Those of you "old timers" have undoubtedly noticed posts in previous years where I publish the results of my annual maintenance checks.
Every nine to twelve months, I take each rifle out of the vault, check all of the stock and scope screws, clean the bores, lubricating as needed, and check the rifle for performance. I use my 18 yard indoor range because all of my scopes are set to shoot using click adjustments, and the close zero is always set to 18 yards. In this manner, regardless of the temperature or climate outdoors, in day or night conditions, I can work on a rifle and know I have it set back to the same zero, as long as velocity and scope elevation remain constant.
This is an Air Arms TX200 walnut in .22, purchased in 2020. Only recently have I acquired a digital torque wrench for setting the scope screws. This rifle was set-up before that acquisition and I had the scope screws set too tight. The bore was not filthy by any stretch, but after a half dozen patches with some Ballistol applied, was nice and clean. The stock screws were still tight. Lubrication appeared to be about perfect.
I tuned this rifle from the day it came out of the box with a Vortek PG3 steel HO kit. I did have to trim some off of the supplied spring as it was too tight to allow the rifle to cock and lock perfectly, and as my goal for springers is always 14 to 16 fpe, it was more spring than the rifle needed.
As you can see from the attached test target, the rifle was slightly out of zero, but I contribute this to be due to the changing of the scope ring screw tensions. The first group was larger than typical. I am going to blame it on the fact that I had just cleaned the rifle. The second group was typical of what I am use to getting from this combination.
The August 20 post tune test results were nearly consistent with the results achieved today, indicating to me that this is a very stable platform.
Only about 30 more rifles to check in the coming weeks/months.
Every nine to twelve months, I take each rifle out of the vault, check all of the stock and scope screws, clean the bores, lubricating as needed, and check the rifle for performance. I use my 18 yard indoor range because all of my scopes are set to shoot using click adjustments, and the close zero is always set to 18 yards. In this manner, regardless of the temperature or climate outdoors, in day or night conditions, I can work on a rifle and know I have it set back to the same zero, as long as velocity and scope elevation remain constant.
This is an Air Arms TX200 walnut in .22, purchased in 2020. Only recently have I acquired a digital torque wrench for setting the scope screws. This rifle was set-up before that acquisition and I had the scope screws set too tight. The bore was not filthy by any stretch, but after a half dozen patches with some Ballistol applied, was nice and clean. The stock screws were still tight. Lubrication appeared to be about perfect.
I tuned this rifle from the day it came out of the box with a Vortek PG3 steel HO kit. I did have to trim some off of the supplied spring as it was too tight to allow the rifle to cock and lock perfectly, and as my goal for springers is always 14 to 16 fpe, it was more spring than the rifle needed.
As you can see from the attached test target, the rifle was slightly out of zero, but I contribute this to be due to the changing of the scope ring screw tensions. The first group was larger than typical. I am going to blame it on the fact that I had just cleaned the rifle. The second group was typical of what I am use to getting from this combination.
The August 20 post tune test results were nearly consistent with the results achieved today, indicating to me that this is a very stable platform.
Only about 30 more rifles to check in the coming weeks/months.
