Spring Gun Tuning

[Gungeek]

Silicone oil lubrication for old guns with leather piston washers was recommended. Is that now considered bad? Regards ... Geek

[accused]

Well after about twenty years I am back tinkering and to be honest I am a little dissapointed that things are still frustrating when it comes to the good old spring gun design. Bought a Stealth recently and loved it but needed the "soul" of a spring gun again so off I went and sold the Stealth...

There was I hoping the niggles of 20+ years ago would have been just a memory....same issues that were there years ago are still there Today, bought a brand new HW80 recently and even though still robustly built the internals are a little bit of a disgrace with the cut spring and lucky chance tolerances. With modern machining it should be possible to have super smooth reliable consistency out of the box without resorting to tuning on £300+ guns!

So the tinkering starts and after a polish and lube things improved but then the cut spring needed dealing with, ordered an XS - truly awful too long and harsh then bent like a banana inside 50 shots! Back to the cut HW spring that actually looks better quality than most after market stuff but I cant live with the cut off end.

Then it's a TR ROBB spring...hmmm bit too hot and no facility to cut it at home, the garden gate spring collection grows!

Now it's an SFS spring, really nicely finished but sadly for some unknown reason gives shotgun groups - maybe a tight / loose guide compatability, who knows.

The last chance is going to be a Bonnie & Clyde kit from William all matching and if that goes the garden gate route it's sadly full circle to the PCP again.

Rant over

[Flannelmeister]

The last chance is going to be a Bonnie & Clyde kit from William all matching and if that goes the garden gate route it's sadly full circle to the PCP again.

Rant over

A good choice.

I have just fitted one of Bonnie and Clyde's kits as sold by Westy on here to revive an old .177 HW80.

You get a variety of brass washers/spacers for the piston and a couple of power bands to use on the spring guide.

In my case, no power bands and the thickest brass washer plus the thin delrin washer/top hat bearing in the piston provided the desired result.

Gun is now a joy to shoot @ 765 -770fps (where I like the power of my springers to be) with JSB Exacts which equates to around 11 ftlbs.

You won't be disappointed if you buy the kit and use the various lubes supplied correctly - Westy can advise you on what to use where.

[T 20]

Silicone oil lubrication for old guns with leather piston washers was recommended. Is that now considered bad? Regards ... Geek

Cheers Geek

I'm still no wiser as to what is used now.

I only asked the question because John Bowkett and many other top tuners used to recomend SM50 or MS50 on Synthetic and O ring piston heads.


Thanks again


All the best Mick