Dragon Slayer

I've been lookin' over the Dragon Slayer.  Man it sure looks sweet.  A couple of things have me wondering tho.  

The weight is listed as 8.8 pounds.  Whew.  Add a scope and that's some serious weight!  For those of you in the know -- how is the balance?  How's it feel on point?

Another concern is noise.  A found one guy saying the noise was much less than the typical .45.  He said this monster had a shroud.  Is it true?  How loud is it??

Sure appreciate any insights......

[CharlieDaTuna]

Hi David. I don't know anything about the "Dragon Slayer"   I'm sure someone will be able to provide you with some answers.

I did want to welcome you to the GTA forum and we hope you will return often and be a part of "our gang".  There are a bunch of good and friendly people here and we have a lot of fun and share a tremendous amount of info, ideas and stories. Our group therapy sessions for those that have "airgun addictions" has been temporarily discontinued due to the temporary absence of our counselor. But not to worry...we have an excellent support group.

oh oh im interested to!! I have had my eye on a .45 for a lil while now. Among others...

[shadow]

Welcome David , any questions or advise throw em at us. Hopefully someone will jump in  and give you some info on your question. We are Airgun addict's around here and the ORDER BUTTON is just a click away.   Ed

[tat2dman]

Hiya Dave!If ya wanna know anything about the slayer talk to sniper99 on the adventures in airgun hunting board,he seems to really know all the big bores.

shadow - 9/4/2007  6:53 AM

Welcome David , any questions or advise throw em at us. Hopefully someone will jump in  and give you some info on your question. We are Airgun addict's around here and the ORDER BUTTON is just a click away.   Ed

The order button is what I'm afraid of!  That thing threatens to jump on me every time I look at airguns!   :-)

[3n00n]

Kinda loud and mine was about 150fpe when it arrived. It is doing better now . . .

Closer to 250fpe nowand still have a few things leftto do to it.

Excellent pics.  What mods did you do to kick up the FPE?  There does not seem to be much material written about the Dragon.  I sure would appreciate any pointers you could offer.

[3n00n]

It doubles as its own guide and is a piece of tool steel welded inside of a tube filled with lead with a tool steel ring welded in place to act as the sear catch. Also the breech slot wascut longer for more stroke.Spring od is .75 and id is .57 and was cut just to the point of being coil bound when latched tothe sear.

Hammer is 85 grams {3oz} and gets 4 shots with 182grain .495" roundballon a 2850psi fill {715, 725, 725 715} or 6 shots at 3000psi {690, 705, 715, 725, 725, 715} With 335grain slugs at 2850psi {575, 580, 580, 575}

Does a real numberon a melon anyway . . .

Sweet!  

I pulled the trigger on a DS today.  I'm gonna have to look long and hard at that puppy.....  :-)

[3n00n]

The stroke in stock form ispretty short too. The stock spring is pretty stiff, but only pushes 60 grams for 7/16" and with the modification the hammer now moves 11/16" but weighs 85 grams and the spring isn't as stiff to pull tothe sear.

`

The slot is lengthened about 3/4" and the sear ringis welded at 1~3/16" so as to not hit the cocking pin during valve opening.The peened in place stockpart thatcovers the valve stem was removed and replaced with a shorter delrinstop to allow the valve to drive in 1/4" farther.

Any possibility of some pics??  

I've ordered some .495 Hornady cast ball.  Thought I would see how it functions before ordering a Lee mold.  What's your favorite ammo?

[3n00n]

Had to fabricate my own .495 sizing die, but with sized slugs it seems togroup and shoot verywell. Roundball groups well andisgood velocitybut the bc is signifigantly lower thanslugs.

`

Mosteffective useI get out ofthe ballistics programs I use is 'time of flight' and 'retained energy' answers forhunting distances. The 'critical duck under' time seems to be about 3/10ths of a second,and that distance changesat different velocities.

`

Faster isbetter up to around the trans sonicrange {900f/s+}and as long asretained energy is high enough for thetarget ataspecificdistance, then it is just a matter of being sighted in correctly. So far the Dragon has been very good at 2" groups or better at 65 yards which isjust shortof the 3/10ths of a second limit.

What slugs or slug mold do you use??

[3n00n]

The r.e.a.l.slugs or minie seem to work very well when sized to .495, but can be a bit tough to load and they alsoshoot about 50~70f/s slower when unsized.

`

Still need to try some sabot for groups and velocity, but so far the only 'slug problems' have been from being oversize.

`

Accuracy has been excellent to 60m with slug and ball, so now it is just a matter of stalking that close to a whitetail . . .