> Well, you can't do much without a chronograph. I may be wrong, and with all respect, it seems you're being fed some BS by your dealer. True that the HST will adjust velocity, but that seems irrelevant to your problem.
I should have followed my gut, but I'll leave the pre-purchase inconsistencies for my close personal friends in real life.
Hopefully I am wrong and pitbull airguns will respond to my emails in a way that indicates they understand the problem.
But first, when I first got the gun, I contacted them because out of the box it looked like this:
And this:
To which I got this:
>the regulator requires a break I'm period of at least 100 rounds. if you are not satisfied with your purchase please return it for a full refund.
Which seemed nuclear, since I wasn't looking for an all or nothing solution. In fact I was just providing feedback, seeking guidance, and hoping they had a less drastic remedy.
By the way, the gun was very well boxed and protected in foam, and the box did not have undue damage--certainly none in the area where the scuff was, which made me conclude that the scuff was there when they packaged it. As far as I was concerned, and I admit I did not specify what remedy I was asking for, was they would offer to send me a new part to replace the scuffed part, and give me reasonable guidance on the gauge.
After I clarified I wasn't looking for a nuclear option, pitbull air responded with:
>the 2600 psi indicated on the gauge on the side of the rifle is the regulator pressure of 2700. they are very close, but not 100 % accurate until its broken in.
Apparently, he was too busy to carefully read and respond to the whole email with photographs I sent, and was commenting on a video I had also linked to in the email.
To which I replied:
>But it is over 3000 (see original photo at bottom)
So he instead picked up on the scuff photo not the photo with the gauge reading, and wrote:
>a tiny streak of cleaning oil on the side of the shroud is not something to be concerned about. it is not a sealing point. Fill pressure is indicated on the 5k gauge, regulator pressure is on the side gauge. unless the box was beat up, opened, or otherwise damaged, we have never had concerns of rifles damaged in shipping.
He also (probably reasonably) indicated:
>please fill the rifle to [possibly unsafe] or [possibly unsafe] psi, and use a chronograph to measure the Velocity. it should be in the 925 fps range with 127 gr ammo.
I still don't have a chronograph. I have had and enjoyed quite a few very expensive hobbies in my life and I am still testing the waters here in the the domain of PCP.
But a gauge is a gauge. It has units. It can have two significant forms of error, offset and slope. I was clearly most concerned about the gauge.
I also got this after I clarified yet again:
>we have never encountered a HUMA regulator to fail. it employs mechanical stacked steel Belville washers for regulation. like any mechanical device, it has a break in period.
It doesn't look like a failure to me. Just an incorrect setting. There are lots of possible explanations, such as the gun was a return, and shipped to me without them doing a full quality control check, to something happened in shipment (not sure if sending a fully charged airgun via USPS air is smart are not), to their or my own ineptitude.
My feeling is that pitbull airguns comes off as a little shady, not great at troubleshooting, certainly not great at reading or dealing with a lot of information and customer confusion, and not a good ambassador to the hobby.
Don't get me wrong, he did spend time, did ship the gun promptly, did package it well, and did provide an airgun that killed a coyote. But the time that was spent always seemed to be reluctant.
In any event, if I don't hear back from pitbull on my emails and phone calls, I'll either make a stab and fixing it myself, or find another airgunsmith that works on pitbull to evaluate and fix it.
I should note too, pre-emptively, this has been going on since November, and Paul at Pitbull did refer me to forums (I guess because dealing with newbs isn't exactly the type of dayjob he wanted). I could be wrong, and I hate to say this is the case, but this is the feeling I am getting. When I asked for instructions on adjusting the hammer spring using the special tool they sent fo that purpose, I got:
>We do not offer manuals for any of our custom rifles, the stock Users Manual will give you much of what you need as far as Basic Operating Procedure to start shooting and enjoying your new airgun. There is a large community of Bulldog users from around the world on YouTube and the various forums online.
So I am at the forums. And I am getting more help from strangers with no stake in pitbull air, and I appreciate it.
I like supporting American companies, American industry, and really would just like to get to the bottom of this before I decide to spend more money on a compressor, chronograph, and other PCP guns. Hopefully other vendors are watching this and will reach out to me. I did buy a western/U.K. made airpump from Pyramyd Air, and have purchased ammo from Griffen and NSA...and in all other cases, I have absolutely no reason to complain. They sent what I wanted, and it worked as advertised, and any questions I had were dealt with professionally, with attention to comprehension, and politely.
> Good rule of thumb in life…..never do business with any company that has “pitbull” in their name.
Funny. In this case I was just thinking Pitbull was a play on bulldog, and that dangerous and tenacious pitbulls were good at killing wild pigs and coyotes. In general, I would not want a pitbull as a pet, but to kill coyotes, sure. My rule of thumb is to stay away from companies with "integrity" or "honest" in their name....because they are always anything but. Honest companies build up reputations, they don't need to name themselves that.
I wonder if this situation with pitbull might just be stress due to whatever pressures they have around the shop coupled with what looks to me to be poor troubleshooting skills basded on information (and sometimes too much information and conjecture on my part) coupled with an "oh no not again another pain in the ass customer who doesn't appreciate how hard we work."
Spending $2400 on a custom modified bulldog is appreciation in my book. Not taking them up on the full refund is also not only appreciation, but also a willingness to work with them reasonably.
I am still hoping for a reasonable solution. I was even willing to buy a digital pressure gauge and install it myself but I have failed to get help from them on that, too.
Trust me, while $2400 is a lot of money, I would be a happy camper if I got $2400 worth of value in an airgun that performed and looked as it was advertised and one would expect.
If I were in business (and I am) I always try to work with customers, even though I am not the most charasmatic person in the world. Customers are money, and money is the lifeblood of a business. Repeat and referral customers can't be beat. And one thing I am, is a repeat customer (which is probably why if I buy other PCP equipment like a chronograph and pump, it will probably be from Pyramid air so long as they continue to perform and treat me with integrity). poop happens, it is how a company handles it that matters, and also how they work to prevent it from happening again.
But it may be like going to a restaurant where they screw up your order and you get an odd sense it wasn't exactly an accident. Sometimes it is just best to eat elsewhere.
I do wonder if it is safe to send a gun pumped up to [possibly unsafe] psi through overnight air, though, and if that could cause undue stress on the regulator? I would have guessed that tanks would need to not have so much air to be cargo on an airplane (but I am a newb) That is probably ridiculous, but it's all I can come up with while assuming good faith.
Edited per mod caution to [possibly unsafe] psi
