Cayden improving on a freezing day…

[EPG]

I’ve got a Cayden .22 and Akela .177. I bought these inexpensive rifles to tear them apart and learn “airgunsmithing”, lol.

I’ve refinished the stocks in TruOil and did massive testing of optimizing hammer spring lengths. I previously did a trigger polishing on the Cayden - I got it breaking nicely at 11.5 ounces.

I’ve been shooting with 30 yard challenge with the Cayden recently, trying JSB 14.35g in it at 875fps. It hasn’t shot below 190 (in freezin windy conditions), so I’m falling in love with it all over again. These rifles shoot so far above their cost it’s ridiculous. I’ll put my tuned up Cayden and Akela’s accuracy up against my $1,500 rifles any day - they are that good.

Anyway, today was 11 degrees with heavy wind warnings, so I figured I’d do more optimizing on the Cayden…

I tore the trigger apart and polished every sear, the pins themselves, the inside of the trigger breech - everything. Used dry lube instead of CLP FP-10 for a change.

Put it back together and now I’ve got it breaking consistently around 5.5 ounces - and it passes the “bump test” . It shows just how far you can take these triggers with automotive paint sandpaper, Flitz and a Dremmel.

I was feeling so good about it that I took the bolt apart and hyper polished it - even though it was already smooth. I even stuck in a spring I got from a guy who runs Airgun Revisions - to see if it can improve on the performance of my 2.8” cut down stock spring.

I put it back together, put a chrono on it and dialed the spring in at 878fps. I’ll wait for a better day to try the 30 yard challenge with the “new” 5.5 ounce “target” trigger.

Optimizing your rifles is fun on these freezing New England days…. tomorrow I’ll likely do the same for the Akela, and maybe drop a Huma reg into the Huntsman…

 

[StudentPilot]

Great information, thanks! I bought an Akela .177 during the sale you posted and have yet to shoot it, but I REALLY appreciate all of the work that you have done and, most importantly, shared on the forum.

 

[TN_Yankee]

Great documentation on your work. I, too, recently purchased an Akela, but haven't had time to shoot more than a few mags through it. I plan on trimming the hammer spring, at a minimum. I saw that the Airgun Revisions kit includes a valve spring as well - have you experimented with it?

 

[EPG]

Great documentation on your work. I, too, recently purchased an Akela, but haven't had time to shoot more than a few mags through it. I plan on trimming the hammer spring, at a minimum. I saw that the Airgun Revisions kit includes a valve spring as well - have you experimented with it?

Well, I wouldn’t buy the Airgun Revisions kit until you spend some time cutting down the stock spring.

For .22 caliber, cut to 2.8 inches. For .177 caliber, cut to 2.57” - you will be blown away by the improvement in your shot string.

The Airgun revisions guy says that you shouldn’t do the valve spring if you are planning on shooting pellets 18g and heavier. So, I may try putting it in eventually - cause I’m usually shooting lighter pellets - 15.89 and 14.35 JSBs with my Cayden - I shot a 195 13xs on the 30 yard challenge with 24 of the 1st shots after the trigger tune. I like the lighter pellets as they enable lighter hammer spring pre-load - and it leads to an overall smoother shot cycle… which helps a lot when your target is a pin head at 30 yards.

I’m trying a 2.45 cut down spring in my Akela now - with amazing results (Using 10.3g JSBs @ 880fps) I went crazy hyper polishing the Akela trigger, bolt, and hammer - inside the trigger housing, inside the breech where the bolt slides - everything, lol. It’s insanely nice now - I’ve got its trigger breaking consistently at 5.8 ounces - and I have headroom to go lighter… this is a BULLPUP.

This is a really good video to watch - this guy knows his stuff - if you want to improve your Akela/Cayden/Kratos:

 

[TN_Yankee]

Thanks for relaying your experiences. My Akela is a .177, but I haven't even cracked it open yet, as I've been hoping to get the time to chrono it as received before I get inside and muck it up. I have a few hammer springs coming from Crosman, so I'll have some spares.

Do you think your internal polishing is a big part of why you've been able to trim down to 2.45," or had you just not tried that short before?

One more thing - have you modified the stock to give easier access to the hammer tension screw, or do you just keep popping the stock off?

 

[EPG]

Thanks for relaying your experiences. My Akela is a .177, but I haven't even cracked it open yet, as I've been hoping to get the time to chrono it as received before I get inside and muck it up. I have a few hammer springs coming from Crosman, so I'll have some spares.

Do you think your internal polishing is a big part of why you've been able to trim down to 2.45," or had you just not tried that short before?

One more thing - have you modified the stock to give easier access to the hammer tension screw, or do you just keep popping the stock off?

Its hard to muck it up. Its one bolt to remove the stock - take care with the trigger blade sliding through the stock to avoid damage to trigger cutout area in the stock - the 1st time you may want to remove the trigger blade - little 1.5 allen grub screw.

Once out, you simply knock out a pin and the hammer spring adjuster will pop out. Be careful the 1st time as the rifle is so OVERSPRUNG with the stock 3.5” spring that the hammer spring adjuster will come flying out if you don’t put your thumb on it when knocking the pin out.

I never “super-optimized” the Akela .177 spring beyond 2.57” because it was performing so well - 120 shots @880fps with a 23 fps spread… so I didn’t bother.

You can’t really go shorter than about 2.4” as the spring will be too short to put pressure on the hammer spring adjuster. This pressure helps hold the retaining pin in.

The optimal length spring for .177 - max efficiency while still allowing for velocities up to 900fps with 10.3g pellets- may be as short as 2.35 to 2.4 - I haven’t tested. I would have to put a bit of goop or tape on the retaining pin to make sure that it stays in with a spring that short - I will likly try that soon…

The internal polish was to lighten the trigger , improve the cocking (it was already good) and improve the smoothness of the shot cycle (polishing the hammer helps). It was not intended to help improve efficiency - but it may have.

I did polish the outside of the spring and a bit of the inside of the hammer - as I wanted the spring to do its thing without any hangups - as this should help shot to shot consistency.

Its not necessary when testing, but to “finish” the end of a cut spring, you can hold it with a glove on and heat just the last coil with just a little butane torch (about $25 - worth having). Once heated red, just press down on the end against a flat surface (I use the kitchen granite countertop, lol) and it will give you a perfectly flat end. Be aware that this will shorten about .1”. , so you will need to cut the spring a bit longer than you intend. Another way to flatten is simply to use two pairs of needle nose pliers and hold with one and bend flat with the other. Flattening the spring end should help shot to shot consistency.

Polish the ends of the spring for a “pro” job.

Hope this helps.

Do a shotstring with the stock spring. Then cut it to about 2.65 (before flattening) and run another shot string. You will be so blown away that I may make your Christmas list, lol.

Finally, I keep taking the stock off. You can sand a bit inside to make taking it on & off easier. You definitely can drill a hole in the stock to access the hammer spring adjuster without having to remove the stock. I’ve thought about doing that. Then just plug the hole with a brass screw or something to make it look nice.

-Ed

 

[ToddGeddes63]

nice read, thanks for the information.
I agree that the craftsman line punch way above their price point.

 

[EdinGa]

I love everything about my Cayden except the length and weight. I'm sure they both contribute to the accuracy I'm seeing but I had to complain about something.

 

[bivy53]

Thank you for this post. The most info I’ve found on tuning the Cayden.

 

[EPG]

Great information, thanks! I bought an Akela .177 during the sale you posted and have yet to shoot it, but I REALLY appreciate all of the work that you have done and, most importantly, shared on the forum.

Hi Student Pilot,

Let me know how you like your Akela when you get around to shooting it.

My experience with the .177 Akela was that it felt so bad shooting it when I first got it - to the point I rarely shot it. I could see that it had the potential for accuracy, but everything was so harsh. It was loud for a .177 and “jumpy”, etc. This started me on my journey of optimizing these rifles. When I first got my Akela.177, the only way to get a 10.3g pellet to shoot below 900 fps was to use the “power adjuster” (transfer port restrictor) knob. While this helped reduce velocity into a range where you could achieve accuracy, it doesn’t help efficiency - as the restrictor works after you slam the valve with the massively oversprung 3.5” spring.

Cutting the spring totally transformed the rifle and its shot string. I started with cutting to 3.25” and then 3” - with modest improvement. The real magic started to happen once I got to about 2.8”. From there, every 1/10 of an inch made significant difference. From 2.8” and shorter, the rifles (both .22 and .177) showed nice bell curve shot strings with a wide flat part. It showed the valving in these guns is very good- once you fix the hammer spring issue.

We had a lot of debate on another forum as to whether Crosman had a parts screw up and that the .177 in particular was supposed to have a shorter spring. Crosman uses the same spring in both .177 & .22 Craftsman Series (Akela/Cayden/Kratos - probably the Gunnar too) - its 3.5” and part# CR-017. Interestingly , the .25 caliber is also part# CR-017 but is 4.25” long - exact same type spring , just .75” longer.

Lots of guys were “non-believers” and refused to cut their springs down. They tried things like overfilling, adding regulators, building complex SSGs etc. Yet nobody could better my results from simply cutting the spring, lol.

Its a five minute job to cut the spring and put the rifle back in the stock. This simple modification is able to improve the performance of an entire SERIES (Akela/Cayden/Kratos) by 300%+ - at least for the .22 and .177 calibers. (I have not had a .25 to test with)

When we asked Crosman, their tech support said that they used such a strong springs because they “designed the rifles for hunting” and that hunters wanted power. I can’t imagine that the engineers who designed these awesome rifles expected them to ship with the hammer springs they have in them.

 

[StudentPilot]

Got a chance to play with it a little. Only over the chronograph, but was fun and confirmed the steadily declining shot string. Have some springs on the way, but will not be able to try them for a couple weeks. Looking forward to the process of trying different lengths. I may even try a dual spring setup as I have read up on it a little (still learning more and more) and think I have a spring that could work.

 

[bivy53]

Cut my spring and flattened end to your exact specs. Hope you are correct as I had to turn the screw near all the way in just to make contact. I’ll know tomorrow.

 

[EPG]

Cut my spring and flattened end to your exact specs. Hope you are correct as I had to turn the screw near all the way in just to make contact. I’ll know tomorrow.

Start with the screw backed all the way out.

You do not need to “make contact” between the hammer spring adjustment screw and the spring PRIOR to cocking - when you cock the rifle it will compress the hammer spring .

Note the velocities achieved with the 2.57” spring backed All the way out and then for each turn in - using 10.3g .177 pellets - see pictures

 

[bivy53]

Start with the screw backed all the way out.

You do not need to “make contact” between the hammer spring adjustment screw and the spring PRIOR to cocking - when you cock the rifle it will compress the hammer spring .

oh, I get it. Thanks for the heads up. Just getting my feet wet here. I didn’t think of that.

 

[bivy53]

1st shot didn’t even clear the barrel. 8 turns in and it groups decent at 20 meters. That’s as far out as I could get today. We’ll hit the woods tomorrow. Hope my chrono works this time.

 

[bivy53]

Yeah … should have left the spring alone On my gun. I’ll be ordering a replacement. Your mileage may be different.

 

[EPG]

Yeah … should have left the spring alone On my gun. I’ll be ordering a replacement. Your mileage may be different.

Hi Bivy53,

I am happy and willing to help. You are the 1st person out of dozens, perhaps 100+ on two forums that has not been successful with a 2.57” spring in a .177 Akela.

Can you take the spring out of your rifle and put it up against a ruler or calipers to confirm exactly how long it is. Then we can go from there troubleshooting.

We’ll get it sorted,

Ed

 

[ToddGeddes63]

Did shortening the spring change the trigger pull ? what was the trigger pull # before you polished it.

 

[EPG]

Did shortening the spring change the trigger pull ? what was the trigger pull # before you polished it.

Hi Todd,

No, I don’t believe shortening the hammer spring has any direct, significant impact on trigger pull weight.

I’ve swapped in different spring lengths countless times. I used different non-Crosman springs. My trigger pull weight remains constant.

The trigger has a LOT of potential on these Craftsman series rifles. As delivered, all trigger components have a black coating on them (!). You have to polish this all off - at the very least on sear contact surfaces - and these triggers start to get REAL good.

-Ed

 

[dizzums]

my .22 cayden does under 1/2" at 50 yds with 14.3 crosmans sizzling along at around 970 .. i opened the ports up a bit all the way through to the valve .. saw no need to take wire cutters to the spring or make it anemic, its a hard hitter .. the triggers do respond well to a light polish with 600grit .. under a pound though would equal a shot out window with my clumsy fingers lol, 2-3 is fine ..