Evanix Sniper (UK Air Rifle)

The Evanix Sniper has been getting quite a bit of attention in the shop recently. It has the standard Evanix side lever action and comes in .22 and .177 with the possibility of 9mm (that's .35ish) coming soon (and that will be in UK legal 12ftlbs so no need for license.... just less range, but heavy hitting!)

The look is a bit different, even for 'tactical' rifles this one has a unique look and feel to it.
The rear stock is fully adjustable (removable even) and it will take an additional silencer if you really feel the need (but it has a shrouded barrel anyway). Great piece of kit that I'm looking forward to going out with soon once I have persuaded the boss that we should be completely 'familiar' with our entire range!

Rabbit food!

Rabbit food.... should be 'Rabbit as food'. Rabbit is rarely seen in UK supermarkets, but is available from many butchers and food markets. Your alternative of course is to go out (on land you have permission to shoot on) and get your own. Interesting article in the Telegraph about where to get it and how to cook it if you are struggling.

A .22 air rifle at the UK legal limit of 12ftlbs (down to about 10) is sufficient to take rabbits from between 30 and 40 yards depending on how good a shot you are. You can go out further than this of course, however bear in mind that you are always after a humane kill. I was out for 'one for the pot' last night before dark and so didn't bother with my Evanix GTL480 semi-auto.

Instead a single shot break barrel Gamo Whisper Fusion with a Gamo 4x32 sight on it was more than sufficient for sitting out hidden away from the burrows. Bear in mind that you want to keep the quarry, so make sure the rabbit is far enough away from the burrow hole when you take the shot. Usually a head shot will drop them instantly but sometimes they get that final adrenaline burst which means they can bolt back inside the burrow and you will lose your dinner. I used my usual pellet of a BSA Storm .22 which I basically use for everything and in all my air rifles. (Too lazy to test out others and they are fine)

More preparation than this is needed!

Rabbits are not pleasant to prepare if you haven't done it before. Head off, guts out and then remove the fur (plenty of videos on YouTube etc as to how to do it). It does get easier the more you do it. I prefer to drop the guts out in the field and leave them in the hedges for the foxes and crows but bear in mind lots of landowners and farmers won't want you doing this.

Ideally you want to use a rabbit size of around 1kg, anything smaller and it won't have much meat on it, bigger and the meat tends to be quite tough.

A nice Hertfordshire Rabbit.

Rabbit meat is lean, but can be quite dry.... my answer is just to make the traditional British dish of Curry! Being lazy I just use a supermarket one.

My original plan was to eat outside cooking on an open fire with a bushfire pot .... but ended up in the kitchen as everyone else was moaning that it was cold. ...Curry came out okay though

Bear Grylls

Bear Grylls got quite a bit of stick for staying in hotels etc last year, but just watched his survival weekend with Ben Stiller and was fairly impressed. 
We now stock the full range of BG knives. From £35. Will be reviewing some of them soon, including the fixed blade with fire striker as we start our survival training courses.

Evanix GTL480. Now in stock

Our first batch of the Evanix GTL480 Semi-auto air rifles are now in stock.

A few changes to the prototype that I have been playing with need to be noted.

1. A longer rear stock. This was reccomended to Evanix to make the gun more comfortable to shoulder. The extra length is weight negligible due to the aluminium frame construction.
2. The charging valve is now discreetly underneath rather than sticking out at the side.
3. The cheek piece is now more adjustable vertically.

Looks like I am stuck with the prototype version for myself....there's no way the boss is going to let me play with these. Price is £1599 with most already sold and awaiting collection. If you want one be quick!

Evanix GTL480S Air Rifle. First Shipment expected

After all the fun I've had with the prototype, it looks like the final models are set to arrive at the shop ready for Saturday. Thanks to everyone who put down a deposit to help us get the ball rolling on these.  

Rat shooting with the Evanix GTL480 and a Nite Site

I've really enjoyed playing with the prototype UK version of the Evanix GTL480. It's semi auto function has been great on the rats. (See my first review here)

Previously I had been using a Hawke foregrip with LED light and laser combo, now it's time for something else.

NiteSite have recently bought out their new range of night vision scope attachements. Unlike others these output to a monitor that sits on the top of the scope and actually gives you the scope picture. It's quite a strange way of shooting, rather than looking down the scope it's heads up looking at the monitor. Our first thought was that this was going to be awkward, but after getting used to the positioning it's really easy to use.

The set up looks quite top heavy as well, but it's actually a very light weight bit of kit and barely noticable.

It takes a little bit of adjustment to get the scope picture right, but with practice the whole unit can be fitted in minutes (Nite site claim 1 minute, but I have yet to do this)

The picture on the monitor is clear and the IR torch at the front of the screen lights up a huge area. It is also adjustable so you can get the light level right on screen.


Lazy Shooting

A couple of our customers volunteered to come out and test the whole set up rat shooting down at my chicken pens. They both agreed that it is very 'lazy shooting'
You can take a nice seated position, watch the screen and drink beer (which is exactly what we did).

Again the semi-auto action was well recieved and the accuracy so good that no one realised that the barrel was in fact smooth bore.

It would be better perhaps to have a bipod or shooting stick at the front of the gun for this type of shooting. Maybe even a table or stack of boxes so you can be even more lazy!

Stock picture to show image

The image you get on the monitor is as good as it gets. I would like to have shown one that we were using but forgot my output leads. The nite site viper doesn't have a recording facility itself but does allow you to plug in external recording devices with a 3.5mm jack.





It was quite cold last night with frost forming before midnight, and we were all impressed that this didn't affect the batteries on the Nite Site or on the gun.

The monitor allows for 'back seat shooting'. We sat behind watching as the targets were lined up. The rats were not being co-operative last night and were mocking us, ducking under a ridge and behind some boxes. Despite the coaxing ("Come on you little $%8*....out you come), it took a while to get them.

Anyway. The cold killed my camera batteries so no video, but we will be going out again soon as there are always rats down at my chicken coops.

Thanks to Graham and Tom for coming out and having a laugh.

Nite Site Viper is available now. 

Evanix GTL480S. We have a small delivery coming into the UK hopefully before Christmas. If you want one put your deposit down quickly.

Nitesite on the Evanix GTL480

So it seems I'm going to be allowed to use the Evanix GL480 semi-auto air rifle a bit more. As I like to test new kit, I have mounted a Nitesite Viper on top of it. This makes it a failry heavy gun!

GTL480S by Evanix with Nitesite Viper

It works by fitting a tv camera to the scope and a small monitor to the top of the scope.
This gives the scope picture on the screen. At the front of the screen is an IR lamp that the camera can pick up and this is what provides the illumination.

Typical picture on the screen with a bunny.

It was quite tricky to set up initially as you have to focus the camera and play about with it to center everything, however once done it seems quite stable.

Things I'll be investigating next week:
Battery life
Range of use
Accuracy
Comfort of use (you shoot with your head up looking at the screen)
Ease of use.


It does make the gun look pretty mean and even more space age than it was to start with. More to follow