Drozd Blackbird

I needed a indulgence gap filler to take the edge off my anticipation while waiting for the Haley .257 Scadalous, so I bought something I have wanted for a couple of years, the Drozd Black Bird.

A few years ago I had the little yellow Bumble Bee. I had seen them in catalogues and was tempted, but never acted on my impulse until a friend who trades a lot of guns got one in trade. Soon it was mine and I had a lot of fun with it and shared that experience with friends and family who all loved it.

But the little Yellow Bumble Bee had its faults and limitaions. It had to be fed often having only a 30 round magazine and only got 60 shots at most on a CO2 cylinder, the last few shots barely making it out the barrel, it took a long time to feed it and it was very finicky in 12 gram cartridge length even though I only used premium CO2 cartridges.

It was supposed to be getting 450 FPS, and I don’t doubt it, for it would bury BB’s a 1/4 inch into old dry fir deck railing. It was also more accurate than I remembered my old Red Rider of my distant childhood had been.

Alas I sold it.

Last week I succumbed to the urge to get the next generation, or maybe two generations later, the motorized magazine Blackbird.

I bought it from DrozdMax on line and had the 1200 RPM “wild Chip” put in, the Sergy board was unavailable, I doubt I would have paid the extra bucks for that option anyway which it is alledged to give 2000 RPM.

I got the male HPA nipple to replace the CO2 option which I have no use for at all. I have a Mako regulator I use for tethered shooting, so it seemed like a cheaper option, $100.00 cheaper than the 13/3000 regulated paint ball bottle.

I got it yesterday late, after dark, but I got it up and running, put a BSA laser on it and went to shooting. First thing I noticed is that it shot hard, although I was using only AA’s, it raised sparks up in the driveway shooting plastic bottles. The magazine was easy to fill with what is said to be a 900 BB capacity, the motor in the magazine whirs like a mini gun when you turn the power on.

The magazine has a plug in line that plugs into the gun and the 6 AA battery system powers it.

The “Wild Chip” changes the Blackbird from 1-3-6 shot options to 1-3-1200 rpm full auto option. DrozdMax installs these, I also opted for the full tune which is $75.00 and they go completely thru the gun, tune it and change out a few parts and add a rare earth magnet to the alignment system to overcome a embarassing factory flaw of BB’s rolling out the barrel.

This morning I fine tuned the laser and shot it for penetration on wet fir 2’X8’s, accuracy at 10 yards and shot it over the chrony.

Shooting over the chrony at 5 feet the Blackbird averaged 619 FPS with the Daisy zinc BB’s, which are the ones that are recomended, DrozdMax was very specific in not using the Copper clad BB’s. I was surprised by 619 FPS, becuase I am using just the AA’s, if I raised the voltage to 15 volts, I would be able to gain 20 FPS or if I got a longer smoothbore barrel which it is said gives some shooters up to 900 FPS.

That 619 FPS velocity translates 4.35 FPE and power to enough penetration on wet doug fir 2×8’s so that the BB’s are flush with the surface on a slanted board at 15 feet. Wet Doug fir is tough, so I have no doubt that it would penetrate the 1.5 inches in flesh that Chairgun states.

I then stepped off 10 yards and shooting with just the laser and no bags, I got a 10 shot group of 1.15, and a 3 shot burst group of 5/8 inch and a 5 shot burst group of 1 inch. The burst groups may have been a fluke, I shot them thinking I was on the single fire selector, but that was what they were. This was not a stable shooting platform and the laser was difficult to see, I think the 10 shot group would have been better under different circumstances, but this is how I have it set up for now.

My barrel is the stock barrel that is short and it is rifled, oddly enough smooth bore barrel are said to give better accuracy, but I was pleased on how it shot, garden slugs here in western Oregon are fairly easy to stalk, and that is the intended use for this rat a tat tat.

Now bad points. UPS was concerned they may have damaged the package, no, say it ain’t true, and right at where the rear sight was in the box, there was a big noticable dent in the box.

I changed out the open sight blade for the peep sight blade and broke the rear sight leaf in the process. It broke at where the screw for elevation goes thru, it is very thin there and plastic, so it could have been UPS or it could be a combination of me being ham fisted and the part being fragile. But I really was not putting much force on it, so who knows, if I put another sight on it it will be a red dot in additon to the laser, so I am in no hurry to replace that leaf though I will mention it to DrozdMax and see what they think. Not enough to file a claim with UPS for sure.

Either way I need another one as the laser is really hard to see.

This gun is NOT backyard friendly, I live on 11 acres and we all shoot around here, but the noise pattern is distinctly that of a machinegun and nervous neighbors would most likely call the coppers if rat a tat tats are not legal where you live.

The little gun really chews up potatoes and garden slugs and has had no jams or malfunctions in about 1000 shots so far.

I love it the way it is, but I have ordered the adapter to change the HPA tethered option I am using to a 13/3000 paintball bottle which is said to give you around 300 shots before a refill is needed. I will need to relieve the the stock with my dremel for the bottle to fit.

It is just a tad bit clumsy with a bottle in a pack. In the meantime I will use my leather skills to make a belt pouch for the Pygmy as I will use it for the Haley if I decide to go coyote calling.

Regards,

Roachcreek