The best real-world test for any new piece of gear isn't the workbench, it's competition. Karma Airguns' own PJ Clarke debuted the brand new Huma Regulator upgrade for the Red Panda at IPAC in Leesburg, Florida, installing it just hours before the van left for the match. He came home with a Finals Top 10 finish. I had the opportunity to interview PJ to get the full story behind the product and the debut that proved it out.
A Word About IPAC
If you haven't been following the competitive airgun scene lately, here's a quick bit of context. IPAC, the International Precision Airgun Competition, ran for the first time in May 2026 in Leesburg, Florida, hosted by AEA, BinTac and 413 Airguns. The goal from the start was straightforward: build a world-class precision airgun competition with challenging courses, high standards, and a format that pushes the sport forward. In its inaugural year, IPAC offered traditional 100-yard benchrest, a 150-yard benchrest discipline, and a PRS-style Extreme Long Range event stretching past 800 yards.
For a first-year event, the turnout was impressive, over 100 competitors with international representation on the line. That's a strong debut by any measure in this sport. The hope, shared by many in the airgun community, is that IPAC grows into a recognized national major, joining the ranks of well-established events like the Rocky Mountain Airgun Challenge, the Pyramyd Cup, and Extreme Benchrest that have become the pillars of competitive airgun shooting in the United States. Whether IPAC earns that status over time remains to be seen, but a 100-plus field with shooters traveling from outside the country is a promising foundation.
The field wasn't just large, it was legitimate. These events draw serious competitors: people who travel across the country, who have spent months dialing in their equipment, and who don't show up to make up the numbers. Making a Finals Top 10 at a debut event of this kind, in conditions that included punishing wind and a mid-finals rainstorm, is something to be proud of.
PJ Clarke was one of those Top 10 finishers. Karma Airguns' technical support specialist, and the man who quietly spent the better part of two years working to bring the Huma Regulator upgrade to Red Panda owners, finished sixth overall in the finals, separated from fifth only by an X-count tiebreaker. He did it on a gun fitted with a completely untested regulator less than 72 hours before the competition started.
That's the story we're here to tell. And yes, there's a new product at the end of it, but first let's give credit where it's due.
Congratulations, PJ. Awesome shooting!
Chris Turek: PJ, for those who don't know the full story, how did the Huma Regulator project for the Red Panda actually come about?
PJ Clarke: It really starts in 2023, when we got our first samples of the Red Panda. As rifles go, they made a pretty big splash, and that's been well documented. We were excited to move forward with production. And as soon as those guns started arriving in larger numbers and going out to customers, my role at Karma was to work with those customers and address any issues they might be having.
Chris Turek: What kinds of conversations were you having with customers about regulators?
PJ Clarke: Regulators are, I think more than most people realize, a fairly complicated mechanical device. There are a lot of factors that influence their performance, but the reg is the easy thing to point to as a weak link in the chain. And honestly, it hasn't been that long since most airguns on the market, even high-end ones, weren't regulated at all. Go back to the Daystate Wolverine, look at FX's history. Very good guns without a regulator. Then we had a period where there was a regulator but no adjustment and no way to see what it was doing. The industry has evolved fast.
Chris Turek: And today's shooter expects more from a regulated gun?
PJ Clarke: Absolutely. If you ask ten airgunners today whether they prefer a regulated gun, they'll all say regulated, and they expect that gauge to snap back to the same reading immediately after every shot. There's also something that doesn't get mentioned enough: what we all call the "regulator gauge" isn't actually a regulator gauge. It's a plenum chamber gauge. It tells you the pressure in the plenum at any given time, not directly what the regulator is set to. So if cool air enters the plenum and heats up, that pressure rises. People call it "creep." But really, the regulator is a one-way valve, it can't pull that air back once it's in the plenum. It's physics, not a regulator failure.
Chris Turek: So where did the idea to bring Huma Air into the picture come from?
PJ Clarke: The Red Panda regulator isn't bad. Like a lot of regulators, how you set it up heavily influences its performance. Internally, we developed some tricks to get it to respond faster and more accurately, things like washer stack configuration and orientation of internal components. In a lot of cases we took someone who had a concern and made them quite happy with what they had. For the most part, we were winning. But I've always believed it shows strength of your platform when external companies invest in making your product even better. Huma doesn't make a regulator for every gun out there, so the question became, could we make something great even better?
Chris Turek: How did you approach Huma about it?
PJ Clarke: Part of my role is providing technical support to dealers, and Huma Air is one of our DonnyFL dealers in the Netherlands. Through that work I'd developed a good rapport with their team. And I was getting asked regularly, does anyone make an improved regulator for the Red Panda? So when I reached out to explain what some customers were experiencing and asked if they thought they could develop an enhancement, I could tell by the tone of the emails that they were pretty excited about the opportunity.
Chris Turek: How did the development process unfold?
PJ Clarke: We started by getting them stock regulators to study, then eventually a complete Red Panda so they could actually test with it. Lots of back and forth, questions asked and answered. Their reputation as a regulator manufacturer is second to none. Then, right as I was packing for IPAC in Leesburg, I got a shipping notification that my test regulator was on the way. It cleared customs fast and arrived air mail. About three hours before we were loading the van, the UPS guy walked in with my package.
Chris Turek: That's cutting it close. What was going through your head?
PJ Clarke: I thought of something I used to tell the kids when I was assistant lacrosse coach for my son, Quinn's high school team. Don't restring your stick on the bus on the way to a game. That's a major adjustment to your primary piece of equipment and you don't want to be standing on the sideline for the national anthem holding something you don't trust. And here I was with this brand-new regulator three hours before loading up. Nothing was wrong with the reg already in my gun. But this was a project I was proud to have played a small part in. I couldn't resist the temptation to be the first one to use it in competition. So I went for it.
"I think it shows strength of your platform when external companies invest in making your product even better." PJ Clarke, Karma Airguns
Chris Turek: How did the install go, and what did you see on the bench before the match?
PJ Clarke: It's a really easy swap, and Huma's written instructions are excellent. Getting theirs in and dialed took maybe five minutes. Like any new regulator, it needs a short break-in period, the initial refresh rate was a little slow at first, then it settled right in. A couple of seconds and it was back at target pressure. I shot a very consistent group indoors at the shop, then packed the gun up. At the range the next morning during sight-in, the groups I was seeing were nothing to complain about. I ran 32 pellets and saw a five-foot-per-second spread. I went into day one feeling very confident in my gear.
Chris Turek: How did the competition itself go?
PJ Clarke: The first round had worsening wind conditions as the day wore on, and heat four probably had the worst wind of the day. The target stands were knocked over five times, there was a lot of mirage and crossfire on my target. Card two on Saturday morning felt much better, and other shooters up and down the line were saying it was a solid card. I finished seventh overall in the aggregate, which was good enough to advance to finals. The finals had their own adventure, the wind was up and then a solid rainstorm rolled through about ten minutes in. When the final scores were posted, I was tied for fifth place with Saber Tactical teammate Keith Rush. He had two more X's, so he took fifth on the tiebreaker and I had sixth. Not a bad debut for the regulator under those conditions.
Chris Turek: Final thoughts, what does this regulator mean for Red Panda owners?
PJ Clarke: Whether or not every shooter needs to swap, people want options, and we're not afraid to work with industry partners to get customers what they're asking for. That's exactly what this is. I'm proud to work for a company that embraces that spirit, where having someone make an upgrade accessory for your base product isn't a threat, it's a sign of where you stand in the industry. Huma doesn't do this for every gun out there. That says something.
Where to Get One
The Huma Regulator for the Karma Red Panda is available right now here on DonnyFL.com, and if you've been waiting for this one, don't wait much longer.
This first production batch is limited, and given how much demand has built up around this project, we expect it to move fast. Red Panda owners who want the best possible foundation under an already outstanding rifle now have a drop-in upgrade backed by two of the most trusted names in the industry. Huma's engineering, Karma's platform, and a competition finish in the Top 10 at a national event to prove it all works under pressure, literally.
Head over to our product catalog, grab yours, and get it on your rig before this first run is gone.
