How good are the Sumatra 500 cc 25’s
I see the Sumatra 500 cc 25’s coming up for sale every once in while and that PA is going to have them in stock soon.
Anybody had one?
How reliable, how and where do you get them fixed if they break?
How accurate?
How hard do they shoot and do they shoot the 43 EJ’s well?
My Condor does not do the 43 grainers well, which is the main reason I got the 25 barrel, it does under an inch at 100 yards with Kings at 960 FPS, but that seems mild compared to the Sumatra 25.
Regards,
Roachcreek
All Replies
Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
I’m sure the Sumatra can be tuned and turned into a better gun. As far as I know, Will is the guy for the job.
What is not part of a tune is replacing flimsy levers and poor design. The fact is that the Sumatra uses a thin piece of stamped steel riding on floating pins to engage the cylinder and ratate it into position for the next shot. This bit of stamped steel has a very small engagement with the rear of the cylinder holes (Not a dedicated ratchet point on the cylinder). If anything impededs engagement with the rear of the chamber hole, the lever can bend. That means it won’t work properly (because it rubs in the housing and it’s on floating pins) or it won’t be long enough to engage for full travel. On the other side of the reciever is the spring loaded index pin. The pin engages the back of a chamber hole and keeps the cylinder in alignment at the end of the cocking stroke (it is retracted at the beginning of the stroke so the lever can rotate the cylinder). Obviously, this pin needs room at the end of the cylinder hole so it can seat. Suamatra has made sure there will be room for the lever to engage and the pin to seat by making the cylinder holes stepped, they are smaller at the back so a properly loaded pellet will never be flush with the back of the cylinder where it could interfere.
(As an aside, I expect Tom Gaylord is responsible for breaking a bunch of these guns. He posted a review and talked about loading from the rear of the cylinder which “sized” the pellets. It was remarkably stupid stuff coming from a guy who takes everything apart to see how it works… Putting pellets flush with the back of the cylinder is likely to jam the lever and keep the pin from aligning the cylinder for the bolt to push the pellet into the breech. And when you try to force things, then the gun gets broke quick.)
The Sumatra design works but it is fragile. If you have one and the cocking stroke doesn’t feel right, STOP, and see what’s wrong. The lever that rotates the cylinder will bend easily and cause future jams. The very first time a pellet slides forward and causes enough friction to interfere with rotating the cylinder, you could inadvertantly ruin the gun if you’re not careful.
I don’t like the design but if you are careful and know how it works, you could probably have it work fine for a very long time. If you’re not mechinically inclined and force the action just one time, well, you’re screwed.
have owned several .22 Sumatras and a .25 Carbine
mostly agree with what’s already been stated
my .25 did well with heavy pellets
okay now for the standard Riverside bitch-a-thon:
#1…extremely loud… Yes you can get moderators made to the Korean muzle thread, better yet get a 1/X adapter and run a decent can like a Ripley which is what I did with mine
#2…ergonomics stunk for me
#3…can be hit or miss on magazine rotation depending on gun
#4…probe fill which can be fixed by a Foster end fill adapter
#5…they have Jeeping styling…wish they left off the Gardy ass shit and just offered the frame in a flat black
#6…crummy sights
#7…less than impressive trigger
overall tho if you can scoop one up in the low $W’s they are a great buy!
parts & service?
William Piatt on the yellow does wonderful work on Sumatras, or so I have heard
no personal experience with his tunes
given a choice between say a .25 Marauder and a Sumatra in the same caliber I would go Korean
You can contact Will Piatt here: Saddle Mountain Gun Smith
He does excellent work on many air guns not just the Korean made. He’s handled 4 for me and will be handling two more in the near future. I speak from experience. He brought one used Air Gun I bought back from the brink of the grave. Impressive to say the least.
Sorry some of you don’t like the Korean made Air Rifles. To each their own, I guess.
The problem I’d have with a .25 Rainstorm, if such a creature does come into existence, is that it isn’t power adjustable on the fly *if* the .25 model stays in line with the .22 version. Not trying to reinvent the firearm, less is sometimes more and this is very true of Air Gunning and Air Gun Hunting.
Some of the indexing issues with Korean Air guns are aftermarket fix-ables. I’ve got a .22 Career Infinity with a can on it that I’ll put up against a Rainstorm any day of the week and twice on Sunday—except for shot count. But weight, balance, loudness (with the can applied) and accuracy? No, the Infinity out does it—-but this is after Will Piatt’s magic has been worked on it. Before, it didn’t index well and didn’t preform to it’s potential.
Regardless, I don’t go through the motions of turning up the Rainstorm I have. I’ve left it stock power. It’s simply not needed to do the job I apply it and I’m not out for high Chrony numbers that may or may not be overkill—I’m out for what is applicable to the given need. My Rainstorm, Infinity and Sumatra all have a good fits depending on the situation it is used.
But do give Will a try. I’m a repeat customer four times over and will be repeating at least 2 more times for the last two in my herd.
I was thinking more DAQ, you know big and ugly.
Regards,
Roachcreek
for those who don’t understand the Asian Jeepney aesthetic and how it relates to the Sumatra line…
I am reasonably certain this shit appeals to some folks into Korean AGs
me?
Nada…
too damn brite, flashy and 3rd world to me 🙄
RS,
Jeepney styling?
What a regional description. I refuse to ride on them, turning off headlights after dark and smoking like a burning tire.
Love it!
Yeah nobody but RS and I know what were talking about.
Right now all my money and effort is going for filing and attorney fees on a lawsuit in the PH, one of the reasons I have not postged much. It is hitting me for around 100 to 1500 a month, so airgun purchases are few and far between.
And yeah I am doing the sueing and know what I am doing.
Right now I am staying with my 25 Condor, Randy at RLAirguns is replacing the barrel after I made a single comment about it to him, I can’t believe he is doing that, and told him so, I have had it for 6 months, great service from Randy.
If I need a 25 repeater, I have decided I will opt for a Rainstorm 25 or a shrouded AR6 25 if they ever come out.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Roach…
have owned several .22 Sumatras and a .25 Carbine
mostly agree with what’s already been stated
my .25 did well with heavy pellets
okay now for the standard Riverside bitch-a-thon:
#1…extremely loud… Yes you can get moderators made to the Korean muzle thread, better yet get a 1/2×20 adapter and run a decent can like a Ripley which is what I did with mine
#2…ergonomics stunk for me
#3…can be hit or miss on magazine rotation depending on gun
#4…probe fill which can be fixed by a Foster end fill adapter
#5…they have Jeepney styling…wish they left off the gawdy ass shit and just offered the frame in a flat black
#6…crummy sights
#7…less than impressive trigger
overall tho if you can scoop one up in the low $300’s they are a great buy!
parts & service?
William Piat on the yellow does wonderful work on Sumatras, or so I have heard
no personal experience with his tunes
given a choice between say a .25 Marauder and a Sumatra in the same caliber I would go Korean
I had one and I did not like the ergonomics of it at all. The cocking lever was kind of small, and the cocking mechanism was very fragile. In fact I bent mine (and I found out that it is common) and it no longer functioned. I had to manually rotate the magazine. Was not very accurate, and it was extremely loud.
Jerry knows much more about these than I do. Perhaps he will chime in or contact him in a pm.
Joe
FYI, I do own a Sumatra 2500 .25 cal 500cc. It’s a tree branch in weight. But, one that has a LOT of leaves in an analogy to HPA reserve. You can get a tremendous amount of shots out of the HPA reservoir.
Nevertheless, mine, all Sumatras of the same make and model not being made equally, as no Air Gun really is, does NOT like the Eun Jin Pellets in 35.8gr. Fliers all over the place. I thought something was wrong with the pellet gun.
Nevertheless, not that I’ve tried a lot of pellets with it as I’m still making friends with it, it does seem to like the Beeman Crow Magnum at 25.23gr and the Beeman Silver Bear at 26.23gr. With these pellets this is an extremely accurate Air Rifle with impressive Chrony numbers. Turning the power wheel down to medium for a notable amount of shots gives the HPA in reserve a good bank of air to pull from. Turning up the power wheel doesn’t affect the zero of the scope as much as you might think it does.
However, it *is* powerful even at the medium setting. At 40 plus yards using the above stated pellets, unless you get one of those long body shots where the pellet enters the front or rear of a squirrel or vice versa, and exiting longways through the varmint, if it does exit, odds are that it’s still going to be a pass through shot and to me, that’s not my goal. Especially in cramped and close quarters. I take most of my small game here at or around 25 to 35 yards so pass through shots are not ideal here.
Regardless, the aforementioned are both hollow points and leave huge exit points of the varmint indicating the trauma value of these little pellets that do a very good job of expansion at POI.
I’ve recently purchased two tins of the .25 Polymag and haven’t even opened them yet and can’t wait to try them out. I have high hopes because of the weight factor at 26gr, it should take less HPA to push them to the target but have greater impact if not the same with less air than those I’m now using. Consider the thought and mind picture like this: A hollow point pellet with a point . . . That’s GOT to have better aerodynamics, better POI fur cutting ability and then, expand as well or better than a hollow point. Unless there is something wrong with my thinking on the subject?
But, the proof being in the pudding, I’ll have to try it out to see. As soon as I am able I’ll be out there shooting at SOMETHING that should tell me if I’m right but, right now, I’ll have to wait and try to be ready when Mr. Squirrel makes another appearance within my reach!
Some of the post on PA says they like the Eunjin pellets really well But i cant say seeing as how i dont own one the only korean gun i have is my 9mm and it shoots wonderful
Anybody had one?
How reliable, how and where do you get them fixed if they break?
How accurate?
How hard do they shoot and do they shoot the 43 EJ’s well?
My Condor does not do the 43 grainers well, which is the main reason I got the 25 barrel, it does under an inch at 100 yards with Kings at 960 FPS, but that seems mild compared to the Sumatra 25.
Regards,
Roachcreek
That gun well shoot the bigger stuff great , Sumatra is set up to go big and powerfull , i have the 22 and it shoots the 28-32g like a rocket !
you can also turn the power down and shoot those kings/lighter stuff good also , i really like mine
Pab,
I just like the idea of a powerful 25 repeater.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Not many barrels do the Eunjins well full stop. They seem to fly better at lower speeds, but thats not what you are looking for I guess..
I’d look for another pellet rather than try and find a rig to match those pellets.
Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Jerry, that’s remarkably good informaiton.
Simply outstanding.
Excellent post!
Thank you!