Some things come out of the blue.
Unexpectedly.
Suddenly
And challenge your "mettle".
Such is this case.
Some months ago, I was contacted by a person that had not shot before (this is important!). But had decided to get rid of invasive pests using an airgun.

So far so good, right? NOTHING out of the ordinary!

Well, because of the disruption of the supply trains of EVERYTHING due to the Pandemic, the ONLY gun he had found was a Hatsan FlashPup QE.
As far as I was concerned, he could have been talking in Martian! Hatsan? yes, check! I know they make guns, but have never taken them too seriously after venturing into one of their power-monster-springers.

And this guy was telling me he was happy with a PCP!

That he had been shooting squirrels and pesky birds.

But that now he needed a "scope or something".

Hmmmmmm, quickly look into the Hatsan lineup and yes, there are the PCP's; and there are the Flash'es; and there are the bullpup versions, ergo: FlashPups;  BUUUUTTTTT, they have NO SIGHTS!

"Ehem, ehem, ehem, sorry, sir, but have you been shooting an airgun without ANY sighting equipment?"

"Yes, and I am hitting rather well, but by now the critters are learning that the "pfft" precedes the decease of a mate, and they have started to fly as soon as the window opens".

WOW! I must have been silent for more than a few seconds because the voice on the other side of the phone asked: "HELLLOOOO! You there still?"

"Yes, yes, yes, of course I am here it's just that you are the first person that I have met that has chosen to shoot a bullpup gun in 0.25" cal yielding well in excess of 28 ft-lbs without sights!"

and without skipping a beat he goes: "Yes, that is why I need some sort of sighting equipment, what do you have?, I live in Connecticut and I thought I would swing by and see what we can put on the gun"

Ooops!

"Sorry sir, we used to live in Connecticut, but we now live in Maryland. We moved about 4 years ago".

"Ahhhh, I really wanted to chat with you and see if you can teach me how to shoot properly"

Properly?  this guy is hitting stuff without sights! What can anyone possibly teach him?

Anyway, to cut the story short, he mentioned that he had some issues with the gun, that, at first it had been shooting very well, but that a few weeks before something had gone wrong and he was not able to hit anything.
He suspected the gun needed cleaning, but he just could not find a way to do it.
Lots of questions with no answers till I could get my paws on the gun.

So . . . The gun was shipped and put in the queue. And as time passed, its turn came.

So we started talking again about the gun itself, the purpose and the future.

After a good conversation we agreed that I would test the gun and see if it was in any way "not 100%", and that after that we would agree on course of action.

Initial tests were somewhat disconcerting, the gun would yield 100 shots with more than reasonable consistency, but at too low power (under 10 ft-lbs). Yet, nothing seemed to be wrong with the gun.

After a few air top-ups with my battery driven compressor it became apparent that the tank was loose in the chassis.

So I took the gun apart and found that the looseness of the tank was really that the tank had backed OUT of the action and therefore the power was very low.

Two ORings had been "overenthusiastically" installed at the plant and the process had sheared off more than ½ section of each.

We also took advantage of the take down to reduce the grittiness of the trigger, there is precious little we can do about the "mushiness" because as many bull-pups there is a transfer bar that connect the trigger blade to the actual trigger mechanism:

When disassembling these linkages, ALWAYS remember that assembly is right to left, so disassembly is always left to right (along the main axis and direction of the muzzle).

This really thin connecting rod is what links the trigger you pull with the actual trigger levers and sear in the rear.
It is important to note that the rear connection is RIVETED, so it is better to disconnect the forward conneciton point (see above).
Once the trigger linkage was out of the way, we could access the screws that attach the tank to the action.​
And the screws that govern the trigger behaviour.
While there are many plastic parts in this gun, that is not a low quality indicator on the parts.
What was low quality was the time dedicated to the assembly. There is no excuse for cutting ORings at the assembly point.
One thing I liked VERY much is the substantial bolt handle.
It brings back a familiar feeling long missed.

The gun is an interesting gun, and in many ways replicates the performance of the Talon that was equipped with the first Opteck scope to be mounted in an airgun in the USA.
​It was interesting, but not completely unexpected, to see the JSB's perform better than the others.
What was unexpected is that the Predators performed so much better than the Kings.

Now, given the MV's and the energies involved, I opted to suggest my new-found friend, an Opteck scope with a built in laser rangefinder, it is ideally suited to take shots at different things/distances with a stable platform, that will ensure a clean, quick and humane kill.
​
As a reminder, the Opteck scope was reviewed in the first take of this same title: "Nür fur Jäger"

The only update I've done to the system is that now a rechargeable battery is supplied:

It's good for a full day of shooting and recharges from any USB supply

​If we compare the FPQE to the Talon:

You can see there is not much size difference between the two platforms, the Talon is a bit longer and more svelte, the FlashPup QE is more compact and stodgy.

Truth is they both handle well in the field.

There is not much forearm in the FPQE to put the scope's remote control, so it had to go to the back, where the forward hand can come back and push the rangeing button.

Because of weight distribution, I decided to mount the smart mount "backwards" and this allows better mounting position and more latitude, should the owner decided to choose a different mounting position.

Where there is a substantial difference is in the weight!

There is a full 1 lb 2 Oz difference when the all-up weights are compared.

Yes, one is a single shot, the other is a repeater. PERSONALLY, I don't value that aspect too much, but to each his own.

There is a fair amount of pellets available in the caliber, but the gun seemed to prefer pellets in the 25-27 grains region; too light and it would not develop more MV, too heavy and the same would happen.
Probably, this makes these guns prime candidates for regulation. But usually, that causes a drop in ME.
With the size of the tank in this gun, it seems quite possible that a proper regulation could be performed as long as the barrel is swapped (and possibly the moderator altered).
HOWEVER, for the price point of this gun, I was very impressed at the uniformity and efficiency of the strings as long as the optimum weight for the valve setting was respected.

At 25 meters, the gun showed again a marked preference for the Predators, though there COULD be a way to make the gun shoot better with the other good candidates, like he SuperH Points and the BHE.

Tests to determine the trajectory of the better choices proved more than interesting:

But with the pellet scarcity now in effect, and Predators becoming "unobtainium", in the end we had to retest and make it work with the Kings:

The group of 10 shots at 50 meters tells us that the valve has its limitation as far as repeatability. An obvious solution is regulation, though the architecture of the tank would seem to imply that it would be wise to partition the tank into ¼'s and allow a full ¼ as a "plenum".
Don't know if I will ever do this, but it is an interesting idea.

If the proof  of a pudding is in the eating, then the proof of a hunting gun is in the shooting.

Once the data was put into (the now de-published) PP-Calc, the trajectory showed this for the holdoffs:

And so, I decided to setup a hunting target, pick up the rifle (that showed about 50 BAR's remaining useful pressure) and, without any further preparation, shoot from different spots in the backyard ONE shot each from different distances and angles:

Shot #1 @ 35 meters was good, a bit high, but good.
Shot #2 @27 meters was also good, though the wind kicked in, the 0.25" cal is reasonably resistant to drift.
Shot #3 @ 43 meters showed that the wind drift resistance disappeared when the wind changed direction completely! however, the elevation for the shot was good.
Shot #4 @ 52 meters was bit affected by the wind, but it would have still been a good shot.
Shot #5 @ 12 meters was taken quickly (under 3 seconds) and just taking the time to rangefind and without focusing, taking the offhand shot. Was IMHO, a good shot.

The system therefore acquitted itself quite nicely.

For the time being, the rifle will be used with Kings, when the Predators become available, we will follow the same procedure and determine the proper hold-offs.

Having finished the technical side, it became necessary to solve one of the main worries: How to clean this gun?!

There is precious little space (15½ mm's) in the breech to insert any kind of cleaning instrument.
And the front end really should not be messed with much, any misalignment there will change the POI and you really do not want to do that.
So I decided to make my own solution:

This is a simple loop of weedwhacker line inside a clear plastic tube.
This allows the "loop" to be inserted from the muzzle without any risk to the rifling and, especially, to the crown.
The loop can almost be retracted into the tube:

And at the far end, whipping/serving keeps the two sides together and gives a good hold to pull:

To use, you create a "Taco" using an OTIS patch and a square small caliber patch:

That you can put through the loop once you have inserted the tube bearing the loop from the muzzle:

And then you pull:

You can then turn the "Taco" and use the other side:

Which gives you a bit more cleaning from the same patch:

After using the two sides, you turn over the patch, using the same "core" and repeat. So for every patch you get 4 strokes.
After 3 patches, you get a reasonably clean bore:

Last point in the agenda was to send back the gun properly outfitted, and so a hard case was procured.
MTM (the ammo box people) make this case and it was interesting because it was just long enough and seemed sturdy enough for shipping and storing.
Some reviews criticize the case, but clearly they did not take the time to read the instructions and fit the straps.
Once you do what your gun needs, the case is sturdy enough, it won't allow the gun to move inside the case.
And so, the FPQE is going home. A different creature with more poise, more reach, and better behaviour:

I enjoyed this project very much. With this scope we reach the half dozen installed in different airguns, and all the owners seem to be happy.

Keep well and shoot straight!






​HM

​Which was the only lane towards the lake. USUALLY, the wind from the lake plays goofy tricks with the shots, but this time I was lucky and I had some calm.
I had shot the two shots on the first target when John told me:
-There is a person in the lake beyond the middle target, not that you are going to miss, but just to make you aware"
WHAAAT???!!!!
Stood up and tried to locate the person, but he had rowed past, so I deemed safe to shoot again.
I calmed myself down, breathed real deep a few times and asked John which was the next shot.
John informed me that I had to take my first shot on the second target, so I started there and the rest of the shots went well.
Enough to close the Match with a clean lane that is always very nice.