RTI Arms Priest 0033 Ongoing Review

[Jman2311]

I am not saying that the rifle doesn't have potential just that for the price it seems just a touch unrefined for ~$1,000.00  I expect things like the trigger to need no more than  a minor adjustment. Not a complete tear down and tune

Again.  Not hurting my feelings.  The gun is definitely not highly refined.  Obvious speculation here but I think that was the intent to keep things simple.  As a start up they would need to keep things simple to keep the costs down as much as possible.  However there are some pluses about this. I am sure I will be proven wrong on this eventually but I don't see anything that pops out to me as a likely failure point.  I can say with absolute certainty that you won't have any pellet probes come flying out into you for example.  I only tore into the gun to learn how it works.  RTI hasn't supplied a parts list and exploded diagram yet which I am not happy about.  Overall the gun does seem to be built like a tank with one exception and that is the scope rail.  It is not sufficiently strong for me.  It will flex on the thinner end although it is holding zero pretty close considering I have removed the scope several times now.  I do feel the need to be extra careful with bumping the scope but that goes for any optic on any platform.   

[Nomadic Pirate]

I am not saying that the rifle doesn't have potential just that for the price it seems just a touch unrefined for ~$1,000.00  I expect things like the trigger to need no more than  a minor adjustment. Not a complete tear down and tune

Again.  Not hurting my feelings.  The gun is definitely not highly refined.  Obvious speculation here but I think that was the intent to keep things simple.  As a start up they would need to keep things simple to keep the costs down as much as possible.  However there are some pluses about this. I am sure I will be proven wrong on this eventually but ************** "I don't see anything that pops out to me as a likely failure point" *************.  I can say with absolute certainty that you won't have any pellet probes come flying out into you for example.  I only tore into the gun to learn how it works.  RTI hasn't supplied a parts list and exploded diagram yet which I am not happy about.  Overall the gun does seem to be built like a tank with one exception and that is the scope rail.  It is not sufficiently strong for me.  It will flex on the thinner end although it is holding zero pretty close considering I have removed the scope several times now.  ********* "I do feel the need to be extra careful with bumping the scope but that goes for any optic on any platform." *********   

Addressing those 2 statements.

A highly technical engineer from Holland is reviewing the gun and did a complete teardown, He's not very confident with the "Built like a tank" factor and even the overall safety.

 http://www.airgunforum.co.uk/forums/sho ... rgun/page6


On the every platform has to be babied when comes to the Rail strength thingy,..I don't think so, I have and have many, many guns that I have no problem picking up or leaning on the scope,...

Tom at AmericanAirArms I'm sure will disagree with that statement also

Check this video towards the end.

[Jman2311]

I read completely through the dutch guy's review as translated from the UK forum.  The guy seems like a quack to me.  He may be highly technical but the man doesn't seem to have an ounce of tact or professionalism about himself and I can say first hand he is overexaggerating most of what he says.  If you watch the RTI pressure test video,  That alone put to bed every concern that could be had with the build quality in terms of safety.  The burst disc is tested first with the reg guts removed and it blew promptly at 3K.  Then with the reg guts still removed they put a full 800Bars into the tank, trigger block, and tube that goes to the valve and into the rear block.  Everything held.  Now that is an actual test done with actual parts that the gun is made from and not a reference to engineering stress test charts when the type of material was unknown to that guy.  I will stick to the claim that the gun is built well and I actually have one to hold with real world tests to back up my claim.

To the part about the rail.  I think it is weaker than they should have let pass.  Any rail of this type isn't going to be as solid as one machined directly into the block like the EVOL but even if I had an EVOL (which I likely will when it becomes available in .25 and paritally because of you NP) I would still be ever cautious of the scope.  That may just be me.  I can and do lean the scope against the wall on my Priest but I am more cautious of everything dealing with the scope because I don't trust the rail yet.

[Nomadic Pirate]

Than again, Holland is up there in the forefront of Airgunning, they take it very seriously there.

if an importer sends him a gun to review, this guy might really know what he's talking about, also he came to the same conclusion Wingman came to, and Wingman definitely knows what he's talking about.

I don't know the guy but from an outsider's point of view,.....at that price range this gun wouldn't even come close to my radar, Just My Opinion

[rkr]

I read completely through the dutch guy's review as translated from the UK forum.  The guy seems like a quack to me.  He may be highly technical but the man doesn't seem to have an ounce of tact or professionalism about himself and I can say first hand he is overexaggerating most of what he says.  If you watch the RTI pressure test video,  That alone put to bed every concern that could be had with the build quality in terms of safety.  The burst disc is tested first with the reg guts removed and it blew promptly at 3K.  Then with the reg guts still removed they put a full 800Bars into the tank, trigger block, and tube that goes to the valve and into the rear block.  Everything held.  Now that is an actual test done with actual parts that the gun is made from and not a reference to engineering stress test charts when the type of material was unknown to that guy.  I will stick to the claim that the gun is built well and I actually have one to hold with real world tests to back up my claim.

To the part about the rail.  I think it is weaker than they should have let pass.  Any rail of this type isn't going to be as solid as one machined directly into the block like the EVOL but even if I had an EVOL (which I likely will when it becomes available in .25 and paritally because of you NP) I would still be ever cautious of the scope.  That may just be me.  I can and do lean the scope against the wall on my Priest but I am more cautious of everything dealing with the scope because I don't trust the rail yet.

I would love to see that guy doing  a review of FX Impact

I don't know what's going on with that gun he reviewed, it certainly wasn't up to standards I would expect. My biggest concerns were that poppet and the "transfer" tube attachment, they looked like something we could expect from the monday morning gun put together from left over test parts at Snow peak factory. Perhaps you could see if you can confirm his findings? I still like the KISS approach of that gun though.

[skorec]

The little bit of recoil was noticeable through the scope. .

Gregor had two times better accuracy then you but  He use .22 caliber at 125bar version and I had not noticed  any recoils  in his  video.

May be   you are  using   150 bar version whit  stronger spring and  higher hammer which can make recoil

[Jman2311]

I have still yet to test the regulated air pressure but I intend to be doing that here soon.  I may or may not change the output pressure.  I get the impression that 150 is too high.  I want to test out 125 and 140 and see what the results look like.  I know that my gun has the extra weight in the hammer so I assume I have the heavier hammer spring but I don't know how heavy the heavy spring is supposed to be and I don't have the low power spring to compare it to.  Tough to test without the necessary knowledge of what it is supposed to be.

Concerns about the transfer tube.  I don't know.  I didn't go that far with the removal but to only thing I know I agree with is that there is a set screw that very likely locks into the threads on the tube.  Not exactly a piece I want to remove unless it is absolutely needed.  Perhaps they properly timed the threads and milled a flat spot where it needed to be for the set screw so that a valve replacement wouldn't destroy where the tube and block mate up.  If they didn't, that is a real shame and I will have to end up doing it.  I am interested in the poppet valve seal material now based on that review so who knows I may dig in that far eventually.

All in all like I said in a previous post, after seeing the pressure tests at 800 bars I have no concerns.  The side panels do help with the rigidity.  If there were a concern it would be if the tube were to unscrew from the block.  Between the set screw on the tube and the panels which are recessed into the block on both ends coupled with the screws that hold the panel on it would be impossible to unscrew that tube.  I am no expert but as an electrical engineer I have had more than a few physics classes and put it into practice daily in my work on an array of manufacturing equipment.  I simply don't share the safety concerns that the dutch dude does.  Especially considering that the gun itself will never see more than 3Kpsi less a user modifies the gun tremendously.  Even then I doubt he can get higher than 800 bars which we know the parts will handle.  The concerns about the lack of safety in the design are a wash to me.  The weakest point on the gun is the rail.  Followed by where the reg bonnet screws into the gun but even then I don't forsee that being an issue in the long run.  People don't abuse their guns with the necessary force to break that piece  I say all this knowing its my face that is "so close" to all of these parts.  The puff of air he got on his cheeck was very likely because he didn't push the charging handle forward enough to cam the bolt down and lock it into place.  That is user error plain and simple.  I doubt his claim about the magazine hitting him.  Based on its design I don't see how this is possible.  I can go on but when a reviewer, a highly technical reviewer, misses a published detail like the bottle capacity (he claimed 350cc when the website clearly states it is 320cc) I instantly question the credibility and attention to detail of the individual.

[skorec]

  I know that my gun has the extra weight

What about to check/compare  100 yard accuracy also  whitout extra hammer weight or oposit idea to add extra weight at the end of gun  ( buttplate from plumbumb/lead  ) .

Notice.
150 bar should be ideal fo King Heavy.
You  definitely have to find the way how to improve accuracy because I want to buy RTI Priest too.


Important question.
Are we sure that   all  RTI Priest .25 calliber guns have  CZ barrels ?

 .....................................
“rwsmike”The cz barrel is the key to the cricket and Vulcan being so accurate at long distances . The grooves in these barrels are very very deep vs a standard barrel.

That’s funny, the Cricket .25 has got a LW barrel, not a CZ:
http://www.kalibrgun.eu/catalogue?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=8&category_id=1&manufacturer_id=1
The .177 is the only model with a CZ barrel, the .22 and .25 have LW barrels.
Or the information on their website is incorrect.

The info is right. Kalibrgun sources the 22 and 25 barrels from LW. The earlier 22 had a CZ barrel. Later changed to LW. The 25 always had a LW barrel.

[rdwilson]

subscribed...

[Jman2311]

I ran some shot strings across the chrony with some M4 washers as shims inside the hammer beneath the weight.  I found one washer gave me about 15fps more.  2 washers wasn't really a change of any kind.  3 washers I started to see a drop in fps and you could hear air being wasted on the shots.  I think a drop in reg pressure coupled with the washers will be better but I'm still a bit out on that one. I have to make a reg pressure tester first and rearrange the stack of washers to get there.

Rti website shows CZ barrels for all calibers.  I can say that the lands are deep and the barrel looks great on both ends.  I will be testing things without the weight just to try it.  I left a pretty lengthy rebuttal to the Dutch guy Leo's review which was a bash fest of the priest on AGN.  If anyone is interested I'll copy paste it here.  Most of the points I talked about a few posts back. 

[rkr]

I ran some shot strings across the chrony with some M4 washers as shims inside the hammer beneath the weight.  I found one washer gave me about 15fps more.  2 washers wasn't really a change of any kind.  3 washers I started to see a drop in fps and you could hear air being wasted on the shots.  I think a drop in reg pressure coupled with the washers will be better but I'm still a bit out on that one. I have to make a reg pressure tester first and rearrange the stack of washers to get there.

Rti website shows CZ barrels for all calibers.  I can say that the lands are deep and the barrel looks great on both ends.  I will be testing things without the weight just to try it.  I left a pretty lengthy rebuttal to the Dutch guy Leo's review which was a bash fest of the priest on AGN.  If anyone is interested I'll copy paste it here.  Most of the points I talked about a few posts back. 

Do paste it, to me that Dutch guys review sounded non professional but it could have been the translation.

[Jman2311]

Direct copy and paste so there may seem like some things are all over the place. It here it is.

So, as promised a rebuttal to the most overexaggerated and farcical review I think I have ever read of any product.

hey! 1.0
First off the guy opens with a photo claiming the edges are like buck knives and even circles his own bipod (i guess to claim the rail underneath), 5 points along the same rail,  5 points along the buttplate to include the base of the buttplate where a sling attachment is.  I have ran my fingers fast across these points and my finger isn’t cut.  Was a proper job done at chamfering all of the edges?  That is up to you.  I have felt guns more butter smooth like a czcustom.com protek 75 varient but the Priest isn’t going to cut your finger nor is it even painful to press up against these edges.

hey! 2.01
I got FX no limit mount for a picatinny rail with 30mm tube.  It mounted snugly to the gun and my Athelon Talos FFP 4-14x scope.  There are, for some reason, varients of picatinny rails.  I have seen 20mm, 22mm, and 25mm rail mounts.  I thought the 1913 Picatinny was a standard but apparently I was wrong.  Maybe he had wider mounts…  Hard for me to draw a conclusion with what information I have.

hey! 2.01 (or maybe 2.02 but really, who is counting?)
You rest your head where it wants to fall naturally.  It may fall on the block or the shroud based on how long your neck is.  Guess what, this is any bullpup, They aren’t following the typical trend of a traditional rifle.  If you want a short gun comprimises must be made by the individual shooter.  The magazine is not in the way for me.  Maybe it will be for you, I don’t know.  Worst case scenario the mag may move in its slot due to facial pressure while cocking but that is something to live with and I haven’t had this problem a single time in the 7 times shooting this gun (in one week) now and a whole tin of jsb kings and then some shot through it. 

WTF2.03
Yes.  The self indexing magazine itn’t friendly to decocking.  I have mentioned this earlier in my review elsewhere but it is what it is when a manufacturer chooses to go this route with a magazine.  This magazine is pretty unique in the fact that it can load from the left or the right.  The user chooses that.  The thickness of the mag does make loading tough because the o-ring placement but I just load and knock it while in my hands to get the oring in between the head and skirt of the pellet.  For me, No biggie.

hey! 2.04
The trigger is crude.  I explained how it works elsewhere but it is very similar to an AK trigger.  It isn’t as precise as say an AR trigger or a timney drop in but it works and you can adjust how long the creep is at the expense of sear/hammer contact.  That is up to the user and outlined in the manual.

hey! 2.05 or 2.50
The bolt/pellet probe cam locks into place by pushing the charging handle forward.  All the way forward.  There is some resistance and that seems to me to be in the mechanism and pushing the pellet into the lands.  At 35 yards mine stacked pellets from RL and at 50 I put 9/10 in a dime with pictures to prove it.  Mind you that wasn’t in a vise. 

hey! 3.5 
Even I joked about the cocking effort being something like racking an M2 .50cal but has lightened up tremendously in the week I have been shooting it.  In fact, now I don’t mind it one bit.

hey! 4.0
This is where things get interesting because dude claims the bottle is 350cc when it is 320cc as published by RTI.  Missing a detail like that may be an oversight, and I could totally understand if it was, but seriously if you are so highly respected how do you miss such an important detail?!?  I will submit that o-rings can get eaten up but after a trip to wal-mart and $4 later I had 10 more just in case.  I should add I have removed the bottle several times now under pressure and I only replaced that o-ring once and to me it is a small thing.  I only replaced it because I saw a minor gouge and I wanted to play it safe.  The 3/4 of a turn he refers to is negligible when you consider the surface area of the threads already in contact.

Coming to a point I finally agree upon.  I think the lands start rather abrubt.  I don’t know if this is having an effect on long range accuracy yet but I got 1/2″ groups at 50yds but 3″ at 100yds.  Could be me, could be something else but as of now, I don’t know yet but I suspect some inconsistent shaving and I think this area may be the problem. 

This gun is loud without the my LDC from Donny.  No doubt.  He is right about the trigger.  It isn’t really a 2 stage like a Mutant or other fine rifles,  If there are 2 stages (depending on how the set screw on the sear is tightened) it is really only take up and sear release.  The more you back out the screw the more sear contact on the hammer.  The exact opposite is also true.  I, for one, have the screw all the way loose. It gives a single stage with lots of “creep” but it is light, smooth and, for me, predictable.  I am a trigger snob but it is what it is, and it does work.  How well it works is up to you.  As for the vent hole to the hammer passage?  I am not well schooled enough on this but I don’t have complaints about inconsistancy in my chrony strings.  At most I have seen 11fps ES for each 10 shot string.  I don’t have a sexy new choro, in fact I borrowed one from a friend a few months back, but from my recordings I stay pretty well within a 10fps window. 

The 3rd part of the review which seems to have forgotten the WTFs.
The M3 screws holding the side panels do help keep the 2 aluminum block from unscrewing.  The are recessed into the block and have an inate amount of strenghth in them to keep the parts from coming unscrewed.  There are also set screws there on the tube as mentioned.  I can say that the tube will attract a magnet where as the blocks will not.  I have no way of properly identifing the material.  I can say though that I watched the entirity of the RTI pressure test video and the tube, trigger block, bottle, and reg were subjected to 800bars of pressure.  Nothing broke.  Plus the design of the gun won’t allow more than 200 bar into the tube that he thinks can only handle 275 bar.  I don’t share his concerns about any of this and it is my face that will be next to one of these guns.  Take that for what it is worth. 

Anyways he goes one complaing about the valve and its construction as if it is a safety hazard and more.  However, there is the posted pressure test…  I don’t understand this guy.  The one place we agree is the set screw in the rear block on the threads of the connecting tube.  That was dumb and if done that way a flat spot should be milled into the threads to make this a non-issue but I haven’t yet confirmed this on my gun.

This has gotten rather lenghthy but I will say that I will continue to use my gun with confidence AND I will be tinkering with it a bit to try to see if I can optimize it better than RTI did.  I may not succeed but this is just fun for me.  As of now I have a NINJA piston inbound to see if I can rid the reg squelch.  After than play with different reg pressures because I think 135 or 140 bar will be better than 150 bar in comprimising shot count and energy (or efficiency if you would like it in one word).  I will post more on my 0033 review. 

Last thing, You will have the first .22 that I know of.  I really hope you give us your thoughts and experiences becuase it seems that the gun was mostly tested and optimised for .22.

[Jman2311]

All the "hey!" Are referring to Leo's whiskey tango foxtrots

[Jman2311]

Looks like RTI has something in response to all these safety concerns.

http://www.rtiarms.eu/priest/safety

[Jman2311]

Not much to report but I did snag my first quarry with it  today.  A rabbit at about 30 yards. I am liking this Priest more and more as time goes on.  I have learned one thing but it isn't necessarily about the Priest in particular.  If there is anyone out there who is thinking of getting a .25 but on the fence cause they feel like their .22 is good enough.  Get a .25. You'll like it. I promise. It hits and hits hard.  I am honestly shocked at its effectiveness.

[ksfastman]

I have shot mine at 100yds indoors, but not in the machine rest with hydraulic trigger actuator like I did with the K1, JSB 25.39 visually inspected, but not roll,weight or gauge sorted, 32x magnification with fine reticle mine shoots sub MOA. No I’m not going to post pix, it would be meaningless…I don’t have a dog in this fight. Just sharing my experience with the “Priest” I have.

I posted this on TAG 1/5/17

[skorec]

but not in the machine rest with hydraulic trigger actuator like I did with the K1,

Did you mean another  "Huben K1" PCP gun  ?
Which accuracy did you reach whit them ?

[ksfastman]

but not in the machine rest with hydraulic trigger actuator like I did with the K1,

Did you mean another  "Huben K1" PCP gun  ?
Which accuracy did you reach whit them ?

Best the Huben shot was 1.13 IIRC, the Priest shot a best of .93

[skorec]

but not in the machine rest with hydraulic trigger actuator like I did with the K1,

Did you mean another  "Huben K1" PCP gun  ?
Which accuracy did you reach whit them ?

Best the Huben shot was 1.13 IIRC, the Priest shot a best of .93

SUPER , just  to increase the pressure for using JSB King Heavy   

[Jman2311]

Lots of questions about the report of this gun.  This video should help.