Please stop playing with fx air rifles.

[nimrod177]

I'm really don't see why you're complaining as I work for a major Japanese manufacturer and it's quite simple, any breakdowns or issues on our equipment during the warranty period have to be inspected by factory trained engineers with anything found to have been caused through misuse or abuse is automatically not covered by warranty and therefore chargeable to the customer for both labour and parts at full list price, so why don't you do the same?

We do. I said please dont play with them. Kinda thought it would be obvious. You play/tinker it will cost money and in the case of the barrel probably quite a bit. I can only let people know not to play and tinker. It's up to them. At the moment with limited staff due to covid 19 it is much more difficult to get things done let alone sort issues with rifles that shouldn't be there in the first place if they had just been left well alone. Slightly different with the fx rifles as there are far too many youtube videos from quite frankly idiots that are all of a sudden air rifle engineers/designers that think they are being helpful. The issue is that the average joe bloggs on the street isn't an engineer and cocks it up. I am not sure what you work on but i somehow don't think there are that many youtube videos on how to take your equipment apart and "tune it" within a micron of it's life potentially making it illegal or plain dangerous or both.

[kevG]

wait until they have been out for a few more years and the guns have gone through half a dozen owners.get it often with the rapids were each owner as improved it.
KevG

[nimrod177]

I may add it is not just the fx. Had a customer return a BSA Lightning grt. Demanding his money back because he can't get on with it, unfit for purpose. He spent a whole afternoon trying to zero it and shoots all over the place and it's rubbish, he knows his rights he told me so. Unfortunately his rights don't include a refund on a rifle where the scope mounts have clearly not been fitted correctly allowing movement of the scope up and down the dovetails damaging them. Informed him that there was no way he will get a refund on goods he has clearly damaged due to use. Left the rifle with me and upon inspection found the rifle stock securing screws had been removed and rifle out the stock, they were less than hand tight. The small plastic spacer was rolling around the inside and the sliding plastic u piece to stop contact between the cocking lever and cylinder was inside the trigger thus stopping it from cocking whatsoever. Amazing that he had a whole afternoons shooting with a rifle that physically would not cock. The trigger screw was damaged but an easy fix. Put it all back together and stuck a scope on top and at 30mtrs it was returning a 5p grouping. No charge, however he will be getting a debrief on why he shouldn't take it apart and how to fit a scope correctly when he returns to collect it at the weekend.

Gamo Phox with a shredded moderator, older style that was plastic and fixed before they introduced the removable ones. Clearly shot with one or more pellets down the barrel and demolished the moderator. They are a pita to get the mods off. Remove what was left of the old moderator. Manufacture a new shroud to fit over the existing barrel, get a 1/2" unf 14mm threaded adaptor to fit over the barrel sleeve. Fit it all together and test with a second hand moderator to ensure accuracy and spot on at 30mtrs. A couple of hours work and a trip to best fittings to get a mod adaptor. Total price including the mod adaptor and second hand moderator plus machining the sleeve all for £50. The mod adaptor alone was £20. I will get my mate to pay for it as he broke it. Really, like i haven't heard that old one three times this week already. Just be honest, you jammed it up, tried to fix it and made it worse. Apparently the cost is a bit steep but i did say it would be about 40 without the mod.

Don't mess with pre-charged air rifles or springers unless you know what you are doing. They are dangerous bits of kit. Really don't think people understand the fx impact fill pressure is 250 bar/3600 psi the 300 bar, fill bottle is 300bar/4350 psi. I worked with hp air for 17 years and saw the result of a 100 ltr/240 bar air tank fly across a machinery space and lodge itself into a steal bulkhead.

Fx impact fac reg runs about 120-140 bar let alone the bottle."Clinical references designate any pressure at and above 100 psi as HP. It has been established that pressure at a minimum of 100 psi can penetrate unbroken skin. These wounds require immediate medical treatment no matter how benign they might appear."

[nimrod177]

wait until they have been out for a few more years and the guns have gone through half a dozen owners.get it often with the rapids were each owner as improved it.
KevG

Yep and i can hand on heart say my rapid is original and has never ever been serviced or tweaked. Still shoots the way it did the day i got it. Lovely rifle in semi retirement as it is too heavy for me now days with a wrecked shoulder. Hence the dreamline bullpup with carbon bottle and fx impact compact on standby for the variation to come through, as even the daystate wolverine is getting a bit too heavy and that has the carbon fibre bottle.

[piggy589]

Shortly after I began work a careless delivery driver rolled an oxygen bottle off the boc truck.
The result would have done a James Bond film justice.
It left me shaking

[sandyman1963]

I have never ever tried to tune a rifle the only thing I do is to take a stock of and give it a clean. However I will be breaking my rule over the week end by changing a .177 rifle over to a .22. I have all the parts less a small guide/ washer type thing.
I have spent all week working out how to do it and yes I’ve watched YouTube clips. All that is required is a new barrel a new probe and a new washer/probe guide I hope. If it goes tits up I will have the normal hissy fit blame every one and of course the not fit for purpose parts. Yes I have a gun smith on stand buy just in case.

[kevG]

Yep and i can hand on heart say my rapid is original and has never ever been serviced or tweaked. Still shoots the way it did the day i got it. Lovely rifle in semi retirement as it is too heavy for me now days with a wrecked shoulder. Hence the dreamline bullpup with carbon bottle and fx impact compact on standby for the variation to come through, as even the daystate wolverine is getting a bit too heavy and that has the carbon fibre bottle.

if its to heavy why not mess with it.no seriously though you could have say a 12 inch barrel and 200 cc bottle.ive done that to one of mine and you can vertuly shoot it with one hand.
KevG

[Jesim1]

It amazes me the number of totally incompetent people who mess up guns, particularly when what they are doing is often putting them over power

Keep taking the work and handing out the bills, it's all good business even if it can be a bit tedious at times, just try not to patronise the morons too much when you explain to them they are the whole cost of the bill

[Shed tuner]

if its to heavy why not mess with it.no seriously though you could have say a 12 inch barrel and 200 cc bottle.ive done that to one of mine and you can vertuly shoot it with one hand.
KevG

yeah, I did the same... makes for a very handy gun. Also on the shorter barrels, you can reduce the OD a bit, saves some weight. I have a 12" made from a 14.5mm OD barrel, sleaved up, with CF shroud.. It's like a pistol

[NeilMac]

This is the best thread I have read in years.

Back in the early 2000's I used to do some of the airgun repairs at Mendip Shooting Ground..... I really don't need to say any more do I.

Highlights: A BSA Super10 with at least 20 pellets jammed in the barrel. A Falcon FN19 traded in that when checked was producing eye wateringly illegal velocities, that one had a few additional bits added and had a trigger that was so heavy it almost would not break. A number of 'rebuilt' Air Arms regs that looked like someone had taken a hammer and chisel to the insides, and on and on and on, oh and a constant stream of complaints that rifles not producing EXACTLY 12 ft lbs were 'faulty / underpowered', no sir, they are LEGAL!

As for the FX tinkering... I blame EBR videos.

[hmangphilly]

A bunch of rotten spoil sports .
The lot of you

If it's got screws and nuts and bolts , it's clearly meant to be taken to bits .

[Serengwalia]

Ah, a complete vindication of my applied laziness approach to airguns......

General care and basic maintenance I do perform but “fiddling/fettling/altering/playing with” I choose not to. If a gun continuously performs to my requirements, why would I alter it ? “To improve it” simply indicates that my requirements have changed and the question then is one of can it be improved? If so how can it be improved and is it within my capabilities or is it one for a competent and trusted gunsmith ?

If altering a gun is necessary then I almost invariably choose the latter route, if a gun has to be replaced on the other hand that that is down to me alone. To use the analogy of a car then yes, I know how to keep it fed, watered and checked. I can change wheels and lighting units and at a pinch sort brake pads.... but don’t ask me to sort timing or replace a camshaft. I know how it is done and what is involved and I choose not to do it. On the other hand, whilst I might consult with a trusted mechanic friend regarding reliability and any known problems with a possible new vehicle, said friend is never going to be allowed to choose my car.

I have attracted comment from fellow shooters in the past varying from the normal and amusing leg-pulling to outright obscene abuse because of my “no fiddling” decision. There is a sub group of shooters to whom such a decision seems to make me “not a real air gunner” or somehow less of a man if I don’t strip down my PCP’s or springers every month..... well that is their problem, I prefer to spend my time shooting rather than with a gun in bits wondering what next.

It surely takes all sorts !

[stillair1]

wait until they have been out for a few more years and the guns have gone through half a dozen owners.get it often with the rapids were each owner as improved it.
KevG

Yep my mates "fac" rapid, by the time we got it running aok, there weren't much left of the original rifle. The quote of this is like running a classic car was one of the more printable ones I heard.

[Andylaser]

Don't mess with pre-charged air rifles or springers unless you know what you are doing. They are dangerous bits of kit. Really don't think people understand the fx impact fill pressure is 250 bar/3600 psi the 300 bar, fill bottle is 300bar/4350 psi. I worked with hp air for 17 years and saw the result of a 100 ltr/240 bar air tank fly across a machinery space and lodge itself into a steal bulkhead.

I work with water pressurised to "only" 6 bar. Thats enough to make you jump and ruin your day when it escapes.

[evert]

If it's got screws and nuts and bolts , it's clearly meant to be taken to bits .

Exactly!!

And taking them apart is why we are into airguns in the first place, isn't it???

Besides, I bought my Fx Typhoon from a guy that had done some work on it himself. If came to me in parts, in a shopping bag, at under 1/4 the price the owner had paid for it before he started "working" on it. So for some of us, these guys are essential to getting good deals on good guns!