Icon Logo Gun Mart

Evanix Range of Air Rifles

Evanix Range of Air Rifles

I’ve just got back from a rather extensive and exhaustive shooting session at Pete’s Airgun Farm in Essex. I was there at the invitation of A C Guns proprietor Ray Hales and we stayed late into the night but I didn’t mind a bit.

Ray had recently received samples of some of Evanix’s range of pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) air rifles and he’d once again enlisted Simon Atkins (The Airgun Doctor) to cast his expert eye over them. Simon’s really ‘been there and done that’ in the UK airgun trade and he’s used his years of experience to tweak the rifle’s internal porting etc., to optimise their performance, or as Ray told me, ‘flatlined and balanced by AGD’.

It seems that Ray wanted to find out what I thought of the rifles and to see which models I thought he should bring into the UK. I have no idea why he’d ask me, what do I know?... But, anyway, I jumped at the chance to shoot the new arrivals and when he opened the boxes I was very impressed by the overall styling and most importantly, the build quality. The fit and finish is definitely on par with UK and European manufacturers and the styling’s bang up to date too.

Un-Boxing Day

First out of the packaging was a Blizzard S10, a sidelever-actioned multishot rifle in an ambidextrous hardwood sporter stock that featured skip chequering and an adjustable buttpad. This action is the basis for a lot of the Evanix range. They also make semi and full auto PCPs but we can’t have them over here, more’s the pity!

The 320cc air reservoir provides 170 shots per fill in .22 calibre and has a rotating collar over the probe-style fill port at the front of the cylinder and is nicely polished and blacked, as is the ½” UNF threaded barrel. The anodising of the action block and other alloy parts such as the sidelever is also well finished. The action has an adjustable two-stage trigger, a safety catch on the right of the block and dovetails along the top for mounting an optic. No iron sights are fitted.

Next out of the box was another Blizzard S10, this time in an attractive thumbhole stock, which felt very nice in the shoulder; this was to be the rifle I would be testing over the coming weeks.

The third rifle was a bull-barrelled buddy bottle-fed model in and ambidextrous thumbhole stock called the ‘Windy City’, you’ve gotta love the guy who comes up with the names of these rifles! The real ace up its sleeve however is the fact that the air reservoir is made from carbon fibre and you can really feel the difference.

Charging is via a snap on quick fill adaptor in the underside of the action and there’s a barrel support at the end of the bottle to protect the tube from knocks in the field. The air reservoir on this model produces 350 shots per fill but this pales into insignificance compared to the fourth rifle Ray un-boxed - the ‘Monster’! This has the same buddy bottle as the Windy City and another one where the butt would normally be. Ray wasn’t exactly sure on the night what the shot count would be but it’s got to be huge.

story continues below...

Pulse Rifle Anyone?

Last out of the packaging was the Rainstorm Bullpup, which looked like a cross between the pulse rifle from the film ‘Alien’ and a military assault rifle. This PCP uses the standard Blizzard action housed within an aluminium stock, with an upright pistol grip and angled foregrip. A Picatinny rail runs along the entire top section of the stock, to which Ray had fitted a compact 3-9 X 40 scope. In the shoulder it pointed perfectly and was surprisingly light. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I love it!

Proof Of The Pudding

There’s no point looking good if you can’t perform, so I needed to see for myself how these rifles would actually shoot.

I’d brought along a 5-20 X 50 MTC Genesis scope and soon had it mounted on the Blizzard using Sportsmatch reach forward mounts. Ray had all of the rifles charged up and ready to go, so it was just a case of loading magazines and getting on with it. All of the rifles Ray had brought with him were in .22 calibre, so I opened a tin of Air Arms Field and started pushing pellets into the rear of the 11-shot mag. The pellets need to be seated to load efficiently, and I used a 2mm Allen key to push them into the housing as I clicked the inner wheel round against spring tension. As the wheel rotates, it is held by a tiny catch that’s tripped by the action when cycling the bolt. I thought it would be a pain to have to push the pellets in instead of just dropping them in but I soon got used to it and it was second nature after a while.

After getting a zero sorted at 30 yards, it was then just a case of finding out which dot on the Genesis’s reticle I needed to use for different distances. The group at 30 yards was very good but shooting groups all night’s no fun, so I set about shooting at knock down and spinner targets at 50 yards. I alternated between all of the Evanix rifles throughout the evening and thoroughly enjoyed   myself! Every rifle performed perfectly with smooth sidelevers and we didn’t have a single miss-feed.

I fired nearly a whole tin of Air Arms pellets and quite a few Accupells as well, and the Evanix magazines proved to be faultless.

The Blizzard I’d be taking home with me had a fair bit of trigger creep but it was straight out of the box and a few turns with an Allen key will sort it out. Despite the trigger I was still able to shoot the tiny turkey silhouette targets at 50 yards and if I really concentrated I could hit the chickens, which are incredibly small. Ray proved to be a very good shot and it got quite competitive throughout the session, which added to the fun.

Conclusion

AC Guns will be bringing in the Windy City, as well as versions of the Blizzard in sporter and thumbhole stocks, with and without shrouded barrels. Prices are very good for air rifles of this quality and an un-shrouded sporter-stocked Blizzard is £560, with the thumbhole variant costing £640. Shrouded barrels are an extra £40. The Windy City is £866. The other, more ‘exotic’ models will probably be special order only.

I reckon Ray has picked a winner here and these Korean beauties will no doubt be very popular with the UK’s air rifle shooters. For more details go to www.acguns.co.uk or call 01424 752261. GM

  • Evanix Range of Air Rifles - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Evanix Range of Air Rifles - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Evanix Range of Air Rifles - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Evanix Range of Air Rifles - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Evanix Range of Air Rifles - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Evanix Range of Air Rifles - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Evanix Range of Air Rifles - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Evanix Range of Air Rifles - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Evanix Range of Air Rifles - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Evanix Range of Air Rifles - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

Arrow