Hector's Airgun Blog

FTRPA's 10/18/2020.- Some pictures

10/21/2020

With CoViD upending most of our lives, it was good to go to the venue of some of the best laid matches in the USA.

FTRPA matches are not "hard" per se, they try not to exceed the 28 T rating at the average level, so it's not a "Highly Technical Match". They are neither all long shots, nor all tiny kill zones. Each extreme favours a division/class.

What FTRPA's matches have is balance and charm.

I know those two words are outdated and "passé". But so am I. And I am glad to accept it, LOL! To ME, Honour is still a value. And gauging people for what they ARE more than by what they HAVE is a good standard.

In our modern world of "Extreme-whatever you care to do", and over-aggressive competition/consumption, we have lost some of the values of the 20th Century.
Values that derived from one tough recession, two VERY hard fought wars (some really good historians would say that it was one single war with a long armistice in the middle), and decades of re-building countries, economies and lives.

Coming back to the FT shoot: thanks need to go to the FTRPA Club and the Archery group that allows us, crazy airgunners, to take over the range for a weekend (between setup and shoot). Without mutual tolerance and cooperation many things in this life are almost impossible.

So, having said all that, I hereby salute FTRPA's team (Rick Bassett, Larry Bowne and Jim Wilcox), they are gentlemen after my own heart.

What a "Group Picture" looks like in the times of CoViD-19

In this "New Normal", the shooters' meeting does not only include the usual gun-shooting safety points, but also a review of the CDC guidelines.

FTRPA is one of the few clubs that truly attracts and keeps new shooters. In this occasion we had two new shooters that performed very creditably, so I hope they will continue to attend.

I was squadded with Brian Van Liew (Match High score). I enjoy shooting with him because we are both rather technically oriented guys.

Let's get into detailed views of the targets:

Sorry! Brian beat me to it, LOL!

A rather "close shave" ¿huh?

Two targets on the same tree, so be aware of which target you should be shooting at.

At the end of the wooded alley, a long shot to a target in a tree that is near to the lake. Want to guess the wind direction there? Hint: it depends on the time of day.

Let's look now at another lane:

In the old days, this used to be the dreaded lane 1, usually the longest shot in the match.

Beyond the two "Pistol Only" targets the three rifle targets are out there. But as you can see, the KZ's are not small, so they are very "doable" targets.

A lane where you can appreciate the Light/Shadow setting and the challenges you face.

The "near" target

The "Mid" target

And the "Far" one.

Ha ha!, Can you find the targets?

Here is the short one

Mid and Far are here

Another lane, this is the last one (10 lanes X 6 shots = 60 shots course)

And here are the targets:

The experiment this time was to leave the rifle in the car overnight, hoping that a "cold start" would be better than taking a room-temperature rifle out into the cold, and then seeing the POI's change as the rifle cooled down and then stabilized.
I did have time on the sighting in range to try to get everything up to "running" status, but after seeing the POI's change as it started from cold, I think it is not a good idea.
By the time, the gun was again at "operating conditions" most of the Match had gone and it was only at the last two lanes (lane 10 and 1 for us) that I really began connecting.
Ah, well, one more experience.

We were halfway in taking down the course when we were called to the awards presentation

Greg Shirhall took 1st in Hunter Piston

And Pat Shirhall came back for a "bonus"

Ed Carter placed second in Hunter PCP

Tom Ryan got First in Hunter PCP

Leo Gonzales placed First in WFTF Piston

And Mike Harris placed First in WFTF PCP

The results bear out what I was saying at the beginning:

Top scores were pretty close in all classes and divisions. THAT is what makes a "Balanced" match, where all the challenges in FT are balanced and offered to all shooters of all Divisions and Classes.

And so, after finishing the taking out of the course, I drove home having spent a beautiful day outdoors, with friends, having fun; and THAT is what FT is all about.

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM

3 Comments

The 2020 N. Carolina State Championship.- An Educational Experience

10/13/2020

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I usually wait for the "official" report to come out, but since CoViD 19 has driven everything into a "limbo" (and not precisely of the dancing kind), there is precious little information about results, classes , equipment, etc.
In fact, there have been precious little matches going on.
SOME clubs, like Rochester Brooks, or Connecticut Airgunners never lost pace, except for the absolute lock-down phases, but others, like DIFTA, have been forced by range rulings to only re-open the season fairly recently, when "Stage 2" of the opening up had been achieved.
All this to say that few shooters have kept pace with activity, training, or match participation.

When the news came that the North Carolina State Match was going to be held at Will & Ginger Piatt's place at Ennice (right at the heart of the Blue Ridge Parkway), I told my wife and we decided to make a road trip out of it. It would not be the dream road trip we had imagined in 2015, but now we would have a lot more company, LOL!

Besides, my niece is now in the last stages of her driving practice, she'll be taking her final in-car exam soon, so what better opportunity to have her drive the highway and night time requirements?

We set out on Friday and arrived late night, as we got stuck in traffic in two spots.

After a good night's sleep, I was packed and ready to go! Everything I needed was in the range bag, and with the appropriate rain gear (remember 2015? LOL!)

As is often the case, when you are best prepared, things are not too bad, or at least they do not LOOK too bad!

After an early morning breakfast (we were staying in Elkin, about 45 mins from the range), we got there on time, I got setup and started the process of shooting some pellets downrange to see how he trajectory had changed (notice it is NOT a question -if the trajectory had changed-, that is a given when you go from 500 FASL to 2825 FASL), as my MV had probably gone down from 780 to about 745 fps.
It didn't occur to me to check a chrono, I thought there would be a chrono station, but there wasn't. Should have checked. Now I am dying of curiosity! LOL!
As the match developed and as the rain came and went, it was obvious there was something not quite right. Inexplicable misses, POI changing all over the place . . . not the usual quirky behaviour of a springer, more like a schizophrenia.

But, never argue with reality.

I had been testing reverting to the DIANA OEM style of bedding for my 54 and it was clearly not as stable as the CCA designed one. At home in the backyard, it had proven accurate, but once different inclinations and positions where thrown in, the POI changes proved too much for the OEM bedding.
Anyway, I have reverted to my own design and hopefully, this will cure some of that.

The Match, as all matches sponsored by THAGC, was a hard one. 40 T would barely start to describe the deviousness of the MD, LOL!
But still, if you do not shoot hard matches you never learn anything worthwhile, so after all was said and done, we did have a ball, we learned a lot, and I think we will convert those learnings into experiences.

Rain gear performed like it should, pellets performed as they should. The gunsmith . . . hmm so-so. And the shooter did its best to keep a stiff upper lip and go through lane after lane of complete surprises.

Apologies are in order on the quality of the pictures, but I had taken my waterproof camera and it is not as good a camera as the normal one. So that, added to my limited skills as photographer, will make you think that the things were rougher than they really were.
Now, Let's see some pictures!

Will Piatt delivered a succinct and precise shooters meeting:

There was a wooded section, an open section, and transitional lanes. This lane is peculiar because the lane is in the open, but the wooded section is right next to it, so any wind will "bounce" and create very interesting challenges to the WFTF shooter

Targets are to the left of the picture.

Here is a close-up view of the targets, radically different positioning, the upper target wide open in the wind, the lower target more sheltered from direct wind, but subject to eddies and swirls.

Another example of the MD's crooked mind ;-) :

Shooting from the dark, sheltered, woods into the open is one of the more challenging shots, you have no information of what is happening out there!

A close up of the targets reveals how different the distances really were. As you can imagine, the slope of the land also creates an interesting challenge.

And there were several of these. LOL!

Out in the open, wind gusts of up to 15 mph moved the shooters, let alone the pellets. See how the water ripples in the pond at the back and notice how there is a tranquil area to the right of the pond, while the left side is rippling. This gives you an idea how the wind "rolls".

Most of the shots were long shots, and under these conditions, you can imagine what the wind was doing when it came over the trees on the left.

A close up of the targets reveals how different the shots were.

Bet you cannot find the targets!

But,. there they are! Or, are they? the blocks on the right are NOT one of the targets.

Even what seemed to be a wide open, long lane

Posed severe difficulty when taking into account the target color, the very dark background, the "flying" location, and the dark day.

By the end of the day, my score of 35 exceeded the 50% and bettered my performance of 5 years ago by a full 10 percentage points, LOL!

High score was something like 63/68, so that gives you an idea that the course was designed more with the 20 ft-lbs PCP shooter in mind.
It would be interesting to see the difficulty rating of the course.

In true FT fashion, and in the tradition of all "Southern Belles", Ginger Piatt served us a bountiful dinner with Shepherds' Pie, home baked rolls and an absolutely fantastic "Eclair pie".

My family arrived in time for desert (you can bet the 3 and 4 year olds were happy about that, LOL!

What happens with children, when one is paying attention to the camera, the other is distracted, and by the time the older starts to pay attention, the youngest gets distracted, LOL!

Brian Van Lieuw took first in Open PCP

Gary Palinkas took second in Open PCP

Gerald Long took First in WFTF PCP

Lukas Richter took Second in WFTF PCP

Miguel Sanchez too First in Hunter PCP

Amon Piatt took Second in Hunter PCP

Phil Hepler took 3rd in Hunter PCP (and by the way, designed and made the awards!)

A very Happy Piston shooter!

I love shooting with the THAGC crowd, they challenge you and they feed you well. LOL!

Hopefully, we'll meet again along some lanes.

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM

4 Comments

A SHORT Note on tuning the DIANA 280

10/12/2020

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A friend says that I CANNOT write a short note, ROFL!

So, in part this is an acceptance of that challenge, and in another sense it is just the result of the reality that I am extremely busy and I have two other projects in the pipe and I cannot devote much time.
Anyway, the usual disclaimer:

DISCLAIMER.- The operations performed in this rifle void all warranties. Nor I, nor anybody else, has control over what each individual decides to do, so no warranties are given, or implied. It's up to each tinkerer to be safe in his/her endeavours.
The modifications performed were safe within the objectives and the context of the gun in question.
Which may not be exactly the same as yours.
All machining operations carry some risk, be safe, be careful and always err on the side of caution.
When working with open flames, specially the high temperatures one, extra care needs to be taken with all liquids and gases present in the area. Do NOT risk it.

Having added that, let's tackle the "little" 280:

The 280 is a gun that is not popular at all in the USA. In part, it is the traditionally American drive towards "more is better", and partly the result of a mismanaged marketing strategy by the former exclusive importer of DIANA airguns into the USA.
Now, with DIANA looking at more options and even doing some small direct shipments to pre-qualified individuals, there is an opportunity for savvy airgunners to enjoy the petite airgun that is available in two models:
There is a Classic version that is the "no-frills" one, and there is an elegant version called the "Premium" (as most upper-scale models in the DIANA lineup are.

We'll work here on a "Classic" version.

One of the reasons why this entry will be short is because we are basing the whole "re-tune" of this gun on the work performed for the "12 ft-lbs gunsmith's tune of the LGV" , and which will also be the base for our final approach to the 430L, to be done in the near future.

We started by testing what the gun can do off the shelf, and pretty sure, it IS a "12 ft-lbs gun". in OoB / OEM form, the gun yields between 11 and 12 ft-lbs depending on the pellet.
For sure, with proper running-in and proper lubing these guns could yield a foot-pound more, but we are not going to go there, this is a special job undertaken as a "light tune" to see how much a gun can be improved within a limited budget.

So, WHAT IS a "limited budget"?
Basically the gun is a $350 gun, landed in the USA, which essentially puts it into the HW-50 "region" though the gun itself is about a lb heavier and yields a couple of ft-lbs more at the muzzle, it is a "medium gun" region by all measurements.
Customer desired a "lightly tuned" one to 10 ft-lbs or thereabouts, because he basically shoots in his garden; and we setled on: basic trigger work, change of powerplant, and overall smoothing which, we agreed, would put the budget at $500
During the course of the project, he decided to add a SIGHTRON Si FT scope, and that drove the total "ready to shoot" cost to $685 plus Sh&Ins (and pellets, ;-) )

So, we started with this (catalogue photo):

Removed the unnecessary hardware, and tested the gun:

As received the gun needed close to 38 # of Peak Cocking Force (PCF), and we did start the "running in" procedure of shooting and cleaning till we felt there were less fliers than proper shots, and then we decided to test a well made guide with the OEM spring.
We disassembled the gun, having established a benchmark, de-burred and smoothed everything in there, changed the piston seal and lubed.

Atop is a CCA guide, at the bottom is the OEM guide. Not bad, but definitely not what the gun COULD profit greatly from.

With better guide the gun jumped in performance almost ½ ft-lb, while the cocking effort did not change (nor did we expect it to), but it was still twangy and the shot cycle clearly reflected the place in the "price ladder". I felt the gun could be much more refined.

So we brought in a Titan #1 spring and started the process. We will not go into the detail, as it has been written in the abovementioned entry.

By the time the little rifle was doing 10¾ ft-lbs. we stopped, and measured the cocking effort:

Yup! It takes only 26 # PCF to yield 10¾ ft-lbs. Quite an efficient arrangement for a break barrel with a traditional piston.

When we removed the "unnecessary hardware" the obvious muzzle piece missing looked real bad, so I decided to make a Harmonics tuner with a new design that fits into smooth barrels and is adjustable by ½ mm's.

In the end, the gun looks like this:

I added a Zip Tie at the rear of the HT to be able to read the wind in the tests, but that has been removed.

And how does it shoot? Like this:

At 10 meters offhand, it is a real joy to shoot! Easy to put pellets where you want to (if you concentrate, LOL!)

At longer ranges:

It can easily group 10 shots with the right pellets into ¼"-½" groups from the seated position.

I was surprised at the good results offered by the GTO (non-lead pellets); in the lead class, the 8.44/4.52/Pledged pellets perform the best.

Do note that about 1 in 10 shots is still a "flyer". The gun still is settling down and the Harmonics Tuner will have to be re-tuned once it does. The HT's final position, will also depend on how the gun is shot, whether sitting off a silicone knee-pad, or off the bench, things will be different.

For those of you that like numbers: the JSB Express were coming out of the muzzle at 770 ± 2 fps and the JSB Exacts were coming out at 758 ± 1 fps, so the consistency of the engine/machine is already there.

More seasoning to the barrel is needed (more shooting), some tests and then the final decision about the pellet of choice and the final adjustment of the HT and that should be a nice little gun, with power to spare for most things inside 35 yards. At 8# 14 Oz, "all in" it is a lightweight gun, somewhat "whippy".
LOP is short, that is why I added a temporary recoil pad to take it to 14½", otherwise I "scrunch" into the gun.
That has also been removed.

;-)

For ME, personally, it is not a gun I would HAVE to have. But it is an interesting class of airgun that could have a lot of success in some markets. Sadly, it is not slated to be kept in the lineup.

Though the project took a lot more time than expected, I learned a lot and I loved the end result.

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM

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The Gunsmith's Tune; Part 2/4.- 12 ft-lbs Walther LGV

9/29/2020

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Tested the QYS, JSB 8.44/4.52, and the JSB 8.44/4.52. While short range tests were interesting, at 40 yards the whole thing unraveled.

I thought that indicated that we needed to treat this gun as a different gun, and so we were back to square 1 testing different lubes in the pellets:

It seemed that the barrel really liked Pledge as a lube, so we tested different pellets:

But again, at 40 yards the whole thing fell through.
And so I decided to test something else, the harmonics tuner:

The fact that the HT made little difference told me that there was something wrong.
Completely frustrated, I decided to test myself, and this is the benchmark:

As you can see, it was not a shooter's problem.
I started thinking that the spring and the guide were simply not in agreement with the rest of the gun.
What followed then was to check the gun with a Walther kit, to see how it behaved.
And so, I installed a Walther 12 ft-lbs kit (piston, spring and guide). MV's were quite satisfactory:
QYS's: 786 ± 5
JSB Xp: 825 ± 3
JSB Xact: 786 ± 2
Testing pellets with the barrel's preferred lube:

Indicated that at this power level, the light Express pellet was performing better, so I decided to tune the HT to that pellet, with this process:

From this test, I selected the setting of the HT at -5.14 mm's and proceeded to shoot some medium and long range tests:

Again, while results for 19 and 39 yards were satisfactory, when taken to 50 yards, the results were poor.

So, clearly, this barrel simply does not want to perform at long range at this power level. Yes, there are barrels like that. I would say that MOST barrels are like that.

CONCLUSIONS:

While it was somewhat disheartening to see the good behaviour not carried out to the low power level, it did confirm that the ABP, as a technology, is more reliable at these power levels that a large pre-load.

I have reverted the gun to its higher performance and, MAYBE in the future, I will shoot a "Hunter" course with it, as the performance of the slightly heavier pellet at the limit of stability is indeed interesting.

And, so we learn more from our "failures" than from our successes. Yes that is science, that is life.

Next will be the application of these findings to the 430L.

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM

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The Gunsmith's Tune; Part 1/4.- Full Power Walther LGV

9/8/2020

4 Comments

DISCLAIMER.- The operations performed in this rifle void all warranties. Nor I, nor anybody else, has control over what each individual decides to do, so no warranties are given, or implied. It's up to each tinkerer to be safe in his/her endeavours.
The modifications performed were safe within the objectives and the context of the gun in question.
Which may not be exactly the same as yours.
All machining operations carry some risk, be safe, be careful and always err on the side of caution.

UUffff! LOL! OK, so that is out of the way.

Let's go back almost a year to the last Pyramyd Air Cup.
Back then a good friend asked me: "OK, if you REALLY wanted to do something for YOURSELF, what would it be? Forget DIANA, field is open to ANYTHING, no limits. What would it be?"

I gave him the standard answer: "I am perfectly happy with my D54's, there is nothing I cannot shoot with either of the two (I was obviously referring to the full power 0.20" cal and the WFTF 0.177")

He took it in good stride and we parted, as usual, thinking that we would meet again in Ohio next year.

Next year came and, with it, an unexpected upending of ALL our way of life. No more FT matches. No more socialization in close proximity.
I barely made it back to the US from GERMANY, one day before all borders were closed, IWA was cancelled.
I did get to go to Puerto RIco, but that was the last big Match I shot in 2020, and only last week did we have a match at DIFTA.

But the conversation stuck in the back of my brain (what I call the back-burner), and suddenly, as we have been working hard in a long series of articles about recoil and harmonics with a really serious scientist, I found myself missing my ABP-LGV
As luck would have it, a used LGV popped up in the classifieds and at a very good price, so I placed an offer and the owner took it up, money was sent and rifle arrived.
From the description, I knew it was a shooter, not a safe-queen.

But that was what I needed.

As part of a long study process to tackle the tune of a FWB Sport (and then compare it to a Jan Kramer tuned FWB 124 of 30 years ago), I had decided to do some serious maths about springs.

And, looking over the stats of existing springs, I found some very interesting possibilities.

It also happened that Eric P sent me a version of his "curved trigger" for the LGU/LGV and I was absolutely delighted with the shape, but had no gun to mount it onto!.

So, when this shooter came up, I seized the opportunity. And I am glad I did.

The barrel was superbly dirty and leaded, but once cleaned, it proved to be an early and extremely well made specimen of the Walther factory.

AND it was threaded!

So, following the patterns established for the AM03 Compact we used as a base for the "Night Hunter" I made a front end for the LGV without any real intention to moderate it, as the end-goal is to compare this one with the ABP-LGV that is "on loan" and so, after this first chapter is done, I will probably tone it down to WFTF levels to see how they really compare. But that is in the future, where we will also look into the Gunsmith's versions of the 430L that builds on the success of the short-piston/long stroke concept.

I will not post detailed pictures of the gun, or how it was disassembled and how the tune was done, we have talked about that enough in other entries, so, if someone has not read them; please look into them:

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-walther-sport-family

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/swapping-the-walther-lgus-trigger

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/a-yankee-tune-for-the-walther-lgu-second-version

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-walther-lgv-a-second-look

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-walther-lgv-pushing-the-power-limits

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-supercustom-triggers-for-the-walther-lgu-and-lgv

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/new-super-custom-trigger-for-the-walther-lgulgv

I have always been a fan of Titan XS springs. They are of good quality material, they are reliable in their dimensions, they have proven to me, beyond doubt, to be some of the best springs in the industry. AND they do offer characteristics that are somewhat "heterodox" but very useful, as we will see.

The first aspect is that they offer larger than "normal", whatever that is for each of us, OD's for their springs.
Since stress in the material goes down with the cube (third power) of the OD, any increase in the OD is highly useful in the longevity of the spring, and that translates into many more shots at the same power level, which makes for enhanced reliability in the accuracy of the gun in question.

The down-side is that they do require carefully turned guides and the use of an "outside" guide, or piston liner is precluded.
Titan springs do not need it.
From the factory, they come covered in some slick, flexible, finish over the shot-peened metal that neither becomes brittle, nor flakes, nor chips. It is slippery and therefore there is no need for any further surface interface between piston's inside wall and spring.

Guides also need to be a little on the "hard" side. The softer grades of Delrin or other plastics will not do well.

Between the spring's finish and a hard-plastic guide, Ultimox creates the best possible riding medium. The use of VERY sparse lubricant in the spring makes it easy to accomplish the goal of the gun being an AIRgun. In the sense that no lubes are consumed to contribute to the power output.
Very little lubricant also gives the gun more consistency in the performance under different temperatures and ambient conditions.Hot or cold, these guns will perform in a reasonably consistent manner.

But I am sure most of you will be wanting some pictures, so, here are just a few, and I beg your forgiveness because I cannot divulge too much technical information, and I am not a really good photographer, anyway, LOL!

As you can see, the front end just adds about 3" of length and the gun is still compact. With the Bushnell Nitro FFP "Deploy" scope, it is rear heavy. Maybe I will change the CF tube to a thin steel one just to have a balanced rifle, but the truth is that it shoots so well that, apart from the power adjustment needed for international competition, I don't think I want to do much more.
I may, also use a different buttpad, a more "curved" one because a rear-heavy gun CAN be an asset in FT, as long as you ensure absolute consistency in shoulder placement.

The Bushnell Nitro is one of those cases where the logic behind optical equipment factories' commercial practices is hard to understand.
It was barely presented to the market . . . when it was discontinued! Only to reappear at 50% more money.
¿¡!?
I bought this one in a close-out at a very nice price (under $400), and have been quite impressed with the median-price range scope. In many ways it performs like a much higher priced glass, but in some others, it really is an inexpensive scope. Don't know that it is worth the new price (a bit under $700) to each his own.

As all of you that own Walthers know, the dovetails cut into the mechanisms tube is rather shallow, so an Accurized ZR mount was used to relieve the parts from the stress of the recoil and the need to use super-stout mounts that then run the risk of deforming the tube itself if too much torque is applied.

The leather cheekpiece has become a standard in the CCA guns, as it is real nice and there are left and right handed versions. In an ambi stock that lets everyone know that the owner has made the gun "his/hers".

AND (a VERY important "and") the trigger is the excellent "curved" trigger from Eric P as has been mentioned above that allows to be adjusted to break in a really set-back position so that, when using a sporter stock, there is no reason to "pull" the trigger. Just gently squeeze across the pistol grip.

Now, going to the power plant, it is important to mention that this is no tune for the faint of heart.

We start with a #1 Titan XS spring, then we create a guide that fits all the parts and "ties the system down"; on the rear end, the LGV trigger block arrangement needs one dimension, the guide itself is much wider to accommodate the Titan XS spring, so the "dual diameter guide" keeps the thrust washer captive between trigger housing and guide shoulder, on the front, the guide is fat enough that it can be "screwed" onto the spring, but it will not come out without twisting.
It also creates a HUGE PRE-LOAD (64 mm's):

So, you'ld better have a well made spring compressor because this cannot go in by hand alone.

Now, why is that important?

After my experiences converting my D34 to NTec, and then the AM03 (a native NTec gun) into a steel spring with an ABP, I noted that the NTec guns yielded a LOT more energy than the non-NTec guns (as in 16 vs 12 ft-lbs), and that getting the sharp, non-bouncy, shot cycle of the gas spring was something to be achieved.
The obvious way was with an ABP, but ABP's are complicated and expensive, so what other characteristics of the NTec were we overlooking?
The huge STARTING FORCE!

So, this realization was one of the reasons why I decided to start this project.

By having a large "at rest" force in the piston, it prevents a too big bounce-back (specially if no lube is burned), and so it is a more efficient duty cycle.
The disadvantage is that it stresses the spring to the limit. It starts from a semi-compressed condition and then goes to almost a solid. That is a heavy duty cycle for a spring. . . unless . . . it is of a larger than normal OD, AND it is made of the best possible material. ;-)

We also used our technique of using a very tight-fitting top-hat, and once everything was assembled, it became, actually, one piece:

Look, Ma!!!!! It FLOATS! ROFL! Trigger, spring, guide, and piston make one "unit".

Another interesting result, is that, by using more turns (therefore a longer spring), but of moderate wire diameter, the cocking is VERY SMOOTH, and the cocking force is very low, not more than the normal Walther spring.

After more than a few hundred rounds, the seal is almost as good as new, as opposed to severely "oversprung" LGV's I have seen in the past:

On the left is the "Gunsmith's Tune" seal, on the right is the result of a severely oversprung rifle. As you can see, the force of the secondary impacts has created dimples in the face of the seal.

OK, enough presentation! how about some stats? LOL!

Well, the gun yields between 14.6 and 16.9 ft-lbs depending on the pellet:

Baracuda Hunter Extremes exit the muzzle at 16.9 ft-lbs. (really good hunting setup out to 35 yards)
QYS Streamlined's zoom out at 14.3 ft-lbs. (FT capable)
Baracuda FT's at 16 ft-lbs (so, so, but Hunting accurate)
JSB Exacts at 14.9 ft=lbs. (reasonably good, but not quite as good as QYS's)

Here are few of the MANY target cards shot:

Pre-Tune benchmark. Good energy, but twangy and buzzy.

Post tune of the best shooting pellet (QYS). Notice that, apart from one shot I probably pulled, this gun is shooting to Match gun standards, but at 3 times the energy.

A first pass at Long Range tests (37 meters / 40 yards). QYS is still the best shooting pellet, and BHE shoot good, but are somewhat wind sensitive. By the end of the session, the Tunable MW was loose, so we quit till the next morning.

Next morning, with some wind, and after some warm-up, sighting in, and wind reading exercises, the 10 shot group on the upper left was shot at 35 meters/38 yards, then I backed out and shot the 5 shot 50 m/55 yards group. Drop between 35 and 50 meters is 1.25 mrads

All in all, some very rewarding results!

I know that IF I was to keep this gun at the present power level for hunting, pesting, and/or AAFTA/Hunter Piston FT, I could arrive at an intermediate tune of the Harmonics Tuner to be able to use either the BHE or the BFT, as required by the task at hand, with pretty similar results, since their weight and internal ballistics shape is pretty similar.

The excellent WEIGHTED BC (0.019 over all the distances to 50 m / 55 yds) of the QYS at such high speeds (879 fps), also points to the good possibility of having a SUPERB FT gun at WFTF levels.
Something we will look into in the next few weeks.

Lastly, the other objective of this exercise was to confirm the maths that govern spring behaviour with a view towards creating a special spring for the 430L, also useful in the 280.

Next we will explore the LGV at reduced power, the MAIN question here is IF the remainder pre-load will be enough to keep the good results while making the gun "legal" for WFTF, OR if at those low power levels the ABP is the better way to go.

So, stay tuned, keep well and shoot straight!

HM

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Hector Medina

2012 US National WFTF Spring Piston Champion
2012 WFTF Spring Piston Grand Prix Winner
2013 World's WFTF Spring Piston 7th place
2014 Texas State WFTF Piston Champion
2014 World's WFTF Spring Piston 5th place.
2015 Maine State Champion WFTF Piston
2015 Massachusetts State Champion WFTF Piston
2015 New York State Champion WFTF Piston
2015 US National WFTF Piston 2nd Place
2016 Canadian WFTF Piston Champion
2016 Pyramyd Air Cup WFTF Piston 1st Place
2017 US Nationals Open Piston 3rd Place
2018 WFTC's Member of Team USA Champion Springers
2018 WFTC's 4th place Veteran Springer
2020 Puerto Rico GP Piston First Place
2020 NC State Championships 1st Place Piston