Recommended Retail Price :- £940 see dealers below for a good deal!
Intended Purpose :- Pre Charged Pneumatic Air Rifle
Power :- Compressed Air
Caliber :- 4.5mm / .177
Length in mm :- 950 / 37.5 Inches
Weight :- 3600g / 8lb
Safety :- Manual
Action Finish : Gloss
Air Cylinder Capacity :- 185cc
Charge pressure :- 220Bar
Includes :- Fill Adaptor, Instruction book, Isolation keys, plug in charger.
Options :- 10 shot Mag, RT stock, Muzzle Flip Compensator, Silencer
Warranty :- Five Years if bought from Blackpool Air Rifles else 3 Years

This was my second purchase in the world of airguns. In truth it was bought at the same time as the Steyr LP50 pistol. But I really wanted a rifle as well and after a long deliberation I opted for this model. It has many aspects of its design that appeal to me so let go through a few of them.

1.) Made in England. I don't have anything against non UK products. Its just that lately it seems that we have next to no manufacturing base anymore. Nice to see a world class product still made here!

2.) Pre charged pneumatic design with regulator to ensure shot to shot consistency. Should mean that the gun performs consistently for the majority of the charge. Yet to be proven by me!

3.) Revolutionary electronic trigger and firing system with custom operating features. Think clicking a mouse button and you will know how the trigger feels.

4.) Field Target stock with adjustable but plate and cheek piece. I wasn't sure about this but now I have the FT stock I really do like the way it feels.

My particular gun is slightly different to the standard FT model as the standard muzzle flip compensator (MFC) has been removed and replaced with the built in moderator that the RT version normally comes with. The reason for this is I wanted to be able to use the gun with an additional silencer. Not for hunting but so target shooting in the garden does not annoy anyone.

The rifle is supplied with with the following items. Instruction manual, keys for the gun isolation switch, mains charging adaptor and a quick release high pressure charging adaptor.

The gun comes supplied with a brass charging adaptor. This in turn will attach to the high pressure micro bore tube on the outlet of my Hill Pump . I do intend at some stage to get a 12L 300Bar divers bottle and gun gauge from these people at MDE . But the pump is fine for now. It will certainly keep you fit as getting up to 220Bar requires some effort!

To charge the rifle with air you first have to remove the metal cap that protects the charging nipple. This is extremely well machined and has the Daystate logo etched into the end. It is also covered in grease. I will assume that this is a silicone based grease as you should not use petroleum based ones near any high pressure air components. Once connected to the pump I charged the cylinder using the hill pump. When the pressure in the pump reaches the same as that in the cylinder you can actually hear the internal valve open. The gauge on the pump can now be used to measure the pressure of the cylinder on the gun. The recommend fill pressure for this regulated gun is 220 Bar. This does take quite a few pump stokes and is pushing me over the edge towards getting a divers bottle.

As this gun is operated via electricity it also has on board a couple of rechargeable cells. These need to be charged periodically and the gun is provided with a plug in adaptor to do this. It plugs in behind the trigger guard and when charging the guns safety switch indicator will flash yellow. The NiMh cells used are rated for 1000 charges so they should last a while! They will self discharge over time so if the gun has not been used for a while I recommend a charge before use. The cells use a low charge rate and take around 14 hours to fully charge. Leaving them plugged in longer will not damage them due to the low rate.

Once charged with air and electricity the gun is ready for use. This first requires that you turn on the isolation switch located in front of the trigger guard to the on position. This may be a good point to go into the unique features of this particular gun.

The first major difference you will already have realised by turning on the guns isolation switch. This gun is operated by an electronic firing mechanism. Gone are the traditional mechanical trigger and hammer. Instead we have a micro controller based system with a capacitor discharge firing system. What does this mean then? Well the electronics control the amount of charge that is allowed to flow into a storage capacitor. This in turn when the trigger is operated is used to operate a solenoid which opens a poppet air valve that allows the high pressure air into the chamber to fire the pellet. This gives us many advantages over a traditional system. Such as :-

No mechanism to cock. The battery charges the capacitor which fires the solenoid!
Quieter. Very short efficient air pulse results in a far less noise than a mechanical air release.
The ability to adjust power levels. The microprocessor can adjust the charge level to the capacitor and thus control the total output power of the gun. This can also be made tamperproof to prevent guns exceeding the 12ft/lb level. Or on FAC version wound all the way up to 17ft/lb or 25ft/lb for the .22 version.
Safer. The guns electronics can be isolated to prevent unauthorised use.
Excellent Battery Life. The capacitor charging and electronics consume so little power a single battery charge will provide thousands (3000-5000) of shots.

So now we know a little about how it works how do you shoot it? Well first the pellet must be loaded. This gun comes with a single shot loading tray. A 10 shot indexing magazine is also available which I have also bought. But to change to this requires two countersunk head cap allen cap screws. Which I will have soon (thanks Lloyd) I also have on order a magnetic single shot tray from the Pieman on the AirgunBBS which should allow me to painlessly swap between the magazine and single shot.

After making sure the rifle is pointing in a safe direction and the safety is in the safe position (Green dot on the rear on the cylinder above your thumb. The bolt is first lifted and then drawn rearwards to reveal the loading port. The pellet should be checked to make sure it is not damaged. I was amazed that you can crush them with your fingers. They are only soft lead after all. Then place the pellet into the chamber and push it home. The bolt can now be pushed forwards and locked pushing the pellet fully into the barrel. the rifle can now be made ready by turning off the safety and this will glow red indicating the trigger is now live. As I don't yet have my Leupold scope I have not shot the gun over any distance. I have fired several hundred pellets indoors by sighting down the barrel though! LOL

The trigger is so light with only the feel of the micro switch click after the initial first stage of movement. The gun does not kick or move when fired. I can only remember the odd springer I shot many years ago and this does seem to be in another league! But it should be considering the technology.Even without sights I was able to group shots together on my pitifully small 7.5m indoor range! I did turn the power down to shoot indoors as at full power I found the results a little intimidating! This leads us onto the user programmable features of the gun.

This gun has a range of custom features that can only be offered on a gun with electronic control.

I will list them out in the order of the instruction manual and try to explain them a little. I did find the instructions a little confusing at first but after operating the gun they become a lot clearer. There is an additional seventh function not even mentioned in the manual! I think this is due to software upgrades being easier than reprinting the manual and that can only be a good thing for the owner as future improvements may only be a simple flash download away when the gun is serviced!

The gun comes set to the following settings out of the box :-

Magazine counter off
Magazine counter set to zero
Shot counter off
Shot counter set to zero
Safety light normally on
Power set to maximum
Single shot mode set to on

To program the operating modes the gun must first be set to safe. After making sure the gun is unloaded holding the trigger on and turning safety switch to fire access the programming menus.

The gun will step though each option with first one beep for the first function, two beeps for the next and so on. To access a feature the trigger is released on the required setting, then use the table below to determine the required action. Returning the gun to safe mode accepts any changes made.

1.) One beep. Reset magazine counter
2.) Two beeps. Reset Shot counter
3.) Three beeps. Turn On / Off red LED on safety operation. pull trigger to select 1beep off. 2beeps on.
4.) Four beeps. Shot counter. Pull trigger to increase shot count by 10 shots at a time. I.E. pull 7 times for a 70 shot count. To set to zero release trigger after the initial four beeps and turn off the safety.
5.) Five beeps. Mag counter. Pull trigger to select 1beep off. 2beeps on.
6.) Six beeps. Programmable power setting. Pull trigger to reduce power by 1 step. 16 steps available.
7.) Seven Beeps. Single shot Mode. Pull trigger to select 1beep off. 2beeps on. This is the one not covered by the manual instructions.

The modes are described in more detail below:-

Magazine Counter
Counts the number of shots fired from the magazine. Will blink on the 9th shot and double blink and beep after 10 shots.

Shot Counter
As this gun does not have a built in air gauge. The shot counter can be used to warn you when you have fired a preset number of shots. The gun will give 4 beeps and blinks when the count is reached.

Safety LED on and off
The red safety switch LED can be switched off when the gun is in the FIRE setting. It will still flash for other warnings though.

Power Setting
You can adjust the muzzle velocity to reduce the power from the full power rating of the rifle. Useful if like me you want to plink inside and think the full 12ft/lb is a little too much! 16 stages of power reduction are available with the lowest one just about able to reach my 7.5m target!

Single shot mode
In this mode the gun will only let you fire one shot before you have to turn off the safety switch and turn it back on again. Useful for competition work where it will help remind you to switch the gun back to safe.

There are also a few automatic features that the gun will perform

Auto-safe Feature
If you leave the gun in the fire position for 15 minutes after the last shot. It will automatically go into safe mode and inhibit the trigger. The LED will flash and beep every 20 second to remind you to turn it back to safe mode.

An impressive set of features I think you can see!

I am still waiting for my scope as mentioned above. But i will be back to add to this review after shooting it over longer distances.

Update 11-June-2005

I have now got my Leupold scope and BKL scope rings. This has enabled me to set up the MK3 as intended. After first reading the excellent FT Skills manuals along with Wayne Hudson scope setup manual I was able to attach my scope without any problem at all.

The BKL rings took longer than I expected to turn up. So with my lack of patience I ordered some more from BAR and just like you would expect they then ALL turned up on the same day! LOL

I bought the double strap rings in a matte black finish. They support the scope really well and in addition they also have an add on bubble level which screws into the side. This optional extra will give me something else to worry about as I try to keep the cross hairs held onto the target!

Using the MK3 with the scope fitted is a whole new experience! I though it was good before, now it is just superb. The first few shots were a little off target, but with a few adjustments to the scope things suddenly get a lot better. I was shooting from 16 Yards initially. I was supervised at how little you have to move in range to the target to make large adjustments to the scope settings. Moving nearer to 10 yards take my elevations from 1 1/4 to 4 1/2 on the adjustment. But after downloading Chairgun2 it becomes obvious as to why this is the case. I did not appreciate quite how curved the flight path of the pellet actually is. I don't yet have access to a longer target range. So my comments are limited to my humble home setup. But this will still allow me to practice most the techniques I need to shoot further. I just need smaller targets!

I have also bought some shooting bags to help me zero in. These really are excellent and also give me something to rest the rifle on when I pause from shooting. They are made in the US by the dog-gone-good company and sold in the UK by www.shootingbags.co.uk. Filled with poly propylene beads they are very well made from 1000 denier cordura nylon and quality leather. Hopefully they will last a long long time. The main bench bag is a small sized one. It weighs in at 5325g (11lb 11oz) The smaller bag you see is actually a window bag that doubles as a butt bag. This is lighter at 1790g (3lb 15oz) and will sit on a car window for shooting from the vehicle.

I have been shooting in my back garden and to enable to do this for long periods without seriously annoying the neighbours I wanted the MK3 to be as quiet as possible. The Weihrauch silencer that I got is just the job for this and reduced the noise to a springy pop sound. Which is I think the sound of the electric solenoid in the gun operating the air valve. Most impressive. I don't really know if the silencer effects the accuracy or not. I need a longer range to prove this. But even if it does this is a feel an essential purchase for back garden plinking. It is also reasonably light in weight and did not cost the Earth.

After playing with the scope parallax to set the correct range the image was nice and crisp. The magnification goes from 6.5 to 20. I find I actually like using the highest magnification. It really makes those 4mm bullseyes look a lot bigger. All I have to do now is try to keep the rifle still! LOL I found the best shooting position for me without using the shooting bags was to sit and rest the MK3 in the crook of my arm which is resting on my raised knees. I can manage to his the bull from 16 yards with reasonable consistency. kneeling shots are a little worse. The standing shots I would rather not talk about! Hitting the target seems to be the problem here!
I enjoy the total concentration required. But have to learn when to stop; rest and retake my aim. It is too tempting to force the shot and know full well that you are going to miss the intended target.

I am looking forward to getting the chance to go and shoot longer distances and learn the scope settings for each range. I think I may have to go and buy myself a good reel tape measure.

The MK3 seems to be able to provide about 110 full power shots from a 220 bar charge. The pressure at the start of a refill is 100 bar after this. So a few more shots could probably be taken. Charging the gun with the Hill pump is hard work! But it's an excuse to keep me a little fitter. I can see a divers air bottle in my future. Shooting directly after charging shows you exactly what effect an elevated heart rate has on you ability to hold steady. I'll give biathlon events a wide birth! A comfy sitting position is more my style. LOL

I have tried shooting with a couple of different pellet type up to now. The Daystate FT 4.53mm seem to be excellent. Although for paper punching they do not make a nice hole. With the H&N 4.5mm Match Pistol Diablo I get nice holes. But every few shot or so I seem to get a flyer that goes wide of the mark, strange! I get this when bench rested as well so I hope it is not me. Perhaps I need to try some other target pellets. As an experiment I chroned each of the pellets over the full range of power setting on the MK3 and plotted the results, please see the attached pictures below :-

.177 Daystate FT 4.53mm - .177 H&N 4.5mm Diablo Match Pistol

I will probably do some more testing when I have spent some more time enjoying myself shooting.

That's it for now. I will hopefully add too this in the future as and when I discover more about this wonderful new pastime.

Update 21-June-2005

I shot a string of shots through my Combro CB-625 MKIV Chronoscope. These are the results.

Here is the Excel Spreadsheet for the above. Daystate MK3 Chrono Test Results

I was pretty impressed with the results. Looks like the MK3 will give well over 120 shots from a 220 bar fill. This was with the power reduced from maximum by 2 trigger pulls. Giving about a 780 ft/Sec average velocity.

So I think this is another excellent buy for those of you wanting a state of the art air rifle. Now I have used the MK3 as intended with a high quality scope it really it a great way to spend hours in the garden without the more mundane tasks such as cutting the grass!

Manufacturer:- www.daystate.co.uk

UK Dealers

Blackpool Air Rifles (BAR) www.airgunbuyer.com

UK Forums

www.airgunbbs.com