Help me solve a mystery!

[AirGoon]

I am still pretty green with airguns and have a mystery I can't solve on my own. Can someone help?

I'm a decent shot at 25 yards and can group well enough with most of my guns but two of my guns seem to have minds of their own.

The culprits are my brand new Benjamin Akela .177 and my brand new BSA R10TH .177 12fp.

With my other guns I can draw an X and hit within 3/8" of the center of that X at 25 yards faithfully.

But these two guns may hit the center once in a while but mostly hit anywhere around it up to an inch from center in every direction.

Could it be a dirty barrel or a new barrel that needs to be leaded, or something else entirely?

Anyone know whodunit?

 

[hawkeye69]

Have you tried using different pellets? Some guns are more pellet picky than others.

 

[tcarlson777]

Airgoon,

It could be a few things. Dirty barrel, wrong pellets, a defective scope, something loose on the gun, velocity too high. I would start with cleaning the barrel and then try some different pellets. Each barrel is unique and will prefer certain pellets. Good luck in sorting it out. It is a process of elimination. 

 

[dizzums]

it could be 50 things lol .. id start with a chrony and looking at any obvious pointers like having to kick the charger lever to get a pellet to load .. then id start disassembling starting with the barrel and see what tangs look like and what may need attention ..

 

[AirGoon]

I have mostly used JSB exacts, H&N fields, and find that Air Arms Diabolo Fields work well with almost all my guns.

It's happening with these two different guns with each it's own scopes so I don't think it's that.

I have the power setting low on the Akela and the R10 has one setting only and it's low cause it's a 12 foot pound gun.

 

[AirGoon]

Dizzums, I know there are so many possibilities. It would be overwhelming if it wasn't so much fun.

What are 'tangs'? lol

 

[Peashooter]

In Danish "tang" would be seaweed, but it could also be pliers / tongs / forceps in Danish ( we Danes are lazy so 1 word could mean many things, some times completely different not related things )

You would have to be very unlucky to have 2 bad scopes on 2 rifles, my only suggestion would be to play around with more different pellets and weights, maybe try to see if a cleaning yield better results, it is my understanding some like a cleaning VS others that prefer to be a bit dirty ( leaded in )

 

[markT]

I had the same issue. Did all suggested stuff from guys here. Centercut recommended I try JSB I think monster heavies. I want to say they are 14.3 gr. Something like that. That solved it. Gun / bbl likes em and will stack em. 

 

[dmo88]

Sounds like a pellet picky situation. I always have luck with one of the jsbs

 

[elh0102]

The pellet is always a possibility, but considering the ones your using, I doubt it. My first thought is to clean the barrel. It's an easy chore, and it's often the problem.

 

[Cannonball]

Are you running a moderator on these, perhaps the same one? Clipping can cause accuracy to be inconsistent but there are many others things that will cause it as well.

 

[Batman2]

I explored looking for Akela info in 177 and found this.

https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=194747.0

Might be worth trying 177 RWS Super fields in the 12 fpe BSA if they currently use the same hammer forge technology as before and if you can still find this pellet. 

If no pellets shoot one hole groups at 25 yards and barrel or shroud aren't loose and tried exchanging scopes to a non Hawke brand and still don't group then I would return it for a new gun. Perhaps due to bad barrel.

I had 3 different instances chasing tail on similar accuracy issues using Hawke brand scopes. Changed to different brand scopes nothing was wrong with the guns they shot perfect consistent one hole groups after that. 

Here's the older model. 

https://youtu.be/eOLp6ea9JKw

 

[Brent]

It could be any number of things , but I would start the search by cleaning the barrels, check all screws for tightness , and run them over a chronograph for consistency on velocity. If the guns have moderators remove and retest. Sounds like you are using quality pellets but like some have said some barrels are pellet fussy. If there is a chance you may return gun do not modify, but check the crown on the barrel a poor crown can cause this issue also. Although I can't imagine your luck being bad enough to have two guns with the exact same problem caused by the same thing. Only change one thing at a time so you will know what corrected the issue.

 

[Ezana4CE]

@Airgoon “Brand new” guns usually come from the manufacturer with some sort of protective grease in the barrels meant to protect them from rust and corrosion during long term storage (i.e. shipping, warehousing, etc). As several members have stated, clean the barrels and try again. From there maybe consider experimenting with different pellets to see what each barrels shoots best and stick with that brand and weight. 

 

[Vetmx]

Need to know your speeds with the pellets you’re shooting. That is the very first step in any investigation. Otherwise you’re just throwing stuff at the wall to see if it will stick and wasting time.

 

[woogie_man]

When you are shooting the rifles and watching the pellets.... can you see the flight path they are taking? 



Not much more to add that hasn't been added already.

 

[AirGoon]

Cannonball. Ty, Both guns have built in shrouds so no added moderators. 

 

[AirGoon]

woogie_man, I can not see the pellets flight. Sometimes I can see it a couple of inches before it hits though.

 

[AirGoon]

Thanks everyone for the great responses. 

I am going to check the screws, barrels, shrouds, and crowns, then clean the barrels and shoot them again with a chronograph.

I plan to use my AA Diabolo Fields for this test for consistency.

If the pellet's are still flying wild, I am going to try several others, starting with the JSB monster heavies as suggested.

Btw, I am using a UTG OP3 on the Akela and an Athlon Neos 4-12x40 on the BSA.

 

[Vetmx]

If you are shooting 8.44’s out of those guns, that’s probably your problem. They are screaming. I shoot 8.44’s out of my BSA Ultra SE but they like 830fps. Extremely accurate at that speed. Any faster, they start getting a little crazy. If you don’t have a chronograph, you need one. They are mandatory with PCP’s.