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Akela pellet testing results

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I kinda got lost on the lapping information, I guess I need it presented in a more scientific form. I have a vague idea of what he is talking about but need more detailed instruction. I bought a barrel blank from LW, machined it to Kral dimensions, installed it and have about a tin thru it with less than what I expected in accuracy. It will shoot 4 in a quarter inch then a flyer making the group around an inch at 50 yards. Thats not to say it won't shoot a real one hole group but its not consistent. I think it has internal problems the barrel can't over come. I have 2 Akela's.
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If the factory Akela barrel was that bad I would have had Crosman send a free pickup shippers label to swap it out for a new one under warranty, thats what their 5 year warranty is for. I wouldn't do anything to make it obvious to void the warranty though. Mine straight out of the box gets 3/8 to 1/4 at 50 straight out of the tin all under half inch and probably even better if the pellets we're weighed and sorted and lubed with Lemon Pledge (TOM HOLLAND STYLE!).
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...you are making me want to buy a Ben'...not that I need one, but FWIW I spent $450 on parts for my CZ S200...

...I was really impressed by the 36 shot string in shooter1721's review of the Cayden...

...that gun has made me: 

A: ...question my decision to forsake the unregulated S510 carbine...it never showed up on the used gun page @ Baker again...

B: ...question my interest in the S510...

C: ...question once again the unmistakable resemblance these rifles have to the Punchers...methinks these are remodeled Puncher Breakers...not that there is anything wrong with that...


 
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Hello Toolmaker,

Good to see you having fun with your new Akela. To answer your question, yes, each pellet can have it's optimum velocity in your rifle. Finding the right pellet and the right velocity is a matter of trial and error. For each pellet, try shooting at increments of 25 fps up and down, starting around 875ish, which is a frequent sweet spot for diabolo pellets.

Also, be sure you are using both a front and rear rest (even simple bags and stacked, folded hand towels) to eliminate wobble when shooting groups. With airguns, even the slightest breezes will produce flyers. You will know when you get that magic pellet/speed combo when more than one pellet starts going into or enlarging the same hole, even with some flyers.

Don't be surprised if you have to try 6 or 8 different pellets or more. Try all the different weights within the same brand. Like with JSB .22 pellets. They make then in quite a few weights and you have to try them all.

After a while other Akela users will start reporting their best pellets and speeds, and a consensus may develop.

Polishing your barrel is a good next step, when you're ready. At the very least, you need to pull some patches through it now, without disassembly, using ballistol, or some other gentle cleaner. You can get a Patchworm or just a length of 0.060" trimmer line doubled over itself and crimped a little to form a patch eye. You can use a plastic straw to insert the eye from the muzzle to get it threaded through the shroud. Then you can fish the eye out at the breech in the mag well to insert patches. Don't pull patches through with JB paste or polishing compounds like Flitz or Simichrome without disassembly, to avoid contaminating the transfer port entry hole. This is better done with the barrel out of the gun so you can clean out the residues from the port before shooting.

Good luck!

Feinwerk
 
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Well I'm afraid to remove the barrel because if the rail above the grub screws. If I remove that rail, I want it replaced with a clamp on so I don't have to mount it through the grub screw threads. I e been a machinist for most of my life and I am NOT ashamed to admit, on my first Akela one of the grub screw holes stripped. That rail on the receiver with the grub screws is 1.75" long and I can't find anything suitable that will clamp on. I'd rather not have to machine one either because I have no anodizer 
 
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I would like to have a barrel band for mine. My barrel droops a little bit and rests on the front strip that goes around the air tube. I’ve seen pictures of other ones and most of them didn’t do that. Although I have seen a couple others that did like mine. I would like to have a band that would clamp on the air tube but have just Around .007 Clearance around the barrel shroud.That way if you’re gun would fall to the ground or if you bumped it the POI Wouldn’t shift. Since you are still machining, have you ever considered that?I had mine resting against my dresser and it’s slid Probably 7 inches and landed Against my closet door. So I took it back outside and it was shooting 1 inch to the right. Now I have been extra careful with it. But no matter how careful you are, things like that can happen.This gun hasn’t been out that long, so maybe before too long they’ll be aftermarket parts available for it. I remember watching the video from airgun detectives and he had a Lotta good things to say about it but only a couple negatives and his biggest one was no barrel band. 
 
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I would like to have a barrel band for mine. My barrel droops a little bit and rests on the front strip that goes around the air tube. I’ve seen pictures of other ones and most of them didn’t do that. Although I have seen a couple others that did like mine. I would like to have a band that would clamp on the air tube but have just Around .007 Clearance around the barrel shroud.That way if you’re gun would fall to the ground or if you bumped it the POI Wouldn’t shift. Since you are still machining, have you ever considered that?I had mine resting against my dresser and it’s slid Probably 7 inches and landed Against my closet door. So I took it back outside and it was shooting 1 inch to the right. Now I have been extra careful with it. But no matter how careful you are, things like that can happen.This gun hasn’t been out that long, so maybe before too long they’ll be aftermarket parts available for it. I remember watching the video from airgun detectives and he had a Lotta good things to say about it but only a couple negatives and his biggest one was no barrel band.
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You could run several zipties and use something made of rubber or solid plastic like a modified door stop or extra 3d printed excess throwaway trash or a piece of tire thread as a makeshift tensioner. Might even help with accuracy. Never can tell.
 
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I have 2 akela's one has a shroud that touches the air tube clamp and one that don't. I will take a picture of them next week. I will say at this point that it may be a machining problem as the air tube on the one that rubs is attached to a block that is attached to the receiver. The tube to black looks straight but the block to receiver looks off. I will take it apart and have a look. I've had some fun with this rifle, The barrel had an .011" bow in it. I straightened it using v-blocks on one of my mills. The shroud had a .030" bow in it, straightened it the same way. This work was done because pellets were clipping a new DonnyFL suppressor, didn't make any difference. The original barrel is horrible, both in accuracy and looks thru my Hawkeye bore scope. Thats why I rebarreled it with the LW barrel. I can take pictures of the Kral barrel's bore if there is interest in seeing them. The other rifle is new in the box, I will get it scoped up next week and see how it shoots. I have over 2 tins of JSB 18's thru the test rifle with a lot of targets and a ton of pressure and speed data. This rifle doesn't like 3000#, it starts to perform at 2600 but starts to lose velocity, like 10 FPS per shot at 1500#.

There is a guy that works on the Kral Puncher Breaker with some success using a custom hammer and valve assembly. Problem with that is the cost of a barrel and custom parts plus a regulator is putting the rifle in the price range of a Wildcat.
 
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Yeah I thought of trying to come up with something like that. I’m wondering if those two little set screws at the base of the shroud I could loosen those up and maybe lift the shroud up some.I haven’t messed with this gun at all. Just mounted the scope.
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The 2 screws are at 180 degrees side to side. The adapter is bored .030" oversize to allow for alignment so it really don't have any direct affect on alignment as it pivots on the 2 screws. You can remove the air stripper and the baffles, you will see all the movement allowed by the adapter configuration. Take a look on Pyramyd's site under Kral parts, they have a front shroud clamp listed for sale, it might fit your application. https://www.pyramydair.com/s/a/Kral_Puncher_Breaker_Barrel_Shroud_Black/8275.
 
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We don't do gun drilling at the shop I work at, we send parts out to be gun drilled and there are a couple things I can tell you about it, cause we learned fast. They are NEVER drilled concentric to the outside diameter of the shaft. We learned never to finish outside diameter before they sent out for gun drilling. Also, some times the rough stock we send is bent, but the bore is always drilled straight. Are you POSITIVE that bore was bent with the outside diameter? I'm thinking you could have possibly introduced a bend to the bore. I bet that shroud is partially there to hide the bend of the barrel. From what I understand rifle bores are usually finished before they turn the outside diameter, I bet they skip the outside diameter to save time. I'd like to see those bore scope pictures of the kral and the other brand. I may follow your footsteps here with mine. 
 
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Yeah I loosened the shroud and even Spun it 180° but still rests on that band on the air tube.When I get my new pellets in the mail I’m going to test it at 50 yards and see how it Groups. If I get a decent group, I’m not even gonna worry about it.And I looked at that Barrel Band and it doesn’t look like it’ll work. The bottom hole should be much bigger than the top for the barrel. Even though Kral Made that gun, I had read that Benjamin designed it. 
 
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It appears these Kral barrels were made by deep hole drilling then one reamer pass as there are gun drill marks in the bore, then I think the rifling is rolled in as is the choke. They don't look like they are buttoned or hammered and certainly not broached or single point cut. The barrel was indicated in at the halfway mark in a 4 jaw then spun by hand so I could look down the bore, I could see the bend, Then I put it on a set of v-blocks on the mill table and rolled it by hand and watched the 10th indicator. per the indicator moving along the length you could see the bow not a bend..I'm fairly certain I got it right. However the last inch or so of the barrel controls where the bullet goes, not the center. I'll get you some pictures of the bores tomorrow.
 
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I would be interested in seeing what it looks like with a borescope. I looked at mine after I cleaned it and didn’t see any imperfections and it was nice and bright. But a borescope will give you a lot better view of it. I have Old Crosman pistols and Rifles and the oldest one is from the 40s and the Bores in them aren’t very pretty but they are accurate.
 
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...are those serious lemons or typical of Kral barrels...???...

...the rifles that RM had shot really well...

...this information is discouraging but with the 5 year warrantee maybe one could just keep returning rifles until they get a good shooter...I would not care how they made the barrel if it shot like the ones RM reviewed...

...helps explain how they control the price point....

...it is Friday and I am on the fence here...maybe those Turks don't know how to make them like I thought...LoL...
 
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If you are judging the barrel by a bore scope you'll never be happy. Strip clean the barrel and run 200 passes with JB bore paste changing cotton squares every 50 passes then clean again. Next shoot 25 or so pellets through the barrel before you test accuracy to relead the barrel. They will shoot amazing. I've replaced 4 or 5 barrels total out of over 200 guns I've tuned. Pretty much all are ½" range or better at 50 yards. 
 
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I would be interested in seeing what it looks like with a borescope. I looked at mine after I cleaned it and didn’t see any imperfections and it was nice and bright. But a borescope will give you a lot better view of it. I have Old Crosman pistols and Rifles and the oldest one is from the 40s and the Bores in them aren’t very pretty but they are accurat
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...how does your gun shoot...???...
 
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I would be interested in seeing what it looks like with a borescope. I looked at mine after I cleaned it and didn’t see any imperfections and it was nice and bright. But a borescope will give you a lot better view of it. I have Old Crosman pistols and Rifles and the oldest one is from the 40s and the Bores in them aren’t very pretty but they are accurat
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...how does your gun shoot...???...
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So far I have only been able to try it at 25 yards and it will shoot 1/4 inch groups at that distance. I was supposed to get my 18 grn pellets today but they never showed up yet. Then I want to try it at 50 yards.
 
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