She has finally landed, Initial thoughts on the King (Kral)
I have been waiting to get my hands on the Kral from the time I heard about it from SHOT. Finally, a bullpup PCP at Marauder prices!
My first thoughts on the Kral Puncher Breaker Silent right from the box is how top heavy it feels holding it from the pistol grip but once your shoulder it, it balances out well. This is my first bullpup so the ergos will take a little getting accustomed to. Things I really like and was surprised how smooth the side cocking lever and trigger is. The lever being under some spring tension in the closed position, seems to aid in locking the lever back while engaging the sear. No grit or grinding whatsoever through its whole travel. The trigger out of the box is quite good! The first stage is a tad heavy but short as you feel resistance as you make contact with the second stage, which is very crisp, no creep and no noticeable over travel. The trigger is fully adjustable. The plastic stock feels like a real stock and not some cheap toy.
The couple things I am not impressed with is the provided rail which fastens underneath the handguard, is made of a flimsy plastic with a deep counterbored hole for the cap screw makes for a poor mounting system. No matter how tightly you turn the screw, the rail won’t stay in place. This should have been made of aluminum with extrusions to keep the machining cost down which would eliminate the flexing. The last thing is the shroud. It would seem the design is more form over function and will require some work before the Kral can be enjoyed in the backyard. I will being machining 1/2-20 adapters and air strippers for it.
Overall, I am impressed with the build quality, especially for its price point. The machining on the exterior is smooth without any tool marks (except for the safety level pocket). It handles well in my hands as I shoulder it and feels natural when I am acquiring the sight picture in my scope. I hope she shoots as good as she looks. I am curious how well an in-house barrel with preform. I will clean and lap the barrel and polish the crown before I run any pellets through. If the barrel is a lemon, I will machine a LW for it.
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Sounds promising for the price. Let us know how accurate it is.
Looks like someone on GTA has already broke theres, maybe not so promising! :confusedn:
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Looks like someone on GTA has already broke theres, maybe not so promising! :confusedn:
I tore mine down today, separating the action, reservoir and barrel assembly and the construction is really beefy. I don’t know what’s going on with the guy on GTA but maybe he wasn’t handling the gun with care.
I took the barrel off to clean the bore and polish the crown but they went stupid on the loctite around the rear shroud mounting cap and the muzzle mount for centering the shroud. It took a liberal amount of heat to break the seal so I chucked it in the lathe and fired up the blow torch. I destroyed the rear mount cap to get it off but I was going to toss it and make a new one anyway. I was pleasantly surprised see once you get the muzzle mount off, the barrel is actually threaded 1/2-20 so no adapters needed. I ran a die around the threads to clean off the remaining loctite. I am redesigning the shroud that will actually work and make use of the dead space behind the muzzle! The stock muzzle device does not strip the air away.
If I can get her to shoot well, I’d like to replace the steel air reservoir with a regulated carbon fiber tank for weight savings and shot count. That is if I can find one that will fit the stock.