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The Daystate Mirage Air Rifl
By Brad Troyer
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Man has hunted for thousands of years to provide food for the family and more recently for sport. Hunting traditionally is a time of bonding between father and son allowing the father to pass on age-old techniques of stalking, shooting and game preparation to the son. In the past century a new chapter in the hunting story was begun with the advent of modern airguns. Airgun hunting is on the rise around the world, due in a large part to gun control in many countries and the wider availability of magnum power airguns. The game taken is generally smaller but the same firearm hunting techniques apply to airgun hunting.
Throughout the ages, the hunter desired a light hunting arm that was powerful and accurate. After all, what is the point of carrying around a rifle all day if you can't hit your game when it presents itself? As most hunters know, the weapon used for the hunt gets heavier as the day wears on. The need for a light, powerful and accurate rifle has been the driving force for much of the development of hunting arms for both firearms and airguns.
Keeping these requirements in mind, Daystate has taken a radical step forward in the hunting air rifle arena by developing the new Mirage XLR. The Mirage was designed to be an ultra-light hunting air arm and that is where the XLR designation comes from, it stands for eXtra Light Rifle. Weighting only 4.5 lbs., it is a light but powerful and accurate air rifle. Knowing that this rifle was going to generate interest, I decided it was time to get a Mirage and put it to the test.
With .177, .20, .22, .25 calibers available, I selected .177 caliber for my test rifle and called Robert Buchanan at Daystate America who supplied the test rifle. It arrived with a compact Simmons Whitetail 1.5-5x20 scope which I thought looked and functioned well on the Mirage. The Mirage is a short rifle measuring only 35½" in length, so with the compact size and lightweight, it is a very nice rifle to tote around the woods on a day of hunting.
Desiring to reduce weight, Daystate designed the Mirage mostly out of aircraft aluminum, including the breech block and air reservoir. The trade-off of the aluminum reservoir for weight reduction is that the aluminum tubing must be thicker to accommodate the recommended 2900 psi fill pressure. The thicker tubing means less volume which, coupled with the shorter overall length of the rifle, results in reduced shots per fill. In this case the Mirage shot about 15 good shots on a single fill. It would shoot another 10 shots but the groups were approximately 1/2" low at 40 yards. The reservoir uses the same quick-disconnect as it's stable mates so I could use my filling adapter that I bought with my CR97 to fill the Mirage. A unique feature of this rifle is the unique reservoir cap, it is shaped to look like a pellet!
The rest of the Mirage design appears to be very similar to the other high quality Daystate rifles. The trigger is the standard two-stage adjustable with an excellent pull that has almost no creep and a very crisp 2 lbs. weight. The only thing I didn't care for was the angle of the brass trigger blade. It was angle too far forward which made the bottom of my trigger finger contact the blade rather than the middle of my finger. This may have been just an adjustment problem but it wasn't a big enough distraction to bother with adjusting it.
The breech block, loading port and cocking lever are pretty standard designs as well. All of the metal work on the rifle is finish with a bead blast that gives it a matte look. This helps reduce light reflections and also make it easier to maintain. The rifle is fitted with an aluminum swan-neck cocking arm. Cocking the rifle is almost effortless, with a quick counter clockwise 1/4 turn and rearward pull on the swan neck, the rifle is cocked and ready to load. The pellet is loaded in the typical Daystate pellet trough and then pushed into the barrel by the cocking arm probe.
Right behind and below the cocking arm sits the safety. The safety is attached to the rear of the trigger housing. It is a rocker style safety and is applied by pressing the right side of the safety lever down. Then to fire the rifle the left side of the lever is pressed which disengages the safety. With the long swan neck cocking arm right above the safety, it made it difficult to reach over the cocking arm to release the safety. I could see this being a bit troublesome while hunting since my hand had to be moved off of the pistol grip to release the safety. It seems that it would have been better to put the release on the right side of the rifle to make it easier and more natural to reach.
One of the first things I noticed about the Mirage was its excellent balance and handling characteristics. It shouldered very naturally and the high rolled over cheek piece positions the eye easily behind the scope. The fore end of the stock had a contoured groove giving the fingers and thumb a nice area to grip the rifle. The pistol grip is nicely checkered to give a very solid grip and it includes a slight palm swell to make the feel complete. The stock design allows for the thumb to roll over the top of the grip or be place in a vertical thumb groove that angles up to the base of the cocking arm. The backend of the stock is capped by a rubber butt pad that grips the shoulder well and also cushions the shoulder from any recoil (of course there is no recoil). The Mirage comes standard with a beech sporter stock but it is also available with a deluxe walnut stock or a deluxe profile walnut stock (also know as a skeletonized stock). The test rifle came with a beautiful deluxe walnut stock.
| Crosman Premiers 10.5 |
Beeman Kodiak Match |
RWS FTS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Accuracy | 0.58 | 0.74 | 0.95 |
| Smallest | 0.32 | 0.50 | 0.69 |
| Largest | 0.88 | 0.88 | 1.25 |
Settling down with the rifle on the test bench, I set up some test targets at 35 yards and began shooting some groups with this petite rifle. Testing of the rifle consisted of shooting five groups of five shots each with the rifle being filled after each pellet type. The 16" barrel grouped a variety of pellet types well even with the barrel not being free floated. The first 15 shots typically were right on target while the last 10 would drop about 1/2" but the groups were still tight. As always, the Crosman Premiers performed very well, grouping on average 0.80". The Mirage also shot other pellets well however several pointed type pellets didn't group at all. They tended to spiral as they went down range.
The Mirage isn't regulated and I found that a fill of 2850 psi achieved the best overall velocity performance. The performance was consistent which is another factor in the rifle's accuracy. The rifle tested was set up shooting around 850 fps with the Premiers which translates to 16.8 ft. lbs. of energy.
| Crosman Premiers 10.5 |
Beeman Kodiak Match |
RWS FTS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Velocity | 840.9 | 847.6 | 837.4 |
| Standard Deviation | 3.00 | 2.50 | 5.88 |
| Highest | 847 | 852 | 850 |
| Lowest | 836 | 843 | 827 |
| Extreme Spread | 11 | 9 | 23 |
| Weight | 10.5 | 10.5 | 10.5 |
| Energy | 16.5 | 16.8 | 16.4 |
Taking the rifle off the bench, I headed into the woods for a bit of simulated hunting. We aren't allowed to hunt or kill any animal at our range but that didn't stop me from stalking some critters and doing a bit of plinking in the woods with the Mirage. The well thought out stock design and excellent balance made the rifle a joy to use in the woods. The Mirage shouldered very well and the accuracy made it easy to hit what I aimed at. With the rifle's smaller size, maneuvering in heavy brush was a snap. After a few hours in the woods there were a lot of dead pine cones and sticks yet I didn't feel fatigued from carrying the Mirage. I had to return frequently to my air tank for refills but in a real hunting situation I wouldn't have been shooting as much as I did during my hunt so I don't feel this would be a significant problem.
The Daystate Mirage was designed to target a specific segment of the airgun society and by all accounts they appear to have hit the mark. The Mirage is easy to handle, a breeze to carry for long periods of time and has the accuracy and power required by the discriminating hunter. Adding it all up and you have yet another winner from a cutting edge airgun company, Daystate.
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Daystate Mirage Specs
| Model | Mirage |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Daystate, England | Type | Pre-charged Pneumatic |
| Caliber | .177, .20, .22, .24 |
| Energy | 18 ft. lb. max in .177 30 ft. lb. max in .22 |
| Overall Length | 35½" |
| Weight | 4.5 lbs. |
| Barrel Length | 16" |
| Sights | None |
| Stock | Beech Sporter, Deluxe Walnut Sporter, Profile Deluxe Walnut Sporter |
| Safety | Manual |
| Trigger | 2 stage adjustable |
| Retail Price | $859, standard stock |
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© Copyright 2006 by Brad Troyer & American Airguns