TX200HC .177 Walnut - Project Overview

Part 1 of 2

This past year I sold all but one of my springers and moved to PCP rifles. My 30 and 50 yard shooting had moved to 100 yards with the quest for tiny groups at that distance. While I really do like PCP rifles, I also missed the spring piston rifles that I sold. I missed the craftsmanship and mechanics that were the lifeblood of my springers. I missed the hefty feel, the slight recoil on the shot, and the challenge of shooting them. I also missed tearing into each new rifle, then evaluating each part, polishing and tuning until the rifle was customized just the way I wanted it.

Any other PCP shooters ever had this same feeling? I know some have left for PCP and never came back to springers. But for me, I never lost my appreciation for fine springers such as the TX200, HW97, HW98, etc.

I recently sold my .22 PCP rifles in order to get a larger caliber for my 100 yard shooting. I then picked up my only remaining springer...the HW98 and started target shooting at 30-50 yards. It didn't take long for me to realize what I had been missing!!! Shooting this springer at 30 and 50 yards was every bit as much fun as my PCP rifles. After a few weeks of shooting the 98, I decided to get another springer for a project. Out of all my rifles, the TX200 Hunter Carbine was probably my overall favorite. It had the accuracy of the Pro-Sport, but had a stock design that fit me better. It also had the same 9.5" LW barrel that I really liked. Hunters may like the Pro-Sports and Hunter Carbines because they are lighter, shorter and easier to maneuver in the field, but I actually prefer them over the full length TX for target shooting. I don't know what it is, but they just seem to shoot better. Tighter groups and not quite as finicky....just my personal opinion. 

So.....I went to Pyramyd Air and saw they had only one Hunter Carbine .177 Walnut right hand remaining. I finally dropped it in my cart and bought it. I was apprehensive at first because my history with the Air Arms Springers was hit or miss as far as quality goes. If you read through my project reviews you will see that I have encountered numerous QC issues with the Air Arms springers.

Blemished bluing
Chipped trigger sears
Debris in compression tubes
Poor machining on outside of compression tube
Cracked stock

just to name a few.......

I was able to resolve all problems previously, and Pyramyd Air was always top notch in handling any warranty replacements.

A few days later my new Hunter Carbine had arrived....with a deep breath and slow exhale I opened the box to see what it looked like. Well, it was absolutely STUNNING!!!! It had perfect bluing and the most gorgeously detailed walnut stock that I had received to date. This stock has defined grain, stiping from front to back on both sides, and various contrasting colors that change as you move to different angles. It also had an almost checkerboard appearance at certain angles, first time I had seen that on the AA walnut stocks. Just beautiful. Ok, so it passed the first test...cosmetic appearance. The next and much larger step was to tear into the rifle to see what all the internals were like.

And so begins my project overview......

I had this week off on vacation and since I didn't leave myself much time for everything to come together in time for the Christmas Holiday. I quickly ordered the following supplies;

Maccari QX4600 spring (.120") - ordered preset from James Maccari
Maccari FAC spring (.125") - ordered preset from James Maccari
Royal London Oil
Stainless machined forearm bracket
Rowan setback trigger
Rowan Trigger Guard
Rowan Cocking Handle
New tub of Vortek Moly 70+
Vortek Moly Seal

Not having a lathe, I send all my springs to Motorhead (Scott) for his precision work on making delrin guides and top hats. Being that I was down to the wire in pulling this project off, I had to ship the springs to Scott 2-day express with a prepaid return label so he could turn them right around and send them back. I first contacted Scott to see if he was available, and if he would be able to turn the springs around in time. Scott was available and was more than willing to turn them around for me in the short time frame. East Coast to West Coast and back in less than a week...and a weekend in between! Scott, a big THANK YOU for your willingness to help me out, and for the fine craftsmanship that goes into your guides and top hats

While waiting for remaining parts and supplies to arrive, I removed the stock, prepped and coated with 5 hand rubbed coats of Maccari's Royal London Oil. After 5 days of curing time I then lightly rubbed finish with Maccari Stock Mud, followed by 2 coats of Minwax Finishing Paste.

I have had several AA walnut stocks over the past couple years that were very light in color. While they had nice detail, they lacked color. As a result I had to deepen them using Behlen Solar Lux dye. However, this stock was nice and dark, and had great coloring so I did not have to use the dye.





So, the day before I started my vacation I finally had all supplies ready to go!




Here is the rifle - straight from the box


StockOutofBox.jpg



First step was to take the rifle from the box and right to the chronograph to document out of box performance.

After a handful of shots in the beginning, the velocities had settled nicely around 878fps using the Air Arms 8.4gr 4.52 for about 14.4 fpe


ShotStringRightfromB.jpg



Notes on out of box performance;

Absolutely no spring twang, but there was a very noticeable buzzing feel on each shot
Very firm, sharp recoil
A slight grittiness across the first stage of the trigger pull
Stage 2 of the trigger pull was very crisp with no creep whatsoever
Trigger Pull was 1lb 2oz.
Solid cocking cycle, but rather noisy with a dry rubbing sound as the rifle was cocked
There was a slight hint of dieseling smell in the air

After reading some posts about rifles that arrived with a brown rust like residue in the breech of the barrel, I took a good look at this one. It was perfect!


BreechCloseup.jpg



Time to tear the rifle apart and inspect each part


The spring guide had a snug, press fit within the trigger block. I saw this on a recent post as well, but it was the first time I had experienced it. A little wiggling of the guide and it pulled right out.

On my previous Air Arms rifles the guide was a loose fit


FactorySpringGuide.jpg



The factory spring had quite a bit of grease. That would explain why I had no spring twang.


FactorySpringandGrea.jpg



A quick check on the factory seal fit revealed that it was on the loose side with the piston quickly dropping under it's own weight. Here is the factory seal as it was pulled right from the compression tube. Only a small amount of moly lube, which was good.


FactorySealandLube.jpg



Nice cross hatching in compression tube


CrossHatching.jpg



Compression tube was nice and clean inside with no burrs or debris


InsideCompTube.jpg



Factory spring end was a little rough. I like mine polished up quite a bit more than this


FactorySpringEnd.jpg



Compression tube and piston


PistonandCompTubeSto.jpg



Let's get to polishing and tuning!!


Piston and Comp Tube after polishing and deburring


PistonandCompTubePol.jpg



Carefully removed factory breech seals, cleaned around transfer port and then installed a set of Maccari standard breech seals lightly coated in 100% divers silicone


CompTubePort.jpg



Removed factory seal and installed a Vortek Moly Seal - Lubed with tiny film of Vortek Moly 70+

I also smeared a very thin film down into the inner walls of the compression tube and outside of piston.....almost like a dry rub


MolySealLubed.jpg



Careful not to get any moly on the leading edge of the seal


MolySealLubedend.jpg



While most seals I have installed required hand fitting, this one did not. It dropped in and gave me just the right amount of resistance. I like to start them out with s little resistance so the seal can break in over a couple hundred shots or so. But this one had just the right amount of resistance with no fitting necessary.


Piston and comp tube lubed with new seal, ready to drop in the rifle


PolishedPistonandCom.jpg
 
Part 2 of 2


Disassembled trigger, cleaned all factory lube, honed sears and relubed. Also installed a Rowan brass setback trigger. The sears were perfect, with no signs of chipping or heat treatment issues. On a couple previous AA rifles, the tips of a couple sears were purple and later chipped out in less them 200 shots. No problem with these, they looked great!


SearsafterHoning.jpg



Factory trigger vs the Rowan brass setback trigger


Triggers.jpg



TriggerUnitbacktoget.jpg



Polished the bore using JB non-embedding bore paste. Not a necessity, but can reduce chances for fouling by smoothing out any roughness in the bore. I work from the breech to muzzle and while I work into the choke a bit, I do not allow the jag to pass completely out of the crown. It is important to keep a nice crisp edge on the crown.


PolishingBore.jpg



Installed the Maccari Stainless forearm bracket. James had a limited run on these so I picked one up. He generally offers the forged replacement brackets but this was the first time I saw the stainless brackets. 


ForearmBracket.jpg



While on this subject, here is the forearm bracket and the machined cocking shoe from James Maccari. Both parts add durability to the rifle and are beautifully crafted!!


CockingShoeandforear.jpg


Here is a comparison between the factory cocking shoe and the one from James Maccari


CockingShoesSide.jpg



Time to select spring and reassemble. Here are the Maccari springs with Motorhead delrin guides and tophats, alongside of the factory spring with steel guide and heavy steel tophat. From left to right;

Maccari QX4600 .120"
Maccari FAC .125"
Factory .130"


Springs.jpg



Whenever I have Motorhead make my tophats, I always request for them to be made to a thin 3mm thick. I then add preload with delrin or metal washers as I fine tune the rifle for target accuracy and consistency.


Springlengthcomparis.jpg



My washers used for adding preload - Delrin washers were made a while back by Motorhead and in my opinion work great for adding preload a little at a time. I can add it with delrin or metal washers


Spacers.jpg



My final tune on this rifle ended with the QX4600 spring and no tophat. 

However, I also ran some tests with the Maccari .125" spring and the factory spring after the new seal had been installed. Here are the results - All testing done with the Air Arms 8.4 grain (4.52)

Factory .130" spring with 11.56mm factory steel tophat

31mm total preload

16.17 fpe

1- 930 fps
2- 935 fps
3 - 931 fps
4 - 928 fps


Maccari FAC .125" with 3mm delrin tophat

29.5mm of total preload

14.42 fpe

1 - 876 fps
2 - 878 fps
3 - 877 fps
4 - 879 fps
5 - 878 fps
6 - 880 fps
7 - 875 fps
8 - 880 fps
9 - 876 fps
10 - 880 fps



And here is the spring I stayed with;

Maccari QX4600 with no tophat

26.5mm of total preload

12 fpe


1 - 800 fps
2 - 799 fps
3 - 801 fps
4 - 803 fps
5 - 805 fps
6 - 799 fps
7 - 799 fps
8 - 805 fps
9 - 798 fps
10 - 805 fps

The shot cycle of the Maccari springs with the Motorhead delrin guides is night and day different than with the stock spring and steel guides/tophats. It is smoother when cocking the rifle, much less recoil and no buzzing or spring twang whatsoever. The longer Maccari springs effectively soften the shot cycle as opposed to the shorter, heavier factory spring. This results in greater ease of shooting.

Cocking effort is also reduced. The Maccari .125" spring is longer than the factory spring and offers a noticeably lower cocking effort. The Maccari QX4600 .120" spring is also longer than the factory spring, and is even easier to cock. I have come to prefer the overall feel of this spring in the Air Arms springers.

Before I forget it, here is a picture of the plenum insert removed from the barrel shroud. This is a plastic part that easily unscrews from the shroud.


PlenumInsert.jpg



As mentioned earlier, the barrel in the Hunter Carbine is only 9.5" long, exactly the same as the Pro-Sport. I just love the way the Air Arms springers shoot with these shorter barrels


BarrelLength.jpg



Here are the factory parts that were replaced on this build. I also replaced the factory piston seal and breech seals


PartsReplaced.jpg



Needless to say I absolutely LOVE this rifle. I have been missing my TX200HC ever since I sold it a while back, and now I finally have another one. It is so darn smooth and refined. The trigger is outstanding and set right where I like it at about 10.5 oz. The cocking stroke is easy and very smooth. On the shot all you get is a dull thud. No buzzing or spring twang. What a quality piece of engineering

It has been horrible weather outside so my only shooting was done just to verify that I had my FX No-Limits mounts set up properly for a 30 yard zero-point. As you can see in the screenshot below, the conditions were very poor for tight grouping due to gusting winds...but considering this, I don't think the rifle did bad at all printing about 1/4" ctc for 5-shots. Wind was blowing from right to left and caught 2 of the shots. Aside from that, I am confident that this will be a nice single hole rifle at 30 yards. Can’t wait to get it back outside at 30 and 50 yards after the gusty conditions stop


Weatherconditionsfir.jpg



30YardsinGustyWind.jpg



On my 13-yard indoor range it was absolute single hole. This 5-shot group was shot during my chronograph testing with the QX4600 spring


13Yards.jpg


Next step is target testing when the wind dies down a little. Every rifle is a bit different so simply following my notes from previous builds won't necessarily get me the same results. That's where the fine tuning comes into play. I now have a starting point, but am prepared to play with various pellets, preload and top hat weight if necessary in order to get the most consistency on target. 

At the end of the day the chronograph is just a tool to verify where you're at and to periodically check the health of the rifle. Consistency and precision on target is the ultimate goal. After that is achieved the chronograph numbers can fall where they will.


Here is some eye candy of the finished rifle


Steve


AllDonewithscopeindo.jpg


Polished forearm screws

LoadingPort.jpg


Polished trigger guard screws

TriggerGuardandpolis.jpg


RightSideaway.jpg


Rightsidetowards.jpg


LeftSidetowards.jpg


Leftsideaway.jpg


TreePic.jpg

 
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Update - I have been spending time with the rifle at 30 yards, breaking it in and watching its performance on target. I tested Air Arms 8.4, JSB 8.44 and H&N FTT. The AA had the loosest fit, the JSB had a slight snugness to them and the H&N required a firm push to get them fully seated in the breech. On target the JSB 8.44 was the winner.

With the rifle broken in, I was still not 100% satisfied with the target groups at 30 yards. Don't get me wrong, the rifle was shooting very well considering the wind, but I knew it could be better. I even dropped in the Maccari .125" spring to see if there was any gain to be had by increasing the fpe upwards of 14fpe. Nope, no gain whatsoever on target, in fact groups grew slightly with all pellet types. The rifle also had slightly increased cocking effort and more noticeable recoil on the shot with nothing gained on target. Still much better than the feel of this rifle out of the box, but nothing like the Maccari .120" spring. After moving to the QX4600 springs last year I am spoiled with the smooth overall feel that it gives the rifle. I added a little preload and this seemed to take me in the right direction, but still not quite there.

Main Seal - After seeing some repeated behavior both on target and over the chronograph, I have removed the Vortek Moly seal and installed a Maccari Tesla seal. These come tight and require hand fitting, but have been my seal of choice for the Air Arms. I only installed the Vortek Moly seal as a test to see how well they worked. What I was seeing is extreme spreads growing and becoming unpredictable. On target this was showing up as well. When I pulled the comp tube I could feel that the piston did not have the glassy smooth feel that I like.

After hand fitting the Maccari Tesla to a mildy firm fit I was back in business. Since switching all my springer builds over to Moly 70+, I have never once had a single problem with the smoothness of the Tesla seals. That combination just seems to work exceptionally well in the Air Arms springers with their factory cross hatching.

Currently running

JM QX4600 with Motorhead delrin guide and 3/mm delrin top hat
Maccari Tesla main seal - hand fitted
Vortek Moly 70+

Consistency has returned over the chronograph and accuracy is superb and it is putting out about 12.5fpe

It was snowing this morning with a light breeze but I did some shooting at 30 yards anyways. VERY uniform tiny groups! This is what I had been looking for

Weather conditions weren't ideal, with a slight breeze from left to right. If you look really close you can see my wind flag (to the left of the target) kicking out.

1230.jpg


123017.jpg


QX46003mmdelrintopha.jpg
 
"crittahitta"Wow! great job. I have a tx200 in 177 and love it. Will keep it forever. There is a slight twang when fired and someday i will try to do what you did. What was your new shot string after all that work??
Thanks! I haven't recorded a complete shot string since hand fitting the Maccari Tesla main seal, but I did do a spot check of velocity after installing the seal. Velocities were falling between 810-815 across 8 or 10 shots. After the seal breaks in a bit I will record a string over the chronograph.

That is about 12.5 fpe with the QX4600 spring, 3mm delrin top hat and Maccari Tesla main seal. Dropping the 3mm top hat would get me back into the 790's and sub 12 fpe. But the way the rifle is shooting right now I really don't feel like making any changes.

Steve
 
"BeemanR7"Nitrocrushr,
If you ever decide to part with it, I'd like to be first in line to buy it.
BeemanR7
Hi Beeman, I already had someone request first dibs on this one, but I will put you down for 2nd on the list. I know how much I regretted selling my last one after it was finished....so I just might keep this one. But you never know ; )

Steve
 
Excellent overview, thank you. And pictures instead of video, thanks again!

Seems you did get the very best in the wood pile, and, the machining is some of the best I've seem on these newer TX's. Saw those stainless JM shoes a while back and thought of all my TC friends, they really are a fine springer.

I personally feel the JM products hold stabilty the best over the long run.

John
 
"spysir"Excellent overview, thank you. And pictures instead of video, thanks again!
Seems you did get the very best in the wood pile, and, the machining is some of the best I've seem on these newer TX's. Saw those stainless JM shoes a while back and thought of all my TC friends, they really are a fine springer.
I personally feel the JM products hold stabilty the best over the long run.
John



Thanks! I do like to include detailed pictures with my reviews. While I tried to capture the majority of this project in pictures, there were steps I failed to get pictures of. Oh well, perhaps I will cover them more thoroughly on my next project overview

I agree with you on the JM products. I have been around the block a few times with various products and have settled on the things that work. From seals, to springs to lube, and even rifle accessories....gotta stick with what works : )

Steve
 
"Butch"I had the exact same experience with the vortek seal in my tx. Running a Maccari seal in mine now also with no problems. Nice work brother.


Thanks Butch! Guess I'm not the only one that experienced issues with the Moly seals. Oh well, you have to be prepared to take a hit on the chin every once in a while if you want to try something new : ) 

Steve
 
After hand fitting the new Tesla main seal I started out with the 3mm delrin top hat installed. The velocities crept up a bit more than I wanted. I would prefer to have velocities closer to the 12 fpe mark. Here are the updated shot strings taken this morning - As you can see, with this tune I am getting about 5 fps per mm of preload;

JM QX4600 with Motorhead Guide and 3mm top hat - Maccari Tesla main seal


IMG7666.jpg




JM QX4600 with Motorhead Guide and no top hat - Maccari Tesla main seal



IMG7667.jpg



 
"davemac18"hey Steve does that steel shield weapons lubricant for the trigger work much better then say rem oil??
what trigger gauge do you prefer?
Thanks


I have never used the Rem Oil on trigger sears so I have no comparison. I started using the Weapon Shield on my handguns a few years ago and carried it over to my air rifles. I only use it on the trigger components. I like it better than standard CLP's, moly, etc. After cleaning and honing the trigger sears, I apply it liberally to the trigger sears before reassembling. I also smear a little bit of Weapon Shield grease around the end of the cocking stem on the piston.

As far as trigger gauges, I ike the Lyman digital. Easy to use and allows you to record several pulls and then pull up the average. Very nice gauge.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1007105325/lyman-trigger-pull-gauge-electronic-digital-0-to-12-lb


Steve
 
Your “project” is more than that. It is a metamorphosis. I would like to say put me down for third dibs, but it would never get that far. On second thought,have you ever thought about doing your magic professionally? A lot of us less talented guys would like to shoot/own a treasure like that. PS Can you tell I thought your post was great? I’m your newest fan.