A nicely done, inexpensive fun to shoot Bullpup

[Mike -]

Finally received my little (23.9" lg.) Empire XS Monday. Much thanks to the nice folks at Kral.
I did a little oiling of moving parts (cocking and trigger), checked the barrel i.d., loaded some air into it. I gave it a once over. Oil from the factory, everywhere for protection to wipe off.

I know that this post may get lost here, but for those of you, that may be looking for a nice, inexpensive rifle, the Empire X and the XS are really nice little guns (so far !).

Initial impressions -
You can find the guns specs. in the website, or sales pages.
The stock is really nice. Fits me well, looks good. No blemishes in the wood surface. Looks to be just oiled. I like the overall look of the gun.
The XS shoulders very...nicely. The stock pad is adjustable for height. Firmly at the shoulder, just resting on my left hand on the foregrip. There's hardly any gun in front of the trigger, so there is very little nose weight. The cocking action is smooth and even loading. Some higher end guns are better, but not by much. The trigger is...a bit odd. It's got three "steps" to it. I don't know what's going on yet, but yeah, I'll look into it here soon. It is adjustable for weight, and pull length. Not a top of the line rigger, but I worked with worse !
But even with the funny trigger, I'm amazed how easy it is to hold (free-hand shooting) on target, AND, actually HIT...the point of aim. Only took four (two down, one up, one to the left) shots to get my Primary Arms, 1x Cyclops sight set.
Short gun...short sight !

It's only a 200 bar fill, and yes...there is no regulator, but one is available for it if you feel that you need one (Lane). I'm not going to take away any air volume with one. The pressure gauge seems to be fairly accurate per my fill bottles gauge. While there is a shroud over the end of the barrel, and there is a baffle of sorts inside of the shroud, it's still a bit loud. I installed my, mostly disliked, Donny Fatboy to see how it works on this gun. Actually not too bad. It takes a notable bite out of the sound. I'll leave it for now, but I see a Huma in its future. The magazine, I guess is like a couple other Kral guns (comes with two). Once I figured out the loading, it's pretty simple (no paper manual !). It's a very tight fit into the action of the gun. Smooth, but tight.
No checking of the pellet speed yet, and measuring the sound...correctly...is WAY more money than I'll ever have. I also don't have a way to measure the trigger pull.
With as far apart as I had it, and the YouTube videos, any o-ring replacement (rebuilding) appears pretty simple. So far at about 12 hours, holding air well.

In watching a couple of YouTube videos on the XS and X, with guys shooting to 50yrds and more, I was a little surprised how accurate the gun is for being a more inexpensive gun. And like I said above, it does shoot well, very easily.

So...there's a first day with a very nice little actual...bullpup (under 24"). Will do more shooting and then dig into the trigger pull down the road a little.

It's defiantly on my "keeper" list.

Mike

[BC81]

Nice to see ANOTHER happy Kral owner! I have 4 currently, 2 of which are in the process of being built. They are very easy guns to work on and easy to tune. Quite powerful and accurate as well. I can't figure out why Kral hasn't caught on better on the forums, theyre very nice guns for the money.

If you get a chance, post up some pics of your pup for us! Also, if you need any help or tuning advice, don't be afraid to ask!

[jjohnsonlta]

I went with the P35 bullpup that I ordered two days ago from Krale. Priced a little less and is regulated. Haven't got an email yet showing it has shipped as of this morning but hope it's soon. Hopefully it turns out as enjoyable as your XS.

[Goose]

That's a good review, Mike.  You've got me thinking...

J~

[Mr.P]

What a sweet looking little gun…

[Mike -]

After adjusting the trigger, it's MUCH better than it was outta the box.

Still not "match grade", as if you'd expect a $500 gun to HAVE...a match grade trigger ! But it's plenty nice. I was expecting to have to remove the bits and pieces of the mechanism and do some polishing. But after watching a video on the way that this guy did his adjustment, I did the same thing, This adjustment made it a whole new gun out if it.

A nice first stage (easily adjusted), smooth. The "original" second stage was pretty bad. It felt like there was two additional, gritty steps to pull through. With the simple adjustment, that's ALL, gone. It's now smooth and crisp, with a very nice let-off. Much like many of my other..."higher priced"...guns.
So that tells me that the trigger was originally adjusted to it's full extent...in the wrong direction. Making the moving parts slide in areas where they weren't meant to even touch.

I see everything that moves to do nothing, but get better and better with use. OR, I could take it apart and polish everything now...na ! I'll let the moving, sliding parts complete their own break-in procedure on their own. Then maybe later, with witness marks, I'll go in and polish the parts and not worry about messing up the angles, that they WANT to be.

Mike

[Mr.P]

“Then maybe later, with witness marks, I'll go in and polish the parts and not worry about messing up the angles, that they WANT to be.”


That is a “useful idea” that I will apply to my future airgun tinkering.  Thank you

[Woodwreck]

I have been looking at the Empire X, but can not find much info on it. So thanks for the info it has me thinking about pulling the trigger on one. Did you purchase it direct from Kral?

[Tweaker]

Like the way it looks  its the first I saw of this one. Whats the air cylinder volume in cc?

 The Puncher Breaker bullpup also by kral ive found to be very reliable and nice to hold.

[Bentong]

Nice 🙄

[johnbrown]

How does it shoot CPHP?

I expect reasonably priced air guns to shoot reasonably priced pellets well

[Pelletjunkie]

My XS shoots the Wally Crosmans pretty good. Maybe a few more fliers than my Dreamline shooting them. I have my XS tuned around shooting 16gr pellets now so the Crosmans are really screaming but it doesn’t show up until 40-50 yards. They open up pretty bad. But I don’t think they did too bad when I had them under 900fps.

[anti-squirrel]

Those are nice bull-pups, and as small as my Lelya (and likely lighter!).  Turkish walnut doesn't hurt, either.  Nice review.

[Mike -]

How does it shoot CPHP?

I expect reasonably priced air guns to shoot reasonably priced pellets well

What's CPHP ?? !

Yes, I bought straight through Kral .  Nice people.
Note - you have to provide a copy of your drivers license or a Passport for proof of age.

Coupla weeks in and still going strong.  No problems, shooting well.  Bought the 3x version of the Primary Arms Cyclops prism sight.  Should be here today.  Will swap the 1x for the 3x, and see how I feel.
Still happy with the purchase...

I also have a Lelya in .22.  This little XS feels better at the shoulder for free hand shooting than my Lelya does !?

Mike

[BC81]

How does it shoot CPHP?

I expect reasonably priced air guns to shoot reasonably priced pellets well

What's CPHP ?? !

Yes, I bought straight through Kral .  Nice people.
Note - you have to provide a copy of your drivers license or a Passport for proof of age.

Coupla weeks in and still going strong.  No problems, shooting well.  Bought the 3x version of the Primary Arms Cyclops prism sight.  Should be here today.  Will swap the 1x for the 3x, and see how I feel.
Still happy with the purchase...

I also have a Lelya in .22.  This little XS feels better at the shoulder for free hand shooting than my Lelya does !?

Mike

CPHP: Crosman premier hollow point
CPUM: Crosman premier ultra magnum

Theyre the 2 most used pellets as the "standard" for testing on this forum lol.

Pcp guns it's usually the 18 grain jsb or h&n

[Mike -]

How does it shoot CPHP?

I expect reasonably priced air guns to shoot reasonably priced pellets well

What's CPHP ?? !

Yes, I bought straight through Kral .  Nice people.
Note - you have to provide a copy of your drivers license or a Passport for proof of age.

Coupla weeks in and still going strong.  No problems, shooting well.  Bought the 3x version of the Primary Arms Cyclops prism sight.  Should be here today.  Will swap the 1x for the 3x, and see how I feel.
Still happy with the purchase...

I also have a Lelya in .22.  This little XS feels better at the shoulder for free hand shooting than my Lelya does !?

Mike

CPHP: Crosman premier hollow point
CPUM: Crosman premier ultra magnum

Theyre the 2 most used pellets as the "standard" for testing on this forum lol.

Pcp guns it's usually the 18 grain jsb or h&n

I hate acronyms...  They mean nothing...if...you don't have a cheat sheet !

Yeah, seems I only shoot  JSB's and H&N.  Every now and again, I'll try something else, but no, no Crossmans yet.

Mike

[Back_Roads]

 Here is a handy list of GTA acronyms 
https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=51866.0

[Mike -]

Thanks BR, but I spent the last 20+ years living in acronyms in the Aerospace Industry.

Just as easy to...spell it out, so "everyone" understands what's being said.

Mike

[avator]

Thanks BR, but I spent the last 20+ years living in acronyms in the Aerospace Industry.

Just as easy to...spell it out, so "everyone" understands what's being said.

Mike

100% agree.
How did the World get to such a lazy state that we can't even say/write/type a complete word?

[TorqueMaster]

Thanks BR, but I spent the last 20+ years living in acronyms in the Aerospace Industry.

Just as easy to...spell it out, so "everyone" understands what's being said.

Mike

How does it shoot CPHP?

I expect reasonably priced air guns to shoot reasonably priced pellets well

What's CPHP ?? !

Yes, I bought straight through Kral .  Nice people.
Note - you have to provide a copy of your drivers license or a Passport for proof of age.

Coupla weeks in and still going strong.  No problems, shooting well.  Bought the 3x version of the Primary Arms Cyclops prism sight.  Should be here today.  Will swap the 1x for the 3x, and see how I feel.
Still happy with the purchase...

I also have a Lelya in .22.  This little XS feels better at the shoulder for free hand shooting than my Lelya does !?

Mike

CPHP: Crosman premier hollow point
CPUM: Crosman premier ultra magnum

Theyre the 2 most used pellets as the "standard" for testing on this forum lol.

Pcp guns it's usually the 18 grain jsb or h&n

I hate acronyms...  They mean nothing...if...you don't have a cheat sheet !

Yeah, seems I only shoot  JSB's and H&N.  Every now and again, I'll try something else, but no, no Crossmans yet.

Mike

Kindly write out what JSB and H&N mean.  Thanks.

Seriously though, every hobby/industry has it's abbreviations, and nobody's going to type out the long version when "everyone" here knows what they mean.  I realize it is not newbie friendly, but that's part of the learning curve.  When I came here, I read and read and read, long before posting, and it became obvious what CPHP means.  I'll grant you CPUM is a bit more obscure.  It's even missing from the linked abbreviation list.  As is CPL, for Crosman Premier Light, used to further specify which CP, back when there were only 2 kinds.  Oh, and it is "Crosman" -- one "s."

100% agree.
How did the World get to such a lazy state that we can't even say/write/type a complete word?

IDK.