Guzzidom
16-03-2009, 03:19 PM
Well, we've had this for a couple of weeks now so I've formed a better opinion of this budget springer.
Initial chronograph showed a variable 11.3 ft/lbs, accuracy was about 60mm at 20 yards from a rest, very stiff to break the barrel and a cacophany of groans when going through the cocking stroke.
The trigger was the first thing to attend to as it had a pull weight of approx 7 lbs, having stripped the stock off, the immediate trigger problem was that all the retaining pins were at a slight angle, this had the effect of pressing all the sear parts against the side of the folded steel shroud which in effect gave all the moving parts a seperate bearing face. Emptying the shroud of all it's assembled parts a quick squash in the vise got all holes lined up. the next step was to polish the face of the lower sear and reassemble with some decent machine oil.
At the QC stage the Turkish feller should have plopped the misaligned trigger case in the reject bin rather than plodding on regardless!.
At the moment it's not quite passing my "bunny buster" test (25 yards, through both sides of a full Vittel water bottle with the lid on...pass....pellet on the double "T"s...fail)
Straight away the trigger was more consistent with a pull weight of about 4.5 lbs, more could be done here by removing the bottom sear and taking a touch off the face, I can see no reason why 2-3 lbs isn't acheivable.
The gun ships with a dry spring, a good old spring greasing with black open gear/chainspray gets rid of a whole lot of moaning whilst cocking, and a delicate oiling of all pivots with a light machine oil or gun oil helps matters no end..
Having re assembled I can now get 25mm groups (after about 250 pellets) at 20m and the gun feels as if it's settling in. Cocking, in particular is starting to get a bit easier.
Chronograph at this point is giving about 10.7 ft/lbs with AA pellets and about 10.9 with RWS hobbies which are a bit of a squeeze in the breech.
I'm going to give it another 1000 pellets and then move on to phase 2 which is to get it to 11.5-11.7 ft/lbs (runs at 15 ft/lbs abroad) and tame the recoil by milling down the (FAC spec) piston to the tune of 8g or so and giving the tube a good mirror polish internally, with maybe a spacer or so behind the spring.
Watch this space!
If I can get 11.5 ft/lbs and a 20mm five shot group at 25 yards for no extra cost whatsoever then this gun will get a major thumbs up.
If buying this gun as a junior or starter rifle beware!, it's a physically big gun and the recoil and heavy trigger means my son can't put a pellet on a target at 20 metres, not even on the paper, despite doing a 10mm group with a Daystate minutes earlier!, the combination of the forwards recoil from the heavy piston and the aim pull off caused by the heavy trigger means his 95 pound frame just can't get any semblance of precision. The reach to the trigger is also quite long with quite a large grip and forend.
Bit of a blunderbus really, but the overall quality of the major components seem good (trigger notwithstanding), the stock is a nice piece of walnut (there's enough of it to do a bit of subtle reshaping) and overall a good bit better than similarly priced far eastern offerings.
Initial chronograph showed a variable 11.3 ft/lbs, accuracy was about 60mm at 20 yards from a rest, very stiff to break the barrel and a cacophany of groans when going through the cocking stroke.
The trigger was the first thing to attend to as it had a pull weight of approx 7 lbs, having stripped the stock off, the immediate trigger problem was that all the retaining pins were at a slight angle, this had the effect of pressing all the sear parts against the side of the folded steel shroud which in effect gave all the moving parts a seperate bearing face. Emptying the shroud of all it's assembled parts a quick squash in the vise got all holes lined up. the next step was to polish the face of the lower sear and reassemble with some decent machine oil.
At the QC stage the Turkish feller should have plopped the misaligned trigger case in the reject bin rather than plodding on regardless!.
At the moment it's not quite passing my "bunny buster" test (25 yards, through both sides of a full Vittel water bottle with the lid on...pass....pellet on the double "T"s...fail)
Straight away the trigger was more consistent with a pull weight of about 4.5 lbs, more could be done here by removing the bottom sear and taking a touch off the face, I can see no reason why 2-3 lbs isn't acheivable.
The gun ships with a dry spring, a good old spring greasing with black open gear/chainspray gets rid of a whole lot of moaning whilst cocking, and a delicate oiling of all pivots with a light machine oil or gun oil helps matters no end..
Having re assembled I can now get 25mm groups (after about 250 pellets) at 20m and the gun feels as if it's settling in. Cocking, in particular is starting to get a bit easier.
Chronograph at this point is giving about 10.7 ft/lbs with AA pellets and about 10.9 with RWS hobbies which are a bit of a squeeze in the breech.
I'm going to give it another 1000 pellets and then move on to phase 2 which is to get it to 11.5-11.7 ft/lbs (runs at 15 ft/lbs abroad) and tame the recoil by milling down the (FAC spec) piston to the tune of 8g or so and giving the tube a good mirror polish internally, with maybe a spacer or so behind the spring.
Watch this space!
If I can get 11.5 ft/lbs and a 20mm five shot group at 25 yards for no extra cost whatsoever then this gun will get a major thumbs up.
If buying this gun as a junior or starter rifle beware!, it's a physically big gun and the recoil and heavy trigger means my son can't put a pellet on a target at 20 metres, not even on the paper, despite doing a 10mm group with a Daystate minutes earlier!, the combination of the forwards recoil from the heavy piston and the aim pull off caused by the heavy trigger means his 95 pound frame just can't get any semblance of precision. The reach to the trigger is also quite long with quite a large grip and forend.
Bit of a blunderbus really, but the overall quality of the major components seem good (trigger notwithstanding), the stock is a nice piece of walnut (there's enough of it to do a bit of subtle reshaping) and overall a good bit better than similarly priced far eastern offerings.