Yeah well, this turned awkward..
Cause i ordered a 25cal gun and had a 22cal gun delivered.
Bought used as the only new ones in stock were 22cal ones.

Well, F it. Itīs here at least. But.. with issues. It was used right, and someone had truly "leaned into" this one previous no doubt.



Have to hand it to Kral though. Itīs a lovely gun no doubt.

To be clear right off the bat though.. Auto as in SEMI auto. Full auto guns are of absoltely zero interest to me. The purpose of shooting is to hit what youīre aiming at and i donīt care if the gun in case is a "no recoil PCP"..
A semi as it leaves that you can stay on target. Indeed the 12 shots of the mag can be dumped as fast as you can pull the trigger, but again.. to what avail?



Indeed. In black n white. Well.. Whatever. First thing i did though was rip the piece apart. For several reasons, as this thing turned out to have issues but mainly to see how Kral has handled that there with it being a semi auto gun, in essence being a Kral Puncher from the bottom up - they all share loads of build steps and features.

The gun sports a shroud right, as you can see. Now. Point here is that this shroud is indeed a shroud but itīs also the housing for a rather large aluminium "piston" that rides the outside of the barrel, being sealed off vs the shroud with what strikes at least me as a teflon ring. All good.
Up ahead of that piston per usual is that "shroud deflector setup. Ie; an adapter of sorts that seals off vs the shroud tube and carries in this case 4 rather large ports to deflect air into the shroud tube.
Or in this particular case.. pressure and volume vs that aluminium piston.

So. The other end of said piston resides a spring that rides the outside of the barrel as well and that spring sits between said piston and the receiver of the gun, excerting "return pressure" as gas pressure bleeds off.

At the very end of the aluminium piston thereīs a threaded rod that runs the length of the receiver and actuates a sort of "slave piston" that is coupled to the bolt and.. the hammer.

Now. Someone had leaned into this gun alright cause that rod had been bent to hell and back and straightened. Numerous times making it look like a damn S.
The slave piston and bolt are linked via a pin and the absolute end of this pin runs the hammer... and that pin end...



..no doubt had been bottomed out a time or two. Explaining the bent rod too...

So apart from a number of other small jobs i turned a new such pin out of hardened steel (an old torx bit that i annealed and cut to size on the lathe before rehardening the thing again).



Uhu. A "minor" difference in protrusion to say the least. So.. that covered. I thought.

As i ripped the thing apart, these piece of kit i believe are claimed around the 40J mark stock, i about routinely opened various passages up while at it. Stock diameter being approx 3,5mm for the most part now ended up at 5,5mm.. which sure made for a difference, not all of it good as things turned out...

Anyways.



Kral being Turkish it only comes natural, also seeing their price point, to compare them to Hatsan for instance. In comparsion itīs like comparing ballet and brutal disco dancing approx. Kral in case carries NONE of that "harshness" and lack of fit of a Hatsan. Zero. This thing is not only well designed itīs also well put together.
Or..?
On a general whole, yes it it. More on that though..



Capacity of that there is a roomy 425ccīs. Limited to 200 bar by all means but still.. In the case of an aluminium tank better take notice of that maximum pressure however.



Uhu. Comes with a thread protector but.. you guessed it. 1/2" UNF. No extras or similar BS, itīs there from the onset.



"Scope rail" in turn is the typical Turkish solution. In other words a dual purpose one, both dovetail and Picatinny.



Shroud tube sure is of ample dimensions. Weīll get to that however...



Bolt stroke, as you can see, rather short - per usual for semi or auto guns.

So.
The shroud does help out a bit as far as muffling report no doubt. However, have in mind that the major parts of its innards are filled with a piston and so on.
40J.
Well. What that hands is that as i upped performance of the gun that auto load setup bottoms out it isnīt even funny, which AGAIN sheared that pin..
*sigh*.
Yeah well, i could have figured that out didnīt i?
But. The thing here is.. This is IMO a really lovely gun. However, we see pill weights and performance climb on a daily basis for PCPīs and this gun, in stock form, is basically dead set to running them 40J.
Why?

Cause what i plan here is to drill a number of holes in from the front of that there piston for the auto load thereby becoming able to bleed off what i donīt need as far as pressure and volume. This brings that by threading the holes i drill iīm able to close or open up them holes as i see fit, and i truly wonder, with a capital W, why Kral has opted to sell this design short by limiting it to said 40J.?
I donīt get it.
In turn, but drilling them holes and by bleeding of excess air into the shroud the gun will just become more quiet while at it. A win-win if ever.

Most of my 22īs are running shy of the 100J mark and i expect no less out of this Kral once sorted. Or more to the point, IF Kral would have set this gun up to be adjustable as far as this they could sure have made it work for instance at 12lbs too. What gives? Cause in contrast to where i live Britain sure is market enough? I mean, you guys buy PCPīs in comparsion to us guys like they were going out of style, so why not dial that setup in for 12lbs too? Or 7,5J for the German market?
I just donīt get it?

Cause as far as iīm concerned, again, lovely lovely gun.

Welp. As i then put the thing back together and pressurized it of course the valve leaked like crazy too. Apart.. and indeed the sealing surface out of POM or PEEK from the looks of it sure had seen better days why i handed it a shim cut where after i lapped the thing with the drill..
In turn the return spring for it stock is nothing short of insanely stiff why that was replaced with a WAY softer piece too.

Barrel in turn was handed a fresh muzzle crown and had its chamber and forcing cone polished out while on the lathe too.

So where iīm at is to balance that auto load out. Yeah, that and... the trigger.

WHAT IS IT WITH THE TURKS AND TRIGGERS OUT THE FACTORY DOOR?!?
Listen to this. Thereīs holes drilled in both the trigger and sear for adjustment grub screws. Hell, them holes are even threaded. But for some insane reason the actual grub screw were missing, handing me a trigger out of the box that was like trying to move a damn WALL!.
Two grub screws later and.. coarse adjustment we at least have something to play with. Absolutely certain that the trigger can be turned "ok" at least.

So?
My opinion on the gun? Neat piece of kit. WAY ahead of any Hatsan, that much is for sure but per usual.. a platform to build on. I hope and plan for this to come together asap, although.. no rush.
Need to adress that "balance" deal there and take it from there. In short, drill the damn holes for starters and nevermind if the gun wonīt cycle, that can be done manual and hole after hole closed up until it starts to run as intended.
Yes.
Even at 100J (or 80 for that matter).

Across the FX radar it told me 25,4īs @ approx just shy of 900 already as is, and itīs a starting point i guess. Truth be told though it wouldnīt be a half bad idea with some sort of buffer there between the spring and the receiver to keep from breaking more of them pins evaluating whatīs needed to make it run flawless.

But.. nah. Weīll get there.

Stay tuned.