Does Regulator Pressure Affect Accuracy (Taipan)?

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Mink

Mink

Member
May 15, 2020
52
3
NY, United States
In recent tuning efforts with my Taipan Veteran Long .22, I have been trying to find the optimal speed for accuracy with JSB 18.1 pellets. From the factory the gun was tuned to shoot the 18.1s at a consistent 985 fps. However, I dialed back the hammer spring tension and found that it groups best with good shot count around 870-880 fps. What bothers me is that while I generally shoot one-ragged-hole groups at 35 yards, when I step back to 50 yards the groups seem to expand out to 1.25" on average, and at 100 I'm lucky to keep it within 3-3.5" (with no wind and a bore cleaned within last 300 shots). This apparent instability is preventing me from shooting at the distances that I should be able to based on evidence from other members.

My concern is that the factory regulator setting is too high for the 870-880 velocity range that I am shooting at, even though my velocity extreme spread is acceptable (~10fps). I have heard that you should ideally tune the regulator such that the max HST setting is at the speed that you desire to waste the least amount of air. But could this affect accuracy/stability at range?

Thinking about ordering a Huma reg so I can lower pressure without guessing...
 
The guessing part with the stock regs. Yeah -- I put a huma in mine too ( same gun - .22 long ) to eliminate that variable. I've been actually using it more as a slugger though going after woodchucks and other pests at local farms. I've got the huma in mine set at 142 - 143'ish and it's lobbing jsb knock outs ( 25.39 gr - .216's ) at 933 fps pretty well. It's not dead nuts accurate (yet) but I keep periodically tweaking it a little here and there and . . . it's "good enough" (lol) for the time being. I dropped a chuck at 154 yards Saturday with it. Attached is the last 100 test that I did with it this past Friday afternoon after I got home from work. ( 17 July 20 )

The one shot at 9:00 just outside the yellow - that was the first shot. The other one out there in the white at 1:30'ish . . . I'm blaming that on a mosquito that was biting me while I was trying to focus on the task at hand . . . lol! ( damned thing was chewing on me while I was sighting up the shot, I tried to ignore it but . . . that little sucker was stinging me . . . lol!! ) Excuses, excuses . . .

I've got to learn how to breathe when doing these longer distance shots and trying to hit the bullseye.

1595258653_16272660905f15b71d0a5c29.06209291.jpg

 
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Are you using the original factory hammer spring adjuster? How many shots total have you gone through since brand new? How old is the gun still under warranty? Have you cleaned the barrel? Have you tried the Air Arms variants too?

I have 2 of them and no issues with their factory regulators and factory hammer spring adjusters.
 
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Are you using the original factory hammer spring adjuster? How many shots total have you gone through since brand new? How old is the gun still under warranty? Have you cleaned the barrel? Have you tried the Air Arms variants too?

I have 2 of them and no issues with their factory regulators and factory hammer spring adjusters.
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  •  OEM hammer spring adjuster & regulator
  •  ~1700 shots since new
  • Gun is 3 months old
  • I have cleaned the barrel twice so far
  • I just ordered AA 18 and 16 grainers, hoping those will perform better

Can't seem to get it to group well at distances >= 50 yards.
 
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Huma markings are an estimate only. But you will probably need to do some experimenting anyway to find the right combination of reg setting and HST. I had the Huma reg in and out of my Royale 4 or 5 times before finding the place I wanted. I quit looking at the scale, just made small adjustments.
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Hi

You are absolutely right the sticker is only an estimate, but I have a regulator tester and there is only a 3 or 4 bar error in my huma regulators

Enkey 
 
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Having same issue with my taipan when i tried to turn my hammer spring to shoot at 900 fps it will shoot one shot 900 then the next 960 like clock work with terrible accuracy. At the moment im basically forced to turn my hammer spring back to what is was originally shooting 990 fps out of the box to get any consistency and it's kind of frustrating because at that fps my 25g pellets are becoming unstable and ill get flyers. Kind of unfortunate because i wanted to tun my gun to shoot 25g jsb's but at the moment i can't with what ever is going on with my regulator.

Gun is 3 weeks old shot 900 pellets through it and i clean it after every shooting session. Was having the same accuracy issues out of the box before ever adjusting the gun. I've tried heavier jsb's with the same high and low type of accuracy and air arms pellets with same results.
 
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Having same issue with my taipan when i tried to turn my hammer spring to shoot at 900 fps it will shoot one shot 900 then the next 960 like clock work with terrible accuracy. At the moment im basically forced to turn my hammer spring back to what is was originally shooting 990 fps out of the box to get any consistency and it's kind of frustrating because at that fps my 25g pellets are becoming unstable and ill get flyers. Kind of unfortunate because i wanted to tun my gun to shoot 25g jsb's but at the moment i can't with what ever is going on with my regulator.

Gun is 3 weeks old shot 900 pellets through it and i clean it after every shooting session. Was having the same accuracy issues out of the box before ever adjusting the gun. I've tried heavier jsb's with the same high and low type of accuracy and air arms pellets with same results.
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You could have one of several problems. It's a new gun, return it. 
 
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Here is an interesting note about Taipans from my experience. They don’t come with a hammer spring that is powerful enough for you to find your max speed at your current out of the box reg setting. That makes the whole reg tuning process much more difficult. The stock spring maxed out is on average about 10-15fps slower than what your reg setting is capable of so if you don’t buy a truck spring to stick in there, we will take this into consideration when tuning the reg. On the flip side, the Taipans light spring is generally enough for all realistic pellet speeds and makes for smooth cocking. Some of you guys with guns shooting 990fps out of the box, you just can’t turn your HS down to 900fps and expect a good tune. That’s having your gun tuned almost 100fps below the plateau. That doesn’t even make sense and your shooting results will show it. You need to reset your reg so your maxed out HS has you shooting 910-920fps then back your speed down with the spring to hit that happy pellet speed in the 880-900 range.
 
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Just as a reference for you guys. My Taipan standard .22 with the stock spring, reg set around 125-130b, had a max speed of around 930fps with 18.1gr pellets. I had the gun set around 890-900fps. The gun is quiet, absolutely sipped air, was always super consistent and my 100yrd groups were shocking. I am slug testing with it now with a higher reg setting and bigger spring but I won’t hesitate to put it back on pellets and my old settings. The gun was so good it was boring.
 
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Here is an interesting note about Taipans from my experience. They don’t come with a hammer spring that is powerful enough for you to find your max speed at your current out of the box reg setting. That makes the whole reg tuning process much more difficult. The stock spring maxed out is on average about 10-15fps slower than what your reg setting is capable of so if you don’t buy a truck spring to stick in there, we will take this into consideration when tuning the reg. On the flip side, the Taipans light spring is generally enough for all realistic pellet speeds and makes for smooth cocking. Some of you guys with guns shooting 990fps out of the box, you just can’t turn your HS down to 900fps and expect a good tune. That’s having your gun tuned almost 100fps below the plateau. That doesn’t even make sense and your shooting results will show it. You need to reset your reg so your maxed out HS has you shooting 910-920fps then back your speed down with the spring to hit that happy pellet speed in the 880-900 range.
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Hey Vet, I was hoping you could elaborate on what exactly you mean by “your shooting results will show it” if reg is constant with greatly reduced HST. Per my original post, does this affect accuracy? Or just air efficiency? I have heard some theories of turbulent air behind the pellet causing instability, I was hoping someone could clarify. 
 
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Mink my take on what Vetmx wrote is that you should lower your regulator set point first, then adjust the hammer spring to a percentage of the reg set point. As opposed to trying to decrease velocity with only the HS.
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Completely agree with that understanding. I’m just curious if the balance between regulator and HST affects accuracy, or if “tuning” these two controls is just for maximizing velocity consistency and minimizing air usage? 


In other words, if two tunes shoot the same velocity with the same extreme spread, but one has high reg/low HST and the other has low reg/high HST, will there be a noticeable difference in accuracy/pellet stability?
 
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Mink your examples are valid, and your current accuracy issues past 35 yards bear out that something is not in sync. Both of your examples seem to be at extreme ends. Why not just lower your reg pressure and then your HS and see for yourself? I believe you have answered your own question. Maybe small FPS changes can be handled by HS adjustment alone. Maybe you’re asking too much of the HS adjustment, hence the suggestion by Vetmx to lower the reg set point. I believe the HS is what is affecting your accuracy, not the regulator. As you already stated that the pellets were shooting too fast for good accuracy. So lower the regulator and then play with the HS. At the least you’ll have more insight on the issue. Though I don’t claim any expertise I do believe you can adjust your HST so light as to make it inconsistent.
 
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I prefer old school unregulated accurate guns. That's why I bought another unregulated Brocock Bantam HiLite and a factory Sniper MINI HUMA regulated version. Because of L.Leon's fantastic shooter (shorty version guessing probably same length barrel under that shroud).

If the speed is consistent when adjusted to 880fps and still not getting acceptable groups past 35 yards it's either the gun or the shooter. I think no user adjustments can fix it. If it's the latter then bubble level and practice works.
 
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Mink,

I’m shooting the JSB 18.1 out of my Taipan vet compact at 820 -825 FPS with good accuracy out to 75 or 80 yards .5 to .75 inch groups. According to Strelock Pro that is 17 FPE enough to crack the skull and pass through on the Squirrels I shoot. Wood Chucks I don’t know. I believe the regulators are set the same 125 to 130, never tested with reg tester,,,,in fact never have pulled the reg as there is no need for my purpose. I’m sure the twist rate on the compact is different, just try backing off the HST to slow down the muzzle velocity.





Beach-gunner

Dennis
 
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