HW30s loud bang what happened?

[Pizzaman2976]

Hi everyone I was breaking in my new HW30s and everything was going smoothly. I shot maybe half a tin of H&N FTT through it when I loaded up the next pellet and lined up to take the next shot. When I pulled the trigger I was surprised to hear a bang so loud that it made my ears ring. I looked through the barrel and it looked like the pellet was stuck. I tried to shine a flashlight through the muzzle end to see if I could see light, and I couldn't see anything. It took a few shots for me to be able to see some light and I also blew a bunch of smoke out of the barrel. I don't know if it the smoke was just so thick the whole time that I couldn't see the light or if a pellet was really stuck. Is this was dieseling is? I never experienced it before. I thought it may have been at first, but it just threw me off how loud the pop was.

 

[Jayson]

Haha, yep that’s dieseling, pretty normal on breakin, some grease from assembly, I’m surprised it didn’t do it before all of that shooting? 

 

[Pizzaman2976]

Haha dangit. No, up until that point it was a pretty smooth and quiet shooter (for a springer). I was scared for a second that one of my suburban neighbors might call the cops it sounded like a little fire cracker. I didn't think a 6lb/ft gun could be so loud!

 

[Arzrover]

Sounds like the pellet may have fallen out before you closed it. Had it happen numerous times over the years but was fortunate enough to have seen that most of the time.

Bob

 

[Deerstalker]

HW95L results of dieseling. 

 

[thumper]

I'm betting you dry fired it for whatever reason. 

Dieseling doesn't just show up randomly for one shot and then vanish. 

 

[Jayson]

Oh yes it does! When new or after a rebuild or sometimes when they sit for a while! Very different sound than a dry fire and he said there was smoke, that’s dieseling! It can be very random at first! It’s fine! Shoot away, it will go away

 

[Pizzaman2976]

Thanks! I'll keep shooting it. Will storing a springer upright barrel up increase the chances of dieseling? Never really thought about it, but that's how I've been storing it until I got a chance to shoot it....

 

[OldSpook]

I vote for a dropped pellet. That's what you get when you drop a pellet while you're closing the breach and you fire dry.

Mind you it's possible that you picked up a pellet out of the tin that had some oil on it and you had a diesel but not nearly as likely in my experience as a dry fire.

Neither situation is desirable.

Check your velocity make sure it's still shooting at the speed you expect.

 

[Pea-shooter O.G.]

I believe the correct description is a "detonation". You can have a rifle that diesels( produces a bit of smoke after the shot) but doesn't make any significant noise or change in velocity. Or you can have a detonation that sends your pellet flying past the speed of sound, loud crack and the smoke show. If it persists on detonating, it might have too much lube. Hopefully it was just clearing its throat a bit. Or yes, maybe the pellet dropped out of the breech. 

My old leather piston sealed Diana 45 diesels a bit after I add a bit of lube for the seal. 

I've had a couple guns detonate after a fresh tear down and lube. Sure scares the bejesus out of ya! 

 

[Bear-of-Grayling]

Did you oil any part? Chamber, jaws or cocking lever pivot? If not it is burning factory oils. A good test is to shoot the rifle then blow down the barrel at the breech. If smoke pours out the the chamber is burning oils. Take a Q-tip and bend it 90 degrees maybe remove a bit of cotton from it and run it down the chamber hole and help remove any oil buildup. Then clean the barrel also. Keep checking for smoke. Repeat process until the rifle stops burning oil. If you ever oil the jaws or cocking lever pivot joint do not stand the rifle up until the run off oil disappears. Else it will end up in the chamber. When the rifle is new it burns off the excess oils and sometimes when an extra tight pellet appears along with an abundance of oil you get detonation. The loud crack is the explosion and the pellet breaking the sound barrier. It can be so violent that it can literally re-cock the gun. It is almost impossible to under oil a springer and so easy to over oil one.

 

[Pizzaman2976]

Thanks everyone. It sounds like it could have been a detonation then? I did notice the pellets were extra snug and I had to push each one in and seat it with my thumb or finger with some good pressure but not hard. The most snug of my pellet choices. I kept shooting the 11 grain H&Ns though because the accuracy is excellent and they are the lightest pellet my .20 cal likes. I'll try the heavier 13 grain JSBs. They shoot good too and are not as tight of a seal.

I didn't put any oil anywhere. Just took it out of the box and started shooting. I also don't think a pellet fell out but I could be wrong. I shoot from my desk in my office and would have seen a pellet if it fell out and didn't find any arpund where I was shooting 

 

[Ratzilla]

When I put a new spring in my HW35 it dieseled for the first few shots. I was shooting over a chronograph at the time and was getting about a extra 250+ fps and lots of noise and smoke each time it happened.

 

[AirShot]

You need to shoot it over a chrono to see if any damage was done. Sometimes it causes spring or seal damage, but then sometimes you get lucky, only way to know is tear it down or check velocity over a chrono. 

 

[Pizzaman2976]

I think its okay now. Before it was shooting 11.42 grain H&N FTT at 503 avg, ES of 13, and SD of 6 over 10 shots. Thats about 6.4 ft/lb

I tested now with 13.73 grain JSB exacts over 13 shots and got 478 ft/sec avg, ES of 17, and SD of 4.8 for about 6.8 ft/lb now. 

 

[rwsmike]

Pellet might of dropped out