When you think of the word "Yankee", all sorts of things come to mind, both positive and negative. But in the context of what we want to relay here, the best interpretation of what "Yankee" means would be to say that we align ourselves with the great Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and think of Yankee as that indomitable spirit that can be transported to the Middle Ages and still looks forward to making the world a better place. A bit by science, a bit by engineering, a bit by well placed, and played, bluffs. It's all in the "character".
Luckily, that character has not been lost. I have more than a few good friends that are true "Yankees" in the best sense of the word. One of them lives in Pennsylvania. So we'll call him the Pennsylvania Yankee.
When the LGU first arrived to American shores, we invited some shooters to be part of the pioneering group to purchase the first few. From there, our first review and testing came out:
http://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-walther-sport-family
Because the trigger was so terrible and we knew that in advance, from some reviews of the LGV that bears exactly the same trigger unit, we got Match triggers for everyone and posted detailed instructions on how to swap the blades, where 2 out of 3 adjustments are located. That set of instructions can be found here:
http://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/swapping-the-walther-lgus-trigger
Do note that ALL DISCLAIMERS posted there also apply for this post.
But after a while, my good Pennsylvania Yankee friend and airgun tinkerer extraordinaire came up with some comments and some tests that warranted a further look into the trigger unit first, and then into the power plant.
The first thing our good "Pennsylvania Yankee" told us was that there was really no need for the metal trigger.
WHAT!!!!! LOL!
¿After all the chastisement Diana went through when Doc. Beeman started his negative disinformation campaign stating that Diana triggers were plastic and therefore inferior to the point that the T-06 version now incorporates a metal trigger blade?, and now ¿a dyed in the wool airgunner tells me that he prefers the plastic triggers? Well, the world is changing indeed!
For the UK market (and with a substantial price difference), Walther made available the adjustable metal two screws trigger blade they call the "Match Abzug" or "Tuning Trigger".
Luckily, that character has not been lost. I have more than a few good friends that are true "Yankees" in the best sense of the word. One of them lives in Pennsylvania. So we'll call him the Pennsylvania Yankee.
When the LGU first arrived to American shores, we invited some shooters to be part of the pioneering group to purchase the first few. From there, our first review and testing came out:
http://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-walther-sport-family
Because the trigger was so terrible and we knew that in advance, from some reviews of the LGV that bears exactly the same trigger unit, we got Match triggers for everyone and posted detailed instructions on how to swap the blades, where 2 out of 3 adjustments are located. That set of instructions can be found here:
http://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/swapping-the-walther-lgus-trigger
Do note that ALL DISCLAIMERS posted there also apply for this post.
But after a while, my good Pennsylvania Yankee friend and airgun tinkerer extraordinaire came up with some comments and some tests that warranted a further look into the trigger unit first, and then into the power plant.
The first thing our good "Pennsylvania Yankee" told us was that there was really no need for the metal trigger.
WHAT!!!!! LOL!
¿After all the chastisement Diana went through when Doc. Beeman started his negative disinformation campaign stating that Diana triggers were plastic and therefore inferior to the point that the T-06 version now incorporates a metal trigger blade?, and now ¿a dyed in the wool airgunner tells me that he prefers the plastic triggers? Well, the world is changing indeed!
For the UK market (and with a substantial price difference), Walther made available the adjustable metal two screws trigger blade they call the "Match Abzug" or "Tuning Trigger".
On the left, the OEM plastic trigger blade. On the right, the "Match Abzug" or "Tuning Trigger". Do note the one screw of the first and the two screws of the second.
But once the trigger is installed (not a complicated operation in itself), it is the adjustment of the trigger what takes more time and is overly complicated. You can swap the triggers in about 10 minutes, but it takes at least 1 hour and multiple firings to get the trigger set to a good, usable, shootable point.
It is so complicated that one of the foremost spring-piston shooters in the world, wished someone would post somewhere a "starting point" of where the screws needed to be so as not to loose so much time.
Here is what worked for me in my gun:
It is so complicated that one of the foremost spring-piston shooters in the world, wished someone would post somewhere a "starting point" of where the screws needed to be so as not to loose so much time.
Here is what worked for me in my gun:
The screws' protrusion is measured from the flat web between the two screws.
Users should start at slightly lower protrusions and then work their way to whatever final adjustment each shooter prefers.
BUT, ¿what could be done with the OEM plastic blade to make the trigger crisp and clean-braking?
Part of the answer is to polish the surfaces. Stoning is one way, but not the safest.
Jeweler's rouge works better, though it takes patience in hardened surfaces, it is also the least prone to failure method because it removes so little material that the surface hardening of the trigger parts is preserved.
The other part is to round and polish the screws' faces, whether it is the one screw of the plastic blade or the two screws of the metal blade, making the screws pointed against a gritty surface is not precisely the best way to get a smooth, crisp, clean, repeatable trigger release.
BUT, ¿what could be done with the OEM plastic blade to make the trigger crisp and clean-braking?
Part of the answer is to polish the surfaces. Stoning is one way, but not the safest.
Jeweler's rouge works better, though it takes patience in hardened surfaces, it is also the least prone to failure method because it removes so little material that the surface hardening of the trigger parts is preserved.
The other part is to round and polish the screws' faces, whether it is the one screw of the plastic blade or the two screws of the metal blade, making the screws pointed against a gritty surface is not precisely the best way to get a smooth, crisp, clean, repeatable trigger release.
Round faced screws provide a much better feel to the trigger pull.
But even after that, the OEM plastic single screw blade refused to give a good "feel". Yet, it had no further adjustment, it was "bottomed out". So . . . . . a change of screws was in order!
On the left, my custom screw. On the right the OEM screw.
And this is the Pennsylvania Yankee screw. A longer, button headed screw. He needs that because of the ugly color of the urethane fuel line short section he uses to hold the screw's adjustment. Without the head, you cannot but see the bright yellow bit in there.
The urethane fuel line is inserted to keep the button screw from turning on its own. Once the line has been inserted it is cut with a really sharp knife to follow the blade's curve.
Like this. The button head hides the fuel line
The combination of the rounded trigger screw face, with more reach and the rear roller give indeed a much better feel to the trigger pull than the metal trigger blade.
After thorough testing I can say that it is true, the single screw trigger blade feels better, releases crisper, is more gentle, predictable and consistent than the metal blade with the two screws.
The metric screw (M3X0.5X20 or 25) will cost you substantially less than the metal trigger blade and, above all, you do not need to disassemble the trigger unit/rifle to do this swap.
Doing more with less, ¿what could be more "Yankee" than that? LOL!
But that was not the full extent of his discoveries. He had tested the Maccari and the Vortek kits that would fit this gun and came up with an interesting proposal:
To use the HW77 25mm's kit
Dimensions seemed to be spot on, there was no slop and only a hollow section of the trigger unit needed to be filled to maintain the piston's stem alignment.
So we also tried that.
After thorough testing I can say that it is true, the single screw trigger blade feels better, releases crisper, is more gentle, predictable and consistent than the metal blade with the two screws.
The metric screw (M3X0.5X20 or 25) will cost you substantially less than the metal trigger blade and, above all, you do not need to disassemble the trigger unit/rifle to do this swap.
Doing more with less, ¿what could be more "Yankee" than that? LOL!
But that was not the full extent of his discoveries. He had tested the Maccari and the Vortek kits that would fit this gun and came up with an interesting proposal:
To use the HW77 25mm's kit
Dimensions seemed to be spot on, there was no slop and only a hollow section of the trigger unit needed to be filled to maintain the piston's stem alignment.
So we also tried that.
On the top, the Vortek kit for the HW97. On the bottom, the OEM trigger unit with guide, thrust washer and spring installed.
This is how everything fits together. The white spring guide has a groove that is caught in the trigger housing casting. That keeps the steel insert against which the piston's stem is kept by the hook. If the OEM plastic guide is removed, then there is a gap through which the piston's stem's button has to travel unsupported.
As you can see from the photos above, our friend chose to use a short black plastic guide to fill this gap.
I have never had too much success turning plastic, so I turned an aluminum one:
I have never had too much success turning plastic, so I turned an aluminum one:
This is the aluminum short guide turned, and placed in its proper relative position.
And this is how the part fits inside the housing.
And this is how it fits inside. Because the Vortek kit has a flat rear end, it is important that the insert also fits flush.
It is interesting to note that once the kit is inserted and everything put into place, the whole assembly sits, feels and works almost like a single unit. The Vortek TopHat fits better than the OEM one and this, while not creating a resisting force to keep the two together (spring and piston), still has a very good fit.
Once the gun was assembled and everything had been worked once or twice by cocking and de-cocking manually, we tested the feel of the shot cycle. Impressive indeed.
The very obvious piston bounce of the OoB shot cycle was gone. The "thud" was sudden, quick, indubitable.
Very pleasant, indeed.
An interesting aside here is that the guns we receive in the US ALREADY have the "large" transfer port. Whatever you read on the U.K. and S.A. fora is not necessarily applicable to the guns we get here.
I've tried and tested many spring guns over the years with different tunes and from different corners of the world, but this combination is among the best I've tried. Not perfect, because the gun is slightly overpowered for WFTF shooting and the gun still recoils vertically, but it was like that before we started and now what needs to be done is to reduce the power to "legal" levels.
The recoil characteristics cannot be changed without serious changes in the weight distributions and that is changing the gun too much for my tastes.
The very obvious piston bounce of the OoB shot cycle was gone. The "thud" was sudden, quick, indubitable.
Very pleasant, indeed.
An interesting aside here is that the guns we receive in the US ALREADY have the "large" transfer port. Whatever you read on the U.K. and S.A. fora is not necessarily applicable to the guns we get here.
I've tried and tested many spring guns over the years with different tunes and from different corners of the world, but this combination is among the best I've tried. Not perfect, because the gun is slightly overpowered for WFTF shooting and the gun still recoils vertically, but it was like that before we started and now what needs to be done is to reduce the power to "legal" levels.
The recoil characteristics cannot be changed without serious changes in the weight distributions and that is changing the gun too much for my tastes.
There are a few other things about this rifle that need attention to. One of them is the distance between the pistol grip, the cheekpiece, and the scope rail.
Most scopes nowadays have reasonable eye reliefs, but there are exceptions, notably the short scopes that are most useful in hunting. In this particular case the scope of interest was the Tac-Vector Optics Gladiator, a 2-12X32 FFP MD scope made for very peculiar applications but uniquely suited to airgun hunting.
And also, the fact that the rails are cut INTO the receiver makes for a very low L.O.S. unless you use very high bases.
When you couple that with the need in a piston gun like the Walther that kicks UPWARDS, you need to get something to put everything at ease.
A good alternative is to use a rail, which also gives us a chance to correct the "droop" that is needed to keep an optically centered scope on target with a perfectly concentrically mounted barrel.
In order to "cure" both inconveniences I decided to alter an UTG rail to fit what needed to fit.
Most scopes nowadays have reasonable eye reliefs, but there are exceptions, notably the short scopes that are most useful in hunting. In this particular case the scope of interest was the Tac-Vector Optics Gladiator, a 2-12X32 FFP MD scope made for very peculiar applications but uniquely suited to airgun hunting.
And also, the fact that the rails are cut INTO the receiver makes for a very low L.O.S. unless you use very high bases.
When you couple that with the need in a piston gun like the Walther that kicks UPWARDS, you need to get something to put everything at ease.
A good alternative is to use a rail, which also gives us a chance to correct the "droop" that is needed to keep an optically centered scope on target with a perfectly concentrically mounted barrel.
In order to "cure" both inconveniences I decided to alter an UTG rail to fit what needed to fit.
An UTG rail with droop compensation milled to fit the LGU
There is reasonable clearance in front.
And the "overhang" has been kept to the point where it is useful to get the scope near to the eye and still allow the safety to go on / off.
By combining the recess that Leapers puts into the rails to accommodate Diana's rear rail screw and overhang, the safety goes on and off.
We'll continue with this gun later, for the time being it is rewarding to see itty bitty groups appear in the targets at the far side of the range.
;-)
;-)
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