S
ShadowChaser
Guest
Time for some feed back...
Boy, some great information and help on this forum, I'll start by saying thank you very much for the assistance and advice, its a big help with the learning process I'm going through...
Don, I've made note of using a citrus based household cleaner, don't have any on hand at the moment but next trip to the market I'll pick up a bottle...
You mentioned about buying match pellets in different sizes, all I know about pellets is what I've read on Pyramid Air's web sight and I've come to realize that a conclusion I drew on that information is wrong and I've ended up with pellets intended for a high power airgun and what I have is a low to medium power gun being Co2 at 635-650 fps and 7.8 ft/lbs muzzle energy... My question now is, where does one find the variety of match pellets that are graded by size as well as weight? What do you use for match grade pellets?
Several things have come to light since my last posting, first is that in my exploring this AR-2078A Chinese made rifle, two facts came to light. First is that the trigger unit was never set up properly by who ever assembled the gun. I finally figured out how to get the safety lever off so I could remove the barrel/receiver/Co2 plenum/trigger assembly from the stock and upon doing so, I discovered a small setscrew sticking out the back of the trigger assembly, so far out it was about to fall out, only a couple threads were holding it into the back of the trigger assembly housing. I turned it in a bit but felt no resistance and it didn't seem to be doing anything, so at that point, not knowing what this screw was for, I decided to remove the side plate from the trigger housing and upon doing so, discovered that this screw needed about 20 turns or so to reach the back of the trigger as the over travel stop. When I removed the side plate, the screw in question was not even extending through the housing wall and what had been sticking out about 3/8" is now flush at the outside and stopping the trigger as it should.
At this point I also discovered the sear engagement adjust screw was loose, the jam nut was several turns away from the surface it is supposed to bind on and the sear was at maximum engagement and this obviously had never been properly adjusted...
So, first thing I did was to set up the trigger as it should be set according to what I've learned with other rifles and the trigger is now working correctly and vastly improved...
The second observation was that the receiver/Co2 plenum chamber tube and trigger housing were binding severely in the stock, they required quite a bit of persuasion with a hefty rubber mallet to literally drive the mechanism and barrel etc. out of the stock.
Once the gun was appart, the cause of the trouble getting the gun apart became very obvious, the stock, which appears to be some sort of fine grained softwood, is severely warped along the channel everything sits in and twisting the trigger housing causing it to bind in the stock along with the Co2 plenum chamber... The channel has about 3/32" bow along the full length of the channel and fore- stock...
So, with the stock set up securely in a gun vice, a 2 ft.length of 3/4" diameter tubing wrapped with 60 grit sandpaper and several hours of work combined with a bit of filing the side walls of the trigger housing slot and a bit of fitting as I worked, the gun now goes together and comes apart by hand without having to beat it with the rubber hammer...
The next thing I discovered as I fitted it back together was that the surface of the center area of the stock at the bottom of the channel where the single bolt that holds the gun together is quite a bit lower than the rest and tipped towards the forend and one can not tighten tighten this bolt without distorting the mechanism and so more sanding to get a bit of clearance, and then the use of 3M foam bedding tape (a'la Anschutz) to adjust the fit of the receiver/Co2 plenum/trigger mechanism into the stock properly when the bolt is snugged up...
While doing this and just as I was finishing up and starting testing with the Crosman 10.5 gr pellets which were all I had, the "PEAK" Chinese brand 8.6g pellets from the fellow I purchased the AR-2078A from showed up in the mail...
The end result of my work combined with the 8.6g pellets is a gun that shoots reasonably well. I'm no longer getting the erratic fliers of 1.5" to 2" and am now getting reasonable groups on my 10 mtr range that can be measured and averaged.
This afternoon UPS delivered the 2nd order of pellets from Straight Shooters I've been waiting on, and I now have tested the gun with 5 different pellets, the original Crosman Premier 10.5g dome, the PEAK 8.6g wadcutters, RWS Meisterkugein in both 7.0g and 8.2g, and Beeman H&N Match 8.09g...
Preliminary testing shows the Beeman H&N Match shoots best in this gun and seven 5 shot groups at 10 meters are .35", .55", .44", .43", .58", .45", and .25"
Second best were the RWS Meisterkugien 7.0, I only had time to shoot three groups, .48", .40", and .50" however next time shooting, I'm going to shoot these again as I need more data to insert into my spread sheet analysis of how the pellets shoot in this gun.
Third are the Chinese PEAK brand pellets, they also averaged in group size just slightly larger than the Beeman and the RWS 7.0g pellets...
Its obvious to me now that this gun likes the lighter pellets...
What a difference from when I started two weeks ago with this AR-2078A, the quarter and half dollar sized groups with random fliers are a thing of the past and what fun it is to see groups of one ragged hole in the .25" to .40" range, not every time but they are becoming a lot more consistent!...
While I realize this gun is still not good enough to be very competitive, and hopefully I have a ways to go yet with improving this gun, there are other pellets yet to try, I still have three lots I didn't have time to get to today and also have found at least three or four types more to order and try.
Still, realizing I initially purchased this gun with the intent only to use it on my cellar 10 mtr range during the winter, its very gratifying at this point to see that at least for my cellar use its going to be good practice for now...
However (the BIG however!!!) Now I have the BUG, I want a match grade gun and to see what others are doing at Holbrook and other places and get back into a bit of competition and good fun...
Thanks and Happy Shooting y'all...
Mitch & Shadow...
Boy, some great information and help on this forum, I'll start by saying thank you very much for the assistance and advice, its a big help with the learning process I'm going through...
Don, I've made note of using a citrus based household cleaner, don't have any on hand at the moment but next trip to the market I'll pick up a bottle...
You mentioned about buying match pellets in different sizes, all I know about pellets is what I've read on Pyramid Air's web sight and I've come to realize that a conclusion I drew on that information is wrong and I've ended up with pellets intended for a high power airgun and what I have is a low to medium power gun being Co2 at 635-650 fps and 7.8 ft/lbs muzzle energy... My question now is, where does one find the variety of match pellets that are graded by size as well as weight? What do you use for match grade pellets?
Several things have come to light since my last posting, first is that in my exploring this AR-2078A Chinese made rifle, two facts came to light. First is that the trigger unit was never set up properly by who ever assembled the gun. I finally figured out how to get the safety lever off so I could remove the barrel/receiver/Co2 plenum/trigger assembly from the stock and upon doing so, I discovered a small setscrew sticking out the back of the trigger assembly, so far out it was about to fall out, only a couple threads were holding it into the back of the trigger assembly housing. I turned it in a bit but felt no resistance and it didn't seem to be doing anything, so at that point, not knowing what this screw was for, I decided to remove the side plate from the trigger housing and upon doing so, discovered that this screw needed about 20 turns or so to reach the back of the trigger as the over travel stop. When I removed the side plate, the screw in question was not even extending through the housing wall and what had been sticking out about 3/8" is now flush at the outside and stopping the trigger as it should.
At this point I also discovered the sear engagement adjust screw was loose, the jam nut was several turns away from the surface it is supposed to bind on and the sear was at maximum engagement and this obviously had never been properly adjusted...
So, first thing I did was to set up the trigger as it should be set according to what I've learned with other rifles and the trigger is now working correctly and vastly improved...
The second observation was that the receiver/Co2 plenum chamber tube and trigger housing were binding severely in the stock, they required quite a bit of persuasion with a hefty rubber mallet to literally drive the mechanism and barrel etc. out of the stock.
Once the gun was appart, the cause of the trouble getting the gun apart became very obvious, the stock, which appears to be some sort of fine grained softwood, is severely warped along the channel everything sits in and twisting the trigger housing causing it to bind in the stock along with the Co2 plenum chamber... The channel has about 3/32" bow along the full length of the channel and fore- stock...
So, with the stock set up securely in a gun vice, a 2 ft.length of 3/4" diameter tubing wrapped with 60 grit sandpaper and several hours of work combined with a bit of filing the side walls of the trigger housing slot and a bit of fitting as I worked, the gun now goes together and comes apart by hand without having to beat it with the rubber hammer...
The next thing I discovered as I fitted it back together was that the surface of the center area of the stock at the bottom of the channel where the single bolt that holds the gun together is quite a bit lower than the rest and tipped towards the forend and one can not tighten tighten this bolt without distorting the mechanism and so more sanding to get a bit of clearance, and then the use of 3M foam bedding tape (a'la Anschutz) to adjust the fit of the receiver/Co2 plenum/trigger mechanism into the stock properly when the bolt is snugged up...
While doing this and just as I was finishing up and starting testing with the Crosman 10.5 gr pellets which were all I had, the "PEAK" Chinese brand 8.6g pellets from the fellow I purchased the AR-2078A from showed up in the mail...
The end result of my work combined with the 8.6g pellets is a gun that shoots reasonably well. I'm no longer getting the erratic fliers of 1.5" to 2" and am now getting reasonable groups on my 10 mtr range that can be measured and averaged.
This afternoon UPS delivered the 2nd order of pellets from Straight Shooters I've been waiting on, and I now have tested the gun with 5 different pellets, the original Crosman Premier 10.5g dome, the PEAK 8.6g wadcutters, RWS Meisterkugein in both 7.0g and 8.2g, and Beeman H&N Match 8.09g...
Preliminary testing shows the Beeman H&N Match shoots best in this gun and seven 5 shot groups at 10 meters are .35", .55", .44", .43", .58", .45", and .25"
Second best were the RWS Meisterkugien 7.0, I only had time to shoot three groups, .48", .40", and .50" however next time shooting, I'm going to shoot these again as I need more data to insert into my spread sheet analysis of how the pellets shoot in this gun.
Third are the Chinese PEAK brand pellets, they also averaged in group size just slightly larger than the Beeman and the RWS 7.0g pellets...
Its obvious to me now that this gun likes the lighter pellets...
What a difference from when I started two weeks ago with this AR-2078A, the quarter and half dollar sized groups with random fliers are a thing of the past and what fun it is to see groups of one ragged hole in the .25" to .40" range, not every time but they are becoming a lot more consistent!...
While I realize this gun is still not good enough to be very competitive, and hopefully I have a ways to go yet with improving this gun, there are other pellets yet to try, I still have three lots I didn't have time to get to today and also have found at least three or four types more to order and try.
Still, realizing I initially purchased this gun with the intent only to use it on my cellar 10 mtr range during the winter, its very gratifying at this point to see that at least for my cellar use its going to be good practice for now...
However (the BIG however!!!) Now I have the BUG, I want a match grade gun and to see what others are doing at Holbrook and other places and get back into a bit of competition and good fun...
Thanks and Happy Shooting y'all...
Mitch & Shadow...
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