Phoenix Mark 11

[madcarlos]

hi i have a mk2 in my collection and its a 177 cal , its super accurate and i was going to buy another spare buddy bottle but decided to get a 500cc top up bottle to take with me as you will all know the shots dont last long , just to mention about brands of pellets i was using aa fields and they were great but i did have to nudge them into the mag at times which was a pain as i still aint plucked up the courage to get the timber drilled to fit studs to attach a sling to the riffle , i did pick up a couple of tins of falcon accuracy pellets in 177 cal and tried them in the phoenix and they are great and also they just drop into the mag without any help and again supper accurate , cracking gun tho

[darryl]

a rifle that accurate would drive me mad too. Do you challenge yourself to long-range groups? If so, what are you seeing for your efforts, and at what range?
Thanks for posting btw. The more info the better. Had any issues with your Bird, and how long have you and others here had your rifle?
Does anyone use this site? It's been pretty quiet there: http://phoenixairguns.myfastforum.org/index.php
darryl

[madcarlos]

a rifle that accurate would drive me mad too. Do you challenge yourself to long-range groups? If so, what are you seeing for your efforts, and at what range?
Thanks for posting btw. The more info the better. Had any issues with your Bird, and how long have you and others here had your rifle?
Does anyone use this site? It's been pretty quiet there: http://phoenixairguns.myfastforum.org/index.php
darryl

hi i have had mine approx 2 years bought it of a chap on here second hand only did once have a bit of trouble and that was with the cocking action , when pushed forward to cock and then brought back it sort of would not stay in position now and then in which i remembered about putting a little oil onto the buddy bottle to lubricate it , not sure if this helped it or it was a coincidence but the cocking action been great since , it was the least of my worries though as the gun being made in england and have heard good things about the company and if needed at least there was someone local i could take it to, as for accuracy it is really as good they get and you could expect pellet on pellet or at least to be touching , i used to shoot about 40/45 yards and with a rest the gun would be more or less pellet on pellet the gun was really more capable than me to be honest , even at 70 yards the gun would take a coke can every shot , i have had quite a few guns over the last couple of years and still got a couple, the phoenix , and my air ranger and as daft as it sounds my old tuned hw77 all of these in 177 cal are extremely accurate as good as each other , i have in the past had a huntsman classic and mk3 daystate again in 177 cal and would rate these all in the same league with accuracy, even tho i have had quite a few other guns, i,e hw100, airwolf,s410 etc and still got a mk2 vermi and a mk2 rapid again all have been quite accurate i really cant compare them to the 177 cal guns as i have always found that doing much over 45 yards seems a bit of a struggle with this cal , have always found that even tho some find the phoenix a bit strange looking and a bit awkward balanced when ever anybody has seen and held my phoenix they seem to have the opposite opinions and comment about how nice it is to hold and shoot, only ever know of about 2 other chaps in my area to have had one of these guns and both have deeply regretted it ,

must say its also a fun gun i know now how accurate it is so now when i take it out i mainly see now how fast i can shoot and generally have fun with the gun , also one thing to mention is i find the buddy bottle a very easy system on this phoenix just half a turn and a shot another half tun one more shot bottle loose just just wish my rapid was like that. cant say i would never part with my phoenix as i have said the same about keeping guns in the past and sold or exchanged them , i had way to many guns here at one time and now think sometimes its best to have them enjoy them and move on , the only problem is at the moment there seems to be nowhere forward with the guns i have at moment but really my mk2 rapid and the mk2 vermi would go before my phoenix i would just have to toss a coin between the air ranger and the phoenix,

here a couple of pics , http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...0120132655.jpg,,,
http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...0120132654.jpg,,
http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...0120132652.jpg,,
http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...0120132650.jpg

[madcarlos]

a rifle that accurate would drive me mad too. Do you challenge yourself to long-range groups? If so, what are you seeing for your efforts, and at what range?
Thanks for posting btw. The more info the better. Had any issues with your Bird, and how long have you and others here had your rifle?
Does anyone use this site? It's been pretty quiet there: http://phoenixairguns.myfastforum.org/index.php
darryl

sorry darryl i did overlook the question about challenging myself with long range groups , but yes with the 177 cal guns including the phoenix i tend to do more long range shooting or target practice really and normally having a go at about 70/80 yards normally i find if the gun is set for about 50 yards then its normally one bobble raised on the scope at about 80 yards , coke cans and small plastic bottles mind , yes there is no fun when the gun is that accurate , i do however at times go over where i shoot with one of the lads so its not to boring as we have our own sort of contest between each other , ,,,,also thanks for the link on the above site ok thanks

[darryl]

You've certainly put the Phoenix in a clear light as compared to it's "contemporaries" regarding accuracy, and life as a owner. I have already put my mind to the need for proper lubrication, and the method of attaining it. The removal sequence of the bottle; I get that too, and look forward to following the program. Certainly your rifle is in great company with the other rifles you own. Do you know if your rifle has the Lothar-Walther barrel, or a BSA barrel? Hugh told me rifles exported to the US have the BSA barrel. It's always impressive to read about the accuracy-at-distance capabilities of a 12-ft/lb rifle. I've watched many many videos of such rifles taking pest birds out past 50 yards, and of the great practice of "ratting". Though those shots take place at a much closer range, it seems, it is still a demonstration of effective shot placement. That is one thing that must always be the object of pest-removal or hunting, I know, but up to now, the only 12 fpe air gun I'd owned was my .22 Brocock Grand Prix pistol, and I dropped it into a custom carbine stock for steadying it, so making it deadly accurate with an 18 grain pellet; one hole at 30 yards is a given. You've own the top brand names for accuracy, imo,and it says you know your way around the market. Like you I've had quite a few pass through my hands. I can say I've had sellers remorse for several of them (AA S-510, BSA Scorpion, and Ultra, Logun S-16, among others).

Like you I have a good shooting buddy with whom i have long-range friendly competitions with. He wants me to "gun-up" t at least a .25, and I have not yet told him of my Pheonix purchase because he'd consider it going the wrong way. I want to be sure to have the rifle squared away before I "spring it" on him.
Thank you aain for your description of life with the Phoenix. The web really needs more such descriptions, and I donn't think Hugh would mind either!
Darryl

[madcarlos]

hi darryl , i took the phoenix out earlier as it was a nice sunny morning, i always take the dogs out but think more so the phoenix as it has been the subject over the last night and just wanted to use it, my dive bottle would only fill it to about 180 bar as its in need of a refill but i thought even 50 shots would be ok , anyway i took some jsb match diabolo exact 8,44gr and also some rws superdomes that i had knocking about , just doing a bit of plinking and a bit of target shooting starting from about 40 paces and shooting at cola type cans and plastic bottle bases , ok they aint 2p pieces but this was the start and moving up to 60 paces and then 70 which it was at this point i was using between the cross and the 1st bobble on the scope , one thing i do find with the phoenix is that you can put the gun away for months and not use it but when you decide to go out again with it the sights never need adjusting, quite a few guns i have had all seem to suffer with this it may just need a click one way or another but the phoenix never seems to suffer from this , right the jsb were as usual very good and very accurate so i tried some rws superdome and one thing i noticed straight away was the cocking did not seem to be very smooth and seemed like the pellets may have been deformed a little but to try and explain how it was with the rws pellets it reminded me of when my wife changes gear in my car , but in all fairness the accuracy did not suffer at all which i was surprised but could not wait to empty the mag and get back to the smooth cocking again,

i am not sure what barrel is on my phoenix but going by the serial number its a early mk2 as it is low in numbers , have also had some older pcp including the falcon light hunter and the early daystate huntsman all in 177 cal very accurate guns, another gun you mentioned was a s510 i had one of these to again in 177 and a very accurate gun again and i found the cocking action just as good if not better than the hw100 but the only draw back with the s510 was the indexing post they seem to wear very quickly, one thing i must say i have been saving the odd bit of cash and thought i may get another gun quite soon but using the phoenix today i am not going to bother i just realised there is no point as i dont think anything out there at the moment that meets my needs like this phoenix does , i may pluck up the courage soon and get studs fitted to fit a sling , anyway off now as the gun shop open by me at 5.30 pm and need to stock up on pellets , atb guy

[darryl]

to the draw the Phoenix has, that you dropped consideration for buying another rilfe (at this time, anyway). Also, I forgot to mention that I really liked the pictures you posted. Like your rifle, mine may be an aealy production MKii. It's serial number is 00178. I'll pester Hugh one more time to find out when it was produced.

I am not a fan of the RWS superdomes. They don't look very done-like to me, and I like RWS springers. I can see from the shape of those pellets why you'd have trouble with cocking your rifle, and I'd bet those pellets are prone to misalignment during cocking because of their shape. I quit using them years ago. But it's a tribute the the Phoenix that it shoots them well. You're killing me telling me these things while I have to wait for my adapter-adapter to finish it's journey of 1567 miles by Brown truck to my front door before I can again know the joy of shooting my Phoenix. Further, your observation that your rifle held zero while sitting so long is high praise both to the scope you have on it, and the fine build quality of the rifle. What scope do you have, btw? I currently have an Accushot 9-16x40 scope on mine. The scope is one of those I've managed to hold on to over the years while putting better glass on rifles as I can afford to do so. This particular scope can focus down to 5 yards, and so is suitable for shooting indoors (where I do a lot of testing and tweaking of my rifles). So it's survived in my collection all these years. It's specs are adequate for the shooting range of the Phoenix, and it's got a decent mil-dot reticle with 6 or 8 dots per axis. Still, maybe I'll buy a better piece of glass for it one day.

Also like you, I've pondered drilling the stock for a swivel stud but so I could mount a bipod. Did I mention that? I've held back on exploring it because I use a bipod for bench-rest shooting instead of a bag, but the Phoenix probably is better suited to a bag because of it's under lever design. So I probably won't go there.
thanks again for sharing, carlos.
darryl

[KeithW]

You've got a great rifle there, congratulations!

Answering an earlier question, the Quick Fill reservoir is a simple screw in replacement to the standard type, but maybe you should screw it in a a fraction tighter than you normally would - it's not going to be coming in and out after all. It is supplied with it's own spanner, because the T-bar is no longer applicable, or indeed usable.

Grouping is excellent - I've got a couple of Daystate's and can't say that either of them group better than the Phoenix Mk2. I was delighted that in a recent shoot at my HFT club I won the .22 section with my Mk2 - winning a shoot off against a very good shooter using an HW100. I've asked Rowan Engineering to investigate the possibility of producing a single shot loader for it and will let you know the outcome - if they can I hope more shooters will use the Phoenix Mk2 in competition. I'm the only person booked to shoot the Phoenix in the World HFT Championships at Easter - out of 350+ shooters!

I tested shot-count and I'm happy that I can get 90+ shots (.22) from a 200 BAR fill. The max fill pressure of the new reservoir is 250 BAR and I'll test it at that once I've had my diver's bottle filled up. I'll shoot it over the chrono at the same time as I test grouping at 35 yards, to see what effect 250 BAR has on consistency & accuracy and I'll post the results hereabouts.

For anyone interested, I'm posting a pic of the new reservoir in place, and the "spanner" and also a fix I did to counter the issue of using this butt-heavy rifle when wearing smooth Goretex - the smooth butt pad can sometimes slip against your shoulder. I've glued some non-slip dashboard / furniture stuff to it - never slipped since. As you can see from the photo, it does need a bit of a trim at the moment.

(Hang on! I can't upload an image from my computer?? Must I link to a URL instead?? I'm sure I've uploaded an image previously! Can anyone clarify, please?)

[CORKY.]

The quick fill cylinders are also available on the infamous auction site at a buy now price.

[madcarlos]

You've got a great rifle there, congratulations!

Answering an earlier question, the Quick Fill reservoir is a simple screw in replacement to the standard type, but maybe you should screw it in a a fraction tighter than you normally would - it's not going to be coming in and out after all. It is supplied with it's own spanner, because the T-bar is no longer applicable, or indeed usable.

Grouping is excellent - I've got a couple of Daystate's and can't say that either of them group better than the Phoenix Mk2. I was delighted that in a recent shoot at my HFT club I won the .22 section with my Mk2 - winning a shoot off against a very good shooter using an HW100. I've asked Rowan Engineering to investigate the possibility of producing a single shot loader for it and will let you know the outcome - if they can I hope more shooters will use the Phoenix Mk2 in competition. I'm the only person booked to shoot the Phoenix in the World HFT Championships at Easter - out of 350+ shooters!

I tested shot-count and I'm happy that I can get 90+ shots (.22) from a 200 BAR fill. The max fill pressure of the new reservoir is 250 BAR and I'll test it at that once I've had my diver's bottle filled up. I'll shoot it over the chrono at the same time as I test grouping at 35 yards, to see what effect 250 BAR has on consistency & accuracy and I'll post the results hereabouts.

For anyone interested, I'm posting a pic of the new reservoir in place, and the "spanner" and also a fix I did to counter the issue of using this butt-heavy rifle when wearing smooth Goretex - the smooth butt pad can sometimes slip against your shoulder. I've glued some non-slip dashboard / furniture stuff to it - never slipped since. As you can see from the photo, it does need a bit of a trim at the moment.

(Hang on! I can't upload an image from my computer?? Must I link to a URL instead?? I'm sure I've uploaded an image previously! Can anyone clarify, please?)

thanks for the above and advice on the phoenix , the more advice and extra,s the better , and good shooting

[madcarlos]

The quick fill cylinders are also available on the infamous auction site at a buy now price.

thanks for the advice

[madcarlos]

to the draw the Phoenix has, that you dropped consideration for buying another rilfe (at this time, anyway). Also, I forgot to mention that I really liked the pictures you posted. Like your rifle, mine may be an aealy production MKii. It's serial number is 00178. I'll pester Hugh one more time to find out when it was produced.

I am not a fan of the RWS superdomes. They don't look very done-like to me, and I like RWS springers. I can see from the shape of those pellets why you'd have trouble with cocking your rifle, and I'd bet those pellets are prone to misalignment during cocking because of their shape. I quit using them years ago. But it's a tribute the the Phoenix that it shoots them well. You're killing me telling me these things while I have to wait for my adapter-adapter to finish it's journey of 1567 miles by Brown truck to my front door before I can again know the joy of shooting my Phoenix. Further, your observation that your rifle held zero while sitting so long is high praise both to the scope you have on it, and the fine build quality of the rifle. What scope do you have, btw? I currently have an Accushot 9-16x40 scope on mine. The scope is one of those I've managed to hold on to over the years while putting better glass on rifles as I can afford to do so. This particular scope can focus down to 5 yards, and so is suitable for shooting indoors (where I do a lot of testing and tweaking of my rifles). So it's survived in my collection all these years. It's specs are adequate for the shooting range of the Phoenix, and it's got a decent mil-dot reticle with 6 or 8 dots per axis. Still, maybe I'll buy a better piece of glass for it one day.

Also like you, I've pondered drilling the stock for a swivel stud but so I could mount a bipod. Did I mention that? I've held back on exploring it because I use a bipod for bench-rest shooting instead of a bag, but the Phoenix probably is better suited to a bag because of it's under lever design. So I probably won't go there.
thanks again for sharing, carlos.
darryl

hi darryl yes the superdomes i dont normally use but they were just here so i took some to try , saying that tho years ago when i first had my 177 hw77 back in 1985 i would only use superdomes and nothing else and they were great but they did go a bit scarce and went onto the accupel range later on , anyway years later the superdomes seem to come back and i bought a tin only last year in 22 cal to try in a s410 tdr i had just bought , well they were that bad the tin is still nearly full there seems to be a added skirt at the base for some reason and as with the 177 superdomes they seem to have a ring around the base of the head , dont think i will ever buy these again, but as said earlier i had been over to stock up on pellets and just bought 2 tins of 22 cal aa diabolo field also 2 tins of 177 diabolo field and 2 tins of falcon accuracy plus in 177 cal , also with the scope on the phoenix i was only wondering that myself as there is no writing of make or model on the scope and i always seemed to think it was a cheap Chinese brand but looking at it it seems well made will take a close up pic of it and post on here , there seems to be a lot of interest in the phoenix and one thing i also did notice just today as lately i have been using the mk2 vermi lately more so due to the shot count and its also a lovely gun to shoot as in the pic http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...ps281d6b7a.jpg ,,,,,,,,,,,the phoenix does seem quite a bit heavier than the vermi but for me i can seem to hold the phoenix more steady although it gets slated for its balance it really suits me when shooting , as when i had the hw100 the weight really suited me but the gun i found very lazy in 22 cal when shooting anything over 35 yards, hope anyone else can share their views on the phoenix the more info and advice the better , atb for now guy

[darryl]

You've got a great rifle there, congratulations!

Answering an earlier question, the Quick Fill reservoir is a simple screw in replacement to the standard type, but maybe you should screw it in a a fraction tighter than you normally would - it's not going to be coming in and out after all. It is supplied with it's own spanner, because the T-bar is no longer applicable, or indeed usable.

Grouping is excellent - I've got a couple of Daystate's and can't say that either of them group better than the Phoenix Mk2. I was delighted that in a recent shoot at my HFT club I won the .22 section with my Mk2 - winning a shoot off against a very good shooter using an HW100. I've asked Rowan Engineering to investigate the possibility of producing a single shot loader for it and will let you know the outcome - if they can I hope more shooters will use the Phoenix Mk2 in competition. I'm the only person booked to shoot the Phoenix in the World HFT Championships at Easter - out of 350+ shooters!

I tested shot-count and I'm happy that I can get 90+ shots (.22) from a 200 BAR fill. The max fill pressure of the new reservoir is 250 BAR and I'll test it at that once I've had my diver's bottle filled up. I'll shoot it over the chrono at the same time as I test grouping at 35 yards, to see what effect 250 BAR has on consistency & accuracy and I'll post the results hereabouts.

For anyone interested, I'm posting a pic of the new reservoir in place, and the "spanner" and also a fix I did to counter the issue of using this butt-heavy rifle when wearing smooth Goretex - the smooth butt pad can sometimes slip against your shoulder. I've glued some non-slip dashboard / furniture stuff to it - never slipped since. As you can see from the photo, it does need a bit of a trim at the moment.

(Hang on! I can't upload an image from my computer?? Must I link to a URL instead?? I'm sure I've uploaded an image previously! Can anyone clarify, please?)

hello Keith,
first, congrats on your club win. Winning over an HW-100 is quite an achievement, given the reputation of that rifle.Good luck at the World Championships. I'll be looking for your report on how you did. Meanwhile, please fill me in on how you won your club match. What pellet did you use? Were you shooting from a sweet spot start-fill? If so, how many competitive shots was that fill good for, and at what pressure did you refill? At 90+ shots, what is your extreme spread? I must say that your 90+ shot count is impressive from a 200 bar fill from only 197cc. Is your rifle the long-barrel or the carbine? We can't yet get the FAC long-barrel version here.

I will begin testing my rifle soon, and will put the data into a spread sheet. Since I intend to tweak mine just a bit I don't expect to get as high a shot count, but given your experience I am optimistic for an acceptable number of shots. More importantly I am looking forward to experiencing the accuracy spoken of in this forum thread.
thank you all for your input. very much appreciated. you make me feel I've made a wise decision (for an impulse bu!y) in getting this rifle.
atb to all,
darryl

[darryl]

hi darryl yes the superdomes i dont normally use but they were just here so i took some to try , saying that tho years ago when i first had my 177 hw77 back in 1985 i would only use superdomes and nothing else and they were great but they did go a bit scarce and went onto the accupel range later on , anyway years later the superdomes seem to come back and i bought a tin only last year in 22 cal to try in a s410 tdr i had just bought , well they were that bad the tin is still nearly full there seems to be a added skirt at the base for some reason and as with the 177 superdomes they seem to have a ring around the base of the head , dont think i will ever buy these again, but as said earlier i had been over to stock up on pellets and just bought 2 tins of 22 cal aa diabolo field also 2 tins of 177 diabolo field and 2 tins of falcon accuracy plus in 177 cal , also with the scope on the phoenix i was only wondering that myself as there is no writing of make or model on the scope and i always seemed to think it was a cheap Chinese brand but looking at it it seems well made will take a close up pic of it and post on here , there seems to be a lot of interest in the phoenix and one thing i also did notice just today as lately i have been using the mk2 vermi lately more so due to the shot count and its also a lovely gun to shoot as in the pic http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...ps281d6b7a.jpg ,,,,,,,,,,,the phoenix does seem quite a bit heavier than the vermi but for me i can seem to hold the phoenix more steady although it gets slated for its balance it really suits me when shooting , as when i had the hw100 the weight really suited me but the gun i found very lazy in 22 cal when shooting anything over 35 yards, hope anyone else can share their views on the phoenix the more info and advice the better , atb for now guy

thanks for the link to the pictures. I'd sure own a Vermi if one ever came my way (I mean if I could afford one!) You have a very nice selection of rifles. I had a shot at an Air Ranger at a very low price, but I was too slow, and missed it.
Do you guys know where I can get extra magazines? I may be able to order them from PAX, but is there a vendor there that you know of? The reason I ask is that I just got off the phoe with the importer here, and it has none, and does not expect to get any even though it has new Phoenix rifles for sale. It does not have spare cylinders either. Plus I was told once the remaining rifles are gone it will no longer support them, I did find out that the Schrader valves are the same ones used in the HW 100 so I feel safe there. Guess it's time to drop Hugh a line again.
darryl

[urx]

Hi Urx,

Thanks for this info, I have a mk2 Phoenix and have used mk1 and mk2 bottles in it with absolutely no problems at all, but it's good to know anyway. Think I'll get the calipers out at the weekend and see what the difference is.

I used I think it was a mk1 bottle in a mk2 rifle and it burgered the bottle. this was nigh on ten years back so memory is bit fuxxy but if you compare amk1 and mk2 bottle side by side there is something about the neck where it mates up to the rifle.
similar but not the same