Epic Airguns And Zan Projectiles – Czech Companies At IWA, Part One
All of us are familiar with Czech-manufactured JSB pellets. However there’s a rash of new airgun companies in the Czech Republic. Today we’ll look at Epic Airguns and Zan Projectiles.
Another familiar name from the Czech airgun industry is Taipan. The Veteran is a well-known bullpup PCP from this company, which actually has its roots in Ukraine.
Now Epic Airguns is a new brand of PCP that’s closely-associated, yet different, from Taipan. Also we need to say that the Czech-based Epic Airguns is no relation to the Epoch air rifle from US company Skout Airguns, even though the names are quite similar!
David Hanusek, the CEO of Epic Airguns, showed me his company’s new products. That’s David in our heading photograph above, with a compact Epic ONE.
The Epic models are named for simplicity. There’s an “Epic ONE” and an “Epic TWO”. The “One” is a Bullpup, the “Two” a full-length gun. But before we get too comfortable with this simplicity, David explained to me that the model “Two” will enter production before the “One”! Duhhh…..
Above we see a longer version of the Epic ONE. Epic Airguns clearly have a similar design heritage, including a substantial CNC-manufactured Aluminum body with externally-adjustable regulator. Both also include a vast range of options, including barrel lengths and calibers (up to .30 cal), a choice of tube and bottle HPA sources, etc…
In fact, Epic Airguns will be including a sophisticated configurator on their website so that customers can customize their own air rifle in complete detail. (I’m not sure how this could work for US or other international customers, however).
Above, we have a close-up of the action of the Epic Two. Another is below. One of the factors influencing the overall length of Epic Two is that it can be specified with no less than three different plenum capacities – larger capacities are longer, of course.
Below we see the Epic One.
Then take a closer look at the mid-mounted side lever action.
Clearly Epic Airguns are well advanced in their development process. David told me that we should expect to see these guns for sale in Europe in a few months from now.
Airguns need ammunition, so let’s now turn to the latest developments from Zan Projectiles…
Zan has developed from nowhere to a well-regarded name in the airgun slug world in an amazingly-short space of time! But the company is not resting on its laurels as the Director, Žan Šude, explained to me. (So now we know where the name Zan originates).
First we see what – to me – is a first. Alloy slugs! The first ones will be available for .22 caliber with weights of 15 and 22 Grains.
Then there’s a major development as Zan Projectiles moves into making pellets. Pellet manufacturing is much more complex than for slugs. So this move into pellets is a big deal.
The first Zan pellets will be in .30 caliber with a 56 Grain weight. You can see more details on the Zan projectiles website. Žan tells me that the manufacturing consistency is going to be amazing!
There’s more Czech airgun news coming-up in our next report from the 2023 IWA OutdoorClassics show!
