My Matador R5 just landed…
Yes. Title says it all. My R5 in .30 cal just landed safely in my hands. I always wanted to go high-power but so far the choice was pretty limited here in EU. Please don’t tell me one brand or another… after owning several PCPs from several manufacturers I simply wanted an EdGun, period! And short R5 (officially named as Standard) seems to be my ‚dream come true’ .30 high power airgun. Well… so far I’m delighted. I’ll play with her a bit in coming days, try couple of pellets, try another 1 or 2 scopes, and (of course) you can expect some photos in this thread soon. And after some time maybe also a review? Who knows… but for now quick and dirty ‚unboxing’ kind of picture of my R5 on my desk. Yeah!
My first scope of choice is Vortex Diamondback Tactical 3-9×40, which is lightweight, compact, good glass, good reticle and very good target turrets. So it fits my small R5 perfectly. Parallax is set at 100m… and well, that’s exactly what I need. It’s not a backyard gun after all! 100m seems to be just right for that sniping machine. Can’t wait to try her out…
It’s a beast! The most beautiful beast I’ve ever handled! And it handles amazingly well!
:4:
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Piter,
I asume you did not select the pelets.
With that in the back of my mind, the results are not bad.
The top shooters in the 100meter competition in my country AL select their pelets.
The weight diference can be severe.
Try differend batches of differend years if possible.
If you want match grade results you have to have match grade ammo.
There is a lot to win, especialy in the .30 cal.
Regards, Robert.
kris, I am quite sure it will shoot tighter, but:
1. please take weather into account
2. I take ALL shots into account. I could easily say “look, 4 shots almost perfect and the last one was a flyer” (as some guys do) but that would be unfair. So even if one shot opens the group… it’s still counted
I need to make an appointment at a range nearby, where they offer indoor 100m but it’s just one stand and it needs to be booked well in advance. But I will do it for sure. Anyhow between 33mm and 39mm groups (across the group, not c-t-c) is even better than I expected after just 2 shooting sessions. So far my R5 gives me a lot of fun at the range… and as a photographer I simply dig the robust, business look of it!
Regarding silencer – actually I think it can be easily changed for a longer one. it’d be a cool option if someone would like it for hunting… short silencer when portability is a key, long one when silence is crucial. But again – that is just my speculation.
And yes, I had to drill the stock to install that weaver rail. For me it was easy, for some it might be too hard to do. I’m really wondering which manufacturer would be the first one to install key-mod or other modular rail system…
Hi Piter, here you can talk straight. I see on Airgunnation you can’t say it would not group
:rofl:
are you going to have it fixed, or all shoot like that. Have you got only this make for comparison?
did you have to drill the stock to get the bipod connected? looking at that model the moderator could have been lot longer and the scope rail shorter.
nice but should shoot tighter in my opinion. sure you will have fun with that one. enjoy
Another day at the range today. This time with 2.90g JSB pellets at 268m/s. Also as you can see the weather was much better for long range shooting: warmer than last time (7 deg C), almost no wind, no rain except occasional very slight drizzle. I skipped my bipod and used heavy sandbags instead, so that R5 was almost like locked in place. So much better than bipod.
And the results at 100m are indeed better than on Monday. In the meantime I was also visited by the range manager/owner, who came to take a look at a ‘crazy guy’ shooting airgun at 100m range. Well, he didn’t expect THAT kind of airgun, so we had a nice discussion about long range airgunning. Actually he said it was the first time he witnessed such an airgun shooting at his range.
I used my knife to cut the best group (and another one next to it) to measure it later at home. BTW, someone asked me why I carried a folding knife on the range… well, this is one of the answers. Anyway, I was shooting 5 shot groups today and my best group was 33mm. The group next to my best was also not bad at just below 40mm. Of course not all were that perfect but there is a lot of potential in that R5, especially considering weather conditions (good, but still FAR from perfect) It’s a quantum leap going from .22 to .30 for long range shooting.
I did also some fun shooting in the end of the day. What about exploding can of Pepsi at 100? OK, it was actually a bit in front of target line so let’s say 97m. Of course I was sure that can won’t stand a chance but… I didn’t expect such a good shot to close the day, especially due to light drizzle, which started just earlier as you can see. Almost in the middle of the round Pepsi logo! Of course it was quite a lucky shot with SUCH a good hit but… it still counts :8:
Aim small, miss small :rofl:
Thank you, Piter. It groups so well. R5 in snow with a couple of rain drops on it looks tough and beautiful.
I should have 2.90g ammo delivered today. And tomorrow I’ll be at the range again. Should be only better as far as I was told by some .30 shooters. I only hope there won’t be any rain or snow. Or breeze! As you can see in the last photo there are some traces of rain drops at an angle, that’s probably why the groups at 100 are open mainly horizontally. Even small wind at 100 have a clear influence.
Ho boy, that’s great and the gun is more and more spectacular with every following picture 🙂 🙂
The 44gr JSB have shot better then the 50gr JSB in any .30 gun I shot or heard of, ……so once you get the 44gr I expect you’ll get some phenomenal results.
Thanks for that. Have you experienced any pellet instability, spiralling? Three shot groups do not tell much but still a little more than one shot groups. I think you should go with at least a couple of five shot groups to give us a full picture. Anyhow, 3.2g pellets may need more juice. I agree that 2.9g should work better. We’ll see.
True, but they have little or no experience in airguns.
BTW, what is the purpose of that knife at the shooting range?
Sorry everyone for late replay but only now at night I was able to find some time for a short report and some pics. Family clearly got priority, can’t help that…
Well, it was not an easy day at the range… it started quite OK, with some snow on the ground, but air was actually clean and there was no wind. So I started at 50m and quickly zeroed my scope. All the targets are 2″ Birchwood Casey targets. I was shooting 3.25g JSB 7.62 at average speed 255m/s, which gives quite healthy 106 Joule if my calculations are ok. I didn’t have 2.9g (yes) so can’t compare them two. Anyway, here’s the 50m range:
And here you can see some of the first 3-shot groups (of course there are some other holes from zeroing and other shots). Getting 20-22mm group was not really a problem.
But after some more pellets I was able to shoot some 3-shot groups like THIS… yes, this is 3-shot group at 50m and I measured each distance by myself.
I was shooting from a comfortable bench with sandbags, which nicely locked my bipod and whole gun in place. Trigger is of course not as crisp as on match FT rifle but it was absolutely smooth. I didn’t check details of R3 trigger vs R5, but for me (at least) it’s clearly a nicer trigger. Sorry, but I had no way to check the pull weight but it’s not very light. I’ve NOT played with adjustments yet but my experience with EdGuns so far tells me that there should some room for adjustment. BTW, that second group is tad bigger but not bad either…
OK, time to move to the other range and check her at 100m! Weather started to get wet, with a slight drizzle and some frost. At that time I was VERY glad that .30 ammo can be easily loaded with good gloves like the Arc’ LEAF pictured below. Try that with .177, LOL! Another advantage of .30 cal!
And here my first results after re-zeroing at new distance first. BTW, love the tactical turrets on my Vortex… more than two full turns, but when I dialled it back to 50m zero – no problem, zero was back there. So here you can see average results (both 3-shot) I got so far at 100m. Good or bad? You tell me. BUT considering the conditions I think it is pretty good. I believe faster 2.9g should be even better, I’ll check that when I finally get my new ammo delivered. But on the other hand heavy ammo is perfect for such weather, so maybe it was not a bad choice for today?
OK, just FYI – I was not the only one at the range, there were two other shooters with centerfires stuff so I have also witnesses of what that R5 is capable of. They both asked me to try my Matador, it was no problem of course. That young guy in multicam was able to shoot well below 1″ at 50m and it was his first experience with this kind of airgun. Actually they were quite shocked to see that kind of results at 50m & 100m. It’s a very shootable airgun.
And my R5 at the range… as you can see it was not really perfect weather for long range shooting but it was anyhow an awesome day! Hot coffee in my insulated bottle and Arc’teryx LEAF Atom combined with DRAC jacket and merino cap helped me to survive that day in quite a comfort.
Next session very soon 🙂
Peter, are you there? Everyone’s waiting for your report. You have not got frozen at the shooting range, hopefully!
So far nobody could repeat the results obtained by Brian at long ranges with his power tune.
What does this mean?
It simply means that Brian is a Super Top Shot that probably should do long range competition shooting and the good or average shooter unfortunately cannot repeat those results.
I hope that you know that you are kidding or you are just trolling. Otherwise, I would be concerned about your mental health. I was unable to achieve Keyser’s or Wingman’s results because King Heavies are simply not stable in new Ed’s lightly choked barrel. I didn’t even have to use a fast camera to notice the instability. Here you have Ed shooting 2.2g with 275 m/s in R5:
Does it look like MOA accuracy?
huntjunky was able to achieve nice results but he has an old Edgun barrel from 2013.
It is not that difficult. You shoot a couple of shots at 50 meters and it groups or it does not group.
Shall I consider it a challenge? 😉
Actually… I’m not bad shot and been shooting airguns for 25+ years I guess. Also I don’t consider tomorrow a full-blown test but rather just first shooting report. I don’t rush my final thoughts and conclusions. I need to get couple of tins through that R5, try at least one more scope with higher magnification. I need to get used to that gun, know it, feel the trigger, etc. but certainly I’ll be able to tell something tomorrow (late night I guess, it’ll be very busy day).
Sure, shootability is the point indeed! But you have to wait till tomorrow for my first results… I’m going to spend most of my day at the range.
What is your v0 at the moment with JSB 2.9g and 3.2g?
Personally I liked the stock of R4 better.
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Actually… there is a chance I’ll „ask” Santa for a precize scale this year.