Just tried something I've never done before on a springer.... and it worked !

[Shed tuner]

brace yourselves folks, this is a bit radical....

.. I just fitted an Ox spring to a gun. Deliberately. I knew exactly what it was, but I still put it in there... and it's shooting quite nicely

Full context.. building up an HW35, and the 3.2mm wire gauge longish spring was giving a pretty unpleasant cycle; 10 FP, but it felt slow, and slammy at the same time. Just not nice. I was pretty sure this was due to the fairly heavy piston (270g) and the large 30mm bore, making for excessively slow initial acceleration, which combined with the famously long port, made for similarly slow initial pressure build up.

So I needed a stiffer spring. Just didn't have anything in the selection (around 30 ) any stiffer than 3.2mm, except one monster I'm saving for my FAC 48... but there were a couple of Oxs. This one was about 3/4" shorter, and obviously stiffer, so in it went.

Result pretty much as expected; much faster firing cycle, less slammy, and power went up a fair bit too. Cocking effort wasn't obviously different, but in reality would have been more at the end of the stroke - where you have most leverage, hence I didn't notice it. Not fine tuned anything yet - need to get a stock and try it out for accuracy first - but hey, it seems everything has it's uses

[mdunn]

Everyone will now be looking through the bits box, for they old ox springs or taking them off the gates. Atb mick

[Dornfelderliebe]

Has any one else had a satisfactory experience with an Ox ? They couldn't have been that bad unless they are only suited to some situations.

[junglie]

My '77 .22 HW 35e shot lovely at 11+ft/lbs on the original spring that had barely any preload but was as stiff & thick wire as an ox, still had original leather washer too, all i did was relube it after reblueing & add a lube sleeve, I've cut down a good few ox's for mates in the 80's usually in hw 80's & got them to shoot a lot better too.

[look no hands]

How's your gate going to cope without the gate spring and a gate post.

[Mach 1.5]

Yep JB they do shoot well. I noticed with the one I fitted a few years back that a top hat wasn't required either and still shot nice. Mach 1.5

[mrto]

Doesn't the square section spring sometimes damage the cylinder bore?

[Dornfelderliebe]

Doesn't the square section spring sometimes damage the cylinder bore?

It digs out and hones it's own channel

[gsxrman]

Dropped a whole OX Maximiser kit in a .177 HW77 in late eighties I think.
Lots of polishing went on prior, TP went to nearly 4mm if I remember correctly.
15ft it produced.
Coils cut off and weight/spacers in it hit 11.5ish and was as sweet as a nut.
Didn't do bad in the field or on the FT course.

[Phil Russell]

Dropped a whole OX Maximiser kit in a .177 HW77 in late eighties I think.
Lots of polishing went on prior, TP went to nearly 4mm if I remember correctly.
15ft it produced.
Coils cut off and weight/spacers in it hit 11.5ish and was as sweet as a nut.
Didn't do bad in the field or on the FT course.

I did the same around 1985 ... 'Maximiser' was all the rage. Took me ages and much blood to get it in a new 77k. It was horrible so I took it out.
But a few years ago I came across a HW77 with a square section spring in it .. very little preload and it was superb. I have never seen cylinder damage from using them.

Cheers, Phil

[T 20]

Has any one else had a satisfactory experience with an Ox ? They couldn't have been that bad unless they are only suited to some situations.

Yep, I've got a HW35 that I was given in 1986 that came fitted with an OX, it's presently running an O ring piston seal and 71mm stroke and is still powered by the same Ox --- the gun can be seen in the October edition of Real Airgun Sport.
The Ox in this gun gets no preload on it until the trigger block is screwed in by a few threads --- I can't remember if TonyL hit the Quigley bucket with this gun or not ?

I really enjoy folks talking about garden gates and sharp corners of the spring cutting Pistons, it makes me laugh.

Don't forget that Weihrauch fitted square section springs in the early HW97 with no detriment to the gun.



All the best Mick

[junglie]

Everyone will now be looking through the bits box, for they old ox springs or taking them off the gates. Atb mick

i've suggested on threads slagging them off that any haters send their unwanted ones to me & not had any takers yet......

[evert]

Interesting! What are the dimensions of the OX springs?
I have a few in my spring boxes, but have never measured them, just discarded them after removing them from guns they damaged...

[CapitalBee]

I've one in an fwb sport. Cropped back to produce sub12ft/lbs . It's a nice shooter.

[TonyL]

I've never been tempted to try one (other than one that I fitted for a friend many, many years ago) but might be a little less reluctant to now. I've never been against the short and stiff prescription, though.....many of my V-Mach kitted rifles have little preload, making them so simple to fit and shoot utterly superbly, as you'd expect. This might well shine a more favourable light on the thicker wired Titan ones, too?