A.E.A. the gun of the moment ?

[Nomadic Pirate]

I got the .30 cal HP SS Plus. Works great. Apart from Bison Workshop’s freshly printed option, their are no bipod rail mounts for the 52mm OD air tube.

Is that the pistol ?

Yes. 10 inch barrel. Length with stock folded is 19.5”. Fits in a backpack. Only downside is the odd-sized air tube means very limited options for accessory rails. 

Do you shoot it as a pistol or as a Carbine ?

I intend to use it as a carbine primarily. It’s accurate out well past typical pistol range.

Thanks,...is there any chance you could take a picture looking down as you would be pointing a pistol,.....does the magazine stick out and interfer with the sight picture ?

Thanks for that,

WOW that mag really sticks out, getting iron sights set up would be a workout

[Bob Pratl]

Exactly.  8" barrel and small air cylinder. 
Already have a red dot for it

I have been eye balling this one. I'm intrigued with the idea of a .30 Cal, short barrel semi automatic.

[Nomadic Pirate]

Exactly.  8" barrel and small air cylinder. 
Already have a red dot for it

I have been eye balling this one. I'm intrigued with the idea of a .30 Cal, short barrel semi automatic.

Yeaah me too 

[Gone Fishing]

Exactly.  8" barrel and small air cylinder. 
Already have a red dot for it

I have been eye balling this one. I'm intrigued with the idea of a .30 Cal, short barrel semi automatic.

Yeaah me too 

Good way for a company to make some $$$

[avator]

Exactly.  8" barrel and small air cylinder. 
Already have a red dot for it

I have been eye balling this one. I'm intrigued with the idea of a .30 Cal, short barrel semi automatic.

Yeaah me too 

Good way for a company to make some $$$

Ain't that what they are supposed to do?

[Lani52]

I just watched Bin’s video on his new battery powered compressor. 

I had a very bad experience with a China gun,  my Skyhawk, most of the problems I blame on Diana.  The rifle is up and running now and I have a new Meopta 4x20x50 on it.  Quickly becoming my favorite gun at under 10 FPE.

The thing that haunts me about my no China products decision is that Dan H writes great things about AEA guns.  Dan H and I go back a decade when we both bought Ranger 45’s and wrote extensively about them.  Dan H has had some trouble with certain China brands, Dan H writes about the good and bad things truthfully. 

And I trust Dan H, so I think AEA has some great products, being a 11 yard shooter these days, they are a bit too powerful for me for the most part, but if I wanted a powerful .30, it would be that 30 cal, 32 inch barreled bullpup.

The best advice, I can now give on China guns and price point guns with all the bells and whistles, is be patient, read, research and don’t jump in without that du dilegence.  I did with my Skyhawk and spent a lot of money on it, if I had followed the afore mentioned advice, and listened to what I was told, I would be shooting something else.  Second generation guns have the bugs worked out for the most part and are worth the wait in many instances.

Regards,

Roachcreek

[cyberbillp]

So my finger is hovering over the "buy" button on a couple of the AEA seller websites. My problem is, there isn't any really good (detailed) info out there.

What's the difference in the dozen or so different models? Are they all identical with different barrels and magazines?

Which ones have the power dial? The external power knob really appeals to me because I'd like to be able to dial down for the backyard (30 yards).

From what I can see in the fuzzy, limited, (dated?) photos.... The Backpacker, the Assassin and the Carbine are all the same gun with just different barrel lengths and maybe a moderator added. But what about the HP SS/SS+? Are they the same gun as well? Does the HP SS have a manometer  port with a plug? Am I all wet and the only thing common on these is the paint?


I'm disappointed that I missed all the carbon fiber versions apparently. (Sigh).

[bduares]

Jared, just a suggestion

use blunts rather then field points if you decide to have some ply behind your target

In between boughts of rain I tested out the one air bolt I made. Not sure what fps/fpe I got since the chinese chrony game me a weird error and read "10.9" but the 3x4 foot high-power target I use for my 165# Carbon Express Xforce 350 compound crossbow was no match at all for the arrow I shot. Passed through like nothing and kept going into my forest. Successful? Definitely. What sort of power am I getting? No idea at all. The Carbon express normally buries bolts about 8-10 inches into the target at the same range.

[Nomadic Pirate]

Jared, just a suggestion

use blunts rather then field points if you decide to have some ply behind your target

In between boughts of rain I tested out the one air bolt I made. Not sure what fps/fpe I got since the chinese chrony game me a weird error and read "10.9" but the 3x4 foot high-power target I use for my 165# Carbon Express Xforce 350 compound crossbow was no match at all for the arrow I shot. Passed through like nothing and kept going into my forest. Successful? Definitely. What sort of power am I getting? No idea at all. The Carbon express normally buries bolts about 8-10 inches into the target at the same range.

Yep my friend, when I firs started shooting arrows out of airguns I was shocked,

I ended up making targets with a bag of packed denims after the foam and a ply in the back all tied firmly, and usu blunts so when it gets to the ply they don't get stuck.

Air archery is no joke !!!!

[bduares]

At the very least we now know that my method with the rubber bumpers as airbolt nocks works as I thought it would. Now we just need an elephant to shoot it with.

[Nomadic Pirate]

If the .357 Airbolts don't come back in production I will eventually get some Easton 1716 that 3Rivers sells and try make my own.
https://www.3riversarchery.com/easton-tribute-aluminum-shafts.html

[bduares]

Last time I bought arrows was a few years ago. Picked up some dirt cheap 500 spine Fiberglass/PC/PU/Steel mix arrows for target shooting at $25 for a dozen on Amazon. Surprisingly all are still fine though I have seen complaints from people online that they are quite breakable if someone misses the target. I was polite and did not respond with "don't miss then". Now that I think about it I will have to check my archery room. I may have actually used one of those for that airbolt thinking it was CF.

Edit: sure enough it was one of those cheapies that I did my test with. Wow! Think I may buy another couple of dozen just for playing with the Challenger, since I bought a 50 pack of those rubber bumpers. At that price they are only double the price of a lot of big bore slugs I have seen for sale at $1 each. Semi-disposable dirt cheap airbolts, there's a thought...

[Wayne52]

I have no reason to use arrows myself because here in Michigan I can't hunt with them anyway.

I just watched Bin’s video on his new battery powered compressor. 

I had a very bad experience with a China gun,  my Skyhawk, most of the problems I blame on Diana.  The rifle is up and running now and I have a new Meopta 4x20x50 on it.  Quickly becoming my favorite gun at under 10 FPE.

The thing that haunts me about my no China products decision is that Dan H writes great things about AEA guns.  Dan H and I go back a decade when we both bought Ranger 45’s and wrote extensively about them.  Dan H has had some trouble with certain China brands, Dan H writes about the good and bad things truthfully. 

And I trust Dan H, so I think AEA has some great products, being a 11 yard shooter these days, they are a bit too powerful for me for the most part, but if I wanted a powerful .30, it would be that 30 cal, 32 inch barreled bullpup.

The best advice, I can now give on China guns and price point guns with all the bells and whistles, is be patient, read, research and don’t jump in without that du dilegence.  I did with my Skyhawk and spent a lot of money on it, if I had followed the afore mentioned advice, and listened to what I was told, I would be shooting something else.  Second generation guns have the bugs worked out for the most part and are worth the wait in many instances.

Regards,

Roachcreek

RC as for 10 yard shooting my AEA HP 25 cal semi auto shooting I had to give it a basic sight in up in my attic because we had several days of constant rain here when I received mine, I did a video of it when I did it.
 

[Lani52]

In 2010 or so, I had a arrow kit for my Condor made by Tagdagger on the old TAG forum.  It consisted of a tube to make the forearm longer and some hopped up AF parts and a barrel replacement that was a smalle tube that fit into the hollow shaft like the Benjamin arrow shooter.  It also came with 3 Goldtip arrows.

The Goldtips I received with the kit, worked fine, but as I received the last generation of the Tagdagger kits, I got to 450-475 FPS.  At that speed it was very easy to bend aluminum arrows.  I was using what looks like my Morrel crossbow 400 FPS double duty target.  It had iayers of plastic  inside, that occasionally caused the arrow to change course a little and ruin the arrow.

Also I had pass throughs that wiped the fletching off the shaft.  I tried glueing inserts in Goldtip carbon arrows but being a archery novice I evidently used the wrong glue as the insert would fly down range but not the arrow.

It also ruined arrow due to Robin Hooding them, so shooting groups conventionally was out of the question. If I missed at long range, the arrow was lost in the thick Doug Fir forest,  blackberries and poison oak.

I did preorder nocks yesterday, but not sure which carbon arrow to use, in place of aluminum arrow, what glue and what fletching.  Or what I will do with it having no place to use it.

My Bulldog carbine has a .30 ported barrel and tp, a Pitbull spring, no vrs and has a barrel cut to the length of 24 inches.  It will shoot a 152 Noe hp at 911 FPS for the first shot. If you put 4 slugs in the 5 shot magazine, close the bolt on the last empty chamber and a arriow down the barrel and into that last chamber,  you can shoot the arrow and have 4 quick hp slugs to follow it.

Wayne, I saw that video, looks fun, but I shoot at 500 FPS and silence us both golden and required here.


Regards,

Roachcreek

[Wayne52]

RC that gun is adjusted to full power so it could be turned way down, it's basically going to be a hunter so I choose to leave it on full power.  I might try turning it down to try shooting my wadcutters from it sometime.

[Dan H]

I just watched Bin’s video on his new battery powered compressor. 

I had a very bad experience with a China gun,  my Skyhawk, most of the problems I blame on Diana.  The rifle is up and running now and I have a new Meopta 4x20x50 on it.  Quickly becoming my favorite gun at under 10 FPE.

The thing that haunts me about my no China products decision is that Dan H writes great things about AEA guns.  Dan H and I go back a decade when we both bought Ranger 45’s and wrote extensively about them.  Dan H has had some trouble with certain China brands, Dan H writes about the good and bad things truthfully. 

And I trust Dan H, so I think AEA has some great products, being a 11 yard shooter these days, they are a bit too powerful for me for the most part, but if I wanted a powerful .30, it would be that 30 cal, 32 inch barreled bullpup.

The best advice, I can now give on China guns and price point guns with all the bells and whistles, is be patient, read, research and don’t jump in without that du dilegence.  I did with my Skyhawk and spent a lot of money on it, if I had followed the afore mentioned advice, and listened to what I was told, I would be shooting something else.  Second generation guns have the bugs worked out for the most part and are worth the wait in many instances.

Regards,

Roachcreek

Thanks Charlie , I try to call it like it is when it comes to these gun's ...  I still have the XP ranger .45  36inch barrel ...  ....   I was very lucky to have met you on these forum's - you have a vast knowledge of bullet design /casting bullets / powder burners/ air guns , plus the fact you have been Oregon's 1000 yard shooting champion several times says a lot in its self ....

You taught Mike = Knife maker and myself all about casting bullets , and how to correctly size them , what to look for , and what bullet designs work's  the best for a given situation ...

I don't know of anyone else who has killed 52 elk  LOL !...  or all the rest of the game that you have taken , maybe Mike on this forum who is a Federal game control guy would come close  on total take down's but he does it for a living LOL !

Not buying from China - I get it for sure ... you really have to watch QC on these gun's from China they can be  riddled with defects poorly made depending on the manufacture ... I don't mind buying from Chinese people but I really hate benefitting the CCP ...

It is a manufacturing  cost problem  that that we face today , and I am seeing other countries in Asia other than China stepping up their game like Thailand who now makes great reproduction car parts , and high performance tires that work good also ...     

[Wayne52]

Dan these AEA guns seem to be better quality than most of my SPA guns are, I've actually been pretty lucky with the SPA's compared to a lot of others but they do have their faults.  I think 90% of it were actually QC stuff too.

[Lani52]

It was 51 but thanks. 

Spa/Diana really screwed the pooch on my Skyhawk. Love my prod Thailand side lever breech.  Having said that, not only Chinese, as JSAR left a few hickies on my neck also.

I have found I have better luck with European products like the CZ goods, the Altaros Booster and my Altaros regulator, my Meopta is also a CZ product.

I also have better luck with the medium priced guns, $500-$1100., the Benjamin Craftsman series, my wonderfully consistent trouble free Bulldog, and AF  guns like the Texan LSS 257.  That puts the AEA right in the middle, great designs, but just too powerful for me at this point in my life.

Remember when we bought the Rangers, 4 month wait & $1100.

Regards,

Roachcreek

[Nomadic Pirate]

I was on the list for a Ranger in the early days, got tired of waiting and eventually gave up my spot

[Lani52]

I remember when you were researching it.

Riachcreek