Trying to get along with the .177 Evolution

[evert]

Got myself a used(very well kept) Sub FAC .177" Evolution about a year ago, as an experiment to try to find the "ultimate" solution to my spring gun craze, and to have a gun that doesent need "improvement".

I find the gun to be hold sensitive, and a bit "sharp" to shoot. Currently running at 10,5 fpe with cometa/JSB 8,4grs exacts. Opened the gun, and find a very small nick in the piston seal, but it does not seem to affect compression.
There is accuracy potential, but the gun is much more sensitive to my hold than most of my home-tuned springers. Good groups usually open sideways when i do hold errors.(have tried several of the recognized brands, weights and sizes of pellets, tighetened all the stock mounting bolts, adjusted the barrel tension, cleaned out and relubed the piston and compression tube with Maccaris moly)

Do any of you guys have any advice?

And where can I get replacement seals, chambers or knibbs does not seem to have them?

[tmstech]

To be honest this all sounds normal for a .177 rammer. In .177 the gas ram was never very good and usually quite poor compared to the .20 and .22 cal models. Try different holds to usual springer technique and it may improve with practice.

[DNF]

The nick in the breach seal is normal, or at least common as my one had it too. They are light weight and very snappy, and will be hold sensitive. My webley longbow is like that, fantastically accurate but very hard to shoot. Sometimes its fun, other times not.
It will help if you only shoot the theoben and dont swap and change, you will eventually learn the consistant hold. Practice shooting from a bench, rest the rifle on a bean bag. Try to replicate the same amount of pressure you put on the cheeck and buttpad, I suggest as little as possible.
On my longbow I have the hairs on my cheeck touching the comb, no more. The rifle is then pulled into my shoulder and held with just a small amount of pressure. When you see the great groups you get from the bench you can start to move to other positions, like prone. Dont try to hold the rifle with the trigger hand, just have it barely touching the pistol grip, and try equal pressure between trigger finger and thumb when you pull the trigger. The entire rifles weight should be supported from the front hand, you should be able to remove the trigger hand entirely and the rifle stay up and on target.

The main thing is try to make yourself a place for the rifle to sit in, with the minimum contact and pressure, dont hold it as such, just be there for it. It will seem very strange as you will feel like you are not giving enough support to the rifle, but the idea is to hold it as little as possible and let it naturally point at the target. If it is not pointing at the target move your whole body so it is, dont try to move the rifle or try to steer the rifle as you will be putting a sideways force on it and cause a miss.

It can take a long time and a lot of effort to tune yourself into shooting a light weigh springer accuratly, it wont happen over night, it takes many hours of shooting. You will also find that if you take a break from it you will have to re learn it again, thats why its best to stick with just one rifle.

I am rusty with my longbow, I wouldnt shoot my best with it if I picked it up again today. I'm shooting 2013 with a hw97kt so there is little point me putting in the hours with a rifle I wont be using. I am finding the 97kt much easier to tune myself into, more weight is less recoil and the stock is a very good fit for me.

[GAV1N]

Try a reasonably heavy, but compact scope in medium or low single piece mounts!

When I tried a 50 objective lens in high mounts on my Evolution accuracy noticeably suffered and the groups tended to open horizontally.

I think these are love or hate guns (marmite) because some people can just get the accuracy and others can't. You might fall in to the later group even if you are quite handy with a conventional springer.

[evert]

What you all say sounds reasonable.. My next move will probably be to get it down to 10fpe and see if we get along better.

[little.O]

Hello and happy new year.

Everything longbow said is bang on the button. I had an evo in an ambi beech stock and it was quite jumpy and extremely hold sensitive.I now have one in the right hand walnut thumbhole and it is heavier and steadier,but still needs a consistent hold. Vertical aim is affected by the position of the left hand along the forend. Lateral aim is also affected by the position of the left elbow,which needs to be directly under the stock.Move it out to the left and your shots will go a bit to the right.By the way, all my shooting is done standing.If you lean on things or sit or kneel this will alter things as well!

It's no wonder folks go for pcp's ! You could dangle them off a fishing line and they'd shoot straight cos they're near as dammit dead!

All the best O.

[evert]

Good to know its not just me whos having trouble with the .177 evo!

[mattrob1502]

I have had a few rammers and agree that in .177 they are snappy and hold sensitive.

After experimenting I found the best experince overall was in:

.20 calibre and setting the ftlbs to a maximum of 11.00

10.70 gave the smoothest experience and was ample on all vermin at sensible ranges.

[evert]

Thanks. Will get mine down to 10 and see if it helps.

My .177" HW50s is cheaper, lighter, has a better trigger, is easier to work on, more pleasant to shoot, and much less hold sensitive than the Evo.
At the same power..

Guess one learns along the way

[Elliott]

The nick in the breach seal is normal, or at least common as my one had it too. They are light weight and very snappy, and will be hold sensitive. My webley longbow is like that, fantastically accurate but very hard to shoot. Sometimes its fun, other times not.
It will help if you only shoot the theoben and dont swap and change, you will eventually learn the consistant hold. Practice shooting from a bench, rest the rifle on a bean bag. Try to replicate the same amount of pressure you put on the cheeck and buttpad, I suggest as little as possible.
On my longbow I have the hairs on my cheeck touching the comb, no more. The rifle is then pulled into my shoulder and held with just a small amount of pressure. When you see the great groups you get from the bench you can start to move to other positions, like prone. Dont try to hold the rifle with the trigger hand, just have it barely touching the pistol grip, and try equal pressure between trigger finger and thumb when you pull the trigger. The entire rifles weight should be supported from the front hand, you should be able to remove the trigger hand entirely and the rifle stay up and on target.

The main thing is try to make yourself a place for the rifle to sit in, with the minimum contact and pressure, dont hold it as such, just be there for it. It will seem very strange as you will feel like you are not giving enough support to the rifle, but the idea is to hold it as little as possible and let it naturally point at the target. If it is not pointing at the target move your whole body so it is, dont try to move the rifle or try to steer the rifle as you will be putting a sideways force on it and cause a miss.

It can take a long time and a lot of effort to tune yourself into shooting a light weigh springer accuratly, it wont happen over night, it takes many hours of shooting. You will also find that if you take a break from it you will have to re learn it again, thats why its best to stick with just one rifle.

I am rusty with my longbow, I wouldnt shoot my best with it if I picked it up again today. I'm shooting 2013 with a hw97kt so there is little point me putting in the hours with a rifle I wont be using. I am finding the 97kt much easier to tune myself into, more weight is less recoil and the stock is a very good fit for me.

This advice is spot on, well done Sir for sharing your knowledge. Shooting a recoiling rifle really is an art and very rewarding when everything comes together

I hope you get sorted

[tinbum]

I have had a few rammers and agree that in .177 they are snappy and hold sensitive.

After experimenting I found the best experince overall was in:

.20 calibre and setting the ftlbs to a maximum of 11.00

10.70 gave the smoothest experience and was ample on all vermin at sensible ranges.

I've got mine running on 10 dead. It's more than enough for standing shot distances. (I'm getting too creaky to be lying in muddy puddles!)

[tinbum]

Thanks. Will get mine down to 10 and see if it helps.

My .177" HW50s is cheaper, lighter, has a better trigger, is easier to work on, more pleasant to shoot, and much less hold sensitive than the Evo.
At the same power..

Guess one learns along the way

Get a trigger shoe, the biggest, simplest trigger mod and deffo worth doing!

[maximus]

To be honest this all sounds normal for a .177 rammer. In .177 the gas ram was never very good and usually quite poor compared to the .20 and .22 cal models. Try different holds to usual springer technique and it may improve with practice.

This is not my experience at all. My .177 fenman is super accurate and I also had a .177 evo with 10" barrel which grouped fantastic with AA field pellets. Sold it to a freind who subsequently "moved up" to a daystate huntsman but has been unable to repeat the groups achieved with the EVO. It can depend on whether the gun has been messed about with though. If the ram is pumped up too high the piston can slam into the end of the cylinder and the velocity will reduce. It is worth adjusting the ram pressure and monitoring what happens on the chrono. Sometimes they top out at approx 11 ft lbs and the more they are pumped the lower the velocity and harsher they are. Just my experience Max

[Phil Russell]

The breech seal is an O ring ... BS109 if the same as my Fenman. I believe the nick in the side is put there to stop the ring popping out when breaking the barrel, but in practice I have never had this happen with an 'un-nicked' ring.

If you have problems getting one, drop me a pm with your address and I'll pop one in the post to you.

Cheers, Phil

[tmstech]

This is not my experience at all. My .177 fenman is super accurate and I also had a .177 evo with 10" barrel which grouped fantastic with AA field pellets. Sold it to a freind who subsequently "moved up" to a daystate huntsman but has been unable to repeat the groups achieved with the EVO. It can depend on whether the gun has been messed about with though. If the ram is pumped up too high the piston can slam into the end of the cylinder and the velocity will reduce. It is worth adjusting the ram pressure and monitoring what happens on the chrono. Sometimes they top out at approx 11 ft lbs and the more they are pumped the lower the velocity and harsher they are. Just my experience Max

Never said the .177 was not accurate in the right hands, just more difficult to attain for the less disciplined or experienced shooter. Every .177 (HE ram all set between 11.2 and 11.6 ft.lbs) unit that I've owned over the years has been worse than the same model in a larger cal and regardless of barrel length, when used in a field situation. This comes from owning a few (all from new) a total of 18 as the years went on, they got worse too, they have all been moved on now though .