Author Topic: Evanix Renegade Carbine in the house! (Long)  (Read 4147 times)

Offline daved

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Evanix Renegade Carbine in the house! (Long)
« on: November 04, 2009, 12:39:15 PM »
My like new Evanix Renegade Carbine showed up today, and as I just told the previous owner, this thing is FAN-freaking-TASTIC!  For those of you not familiar with this particular rifle, it’s a Korean made revolving rifle, is both single and double action via an exposed hammer, and if the workmanship on mine is typical of what the Koreans are doing with their rifles, the Brits and the Swedes should be afraid, very afraid.
 
Fit and finish is excellent, bluing on the barrel and air tube is a deep, rich blue with a medium polish, very nice.  The receiver is a matte black, looks like it’s Parkerized.  The cylinders are a silvery metal, I’m guessing maybe nickeled brass.  The trigger blade is curved, and looks like the same material used in the cylinders.  Safety is MANUAL, and is located on the right side of the receiver, FIRE is forward, SAFE is back.



The woodwork is also very nice, the stock itself is a straight grained hardwood of some kind, doesn’t look like walnut.  It reminds me of the really nice Philippine mahogany you used to be able to get 30 years ago, but is almost impossible to find today.  Checkering is very sharp, probably laser cut, with a very nicely executed panel on the pistol grip and on the forearm, both where they do the most good.  Nice palm swell and an adjustable butt pad, it’s ambidextrous, and this is one repeater that would work just as well for south paws as it does for righties.  Stain is a medium brown, very even, and the finish looks like a semi gloss polyurethane, also very smooth and even.



Being a carbine, overall length is just over 36”, LOP is 14 ½”, which happens to be perfect for my long arms.  According to my bathroom scale, weight with Burris Timberline scope and mounts is 7.8 lbs.  Balance is excellent, this rifle just feels right.  And it looks right, too :)!
The rifle arrived nicely packaged, and I wish I could say some nice things about the previous owner here, but he’s asked me to keep his identity confidential.  After a pretty thorough examination, I just had to try a few shots, and since there was still some air in it, I loaded up a cylinder and let fly.  Great fun, but more on that later.  Had the Timberline and mounts waiting, so I installed the scope and headed out back of my shop to see how it shot.
 
I had 4 different pellets on hand for testing, JSB Heavies and Monsters, Beeman Kodiaks, and Eun Jin domes.  Since the JSB Heavies were the 500 ct. tin, I used them for initial sighting in and familiarization.  All shooting was done at 25 yards benched, and initial accuracy and chrony testing was done with a 3000 psi fill and shot single action.  This is the high power mode for this rifle.

The first shot was so low I didn’t even hit my target, but I raised my POA and was on paper.  Wanted to see how consistent it could shoot, so I left the scope alone and held the same POA.  All 5 remaining shots from that cylinder full went through one ragged hole.  It was shooting about 4.5” low, took another 10 shots or so to get it zeroed.  Accuracy with the JSB Heavies was very good, at this range ¼” groups are the norm.  Once I had a feel for what the rifle would do, it was time to run some chrony strings, and here are the results.



As you can see, the JSB Monsters seem to be the best pellet in this rifle.  It’s also pretty obvious it doesn’t really want a 3000 psi fill.  I expect 27-2800 will probably be best.  It’s definitely an air hog, after 18 or so shots, the velocity starts dropping off fast.  But considering that that’s 18 shots at an average of 38 fpe, I think I can live with it:).

Shooting this rifle is a pleasure.  It has a non adjustable single stage trigger, and you have the choice of shooting either single or double action.  For those a little less savvy in gun speak, single action means you cock the hammer back with your thumb then pull the trigger, double action you just pull the trigger.  With this rifle, single action gives you full power and a much lighter trigger pull.  Specs say 3 lbs. but it feels like less.  It has a very crisp break that is very easy to shoot.  This is what most people would use for best accuracy.  Surprisingly enough, the double action pull is also very good.  Again, the specs say 9 lbs. and again, it feels lighter.  Double action shooting is VERY fast, and gives a lower power level, although I don’t know how low, I haven’t chronied it on DA yet.  But I did shoot two cylinders full on DA, one with Kodiaks and the other with the JSB Heavies.  The JSB’s were all inside ½”, the Kodiaks were closer to an inch.  I was going for aimed rapid fire, say 6 shots in 6 seconds.  Talk about a fast follow up shot!

Okay, so much for all the good stuff.  There are a couple of minor issues, and I do mean minor.  First, I noticed early in my shooting that the cylinder didn’t always rotate all the way.  Needless to say, this is not conducive to good accuracy or consistency.  However, I think this will clear up on its own as the rifle and cylinders wear in.  This thing is new enough that everything is still pretty stiff.  And in the meantime, I just keep an eye on the cylinder.  It didn’t seem to be an issue shooting double action.

The other issue was more a pellet thing than a rifle issue.  These rifles use a revolving cylinder that loads from the front, pellets go in skirt first.  There’s a small shelf at the back of the cylinder that keeps the pellets from being pushed all the way through.  I already knew from Gaylord’s review that varying loading depths resulted in velocity and accuracy issues, so I made a ram rod by cutting the point off a long golf tee, and using that to make sure the pellets bottomed out in the cylinder.  The JSB’s seem to fit the cylinders better and more consistently than the others.  The Eun Jins were not as consistent a fit, and the Kodiaks were all over the place.  The Kodiaks were also the smallest of the 4, with several almost falling into the cylinders.  I only shot a few Kodiaks, but I could tell they weren’t as accurate as the other pellets.

There’s really only one other issue, which I knew about going in.  This thing is LOUD!!  I’ll have to do a side by side comparison, but for the moment, I’m pretty sure it’s about the same as a .22 rimfire.  Not that it matters to me that much, I don’t intend to use this for plinking, and for hunting, nothing I shoot will live long enough to hear the shot :).  I was looking for a powerful, accurate, fast handling and shooting hunter, and it looks like this rifle fills that bill, in spades!  My only regret is that it’s so late in the year, I’ll have to wait ‘til next spring to do any hunting with it.  But be watching for some posts on the Hunting Gate then!

Bottom line, I’ve owned some pretty damn nice air rifles over the last few years, but this one has taken me completely by surprise.  I’ve avoided the Korean guns because of bad trigger reviews, and because I think the lever actions are ugly.  I guess I also assumed they’d be rough around the edges, especially considering the price.  Man, was I ever wrong!  This thing compares very favorably to the FX Cyclone and the AA S400 I used to own, and is available new at half the price or less.  That should qualify as a bargain in anyone’s book.  So if you’re considering a dedicated hunter, and noise isn’t an issue, do yourself a favor and check out the Renegade.  I don’t think you’ll regret it.  Later.

Dave



Offline dk1677

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Re: Evanix Renegade Carbine in the house! (Long)
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2009, 12:49:30 PM »
That's one to drool over ! Saw Paul's review on airgun reporter, very nice!
Hammerli 850, Beeman RS3 ,Gamo viper express,Crosman 180

Offline Jaymo

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Re: Evanix Renegade Carbine in the house! (Long)
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2009, 02:13:28 PM »
I want that, the Blizzard, the AR6/Renegade pistol, and the AR6/Renegade takedown rifle. I'm not asking for too much, am I?
15th Battalion, Mississippi Sharpshooters, CSA.

Il buono, il cattivo, ed il brutto.

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Offline Gene_SC

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Re: Evanix Renegade Carbine in the house! (Long)
« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2009, 11:05:06 PM »
Dave, all I can say it that gun really fits you buddy.. Enjoy and have fun. Great review with numbers as well.Agaom thankfor a great review.
THE ONES I SLEEP WITH: BSA Lightning XL, AA TX-200, AA ProSport, BSA Ultra, HW-97K, Crosman NPSS .177, FX Cyclone, HW-30 Nicle Plated, AA-S200, Crosman Marauder, CZ-634, R-9 DG, Webley/Scott UK Tomahawk, Benji Kantana, Benji Marauder, Benji Discovery.....
....

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