Supersport barrel/caliber change?

[Dan944]

Hi,
I am thinking of changing the barrel on my .22BSA supersport to a .177 barrel.

Has anyone done this before?

How did it go with reduced power and feel and tuning needed after ect?

Would be nice to hear of someone who has done this already, just to have some idea of what's to come.

All the best
Daniel

[evert]

My experience is that barrel quality varies in the new supersports, my favorite old .177 supersport(without the two stage trigger) behaves very good with the original barrel, but if i fit more recent barrels to the same action, it becomes inaccurate and has unpleasant recoil. Have tried several barrels, both .177 and .22, and none of the new I have behave as good as the old one. Just something to think about if you consider getting a new barrel.

[TonyL]

Hi Dan,

Why are you wanting to try the smaller calibre?

If you have been given a barrel for free and just fancy fitting it, go ahead, but if it's something that you are considering doing, I'd advise against it. Lighter weight spring guns are notoriously more "jumpy" in the smaller calibre. If you just switch barrels, you'll suffer a power loss. To regain that power you're generally going to be fitting a more powerful spring, which is where the fun starts and the gun gets really jumpy.

I owned a .177 Supersport years ago. It was horrible. Yes, you could hit things with it, yes it did take a fair few bunnies at about 30 yards, but they are not nice.

Unless someone knows different these days and knows of a good tune to smooth and calm this rifle down, I'd be keeping it in the larger calibre.

[clarky]

You need to stay with the .22 mate. The compression ratio will see this thing kick like a mule with the smaller caliber. The earlier Mercury S ran quite nice in .177 with very high velocity if you want a BSA in .177 but the Supersport isnt brilliantly happy even in .22. Dont weight the piston and keep the lube down is about your best bet.
A good friend of mine uses quite heavy pellets in his for good results in paradox to the way you want to go.

[Dan944]

Hi Tony/clarky,
Thanks for your comment. I thought that this may be the case to be honest, as when I read up on one, I opted for the .22 which I thought would be smoother, and as it happens I've vmached it now and although its a million times better than a kicking donkey when I first bought it, it's still quite lively and harsh/slappy now, but I put that down to the size and lightness ect.

I do have a barrel on the way, and the reason I was considering trying the swap was just to see how it shoots and really for the flatter tragectory, although I am used to shooting both calibers.

Was really just thinking of the easier range card flatness. I did have a inkling that it may turn into a stick of exploding dynomite everytime I pulled the trigger and would probably drop to 8 ftlb.

Thought it would be good to hear some of your advice and knowlege so I have an idea of what might happen.

[TonyL]

I'm sure it could be smoothed out.
It would have to involve transfer port work, altering compression ratios etc. Also, adding some ballast wouldn't go amiss.....heavier, custom stock, barrel weight/sleeve. All of this would help. I do't know if there is sensible scope for lightening the piston, but that might result in more surge anyway.

It'd be nice to hear from someone who has had a proper play with one.

If it is your only gun, you love it and you want to keep it forever, you could embark on this long road. You'd end up with something quite unique. If it isn't your only gun, but want an accurate .177 for longer range, flatter shooting, sell it and get something a little more suitable.

I'd imagine fitting a .177 barrel to a .22 will give something like a 2 ft.lbs drop, anyone?

[TonyHolden]

In all honesty I think you're going to have to try it and see, I doubt many people will have tried this and actually know what the result will be. I'd be interested to hear how it goes, how the gun feels in comparison to .22, and how it does over the chrono.

I'm quite tempted by the idea of a supersport in .25 with the XL Tac stock.

[hammo]

Hey Dan,Ive got one in .22.Got it tuned by Tony at SFS.It's as smooth as i need,granted the trigger isn't HW and I do notice the the difference when I play with my wiehrauch's,but to be honest, Tony has made it a seriously nice bit of kit to shoot.If you fitted V-mach correctly you should be laughing...did you delube ,polish,relube etc.?(not sure what the v-mach kit comprises of for the ss) They can surprise you if properly fettled..

[look no hands]

Just fit the new barrel and see what happens, you can't always tell what a rifle is going to be like as they all come in different states of tune (I don't just mean tuned up but also like power levels and tolerances etc from the factory and being run it as well), do it and then you can advise us and others of your results, it may also help having lower power as well and you may not have to do anything to the power as it may just shoot nicer at a foot pound under what it was doing before in .22.

Pete

[Dan944]

Hi guys, thanks for all the advise and comments so far. The gun now is shooting very nice since I delubed polished and fitted vmach internals, but to be fair it wasn't a spersific kit bought for the ss, it was vmach bits and pieces left over from other rifles I've tuned to make up the kit, but still has top hat, spring and guide, all vmach. (Feels totally transformed from before) but still quite snappy due to the weight I think.

Anyhow, I should be recieving the barrel any day now so I will just fit the barrel and report how it feels, to give everyone the results. I will do a chrono test before and after for everyone's reference to see the difference in a straight swap. At least this will go towards some knowledge if nothing else!????

[ggggr]

Don't forget me if you don't like it Dan .

Your inbox is full by the way.

[clarky]

Just fit the new barrel and see what happens, you can't always tell what a rifle is going to be like as they all come in different states of tune (I don't just mean tuned up but also like power levels and tolerances etc from the factory and being run it as well), do it and then you can advise us and others of your results, it may also help having lower power as well and you may not have to do anything to the power as it may just shoot nicer at a foot pound under what it was doing before in .22.

Pete

You are correct in as much as there being slight variations among same models at the manufacturing stage but here we are talking +/-50fps due to tolerances, or perhaps some excess, or lack of lube issues but not really much difference in compression ratios, recoil or detonation points. Im afraid the Supersport is badly set up from the point of view of minimal recoil due to quite nasty ratios but i am talking from the purists point of view.
Its fine in what BSA wanted to do, in producing a Meteor sized sporter of very high power potential (upto 16ftlbs incidently) but its horrid in .177 and there isnt much you will be able to do about it regardless of subtle differences model to model.
However, for walking around the barns, or similar it will be fine and nice to carry too.
Im really comparing against what can be expected with say a decent HW50 of similar size and what you should be doing to try and get the gun to within 75% of the qualities of this excellent model.
The .177 is simply going the wrong way for you in this regard....all other considerations not part of my advice.

[look no hands]

You are correct in as much as there being slight variations among same models at the manufacturing stage but here we are talking +/-50fps due to tolerances, or perhaps some excess, or lack of lube issues but not really much difference in compression ratios, recoil or detonation points. Im afraid the Supersport is badly set up from the point of view of minimal recoil due to quite nasty ratios but i am talking from the purists point of view.
Its fine in what BSA wanted to do, in producing a Meteor sized sporter of very high power potential (upto 16ftlbs incidently) but its horrid in .177 and there isnt much you will be able to do about it regardless of subtle differences model to model.
However, for walking around the barns, or similar it will be fine and nice to carry too.
Im really comparing against what can be expected with say a decent HW50 of similar size and what you should be doing to try and get the gun to within 75% of the qualities of this excellent model.
The .177 is simply going the wrong way for you in this regard....all other considerations not part of my advice.

Very true, I don't think the SS is going to be the most accurate of sporters but for a "point and shoot" rifle for short/medium range shooting then it will be a nice little addition to any arsenal and it also being a break barrel will aid in quick loading for such missions, the other thing I was saying about tolerancies is also has anyone else done anything to the rifle before it was obtained by the present owner (if it was bought secondhand that is).

Pete

[POK!]

IME .177 SS only needs a little weight added to piston and they shoot very well.

[clarky]

IME .177 SS only needs a little weight added to piston and they shoot very well.

On the contrary the thing will push perilously close to the legal limit, or even over depending on weight you use. On paper it should improve marginally but its all surplus addition and risk when the gun is simply much happier in .22 with no weighting, extra thump or velocity increase risks required.
From here we can then correctly lube and allow her to bed in to within 75% of what a really good Springer can do.
Its a great little sporter for knocking around in the lanndrover and with plenty of practice you can get quite good with them.....in .22

I tuned and rebuilt 3 when they first came out.