N/A New to PCPs

[JimD]

I know slugs are the cool thing to shoot and I've messed around with them too but you don't really need them for rabbits. I think I used my little 18 fpe Prod for the last one I killed. Worked fine. You could lower your regulator to shoot lighter weight pellets and gain shot count but if you don't want to I would stick with the ones that don't go faster than about 925 fps. I just shot a nice target this evening with cheap old Crosman 14.3s at 925 fps from my Bullshark. They would drop a rabbit very quickly. But so will a 20-25 grain pellet. You might want to add H&N Baracuda 21 grain to your list if you don't find a winner from what you already have. They shoot the best from my P35-22. I killed a small raccoon with them (and 10 squirrels so far, all DRT).

 

[wheeldog29]

Hi new to group and have a umarex iconix and I love it wanted to share my customizations for it

 

[6gun]

I was brought up shooting them in the eye . Miss a little and it is still a head shot !

The friend and I that did this grew up in an old dying golf course neighborhood and the groundskeeper used to bust us as young kids, and then asked us to continue later in life when he caught us again. We made so many night shots with basic low power scopes at 60-80 yards with 12 fpe or less and they always tipped over unless the shot was so bad you hit them in the rump.

I've got stories. It's a shame I didn't get my fx till the golf course failed, but a 25 mrod made it out and just leveled them. In another venue I can say 900 fps 22 hybrids is a WHOLE NEW LEVEL of knocking them over. Like crow mags were with the 12 fpe guns.

 

[clampdaddy]

Yeah, delivering those massive Christmas day newspapers as a kid in fog so thick you cannot see the porch from the street.

Yeah. When I was a kid we'd be huddled around the radio on foggy mornings, listening during the commercial breaks to see how late the school busses would be running. First it would be a half hour.....then an hour.....then we really got excited when they said the busses were going to be an hour and a half late, because after that school was canceled for the day, and I could hunt all day with my Daisy 111B while my parents were at work.

 

[clampdaddy]

I know slugs are the cool thing to shoot and I've messed around with them too but you don't really need them for rabbits. I think I used my little 18 fpe Prod for the last one I killed. Worked fine. You could lower your regulator to shoot lighter weight pellets and gain shot count but if you don't want to I would stick with the ones that don't go faster than about 925 fps. I just shot a nice target this evening with cheap old Crosman 14.3s at 925 fps from my Bullshark. They would drop a rabbit very quickly. But so will a 20-25 grain pellet. You might want to add H&N Baracuda 21 grain to your list if you don't find a winner from what you already have. They shoot the best from my P35-22. I killed a small raccoon with them (and 10 squirrels so far, all DRT).

After I've shot it a while I may try turning it down and experimenting with lighter pellets. A guy I work with has been shooting a Marauder for a few years and he says that he values the higher shot count with lighter pellets at arounc 850 fps, and and has never felt the need to go up to the heavier pellets.

 

[clampdaddy]

Hey. One more question that I forgot to ask. When doing my chronograph testing, overall the velocities were super consistent. Like within a couple FPS either way. But on a couple occasions, one shot out of the string would drop a full 10 fps. Would that be an indicator that it needs a little more tension on the hammer spring?

 

[Cantona256]

Hey. One more question that I forgot to ask. When doing my chronograph testing, overall the velocities were super consistent. Like within a couple FPS either way. But on a couple occasions, one shot out of the string would drop a full 10 fps. Would that be an indicator that it needs a little more tension on the hammer spring?

More than likely those pellets were slightly heavier than advertised… the further you get into the hobby you’ll see some talk about “sorting and weighing” pellets… it’s mostly for competition shooters and long range shooters but it’s to minimize deviations like that.

 

[6gun]

Hey. One more question that I forgot to ask. When doing my chronograph testing, overall the velocities were super consistent. Like within a couple FPS either way. But on a couple occasions, one shot out of the string would drop a full 10 fps. Would that be an indicator that it needs a little more tension on the hammer spring?

Does it correlate to a position in the shot string every time or is it random? If random I bet it's got more to do with the pellet, but 10fps isn't worth fussing over ime.... Unless it's for tournament level stuff.

 

[clampdaddy]

Does it correlate to a position in the shot string every time or is it random? If random I bet it's got more to do with the pellet, but 10fps isn't worth fussing over ime.... Unless it's for tournament level stuff.

It was totally random, and come to think of it, I wasn't inspecting the skirts to make sure they weren't dented like I normally would when I'm going to take a poke at a pest with one of my multi pumpers. Maybe some air made it past some dented skirts. I bought a couple tins of pellets from Amazon and the containers had some pretty bad dents in them. Had to have deformed a few of them.

 

[wheeldog29]

Hi new to group and have a umarex iconix and I love it wanted to share my customizations for it

View attachment 578494

I'll try to figure it out had a
Video but it didn't upload sorry

 

[6gun]

It was totally random, and come to think of it, I wasn't inspecting the skirts to make sure they weren't dented like I normally would when I'm going to take a poke at a pest with one of my multi pumpers. Maybe some air made it past some dented skirts. I bought a couple tins of pellets from Amazon and the containers had some pretty bad dents in them. Had to have deformed a few of them.

I used to chase and somewhat obsess over a couple fps. Now I don't and it shoots the same. Sort for damage wash and lube your pellets and watch the stability go up.

 

[clampdaddy]

I used to chase and somewhat obsess over a couple fps. Now I don't and it shoots the same. Sort for damage wash and lube your pellets and watch the stability go up.

Oh, I had never considered washing and lubing pellets before. I'll search around see what that all entails. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Cantona256]

Oh, I had never considered washing and lubing pellets before. I'll search around see what that all entails. Thanks for the tip.

That’s how you know @6gun is a pro. Broski has a lot of knowledge.… I personally don’t think that’s needed for hunting unless you really need extreme precision. But I will add that’s at least 50% because Franco slugs are made fresh to order and he lubes them. All I do is put them in a tin with foam that I’ve rubbed a tiny bit of reg butter onto… I suspect that’s a big reason why they fly much faster than the dry a$$ H&N slugs I was using at the beginning.

 

[6gun]

That’s how you know @6gun is a pro. Broski has a lot of knowledge.… I personally don’t think that’s needed for hunting unless you really need extreme precision. But I will add that’s at least 50% because Franco slugs are made fresh to order and he lubes them. All I do is put them in a tin with foam that I’ve rubbed a tiny bit of reg butter onto… I suspect that’s a big reason why they fly much faster than the dry a$$ H&N slugs I was using at the beginning.

I agree it shouldn't be needed but here's what I found.

My jsbs all has small amounts of lead "flash" on then and stuck in the skirts which can make for either an incomplete seal or an off balance rotationally projectile.

I just use a throw away glad Tupperware with dish detergent and warm water and gently stir them for a bit, transfer to clean water and do the same, then dry on paper towels. After they're dry I put 5 or 6 drops of pcp silicone oil on them and spin them in a solo cup in a manner that won't bend them up. Then I pick them out looking at skirts and put the bent ones in the "plinking pile" the rest are for hunting or friendly competitions with my buddies.


Washing and lubing happened to be the one thing that had the most payoff for time or money compared to the thousands in mods I had done and hours machining parts . Funny enough I didn't notice the same outcome with any slugs I had patriot, nsa, H&N or fx hybrids.

Try it once on a tin of your daily driver pellets and see if it's for you, if not... My apologies. Also clean your bore, I don't go crazy but I just shoot felt cleaning pellets with a couple drops of clp on them and then a couple dry and it's worked fantastic on fx/crosman/green mountain barrels.

I only hunt and target shoot against my buddy and against myself for now, I just have the tuner-tism and enjoy that process almost more than shooting.

 

[6gun]

Oh, I had never considered washing and lubing pellets before. I'll search around see what that all entails. Thanks for the tip.

See below, it's more waiting to dry than anything else. Even picking out the duds is fast. I do it listening to a podcast and then check my guns for maintenance needs and clean the scope lenses/charge batteries etc haha.

 

[Cantona256]

I agree it shouldn't be needed but here's what I found.

My jsbs all has small amounts of lead "flash" on then and stuck in the skirts which can make for either an incomplete seal or an off balance rotationally projectile.

I just use a throw away glad Tupperware with dish detergent and warm water and gently stir them for a bit, transfer to clean water and do the same, then dry on paper towels. After they're dry I put 5 or 6 drops of pcp silicone oil on them and spin them in a solo cup in a manner that won't bend them up. Then I pick them out looking at skirts and put the bent ones in the "plinking pile" the rest are for hunting or friendly competitions with my buddies.


Washing and lubing happened to be the one thing that had the most payoff for time or money compared to the thousands in mods I had done and hours machining parts . Funny enough I didn't notice the same outcome with any slugs I had patriot, nsa, H&N or fx hybrids.

Try it once on a tin of your daily driver pellets and see if it's for you, if not... My apologies. Also clean your bore, I don't go crazy but I just shoot felt cleaning pellets with a couple drops of clp on them and then a couple dry and it's worked fantastic on fx/crosman/green mountain barrels.

I only hunt and target shoot against my buddy and against myself for now, I just have the tuner-tism and enjoy that process almost more than shooting.

Bro the tunerism is real! The 250z was my first one and there’s not one part of the gun I have put hands on if only to lube and polish. It’s like 90% as fun as shooting… except when I make a mod for a specific reason then go out and it works perfectly at that point the tuning and shooting become equally sublime.

 

[clampdaddy]

That’s how you know @6gun is a pro. Broski has a lot of knowledge.… I personally don’t think that’s needed for hunting unless you really need extreme precision. But I will add that’s at least 50% because Franco slugs are made fresh to order and he lubes them. All I do is put them in a tin with foam that I’ve rubbed a tiny bit of reg butter onto… I suspect that’s a big reason why they fly much faster than the dry a$$ H&N slugs I was using at the beginning.

I did contact Jes about getting some of his slugs but unfortunately, a part broke in his .22 cal tooling, and he is currently waiting on a part that does the hollowpoints, so I'll check back with him in a month.

 

[Cantona256]

I did contact Jes about getting some of his slugs but unfortunately, a part broke in his .22 cal tooling, and he is currently waiting on a part that does the hollowpoints, so I'll check back with him in a month.

Oh man that’s a bummer for everyone. Jes is absolutely top shelf though so he’ll get you sorted out eventually. Honestly I think it’s better this way. When you do get some slugs from him you’ll notice the difference.

 

[Cantona256]

I did contact Jes about getting some of his slugs but unfortunately, a part broke in his .22 cal tooling, and he is currently waiting on a part that does the hollowpoints, so I'll check back with him in a month.

In the meanwhile you have so much fun stuff to figure out and decide… the main thing id say is just shoot a lot… my experience has been that the gun does get better with some breaking in… and as I’ve mentioned before the factory lube is crap. I really feel like the whole action got snappier when I relubbed the hammer spring and valve body/poppet… I have really grown to love the tuning side and I’m actually sad my barra is almost done haha.

 

[Clifton]

H&N Barracuda Green are lead free. They are light though. I use them as we have chickens, they eat pellets and gizzards will not pass them. In .177 the drop cottontails with head shots. Slug will be flatter and carry the energy better, longer.