My Airmax/Artemis P15

[MikeH]

After spending a few weeks looking for another lightweight rifle to add to the collection, I decided to take a chance with the relatively new P15.  I ordered it from Mike at MrodAir and almost immediately got a tracking number. Two days later it showed up on the door step.  The first impression was awesome, it is extremely compact and light, I also lucked out and good a good looking piece of wood as well.

I gave the rifle a good visual inspection and noted that the breach end chamfer in the barrel looked terrible. The cutter chattered and made a mess that probably wouldn’t make any functional difference, but I just had to pull the barrel and fix the chamfer.  The barrel is very easy to remove, and after about 20 minutes I had the breach chamfer fixed and I also polished up the muzzle Crown with my trusty variable speed Dremel tool and a Cratex point.  I cleaned the bore thoroughly, and reinstalled the barrel as well as the suppressor shroud, baffles and scope rail.  I removed the Hawke Vantage 2-7x32 AO IR scope with BKL standard rings from my Varmint/SPA900W and installed it on the P15. 

I zeroed the rifle at 25 yards with Crosman Premier Hollow Point 14.3 grain pellets.  The trigger is very nice, if a bit heavy as set out of the box.  The sound level initially sounded a bit loud to me, then a friend shot the rifle and I realized that the suppressor is working just fine, and is back yard friendly, but there is definitely lots of mechanical noise transmitted through the breach block to the shooters ear making the rifle seem much louder that it really is.  The action lever felt very stiff and rough at first.  Some gun oil immediately made a noticeable difference, and the action smoothed up way more than I would ever have suspected after about a hundred rounds.  Initial groups were between 3/8”and 1/2” shooting off of a crappy/wobbly folding table.

This afternoon I took the P15 out again and shot it off of my shooting table and across the chronograph.  From a 250bar fill I got 54 shots on the regulator with an average velocity of 987 FPS, an extreme velocity spread of 10 FPS! and a standard deviation of only 2.9 FPS!  I would definitely say the regulator is working well.

Shooting for accuracy from the bench is a bit difficult to do with the P15 off of the bags I have due to the extreme short length, light weight and the shape of the bottom of the stock where it rests on the bench/bags.  Today I was able to shoot 6 nine shot groups at 25 yards that averaged @3/8”, this was a significant amount of visible rifle movement as viewed the scope. With some proper v shaped bags, or a gun vise, there is no doubt I could shoot virtually one hole groups from this distance.

So far I am extremely happy with the P15!  This rifle is definitely going to be competing with my .25 Impact for walking through the woods carry duty.

[WesBob]

Great review, thanks for sharing!

[renowntwo]

Thanks for the heads up on the p15. By any chance are you able to post pic of the p15 would love to see the stock that you posted about.

[Wayne52]

I'm really sold on the SPA products, I've got the Airmax Dominator and just love it.

[MikeH]

I will try and attach a picture of the rifle.  The stock I received has a nice grain pattern that is not as straight or “plain” as some cuts of beech wood, but it this nowhere near as pretty as a nice piece of walnut.  I do like the color of the stain on this stock.  My Varmint/PR900W stock had a stain color that looked like diarrhea  . I sanded that stock down last weekend and it is waiting for me to finish it it multiple coats of Tung oil.

[Mike pr]

54 shots at 32 fpe, 250- ? bar

[MikeH]

The shot string I recorded yesterday started with a fill of 250 Bar per the gauge on my Joe Brancato guage.  The first shot was 931 FPS, and the second shot was 990 FPS and then only varied by 10 FPS until it dropped off of the regulator.  My total shot count on the regulator was 54 shots.  I didn’t check the pressure gauge until five shots after the rifle came off the regulator, and it indicated 125 bar.

[jarmstrong]

Glad you enjoy your P15 enough to want to post your  experience with her.
I truly like my 25 cal, except she was born with a bad barrel  BUT there is a light shining in the future
, as Roy at Mountain Air Custom Airgun has agreed to machine a new LW barrel 15mm od  23.75 in long.  I have a friend with his own lathe( he is an excellent machinist, but Harleys not rifles) who is going to cut threads on the muzzle for a Sumo.It should be delivered to me in 3 weeks as Roy is quite busy. Roy is the gentleman Dairyboy used for his 20 cal Mrod.
I also went after the stock with a sander drum on my Dremel , so the pistol grip fits my hand and removed 30% of the brace where my wrist kept hitting it.
I hope to figure out the photo posting process by the time I get this rifle back together, so I can post photos of the New mods and accuracy results.For me accuracy and fit are way more important than ... OK , I want her to be a good looker to

[miksatx]

Had a bad barrel on my p15. I bought a marauder .25 barrel. contacted vash545 to see if he would take on the project. Got a yes and send when ready. Got it back tue. Shoots hole in hole at 20 yards. Not a cloverleaf not two shots touching one a quarter inch away nonsense. Also opened the exhaust tract up to 5.5 still not seeing 900 fps @130b lol.

[jarmstrong]

Wow you did well with your barrel replacement. Those are great barrels.
We can up the reg for more velocity but I have a gut feeling that a larger plenum be needed to achieve optimum results.
I was getting about 850 fps with 25 gr JSB. Did you use the factory barrel length, or make it  longer ?

[miksatx]

Jarmstrong wow 850 with 25s not bad at all. Naw the marauder barrel was cut down a bit. 18 3/4" is what it is now. Pretty sure the plenum is to small for faster velocities. They should have used a dominator air tube.

[Ironman482]

I've had my p15 in 25 cal for about a month now. I ordered a baffle kit from air-fective (not cheap) also installed a 5" ldc to keep it super back yard friendly. It shots 25gr jsb at 820 fps fairly accurate at 30 yards 1/2 " groups . I have taken 2 possum 5 squirrel a few rats and 1 coon.really like the way it handle. Just need to adjust the trigger a little. Also had to loctited the pin on the side lever, hadn't moved since
.

[miksatx]

MikeH is the .22 barrel choked?

[MikeH]

MikeH is the .22 barrel choked?

Good question....I didn’t push a pelllet down the bore to check.

Shot the P15 a bunch today. Almost 500 pellets through it now and the action is very nice and smooth, I would have never believed it would smooth up so nice without disassembly and polishing work, but I am satisfied as is for now.  I still have not adjusted the trigger, but it has smoothed up quite a bit as well and probably reduced its pull by almost a half pound just from usage.  I took three squirrels today, one at 30 yards and two that were chasing each other around a large pine tree at @ 40 yards.   Am absolutely loving this little rifle, but it definitely takes good fundamentals to shoot accurately due to the short length and super light weight.

[MikeH]

Picture of my .22 P15....hopefully.

[jarmstrong]

Jarmstrong wow 850 with 25s not bad at all. Naw the marauder barrel was cut down a bit. 18 3/4" is what it is now. Pretty sure the plenum is to small for faster velocities. They should have used a dominator air tube.

I misspoke,    I only was getting 820 fps with JSB 25 gr and 720 with 33 gr
18-3/4" should be about 1" longer than factory. does this make your shroud extend an inch more also? That would be a good thing to help keep your finger from getting in front of the muzzle. OUCH  . Its has been reported to happen with short bullpups
Mike ,she is lookin good 

[MikeH]

The image resolution does not do the grain pattern, or the stain color Justice.

[miksatx]

Jarmstrong I took off the shroud. Vash545 turned 1/2x20 threads and recrowned the marauder barrel. I'm using a weilrauch .25 ldc on my p15. Very Nice looking p15 MikeH!

[LeE]

Jarmstrong I took off the shroud. Vash545 turned 1/2x20 threads and recrowned the marauder barrel. I'm using a weilrauch .25 ldc on my p15. Very Nice looking p15 MikeH!

I was curious how your P15 would look with a ldc. That Weihrauch is a good match, it looks really good together! Also, I am impressed with the machining and build quality that SPA is putting out (except for the barrels do need revamping). IMHO, SPA is putting out a way better product than Kral does for the same coin.

[jarmstrong]

That is the same moderator that came on my HW110 I bet she is very quiet 
HOW did you know that I am thinking (black rubberized coating)?   Weihrauch does a super job on their coating, wish I could find something that comes close to it. What product did you use and how do you like it?
7mm wrench for opening the moderator , found mine at Menards with the socket type hex wrench