What DAR Rifle Recall Option did you choose ?

[USAFANG6799]

I can’t wait until someone does a head to head with the Liberty.

[Wayne52]

The DAR is a fantastically accurate piece of kit for the price.
I can't wait to own one myself.

The guns aren't a copy of anything either, they're about the easiest PCP I've ever had apart, they're the best inexpensive monoblock design that I've ever worked on, the hammer in them slides silky smooth inside of a polymer tube, they can be adjusted for gobs of power, they don't have the longest barrel in the world but they're unbelievably accurate and you can carry one of them around the woods all day long even with a heavy UTG scope on it.  I have mine adjusted for 20 shots at 50fpe, I have shot it using my 34.5 grainers doing 65fpe but doing that I only get about 7-8 good shots on the reg.

[Wayne52]

This was a string I did with my .22 soon after I bought it.

[Wayne52]

Here's what my DAR177 is doing

[Lastdog]

Well guys it’s sept 22 and no dar gen 2.

[Gertrude]

Well guys it’s sept 22 and no dar gen 2.

Correction,
The gen 2's ARE here,... in the USA,...
 ... as I have clearly stated in previous posts.

 They do have a couple of minor issues to be dealt with.

Myself, and several other respected shooters have been testing and working with them for a couple of months now with some VERY impressive results.
BUT,...
 ... in their CURRENT condition, ... They DO require a bit of "massaging" to get them to performing at their full potential.

That is what we want to see them doing straight from the manufacturer, and It IS achievable. Dealing with the manufacturer in China has been QUITE CHALLENGING to say the least.

The LAST THING that DAR wants, is to release them before they are fine tuned, and only performing at what the average guns (at this price point) will deliver.

They are far better than that, and they do not need to have another fiasco on their hands with customers getting sub-standard reliability and performance, resulting in complaints and excessive returns.

I litteraly have HUNDREDS of hours invested in this with zero compensation.
 I know what these guns are capable of, and I see great potential for further development of advancing their future offerings.

DAR has placed a LOT of trust in my judgement, experience, and connections with highly knowledgeable, experienced, and skilled shooters who have also graciously contributed to getting these guns up to their full potential.

Just trying to "stir the pot" with comments like the above, accomplishes nothing.
Yes, there are 1500 Gen 2 DAR's in the warehouse waiting to be released.
I have seen and touched them myself.
 We are trying to get the last few remaining issues addressed before I will tell DAR to start making them available to the public.
This has already cost them FAR MORE than the average consumer would care to realize or endure.

I respect DAR for realizing this and yet holding back on releasing them, when they are looking at a HUGE monetary investment in inventory, that is just sitting on a warehouse shelf right now.

I can tell you, that there WILL BE a Gen 2 DAR competing at next month's EBR. I personally will not be competing, due to I was too late to register, ... But I WILL be there with a couple of the guns that I have done some tuning and R&D work on.

I would also like to invite those shooters who were chosen to assist us in this effort to share their results from our collective efforts in developing the Gen 2.

So with that,
Jason, Dana, Terry,  Steve, Jeff,
    Please feel free to jump in here and let these folks know what you think about the progress we have made, and the performance we have been able to achieve with the DAR Gen 2 guns.

They will be released when they are ready.

[Lastdog]

Well I did not see any post that said there was any shipment of guns in the us. I did see that some were in the hands of good people being tested but have not seen any results posted anywhere.
Do not get me wrong. I appreciate all the work you and others are doing to get these out and correctly. Just know that dealing with importing goods from overseas is always interesting at least. Did it for over twenty years.
Ready and waiting .

[Privateer]

I've been in the loop so to speak for awhile. No. I do not have a Gen 2 nor a Gen 1 DAR.
I can't speak about the Gen 1 but I can speak about the Gen 2 in a unique way.
Leaving California I got a call from Ron to stop by Mesa to shoot a Gen 2. 
Mesa was not my plan as I headed back to Ohio but shoot a Gen 2, BBQ, beer? Mesa it was!
I knew the Gen 2's had arrived and the others mentioned had hands on so I wasn't going to pass my chance up.
By passing Ron meeting me in his underware and some time at a Hooters I'll give you my thoughts on the Gen 2.

I spent sometime shooting a worked over Gun. What they WANT to release. If they get just near that? It's a Gun I WILL own!
I couldn't find a thing I did not like about it but I had a few reservations.
I told Ron I could NOT say much about a worked over version having never fired a STOCK Gen 2.

Well Skippy pulled one out! That proved to me in just 5 shots YOU DO NOT WANT THE GEN 2 AS IS RIGHT NOW!
You want to wait for the improvements!! And you will be glad you did!
The improved will stack pellets at 30 easy. The way they are now? You'd be lucky to get 5 within an inch of each other at 30!

I'm waiting as I really want to take a good one out to 100!


 

[Nvreloader]

Ron
Thank you for that info, I'll hold off buying an Aspen in 22/25 calibers, for now.

Questions for you if you don't mind, and if you can answer the questions,

Will all calibers be released/available at the same time, ie 17, 22 and 25 calibers?
"1500 in the warehouse" = 500 of each caliber?
Will you be able to buy extra mags?
Which reseller/retailer will handle these AR's?
Can you give the spec's for the Air guns/same as Gen 1?
Plastic or wood stocks?

Thank you,
Don

[Bob Pratl]

Ron, thanks for the update. My only question is who is going to be the USA distributor or is DAR going to selling then direct?

[Wayne52]

Thanks a lot for the update Ron !!! I too will be curious as to who is going to be distributing those guns myself.  Hopefully whoever it is will also be selling the magazines for them also.

[Wolverineshooter]

Thanks a lot Ron for your work and update, appreciated!

[nervoustrigger]

As Ron mentioned, I have been testing one of the gen 2 pre-releases.
 
I have one of the gen 1 in .25 cal that had experienced pretty much all of the common issues…O-ring extrusion, broken poppet, bad crown, creeping regulator, etc. so I had a pretty good idea of what to look for in the gen 2.  I’m happy to say they have addressed pretty much all of the gen 1 shortcomings.  I jotted down my observations as I went through it so I will pull those this evening and post an update.
 
Meanwhile I’ll make just a few comments about the sample from memory.  Since I had a .25 cal, I asked to test a .22 cal to try something different.  First off, it holds air!  Yay!  The new sidelever fits better and feels much nicer when cycled.  The new magazine is all aluminum vs the plastic gen 1.  It’s easy to load and rotates like butter.  Out of the box it was producing about 30fpe with JSB 18.1gr with a very tight ES.  That’s a good place to be in my experience but I wasn’t getting good groups after trying a variety of pellets.  Inspecting the barrel carefully, I was pleased to see the workmanship was quite good.  The poor crown I saw on the gen 1 was replaced with a nice uniform bevel.  I also noticed the rifling profile was different…taller lands that are very well defined.  I decided to try applying my usual barrel prep regimen and began another round of testing.  No substantial improvement.  Chopped and recrowned.  No improvement.  Applied a choke.  No improvement.  Removed about 1” from the end (the turned-down portion that accepts the shroud spacer) and crowned again.  Still no joy.  So I reached out and had them send a replacement barrel.
 
The replacement?  It blew me away.  Lots of sub-MoA groups with JSB 18.1gr and 15.9gr.  Perhaps just as significant is that it shoots a lot of different pellets well.  During this time frame, Ron confirmed the same thing with another sample so he went back to management and raised a red flag that the barrel issue would have to be addressed before they could be released.  We also identified a couple of other details that needed to be sorted out.  So in light of all the improvements,  it was disappointing that the new shipment wasn’t quite ready for prime time, but at the same time I think it’s the right decision.  If these things have the potential to perform at the same level as my sample, they are going to be a fierce competitor at this end of the price spectrum.

[Nvreloader]

Thanks Jason
Good info..........

Question for you,

What is the rifling twist between the bad and good bbl?
Can you see the difference between those 2?

What is the overall bbl length?

Thank you,
Don

[BigMike1]

All I can say is it will be sad if my Gen 2 doesnt shoot as well as my Gen 1 22cal  did.  Man that thing was deadly on sparrows at 50 yards

[TleVta]

Ron asked me if I wanted to try the Gen 2 in .177. I was glad to check it out after my experience with the Gen 1 in .25.

Yes, the magazines are a HUGE improvement. You guys will like them.

The gun holds air just fine.

They fixed the scope rail so your dovetails fit properly.

No issues with the side lever.

Out of the box, I didn't notice any changes in the trigger, but after working on it, I got it to break at 1 lb, 1.5 oz.

I had accuracy issues.

Here's a 5 shot group with JSB 10.3's at 25 meters:



And at 50 meters:



Then I tried some 7.33 AA Falcons at 25 meters:



Disappointing to say the least. Those pellets were lasers in the 1720 pistol I used to own.

I did notice that  when removing the shroud to clean the barrel, it's not exactly straight. My thumb gauge shows that's pretty obvious when un-threading it.



So I tried shooting without the shroud and things didn't get much better at 25 meters:



Ideally I wanted to try my hand at Hunter Field Target competition if it was as accurate as the Gen1 ag's. But this one isn't ready for prime time, yet. Hopefully the importer will sort things out.

[Wayne52]

I get really great groups with my Gen1 .177, at 30 yards it's not hard at all to get a dime size group with JSB 13.43's, the gun is a laser.

[TleVta]

I may be wrong in this speculation; but maybe they bought cheaper barrels so they could afford to upgrade the magazines.

[nervoustrigger]

I don't think so.  The workmanship, metal finish, and even the rifling profile looked improved on the new barrel.  But so much for looks

[Bob Pratl]

I think that the DAR is a great PCP AG with a lot of potential and great design features but it is still not, nor should we expect it to perform like a $1500.00 AG.
I love mine and can't wait for the release of the new designed magazine.