Hi Guys,
Just thought I would add my 2 cents. I have been shooting HFT with my Crown MkII and 500mm .177 barrel since the start of this season. It has been GREAT! If it wasn't for the forced position shots I think every time I should be knocking down any target. My 50 yd groups aren't dime size, but 22 of25 will be inside a quarter (and I practice in a windy area). My 30 yd groups are 5 shots in a less than 1/4 in hole. So the rifle is definately capable.
After a fairly exhaustive set of testing over the winter last year I settled on the FX 13.4gr pellets. These are the same design as the old JSB Monsters, but using FX dies. There is less deviation in weight and head size with the FX pellets and the older monsters shoot better out of my barrel than the Redesigns. In my typically windy practice area, the 10.3 gr shoot slightly flatter, but don't group as well.
With the Crown you need to know the Internal Hammer Spring (IHS) adjuster length (amount of the grub screw sticking out of the black slider) as well as the Power Wheel Setting (PWS). The two add together to determine the amount of spring compression. The IHS grub screw moves 0.5mm per turn, while the 1-23 Power Wheel changes the spring compression by almost 0.2mm per click. So a PW of 23 means that you increased the spring compression by about 4.6mm, but you have a range of 0-8mm of adjustment with the IHS. So you could be compressing the spring anywhere from 12.6mm to 4.6mm. The effect is exactly like the Impact M3 without having a nice way to quickly change the IHS (the M3 Quick Tune System).
My setting are: IHS- 3.65mm, PWS - 17, Transfer Port setting to Medium, the barrel turn to the slug port down, and the Reg pressure to 105bar. This typically gives me 820 fps with SD of 4 and ES of 16. After reading the thread here and hearing Ken Hicks settings I might play around with my settings after the match this weekend.
The only sour note to my HFT Crown experience has been double (or even triple) loading. I shoot with magazines at home almost every day with no trouble. I shoot lots of rounds. Yet at a match if I am not really careful I tend to double load on forced position shots. I think it is because I tend to cock the rifle either pointing the barrel up or down. There is no back catch on the cocking arm and even a small forward movement starts to cycle a pellet. I DNF'd one match this Spring and should have DNF'd another (I was 28 for 30 through 5 lanes, then had to remove my barrel to clear the stuck magazine - hit 7 of 30 the rest of the way). So I got a CARM single shot loader and plan to use that for matches now on.
Cheers,
Greg
