hello, any photos ? is there a UK importer or purchase direct
Zbroia? Who they? A company in North Eastern Ukraine, who make weapons. The rifles they make are the Hortista and the Kozak. The Hortista is a rifle or carbine, the Kozak is a bullpup.
Available in 2 calibres, with a walnut stock, this classic looking rifle comes with a whole host of extras that the opposition may find hard to swallow. For a start you get 2 magazines and 2 fill probes. Yes 2 probes, 1 is quick change fitting and 1 is standard bsp thread fitting. Nice not to have to buy a new adaptor for the quick change.
The gun feels light, unscoped it is about 6lb in weight. Nice neutral balance and the cheek piece is just the right height to enable a quick line up. The gun has a nice 2 stage trigger, adjustable for both travel and weight.
The magazine is released by pulling the bolt fully back and pulling the magazine out of the action. The careful amongst us will observe that there is a white dot on one sode of the magazine and on the rim of the magazine, load so that the skirts are facing the dot side and the heads the other side and then just slide back in, the magazine is held in place by ballbearings in the magazine that click into place.
The probe is released by sliding a catch lever back and pulling, the bolt slides back easily, quietly and smoothing, cocking with a nice mechanical and quiet click at the end of travel, pushing the bolt back until the lever clicks means that gun is ready to fire. The gun is also fitted with an anti double load mechanism.
Firing reveals that the shrouded barrel works very effectively and it has a very quiet hammer. This gun feels high quality, the metal the gun is made from and parts such as o rings, manometer etc are sourced from quality European suppliers.
The gun is regulated and has a 300 bar fill, I chronoed it at 11.33 ft lb using 10.5 grain pellets. It gives a nice tight group but seeing as I am still not into treble figures for pellets fired through it I am expecting it to rise slightly.
Tried Premiers and Daystate Heavies through so far, it prefers the Heavies.
If you are in the market for a new rifle and are thinking about an HW110, why not got left field and try a Hortista? at £590 you will have a bit left over for accessories...
Last edited by secretagentmole; 26-11-2017 at 09:09 AM. Reason: Forgot I could add photos!
hello, any photos ? is there a UK importer or purchase direct
I posted a photo, the UK importer is Sureshot at Bury St Edmunds who supply quite a few shops, Solware have them now!
http://sureshot-airguns.co.uk/
How accurate is it and is it pellet fussy?
Most reviews ive seen are in Russian or ukraine so not a great deal to go on apart from looks..
Accurate enough to take a pigeons brains out at 30 metres, it is pellet fussy, Crosman Premiers 10.5 grain were not liked but luckily I had some Daystate Heavies 10.34 grain, both 4.52mm.
The Daystates produced much tighter grouping at 30 metres! I could get a grouping the size of a penny shooting off of the bipod. Please bear in mind that this gun has never been used and I expect performance to improve once a bit more lead gets in the barrel!
Any more information on this rifle have the groups been good at 35 to 40 mtrs plus.. is it pellet fussy?
Looking for a nice different rifle which is accurate well made * reliable * high shot count for a sensible price.. keep me posted please mr Mole.
Weather has not been conducive to anymore testing, varying between blizzard and hurricane.
It has been accurate so far and will keep you updated.
I have been working on the stock, applying oil daily and polishing.
" Manufacture is kept to strict tolerances to keep shot scattering at a distance 30 meter to less than 20 mm."
Hmmm.
TTFN
N.
"The only difference between Men and Boys is the price they pay for their Toys."
Saw this on one of the other forums. Will be keeping an eye on this.
Cheers.
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Update:
Using Daystate Heavies I have been getting a single hole group at 30 metres. However due to the lack of availability of these pellets I have now swapped to Daystate Sovereign Rangemaster in 10.3 grain. These have given a power boost to 11.6 ft lb, accuracy I will report back on later.
Apparently H&N FTT in 4.52mm are also very good in these. I will stick to the Sovereigns at the moment due to getting 1000 of them for Christmas.
These guys deliver to your door
https://m.pellpax.co.uk/airguns/air-...77-black/19533
Just today I watched a youtube video of the bullpup version. Grouping at 25m was impressive.
Boring video, I am almost fluent in the slavic language, still boring, shots never started until after 13 minutes. 14 pellets in a one hole ragged group. I am watching out for a test of one of these.
I posted a review of my Kozak on another forum. Here it is again.
I have had my Kozak around a week now so time to give a brief review. I won’t go into all the stats you can read on the net, just the important stuff:
I bought the shorter option which is very compact handles superbly and balances perfectly on the pistol grip. Sitting shots in the field is are cinch, just rest the pistol grip on your knee for a nice stable hold. The adjustable cheek piece will help get good scope alignment. My Viper Connect is a good match for it.
Its seems to me to be a well made quality bit of kit.
Loading and cycling is a smooth and quiet affair. I really like the 12 shot, one piece mags similar to the HW item. You get 2 with it. Inserting the mag is easy and fool proof. Pellets are held firmly in the mag but the retaining o rings.
The trigger is very nice and much to my liking. Two stage, short travel and light out of the box with maybe just a hint of creep but nothing I suspect that cannot be adjusted out. That said the linkage looks rather finely set and fiddly to adjust; there is nothing in the manual to say how you might do this.
Accuracy at 25 yds is tight one hole groups rested off a bench (see photo). The one pictured is my first attempt at a group but it would perhaps be rather too hopeful to expect them all to be like this (they weren’t tonight but I had a different scope, stance and set up) - but its a big improvement over the Compatto.
I’ve not really done much distance accuracy testing yet but it seems to at least comply with the Zbroia stated maximum spread of POI of 20mm at 30m. Nor have I used anything but the 4.52 JSB exacts which performed so well from the off I’ve not yet looked elsewhere. Its very quiet indeed for a pup with no external mod. Its doesn’t need any more silencing.
Shot count appears very respectable. I got around 6 or 7 mags (sorry lost track) for 100bar . I’ve shot down to 80bar without much drop in POI which suggests 150+ from a full fill of 300bar. MV is a nice 11.2ftlbs with JSB Exacts and much the same with Heavies.
Niggles:
The safety catch is well positioned but rather stiff. I suspect it needs a bit of a polish to get it it how I’d like it. It works ok but to get it to go its full travel in each direction, particularly from safe to fire needs too much effort. That said around 50% of the travel from Fire to Safe is enough to get a firm locking of the trigger and it will release easily and quietly from there. But its not quite right. Hopefully it will improved with use. The safety mechanism itself is sound: effectively you slide a block under the trigger to prevent operation when the catch is operated. Maybe a polish of the block will enable it to slip under the trigger more easily. Now resolved by increasing first stage trigger travel.
The manual is all but useless.
A minor issue is that its tricky to line up a specific chamber of the mag to shoot next (eg if only 5 pellets loaded). And given the symmetrical nature of the mag, there is no indication of shots left. A spot of paint will help assuming that it can be loaded reliably at a certain chamber.
The interior of the stock looks a bit on the cheap side and there are one or two odd holes which don’t need to be there. The plastic trigger guard is a bit naff and a shame cos the rest of the rifle looks a classy build quality.
PM if you want any other info or opinion.