{"id":6393,"date":"2021-09-17T08:36:45","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T15:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/?p=6393"},"modified":"2021-09-17T08:36:45","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T15:36:45","slug":"its-a-great-compact-hunter-the-evol-mini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/its-a-great-compact-hunter-the-evol-mini.html","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s A Great, Compact Hunter! The EVOL Mini."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"It\u2019s<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The American Air Arms EVOL Mini<\/a> is an outstanding, compact hunting air rifle that grows on you with use. The more I shot it, the more I liked it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be loved by the hunter who wants an airgun that\u2019s simple, unbreakable, accurate and oozes quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EVOL Mini is a beautifully designed and manufactured air rifle. It’s designed for great shooting “as is”. There’s no externally adjustable settings – the gun is designed to operate out of the box with a wide range of pellets without adjustment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it’s not for airgunners who want to tweak, tinker and tune their gun. It’s extremely compact, balances well and has a fantastic trigger. Power is remarkable for an air rifle of this size and weight. And the consistency is outstanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is not a bullpup! For many people, this is a big deal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What more could you want from a hunting gun?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"It\u2019s<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s put some numbers to that. The EVOL Mini featured here weighs-in at just 7 Lbs 4 Oz. And that includes the scope, rings and a full magazine of pellets. The overall length is just 31 Inches with the Magpul stock fully extended. When the stock\u2019s retracted, it\u2019s less than 28 Inches. Compact, or what!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In testing, I found a maximum muzzle energy of 33.64 Ft\/Lbs when shooting 25.39 Grain JSB Jumbo Monsters<\/a>. That\u2019s very decent power for such a compact .22 caliber PCP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"It\u2019s<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So the EVOL Mini is for the hunter who just wants to shoot. Unlike many other PCP air rifles of this price, there\u2019s not a seemingly-endless list of controls to adjust power and shot count. In fact, there\u2019s no externally-adjustable controls at all. Just trigger, cocking lever and safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EVOL Mini fills to a maximum of 4,000 PSI. This is coupled with a regulator set pressure of 1,950\/2,000 PSI to give strong performance for such a compact airgun. Unusually, there\u2019s a 5,000 PSI burst disk built-in to the design. This is a rarely-encountered feature in airguns but one that\u2019s welcome in the EVOL Mini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"It\u2019s<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Among the great usability features is the positioning of the front (main) pressure gauge. Although the male quick disconnect fill nipple is positioned at the side of the tube while the pressure gauge is placed on the opposite side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we have a front-mounted pressure gauge that does NOT require you to \u201clook down the barrel\u201d to read it. That\u2019s simply excellent design by Tom Costan, American Air Arms owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trigger of my EVOL Mini was set to an average pull weight of just 12.9 Ounces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First, there\u2019s an incredibly light, smooth first stage. That\u2019s followed by a genuine \u201cglass break\u201d sear release that\u2019s instantaneous, yet completely predictable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found this to be a near perfect trigger. However, it is adjustable and the pull weight can be increased if you prefer a heavier trigger for hunting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In harmony with all physical aspects of the EVOL Mini<\/a>, the side lever cocking arm is compact. However this short length has a slight downside\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although the action is smooth and the knob perfectly-designed, the second half of the stroke becomes quite heavy. This is due to a \u2013 presumably \u2013 rather stout hammer spring being compressed as the stroke is completed. However I found it quite tolerable and not a problem in use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EVOL Mini features an Aluminum magazine is robust and easy-to-load. It snaps down very positively into its position in the magazine well \u2013 probably more precisely than any other PCP magazine I\u2019ve ever tested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it\u2019s retained in position by a sprung ball bearing. This has to be good for the consistent, precise pellet feeding that\u2019s a significant contributor to accuracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll never be wondering if the mag really is perfectly located with the EVOL Mini!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this is very good \u2013 in fact excellent. However, you\u2019ll have to keep track of the number of shots taken as there\u2019s no way to see how many shots have been taken \u2013 or how many pellets remain in the magazine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let\u2019s face it. Most hunters take a relatively low number of shots in a hunt, so this may not be a big deal for you either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means that the relatively low consistent shot count of about 30 shots per fill is unlikely to be a disadvantage for most hunters either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For any air rifle of this power level, the EVOL Mini is very quiet. Yes, there\u2019s no capability for attaching an aftermarket suppressor, but it\u2019s not needed \u2013 at least in the my opinion. And why would you want to attach an additional silencer that would significantly increase the length of such a compact air rifle?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expected, the EVOL is fitted with a Picatinny top rail for scope mounting. I wanted a relatively short, yet high quality, scope to match the design philosophy of the the gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"It\u2019s<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, I mounted a Sightron 3-16 x 42 scope using UTG Pro rings<\/a> from Leapers. The result was very comfortable balance and a harmonious blending of surface finishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like other Sightron scopes<\/a>, this 3-16 x 42 model has a fine graduated reticle. It displays a sharp, high contrast image and is easily focused by the side-mounted parallax control knob. The covered elevation and windage turrets have 1\/4 MOA clicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, this scope complemented the EVOL Mini well, although some hunters might want the capability of an illuminated reticle for shots in deep cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For light weight, compact, yet stable support, I attached a Spartan Javelin Lite bipod to the front of the incredibly long lower Picatinny rail. As you would expect, this bipod is also available from Airguns of Arizona.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Machining, fit and finish of all metal exterior parts on the EVOL Mini were simply outstanding! I have no doubt that the same quality will be found internally as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pistol grip and collapsible buttstock are \u2013 of course \u2013 primarily synthetic. These are Magpul parts and are of the expected high quality. The only issue is that the collapsible stock is somewhat loose and \u201crattly\u201d but that\u2019s down to Magpul rather than American Air Arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EVOL Mini<\/a> is designed for shooting, pure and simple. It\u2019s amazingly compact and balances beautifully. That trigger is just sublime. Critters beware!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Air Arms EVOL Mini is an outstanding, compact hunting air rifle that grows on you with use. The more I shot it, the more I liked it! It will be loved by the hunter who wants an airgun that\u2019s simple, unbreakable, accurate and oozes quality. The EVOL Mini is a beautifully designed and…»<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[94,11],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6393"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6396,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions\/6396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}