DruLov has been on the shooting scene for a number of
years. However, their notoriety lies in .22 long rifle pistols. They do make a
very nice .22 Hornet for the silhouette game, perhaps another article. Their
configuration for almost their entire line is somewhat similar to the Thompson
Center, a grip and a small stock in front of the trigger guard. Listening to the
shooters, some seem to like it and some downright dislike it. Not a whole lot of
opinion in between. DruLov became more known on these shores for the DU-10
Condor then any other of their product. DU-10 being a fine C02 five shot
repeater that took a beating in the press as a 10 meter pistol. And by now we
know it has never meant to be as one. The pistol can still be purchased through
T.G.A.G. at 480-513-3778. But there is an evolution to this pistol. A lengthened
barrel and a stock with iron sights and a four inch scope rail, making this a
perfect training rifle. Or a carbine just for pure fun.
And now the evolution is getting larger. Not larger then the Condor but in
caliber. There is a Sokol, and a RADA. Both come in 9mm caliber. Both have iron
sights and the same 4 inch rail like the Condor and the carbine. Loading is
pretty much straight forward. Just press the latch lift the bolt and put a
pellet directly into the rifling. Actually/there is a small chamber before the
rifling. Close the breech pull the cocking rod under the barrel foreword and you
are ready to shoot. If the system reminds anyone of a Tau-7 don't be surprised
since the basic model has been designed by the same man, Mr. Uhrincak.
The Sokol has a 19 inch barrel and it can generate around 22 foot
pounds. I am almost reluctant to give precise numbers since the way a C02 is
loaded has a lot to do with foot pounds. For example, we all know that
temperature has a lot to do with the end result. But so does the way Sokol is
fed. The least foot pound output is by using the 12 gram cartridge, then comes
the bulk fill, and the most fpd is generated by leaving the large bottle
attached. But here is the nifty part I like.
9mm pellets are
not in just any store so I used000 buckshot. I
knew that shot measures .360Ber pellet so I did some experimenting. And I like
shooting the 000 more then the pellets for several reasons. Accuracy is about
the same at 10 meters and at 25 yards the 000 is not that much worse. I did not
feel there was any need for resizing. I actually tried to size the buckshot to
.356 but then there was no way of ensuring the sized part will engage the
rifling. So I left the 000 the way it came. I did notice that if I was running
low on C02, the carbine would not shoot the buck.
All I needed was to either push the 000 out of the chamber or get
more C02. The buckshot I was using was swaged per manufacturers claim and I
think that contributed considerably to the accuracy. Just to regress a bit.
I know people will want to know how many shots a 12 gram caplet will
give. So I had to go purchase some and it will give 12 shots. Basically the
rifles use 1 gram of C02 per shot. Best part about using the 000 buckshot it is
relatively cheep to shoot and you get a lot of shots per plastic container. I
was surprised that here in Phoenix there are not that many places that carry
000. All sorts of other buckshot is sold here, but not that particular diameter.
I had to order it from Cabellas, and they have a selection of two makes. One is
Hornady and the other is Super Buck. I opted for the Super Buck simply because
of the quantity.
The RADA is about the same pistol/carbine configuration as the Sokol.
The operation is the same. But it has an 11.5 inch barrel and a removable wire
stock. It does lose about 3 fpd to the longer barreled Sokol. But it seems to
make up for the loss with fun. This is one large pistol to shoot. Accuracy seems
to be slightly less but only because of the stock. Both are amazingly accurate
due to the barrel which is made by CZ to their high standards When shooting the
RADA on the range, I was amazed how far the ball would go after it penetrated
the target that was pinned to a quarter inch plywood board. The ball could still
be seen kicking up dust 100 yards downrange with authority. That gave me a
renewed respect for airguns.
Later I managed to recover some of the buckshot from old phone books
and found them to be very hard. There was hardly any deformation except for the
rifling marks left from the barrel. This is some hard buckshot, and it does say
on the plastic container that it has antimony. However, it does not say what
percentage of antimony it contains. There is a difference of 10 grains between
the pellet and the buck. The buck comes in at 70 grains and is very uniform for
weight, with the average difference of a grain. Pellet comes in at 60 grains
with slightly less variation. One thing I did notice that the point of aim on
both of these rifles for buck and pellet is negligible. Either one is just plain
fun. Lately whenever I go to the range I seem to take one with me. Not for
testing or accuracy trials just plain fun.
.........................
RADA
.9mm
