The Air Rifles & Pistols thread

SimonCHere · 8 Feb 2013 at 23:04

I'd love a go on a 100m wind free range. I'm tempted to go and see one on the local farmers who has a polytunnel and see if he minds me borrowing it for an hour or two.
As to range, I'm mainly into hft with a bit of ft so 55 yards is plenty. Nothing live over 35 yards in good conditions. Targets don't tend to move about whilst you get ready to shoot them.
Arek, you can't say in one post that you use hobby because they are cheap and then say you want the best pellet in another

arekgreenman888 · 9 Feb 2013 at 00:10

SimonCHere said:
Arek, you can't say in one post that you use hobby because they are cheap and then say you want the best pellet in another

Just that they are cheap dont mean they are bad? Right...

In my short range they are fine. But at 50 yard people say they wont be.

haaammit · 9 Feb 2013 at 07:53

Arek - I know for some reason you refuse to post some nice pics of your guns so we can all admire them (come one, don't be shy), but would you please let me know what scope you have on your TX200HC or if you use open sights?
Many thanks.

Makhaira · 9 Feb 2013 at 08:48

BF-Bert said:
In that case JSB Exacts in 4.53mm if you have them

+1. Fantastic pellets.

SimonCHere · 9 Feb 2013 at 10:18

arekgreenman888 said:
Just that they are cheap dont mean they are bad? Right...

In my short range they are fine. But at 50 yard people say they wont be.

For exactly the same reasons I'm doing this pellet test I don't know if the hobbys will be any good in your guns.
You were saying earlier in this thread that you couldn't group at 10m or was it 10 feet? Anyway, it might be that your guns don't like the pellet.
I know that I can group well enough at 35 yards that I will be able to see any differences between pellets, plus I have the advantage of being able to hold my rifle down whilst shooting it for even better accuracy.

They will probably be fine for short range stuff, I used to use them in a friends tempest pistol at 10m and they were fine, plus the advantage of punching nice round holes in the paper. Down at the range though there was a guy using them in his ratcatcher. Fine at 10-15 yards the accuracy then dropped off as he got further out.

fadetoblack · 9 Feb 2013 at 10:41

Both my modded rifle love superdomes

Hw100k .177 ( just love this rifle

)
Ultra .177 with scorpion barrel fitted

But my

Hw97 .22 hates them

ianh · 9 Feb 2013 at 12:48

fadetoblack said:
Ultra .177 with scorpion barrel fitted

The Scorpion/Ultra mix is such a good a combo! I went the other way to yourself and had a .22 Scorpions action, as I preferred bolt action over MMC, with an Ultra barrel/cylinder and a Tweaky Reg and it was a Fantastic setup.

alexthecheese · 9 Feb 2013 at 12:54

Inappropriate question I know, but has anyone supercharged their own rifle by upgrading the spring? I have done but it's quite old. Wondering about replacing the spring for either same or more powerful one.

TaKeN · 9 Feb 2013 at 12:56

That would most likely put it over the legal limit Alexthecheese, which is illegal

alexthecheese · 9 Feb 2013 at 13:02

I know there is that risk.

How do you know what spring offers maximum legal power? Mine is a 22.

Albo · 9 Feb 2013 at 13:14

alexthecheese said:
I know there is that risk. How do you know what spring offers maximum legal power? Mine is a 22.

They won't sell you an FAC rated spring without an FAC anyway. That said, a .177 spring in a .22 rifle would push it over the limit as a .177 spring needs to push the pellet faster to reach 12 ft lbs. But if you do this, in the eyes of the law you're walking round with a firearm.

=XDC=FluphyBunny · 9 Feb 2013 at 13:59

alexthecheese said:
Inappropriate question I know, but has anyone supercharged their own rifle by upgrading the spring? I have done but it's quite old. Wondering about replacing the spring for either same or more powerful one.

I think the mods should ban you for asking such a stupid question. Basically you want to know how to make your airrifle into an illegal firearm under the current law. Unless you own a chronograph you should never mess about with your kit, in fact I would suggest given your question it would be better that you don't own an air rifle at all.

SimonCHere · 9 Feb 2013 at 14:07

alexthecheese said:
I know there is that risk. How do you know what spring offers maximum legal power? Mine is a 22.

You don't. You have to get a chronograh and test it with different pellets. It's not just the spring, it's the preload, the piston weights, the lubrication.
Remember, it's your responsibility to make sure your gun is below the legal limit with any pellets that are available. There is no "Oh I didn't know it was over" or "I wasn't aware there was a limit".

Go straight to jail (for 5 years), do not pass go, do not collect £200.

Kobi · 9 Feb 2013 at 14:54

BF-Bert said:
In that case JSB Exacts in 4.53mm if you have them

+2

Thats what i use, excellent pellets!

phil675 · 9 Feb 2013 at 16:49

Hey, so I took the stock off my Gamo Hornet and had a poke around. The spring appears to be preloaded and I don't have any proper equipment so I'm leaving it alone for now.

When I **** it, the part circled in red moves all the way to just underneath the trigger bits circled in green (pic in spoiler). At this point it takes a lot of force to actually **** the rifle and its quite stiff, but can be done. It feels like I'm abusing it when doing so. If I let go at that point then the barrel just moves back up as normal and the rifle doesn't fire or do anything when you pull the trigger.

Also when I hold the action with the muzzle pointing up and turn it upside down so that the muzzle is pointing at the ground, its sounds and feels like something is moving up or down slightly, I'm not sure if this is normal.

Any advice?

Mark A · 9 Feb 2013 at 17:00

looks like your spring is broken to me. The thing moving up and down in probably the snapped bit that is stuck in the piston. I could be wrong though, probably a good idea to strip it and have a look before buying a new spring.

I wouldn't use it any more until you get a new spring in there. the shards of broken spring can score the compression chamber.

Makhaira · 9 Feb 2013 at 23:09

It's difficult to tell from the picture if the spring has snapped at all, but it's definitely not healthy as you can see the coils are skewed in a couple of places. It's normal though for the last little bit of a springer cocking action to be hard, as that's when you're compressing the spring the most.

If you're going to replace the spring yourself, please have a few free bits of advice!

1) Wear eye protection
2) Keep the "open" end pointed away from you at all times when removing and replacing the spring. The amount of power these have even under preload will do you a very serious injury.
3) If you're not DIY minded, then get yourself a proper tool for compressing and removing the spring for safety reasons.
4) Worth having a supply of kitchen roll, replacement piston seals, and lubricant. Since removing the spring is about the biggest job there is on a springer, you may as well do the little things in there too to make sure it's spot on.
5) After you've rebuilt, always always always run it through a chronograph. Even if you were to just strip and clean and rebuild with the same stuff, run it through a chronograph.
6) Your zero will almost certainly shift as a result of stripping it, so check it out.

phil675 · 9 Feb 2013 at 23:26

Makhaira said:
It's difficult to tell from the picture if the spring has snapped at all, but it's definitely not healthy as you can see the coils are skewed in a couple of places. It's normal though for the last little bit of a springer cocking action to be hard, as that's when you're compressing the spring the most.

If you're going to replace the spring yourself, please have a few free bits of advice!

1) Wear eye protection
2) Keep the "open" end pointed away from you at all times when removing and replacing the spring. The amount of power these have even under preload will do you a very serious injury.
3) If you're not DIY minded, then get yourself a proper tool for compressing and removing the spring for safety reasons.
4) Worth having a supply of kitchen roll, replacement piston seals, and lubricant. Since removing the spring is about the biggest job there is on a springer, you may as well do the little things in there too to make sure it's spot on.
5) After you've rebuilt, always always always run it through a chronograph. Even if you were to just strip and clean and rebuild with the same stuff, run it through a chronograph.
6) Your zero will almost certainly shift as a result of stripping it, so check it out.

I've only had the rifle from new for about 6 months, fired about 1500 pellets through it, is this something I can get the shop I bought it from to fix under warranty or a 'wear and tear' sort of thing?

Makhaira · 9 Feb 2013 at 23:57

You can try. They might fob you off, but you've got nothing to lose.

Mark A · 10 Feb 2013 at 01:00

Or you could just take this opportunity to fit a decent spring instead of another crappy Gamo one that will break in another 1500 shots.