Manufacturer:- www.daystate.co.uk

Retail Price :- £1700
Intended Purpose :- Pre Charged Pneumatic (PCP) Target Air Rifle
Power :- Compressed Air
Caliber :- 4.5mm / .177
Length in mm :- 1041mm / 41 Inches
Total Weight :- 5410g / 12lb 1/4oz (Very Heavy)
Total Weight with Leupold MK4 Scope :- 6040g / 13lb 5 1/4oz
Weight Stock :- 2705g / 5lb 15 1/2oz
Weight Action With Scope:- 3335g / 7lb 5 3/4oz
Safety :- Manual or auto safe in single shot software mode.
Action Finish :- Gray painted air tube and barrel shroud,Blue anodised breech block and filler.
Barrel :- Match Grade as fitted to the previous CRX FT rifle
Air Cylinder Capacity :- ??cc (Smaller than my MK3 FT cylinder)
Stock :- Gary Cane Laminate with adjustable palm shelf, cheek riser and hampster
Charge pressure :- 230Bar
Includes :- Fill Adaptor, Instruction book, Isolation keys, plug in charger.
Options :- Butt Hook
Warranty :- 3 Years

Scope :- Leupold MK4 3.5-10x40mm LR/T Illum TMR Ret :- Weight 21oz / 595g

A few pictures of my shiny new Daystate Grand Prix. A big thank you to Dave and Tom at www.guns-n-stuff.co.uk for supplying the rifle along with great service.

It has been a while since I bought a new Daystate. My first was my MK3 FT about three or so years ago. The technology appealed to me along with the fact it was British designed and built. But it was also important that it be able to be very accurate and reliable. Over the years this has proved to be correct on all counts, with one small issue with the batteries wearing out, which was easily fixed and made the rifle like new again. It has gone from being shot in the back garden to being used at the Lincs HFT club and eventually in the NEFTA and UKAHFT national rounds.

So this would be a hard act to follow for a new Daystate. Can things really be improved and made that much better in what was really a very good rifle already?

Well Daystate really have set their targets high with this design, with the introduction of several advanced technologies to produce a design that really is an improvement over the older one.

A brief explanation of Daystate's CDT (Capacitor Discharge Technology) should really be given here for those not already familiar with previous rifles in the companies history. The MK3 was the previous design and it was different because it used an electrical solenoid to strike the air valve instead of using the spring system that pretty much all of the rest of the worlds PCP air rifles use.

Using electronics to control the amount of energy into the solenoid (via voltage and pulse length) you can control how hard the valve is struck and also how quickly. This gives a degree of control over the air release that is simply not possible on a conventional spring hammer design. It also allows the use of an electrical switch on the trigger instead of a traditional sear system.

Some people don't like the micro switch trigger of the Daystate electronic actions, but I think it works brilliantly. I use a PC for 40 plus hours a week at work and am pretty used to clicking the mouse button. The feel on pulling the trigger on the MK3 is pretty similar.

Other features of the electronics are things like a built in shot counter, Magazine counter, and the ability to adjust the power level (Down from factory set sub legal limit).

More Details on the older MK3 can be found in my previous review here.

So how can changing the electronics from the MK3 to the MK4 make such a radical change in the technology of the rifle?

For a start it is the addition of one (or two depending on version) very important sensors to the MK4 rifle that has made such a leap forward. Along with a new Harper air valve on the rifles mechanical design.

Previous rifles were either Regulated (FT, RT and FTR) plus the odd special request. Or not regulated

Regulated rifles have a mechanical regulator that transforms the cylinder pressure (200 Bar or so) down to a lower pressure behind the air valve. It maintains a constant regulated pressure across the whole of the fill range or typically 225bar down to 100bar. This result in a good shot to shot consistency for 120 plus shots or so.

The non regulated version still has excellent shot to shot consistency. But will follow a power curve over the whole fill. First shooting slightly under power then moving into the sweet spot for the majority of the fill then again shooting slightly under power as the air pressure drops to 110bar or so.

Daystate noticed that the non regulated sport version would actually out perform the regulated ones because of the faster operating times of the solenoid and very fast air blast caused by the higher operating pressures of the non regulated air in the cylinder.

So how do we get the best of both worlds?

Remove the regulator to get a higher operating pressure! But now we have a power curve problem. Not with the MK4 we don't. The MK4 now has an electronic pressure sensor fitted to the air cylinder. Now the electronic circuit can adjust the power to the solenoid to compensate for the change (Drop) in air pressure as each shot is fired. The power curve is effectively flattened electronically. With less moving parts it should be more reliable than the mechanical regulator as well.

Some versions of the MK4 electronics, specifically this Grand Prix along with the MVT Airwolf also have the additional sensor built into the muzzle of the rifle. This is a couple of light sensors that form a chronograph sensor to measure the pellet velocity as it exits the barrel. What good is that then? You can buy chronographs to test the power of your rifle anyway. This one is different though as it is also connected to the electronics and is able to offer additional adjustment to the rifles velocity.

All MVT (Mapped Velocity feed- forward Technology) rifles (GP and Airwolf MVT) also have the addition of a backlit 16x2 LCD display, mounted on the side of the breech block. So now we get to see some of this information that the electronics is dealing with for ourselves.

On turning on the rifle (By moving the safety catch to the fire position) the display lights up and shows the following information.

1.) Air cylinder pressure in Bar
2.) Battery Voltage
3.) Rifle set Velocity in feet per second
4.) Number of shots fired since last shot counter reset

Programming of the various rifle modes is similar in operation to the MK3 with a few important improvements.

The rifle power on the Grand Prix is now set to the nearest FPS (above 400 and below the legal limit). Just set the exact FPS required on the display. Once set the rifle will now tune itself to your selected pellets with ten or so shots. So a 7.9 grain pellet would still be shot at the same set velocity as an 8.4 grain one, once the rifle has adjusted to compensate.

When a pellet is fired the LCD display will change to show the measured velocity of the last shot. It soon becomes very apparent how good the shot to shot consistency is. With a variance of around +/- 7 FPS (On a selection of un weighed JSB 4.53 Exacts)

A new design of air valve has also been developed for the whole range of Daystate rifles. It was mainly developed to ease the use of the new MK4 electronic actions with the mechanical design of the rifle. The ordinal valve did not have a very linear response over the pressure range and this has been altered in the new design to allow far better integration with the electronics. The added bonus is the new valve is very efficient and allows the action to be fitted with a smaller air tube without compromising the number of shots.

So what else is new on the Grand Prix? I can see quite a few changes from my old MK3 FT.

1.) Breech now uses 6 rather than four fixing bolts for a much more ridged attachment to the air cylinder.
2.) A proper single shot tray with beefed up block.
3.) A fully floating (Hurray!) CRX match barrel in a slotted shroud.
4.) Adjustable trigger (Reach and height)
5.) Micro switch now nut and bolted to the trigger block.
6.) Bolt only moves enough for single shot loading. No chance of lost pellets in the block!
7.) The stock. In fact the stock needs a special mention all of its own.

Gary Cane laminate stock.

At first appearances you would probably not take this rifle to be a Daystate (People at the club have been fooled). First of all the Blue anodising is unusual. Plus the gray finish on the cylinder and barrel shroud.

But mainly the laminate stock. It is a work or art. The laminate really does show off all the figuring and shaping that has gone into it.

When the suggestion box was asked for on the successor to the MK3 on the Daystate owners club web site I asked if we could have a more adjustable stock than on the MK3 FT. The FTR gave us a more rounded version but not really any more adjustments. The Grand Prix gives us probably too many! But that is a good thing. The adjustable cheek riser in both height and angle is a great improvement. A decent metal butt adjustment plate with standard pad (Or butt hook as an option). The hampster has a very rough finish by design to give a good purchase on your shooting glove. Luckily it also move up enough to comply with the 150mm UKAHFT rules! Much to the disappointment of several club members with their tape measures! LOL

Even the pistol grip has a palm shelf (Like my LP50 target pistol) and it does help keep your hand in the same position.

Perhaps now we should mention one of the features of a laminate stock. That is the weight. Make no mistake about it this is one seriously heavy rifle. Most of that extra weight is in the stock. The total weight with my MK4 scope is 6040g / 13lb 5 1/4oz. So this is never going to be a good hunting gun! That is not the point though. The extra weight is there to help with stabilising the rifle and it does a good job of that. It just takes a little getting used to to start with. The balance is perfect with all the weight back towards the shooter and not out at the front.

The rifle has primarily been designed for the FT market. But mine will put to use with HFT as that is what we shoot at our club.

In use the rifle does definitely feel different to shoot than my old MK3 FT. It is probably the very distinctive pop that the Grand Prix makes when it is fired. It sounds quicker than the MK3 but I would image they are both so fast that you could not subjectively tell the difference.

You can fill the Grand Prix to 230 Bar which is higher than most non regulated rifles. The small cylinder at first worried me a little. I was thinking that I would have to fill it every 75 shots or so. A pain when you are practicing down at the zero range and then on the field. But not to worry the rifle is so efficient with the air that you can shoot over 160 shots before refilling. Amazing really. It should be noted that I have set the power to 777FPS as that is what my older MK3 was running at. I wanted as seem less transfer from one rifle to the other as possible.

Performance on the zero range is pretty stunning as well. I've only been shooting it for about three week so far, but it has already helped me to shoot bench rested a perfect single hole 30 yard 3 shot group and several 5p sized 5 shot ones at 40 yards. The best of these has 4 pellets in the same ragged hole with the other still within the 5p circle. All these were outdoors in less than perfect conditions. I think the limitations are with the shooter and the weather conditions.

Pellet wise I have tried JSB Exact 4.52 and 4.53 and can see no difference in groups at 40 yards. My older MK3 only likes the 4.53s!

Taking the action out of the stock reveals lots an lots of extra wires compared with the MK3. But everything is tidy and organised.

The front of the PCB no longer has the permanently soldered batteries my MK3 had but two connectors. One for the pressure sensor and the other for the now velcro attached battery pack. Now if it wears out it can be changed in a few seconds with no technical skills required. Plus they have a 9v batter adaptor for those times when you have forgot to charge it.

The rear of the PCB under the solenoid now contains and extra LCD driver and chronograph add on board. You will see a ribbon cable that goes to the LCD display along with three very fine wires that connect to the chronograph unit in the muzzle of the rifle.

The barrel shroud hides these wires but does appear to contain an full length slit where it meets the top of the air tube. I assume this is to give it enough clearance with the thicker diameter CRX barrel used on the Grand Prix? I assume the Airwolf MVT ones run inside the shroud?

Anything I don't like?

Possibly the move away from a traditional blued finish on all of the new Daystate rifles. I know the reason is that it offers better protection to the metal surface inside and out. My MK3 does show signs of long days in the rain on HFT events. But with a good reblue it will look like new. Not so sure about that gray paint in a few years time on the new rifle. I'll just have to be careful with it.

Not a problem but just a point is the magazine option has been left in the Grand Prix software. It cannot be fitted with a magazine so it really is a redundant feature. But I can see that the software is probably common to both the Grand Prix and the Airwolf MVT and that does have a magazine.

That is it for now. I'll be back with some more updates when I have used it a little more. Maybe even with a chrono test if i can hack the 160+ it will take! LOL

Thanks

Mark

www.daystate.co.uk

www.daystateowners.com

www.airgunbbs.com

www.guns-n-stuff.co.uk