Bad Beagle
15-06-2005, 02:52 PM
Finished 1st May 2006 !
Finished the gun today and am really pleased with the result. The new spring that arrived from BSA was 12" long, the one that came out of the gun was 8" and looked knackered even after only a max of 1500 pellets.
I have reassembled it with the new spring, leaving out the bush and the piston weights. After 20 shots I did a 10 shot chrono string as follows:
LO - 571
HI - 579.3
AV - 575.4
SD - 2.64
That was with AA field at 16 grain which makes it approx 11.7 ft/lb ! Am going to have to watch that aren't I?
Anyway thanks to Hsing-ee, Baz, Phil Bulmer, Roblade and everybody else who has answered my queries over the past few weeks... and here are a couple of tips I learned along the way:
1. Take photos as you disassemble - Today when a small spring fell out of the trigger assemby on the bench I was glad of my photos. I would never have known where the spring came from had I not had the pics to refer to.
2. Don't get Moly GN paste on a leather sofa - My girlfriend was working nights and I wanted to watch tv while lubing on the coffee table - she nearly murdered me the next day!
3. Be brave and have a go - it's relatively simple with the excellent Hsing-ee guide on here.
Edited 21st April 2006
OK after a year of gentle use I took it back to the club and re tested the power, now at 330 fps - Roblade and The Beagle were pretty horrified, however it is still very very accurate. But I now have the AA 410 and have wanted to try stripping a springer for a long time, so armed with Hsing-ee's guide from here I have bought the lubes, ordered a new main spring and dismantled the gun, which was remarkably easy.
While I wait for the spring to arrive I have stripped the dark brown varnish from the stock and sanded in preparation for many coats of Danish Oil.
Well - when all back together I will return to club, test and then post an update and pics.
Meanwhile I've added a piccy of the unsophisticated internals !
__________________________________________________ __________________________
Had the gun a good few weeks now and bought it from JSR for £134. The gun is a break barrel spring powered rifle with fitted silencer, Gamo red dot sight and scope stop. It is advertised as full-power which I assumed to be 11+ ft lbs.
Good points - The gun is competitively priced and appears to be substantial and well made, the beech stock has a nice quality feel and the ventilated recoil pad with slim white spacer looks good.
The gun is simple to use, the red dot adjusts easily and the silencer does a very good job of reducing the muzzle sound.
I have subsequently fitted a 6X40 scope and can achieve 1.5" groups at 25 metres using Bisley LRG or Accupel (I hope to get better with practice).
Areas of Disappointment – The packaging states 620 fps and despite it’s ‘full power’ billing my club has run it over two chronoscopes which measured it at 520 fps (equating to a little over 8 ft lbs) That deflated me I can tell you !
I took this up with JSR who stated that they get at least one such complaint every day concerning various guns. In 5 years of sending guns back to the manufacturers for testing they claim that no complaint of under performance has been upheld, consequently I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle and decided to just enjoy using the gun, after all it will completely embed a pellet in 4X2 timber at 35 metres and that seems sufficient to me.
The red dot is fine but less easy to see in bright daylight – hence the scope purchase.
The trigger 1st stage is very heavy despite my attempts to adjust it, but I have got used to it quickly.
The dovetail stops a few inches short of the end of the gun and makes mounting a short scope rather difficult.
Despite the quiet muzzle, the gun’s action is quite loud and ‘twangy’.
Overall – A reasonable first gun for garden use and serious plinking, probably pretty good for ratting with the red dot and an appropriate pellet too. With hindsight I should have saved a bit more money and joined my local club earlier to experience some other guns. Like the look of the BSA Lightning XL and Baz’s review – maybe he’ll have it at the club when I’m there next and let me try it !
Finished the gun today and am really pleased with the result. The new spring that arrived from BSA was 12" long, the one that came out of the gun was 8" and looked knackered even after only a max of 1500 pellets.
I have reassembled it with the new spring, leaving out the bush and the piston weights. After 20 shots I did a 10 shot chrono string as follows:
LO - 571
HI - 579.3
AV - 575.4
SD - 2.64
That was with AA field at 16 grain which makes it approx 11.7 ft/lb ! Am going to have to watch that aren't I?
Anyway thanks to Hsing-ee, Baz, Phil Bulmer, Roblade and everybody else who has answered my queries over the past few weeks... and here are a couple of tips I learned along the way:
1. Take photos as you disassemble - Today when a small spring fell out of the trigger assemby on the bench I was glad of my photos. I would never have known where the spring came from had I not had the pics to refer to.
2. Don't get Moly GN paste on a leather sofa - My girlfriend was working nights and I wanted to watch tv while lubing on the coffee table - she nearly murdered me the next day!
3. Be brave and have a go - it's relatively simple with the excellent Hsing-ee guide on here.
Edited 21st April 2006
OK after a year of gentle use I took it back to the club and re tested the power, now at 330 fps - Roblade and The Beagle were pretty horrified, however it is still very very accurate. But I now have the AA 410 and have wanted to try stripping a springer for a long time, so armed with Hsing-ee's guide from here I have bought the lubes, ordered a new main spring and dismantled the gun, which was remarkably easy.
While I wait for the spring to arrive I have stripped the dark brown varnish from the stock and sanded in preparation for many coats of Danish Oil.
Well - when all back together I will return to club, test and then post an update and pics.
Meanwhile I've added a piccy of the unsophisticated internals !
__________________________________________________ __________________________
Had the gun a good few weeks now and bought it from JSR for £134. The gun is a break barrel spring powered rifle with fitted silencer, Gamo red dot sight and scope stop. It is advertised as full-power which I assumed to be 11+ ft lbs.
Good points - The gun is competitively priced and appears to be substantial and well made, the beech stock has a nice quality feel and the ventilated recoil pad with slim white spacer looks good.
The gun is simple to use, the red dot adjusts easily and the silencer does a very good job of reducing the muzzle sound.
I have subsequently fitted a 6X40 scope and can achieve 1.5" groups at 25 metres using Bisley LRG or Accupel (I hope to get better with practice).
Areas of Disappointment – The packaging states 620 fps and despite it’s ‘full power’ billing my club has run it over two chronoscopes which measured it at 520 fps (equating to a little over 8 ft lbs) That deflated me I can tell you !
I took this up with JSR who stated that they get at least one such complaint every day concerning various guns. In 5 years of sending guns back to the manufacturers for testing they claim that no complaint of under performance has been upheld, consequently I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle and decided to just enjoy using the gun, after all it will completely embed a pellet in 4X2 timber at 35 metres and that seems sufficient to me.
The red dot is fine but less easy to see in bright daylight – hence the scope purchase.
The trigger 1st stage is very heavy despite my attempts to adjust it, but I have got used to it quickly.
The dovetail stops a few inches short of the end of the gun and makes mounting a short scope rather difficult.
Despite the quiet muzzle, the gun’s action is quite loud and ‘twangy’.
Overall – A reasonable first gun for garden use and serious plinking, probably pretty good for ratting with the red dot and an appropriate pellet too. With hindsight I should have saved a bit more money and joined my local club earlier to experience some other guns. Like the look of the BSA Lightning XL and Baz’s review – maybe he’ll have it at the club when I’m there next and let me try it !