Some good ole’ Dragon Slayer 454 fun (target practice)

Gonna turn each and every one of my airguns into tackdrivers. ONE x ONE…..lol! This months theme? The Dragon Slayer 454.

Tuning:
This is an old but a favorite gun of mine. Did even more tuning on the Dragon Slayer about 5 months ago and the DS is maxed out so far at 254 FPE using Jerry’s Raptor slugs @ 227.1 grs. When i killed my first “AIRGUN” hog with the Dragon Slayer and Raptors, it was pushing them roughly 670 FPS with some good accuracy. Jerry’s Raptors and Hornady Roundballs have always been top performers as well as the Mark Whyte 175 gr SWC bullet. My 1st mods (many moons ago) on the OEM DS50 had taken the gun from 610 FPS with 175 gr/.490″ RB to about 690 FPS or so. Then I went in for more mods and went from 690+- to right at 710 FPS. 2 mod sessions had taken me from 145 FPE (175 gr @ 610 FPS) to over 195 FPE (175 gr @ 710 FPS). I then decided that ammo was much too hard to find in .498 cal (bore diameter+-) and that a caliber switch would be the best option. In came the .454 cal IDEA. After talking to my machinist, he agreed to do the work and said it would be easy and I scoured Track of the Wolf website to buy the 454 barrel. I decided to stick with a 24″ barrel as 20″ is the size of the OEM 50 cal barrel. This way, the gun would stay proportional and would balance well. After the barrel came in, I sent both barrels to my machinist. It did not take him long at all to machine the barrel. After he machined the barrel and mailed it off to me, i had already purchased some 454 cal Hornady (my favorite ammo co.) and set off to chrony the gun in the garage. I was amazed at the outcome. Right off the bat, the 141 gr RB were doing well over 800 FPS. After the initial field test, the conclusion was the accuracy was amazing with RB’s. I’ve even turned the DS into a SEPARATE side cocking/loading action.

Jerry Boyenga (SureFire Casting):
I met Jerry over the NET years ago and promptly ordered some of his bullets. I bought his RAPTORS in .454 cal. When i received them, i was amazed at the LOOK of the bullet. Very clean lines with a deadly meplat nose. I then took the Raptors into my garage to chrony them out of my new DS454 and i was getting roughly 670+ FPS for 220+ FPE! I also weighed his bullets according to what he wrote on the plastic baggie and they were dead on. The gun had now gone from a 145 FPE 50 cal gun to OVER 220 FPE in 454 caliber with some mods and a barrel swap. The gun at 50 yards could still group 3 of the Raptors into a clover leaf which is all i could ever ask for. It did shoot the Roundballs in 454 cal just a little tighter at this speed. That’s 2 great projectiles. 1, a cheap practice round and the other, a deadly hunter with plenty of accuracy and impact.

NOW:
I’ve now taken the mods as far as i can go. Without going into the modifications, the gun as of today shoots SureFires 227.1 gr Raptors at 710 FPS from a 3100 PSI fill and i can shoot 5 shots into a very tight cluster. The gun is now at 254+ FPE and it will do it from 3000-3100 psi fills. It will also NOW shoot the Hornady 141 gr/454 cal RB’s at 910 FPS! And for those of you asking, YES, I get OVER 2 shots per fill. More than 3 also…..lol

Accuracy:
I will say this now and say it again later, the Dragon Slayer is and always HAS BEEN a damned accurate gun. Big Bore or otherwise. It’s a big bore who thinks and groups like a small bore. Well, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN” you ask?!
Pictures are worth a 1000 words

VIDEO:
Me out with the DS454 about 2-3 weeks ago shooting the Raptors exclusively. The video and all the footage was not completed but, I was able to come up with ENOUGH footage for everyone to get the point of how accurate the gun is now