EDgun Leshiy

All in one place 🙂

This model of the gun, for today is the record for EDgn company in making gun from the project to the ready to shoot sample. Early morning of 2nd of January I left my home for my technology engineer’s home (1.4 thousand km away) to make a new project together. For just three days, from scratch, this gun was projected. This is ideal way, to my opinion, when the designer and the technologist are sitting together in one place and make the project. There is no necessity of the coordination by Skype of e-mail, maximum result in the minimum time. This gun was projected after Lelya 2.0 and Matador R4, thus we had such an experience already. Besides we understand each other without any words sometimes.

After four days of heavy and exhausting work we looked at the monitor and, breathing out just could say “That is shit genius!”. The name of the gun appears in my head immediately Leshiy (wood goblin), as this is a kind of survival gun, means made for forest, unpretentious, inconspicuous. And no any name can be used for it since that

I returned back home with the feeling I made a great work. While on the way back I invented few small things to improve it, we discussed it in Skype and Igor’ began to make the drawings for the production department. That is very nice that we planned to take some CNC machines out of the main production just to make samples. That helped us a lot in this case. I set the task for the production department to give me the sample towards the middle of February as I wanted to take it to IWA 2016. They were in a success and in the middle of February the samples were ready and Igor’ just grabbed them and took the plane to me to assemble them together. The details of Leshiy were being galvanized in the morning and the same evening Igor was at my house with them.

The very next morning we began to assemble it. As with any prototype we had some problem while assembling it but mainly due to the lack of some specific O-rings or springs, no problem with the design of the gun. It words perfectly.

Towards 6 o’clock PM I managed to make this short video to show people in production department who were hard working for the whole month to achieve that result.

Leshiy it is conceptual new gun. The first idea was to make a kind of survival gun. Means the gun which has minimum details, which is always ready to shoot, which is not afraid of mud, sand, coldness or heat, which will work everywhere and all the time. That is why I came to the idea that it doesn’t need the breech, the bolt. The ideal way to have the air blowing to the skirt of the pellet directly. To make it more effective in the way of air consumption it was necessary to avoid any turn of air on the way from valve to the pellet. Thus the valve should be turned over for 180 degrees.

Then I realized that the ideal way would be to fix the reservoir to the back part of the gun. In fact I “invented” Talon :). But it didn’t meet my requirement to the concept of the survival gun, compact and powerful. But what if the tank could fold? Bingo! That is what I need, compactness, and always ready to shoot.

Next I have just details which stringer to the main concept.

The fixing of the moderator. First of all I wanted to follow the scheme I use at Matador R4 or Lelya 2.0. That was a perforated sleeve on the breech of the barrel and tightening nut at the end of the barrel, through the moderator. We looked at that from different points but failed to get it compact. The guns just grew up in the width because of the hinge of the stock. Then I remembered that I got some problems with Matadors which were before R3, those one with two eight-shaped clamps, like at modern Crickets now. I got the problem with the chokes under those clamps at they squeezed the barrel tightly. So I got two chokes along the pellet movement through the barrel. So, I thought what if I will install a kind of clamp at the end of the barrel to fix it? That is what I needed! We take choke free barrel. Fix it by its end, get the light choke by squeezing it with the clamp, that will improve the accuracy but will allow to use any heavy pellets which “doesn’t like” choke. And the guns stay slim! Plus to that there is no thread on the barrel, both at the beginning and the end that makes its inside surface smoother. Such a design of barrel fix plus to bolt free concept of the gun allows to change the caliber of the gun from .177 up to .25 not touching any other parts of the gun. To align the barrel at the breech are there is a plastic sleeve.

I was thinking a lot about the length of the barrel. We got 200 mm at the prototype, that wasn’t enough. But what should we do with the size of the gun as there is a task to have it no longer then 350 mm while folded? Offset moderator, of course! Like I tested at the previous models already. Thus it allow us to install 250 mm length of the barrel that gives us quite good work of the moderators as well. Calling it quite good I am quite humble, as usually :). New moderator, with the new design of the baffles gives us very good result of sound suppressing.

As the barrel is 250 mm one shouldn’t expect phenomenal results, you have to consider it in a real way. But you can see at this video that the speed of the pellets and the energy is quite good for this small gun as well as the accuracy. Take into consideration that I used 4 magnification scope with thick reticle, that didn’t allow me to see the target clearly.

You can see also how the barrel can be changed.

As I refused of our traditional way of fixing the moderator by the tightening nut so I decided to make it even simplier. As that is offset moderator it means it can take only one position if it has two toeholds. The first one is the end of the barrel which the moderator is set on. The second is the ouside diameter of the moderator which is installed inside the tube of the gun body. So, just tight it with the cap from one side to fix it. By the way that give you chance to have longer barrel. Just install the 100 mm tube inside the body of the gun, the moderator will set to this tube and inside the outside tube with the came cap. As the gun has possibility to change the caliber the wholes in the moderator are made for .25 caliber.

Here is just third changing of the barrel in my life, with on experience in it.

That is first hunting with it.

Many countries require the safty for the guns. It is not difficult to put it into any scheme of the gun. The manufacturers usually use the simpliest way, to block the trigger. I decided to go the other way, to block the sear, to guaranty the gun will not shot. Thus the safety blocks the sear. One can put it on safety mode bay hand or if you fold the butt/reservoir completely it is set to safety automatically. The gun can be set to the safety mode only being cocked. The movement of the safety is short, one can hear the click while using it. The way it is located is comfortable too – at the end of the index finger.

Unfortunately I had to refuse of great working revolving hammer and return to line moving hammer due to the size of the gun. But it is quite confortable to use. You can even uncock it without folding the butt/reservoir.

The trigger is not regulated no by the length of the movement no by the power (that is survival gun) but I considered important to install the stopper of the trigger movement after the hammer goes, that will influence to the accuracy in a good way. Besides it is possible to install there the screw with the spring-loaded head to simulate the “step” at the last stage of movement the trigger.

We got the problem with the fixing the screw of the hammer spring. Due to the size of the gun I failed to install there normal locknut. The new way, to my opinion, should be welcomed by the users. That is ratchet with the spring-loaded ball. One can calculate clicks while adjusting the spring, and it sounds so “sexy” 🙂 Besides one has access to it without necceserety to disassemble the gun.

I decided to make the butt very “aggressive” with big and sharp “clogs” to catch any garment. Installing the rubber butt pads I considered as way out of the survival gun 🙂

The butt has a feature of the clevis, which is comfortable to use to fix the gun to any part of your equipment, bag pack etc.

The gun is equipped with the regulator but no gauge. As the reservoir is small, just 54 cm3 to install the gauge there would take volume(we cannot make it longer). So, you can pump the up to 300 bar, using your standard tank and you will hear when the regulator is off by the sound of the shot. Time to pump it again!
No doubt due to the small volume of the reservoir one shouldn’t expect any fantastic number of shots from the fill. The main idea of this gun was to make few accurate shots but not to plink for gun. At the first test I got 12 shots from 250 bar filled in the gun. I used JSB King, 1.645 grams (25 grain) and the speed of the pellet was 225 m/sec (738 f/sec). The everage air consumption was 9.7 cm3/Jole. Then I changed some parameters and got 18 shot with the same speed from the same filling pressure, that makes the air consumption equal to 7.5 cm3/Jole. That is not bad I think.

At video above you can see three different calibers shot. I didn’t readjusted either hammer spring tension or regulator set, just changed the barrel. I think there are some reserves for making it better.

I can tell for sure that I got no questions to the design of Leshiy after I first assembled it, the design was considered completely successful from the point of view of manufacturing and working as it was devised. Anyhow while testing that for few weeks and listening to the people at IWA 2016 I made more then 30 changes in Leshiy which will just improve it.

At the beginning I got an idea to have open sights but since the axis of the eye view is to hight above the gun I refused that idea. I decided to sell it with the new EDgun scope 5×20 which I just began to design and expect the samples to test within couple of months.
I decided to pack it in the waterproof hard plastic case, that meets the main concept of the gun as the gun of survival. You can see it here:

Some other feature you should like

In general, to my opinion, the gun is not just doomed to be successful but it gives the new way of development of PCP airguns like it did in the past Matador and Lelay. I am sure completely that there will not be any indifferent people to this gun as there were not at IWA show, that was the gun which was quite difficult to find at the shelf. It was always in somebody’s hands 🙂 The only words I hear about it at IWA “When?” and only after that “How much?” in this turn 🙂

I expect to have first 500 guns to be ready in July. I opened the booking for it in Russia few days ago and about 240 guns are booked now out of 500. So, for those who has a EDgun representative in your countires apply to them to book, for those who has not – write me directly in feedback from http://www.edgun.com

As the gun is multi caliber while preordering you should ask the main caiber (it will be engraved on the body of the gun) and what caliber and how many additional barrels.

I didn’t set the price yet, so I can just put in the waiting list. No deposits should be taken for booking. When I know the price I will inform about it seperatly. But it will not be cheap, due to the way it is made, only CNC machines, no casting nothing, solid, robust, reliable.