I Used To Dis the Maverick...

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TMH

TMH

Member
Jul 26, 2020
2,095
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CA, United States
But not any more. Now it is the Mighty Mav. I just shot my best consecutive groups ever at 50+ yards with my .30 cal Maverick Sniper. Bought it as a discounted 'demo' gun from Baker a few weeks ago. Maybe Donnie worked a little magic with its tune? I really haven't done anything to tune it other than see where muzzle velocities were for 44.75's and 50.15's when changing the hammer spring preload wheel. Currently shooting 44.75's at an average of 946 fps, and I'm just shooting it, not tuning it.

I originally didn't think much of the Maverick. Maybe because the first one I bought had manufacturing issues and ended up being returned to PA for a refund. But this one from Baker is a champ. I really hadn't shot any longer range targets with it yet. Did some 75 yard plinking with it earlier this month when I took it to the range for the first time. Too easy to hit little hanging cast iron pans (I got a set of 6 on an Amazon Lightning Deal for under $20), but unfortunately 2 hits from the Mav in the same place resulted in holes. For reference the stick-on target is 3" in diameter.

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I've got a buddy who is just getting into airguns as he wants to control the ground squirrels at his vineyard out to +/-100 yards. I'm letting him borrow guns to see what works best for him in his situation. So I decided to shoot the Mav for the first time for accuracy today, even though my 'new' backyard long range is down to 52 yards now after moving a shooting bench. Not the greatest of conditions with wind gusting to 11 mph from my 3:00, but hey, its a .30 cal.

Took 3 shots to zero, and then I shot my first 5 shot group. All one big hole, 0.39". Wha?

Second group 0.37", 3rd 0.53", 4th 0.62" and 5th 1.4" (lost shot #5). Can't blame the gun on that last flyer shot - bottle pressure still above Reg#2. Must have been the shooter or maybe a malformed pellet (plus the mag ran dry after shot #4, so shot #5 was after a re-load pause, re-addressing the scope, etc.)

I don't believe that I've ever shot this many good (for me) consecutive groups. I can typically get 1-2 good groups out of 5-6 shot in a session, but this was my best so far. With the Mighty Mav. I think that some distant ground squirrels at my buddy's place are in for some trouble...

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Took Mighty Mav out again this morning to see if I could duplicate yesterday afternoon's results, and to test some other projectiles.

Conditions were definitely nicer - wind was calm - but I sure could feel this morning's coffee while shooting. I need to be able to stop my heart from beating so much!

The 44.75 Rangemasters still shot the best, with 5-shot groups @ 52 yards running 0.45", 0.46", 0.54" and 0.66". From previous chrono testing, these are leaving the muzzle at 946 fps with the hammer spring wheel set to 6. Scope adjusted 2 clicks to the right after 1st group was shot.

The JSB 50.15's did not shoot as well with groups from 0.53" to 0.91". Chrono testing showed these pellets leaving the gun at 925 fps with the hammer spring wheel set to 7.

Not much success with slugs yet. Tried FX Hybrids, and NSA 43.8's and 47.2's. Best 'group' was just over 1.5" with the hammer spring wheel set to 5. I'm pretty much shooting the slugs 'in the dark' as I didn't pull out the chrono and get any numbers for them. Most of the different 'groups' I was getting with them just varying the HS between 5-6-7 were in the 3+" range.

So no real luck with slugs yet, but I'm still loving the Mighty Mav as a pellet shooter.

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I have the 600mm and the only slug it seems to like is NSA 54.5
Click to expand...

I'll have to try that one when NSA gets back up and running and filling orders again.

What speed are you shooting the 54.5?
Click to expand...

I was only shooting them at 800 I didn't want to lose the tune I have for the JSB 45gr. The last time I shot over the chrony I had 903's and 904's ES of 1 over 13 shots and I'm getting right at 100 shots per fill with the 580cc 300 bar bottle 
 
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Tom, Congrats on the success you have had with your new(er) Maverick! , sorry about your original purchase, bummer for sure. I have both the Maverick and MK3 in snipper in .22 and .30 respectively as a reference. 

May I suggest a few tuning ideas?

You have shared these FPS/Adjustments so far:

  • JSB 44.75 @945 PW6
  • JSB 50.15 @925 PW7
  • FX Hybrids 44.5 PW 5-6-7
  • NSA 43.8 PW 5-6-7
  • NSA 47.2 PW 5-6-7

Now I would:

  • lower the JSB 44.75 to the 830-880
  • Raise the 50.15 to the mid 900+
  • Tune the Hybrids to 910
  • NSA 43 to 960-980
  • NSA 47 to 930-960

You also gave 4 scenarios in which you could be shooting:

  • 50+ yards
  • 75 yard plinking
  • "new" backyard is 52 yards
  • Buddy has ground squirrels @ +-100 yards

Groundwork:

Your .30 liner came in one of 4 possible twist rates: Which one do you have?

  • 1:37 ((early Standard then called Slow Twist) ( might be a bit to early))
  • 1:26 (New Standard then discontinued)
  • 1:22 ( new Heavy then called Standard)
  • 1:18 ( new Heavy)

Each of these liners are very good in their intended design for a particular pellets and/or slugs @ a particular speed.

Tom, If I was to recommend anything to shoot at the distances you are suggesting, I would stay with pellets. No question you will have the least tuning and accuracy frustrations at those distances and maximum enjoyment of well placed shots.

Choose one of each that allows you to just twist the PW a notch or two and give you the satisfaction of both a pellet and a slug @ 100+ ;) Enjoy.



Patrick






 
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18.13 and 2L8 - Thank you for your information and suggestions!

Yes, I am a true believer in the logic and experience of Steve Scialli, and I normally try to tune my guns to shoot diabolo shaped pellets in the 830-880 range to maintain stability in flight.

But the Mighty Mav is shooting the 44.75's so well at 945 fps that I just left it there. I'm thinking that since it was a Baker Airguns demo gun, Donnie Reed may well have tuned it and played with it some, and he knows a lot more about tuning FX's than I do. Plus with the big plenum, the gun is smoothly and easily shooting at that muzzle velocity - it doesn't seem strained at all.

But I will try out some other pellet speeds for some bullseye target work next weekend as we have a Cowboy shoot, and that range has a convenient 100 yard target. After we set up the range on Friday, we have time to shoot our airguns, and there is generally a pretty good wind blowing in from about 10:00 to the target. Then we don't shoot our Cowboy match until Noon on Saturday, so we shoot our airguns again in the morning, before the winds come up. So I get 2 very different sets of environmental conditions. Plus with the convenience of the hammer spring wheel, while position 6 gives me 945 fps with the 44.75's, just reducing it to position 5 takes it down to 884 fps, so it will be very easy to adjust the gun to a more moderate muzzle velocity and test accuracy at that pellet speed.

Right now I probably shoot 99+% pellets, and have only begun to dabble in slugs. But pellets have really met my needs so far, and getting a gun to shoot slugs well almost seems like 'work' to me. And I just like having fun shooting my airguns. So I'll probably stick with pellets. Plus I just received my order of .30 cal Hades, so we'll see how the Mighty Mav shoots those. If the ground squirrels don't like the domed pellets, they will truly hate the Hades!

Thanks again to all who have given me their input and suggestions to this thread.




 
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