I am really excited to get this innovative rifle in, just 2 weeks before I leave on a hunting trip in Texas looking for hogs and predators! And if I can hit the 215 fpe mark, I’ll use if for javalina as well! Jim Chapman
You’d have thought that with over 20 years of evaluating, reviewing, and hunting with new air rifles, I’d be pretty immune from getting overly excited. But this one gets my heart pumping, my friends at Airguns of Arizona have sent me a Western Airguns Rattler in .357 to use and hunt with for a few months. My big concern is if I’m going to end up buying one more airgun? This is what happened with the Brocock Commander, when it came time to send it back, I couldn’t let it go and bought it. I have a strict one-in-one-out policy that was meant to keep my collection under control. Problem has been that I’ve strictly ignored this rule, and my collection has grown to over a hundred rifles and taken over my office, garage, and an offsite storage space. But that’s a discussion for another day. Back to the Rattler.
The timing for the Rattler’s arrival was perfect, in two weeks I’m off for a week of hunting in Texas and want to get in some calling for fox and coyote before the weather starts warming up. I figure some of the rapid fire shooting often encounterd when 2-3 predators come in would be just the application for a semi-auto PCP putting out up to 275 fpe, I’m going to try out a lot of ammo and power settings, because once I’ve confirmed an accurate combination over 215 fpe, I’ll use the gun for Javalina as well. This is the regulation in Texas, a gun needs to be a .30+ caliber and generate over 215 fpe to take a game animal, including javalina and turkey. No hogs where I’m going, or this gun would be set on them as well!
It’s too cold up here in Minnesota for me to even go out for a target session, my roots in S. California have ruined me for cold weather. When the thermometer stalls in the minus’s, I’m going to sit at my desk and write while waiting for the cold snap to break! But I’ve got the gun sitting on my photo-table right over my shoulder, and I’ve been reading the User’s manual that accompanied the rifle. I’ve got to say this is one of the better written ones I’ve seen in a while. I’ll give you a quick summary of my initial impression of this rifle.
The Western Rattler is a solid and well-proportioned bullpup configuration that is a bit over 9lb without a scope, and is 40″ length overall with a 28″ barrel. The 580cc air bottle can generate 15 shots on a 250 BAR fill, which will of course depend on how I set up the power and the projectiles selected. I have slugs ranging from 100-175 grains with different head shapes to try out, and I’ll determine which will be used after testing. By the way, I’ll be filming the range sessions and the hunts, and hope to have some good video coming at you soon.
The metal work and finishing on the rifle is very good, the controls are well laid out, and accessible. Two things that surprised me at first but made sense once I thought about it; the trigger is not adjustable, and the magazine cannot be removed. The trigger is factory set to optimize the action for semi-auto discharge, and circumvent it being improperly set to compromise reliability. My other concern was that if the magazine could not be removed, what happens if there is a jam? However, as I familiarized myself with the Rattlers functions and mechanics, I found it easy to remove the air tank and the barrel, making a jam fairly straightforward to clear…. IF.. they occur. My experience with a number of semi-auto designs has made me cognizant of this possibility.
The way I’m setting the rifle up for my hunt is with an ATN Night Vision scope, though I have not decided if I will use IR or thermal yet. I would like to use thermal for predators at night, but that’s not a good option for daytime use while hunting javalina. So, I may end up using the X-Sight 4k Pro with day/TR NV and high-quality video recording. Have not yet decided if I will leave the UTG tripod on, use another tripod, or shoot of sticks, Likewise I haven’t decided if I’ll sling the rifle or carry it free in the scabbard in one of my Eberlesole backpacks.
At any rate, I’ll have more on this gun soon. Western Airguns makes one of my favorite magnum big bores, the .44 Bushbuck, so it will be very interesting to see what they do with this platform!
On a side note, I’ve been setting up my hunting excursions for 2023, and I’ve got javalina, hogs, predators, prairie dog, ground hog, and crow hunts organized. But still need to line up my spring turkey hunts, I’ve been thinking about California, Texas or Virginia….. all of which I’ve hunted previously. Does anybody have suggestions for another location where turkey is on the airgunning ticket? If you do, let me know, I like to try new areas when I can.
