner verses loosing $1000 on the Martin.
So it boils down to are you going to keep it or just buying it because of the Name or price? You can buy an entire set of Marauds for less than the Ed, but then as one Poster said, depends on what you’re going to do with it.
Hunting? ED,,,,,,,) Target?,,,,,,)Ed price?,,,,well it’s your pocket book.
That Ed has all the qualities if you can afford it, I was wanting one myself and still do, but when I didn;t get one and can’t even register on the Yellow where they are sold, in less than a day, I recon I’ll keep my entire set of Marauds and Airforce Airguns till the Cows come home, I shoot Bee’s off of targets at 40+ yards so It don’t gett any better than that. And the SS is a dream to carry in the woods, and the shrouds keep it quiet in the yard,.
I threw the Guitar Part in to show some things that sell high are not anything but a name,,, But the Ed IMHO is the best gun, “”But”” if I hhave to sell one I wont loose a lot of money out of my own arsenal, and I’ll still be shooting cause I’ll still have guns to shoot. One Ed, sell it, and your shooting days are over. Thats the only difference. To date I have never had to sell an airgun, but sold high dollar guitars, But the difference is just because they cost a lot don’t mean they are worth it, it just means there are more demand for it. If Ed was made in the shops here in the USA $650 would probably take one home, or you caould get all 3 calibers cheeper than you can buy one from Export,, the fees are what you’re dealing with here in the USA. To sum it up, Buy the Ed if you can live with it, if you can’t go to Plan -B 😀 😀 😀
Thanks a bunch for the reply.
Ha! Yes, I am turning anti-clockwise… ;P
I noticed that the allen key that I was using was slightly worn, and not making complete contact with the hex on the screw head. I used the long arm of the L-shaped allen key for greater leverage, but noticed that it bended slightly when torque was applied. The bending was more that I have ever noticed when using allen keys previously.
I’m going to purchase a new one and try again.
The screw can be undone as many times as you want. You don’t need to replace it each time.
Unscrewing a screw shouldn’t damage anything, tightening it too much can crack the wood.
are you sure you are doing it the right way? (anti-clockwise)
There shouldn’t be any loctite on the teigger guard screw, as i is meant to be removed several times for maintenance, it should be easily removed.
I would suggest you try a bit harder and it should eventually give up.
However i can’t take any responsability on the outcome.
Use the proper tools, and a right lever that will make the effort almost inexistent.
Last thing, once you manage to do it, when you put things back together, tighten the screw just slightly.
Just a quick question if I may:
I tried removing the wood today, but found the screw holding the trigger guard to the stock, and the stock to the action for that matter, to be extremely tight.
I tried carefully applying torque up to the point where I felt it to be unsafe applying more to remove it. Is this normal? I don’t think I harmed the screw, since I was extremely careful not to apply more than that was needed to remove the screw holding the stock to the action of an Air Arms s410.
Are the screws on the Edgun intended to be replaced every time you remove them? Much like the screws used in a engine? I.e. you torque them once during assembly. but can be used again after that?
Thanks again!
Check Youtube under Edgun and you’ll find Ed has done some English language videos on the important stuff.
I tried to translate the owner’s manual, but Youtube has the info you’ll need.
There was no dvd with either of mine.
Put some optics on that gun that will do it justice. Ted in Madison, who is not of this planet…but came here on a mission of mercy to teach the ignorant about mildots and trajectory stuff, has a Hawke and it’s a big boy…I think 6-25X or close to that. He had to wear sunglasses on his earlier Youtube posts because his home planet had drop shipped his Earth Eyeballs and they got lost inroute. Apparently his backups arrived and he now does Youtubes without the shades. More on this later.
JSB 18.1gr were what the gun was designed to shoot. Deviate at your own risk of accuracy loss.
You cannot be from the U.S. because you received an Edgun. Wherever you are from, welcome, visit often and post pics of good looking women from your native country. Pics of dead stuff, with holes shot through them, and gun pics are welcome too.
There are some on here that say I am not right in the head. Perhaps. Others will post stuff, so you can bounce my facts off their fiction and see how it all plays out.
Kindest regards,
‘Ol Uncle H 😯 😯 T
PS: Another R2.5 for sale over on the Yellow. $2400….says that’s what he’s got in it. If any of you buy it, be sure to tell him to leave the $2400 inside, or the deal is off.
I just want to thank everyone for the kind advice and assistance.
I’m now the proud owner of a standard Matador in 5.5mm. Serial: 0011.
The serial number would suggest it was one of the first r3’s manufactured. According to the manual, if I understand the Russian correctly, it was manufactured in September of last year (2011).
Is it customary for a DVD to be included with the manual? I did not find one attached.
The craftsmanship is exemplary. I do not yet have a scope mounted, but will do so in due time. I’m dying to put it through its paces. The rifle shoulders extremely well, and I’m certain this will contribute to the soon to be observed accuracy. I find the handling to be spectacular. The rifle feels part of you, instead of constantly reminding you that you are holding something.
According to the test target at the back of the manual it fires 18.1gr pellets at 279 m/s. At 50m it fires 7 pellets practically through the same hole with the 8th, 9th and 10th grouping about 5mm to the left, right and bottom of the 7-sshot hole respectively. I’m certain this can be further improved as well.
Oh…and the wood? It’s beautiful and full of character.
I will try and post pics as soon as possible, but my arm is in a sling due to a torn pectoral. Thus, I cannot yet relieve the tremendous amount anxiety to mount a scope and fire it. I swear this is worse than the pain in my shoulder.
Thanks yet again,
BigB.
P.S.I accidentally posted this in the wrong thread…. So sorry, but please forgive the double post.
Every time I put the crosshairs on a target, a hole appeared there. Every time. At one point I was pruning bagworm infested twigs off 100 foot trees from my deck. A thick limb took four shots. One at the top, one bottom and two in the middle. I was shaving leaves in half…sideways. This was two or three years ago and I posted pictures. They are probably gone by now.
You can use this video :
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Good evening everyone.
I just want to thank everyone yet again for all the advice given.
I’m still anxiously awaiting the removal of my sling so that I can finally mount a scope on my new Edgun and properly test it.
In the last couple of weeks I’ve been fondling my new toy much like an over eater would a tub of ice cream he keeps in the freezer below the health food. He can’t eat it, but keeps it there…close by….sometimes stroking it…lovingly…
Whilst carefully examining my Matador (since that is all I practically do), I noticed some small imperfections in the wood (tool marks I suppose, they have been sanded out, so not to be felt, but definitely still visible) and in the finish on the metal of the receiver. The receiver seems to be blued as opposed to being anodized.
In short the bluing seems very thin. It’s almost as if the metal is starting to shine through. I also noticed some dents in the metal. The dents seem to be blued, so they did not happen after bluing.
There seems to be a lot of blemishes in the bolt finish as well. It is not polished to the same standard that I have come to expect from other manufacturers.
I don’t want to blow anything out of proportion. The marks are small, and to most people probably insignificant. I also realize that this rifle is hand built, and small foibles are part of the appeal. I guess what I mean to say is that I did not expect to find so many imperfections. Daystates and Steyers are around the same price as the Edgun, and I can’t recall finding as many blemishes on the samples I inspected.
It’s not my intention to start an argument with the previous statement. I do realize each manufacturer carries an unique set of merits. I did not purchase the rifle so that it can be put on display. The Edgun was built to perform. I get that. That’s why I bought it, I just want to inquire whether anyone else has experienced something similar with their Edguns in terms of finish, so that I can know whether or not I got a “Friday” rifle.
On a totally different note, in terms of optics, what is the minimum magnification you would recommend for shooting at 100m? Not competitively, but for fun. I’ve only shot past 70m a couple of times, and each time I cranked the scope up to 14x on my S410. Since that rifle was sold to fund the Edgun, I don’t have a reference frame to compare anymore.
Thanks a bunch!