Bsa lightning XL ram/spring

[steviebee]

Hi all,
Iv just acquired a nice lightning XL, that has at some stage had a gas ram fitted, and only doing about 7.5 ft lb (.25)
I wondered about the benifits of converting it back to a Springer with something like a tbt or Welsh willy kit?
It must do better than what it's doing now?
I do see though they only cater for .177/.22 Calibre? What would be the best option for a .25?
Cheers

[les allam]

Hi all,
Iv just acquired a nice lightning XL, that has at some stage had a gas ram fitted, and only doing about 7.5 ft lb (.25)
I wondered about the benifits of converting it back to a Springer with something like a tbt or Welsh willy kit?
It must do better than what it's doing now?
I do see though they only cater for .177/.22 Calibre? What would be the best option for a .25?
Cheers

My Lightning was originally in 177 and doing 11.8,it wasn't a nice shooting gun at that power. I did a barrel swap in. 25 and the gun went up to 14 fp. A quick detuned and back to 11.4. I would think 10.5 would be about right imo. A 22 kit would be a good option.
Les.

[Waddy]

The bigger the calibre the less power the spring or ram needs to make to get it to 12 ft/lbs . So if you down size it from .25 you'll get even less power. This is because power is to do with muzzle velocity and the weight of the pellet, the velocity needs to go up for the smaller calibres, which requires more from a ram or spring.

If it's a rammer & down on power then the gas ram needs more air in it, for which you'll need a "Slim Jim" pump kit from Best Fittings, but that will cost more than twice a spring & delrin guide kit, that is you don't need a new piston.

I've got a Welsh Willy kit in one of my rifles & a TBT kit in another, both a big improvement over standard, but the WW Dagda spring does seem less harsh than the Weihrauch one.

You'll probably have to size the spring to suit the calibre, esp for .25 as may need a coil or so removing. It's not hard but you need a blowtorch to collapse the end of the spring & something to dress the cut end like an angle grinder.

The other possibility is that the piston seal and or breech seal(s) are shot.

[steviebee]

The seals are ok, guess it's the ram, I think from the sounds of things I'd be quite happy with getting it back to a Springer possibly, as the rams a sealed unit.
I'd just like it ticking over around the 10ftlb mark which should be nice and smooth in .25 I guess

[Waddy]

The seals are ok, guess it's the ram, I think from the sounds of things I'd be quite happy with getting it back to a Springer possibly, as the rams a sealed unit.
I'd just like it ticking over around the 10ftlb mark which should be nice and smooth in .25 I guess

I've got two .25's , a rammer and a springer & try to keep the power above 11 because of the ballistic issue with the heavy pellets & low muzzle velocity, the hold over with heavier pellets is quite large even at 25 yards.

[TonyL]

To my mind, yes, it would be nice to move away from the sealed ram to conventional coil spring, with all the benefits of ease of tweakability etc.

Just a quick one, and I don't know much about these at all, but did some of these have the tighter (.243?) barrel fitted that might also contribute to lower outputs with some .25 pellets?

[Neil54]

The ram can be recharged. Not with a home pump though.
Replacement rams can be had.
You would needs few bits if your going back to a spring.

[angrybear]

Hi all,
Iv just acquired a nice lightning XL, that has at some stage had a gas ram fitted, and only doing about 7.5 ft lb (.25)
I wondered about the benifits of converting it back to a Springer with something like a tbt or Welsh willy kit?
It must do better than what it's doing now?
I do see though they only cater for .177/.22 Calibre? What would be the best option for a .25?
Cheers

First thing I'd do is check it with marksman pellets, to confirm whether it's a true .25 or a BSA .243.
The .243 barrel will rob ME from .25 pellets due to the tight fit.
If post 2012 it should be true .25 but always worth a check, & marksman are a "small" .25 pellet at around 6.2mm.

Then it's pellet weight, at sub 12 power launching a heavy pellet is a struggle for the available energy, having done a lot of past testing 24gn(ish) is the tipping point,
go over 24gn & muzzle energy falls off a cliff because the available sub 12 energy, just can't accelerate the weight enough inside the bore, so again Marksman at 19gn ish, & FTT at 20.06gn.
JSB at 25.4gn will be starting to drop the muzzle energy, and frankly don't bother with anything heavier than that, 28gn will be 1.5ftlb down, 30gn probably 2+ftlb down

Of course if yours is a DIY conversion, it may just be poorly set up & going back to a spring may be the answer.

[TonyL]

Sounds very good advice, AB.

[maximus]

I aways thought 25 needed more spring than a 22 so would go for a 177 kit.