The Taipan Veteran II is among the world’s best off-the-peg airguns, but its high-end performance does come at a price.
Distributed in the UK by Range Right, prices for the Taipan Veteran II start at £1735, and the grey laminate Tactical model with 700mm barrel featured here retails for a cool £2,085. That is serious money, but for those who can afford it, it buys you is a very serious, high-quality Czech made airgun.
To give it a driving analogy, not everyone can afford a Formula 1 car but you can’t argue when it comes to their credentials for getting around a racing track very, very quickly. And that’s how it works with the Taipan Veteran II; shooters who can justify the cost will find it a highly effective machine for placing pellets or slugs with extreme precision.
Below: The Taipan Veteran 2 represents the Formula 1 of airgun construction
The Taipan Veteran II is a bullpup airgun. It weighs a solid 4kg and, with the 700mm barrel option, is about 960mm (96cm) long. That is quite long for a bullpup but there is also a 550mm barrel option which is 150mm shorter. Being quite substantial, this is a very stable airgun. It might not be ideal for carrying around the field all day on arduous stalking sessions, but it is a heck of a performer on the bench.
Stock design is very simplistic and your leading hand hold point is likely to be somewhere around the big carbon bottle that sits up front. There are several stock options including synthetic, walnut and forest laminate. The grey laminate seen here certainly works very well with this gun’s overall aesthetic.
Styled along AR15 lines, the pistol grip is quite slim but is nicely grooved to cradle the hand. It can be swapped out for something different, although I found the standard grip perfectly good. There is no specialised cheek rest to speak of – you just nestle your cheek into the block. It was more comfortable than I would have expected, but I expect it could feel a bit cold on chilly winter outings. I can see some shooters wanting a bit more rise when using higher scope mounts. If nothing else, the arrangement maintains the Taipan Veteran II’s ambidextrous configuration.
Below top: The slim grip is very comfortable in the hand
Below bottom: There is no dedicated cheek rest in the Veteran 2's simplistic ambidextrous design
Build quality is excellent – as would be expected with a gun of this pedigree – and finish and engineering look flawless throughout. Scope mounting is via a Picatinny-type rail that provides about 190mm of clamping space. It has 20 MOA built in and looks and feels very sturdy. There is another Picatinny rail for accessory attachment on the underside in front of the trigger guard.
The Taipan Veteran II has a floating CZ barrel encased in a carbon fibre sleeve, which I would imagine assists with barrel tensioning. At the front of that is an unmissable silencer that’s over 300mm long. It is a very effective sound suppressor and made the sub-12ft/lb test gun whisper-quiet.
Below top: Features include a 20 MOA scope rail and carbon fibre barrel sleeve
Below bottom: A substantial moderator keeps muzzle report very quiet
Quick reloading comes via a multi-shot magazine, which holds ten pellets in the .22 version featured here – .177 and .25 calibre options are also available. There are two magazines supplied plus a single shot tray. The simple yet very effective design of the magazine looks very similar to that of the Weihrauch HW100, which is no bad thing. It is very easy to load and its simplicity suggests that there is virtually nothing on it that can go wrong.
The magazine is driven by a sidelever action that can be reversed to the opposite side for lefthanders. I found its position just above the grip made for quick and intuitive operation. The notched handle actually stands up as opposed to the usual dropdown design, and that prevents it from getting in the way of the trigger. There is actually an alternative handle arrangement supplied, and that one has the same finish as the trigger and safety catch. Most importantly, the sidelever mechanism is very slick. It manages to feel smooth and reassuringly positive at the same time, plus it has an anti-double-load mechanism, so you can’t end up with two pellets up the spout at once.
Below: The Taipan Veteran 2 is supplied with two excellent magazines and a single-shot tray - plus an alternatibe sidelever handle to match the trigger blade
The trigger blade has a stylish matt gold finish and is a simple yet effective design. It is gently curved and has a flat face which transmits plenty of feel. The two-stage mechanism is adjustable but, as ever, I tested it on its factory setting. Bullpup triggers can have a tendency to feel a bit notchy because of their extended linkage but the setup in the Veteran II is excellent. The first stage was fairly short and light but there was a very clear stop point before the light second stage touched off very crisply.
A switch type safety catch is positioned in front of the trigger blade. Its operating positions are the opposite way round to the ones that I am used to. So, you push it forward into the safe position and then click it back when you’re ready to take the shot – it only took a few shots for me to become accustomed to it.
In terms of air reserves, you have a large 480cc carbon bottle up front which is valved so it can be uncrewed without emptying. There is also air storage in the cylinder. The bottle and cylinder arrangement isn’t the prettiest, but it serves a purpose when it comes to holding air and provides a combined total of around 650cc capacity. Maximum fill pressure is 250bar and onboard pressure is displayed on the gauge at the front of the cylinder.
This is a regulated airgun and it’s very consistent with muzzle velocity variation remaining within five feet per second over a ten-shot string during my testing. This sub-12 model was running at about 11.4ft/lb. I was filling it with small top-up charges but I reckon you can expect in the ballpark of 300 shots from a sub-12 model in .22 cal. When the time comes to refill, you just plug the supplied probe into the inlet just in front of the bottle connection.
Below top: The Veteran 2 has an excellent two-stage trigger
Below bottom: Air pressure is displayed on a gauge at the front of the cylinder
The Taipan Veteran II has been designed and built for precision shooting – it has a high-quality CZ barrel, a very nice trigger and extremely consistent power output. Those attributes should set it firmly on the route to high-level accuracy, so I paired it with a quality scope – a Valiant Zephyr – to do it justice for testing. Shooting from a bench and paired with H&N Baracuda 15 pellets, this performance bullpup more than lived up to my expectations, flipping 30mm steel targets with relative ease at 50m. On paper it was virtually pellet on pellet at 25m and was still churning out tight single-hole groups at 40m.
Away from the comfort of the bench, the length of the 700mm barrel version does make it a bit of a handful for standing and kneeling shots, though it’s a great performer from a bipod when taking long-range shots from the prone position. Anyone looking to purchase the Taipan Veteran II as an out and out hunting tool would no doubt be better off with the 550mm barrel version which is lighter and significantly more compact.
While the very functional and simplistic styling of the Taipan Veteran II isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste – especially in its Tactical guise – there is no questioning its performance. It is an expensive airgun, and that is because it has been built to an incredibly high standard with no corner-cutting and quality features such as that CZ barrel. It genuinely has the potential to elevate your shooting to another level and its standard of engineering makes it a real pleasure to use. The Taipan Veteran II Tactical has given a remarkable account of itself during my test period and I can see it quickly establishing a very loyal following here in the UK. I haven’t had a chance to get to grips with an FAC version yet but, if this one is anything to go by, that should be something very special indeed.
FROM: Range Right
MAKER: Taipan Airguns
MODEL: Veteran II Tactical
PRICE: £2,085 for model featured
LENGTH: 960mm (38in)
WEIGHT: 4kg (8.8lb)
MAX FILL PRESSURE: 250 bar
Article first published 9th September 2025
