Hatsan 95 - How tight should pellets be?

[pandura]

Hello all,

I just received a new Hatsan 95 in .25 and haven't fired it yet. I have read about bad barrels and wanted to check mine so I ran several patches with some Ballistol on them first and then inserted my first pellet. I wanted to push the pellet through the barrel to see what it felt like and looked like when it came out. First I tried an RWS SuperDome. It fit snug when first seated. I then took a piece of weed wacker string and was able to, with some force, get the pellet moving through the barrel. Once it started moving I turned the barrel facing downward and was able to EASILY push the pellet through the barrel. I didn't notice it slip from gravity but I was barely pushing on the string with two fingers to get it to the muzzle, where it got hung up. At no point other than both ends of the barrel would I say that the pellet was snug in any way. There seemed to be a cycle of feeling like gravity was about to make it drop to noticing some friction. The cycles were about 1 to 1.5" long. As I mentioned, the pellet got hung up at the muzzle end of the barrel but with some force on the string the pellet popped out onto the floor.

I inspected the pellet closely and could see small rifling marks on the skirt of the pellet but didn't see anything on the head. I performed the exact same process with H&N FTT and experienced the exact same sensation of tight on both ends but very smooth and "loose" feeling through the barrel. The difference is that I saw VERY slight evidence of the rifling on the head of the FTT's in addition to obvious marks on the skirt.

So here are a few questions:

1. Does this sound normal? This is my first airgun and I have no "feel" for what is normal or not.
2. It intuitively makes sense to me that the pellet would be a tad snug when seated but doesn't seem right that it got hung up at the muzzle end. Does this need some attention?
3. I was thinking of running some bore paste because I felt a few minuscule snags on the patches when snaking them through. Any reason not to?
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   Thanks for the feedback.
   
   

 

[Yo]

Any accurate? Yo!

 

[Guest]

Yes what you felt is normal and should be there. Snug for an inch or so at the breech end, smooth sailing until you get to the muzzle end and then another inch or so of snug again. The snug feel at the muzzle end is the choke in the barrel and should be there. If you said there wasn't, I'd tell you to send the rifle back.

Pellets should fit snug when you load them but not so snug you have to force the pellet to load it or loose enough that it seems like it just dropped in there. All new rifles take a couple hundred pellets to break in/settle in so don't focus on how accurate it is just yet, just shoot a tin of pellets through it, get a feel for the rifle and that Quattro trigger, which once you get used to is pretty good. 

I'll also recommend finding yourself a good airgun rated scope if you plan on scoping it. The included Optima scopes leave much to be desired and usually don't last long. I've only ever tried one and it bought the farm in less than 500 shots. They might work ok for a low powered pumper or CO2 but they don't hold up on higher powered springers or gas rams.

 

[pandura]

Any accurate? Yo!

Accurate would imply that I am a good spring shooter I'm trying to give myself all the help I can get with the gun first before I start disrespecting it with my shooting ability! 

In all seriousness though, This is technically my second Hatsan 95. I had a family of 9 confirmed groundhogs move in under my deck/patio and dug all under the slab and started tearing up the yard, garden, etc. My wife "insisted" I make them go away which required a new gun that wasn't classified as a "firearm" in my state. I have confirmed 8 out of 9 of the groundhogs are permanently "sleeping" and the last one seems to have moved on after I filled the tunnels under patio with concrete. 

I contacted the source of the gun the day I opened the first Hatsan because it had obviously been used and appeared that the actual gun was at least partially dismantled. The box was all torn, there was no manual, the scope was obviously mounted and used, and the screws on the stock had marks on them as though the gun had been taken apart. They said to use it for a week and then decide if I wanted to return it, which I did just to settle my uneasiness of not knowing what the prior owner actually did to the gun. I put about 250 - 350 pellets through the first one and got comfortable with it enough to know I wanted to polish the quattro trigger so I'm doing all of that right away on this one. With the first one my groups at 20 yds were down to about 1.5 - 2" hand held, kneeling and I know I need a lot more practice with it. This is my first springer and all of my other gun experience is with powder burners. I'm also a tinkerer and not afraid to tear things down and build them back up.

Is it accurate? We will see!

 

[pandura]

Yes what you felt is normal and should be there. Snug for an inch or so at the breech end, smooth sailing until you get to the muzzle end and then another inch or so of snug again. The snug feel at the muzzle end is the choke in the barrel and should be there. If you said there wasn't, I'd tell you to send the rifle back.

Pellets should fit snug when you load them but not so snug you have to force the pellet to load it or loose enough that it seems like it just dropped in there. All new rifles take a couple hundred pellets to break in/settle in so don't focus on how accurate it is just yet, just shoot a tin of pellets through it, get a feel for the rifle and that Quattro trigger, which once you get used to is pretty good. 

I'll also recommend finding yourself a good airgun rated scope if you plan on scoping it. The included Optima scopes leave much to be desired and usually don't last long. I've only ever tried one and it bought the farm in less than 500 shots. They might work ok for a low powered pumper or CO2 but they don't hold up on higher powered springers or gas rams.

Thanks for the info. For some reason I didn't think the airgun would have a choked barrel and it seemed as though it was only hanging up on the "lip" of the muzzle. I was going to eventually try to take the muzzle break off and inspect the crown to see if it had any burrs or needed polishing.

The quattro has some sideways wiggle but I plan on shimming it and firming that up after watching several videos by Mike Ellingsworth** Mr Stepping Stone*** on Youtube.

On a side note, anyone have any handy references specific to tuning a Hatsan 95? I found a generic airgun "tuning" guide but it makes it sound like I need 8 different types of lubricants to do a good job.

 

[MrP]

The rws superdomes are weird in a TalonP. They are the smallest .25 pellet I have tried. They literally just drop into the breech. I have to use a fingernail to seat them at all since they settle below the rim of the barrel. If i don’t push them in a little deeper with a fingernail, they fall back out if i point the muzzle upwards. The head of the pellet seems not to engage rifling. 


In contrast, my jsb heavies have to be physically pushed to seat properly and h and n grizzly pellets have to be forced to get the last mm in the breech end of the barrel. 


when I shoot the superdomes into a soft backdrop, I see rifling marks on the skirt but none on the head of the pellet.


accuracy seems ok - the talon doesn’t seem to care what I shoot out of it very much (I am shooting with iron sights “free hand”(?) at about 10 yds indoors so i recognize this mostly means I lack the marksmanship skills to tell the differences between my pellets when shooting this pistol)

 

[Septicdeath]

All of my 16 Hatsan rifles fit snug for an 1 to 2 inches at the breech. not so much so until you get to the muzzle you should feel some resistance for another inch or two. But shooting it is the only real way to see if you got a good barrel. 

Enjoy your new Hatsan. Very well made products for the price. 

Try these pellets mine .25's like them

Hatsan Vortex Supreme Pellets.25
H&N 19.91 Grains

 

[Guest]

Yes what you felt is normal and should be there. Snug for an inch or so at the breech end, smooth sailing until you get to the muzzle end and then another inch or so of snug again. The snug feel at the muzzle end is the choke in the barrel and should be there. If you said there wasn't, I'd tell you to send the rifle back.

Pellets should fit snug when you load them but not so snug you have to force the pellet to load it or loose enough that it seems like it just dropped in there. All new rifles take a couple hundred pellets to break in/settle in so don't focus on how accurate it is just yet, just shoot a tin of pellets through it, get a feel for the rifle and that Quattro trigger, which once you get used to is pretty good. 

I'll also recommend finding yourself a good airgun rated scope if you plan on scoping it. The included Optima scopes leave much to be desired and usually don't last long. I've only ever tried one and it bought the farm in less than 500 shots. They might work ok for a low powered pumper or CO2 but they don't hold up on higher powered springers or gas rams.

Thanks for the info. For some reason I didn't think the airgun would have a choked barrel and it seemed as though it was only hanging up on the "lip" of the muzzle. I was going to eventually try to take the muzzle break off and inspect the crown to see if it had any burrs or needed polishing.

The quattro has some sideways wiggle but I plan on shimming it and firming that up after watching several videos by Mike Ellingsworth** Mr Stepping Stone*** on Youtube.

On a side note, anyone have any handy references specific to tuning a Hatsan 95? I found a generic airgun "tuning" guide but it makes it sound like I need 8 different types of lubricants to do a good job.

You might look up Mike's video on removing that muzzle break before you try it as they don't come off easy and that's if they even come off in one piece, plus what's under it isn't pretty. As far as tuning, nope, you don't need 8 different kinds of lube...lol. All I've ever used is moly paste from ARH and his small tub lasted me something like 10 rifles. A little goes a very long ways and you don't need much. I'd also recommend getting a new piston seal which ARH also sells. It's a bit oversized so you'll have to size it a bit to make it fit right or you can get them straight from HatsanUSA if you want a factory seal.

ARH:
Piston seal: https://www.airrifleheadquarters.com/catalog/item/251485/10055863.htm
Moly Paste: https://www.airrifleheadquarters.com/catalog/item/251484/42989.htm

Hatsan:
Piston Seal: https://hatsanairgunsusa.com/product/small-plunger-seal/