Autumn Bash, 9th and 10th Oct - Event and Payment Details

[TonyL]

I saw DavyWavy (Gina's brother) today. Hopefully joining us for the next Bash.

Plus another of my customers from Lincoln who has a Umarex Beretta 92FS, AA200 and Brummy Stingray who should be joining us.

Plus Adam, "Monkey" should be joining us again with his 99.

BOING!

[TonyL]

Any of you nice peeps out there enjoying a nice plinky plonk today?

[Willenium]

For the first in I don't know how many months, I did manage to get over to an indoor range with a friend for an hour yesterday. Took my 100 to test/generally just point and shoot but also wanted to give my 99 some shots as it's not really been used in the time I've had it. It had a little clean out and a kit from tinners fitted before going into the cabinet for the majority of the pandemic. On the face of it, it seems to shoot very acceptably but yesterday's quick succession of shots did highlight a problem. Some time back I bought a Richter Optik one piece mount to make sure the scope doesn't go anywhere when being transported etc, but about halfway through the session the mount was hanging about 1.5" off the back of the rail. Going to need to try and secure it into a locating hole if I can (I can't remember if the mount has one of those little screws in it or not).

On the plus side, it didn't gall when being fired repeatedly and I did manage to fluke a couple of quite funny shots. There's 4 bell targets at the end of the range (20m away) and I somehow managed to get a couple of shots through the hole standing unsupported, scope hanging off and using up some old Milbro Jets that I got given with that broken 35. Statistically that's pretty much impossible

[flyingfish]

Had a nice little play at Lea Valley Saturday took the Superstar and the 97. Both worked better than me. Still not quite right after Covid.
I know you are local Will so if you ever want a guest ticket PM me. Shoot out to 80 yards

[TonyL]

Had a nice little play at Lea Valley Saturday took the Superstar and the 97. Both worked better than me. Still not quite right after Covid.

Nice one, Pete.. Hope the recovery continues apace.

[TonyL]

For the first in I don't know how many months, I did manage to get over to an indoor range with a friend for an hour yesterday. Took my 100 to test/generally just point and shoot but also wanted to give my 99 some shots as it's not really been used in the time I've had it. It had a little clean out and a kit from tinners fitted before going into the cabinet for the majority of the pandemic. On the face of it, it seems to shoot very acceptably but yesterday's quick succession of shots did highlight a problem. Some time back I bought a Richter Optik one piece mount to make sure the scope doesn't go anywhere when being transported etc, but about halfway through the session the mount was hanging about 1.5" off the back of the rail. Going to need to try and secure it into a locating hole if I can (I can't remember if the mount has one of those little screws in it or not).

On the plus side, it didn't gall when being fired repeatedly and I did manage to fluke a couple of quite funny shots. There's 4 bell targets at the end of the range (20m away) and I somehow managed to get a couple of shots through the hole standing unsupported, scope hanging off and using up some old Milbro Jets that I got given with that broken 35. Statistically that's pretty much impossible

You might not replicate that shooting performance once you have sorted the mounting issues and feed it JSBs or FTTs, Will.

BTW.....stick a Sportsmatch on it.

[TonyL]

I saw DavyWavy (Gina's brother) today. Hopefully joining us for the next Bash.

Plus another of my customers from Lincoln who has a Umarex Beretta 92FS, AA200 and Brummy Stingray who should be joining us.

Plus Adam, "Monkey" should be joining us again with his 99.

BOING!

I saw the nice chap from Lincoln, Gary, yesterday. He's asked me to take a look at the Stingray as he thinks all might not be well. I've agreed to take a look at it, check things over, change the breech seal and have a look at the scope / zeroing issues. I won't be stripping it down as I remember an old Hawk's trigger assembly being an awkward proposition to reassemble when I did one for a friend when I was 15. If it were mine, maybe.

It's a lovely looking little thing. Stumpy and well balanced. Very, very nice condition other than some marks on the stock.

Upon breaking the breech, the seal definitely looks to have seen better days. And whatever lube was on the detent has turned into a gooey mess. I'll get the area cleaned up and the detent lubed up. Aiming to chrono it today. I'm not expecting great things as it only slightly flattened the head of a pellet at point blank range when shooting at an old Argos catalogue and the pellet didn't penetrate. Hoping the breech seal does the job. Spring tension feels okay and hoping piston seal won't need replacing.

[NewPaul]

What sort of power would you expect from a Stingray in full working order Tone ? Will be interesting to hear what a new breech seal alone will do to any increase in power to what it’s putting out at the moment.

[TonyL]

Hey Pauly. Lovely to see you on little bruv.. Hope you is okay.

I'm no expert on Stingrays but everything I've ever seen about them would indicate that they're "full UK power" when running properly.

This one isn't.

A quick chrono sesh revealed it's turning out 215 to 220 fps with the 14.3 grains Crosman Powapells that the owner uses in it. A whole, fruity 1.5 ft.lbs!

I ordered a breech seal up and I've cleaned up all the sticky red gummy gunge around the detent and breech. Old breech seal ripped out ready for the new one arriving. I really hope for the owner that the breech seal alone sorts it, as it'll be a nice, easy and cheap fix.

I won't get any daylight until Sunday for the next chrono check, so we'll see then.

[NewPaul]

Yep! All’s very well with me thanks matey

1.5 ft/lb that’s Gat gun territory isn’t it ?

[TonyL]

Not sure what the mighty Gat put out, Pauly, but this is certainly the lowest power airgun I've ever personally run over my chrono, including all my pistols.. Even my very cosmetically challenged old dog of a Suoersport, with its knackered breech seal and broken spring when I acquired it, made about 8ft.lbs, I seem to remember.

I really do hope for Gary that the breech seal does the job. It's such a lovely looking, chunky, solid and nicely balanced little thing and I know he has no plans of getting rid. I expected the breech seal to be a dry old festival of degraded mess and to be having to pick dried up brittle bits out of its groove but, although it didn't look fantastic externally, it came out easily and is still flexible, casting a little doubt as to whether the breech seal alone will be responsible for such drastic power loss.

As said earlier, if it was to require further work afterwards I'd be recommending a visit to a professional tuner, as I don't really want to faff with the fiddly trigger mechanism. It'd be different if it was my own gun.

Anyone know if the piston seals are prone to degrading in these? Any reports of leaky cylinders? Gary bought the rifle new, roughly 20 years ago, and it's been hardly used. Maybe a third of a tin of pellets.

[TonyL]

Well, all credit to those brilliant people at Chambers. I'd ordered the breech seal on Tuesday morning and it arrived yesterday. Excellent service; thank you, chaps. Not the first time, either.

So, when I got the chance later yesterday evening, I popped the new seal in. A quick shot into the Argos catalogue would give a very quick gauge as to whether the hoped-for performance was restored..

Nope.. The dent in the catalogue was the same depth as when tried on Tuesday. Don't even need to check on the chrono. Now, spring resistance would seem healthy enough when cocking. And I noticed some dark, almost dusty, speckles on the catalogue. Peering up the barrel there are also tell tale little dark specklly "blobs". I think it's fair to say that the piston seal has degraded and has broken up, resulting in the dismal performance.