The Mod 95 Vortex has become the workhorse airgun here in the shop and out on the range. Recently our local airgun club, Havasu Airgunners, had an event where people could come out and shoot for free. Gamo provided the bulk of the airguns and even one that we gave away. (THANK YOU GAMO!) On the other side of the range we had the inventor of the Megaboom Supersonic Target System. This system uses plastic bottles as a shooting accessory. They are pressurized with his system and then you shoot them with an airgun, bow, or even a firearm. When they are hit, they release the pressurized air at greater than the speed of sound which creates the “BOOM.” It’s shocking how loud they are!
Ashley from Havasu Airgunners shooting the Mod 95 VortexMod 95 Vortex .25 Cal right at home
The Mod 95 .25 cal Vortex was the rifle of choice down at the Megaboom target lane. The Megaboom guys brought out a prototype rotating target wheel that gave the shooters a moving target. Once folks had the timing down, it was smooth sailing. The reasonable cocking force and easy shooting characteristics of the Mod 95 Vortex made hitting the moving bottles almost too easy. Everyone, from folks never having fired an airgun to seasoned shooters, took their turns and had a blast.
Back to work
Now that the rifle’s pretty well broken in, it’s time to get back to work and start looking at power and accuracy. With products equipped with open sights, I like to start testing at 10 yards just to get a good baseline. After testing a few pellets, it was pretty clear that the Hatsan Vortex Supremes were going to be the “right” pellet for this particular airgun. Other pellets that are worth mentioning were the JSB Exact Kings and the Predator PolyMags. They shot OK, but not as consistently as the Hatsan pellets.
The rifle has really settled down and is now averaging 632.3 FPS across 10 shots. Here are the particulars: High – 638.0 FPS, Low – 628.0 FPS, Average – 632.3 FPS, Extreme Spread – 10.0 FPS, Standard Deviation – 2.6 FPS, and an Average Energy of 17.68 FPE.
Close enough for government work?
When it comes to shooting with open sights, I always want to give the rifle the benefit of the doubt. My eyesight is not that great and I struggle to keep a tight sight picture from shot to shot. The other side of the coin is that while the Mod 95 has decent fiber optic sights, they are rather large so really dialing in on a .25″ bull at 10 yards is harder than you might think. In the end, I’m pretty happy with getting sub .5″ CTC 5 shots groups pretty consistently. This will certainly do the job on small game around the house or in the field.
10 yard open sights with Hatsan 95 .25 Vortex: Top Left -Hatsan Vortex / Bottom Right – JSB Exact KingsThe benefit of a bigger bullet
There’s a prevailing thought, usually amongst new airgunners, that velocity is really critical in a hunting airgun. They purchase the 1300 FPS airgun and then struggle to try and put game down with 1 clean shot. There’s a reason for this. The faster, lighter, and smaller projectiles don’t do nearly the amount of damage as the slower, heavier, and larger pellets. It’s like the difference between a .380 and a .45 ACP. There’s a darn good reason that the .45 ACP was (and now is again for those operators that have an option) the military’s choice for a sidearm. It puts that energy into the target, not through it and out the other side.
The new .25 cal airguns do the same, especially something like the Mod 95 Vortex. While it’s “only” putting out about 18 foot pounds, it will more than likely put ALL of that energy into the target. This is far more humane and effective than something that shoots faster but with a lighter and smaller pellet.
On to the range!
Well this wraps up part 2 of the Hatsan Mod 95 Vortex .25 cal. Next I’ll mount the scope and see if I can better my .5″ CTC groups at 10 yards before moving things out to 20 yards. So far I’ve been impressed with this new airgun. I hope the trend continues!
