Air Venturi Avenger shipped

[HJ857]

Since there's lately a good bit of action here in the airgun forum I thought this may be of interest to some.

In case you haven't seen the hype over this new pcp rifle, I can tell you that it is not vaporware, the first batch shipped late last week, mine came in this past Saturday. The next batch is due mid September.

There's an awesome tuning/how-to/p.r. video available that is absolutely worth watching. It's long though, an hour and a half, so be warned.



Oh yeah, I LOVE this rifle!

 

[dh1633pm]

Not sure you got one of them new Air Ventura’s. Don’t see any pictures. What is your opinion so far? I know you love it. So why do you love it? Were you able to shoot it? Caliber? And thanks.

 

[HJ857]

I ordered from Pyramid just because they are also an Air Venturi repair shop. I got the .22 version.

I've only put about 200 shots through it, in just one session. I brought 14.5 grain RWS Superdomes which I've had great success with in other rifles. I was wrong though, they were wild. But looking back at the tuning guide I was probably running too much pressure at 1600 psi. I'll try it again this weekend at 1400 psi or less.

Luckily I also had about a hundred 18 grain Sniper Magnums with me and at 1800 psi those shot really well. My intention was to just do a function test, I put a Hammers 3x9 AO scope on it, but I only had a one piece mount available so I was limited to using the single load tray. I zeroed at 25 yards and then set up a number of rimfire mini silhouettes at 50 yards. I held over about an inch and hitting those targets was so easy that it made me laugh.

Then moved to 6" plates at 100 yards, held over 4 mil dots and that was also easy shooting. Moved then to mini silhouettes that are about pig sized but in a vertical configuration, those were tougher to hit primarily from wind. I think the youtube guide is accurate in terms of standard deviation, elevation variations were non existent, as always it's all about wind.

I only shoot paper targets if zeroing a scope, it's all steel after that so photographing targets has never been real important.

The rifle is really light, much lighter than a Gauntlet or AT44 but it balances well, it is not overly front heavy, and the the mechanisms are very smooth. Trigger travel is on the long side and adjustment is minimal, it's actually non existent on mine, it came from the factory maxed out. I only messed with trigger weight a little bit, it did make a noticeable difference but I could do more and will do more at the next range trip.

It's quiet, I was surprised at that. If you view the video it seems pretty loud when Steve dry fires it, but at the range it is much less. During the weeks before I took delivery I was planning on suppressing it, but now that I've used it I don't think there's any reason to do so, for me anyway.

It's going to be a tough rifle to beat, it's the same price as a Gauntlet and half the price of a Marauder and has great adjustability built in. It's going to be interesting to see if the Avenger alters the marketplace in the near future.

 

[LoonWulf]

Thats got some interesting features, im gonna have to look into it a bit more. Thanks for sharing!

 

[HJ857]

I've been able to shoot this rifle twice more with some notes that could be of interest.

First, new test with 14.5 grain RWS Superdome pellets at a psi of 1000, 1200, 1400 and 1800 all showed the same miserable results. Highly erratic flight. My rifle simply hates these pellets.

After the 50 yard testing I decided to clean the barrel. At the moment that means I have to push patches from the muzzle and that means removing the barrel shroud. The shroud has a set screw at the base and two tension screws about mid-barrel.

After cleaning and re-assembly I found my point of impact had shifted a lot.

This led to a series of tests. All targets have five shots with 18 grain Sniper Magnums, 1800 psi, 2.75 turns on the hammer spring, the pellets are not weight sorted or sized, they are straight out of the tin and into the magazine, 50 yards with little wind. The target is a 2" self adhesive.

First, this group is the baseline which is fully assembled but with the tension screws finger tight.


So then shroud removed but the guide left installed. The guide has a set screw that fits into a dimple on the barrel itself, the shroud slides over it. It may act as a baffle as well.


Then without the shroud and with the guide removed.


Then reassembled. But this time with the tension screws installed with firm tightening.


So a tight shroud and a bare barrel are about even. The rifle is much louder if the shroud is removed.

So after all that, at 50 and 100 yards my shooting buddy and I decided to run our rifles at 200 meters. Targets initially (for me) were mini Rams (about 6" wide) and 6" rounds. I don't yet have a good ballistic table worked up for this rifle with the 18 grain Sniper Magnums yet but my guess was 91 MOA drop. I couldn't hit anything, pellet impacts were highly variable. I had 58 MOA on the scope and then holding the fifth mil dot on tree branches and rocks didn't help matters. I think I hit a full sized chicken plate at least a couple times, but it's really just random.

My buddy bought a number of 21 and 23 grain slugs, so next weekend testing those will be interesting, particularly at the 200 meter line.

 

[HJ857]

Just a couple updates on this.

My shooting buddy and I tested H&N slugs, both 21 and 23 grain and in both .217 and .218 diameter. We tested three rifles and at none of them got consistent, acceptable groupings. It was quite disappointing.

Next test with with the JSB Exact Redesigns at 25.4 grains. At 50 yards those grouped reasonably well using a psi of 2700. They have very good knockdown power and easily puts down a free standing 6" steel plate. They aren't as good at 100 yards and the 18 grain Sniper Magnums group better at all distances.

I've determined that this rifle is susceptible to barrel flex. If pressure it applied to the stock, such as in bench rested shooting, that pressure gets translated to the barrel band which in turn affects the barrel since there is a sleeve/baffle that connects the barrel to the shroud and to the barrel band. This can produce wildly variable shots as you'd expect.

Removing the shroud and the baffle free floats the barrel and it becomes far more reliable. But it looks kind of ungainly in that configuration.

Next testing will be at 150 yards since we've already failed miserably at 200 meters.