Destructive Testing

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HogKiller

HogKiller

Member
Mar 11, 2021
3,471
3,235
Campbell, Calif, United States
Warning, do not try this at home, I am a TRAINED PROFESSIONAL.

Had my Maverick .22 Compact on my 'shooting bench' i.e. my patio table, thought I'd do something brilliant and put my umbrella into the table, table shook a little and down went the gun, call it a drop test. 30" give or take. Landed on the barrel then the scope. I shall not repeat what I said but you can guess. Checked the scope, no apparent damage but who knows, went to insert a mag and....NOT HAPPENING. Upon further inspection the barrel pushed back agains the piece that locates the barrel for proper depth and bent out the aluminum about .006", it also wedged the barrel, so loosened up the set screws, took a piece of wood and a soft hammer and gently tapped the barrel out then pulled it out. Took a fine file and started removing material to get the mag in. THEN used the mag as a depth gage and reset the barrel. Test firing, pellets went exactly were they were suppose to at 30 yards.

Results of the destructive testing, and I'll leave it to the engineers to calculate the forces involved but, the barrel didn't bend and the Arken doesn't doesn't appear to be worse for the impact test.

Next will be, do I live with it or see if the FX warranty will cover stupidity.

addendum, those expensive wide stance bi-pods aren't stable enough.

addendum 2 It seems that the delicacy of the barrels of FX airguns is vastly overstated.
 
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jarmstrong said:
OUCH!!! did the neighbors or grand daughter hear your french,,, mine would have, glad you were able to get her back shooting again.
you are not the first to,,,, oops
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Heh, didn't think I was but it was a OH poop moment. I'm probably contact FX and plead gravity. The thing has been losing air about 1 bar/hr so either they fix it on their dime or on mine, either way it's fixed and I'll attempt to avoid further tests to see if gravity is still a fatal attraction.
 
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Hogkiller, thanks for sharing an, oops moment. It happens to all of us, I think anyway. I dropped the wife’s M3 off a shooting bench at the ranch. Fall was about the same as yours. It landed on the top of the scope and put a few scratches in it, but other than that? Put it back on the bench and she shot the rest of the afternoon without any corrections, adjustments or repairs.
I escaped with 38 apologies and two Hail Mary’s. I was going to toss in a couple Lord’s Prayers but the wife told me knock off the melodrama.
And yes the much ballyhooed fragility of FX barrels is over done IMO.
 
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I got the brilliant idea last week to take the Primary Arms 4-14 off my P35-25 so I could see what it weighs with it's new wood stock. It's on a one piece quick release mount so getting it off was easy. I set it on the raised bar area of my kitchen island. Maybe 42 inches off the oak floor. I bumped it and down it came. I still weighed the gun but then put the scope back on and shot it to be sure it was functional. Appears to be no damage. I haven't dropped my guns from a similar height, yet, but dropping my scope was bad enough. I did bump my Prod off the couch onto a rug and break it's 3D printed moderator, however.
 
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Ran 68 pellets through it today, something in the back, i.e. next to my ear got LOUD as in not fun to shoot loud. Not an air leak but a mechanical sound. Shots were boringly consistent for speed, accuracy was excellent, strong gusting wind, still good groups at 30 yards. The noise quieted down a touch with 18.13gr pellets, 905fps, loudest with 16gr screaming out at 938fps on HSA 7. I've got a new hammer and weight coming in courtesy of FX, but I've got a feeling that FX is going to get this thing in a few weeks to play with.

Update 4/11/23, well it seems that if you do something stupid and drop a gun on the barrel, FX won't cover it. Really, How RUDE. Kidding. If they had covered my stupidity I'd buy another gun just to say thanks. Now I have to decide if I want to fix it myself or pay to have someone to do it. I suppose the worse case scenario is, if I can't do it, box up the parts and ship it off or buy another one and I've got parts or, cram it back together and sell it to some sucker here. No I would NEVER do that.
 
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Ok, I got the parts I needed from FX, I was going to have someone replace the block because I was leery about tacking the valve seat and valve but I was bored and figured WTH, what's the worse case scenario? I muck up and I send it off. Well, got the valve seat out and swapped over to the new block, wasn't really that hard. Got it all together, messed with the washer stacks and found the combination I wanted, tried slugs....AGAIN...note to self, GIVE IT UP, Today I grabbed some AA 18 gr., then I put in some JSB 18.13's, then some Barracudas, dropped from 7 to 6, running about 900fps 86.49 bar, Slug port and Huma slug probe and..... this is what I was getting at 31 yards with a breeze, a full 16 round mag, I AM NOT CHANGING A DARN THING. I don't care about Deviation I've getting over 90 shots per fill, close enough. Oh back to the old block, I took a peek inside and there was a chuck of aluminum missing from a previous owner, right where the hammer rides. THAT is part of what happens if you shoot without the cocking handle back in its locked position on a Maverick.

Edit, that was the first groupings when I was really concentrating and doing it right, carry through the shot dummy, AA-18, I went across that line with the others and the same results, well, the Barracudas spread out a TINY bit more..

IMG_1980.jpeg
 
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