OX mainsprings

[JLB]

OX mainsprings. Now I know they are generally considered harsh and only good for keeping gates closed, but are they still made. There seems to be loads still for sale all over the internet & gun shops which if they are crap seems a little strange. Is it just old stock sitting about from years gone by or are they still manufactured ?

John

[tinbum]

They are still made and there will always be people who will fit them thinking massive recoil is the sign of a well tuned gun!
Don't underestimate the power of marketing. After all, the Hw35 is still in production!

[davehope1968]

Best spring for putting holes in dustbins if ever we were invaded by dustbins I would fit one to my rifle

[FPoole]

I'd have to say that the only one I've ever used was a good spring as far as metallurgy goes. It was straight and it held it's power level for a long time. It was on a hardened steel guide and had very little preload in a TX200. I think the Ox would chew up a Delrin or mild steel guide and you wouldn't want to use a lot of preload. This makes round wire springs the obvious choice. Does Ox make a round section spring? I'd bet they would be good.

[Scubashot]

I had one in my HW77 for over 25 years as part of a Maximiser tuning kit which included replacement plastic/delrin spring guides, a steel piston sleeve and a selection of lubricants.
I never had any problems with it until a couple of years ago when I finally chronoed the gun and found it running over 13 ft-lbs.
I stripped the gun and found no evidence of damage to either the spring or rifle but thought it was maybe time to fit a new high tech modern kit, especially as the Ox gets such bad press.
I ordered and fitted a full drop in V- Mach kit of spring, piston sleeve, top hat and guides, piston seal etc. This was supplied specifically for my 0.22" rifle with 25mm piston but still required extensive fettling to keep it within the 12 ft-lbs limit. After the seal bedded in the power kept climbing and I kept removing preloaded washers until there were no more to remove. I then collapsed a coil of the spring. I have since had a failure of the spring guide which was not even fitted to the modified end of the spring.
I refitted the spring guide originally supplied with the Maximiser kit and fitted a single preload washer and finally have a stable and acceptable power output with an accurate rifle that shoots better than me.
In fairness, Steve Pope of V Mach has a good and I am sure well deserved reputation but has been unavailable for some time owing to illness. He would no doubt have been willing to help with my problems had he been around.
Coming back to the original post finally: if I was in a similar position again I would probably just reduce the Ox spring rather that spend a chunk of change and still have to tailor a kit to my specific rifle.
In my limited experience the Ox has not been as bad as it is usually portrayed : maybe it has more to do with some 1980s power hungry owners choosing that spring before packing it with preload and wrecking rifles.

[junglie]

I had one in my HW77 for over 25 years as part of a Maximiser tuning kit which included replacement plastic/delrin spring guides, a steel piston sleeve and a selection of lubricants.
I never had any problems with it until a couple of years ago when I finally chronoed the gun and found it running over 13 ft-lbs.
I stripped the gun and found no evidence of damage to either the spring or rifle but thought it was maybe time to fit a new high tech modern kit, especially as the Ox gets such bad press.
I ordered and fitted a full drop in V- Mach kit of spring, piston sleeve, top hat and guides, piston seal etc. This was supplied specifically for my 0.22" rifle with 25mm piston but still required extensive fettling to keep it within the 12 ft-lbs limit. After the seal bedded in the power kept climbing and I kept removing preloaded washers until there were no more to remove. I then collapsed a coil of the spring. I have since had a failure of the spring guide which was not even fitted to the modified end of the spring.
I refitted the spring guide originally supplied with the Maximiser kit and fitted a single preload washer and finally have a stable and acceptable power output with an accurate rifle that shoots better than me.
In fairness, Steve Pope of V Mach has a good and I am sure well deserved reputation but has been unavailable for some time owing to illness. He would no doubt have been willing to help with my problems had he been around.
Coming back to the original post finally: if I was in a similar position again I would probably just reduce the Ox spring rather that spend a chunk of change and still have to tailor a kit to my specific rifle.
In my limited experience the Ox has not been as bad as it is usually portrayed : maybe it has more to do with some 1980s power hungry owners choosing that spring before packing it with preload and wrecking rifles.

I agree , I've fettled quite a few ox springed rifles & after trimming down to very little or no preload they all shot well.The best supersport I had that was very accurate too, had one in when I looked(cut to fit correctly already)

[ZAKDINGEL]

Au the good old ox main spring still around after many years "Yes they might be what some say are better on the market these days"!! But back in the day the logo as strong as a ox and then the ox maximising kits took some beating as we all did back in the day try to push as much power "to the limit of course" out of the rusting old springer's as we didn't no any better the ox fitted the job perfect at around a tenner or less for a spring or twelve to fifteen for a full tuning kit you could not buy better a well none fact back in the day that a bsa mercury or airsporter fitted with on could shoot threw a railway sleeper and a hw80 with one could shoot threw two I was saw a webleys back pin open the holes up to ovals due to the mighty ox and a bsa meteor bend its barrel slightly again to the mighty ox as said there wasn't much different around back then perhaps Airforce springs if you could get them ----im sure I stil have some kicking around the back of a cupboard