Stalker Jaguar .22 FAC-my new favourite?

[Rapidnick]

Well maybe not but it is REALLY nice!
For some time I had wanted a Stalker. Not the one based on the Super 10 but one of the top models based on one of the Daystate actions. I reckoned the chances of finding one in left hand were pretty slim but about a year ago a friend called me to let me know that a gunshop had one which they were selling for a man who had surrendered his FAC. This turned out to be a .22 single shot Stalker Jaguar which is based on the Daystate Huntsman with a lovely thumbhole walnut stock and running at 40 ft lb. I made an offer and after a little bit of haggling a price was agreed and I headed over to the shop to buy the rifle. I was very pleased indeed with its appearance and was assured that there were no leaks. I brought the rifle home, fitted a Simmons Aetec 3.8-12x44 scope, filled the cylinder and zeroed the rifle over my 30 metre range. It was very smooth to shoot, very accurate and powerful but quite noisy. In fact the larger of the 2 silencers supplied with the rifle blew apart very soon and was replaced by the smaller one which was very strong but less effective in taming the blast.
I soon discovered that the shot count-as expected-was pretty poor at really no more than 12 full power shots and so the rifle spent most of its time in my gun cabinet being brought out every so often to test and to stroke. As a friend of mine needed to send a rifle to John Bowkett for a service I did the same asking John to service and reduce the power to around 30 ft lb which is what he did. I picked the rifle up and on testing found it now gave me 25 full power shots at just over 30 ft lb with Bisley Magnum pellets-my chosen ammo for FAC air. I also fitted a Weihrauch silencer which did a much better job than either of the ones supplied with the rifle could ever do.
After a while I decided to give the rifle a bit of use. I changed the scope for my favourite Bushnell Legend 5-15x40 mildot and took it out hunting. What a revelation! The first shot did for a carrion crow at around 40 yards and the second for a woodpigeon at around 50 yards. Spot on and absolutely deadly.
The thing I find with single shot rifles is that you are not tempted to waste ammo by just shooting at anything you feel like. I feel so confident with this rifle's accuracy and the ease of aiming. One mildot over for 50 yards and 2 at 60 seem to be perfect for this rig. I haven't shot anything over 60 yards as I am leaving that for slightly less windy conditions.
All in all I am very pleased with this rifle. As I am thinking of converting my late model Rapid 2 .22 FAC to .25 this may well become my .22 FAC air rifle of choice.
Pictures below. Please note they were taken a while ago with the Simmons Aetec scope not the Bushnell.
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