Hatsan Galatian in .25 FAC.

[Rapidnick]

I picked the Galatian up on Thursday after an RFD transfer from Bennetts. As I lifted the gun from it's supplied hard case in Bamford's I became quite emotional due to the fact that it looked just right. The rubber of the synthetic stock feels much like a Hogue but denser, grippy and easy to handle. The blueing is good and the anodised receiver looks super in black. It is a heavy gun so some people will struggle to live with it. The only minus point is the barrel has a step down shoulder when you remove the foresight which lets the look of it down It leaves a gap between the A&M custom mod and the barrel step down. Not earth shattering but could be better. I then went home, cleaned out the barrel, mounted the scope and went to the farm for a zeroing session. Within 10 shots it was on zero and on a five shot group at 50 yards being covered by a 20p piece. Back home I charged it to 200 bar and started a string over the chrono to find the sweet spot. After just three shots it hit 850fps and ranged from 842 to 850 for 30 shots which is more than enough for me. That equates to 40ftlb of muzzle energy with JSB 25.9 grn Jumbo but I am going to try H&N FTT to see how they perform. I have ony fired 50 shots and it appears to have settled in with the only input from me being a light touch of vaseline over the blueing and a minimum touch to lighten the second stage of the trigger I had heard complaints that the rifle suppers from hammer bounce and the resulting ping but this example is very quiet with the only real sound being a muffled click then the impact of the pellet on the target.
In conclusion I would say it is unlikely to win any beauty contests but the fit and feel would equal a lot of guns at twice the price. The fully adjustable stock is very good indeed and seems to balance out the heavy fore end. This gun will appeal to the HW100 owners because the handling is very similar. The rest of the airgun industry should be looking at the Galatian with interest and a touch of worry. This is a quality product which comes supplied with a hard case, sling and two mags which puts it top of the class in my book.

At that sort of power I found that FTTs aren't up to it. I use them up to 30 ft lb and 31 grain Baracudas thereafter. The JSB Jumbos will be fine but I suspect they will cost you quite a bit more than Baracudas. Good luck anyway.